Someone from Home Depot’s corporate offices emailed in today using a fake email address.
Stop peddling Amazon over all other retailers. Why do you even have a Amzn% off Search Tool?
Dear Anonymous Home Depot Corporate Reader,
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Thanks for the great question! I’m going to break down the answer to your question into several parts:
We Don’t “Promote” Any Retailers
Purchase links are only provided as a reference. Potential buyers are encouraged to shop around for the best price and to shop at the vendors of their choosing. That’s what I do with my own purchases and assume others will usually do the same.
ToolGuyd Earns Revenue from Affiliate Sales
Many of our product links are “affiliate links,” and so purchases made through those links result in revenue for the site. This revenue is used for upkeep, expenses, and to fund growth. Something like 90% of the revenue goes back into the site.
This is all mentioned in our disclosure.
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At one point I also linked to Google’s shopping engine for price comparison, but they are no longer impartial with their listings. I don’t recall when this happened, but I mostly use Amazon for my own price comparisons.
If I don’t put in purchase links, people email in asking where they can buy a certain product. Even with purchase links, some people will email in asking for a quote to buy the item from ToolGuyd.
What this also means is that readers help support ToolGuyd without having to do or spend anything extra.
The Alternative is IN-YOUR-FACE Ads
I try to keep things under control and as unobtrusive as possible. Did you know that I can increase ToolGuyd’s monthly revenue very easily, but choose not to? It would involve putting ads in the content column, right at the start of an article, but I’m not about to do this until my back’s against the wall and I have no other choice.
Sponsorship
I am also open to the idea of sponsorship or advertisement arrangements, but not of the type which would dictate who I can and cannot link to.
Amazon vs. Other Retailers
So why do I link to Amazon so much more than other retailers? Simple – I shop at Amazon more than any of the other retailers. I spend more time browsing Amazon, I spend more money at Amazon, I have the best experiences with Amazon.
I don’t work for Amazon, I don’t get special treatment by Amazon, and Amazon doesn’t even send me holiday cards. The only time people from Amazon ever got in touch with me was to send me information about some type of giveaway or sweepstakes they were running that they thought ToolGuyd readers would be interested in.
Amazon, Sears, Home Depot, Lowes, and many other retailers and distributors have affiliate programs, meaning that I get to choose who I link to and when. The fact that I link to Amazon most reflects my greater affinity towards shopping at Amazon.
Amazon’s catalog is also more stable than other retailers’. It’s hard keeping everything running smoothly while creating new content, and I quite frankly don’t want to have to worry about broken links months down the road if I can help. Amazon is easy to link to while Home Depot and Lowes both have complex URL schemes. Plus, both Home Depot and Lowes both changed their URL structures in the past few years, requiring me to go back and edit dozens of links in prior posts.
What’s That Amazon %-Off Search Tool About?
Every so often, although less so than in the past, I search for deep discounts on Amazon. It’s how I scored a 7-drawer Beta tool cabinet for $20, and many other random crazy-good deals.
Manually searching for the deeply discounted tools can be a chore, and more often than not it doesn’t result in any juicy deals to pounce on.
One day I realized I could automate the process, and so I hand-coded a form that let me skip some steps when searching for those 50%-off and 70%-off deals. Not that 50%-off means 50%-off the real retail or street price, I learned that Amazon’s “list” prices are mostly bogus years ago. But searching according to discounts can reveal some great hidden deals.
Anyways, I created a %-off search tool for my own use and figured readers might find it useful as well. According to my anonymous logs, it was the 51st most popular page on the site in the last 30-days, meaning that several hundred people found it useful.
Yes, the deal search tool does earn revenue for ToolGuyd, as do other affiliate links, but it’s up at my choosing and can be taken down whenever I want. But what else is going to go in that spot?
The %-off search tool won’t be there forever and is absent from layout changes I plan to implement in the next few months. Nobody has complained about it thus far, except for one person at Home Depot’s corporate offices, and plenty of people have written in to express their thanks.
Any Questions?
I believe in transparency and don’t mind answering questions like this every now and then.
MikeH
I have to agree with your comment that we the readers look for a lin when we read an article about a tool – i’m almost disappointed when i can’t link from one of your articles directly to a shopping website to check out pricing and other user reviews – I also agree with the use of the Amazon link as a common point of reference – it is where i go to price compare no matter whose site i’m on – i do find occasionally that home depot is cheaper but i have to say using their site for checkout is a real chore, it often circulates me back through my transaction a few times before moving into the next step, very annoying. I probably do 10 or more transactions on Amazon each month and have to say that i have yet to be disappointed.
Steven B
I have the same issue. Seems that the PayPal process needs some work. Home Depot has one address verification scheme, and PayPal has another. If they don’t match (and they don’t in my case) you need to use another payment method.
