I call this advanced because too many experienced readers miss the nuances of affiliate links. And it’s important to get the nuances.
An affiliate link is a hyperlink that has a tracking code attached to it for the purpose of paying the author once an event occurs. The event could be anything from just clicking through, to clicking with a successful application (a Conversion). It is easy to spot an affiliate link because the payment channel is often managed by a third party.
Credit Card affiliate links
Most credit card affiliate links are issued by LinkOffers (it has sister companies of CardSynergy and Creditcards.com) another player in the space is Credit Karma.
You might just see the stripped down part: http://track.linkoffers.net/a.aspx?foid=22894273&fot=9999&foc=1 this link can be added anywhere, such as to pictures to make widgets and whatnot.
How it might appear in text:
<bollocks_template> Lorem Ipsum AMAZING DEAL ALERT blah pfft Premier Miles & More® World MasterCard® get it now Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aenean commodo ligula eget dolor. Aenean massa. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Donec quam felis, ultricies nec, pellentesque eu, pretium quis, sem. Nulla consequat massa quis enim. Donec pede justo, fringilla vel, aliquet nec, vulputate eget, arcu. In enim justo, rhoncus ut, imperdiet a, venenatis vitae, justo. </bollocks_template>
How it might also appear in text:
<bollocks_template> Lorem Ipsum AMAZING DEAL ALERT blah pfft Lufthansa Card get it now Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aenean commodo ligula eget dolor. Aenean massa. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Donec quam felis, ultricies nec, pellentesque eu, pretium quis, sem. Nulla consequat massa quis enim. Donec pede justo, fringilla vel, aliquet nec, vulputate eget, arcu. In enim justo, rhoncus ut, imperdiet a, venenatis vitae, justo. </bollocks_template>
PC owners have an edge in spotting links
I have found that on the PC if I hover over a link the destination URL shows up in the bottom left corner of the screen, if it starts with track.linkoffers… or if it starts with creditkarma.com…then you have an affiliate link. I haven’t noticed this on a mac, maybe it shows elsewhere?
Pretty Links – a wonderful tool for bloggers
Pretty Link is a plugin that creates neat 307 (temp redirects) that look pretty. An example of a pretty link would be Premier Miles & More® World MasterCard® the beauty of Pretty links is that if you use this one simple URL (in my case I used saverocity.com/lufthansa1) for all links relating to the Premier Miles & More card then one update to the Pretty Link page changes every link on your blog, try it out:
- Hover the mouse over the link, it won’t say track.link….
- Click the link, it will flash track.link for a moment in the url address bar of your browser
- Signup for 7 of these! (I’m kidding! Actually, this is my active link, but I think its pretty crap so don’t do it!)
Pretty Link Application
As I mentioned, just changing one line of code changes EVERY link on your blog with that /lufthansa1 link.
Now, ask yourself something expert reader. When a blogger writes about an inferior offer, and fills the post with inferior links, how do they do it?
Yep – that is right, the first thing they do is change the pretty link to the new affiliate offer, then they make up some <bollocks> post, fill it with pretty links, and that post and all others that ever talked about the Lufthansa card (or the recent inferior 50,000 United Card) become their latest affiliate links.
What happens when they get called on it?
Nick from PF Digest recently called out a number of bloggers for posting an inferior link for the Chase United card, I then thought it amusing to leave comments on the blogs of BoardingArea who were pumping this card, linking to Nicks post.
Funny thing… there are good bloggers and bad bloggers. A reader on Twitter asked me why after Nick and I made a fuss about calling out the inferior link I didn’t go on to ‘high five’ the good bloggers.
Pssst – want to know a secret?
The bad bloggers just didn’t acknowledge my comments, some deleted them before they were published, some approved the comment but ignored them and didn’t update the post.
The good bloggers – they ‘updated’ the post with a link to better offer.
But they didn’t use pretty link to do it.
