More recently, after having sustained a popular site and developing relationships with others in my niche, I began to promote a few affiliate links again with great success:

My current criteria:

*It must be a product or service that I have personally used and swear by; would happily recommend to others for free.
*It must be a product or service that represents something I would/could potentially create and offer myself — meaning, the context is seamlessly in alignment with what my audience wants.
*It must be a product or service that is not likely to be saturated within my niche (as in a “canned” affiliate product offered to anyone with a web page).
*I must have some authentic personal relationship with author.
*I put it place and forget about it, with no expectations; focusing instead on assisting the worthy author in promoting something I truly admire. Any accumulative commission is icing on the cake of that relationship.

Generally, I feel that the highest possible degree of integrity and authenticity in your decision to promote a product — coming from the best possible place for all involved — creates some powerful affiliate karma.

Slade

More recently, after having sustained a popular site and developing relationships with others in my niche, I began to promote a few affiliate links again with great success:

My current criteria:

*It must be a product or service that I have personally used and swear by; would happily recommend to others for free.
*It must be a product or service that represents something I would/could potentially create and offer myself — meaning, the context is seamlessly in alignment with what my audience wants.
*It must be a product or service that is not likely to be saturated within my niche (as in a “canned” affiliate product offered to anyone with a web page).
*I must have some authentic personal relationship with author.
*I put it place and forget about it, with no expectations; focusing instead on assisting the worthy author in promoting something I truly admire. Any accumulative commission is icing on the cake of that relationship.

Generally, I feel that the highest possible degree of integrity and authenticity in your decision to promote a product — coming from the best possible place for all involved — creates some powerful affiliate karma.

Slade

Thanks for a thought-provoking article. It’s timely for me, as I’m just looking into adding affiliate links to our website. Seems to be one of those areas where you need to tread carefully and research thoroughly beforehand.

(And thanks for the link to Promotions.co.uk On a different tangent, that could be exactly what I’m looking for, for some domain names I’ve recently purchased and haven’t been sure how to use!)

Cheers, Jon

Thanks for a thought-provoking article. It’s timely for me, as I’m just looking into adding affiliate links to our website. Seems to be one of those areas where you need to tread carefully and research thoroughly beforehand.

(And thanks for the link to Promotions.co.uk On a different tangent, that could be exactly what I’m looking for, for some domain names I’ve recently purchased and haven’t been sure how to use!)

Cheers, Jon

Anyway, I’m planning on giving it a go in the new year as we already review books on the blog, so an Amazon widget would certainly be appropriate. Hopefully I’m not leaving it too late.

Anyway, I’m planning on giving it a go in the new year as we already review books on the blog, so an Amazon widget would certainly be appropriate. Hopefully I’m not leaving it too late.

I wrote a post on my blog that discusses mistakes I feel Internet Marketers are making with Affiliate promotions (specific to Twitter).

Certainly there is nothing wrong with affiliation promotions, they pretty much help to “make the ‘net go round”.

Is all about the process I feel.

Just jamming an affiliate link in front of your visitor without giving value is wrong in my opinion.

People are pretty clued up these days (well many are) and can see threw thinly veiled affiliate promotions that are just about making money, and not actually helping people.

As that old saying goes, you can have anything you want, if you help enough people get what they want.

Cheers

Tim

I wrote a post on my blog that discusses mistakes I feel Internet Marketers are making with Affiliate promotions (specific to Twitter).

Certainly there is nothing wrong with affiliation promotions, they pretty much help to “make the ‘net go round”.

Is all about the process I feel.

Just jamming an affiliate link in front of your visitor without giving value is wrong in my opinion.

People are pretty clued up these days (well many are) and can see threw thinly veiled affiliate promotions that are just about making money, and not actually helping people.

As that old saying goes, you can have anything you want, if you help enough people get what they want.

Cheers

Tim

At the end of the day affiliate links are just advertising, just like Adsemse, just like banners ads and just like other forms of advertising. Those unethical marketers will abuse all these forms of advertising in any way they can – it is not something that is reserved to the affiliate marketing industry. Yet if a blogger has Adsense or banners on their site nothing is said, but they will often come under scrutiny if they place affiliate links, often for the conflict of interest.

I just don’t get this. Put a Adsense ad on your site and whatever you write effects the ads (and can effect the CTR on ads) so there is a conflict of interest as it can influence the topics, words and nature of an article by a blogger if they put money first. If they discuss a product the product will then be advertised on their site through Adsense. Yet this conflict of interest is ignored and Adsense is accepted as a legitimate form of advertising and associations with those Adsense spammers is ignored.

Yet when it comes to affiliate marketing people are much more keen to point out the conflict of interest in how affiliate commissions can affect a bloggers writing. Yet the conflict of interest is very similar to that conflict of interest in Adsense. The only difference is that affiliate links can be more thoroughly editorially controlled so perfectly match the topic being discussed, are less intrusive and give a better user experience as they are more helpful than most other forms of advertising.

After understanding how to use affiliate links in a useful way that benefits readers and converts well my affiliate income has sky rocketed and I’ve been able to reduce other forms of advertising. I’m able to offer more targeted advertising than ever making my sites much more user-friendly.

At the end of the day it is down to the individual blogger’s ethics and site’s policies that will determine whether a site works in an ethical way to provide value, or puts ethics aside to make more money.

Low quality, bullshit articles and spam are not reserved for affiliate marketers. Similarly high quality and useful articles are not reserved for those using more accepted forms of advertising.

At the end of the day affiliate links are just advertising, just like Adsemse, just like banners ads and just like other forms of advertising. Those unethical marketers will abuse all these forms of advertising in any way they can – it is not something that is reserved to the affiliate marketing industry. Yet if a blogger has Adsense or banners on their site nothing is said, but they will often come under scrutiny if they place affiliate links, often for the conflict of interest.

I just don’t get this. Put a Adsense ad on your site and whatever you write effects the ads (and can effect the CTR on ads) so there is a conflict of interest as it can influence the topics, words and nature of an article by a blogger if they put money first. If they discuss a product the product will then be advertised on their site through Adsense. Yet this conflict of interest is ignored and Adsense is accepted as a legitimate form of advertising and associations with those Adsense spammers is ignored.

Yet when it comes to affiliate marketing people are much more keen to point out the conflict of interest in how affiliate commissions can affect a bloggers writing. Yet the conflict of interest is very similar to that conflict of interest in Adsense. The only difference is that affiliate links can be more thoroughly editorially controlled so perfectly match the topic being discussed, are less intrusive and give a better user experience as they are more helpful than most other forms of advertising.

After understanding how to use affiliate links in a useful way that benefits readers and converts well my affiliate income has sky rocketed and I’ve been able to reduce other forms of advertising. I’m able to offer more targeted advertising than ever making my sites much more user-friendly.

At the end of the day it is down to the individual blogger’s ethics and site’s policies that will determine whether a site works in an ethical way to provide value, or puts ethics aside to make more money.

Low quality, bullshit articles and spam are not reserved for affiliate marketers. Similarly high quality and useful articles are not reserved for those using more accepted forms of advertising.