5% off everything.

As a general rule I hate leaving ‘money on the table’ whenever I buy something. There is something that just doesn’t feel right about buying something when I think I could be getting a better deal. This is a big part of why I despise sites that use coupon codes.

I realized that every-time I buy something from Apple I was doing just that. As part of my developer setup I have an affiliate account via LinkShare. In a nut this allows you to create links to the various Apple stores and for every purchase made after following one of your links you receive a 5% kickback. This is typically used by bloggers and developers to make a bit of money when driving traffic to their products.

However, you don’t have to link to only specific products. It is also possible to create links to each of Apple’s main stores (iTunes, App Store, Mac App Store, iBookstore). I just setup a simple webpage with general links to each of these and now I can easily get 5% off all of my Apple purchases. So every time I want to buy something I now just open the page, click the relevant link and then buy what I want.

If you want to see what this looks like you can see my page here.

Here is how to do it:

  1. Open LinkShare and login/create your account.
  2. Signup for the Apple affiliate program.
  3. Open Links > Get Links > iTunes, App Store, iBookstore, and Mac App Store
  4. Pick ‘Banners/Images’ from the Links panel.
  5. Choose the App Store category and grab the ‘Apps Top Paid’ link
  6. Choose the Logos & Marks category and grab the ‘iBookstore’ link
  7. Choose the Logos & Marks category and grab the ‘Mac App Store’ link
  8. Choose the Logos & Marks category and grab the ‘Download in iTunes’ link
  9. Combine these four links into a simple HTML page
  10. Deploy this anywhere you have a website and your done.

Now just open the page before you buy anything and enjoy your 5% kickback. You could also share this with friends and family to make a bit of money of their buying habits too.

David Smith