What that means is they decided to give the appearance of looking after the reader, by adding in a single better link. Weird huh? If there is an affiliate link (that pays a commission) the first thing they do is update their pretty link. But if they are called out on crappy links, they (if they are the good guys) don’t go anywhere near their affiliate pretty link.. and what does that mean?
The original post now has say 5 links in it, 4 to the inferior offer, and 1 to the better one. The site in general has perhaps 10,000 links to the inferior one (with good SEO to bring people in) and 1 link to the better one, with no SEO.
Go look up your good guys, and let me know if you find one that ‘did the right thing’ and ‘looks after their readers’ that is linking to the better offer that they know full well about. Now you know how to do it, just hover, look out for the pretty link, and if it goes to track.link…. then its an affiliate link.
Think.
Disclaimer – I used my own old links in this post, don’t actually sign up for this card.
Great post. For most of even the ‘good’ bloggers, it’s clear that their desire to put the reader first extends mostly as far as it needs to for you to BELIEVE that they’re putting the reader first…but if 90% of their visitors can slip by and hit their affiliate links at the same time, all the better!
Another popular tactics bloggers use when called out on posting inferior links is posting the better link, but throwing in a statement with essentially no factual basis designed to confuse people into deciding to use the affiliate link instead. Examples: “this is not my link, you may or may not get the bonus” (uh huh, right), “this offer has no landing page so you might not get the offer” (bloggers are apparently terrible at pattern recognition), “SOME people have reported being able to get a better offer XYZ” (yep, those people who aren’t tricked into using the inferior affiliate links). So on and so forth.
Integrity has largely become yet another aspect of blogger marketing rather than an actual goal. The ‘good’ bloggers want to keep their reputation but only at the minimum expenditure of cash.
That’s a great point- I bet you no blogger would guarantee that their affiliate links result in full points either- it’s a damned if you don’t and heck it’s not my fault if you do ‘mindset’
Excellent post – learned something new for sure. I know a lot about other kinds of affiliate links, but not the credit card ones. Going to be reading my blogroll and hovering over with a more critical eye these days.
Thanks for this post. So this is the plugin bloggers use for the affiliate links. What a great point about not changing it while mentioning once the better UA offer.
Yeah- it’s a neat trick 🙂
Great post, Matt. Love your honesty and admire your intelligence, friend 🙂
Playing Devil’s Advocate here. I have used affiliate links both as a promoter and as a reader. I read a wide variety of blogs & am aware that affiliate links are ubiquitous. I’m more likely to click them if the content is well-crafted and truly of value to me. Many bloggers fit this scenario. I appreciate the information they provide, and the quality of their work. Since they’re essentially working for free, where’s the harm in them generating revenue from affiliate links? Or is the issue more one of not providing the ***best*** links for their readers? There is this sentiment that bloggers are taking advantage of or misleading their readers, but no one is obligated to use their links, and other offers are just a Google search away. In short, what’s the big deal?
These guys aren’t working for free, some make up to 6 figures from blogging without the affiliate links. Ask them. Yes, my sentiment is that it is bullshit to put out a link you know is inferior knowing that people will click on it – it tells me they don’t care about their readership, don’t care who clicks as long as they earn.
I think it is even worse to make a token effort to make people think that you are doing the right thing, when really you are loading up the links with inferior options. I say that is deceptive. Just man up and say ‘No, I am not posting the better link because I want the money’.
The big deal, Tim, is that most people aren’t even AWARE that bloggers are essentially salesmen. When you go to a store and you see signs about what a great deal XYZ is, you’re on guard because you know that the store has a financial incentive against you (i.e., to get you to pay the highest price you’re willing to pay). With blogging, the buyer-seller relationship is very obscured — ask your typical newbie reader of MMS how the blog makes money and they’ll probably just guess “advertising?” But you definitely WON’T hear most say anything about affiliate links, because they don’t understand how it’s working.
The bloggers all bang on and on about how they put their readers first, so their readers naturally assume that advice they’re being given is actually in the reader’s own best interest. But due to affiliate links, this isn’t true…so people end up getting exploited simply because they don’t know there’s actually a potentially adversarial relationship there.
