Affiliate links. Why do we hate them? Why is it so important NOT to click them? As a guy who have practically lived on the net the last 5-6 years or so I have seen the use of affiliate links grown, and the last year I have seen the value of it. But why is it that I don’t like clicking on them myself? I find myself often striping an affiliate link, leaving only the base url. Why is that?
Alright, lots of question to start with here. I will try to answer them myself, and give my opinion, and hopefully you will share yours in the comment section.
Why don’t I click affiliate links?
This is a phenomenon I have realized I had the last year. Very often when I find a good product or site I want to check out and it’s a affiliate link pointing to it I strip the link. I don’t know why actually. Maybe it’s habit. I don’t know. I think it got something to do with is the fact that
“I don’t want anyone else to make a buck of me, and my work“.
So, what am I doing with such a attitude? Well, I’m giving the company which sells the product or running the site more money. (Since they don’t have to pay the affiliate) I also don’t appreciate the work the affiliate has done with recommending the site or product to me. Leaving him or her with nothing, and might don’t think the work she or he does is worth it, and stops. Which means to me that I might don’t get recommended a great product or site which I could have big use for. And all this for what? Greed?
But regular users don’t know the different?
I think that regular surfers (aka non-webmasters) don’t know the different between affiliate links and normal links. As long as they get to the right site or product they are happy. So if you are running a site for this market you normally don’t have anything to worry about, but if you run a site for a market which knows about affiliate links you got something to worry about, because people do strip the urls. People are greedy. Leaving you with no money for your effort.
What to do with the market?
I think it’s time to change the attitude of webmasters. I think it’s already have started, since people do see the importances of affiliate links, but I still think it’s a long way to go. What you can do in the meanwhile is:
- Firstly, change your attitude, set yourself in the affiliate link owners position. Would you be happy if someone used your affiliate link?
- Second; hide your affiliate links.
This can be done easy with redirects. I see sub domains being used, short url services and other products. What I’m going to do is to write a post with tips for you who uses affiliate links. Remember to subscribe to to my blog if you aren’t already.
Your opinion
What I want with this post is to get a discussion going. What do you think about affiliate links?
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Whenever i see an affiliate link, i always fall in a doubt whether i will be going to the right place and to the correct website.
I just don’t like those kinda links..
http://www.afsdfsdfasdfasbd.com/affid?pro5334ad3aaadd-adadw-2dd322 looks very weird right?
Reply
Nice post staale!
Just keep the posts coming in my friend, i’ll be sure to be at your back and maybe learn in the process. Btw, staale, can we have an exchange link? I want my readers to enjoy coming here too.
Reply
I have done quite a bit of affiliate marketing, and it used to drive me crazy that people would remove my links prior to a purchase. I was never quite sure why someone really cared as to who got paid because as a purchaser you would still being paying for the product (unless you were able to purchase through your own affiliate link) so it shouldn’t matter who you were paying.
This is why I began cloaking my links. Of course another work around would be to promote products that cater to those that are “less web savvy”
The only times I have ever removed an affiliate link is when I have been presented with a product that I would like to purchase, but the affiliate has brought the product to my attention through spammy tactics. Spammy internet marketers just drive me crazy and give the Im’ers that use ethical techniques a bad name.
Wow…what a rant.
Reply
I do and don’t click on affiliate links.
Sometimes I google the site or strip out the link. If I like what I see on the site and it would add value to my business (or life), then I would return and click on the affiliate link before purchasing.
I think it is fair to the marketer to give them the credit for the purchase, but it would lower their conversion if all the webmasters who had no intention on purchasing the product, clicked on the links.
Reply
Chuck: So what you mean is that you are doing the marketer a favor not clicking the link before you know you are going to buy the product?
Reply
Chuck: The marketer have a certain amount of money that they are going to use on that specific ad. That means, the ad will stop, when that amount is paid out to the “publishers”.
Reply
I have thought about this a lot myself. I’m guilty of explicitly avoiding affiliate links. However, when I purchased my hosting services, I decided on them based on a review by a blogger. I made sure that I went through that bloggers affiliate link.
Basically, if I decide to purchase something based on a personal review of a product, I’m going to make sure that the reviewer gets a kick back. I hope others will do the same for me!
Reply
I do not mind affiliate links. If I decide to buy something from the site the links point to, it would not make any difference to me if I strip the code from the link… So what is the point of depriving other sites of their revenue …
Reply
The more ppl strips or avoiding aff.links the less money on anyone running a website. Just do yourself what you expect others do to you….simple as that.
Reply
Coulden’t said it better myself picxx:)
Reply
Well said there picxx
If we expect others to click on our affiliate links, we should be clicking on others’ rather than thinking much about that. But still i don’t love the URL structure of the affiliate links!
Reply
AS I stated earlier my sentiments are 100% inline with BizGiftGuru. Why do you care who gets paid? You have to pay the money to someone anyways, why not help out a follow marketers, which leads to what picxx wrote.
It’s all about “Affiliate Marketing Karma”
Reply
If I see an affiliate link that I’m interested in, I click. I think the site owner deserves a little something for recommending the site or product. I’d want someone else to do the same for me.
Reply
So,
I am not doing the marketer any favors by not clicking on the ads?
If I click on the ad, but will not purchase, am I not adding noise to their ad strategy?
Please tell me if my logic is flawed, I have no problems clicking aff links if I am not doing it for the wrong reasons;-).
“Caper said: Chuck: The marketer have a certain amount of money that they are going to use on that specific ad. That means, the ad will stop, when that amount is paid out to the “publishers”.
”
What do you mean by that?
Reply
”If I click on the ad, but will not purchase, am I not adding noise to their ad strategy?”
Ppl tend to click on ad’s if they see something interesting. Don’t click ad’s just because clicking ad’s, but if you see something that cach youre eye, then use the affiliate link, don’t strip the link or type in the direct url. And no, you will not be adding any noise…it’s quite common that someone clicks a affiliate link and still not buying
Reply
I don’t mind affiliate links as long as they don’t spam and the links referred is really useful.
Reply