This post may contain affiliate links.

(Well, Canadian readers of The Fit RV, anyway)

Canadian Flags

 

I don’t know if something has changed, but over the last three weeks, we’ve received a rash of emails like this:

 

Hope you guys are well.
Is there anyway to add an ‘amazon.ca’ button to your website?  We purchase a lot of things off amazon.ca due to our location.  Would love to be able to support your cause if possible.

 

This served mainly to reinforce my stereotype that all Canadians are impossibly nice. But it did highlight a problem, and I’m happy to report I’ve got at least a partial solution. But first, some additional Canadian stereotypes…

 

Maple Syrup

Of course.

Source=http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/sports/Hockey

Canadian Postcard

Source (awesomely): deltiologydeity.wordpress.com

You may have noticed that we don’t have any obnoxious advertising on The Fit RV. That’s on purpose, because I hate how advertising is handled on most websites. So you get (we hope) a pretty clean browsing experience here on The Fit RV.  The downside of this approach is that we don’t make much money.  (I joke that since we never really set out to make money with The Fit RV, we’re 100% on plan.)

But what we do have, as some of you have noticed, are some affiliate links at the bottom (or right, depending on your browser) of the page. If you like what you see here and want to help keep the lights on our web server glowing, you can use these to make purchases, and we get a small percentage back. It doesn’t cost you anything additional, so it’s a win-win.

And this is what our Canadian friends have been asking about. Our link previously went to Amazon.com. But folks in Canada have to use Amazon.ca to purchase, so they couldn’t help support us. Well, I think I’ve got it figured out.

I started off my career as a Rocket Scientist. Then I moved into programming. Then consulting. And now (shudder) management. But despite the increasingly less technical progression of my career, I’ve tried not to let it rot my brain. I still feel like a programmer. So I took this as a challenge.

I did not want to take up the space for another button, but I did want to accommodate our neighbors to the north. I wanted the button to just know where you were clicking from, and direct you to the correct site depending on your location. So with a bit of programming, I think I’ve done it.

 

But I need help from some Canadians!

 

 

So, that’s a copy of the button at the bottom or right of the page. If you click it, and you’re in Canada, it should open up amazon.ca, with our affiliate tag populated. If you’re anywhere else in the world, it should open up amazon.com. I know it works from here in the US, but since I’m not in Canada, I can’t be sure if it’s working from Canada!

I need some Canadians (or anyone currently in Canada) to give the button a click and let me know if it’s working. You can just leave a comment below to let me know. Possible responses include, but are not limited to:

  • “It works, eh.”
  • “It’s a-boot time you fixed the button.”
  • “Nice job, you hoser.”
  • “Tim Hortons!” (always accepted as an answer)

 

And if you’ve clicked the button, and you remembered you needed something from Amazon anyway, we’d be grateful if you used our link. (small plug).

Tim Hortons

You can get Tim Hortons coffee from Amazon. I’ve checked.

I’m only halfway done though.

If we’ve used or tried a product that we like, we sometimes put links to Amazon for the product. I haven’t figured out how to go back and update all those links so that they work on a per-country basis yet, but I’m working on it.

Thanks in advance for your help!