Comments on: Are Affiliate Links Unethical Without Disclosure?

By: FromThisSeat.com

FromThisSeat.com — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 06:18:14 +0000

Affiliate links are unethical if the ads are not targeted towards your audience. Why would you throw a Boston Red Sox banner on a Yankees Facebook fan page? That would be unethical. However if the audience fits the bill, go for it.

By: Virtual Tour

Virtual Tour — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 16:48:39 +0000

Thanks for the valuable opinion. I personally think if you don’t trust someone because you haven’t met them or haven’t been associated with them for any length of time, then I think it makes total sense that you’d question an affiliate link.

By: John

John — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:48:51 +0000

Completely agree, Lisa. I think your reputation is key but there are many more factors. Many times random people will come and just click on the links. They are a great way to make money.

By: tamaras

tamaras — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 07:03:25 +0000

Buyer have responsibility to use one or two brain cells before buying any stuff or what is disclosed. If the day ever comes when a law is passed that says every word out of spokesperson’s mouth regarding a product they endorse must come with a disclosure that they are getting paid to endorse it, then I’ll consider it my duty to also make a disclosure every single time I include an affiliate link.

By: thewham

thewham — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 04:44:21 +0000

It is crazy that this argument has gone this long and no one added to the argument the message being sent when cloaking or hiding your links. I feel that if you hide or cloak your links, then you are intentionally impeding the user from making his own decision of the merit of the link.

I see cloaked links all the time. I think if you believe you don’t need to disclose links because you need to base your interaction on trust, then there should be no reason to put work into hiding links, which I feel is manipulating your content.

It is the equivalent of ladies night at the clubs. Yes, everyone is having fun. So why is it that club promoters go out of their way to attract females?

My point is, I don’t think anyone should disclose all their links, but THEY SHOULD leave them naked so that the user can decide their trust of your content for themselves.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 16:34:08 +0000

Isn’t everyone on the internet pitching something? If I made a PSA that “this is an affiliate link” I’d basically be saying to my readers I didn’t think they were smart enough to figure out how I’m making money on my site. I’d like to credit them with intelligence for reading me. Spamming on the other hand..well, nobody likes the greasy after taste that comes from that.

By: Phil Barnhart

Phil Barnhart — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 04:15:47 +0000

Excluding twitter for the moment, why not use an existing paradigm to deal with affiliate links – semantically as microformats?. Something as simple as rel=”affiliate” might be sufficient. A more complex microformat might identify the advertiser or network (a la rel=”license” microformat”).

This way, the small percentage of people who may be concerned can download the inevitable plugin if needed, management and links to privacy and disclosure pages automated, etc. Of course, the real drivers of this may need to the actual affiliate programs – if CJ for example put this in their auto code generation tool.

As for Twitter, the major URL shorteners like BudURL could simply set up a complementary domain for affiliate/sponsored links and maintain the disclosure on their site via a link preview function. Again, it would help if Twitter then autotagged the URL.

A modest proposal, at least. And requires no one else’s permission to start!

By: Majento

Majento — Sat, 23 May 2009 03:16:31 +0000

Friday again, just read this, great post, nothing's wrong with affiliation links as long as trust is maintained, no one smart would keep following a friend that sends out irrelevant or non authentic recs. If one can't keep the trust of friends, it would be best to unplug and head for the woods, cheers.

By: Holly Powell

Holly Powell — Fri, 22 May 2009 17:23:07 +0000

Help someone help me! Twitters are hypnotizing me through the 15″ screen in front of me and forcing me to wait, wait; I’m going to do it! No, stop! ugh. I did it I clicked on their affiliate link!

Just a little humor here. It’s a choice we make to click on an affiliate link or NOT. Just as it’s a choice to click on a posted blog post or NOT. The twitterers of the world for the most part are not out to get people.

Have I used affiliate links in tweets? Yes. Have I used affiliate links in blogs? Yes.

Do I twist somebody’s arm to click on them? No. I like to think that most twitterers are conscious, breathing, and for the most part ethical folks who either have reviewed a great product. Now, that it not to say that there are folks out there who are just spamming folks with affiliate links for every Tom (read Eban), Dick (read Kern), and Harry (read Ed) guru out there. :-)

People, you still have a choice…to click OR not to click. To unfollow or follow that is the question!

By: Robert

Robert — Thu, 21 May 2009 12:42:38 +0000

You sum it up in a single line, “I’d never attach my name to something I didn’t believe in”. It’s really that simple. Whether you make a buck or not when recommending something/one shouldn’t make any difference.