To Aff Or Not To Aff

Not to Aff. If they are going to click on the link out of curiosity for the word, then why should they care if it is an affiliate link. After all it is showing them content relevant to the word they clicked on.

Adam
TheAdambox.com

I like the aff tag - it's good to disclose this stuff.

Lose the aff! Looks cheap (and annoying!)

And no disclosures either. We're all big boys here - no need to explain that *gosh - oh no!* you're making money! lol

I think if there are AFF option, doing AFF is good reason ;)

So what is your last word, John?

I say no to the (aff) or any other indication. There's simply no need. The alleged need for disclosure comes from the fear that some bloggers will start to lie like crazy and sucker people into something unfairly. The way I see it so long as you're still writing honestly, there's no need to disclose affiliate links.

Doesn't bother me either way, maybe you can put some sort of disclosure somewhere else on your site. Like you said, your web page is about making money on the internet so an aff. link should not be a surprise.

I say leave it out. As a reader and a blogger, I am big on the flow of the post. Having something that many people don't know what it means can hurt the percception of the post and your blog. Doubt it will discourage anyone, but why confuse people.

I personally don't mind at all if you don't put 'aff link'.

After all, why wouldnt you use an affiliate link? If you are thorough reviewing a site that you get credit for making refferrals you should (and you always do) mention that you have something to gain for referring people; if not out of honesty but simple to give a thorough review.

How can you make a good in-depth post without mention wether or not that site has an affilaite program?

- You see my point. In these posts it is fine to NOT include (aff).

However, if you are just mentioning a program in a post about something else it is a different matter. I personally dont mind at all if you use an affiliate link, but others may feel differently. It is part of the business and being able to bring other programs into a post is half the beauty of it, so you should go for it and leave out the (aff) whatever the situation.

Matt

I personally like the (aff) disclosure. It helps build trust in the blogger. I use them all the time on my own blogs and appreciate it when other do. I also like to find out about affiliate programs I may not be familiar with!

If the offer or product sparks my interest, I don't really care if you make money from it or not, I just want it!

I agree with the masses -- lose the (aff). A simple Disclosure page that covers everything (affiliate links, paid reviews, etc.) is the easiest way to go, don't you think? I stuck one up on my blog here: http://www.best-earning-strategies.com/disclosure/.

You should not lose the (aff) or explain it somewhere on your About page. It's good to have a disclosure, and it shows that you are not using my clicks and time without my knowledge to make money. We work at offices dedicating time, and we dedicate time on blogs, time we could instead be making money with. We respect you, and you should respect us.

I like the way you have been using [aff] text. Maybe you can add an acronym or something somewhere.

Also, thinking that most of your readers already have trust in you and thus you should not use the aff text means you do not respect the minority of the readers who do not know you and are visiting for the first few times or seeing a post with such links for the first time.

Disclosure on blogs has nothing to do with business disclosures; blog disclosures are all s about trust!

I thought it over and wonder, what if instead of (Aff), you color coded, underline or whatever you want, then put an Alt text on it. In that way, when people scroll their mouse over the text they will see that it's an affiliate link. It causes extra steps when writing your post, but hey, someone may come up with a plugin and the only thing you need to do is to click the highlighted text, push the button and you get the (Aff) substitution display.

It doesnt matter, most know the difference between aff links and normal text links. Its always ones choice to click or not to click!

fyi - you know this is a totally biased sample of people you're asking, right?

I've been thinking about this a bit more and I feel it really comes down to the context of the link. If its in a paid review, and there is an affiliate link perhaps an (aff) tag would be appropriate.

But on the other hand, its a given that any links to products are affiliate links on a blog such as this one...

High time we don't get to feel guilty about this silly (aff) thing. At the height of debate when the word "disclosure" was bandied around like it was the plague, I'd thought maybe it was proper to add (aff) on my affiliate links.

But after a while it began to dawn on me that this is really stupid. Do I have to put (aff) after Text Link Ads or Bidvertiser, etc? If you know your Internet business, then you don't need to be insulted by the (aff). Thumbs down for those "disclosure" charlatans. Oh yes, I chopped off the (aff) and everything looks nicer now!

All in all, I dont care, if you are a person who browses the net frequently, you can tell the difference between Aff links and links pertaining to the blogs or websites. To me it comes down to the audience chosing to click on the link or not.

Ultimately I don't care all that much. I do like that you and a few others do put the aff afterwards. I appreciate it and put it on my blogs.

I also was wandering if I should put the (aff) or not, and although I only have one link that is an affiliate so far, I decided not to for the reasons you already mentioned.

Just get rid of it, John.

I don't think its neccessary to always disclose who gives you a piece of the action...I know if I trust you as a blogger, and I am following your advice anyway...then why do i even need to know if your an aff or not?

Just get rid of it. It doesn't really look good and you shouldn't have to use it anyway. You don't go to a hardware store, ask for advice and then get angry about the guy not telling you that he is gonna make some money if you follow his advice.

