What is the real honest use case for affiliate links?
It basically seems like a way for Amazon and other affiliate program operators to deniably outsource black hat SEO.
Not that this particular site is using black hat SEO (as far as I can tell), but many affiliate link farms are. This particular site seems like it is less offensive, but still something that would be annoying to get in search results.
Maybe if affiliate links only functioned for products that an affiliate was verified as owning? I think there is a need for in-depth product reviews but people need a way to be compensated for them without being paid off to provide good reviews.
Highly targeted recommendation services like pcpartpicker also provide value.
There is a good carve-out where affiliate links are good. Actual review sites (eg. cnet and techradar, for all they're worth) and YouTube-based reviewers can do very well for determining what products are actually relevant, and can ultimately drive the customer to purchasing a product. Without such assurance from these people/publications, there's a chance Amazon loses out on the sale (either from choosing not to impulse purchase or using another competitor) so paying these reviewers out gives them incentive and drives purchases.
Although, from a anti-consumerism/anti-waste standpoint, encouraging impulse purchases at all is probably a net negative.
It basically seems like a way for Amazon and other affiliate program operators to deniably outsource black hat SEO.
Not that this particular site is using black hat SEO (as far as I can tell), but many affiliate link farms are. This particular site seems like it is less offensive, but still something that would be annoying to get in search results.