as for "do affiliate links alter your writing" I can't really answer that for you. For me, I think they might. (now, I think that I might actually point out

as for "do affiliate links alter your writing" I can't really answer that for you. For me, I think they might. (now, I think that I might actually point out that I'm getting paid, and I might point out flaws in the service more than I normally would. I'm good at selling to nerds, and to no one else.) As for "do affiliate links make me look dirty" it depends on your writing style and your audience. If, say, I wrote an article on kuro5hin.org and included affiliate links, even with my usual self-deprecating tone, I'd be castrated as a spammer. Hacker news has a fairly positive view of advertising, so as long as your page had some real content and wasn't obviously made to only push the links, you are probably okay. (Now, I have slipped affiliate links on K5, but only to my book; It's my book, so affiliate link or no, I'm expected to be biased.) I've been thinking about this some, as I've been considering signing up for the affiliate programs of my competitors; I mean, I do certainly recommend my competitors to some of my potential customers, so why not get paid for it? The worry there is that it could increase the feeling of prgmr.com being super tiny, which I guess we are, so maybe I should embrace that?