I agree. The (aff) does ruin flow and think it's unnecessary. You can also put a disclaimer in your about page (or anywhere in the site) that all links are affiliate likes unless otherwise noted.

So ditch the (aff)

-rayray

I think it depends on which country you are writing for.

When writing for the Danes you better excuse before and after bringing an affiliate link as it is looked upon as outrageous that you make money online.

Reasontly in a Danish MySpace-look-alike-site about making money online, I promoted an ebook from a famous author, normally selling this ebook for $97, now it was only $20. It's an ebook that has made me lots of money myself. Somebody there commented upon it saying if it wasn't quite crazy to promote a book I myself made bucks on (followed by four exclamation marks) and told me that he didn't find my recommendation believable.

So if you write for the Danish people, you can never underestimate their intelligens. I know - I was born there, but I got evil too and moved away :twisted:

I don't think the (aff) is needed, per se, but you have to be careful that you're using the affiliate links in a beneficial context and not just to stuff your content with the links.

I don't care at all if I click through an affiliate link to something that benefits me. If someone turns me on to a good product through their blog, they deserve to be rewarded.

On the other hand, I nearly unsubscribed from Steve Pavlina's blog due to this post that was absolutely littered with affiliate links: http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2007/03/the-scien...

Personally, I don't think it's necessary. It's certainly a nice gesture but not as necessary if, say for example, you're blogging about a company you invest in, work with, or have some other non-obvious connection to.

Also, given your blog is about making money from the web, it's not surprising you'd have links to affiliates.

Again, overall nice gesture but not necessary.

I don't think the "aff' is needed. You put links on for people to use. Its their choice which links they try. Most people on here try to make a litte money. We all know whats going on!!

I will probably just start adding a default message at the bottom of each post if I'm adding an Aff Link

To pu tit bluntly, it's a nice gesture...but completely unnecessary IMHO. As you alluded to in your post, I'm sure 99.9% of the people could care less. Make dat money, John!!! :twisted:

Personally, I know what your site is about and don't feel the need to be warned. While I appreciate and think its a "nicety", I don't think it's required.

I certainly think it's important to disclose if you're blogging about a company that you work for, invest in or have other ties to. But other than that, I think you're just being polite...just my 2 cents.

Most of the time I just hover over it and look at what shows in the bottom of my browser for some reason...I still will check it out if I think it is something im interested in. I think disclosing affiliate links on a blog all the depends on your type of audience. With yours I believe it is just fine. Mine on the other hand :???:

Ditch the (aff). As a reader it's more annoying to come across it, because it stops the sentence dead.

For me when I hit the (aff), it's like the blog is saying - "hey, this is an aff link - click on it to help support this blog."

Personally I can usually spot an affiliate link when I see one - so it doesn't really matter for me.

It would probably be better to drop the (aff) - the posts would be "cleaner".

I don't think blogs that are about making money/internet marketing/affiliate marketing should have to disclose that they are making money online ;)

But then again, blogs like ProBlogger use the (aff) trick - and blogs like that are often directed at people new to making money online, but do newbies know what (aff) stands for?

Maybe you should have a dedicated disclosure page - and link to it at the top in the navigation or in the sidebar - or even at the end of each post that contains affiliate link...

ditch the aff, everyone knows this is a heavily monetized blog, the aff mark was a nice gesture as you started up,and gauged your community, but now seem unnecessary.

I agree with most of the posted comments on this one...lose the (aff).

Ditch the (aff). If I have to deal with the double underlined IntelliTXT ads not having (aff) after them, regular affiliates shouldn't matter either. If a user isn't smart enough to hover a link and look at their browsers' status bar, then they should be welcome to click whatever they want.

I think it depends on the context.

The Tech Zone is a place to go to find stuff to buy. We expect those links to benefit you in some manner.

Get rid of it, it loses the flow of the readability of the posts. It should be interesting to see the results of a recent experiment on johntp.com, where he practically begged people to click on the links.

I do something similar from time to time :twisted:

why is there a need to distinguish between a run of the mill hyperlink and an affiliate link on your blog or webpage? it's your page, how you design it and the way you display your links is your own business. just have your "terms of use"

if i don't like it, i can leave.

personally, i believe it originated from search engine marketing, to identify that the ad was written by an affiliate and not the company proper.

i believe it entered into the blogosphere, by some love festing bloggers who feel "corporations are bad" *bong hit* and then felt a little guilty, so they added the (aff). you know the ones, "god forbid there should be an affiliate link on my blog"... commercialism is out to ruin the... blah blah blogosphere blah

If you do Disclose that the links are from an aff then you will lose money :twisted:

i feel respected when you put an (aff) next to a link. it says that you are honest in saying that you are making money from the link

maybe you can make them a different color?
a darker blue maybe?

this way we will still know where you're making money from and it will still look good :)