Entrepreneurs-Journey.com

It’s a fair topic Yaro - I think one of the most important things no matter your point of view on affiliate marketing is transparency - and you’ve done that. I think everyone appreciates transparency on all levels.

I would agree with all you have said Yaro.
As long as you are honest in any reviews about a product, I see no reason to make a distinction between a regular link and one with an affiliate code on it.

Yaro, I think that most readers of your blog realise that you have affiliate relationships with a lot of the products that you talk about on the blog. I think that, as James said, as long as you keep the reviews honest, your reputation will stay in tact.

I know I have given you grief about that in the past Yaro, but I have to say, in the past few months I have been doing some pretty intense affiliate marketing and I agree with your new policy.

I think you have earned your reputation and not directly disclosing an affiliate link is your right.

Content speaks for itself. I’ve noticed in the past that some of your affiliate-pitching came off as a little lame, but that neither stopped me from coming back nor caused me to suddenly consider you a shill.

Pro bloggers (and wannabes) aren’t generally in the business solely out of the goodness of their hearts. It’s unreasonable to expect them to be, and stupid to think they’re going to do any kind of unnecessary “disclosing” which would result in a dent to their bottom line.

That said, you’ll never escape the affiliate link whining. Learn to love it.

Hello Yaro. AMEN to that! I for one do not mind aff links at all. I think, in this business, it’s a bit naive to even expect blog owners to not have aff links.
For me, as long as the blog offers value, I will keep on visiting it

Generally speaking, that’s the view that I have had with affiliate marketing for a while now.

Obviously this does not bother me in the least that this is the direction that you are deciding to go in.

Hey yaro,

I am an affiliate marketer as well, and I saw you and Darren adding (aff) near your affiliate links.

I was wondering if I should do that as well. I think you made a good choice.

This will not hurt your blog credibility.

(aff)? Don’t even bother!

As long as your affiliate offer is worth checking out & buying, I’ll go ahead & buy. I don’t mind if you get commission from me because you’ve added value by recommending something useful to me.

I’m an affiliate marketer too, not only I don’t use (aff), I even add a bonus as an incentive for people to buy thru my affiliate link.

The crux comes down to whether it is WOMM or just an advertising link.

A good idea is to make a static disclosure policy page of some kind on the site.

My disclosure policy plugin might be a bit of an overkill unless you want to use it for adverts and stuff as well, but as an alternative I just created a feedburner feedflare that you can use to link through from your feed to a disclosure policy automatically.

If a link to your disclosure policy is with the content, you are pretty much in the clear on the legal and ethical side.

I certainly wouldn’t use (aff) next to a link on an affiliate marketing blog, it is like please steal my commissions.

Unless it becomes a law I would stay away from (aff) tag. Like others have pointed out, only recommending products that have value to your list will gain their trust and end up meaning more sales. I send affiliate email to my ebay list several times a week and I have never had anyone ask me or complain that the email was an affiliate email.

If you are selling to US customers, and it is WOMM, whilst I am not a lawyer, it is my belief it is law to have some form of disclosure.

In addition to that, the Clickbank rules now require you to comply with FTC regulations on WOMM.

(used link to point directly to info on Clickbank rules change)

Any comments on using affiliate links within the coach/client relationship, without disclosure? ie) coach recommends course/product via affiliate link to client without disclosure.

Yaro - thanks for the response. Actually, I’m the client in this case, working with a business coach. I’m all for affiliate links - I have a blog full of them. I knew these were aff links, but that she didn’t disclose seemed dishonest to me. I’m happy to support my coach, but disagreed with her decision not to inform me. Thanks again for your input.