Transparency and affiliate marketing

1 replies
There is a lot of talk about being transparent and honest online when marketing. Most of that talk comes from people saying to do this with your own venture but what if you are an affiliate marketer?

How many of you admit to your users that you are in fact an affiliate marketer for the products or services you promote?

Do you see this hurting or helping ones affiliate marketing ventures?
#affiliate #honest #marketers #sites #visitors
  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
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    Originally Posted by Golf Instruction Guy View Post

    How many of you admit to your users that you are in fact an affiliate marketer for the products or services you promote?
    I think almost every affiliate who doesn't want the FTC or any other regulators or prosecutors knocking on their door, or the risk of their websites disappearing if they're either hosted or even just registered in the US, is disclosing that they're an affiliate, these days?

    I've always done so, voluntarily, even though I'm not in the US, even with domains which are neither registered nor hosted in the US.

    FTC regulations eventually affect all of us, anyway, because they typically become part of the terms of service of companies with whom we do business, whether they (and we) are in the US or not.

    Originally Posted by Golf Instruction Guy View Post

    Do you see this hurting or helping ones affiliate marketing ventures?
    Helping, definitely.

    Not only does sticking to the law and the regulations help ongoing affiliate marketing ventures to stay ongoing, but in each specific case it can help you to sell more, too, if you go about it well.

    Having an affiliate disclosure isn't a disadvantage at all, when all affiliates have to have one. It's an opportunity to do well with yours, compared with the sometimes bland/flat/officious/embarrassed ones some competitors unnecessarily use.

    I've always thought that the only people who should object to "affiliate disclosures" are people who want to try to deceive their customers ... and "if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem", as the saying goes.

    To me, this subject's just a no-brainer: if you were to stop people (potential customers, let's say) in the street, and do a survey asking them whether they'd prefer, as consumers, to be told that the person on whose recommendation they buy online is making a commission, how many do you think would say "yes"? 100% or only 99.9%?!
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