Calacanis feels strongly about banning affiliate links

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Calacanis feels strongly about banning affiliate links

Saturday, March 01, 2008 6:09 AM | Social Web 2.0 Social Media Technology Social Search

Jason Calacanis, the CEO of Maholo human search is hot about undisclosed affiliate links. Concisely this is about disclosing links on a site that produce income for the site owner. It is often quite confusing when visiting a site to determine if it is a bona fide link or a paid link.

“If you're involved in the debate over undisclosed affiliate links you really need to watch this video of Mary Engle responding to a complaint about word of mouth marketing online. Word of mouth marketing was under the radar until it was not. Hidden affiliate links are under the radar right now, but they will not be for much longer.

99% of the problem in the affiliate space is because people are making non-commercial sites with hidden advertising links.” – Calacanis Blog

CenterNetworks also has a piece about Jason Calacanis that is a very interesting read (devil’s advocate).

“Jason Calacanis, CEO of Weblogs 2.0 service Mahalo, has apparently left the world of pissing off SEO folk and is now pissing off affiliate folk. This time he wonders if the search engines (including Google, Yahoo and Mahalo) should ban affiliate links from being indexed. First, how would anyone even know it's an affiliate link? I don't have a reaction here though if a gun was held to me, I would say that they should be banned or if they are indexed, it should be noted that it's an affiliate link.” - CenterNetworks

While I am all for making money through my websites. However, I draw the line at tricking visitors into clicking a link. There are sites I refuse to visit because of such tactics. I like to believe that I am a savvy web user, I hover over links before clicking them unless I am sure that the link will actually take me to where I believe I should be going.

Even the contextual ads (for example Google AdSense) are being abused. Many website owners camouflage contextual advertising in such a way that the visitor has no idea that the link is a paid link. I believe such hidden advertising is the bane of the Internet (next to porn). Even top search results are nothing more than affiliate links or built for advertising pages. Any time I am searching, I closely inspect the URL before to ensure some unscrupulous website owners is not gaming the system and trying to make a quick buck.

Another hidden link and affiliate tactic are companies and individuals contacting website owners wanting to buy links on a website. Often the contact is initiated through a WhoIs contact address and the email sender promises much reward for the site owner to place a paid link on their website. I couldn’t tell you how many times each week I get email from random people asking to place a paid link on one of my sites. Hungry small site owners would probably bite the bait and run the links. Morally speaking I think it is bad karma to accept such offers.(This is a story for another day)

Maybe the FTC should step in and regulate online advertising as it does with radio, print and television. My question is this. Will it help or hurt online advertising sales and innovation?

Calacanis Wants to Ban Affiliate Links; What About Banning Employee Linking? (Center Networks)

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4 Comments

Comments

Posted by Sam on 3/1/2008 9:33 AM: I don't have a problem with affiliate links, in general, and I certainly don't think that anyone should be banning them. (Especially not Google. They exert too much control over the blogosphere, as is.) I also don't think that a blogger should feel obliged to point out that a link is an affiliate link. Per your example, hovering and checking the status bar should be enough to determine that.

But cloaking links (a practice inspired, in part, by Google's penalization of paid links) takes control away from the surfer and creates a security risk. I hate when sites do that!
Posted by allen on 3/1/2008 9:36 AM: Thanks for the feedback Sam. I very much agree with you on cloaking links.
Posted by Banmaster on 3/1/2008 5:21 PM: Unlike Sam, I am totally against not disclosing which are paid-for links and which aren't!
Its just another form of the dreadful bait-and-switch crap we all bitch about when large companies and providers do it, why should we be exempt from these things when we bitterly complain about others doing it to us. Talk about being hypocritical!

Or is it different when WE are making money from the scam??
Posted by Allen on 3/1/2008 5:35 PM: Hi Banmaster,
Not sure about the difference when we are making money. I for one try to be upfront and not resort to any sort of underhandedness to make a buck. I don't like having to "look over my shoulder" constantly (online or off).