i’m a third on this. in fact i hope people do use aff links; it doesn’t cost me one more penny to click their aff link, and apparently they benefit in some way… what’s wrong with this?
I doubt many will say they don't like what you are doing, but some feel that way and just don't want to speak up. I think those people resent that you are making money on them, while pretending that you are doing it for the forum, when in reality, (their reality), you are only doing it to make money off the forum. I think that is what I have heard before many times and to some extent I agree.
You, I, or anyone else, can say our intentions are pure, but the reality of the internet is that no one is ever going to know what your real intentions are, no matter what you say, even though everything on the internet is true. In other words, some do not believe for a moment that you are wanting to help us, but only want to help yourself.
Well, no one speaks up, so I will. That's what you wanted to know.
For me personally, I don't care either way. I could really care less about it. If I want a deal for a light, I just go to the dealer myself and get a deal for the light I want, or I don't buy it, but I don't care about affiliate links. I just don't use them. Many times I don't even take a light for myself, or I buy them for the GB price like everyone else. Most times the dealers will want to give me something for my "assistance". I have taken items before and I don't feel bad about that. If it's a flashlight, I end up doing giveaways, so that people get a chance for a free light. I just don't keep/use them for myself, but I know others do and I don't care if they do. It's all in what each person believes in and that's fine by me.
i use a part of the money for giveaways (shipping is not cheap in Austria :() and i also gave away some lights (one regulary bought, two where free samples)
because i owe you guys for so much help and knowledge i got here
I think the key is to have transparency and definitely no link spamming. Then, it is much like the waitress analogy you made. The customer can decide if the service was worth any reward on an individual basis.
With all the free gigantic advertising for flashlights here and on other places. I find it normal that contributing members get a little share of the money.
The groupbuys is a win-win situation.
For me, the turnoff is seeing the hype on the retailers’ web pages selling their affiliate link programs.
So who’s getting the good deal on those sales?
Something tells me it’s not me.
Just a funny feeling, you know?
That someone’s being paid something (I don’t know how, or how much) to steer me to this one particular seller.
Who might have one good deal, or maybe one average deal.
Might be there’s a better deal somewhere else.
Can I rely to the person who steered me there to be giving me the best advice?
I used to spend a lot of time on a site that bent more and more toward protecting sellers and downplaying comparisons and criticism of sellers and products.
Where would I go to find better advice?
I looked for some place people are working together to share the best stuff.
And, ya know, I don’t trust my own self. If someone starts paying me when I send someone someplace, I’ll have to wonder each time I think of doing it again.
Personally I do try to stay away from affiliate links at all times because in my book contributing on a forum like this ideally should be friend to friend ie no business motive thank you.
and interestingly,not a single honest answer from our BLF aff-guys.
That's just one more and very strong sign that there is a lot more money in the game, than "few pennies for charity".
So it's funny when dishonest people wonder why other people don't like them and their spamming posts with aff links(I thing that every member who has aff links in more than 50% of total posts should be considered as spammer,just by pure logic).
I hate affiliate links because it turns the “affiliates” into link spamming zombies that mumble “buy with this link” instead of the usual “braaaains”. I don’t buy the “helping the community” routine for a second. There’s lots of threads with the sole purpose of spamming affiliate links (see the Fasttech thread for an example).
When someone does contribute and helps the community develop lights/drivers/etc (see the BLF lights threads) then I’ll gladly click/buy to help whoever does all the work, but they usually are the ones that don’t spam aff links.
I’m not sure I hate affiliate links, but my reservations about them come down to: perverse incentives
They create incentives for people to spam forums, like this one. The obvious spam is just an annoyance.
The bigger issue is that it makes it harder to assess every seemingly-credible link in a forum. Instead of being able to take each link at face value, I have to see, is it an affiliate link? If it is, I have to wonder, is their stated reason for posting the link still “pure” or is it also influenced by the fact that they might make some money on it. If so, how do a weigh that factor in my own evaluation of whether this is something I want to buy?
I really don’t begrudge people making money off of their effort to track down interesting/quality products, but I find affiliate links have a corrosive effect. They make one person a little money, while taking a little value away from everyone else’s non-affiliate links. It would be easier if I didn’t care, but that ship has sailed. 20+ years ago, I started thinking about credibility of various USENET posters, and once it started that train of thought just keeps rolling…
Post some aff links yourself, you’ll see the rewards tend to be minimal. I don’t care about the nature of the link itself, (bad) judgement plays a bigger role in whether a product is interesting or not.
> Post some aff links yourself, you’ll see the rewards tend to be minimal.
I think that doesn’t mean what you think it means.
From what I see, affiliate programs generally have some threshold before they begin to pay more than that minimal amount, a
“perverse incentive” or a “moral hazard” to push people to post more links — to get past the minimal rewards.
What if we had instead a “tip jar” so people could thank individuals directly when they found good suggestions?