Am I Amazon's Slave?
(You will be able to decide if I am a slave to Amazon by the end of this short piece.
It won’t improve your students’ progress unless it tempts you to buy any of my guides - which is not really why you are here.
I hope it is a fun read).
My Friend Amazon
Algorithms and AI are supposed to know you better than you know yourself. We’ve all heard stories of women finding out they were pregnant after an email from Amazon.
Suddenly they’re being sent offers to buy nappies because AI monitored their shopping choices for food, medicine and clothing and worked out they were pregnant, way before the pregnancy test.
My experience is the opposite of that.
The Amazon algorithm knows almost nothing about me. These is what it has recommended for me with its Spring Sale.
See what you can work out about me:
I have bought precisely one thing on this list - shelving, only they were wooden and required drilling, measuring, levelling and incorrectly spacing then on the basement wall so I can store extra non alcoholic beers.
Everything else is my wife’s shopping history. So much for surveillance culture and AI enslaving us to corporate whims. On the other hand, who is getting the pink octopus? Is their a secret love child?
Amazon Sweetens the Deal on My Books
Amazon takes a hefty slice of my publishing income. If I sell a guide for £7.99, Amazon pays me about £2. That’s much more than a publisher, which is why I no longer have a publisher.
But Amazon also wants me to send them customers who will buy my guides, and then sample the smorgasbord of excitement on the rest of their site. So, if you use my link to buy a £7.99 guide, Amazon will pay me an extra 41 pence, which is very kind.
That’s why I’ve published over 25 guides - I only need to sell 415,000 of them before I become a millionaire.
My Amazon overlords, sorry, friends, also know you won’t resist all the other exciting stuff.
If you buy any of that stuff, having arrived on the site from my link, their generosity is extreme. For every £100 you spend Amazon gives me another £1.
But every penny helps - that pink octopus may be coming my way, and it won’t pay for itself.
If you know 415,000 students who would like to get top grades, and watch me on YouTube instructing a pink octopus, send them my link!