[Update: see what Christopher Breen has to say about Zune Marketplace]

Seth Godin writes about an experience of not buying a book because an advertising link from a blog went to Random House and not to Amazon. Random House requires payment a full price, plus shipping charges, and (inevitably) registration. Lots of things that stopped Seth from buying the book.

Which is why I don’t believe in contact forms on websites. Let people use a plain e-mail ‘mailto:’ link. Then you don’t need any pesky ‘required fields’, validation checking, or spam prevention techniques, and more importantly you don’t need to ask questions. A simple e-mail link puts customers directly in touch with you. (In any case, it’ll be the customers you don’t want who spend the time and effort filling in an online form)

Which is why I hate stores that don’t support PayPal. Because, like Amazon’s patented one-click, I don’t have to enter any data. I just login – or not, if I’m on my own Mac – and Buy.

It’s not about margins, or profits. It’s about customers.