3 ms·
>But online, that firewall came down, and it got worse. They had funnels to sell you the products they reviewed and they had cookies and they got money for sale
by Johnny555 3y ago
>But online, that firewall came down, and it got worse. They had funnels to sell you the products they reviewed and they had cookies and they got money for sales.
I don't really care if they have affiliate links to sell products, they include links for multiple sellers and I see no sign that they are steering people to the most expensive product since most times their top rated product is not the most expensive one.
> They would buy cars themselves, then review them instead of getting a "perfect" car loaned and managed by the company that created it.
That's a very expensive way to do reviews, and apparently digital subscriptions don't pay all the bills and affiliate links help close the gap.
> They clearly are in bed with advertisers - there is no firewall, they don't support themselves financially.
Why do you say that? They have no advertising (unless you call the affiliate purchase links "advertising", but their relationship with Amazon isn't going to make them recommend Ford over Chevy.
- bourgeoismedia 3y agoAffiliate links are an obvious conflict of interest for Consumer Reports. Affiliate links pay them a percentage of the sale, so their direct incentive is to recommend the higher-priced product as they make more money that way. So if you're in the market for a toaster and there's a perfectly good $30 model on Amazon they might instead recommend a $100 model because they make more money that way.
- iamthepieman 3y agoI don't buy it. The laws of supply and demand are an effect for affiliate links just like they are for the makers of the product. Sure, they might make more money per click. But there might very well be many more clicks if they recommended a cheaper one. Not saying there is just that it's more complicated than just recommend higher price. Get more money