everything you ever wanted to know about gift guides

Amanda Mull’s piece about What Happens When You Buy From Gift Guides isn’t exactly busting out any well-guarded trade secrets, but it does contextualize the whole phenomenon of why it feels like there’s suddenly a bajillion lists of Things You Must Buy Or Else!!!!!! from pretty much every outlet on the planet lately:

The internet has become a place largely fueled by shopping. Mostly unbeknownst to shoppers, purchase dollars from gift guides are often divvied up behind the scenes. A portion is kicked back to their digital inspiration, even if you wait a few weeks to buy something. To get a share of that cash, the gift guide has expanded to fit every corner of the digital economy, pitting disparate factions of the internet against one another in a competition to recommend a new tie your dad will actually like.

Important reading if you’ve been blissfully unaware of the solid amounts of $$ that affiliate links can bring in for media brands these days, and how the good ol’ business of recommending products is hardly anything new, dahling.

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