Personally . . i don’t care! You’re already indirectly making money by our visit with your reviewme posts! On the other hand, I understand your need to disclose everything as I was accused of being an affiliate of apartmenttherapy.com last night . . they don’t even have an affiliate program! So, I thought i would have to disclose which links were affiliates or not. I’m still on the fence.

I personally don’t care for affiliate link disclosure. It’s not like it’s going to stop me buying something I wanted to buy anyway. It’s not going to stop me from clicking the link either. It just annoys me that there are actually people out there who feel so strongly about it. Like they feel deceived if they buy because of your post and find that you got a piece. Come on, you’re responsible for your own actions rigth?

Yeah, I say lose the (aff). I can understand how you’d want to be polite but it can make the posts look messy. I personally mouse over embedded links anyhow to see if there’s anything sneaky there.

You could however add a small small image next to your affiliate links to identify this to the reader.

~Dave

I go either way on my blog posts. I think you just have to decide on a link by link basis. For example, if I’m reviewing some service, and I include my affiliate link several times, I will usually only include the (aff) note after the first link.

If it isn’t part of a paid advertisement then get rid of it.

If you link to something and I think it’s good enough and buy it, I really don’t care that you made money out of it.

I agree with David. An image in replacement is fine. Or, include it in the link description if you want to. It looks better.

I have been contemplating removing aff links from my blog as well after reading NBB. My blog is quite new so the effect wont be noticable either way.

I’m curious to see what else people say regarding this because you are now hiding your affiliate links as well with redirects.

I agree, you should lose the aff, or at least use something a bit more palletable to the eye such as an images. It would really clean the look up a bit. But information is there to be processed by the user regardless of whether they are clicking an affiliate link or not, it’s the information that is important. Although I guess it could be argued that often the affiliate links have less viable information for the general user than the usual links you would normally apply, just by the sheer nature of it. If you link something because you want to, and get no return it is probably more relevant in most cases than a link that you are making a return from. But this is not the case in every situation.So in the end I feel it should be the user’s own discretion to understand the links properly and if they don’t appreciate the content, there is always the back button.

I have no issue with affiliate links in a blog, I’m smart enough to see them coming most of the time.

What irritates me is when people give rave reviews over another junky ebook just trying to get some sales through their affiliate code.

John’s far to honest evil to try that on us

I’d prefer it if a page redirect for aff links would not be used.

You should keep it because you have a unique audience and method of operation.

You have always been up front about what’s paid and not. If you stopped using it, people like me would ask questions about every link you post.

Again… This situation is unique. You don’t want to loose the trust you have earned with your audience.

In many other situations, I don’t believe it would make a difference.

When you don’t see the (aff) it feels as if the blogger is being dodgy or sneaky, being happy to fill a page with a recommendation but not to put 5 characters in there declaring their financial interest.

The fact is, in media in general - that’s Google with their ‘ads by Google’ disclaimer, that’s all newspapers with ‘this is a paid advertistement - it is considered ethical to declare any monetary interest in an article published.

For mine that extends to bloggers, they’re meant to be the ‘new media’ right?

I think it’s important solely for the reason that blogs are being seen more and more as viable information resources, and to further that cause, we as bloggers must continue to show responsibility.

A magazine in my niche ran an article last month about how some bloggers in my niche accepted free goods in exchange for reviews. They argued that the service providers (those giving the stuff away) could make the free experience exceptionally good because it could be targeted (like a VIP’s experience can be made better because it, too, can be targeted). This would result in better reviews.

I personally think it is a good idea to somehow mark a link as an affiliate link. And as the saying goes “if it aint broke - don’t fix it”!

Transparency is also good for business, but you don’t have to litter your site with (affs). Maybe add it into your Disclaimer notice or something.

Complete OT:
John I noticed you are now finishing all your recent articles with a question? Is that coincidence (I doubt that )or a part of new strategy on increasing feedback?

Cheers
Dan

There is a popular site in the UK which does specify which links are affiliate links by a * and then at the bottom explains that links with a * are affiliate links and help monetize the site and those with out do not.

The owner of the site then goes to explain how he writes his very comprehensive articles and says that he researches the subject and links to various sites regardless of if they offer an affiliate program and then once he has created the article he has a staff member see if each link has the potential of being an affiliate link… if so then they put a * next to it and code the link.

He says by doing this that you get the best information as he is not swayed by a product that will get him the most sales… he just wants to get the message across regardless of what affiliate links are available.

I am on the fence still but to be honest, I dont think it matters either way as long as your readers know you are not trying to push a rubbish product on to them because it will get you some nice sales.

I would rather have no ‘aff’ mentioned as it looks way better without it.

hey john,
aren’t you evil anyway
i must say i dont really care about the affiliate links. most of the people that visit your blog will recognize them anyway when they hover over the links. so i say “get rid of them”.

cheers from germany.
chris

Hmmm good post John. I was thinking about the same thing yesterday. I don’t really think it matters that much to be honest. Like most people are saying - if you are recommending a high quality product they will buy it regardless if you’re going to make a small commission on it.

Instead, think of your affiliate commission as your “finders fee” - just like real estate agents do bird dogging

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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). 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.”

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

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.