That said, you gave me an idea, maybe a contest in the future…..

Actually for books like this that I find valuable they go straight to my team, we keep a bookshelf in the office of useful books and I am very happy to say the good ones end up being gone for weeks or months as they get passed around.

@Shane the highest earners on clickbank are website owners not the actual product owners. They are close though. With building websites you can literally have one in days working and with the right adwords program you can have instant traffic/money. With products you have to write them and then wait for them to be approved while joe bloggs is pumping out 1 websites a week focused on popular products on clickbank etc.

Domainers are too smart and skeptical at the same time. They are the few internet users that can see the its an affiliate code. They would be paying the same price but no will find ways around it. Like hover over the link and then type the website url in a new browser window. Silly really. I think in the future if you did take a photo of you holding the books it would be a good idea. ( If you have finished reading them? Have you thought about giving them away? Postage to New Zealand isn’t that bad . )

If you can’t add affiliate links here and there, especially when you use the products. You might as well get a popular product on clickbank like the dog training guides that pay 70% commision and build an authority site with a forum etc. Spend the your day writing a blog post for that instead.The average dog owner doesn’t know what affiliate links are which makes a big difference. $$$$$

I visit sites for the writer’s point of view, news, content, etc. Most of the time I automatically block out anything that resembles an ad anyway. As far as someone having a simple affililiate link that might create revenue for them, I would not make a big deal out of that.

Bruce, I plan on being right there with ya but I have to prove myself for a while before I push anything. I’m a newbie but in due time. All it takes is a plan and patience

That only burned me once, the product was garbage and I asked the company for a refund. When they refused, I filed a dispute with PayPal, but because it was software they denied it (even though it required a product key and they could know I wasn’t using the software any more). Because I filed the dispute, to spite me the company disabled my product key and kept my money. I’m still irritated that the recommendation was made, I can only presume to make a quick buck.

However, as long as you really believe in the product, I see no problem with it. Just don’t start being spammy with it, where you make posts only to promote an affiliate link and make money from it. People used to get on Elliot about using affiliate links a lot, but I think it is a ridiculous thing to complain about. It’s your blog and you deserve to make money for the effort you put into it. Anyone you tells you otherwise should be ignored.

I would argue that you should look at your analytics and find posts that get a lot of traffic, and find affiliate banners to add to the page. I wouldn’t make an effort to remove affiliate links unless you don’t believe in the product any more.

@Mike – You are correct, I have actually heard people say the check the link then find the product directly. That just seems stupid, why not let the person make a buck for helping find something of value.

Thanks for the comments!

This post was mentioned on Twitter by brucemarler: Are We Affiliate Marketing Hypocrites http://su.pr/1awzhO…