Your math is correct only if you put on blinds and refuse to see the whole picture.
If you sell more flashlights then it is likely that some other store will sell less. And you will loose sales to that other store when their affiliate salespersons are successful. So on average you will most likely loose about as much as you win.
As a store you don't gain anything if all your competitors also use aff links and are as good at it as you are. But you will loose sales if you don't keep it up. And you have to pay money to the aff linkers to keep it up. But hey! You can keep your profits up by slightly increasing the price and let the consumers as a group indirectly pay the aff linkers.
So the aff links slightly harm the consumers as a group, it is not neutral. But it is spread so thin that some don't realise it is there. And they only benefit the aff posters and the forum that gets extra traffic and slightly more ad revenue.
In the end the consumers as a group always pay for all marketing. It's a part of the price of the items they buy.
Im not going to search but Ive purchased items from affiliate links, and they were bargains. The fact not all are, does not mean none are. As has been said, again and again, you have the ability to do a search of competitors, to decide for yourself if its a bargain, and either go through with the transaction or not.
Sometimes members post links to lights we have never seen, sometimes its a price drop on a light some might have been waiting to come down in price, they might put that in an affiliate link.
You wanted a point for affiliate links, you have one, you can either manufacture faults with that or not, it doesnt change the facts there is an advantage for members here. They do not have to use affiliate links sure, but thats not your choice.
If party A has a way to get a better deal then party B. And if party A has offfered the etter deal to party B. party B benifits and if the corp up the ladder give party A (a pittance) both parties bennifit.
Now party B might get gready and want that (pittance) also as a savings but the key point here is that party figured out a way to get the discount the party B (could not be bothered r skilled enough to do on their own behalf.
So other than party’s greedy nature I dont see whatth issue is?
And no I dont have any of these deal to offer, but M4D MAX has let me know about deals (I did not have access to) and I have benefited from his work, and as I did no negotiating on my own, it cost me nothing. (no oppertunity cost was lost)
I believe majority of posting members here are not against aff links, they are against the way many of them are represented here with people posting aff spam to the left and right just to earn money, not to benefit discussion.
So either making aff links prohibited in certain sub-forums or not allowing them altogether should work just fine, otherwise this system is going to be abused more and more.
Not so long ago there was only thread or two where thread starter was spamming with aff links, now we get to see aff links in every thread imaginable by anyone who could be bothered by creating one(aff link that is).
IMO reviews are fine, if you make review and post aff link to the item reviewed.
Nothing good about aff links.
I do not use aff links on forums (I use it sometimes, in my Blog.)
If I know a good offer I don’t need a aff link to post here. For share something with colleagues, no payment need, not need to use a aff links in any forum.
I really have no problem with use a aff link of other people on the forum, but I see these days, that makes worse the environment in this forum.
With the shenanigans we see from stores like Banggood and Gearbest, that would become a moving target that you could never nail down. They’re constantly doing stupid stuff like letting someone set up a group buy for a particular light, then putting it on sale for cheaper, and the group buy discount can’t be stacked with the sale price. Or, like giving us a BLF coupon that never works on sale items, so when a light is on sale, the BLF coupon makes it more expensive instead of cheaper. AFF links may not always guarantee a lower price when they are posted. But, even when it is a lower price at the time of posting, it may soon not be because one of the stores decided to put it on sale for cheaper. Maybe even the same store that gave the affiliate the good deal to begin with. The stores are so franticly trying to cut the throats of the competition, they sometimes cut their own!
As long as people keep posting, the thread will keep getting bumped back to the top. I think your previous statement is correct - that no minds are being changed here. I never meant for any minds to be changed anyway (except maybe my own). But, we don’t need SB to close the thread at this point. It will be buried - out of sight, out of mind - if we just stop posting to it. I’ve been trying to do that already. It was down to page two on the recent posts list. Now, it’s at the top again.
