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That article is Amazon affiliate hotlink heaven. All items mentioned are Amazon links with referral code hidden behind a domain redirect. I initially expected t

by MJR 16y ago

That article is Amazon affiliate hotlink heaven. All items mentioned are Amazon links with referral code hidden behind a domain redirect. I initially expected to get another article on the item I clicked on. But the links serve no purpose than to make some money off referrals.

acangiano 16y ago
I use Amazon affiliate links on my blogs when I refer people to products. The redirector is there as it is much easier for me to link to /?XXXXXXX when I compile posts, than manually build links from the Amazon Associates site. From the disclosure on the site: "Some of the links contained within this site have my referral id, which provides me with a small commission for each sale. Think of it as a form of tipping for the large investment of time I put into this site. Thank you for your support."
- SHOwnsYou 16y ago
  This disclosure is very arrogant. A tip for the investment you chose to put into the site? A tip for an investment the reader didn't ask for and only tangentially benefits from? It is so hard to read it makes me crazy.
  - acangiano 16y ago
    Thank you for your feedback. I changed it to: "Some of the links contained within this site have my referral id (e.g., Amazon), which provides me with a small commission for each sale. Thank you for your support."
- MJR 16y ago
  There's a good way to do this and a bad way. One good way is to make the link text specific to a unique product. If 'Sony 30" XXX-700' was used as the link text, instead of 30" Monitor it would be a detailed link telling the user that they're going to a page specific to that item. Another option is to put all your referral links at the bottom of the post and highlight some of the best 30" monitors to choose from. Same for all the other product types you linked to. The bad way is to link a nondescript phrase like 30" Monitor to a random 30" monitor on Amazon. It doesn't provide any basis to understand why you linked to that specific monitor. Are you recommending that monitor specifically? Is that the only one out there? Etc.
  - acangiano 16y ago
    I was aiming for an example of a pretty sweet setup (SDD+Monitor+Chair), but I can see why using specific anchor texts would have been more user friendly.

by MJR 16y ago

acangiano 16y ago

I use Amazon affiliate links on my blogs when I refer people to products. The redirector is there as it is much easier for me to link to /?XXXXXXX when I compile posts, than manually build links from the Amazon Associates site. From the disclosure on the site: "Some of the links contained within this site have my referral id, which provides me with a small commission for each sale. Think of it as a form of tipping for the large investment of time I put into this site. Thank you for your support."

SHOwnsYou 16y ago
This disclosure is very arrogant. A tip for the investment you chose to put into the site? A tip for an investment the reader didn't ask for and only tangentially benefits from? It is so hard to read it makes me crazy.
- acangiano 16y ago
  Thank you for your feedback. I changed it to: "Some of the links contained within this site have my referral id (e.g., Amazon), which provides me with a small commission for each sale. Thank you for your support."
MJR 16y ago
There's a good way to do this and a bad way. One good way is to make the link text specific to a unique product. If 'Sony 30" XXX-700' was used as the link text, instead of 30" Monitor it would be a detailed link telling the user that they're going to a page specific to that item. Another option is to put all your referral links at the bottom of the post and highlight some of the best 30" monitors to choose from. Same for all the other product types you linked to. The bad way is to link a nondescript phrase like 30" Monitor to a random 30" monitor on Amazon. It doesn't provide any basis to understand why you linked to that specific monitor. Are you recommending that monitor specifically? Is that the only one out there? Etc.
- acangiano 16y ago
  I was aiming for an example of a pretty sweet setup (SDD+Monitor+Chair), but I can see why using specific anchor texts would have been more user friendly.