Jeff Tieman
This is a private site. Home Depot or anyone else can pound sand if they don’t like it. I find it humorous that they would even email you to tell you that. I don’t know, that’s just my thought on the matter…
Stuart
They obviously didn’t know that I would be aware of their Home Depot affiliation.
After this email came in I checked my inbox and saw that a month ago someone asked about how to submit Home Depot promotions they claimed are better than ones I recently mentioned on the site and via Facebook.
I gave instructions and recommendations about how to do so, and added the clause “this is all under the assumption that you are not affiliate with Home Depot.” I never heard back from them again.
Steven B
Keep up the good work and yes, I like that you have links to the sites. The first piece of information I want to know when I see a cool tool reviewed is how much it actually costs and nothing is more accurate than a link to a store.
Also, another reason to use Amazon is that it is the cheapest. I have seen tools (the Porter Cable 690 router) for $175 at Home Depot for $125 on Amazon. That difference is huge. That is revolutionary. With Home Depot, I can afford 1 or 2 routers. With Amazon, I can afford 3…which has made it much easier to use a dovetail jig if I don’t have to tune settings constantly. Home Depot even charges less than most woodworking stores.
Also, Home Depot folks…your stores are literally the most disgusting retail establishments I have ever seen. The workers at my local Somerville, MA Home Depot are actually hostile to customers…not just rude, I have seen them shout insults at them. They have no issues shouting profanity and racist and homophobic insults at one another at volumes where customers cannot help but hear. Merchandise is damaged all over the place, lots of misplaced merchandise. They stare daggers at you if you ask them a question and have the demeanor and politeness of felons. I always drive out of my way to go to Lowes because the Boston area Home Depots are such miserable experiences.
Woodworking would suck without Amazon. It ensures I can avoid Home Depot at all costs and get anything I can’t get at Rockler or Lowes online.
jeff_williams
“_I believe in transparency_ and don’t mind answering questions like this every now and then.” (I obviously added the underscores…) One of the best parts of TG. Keep up the good work Stuart. You’re doing it right.
Paul
Stuart brings up a great point! Someone always thinks you are biased. I swear some companies count the number of posts/links they have on your site and then complain when another company has more links…………..
Stuart, after the GAN fiasco this spring where I had to change over 7000 links, I switched to Skimlinks. I can spend a lot more time writing instead of building links with each affiliate program.
Steven B
Smart that you review the email headers and did a reverse lookup 🙂
I can’t stand the way some companies believe an underhanded method would be effective (or more effective) than a genuine request. It COULD have come from Home Depot like this:
Mr. ToolGuyd, We can’t help but notice that you link to Amazon regularly. We happen to have an Affiliate program that you may or may not be aware of, and honestly, we do have competitive pricing that may enable your readers to purchase an item from a retailer local to them. If you are aware of it, have you tried it? Is there anything we can do to make your experience better?
Instead they were underhanded. It takes just one idiot to make an entire company look bad. Chances are that you have not yet received any inquires or apologies from HD corporate. You should.
Stuart
This issue is far closer to “let it go” than “raise hell” on the drama-o-meter, so I won’t be bringing up the issue with HD corporate.
I actually encourage brand and retailer insiders to chime in with their comments and opinions, as long as they refrain from bashing other brands and retailers. It’s best to add in an “I work for so-and-so” mention when writing extremely favorable comments.
Some of the most insightful comments have been posted by anonymous employees from Stanley Black & Decker, Irwin, Home Depot, and other such companies. I don’t actively keep track of these things, but it comes up on occasion. It most cases there’s no harm in keeping professional affiliations private.
fred
You continue to provide a good forum for the exchange of ideas and information about consumer and tradesman tools – keep it up.
As far as links – I think it make it convenient to find the tool and then springboard into comparing prices elsewhere. As you point out – Amazon is a decent starting point. If readers are so naive to believe that any one source (Amazon etc.) is always the best or cheapest or fastest place to buy a tool – then they need education from forums like this even more.
busf
The Home Depot controls over 33% of tools sold in the U.S and Canada. Not a monopoly so to speak, but this is unlike any other market in power tools in the world.
I personally enjoy shopping at all of the major retailers and each have there pro’s and con’s, but from my perspective working in the power tool industry The Home Depot far too often has monopolistic behaviors in how they conduct business and treat their vendors.
I just have one word “Karma.”
Greg W.
Just got a brand new Dewalt brushless impact driver kit for 189.00$ I take note that the exact same kit is 279.00 at home depot. I appreciate this site for it’s knowledge. Thank you!
Greg W.
I meant to say that I got a brand new kit from Amazon for 189.00, thanks!
Stuart
$189 is a darn good price for the brushless impact kit! I wonder if it’s a special sale price or indicative of a price drop by Dewalt.