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Ask HN: Why the Affiliate Link Hatred?
When a project containing affiliate links is featured here, invariably there are comments scorning the OP for being "unethical". While I see the ethical concern for journalistic publications like, say, the Atlantic, I'm not sure I see a problem with them being used to bring money to someone's blog or side project. What are the community's thoughts on this?
- larrys 14y agoJealousy, slippery slope, somehow putting a bias on the person collecting money. In some cases, in other places, the fact that people claim to donate the money to charity seems to dampen the negatives which doesn't make much sense. I personally don't have an issue with it and I find it annoying when people (on blogs for example) point out that a link isn't an affiliate link in a "I'm to good for this" fashion. As if money isn't important or they are above it all. Irony is of course that a large part of HN is being a shill [1] for YC. [1] I don't have a problem with that either even though the use of the word shill might indicate that.
- throwaway420 14y agoI'm not sure why, but I agree that there is sometimes a bit of a weird bias on HN against making money online - which is odd for a community of people who are ostensibly devoting a good deal of their attention to making side-projects that make money. What bothers me the most about this is the people that brag about using ad blockers to block ads and then use the same types of crappy ads to monetize their own sites. That's sort of an aside though, and doesn't apply to everybody. It's just a bit of a weird bit of hypocrisy that I've seen in some folks that is modestly irritating. (I don't use ad blockers. I just refuse to visit shitty sites that load up way too many low-quality ads)
- throwaway420 14y agoIt's only unethical if you alter your honest opinion about a product in order to promote its affiliate link. But otherwise if there's full disclosure and there's nothing deceptive about the link, then there's nothing wrong with affiliate links. To some extent, its only natural to be a bit cautious about affiliate links because some shady "internet marketers" have used affiliate links in dishonest ways in the past - hiding the fact that they were affiliate links and not disclosing the fact that there is a paid relationship that could affect somebody's opinion. But that doesn't imply that all or even most affiliate links are bad. On the contrary, I think more bloggers should ditch all kinds of crazy ads that track you across the internet and switch to simple affiliate links. If you run a blog about surfing or photography or whatever, you already know what types of products your readers are going to be interested in and can make money by providing quality product recommendations. Affiliate links seem like a natural fit to a lot of smaller, niche blogs as it really rewards the effort spent in creating high quality content because people will trust your recommendations more.
- booruguru 14y agoTech nerds have a pathological/ideological aversion to making money. I can't count how many interviews I've read/watched in which some startup founder congratulates himself for not worrying about how to build a profitable business (all the while accepting VC funding). This is why we get so many startups that crash-and-burn or acqui-hired (and then shuttered). Affiliate marketing is an incredibly powerful tool that is under-utilized by small businesses/startups. But affiliate marketing serves no purpose other than to sell stuff and make money; It is nakedly sales driven, hence the animus towards affiliate links. Nobody should "want" to make money on the Internet, right? It should happen by accident.