I've always felt that blogs that have Amazon affiliate links should be held to a higher standard.
I've seen way too many poorly thrown together blog posts about the top 10 CS books to read, that I have my finger on the back button when looking at those types of links because past experience has taught me that 90% of them are just put together so they can put Amazon affiliate links on the books.
The rule of thumb I use is that if each blog post I see on the site has an Amazon affiliate link then the blog is probably trying to spam me and they'll have a harder time of keeping me there.
Some blogs do succeed via their tremendous writing.
Is it just me or do others feel this way? Does anyone else care at all if affiliate links are all over a blog page?
That's the same as saying that ad-supported products in general should be held to higher standards, which in general is not true - my feeling is that we are spoiled by free stuff, enough to make us get picky about the purity of the content viewed (supply and demand).
Personally, I never install ad-blockers. If a website or a mobile app is too obnoxious, I just close the browser window (or hit back, just as you). Ad-blockers, IMHO, solve the wrong problem. However, in general I tolerate such attempts, as content authoring can take a lot of time and trying to make a buck or two is not a sin.
Disclaimer: I'm the author of this article.
Originally I wanted to write a blog post about my adventures in learning how to draw, however feeling that my experience isn't adequate, I settled for a summary of the books I've been reading, plus I always wanted to experiment with either AdSense or Amazon's Associates, basically to see what happens (what the conversion rate is and so on).
Without in any way whatsover implying that you did, in some countries you cannot present an advert as an article or editorial without clearly marking it as such.
That's why on TVs you get the 'infomercial' warning and the 'this is an advert' banner in papers (certainly in my country anyway).
Having an affiliate link makes the article an advert as you are selling the book. An article such as yours can be interpreted as a shop front masquerading as free advice as soon as you put affiliate links in it, regardless of whether it affected your article or not.
Bloggers are getting away with murder right now compared to print advertising.
I realise this is not your intention, but that's why it is not the same as ad-supported products in general should be held to higher standards as their adverts are usually clearly marked where yours was not.
Bloggers are getting away with murder right
now compared to print advertising
I think this is a little blown out of proportions. Print advertising may be clearly marked as such for obvious advertising, however articles planted by PR firms are not.
It isn't the same thing with ads like adwords: With that, you don't know exactly what you're advertising, so you have no incentive in making false claims in your article to promote it. On the contrary, when I read articles promoting books with direct links to Amazon I automatically wonder if the author really liked that book, if he is qualified to judge it, or if he is just trying to sell me what he thinks would make him the most money.
Incidentally, that's exactly what happened when I followed the link to the post we're talking about :)
I agree with your point of view, I wasn't aware of this aspect however as I haven't been spammed with Amazon links (probably because many such websites are filled with other kinds of advertisement keeping me away).
I think that Amazon's affiliate program is perhaps the most benign, non-intrusive form of advertising on the internet.
If the blog post is a poorly-written list of links to books, then it probably isn't content that you're interested in, whether if it has affiliate links or not. I do not see why the presence of affiliate links makes the content any worse (or any better), though I suppose it may make people more inclined to slap up some poorly-written lists of links to books, so there's more low-quality websites to wade through on the internet.
But then again, there's already lots of low-quality websites on the internet. I hardly think there's any stopping that problem now, and I'd much rather see ads for Amazon, a place I actually shop at, than for some shady Nifty Larry's Bargain Basement or whatever.
> If the blog post is a poorly-written list of links to books, then it probably isn't content that you're interested in, whether if it has affiliate links or not. I do not see why the presence of affiliate links makes the content any worse (or any better), though I suppose it may make people more inclined to slap up some poorly-written lists of links to books, so there's more low-quality websites to wade through on the internet.
Yes I agree, this is pretty much exactly what I said above.
My point was that there are so many of these posts written just to attempt to get affiliate commissions that whenever I go to a link that has a top 10 books it already has 2 strikes against it due to previous experience.
I've seen way too many poorly thrown together blog posts about the top 10 CS books to read, that I have my finger on the back button when looking at those types of links because past experience has taught me that 90% of them are just put together so they can put Amazon affiliate links on the books.
The rule of thumb I use is that if each blog post I see on the site has an Amazon affiliate link then the blog is probably trying to spam me and they'll have a harder time of keeping me there.
Some blogs do succeed via their tremendous writing.
Is it just me or do others feel this way? Does anyone else care at all if affiliate links are all over a blog page?