I think gbet nailed it!
I get so angry when…I misspell words and look like an idiot 🙂
Probably the best post exposing the slimy tactics of scumbag bloggers.
And shame on TBB for having a “good” blogger list as unless they are updating their pretty links (which they are not), linking just once to the best offer is actually more scummy than no link at all as it’s designed to deceive.
Wondering what has this post got to do with George? All angries end up at TBB or what? 🙂
Thank you Paul for clicking on my Amazon link. I update it often and make it pretty just for YOU 🙂
Nice explanation – this went a level deeper than I was aware of, and I always appreciate learning something new.
Thanks!
Everyone is acting in their own self interest. How many bloggers are doing so out of altruism?
Your devils advocacy isn’t exactly winning me over Tim – the current argument is ‘everyone is doing it so it’s ok’ ?
Sorry, Matt, don’t mean to offend, especially being that it’s your blog, and one of the best, thus the reason I frequent it.
And no, that’s not my point at all.
I’m trying to see just how different including one affiliate link is from another, and just how nefarious this issue is. Frankly, it feels like mountains out of mole hills.
As an analogy, let’s say I purchase a car, groceries or (insert any purchasable item). I have exchanged money for a product, for what I believe to be a fair deal at that moment (or else, I don’t choose to act, until I find a better deal). If I later find the same item(s) for a lower price, I don’t blame the merchants involved, nor do I expect that it is their responsibility to apprise me of better offers.
If you really want to get into ethics, the whole idea of gaming the system for personal gain (e.g., miles, cash back, etc.) could be called into question. And we all are party to it.
And again, not to offend, but do you or any of the myriad bloggers do so out of altruism?
Let me ask you this then. If you knew that there were two offers, one that was inferior, but paid someone a commission, and one that was better and did not, would you tell your family and friends that they were just the same and to take whatever?
The links are different.
As for the gaming the system – actually you nailed it.
Are you part of the system, selling inferior links, or are you helping people game it?
To your first question: touche’. Point well taken & illustrated.
Regarding your question, not sure if it’s rhetorical, or directed toward me, but, I’m personally not either. I do, however learn from others via blogs, how to game the system for the perks I garner.
But isn’t intent everything?
If a blog steals an idea from a forum, packages up and feeds it to you so you then buy a link from them.
Are you learning from them, or are they treating you like cattle?
This might be the only reason I miss having a PC. Great post. And love the Latin:)
When I hover over a link on a Mac with Safari, the web address shows up in the lower left of the screen. Not sure if it goes away with the latest update. Or if it’s not there in Chrome. But for me, it’s there just like on these PCs Matt is referring to. 🙂
Actually- I saw this myself- I’m not sure if it’s a recent change or not, because I didn’t in the past, but chrome on the mac does the same.
Yes, intent is everything, and I’d be interested to know the intent of ANY blogger. I’d wager most have a financial incentive, one way or another, although there may be exceptions (hobbyists, etc.).
Wouldn’t it become self-governing if a blogger deliberately withholds info/provides inferior info for personal gain, consequently his reputation is tarnished and he will not be rewarded with loyal followers? What if he disclosed “I receive financial compensation if you click my links. Offers are subject to change. The links I provide are not guaranteed to be the best offer available.” I personally think that would be ludicrous, and, actually, unnecessary.
I think it’s better to just follow lots of blogs, educate oneself, and assess offers from multiple angles before pulling the trigger. It’s a moot point though. It’s irrefutable that bloggers have engaged in promoting inferior links for their own personal gain. In the end it’s caveat emptor.
Why don’t you just say what you think I’m doing here and how it is negative, that would be helpful.
As for caveat emptor. No, that’s bollocks. People are being deceived, let’s just say it like it is.
Matt,
I’m not accusimg you of anything. I have a blog (unrelated to MS), I’ve written a book, I also sell things online, and my blog includes both advertising and affiliate links. The intent of all of these is not altruistic, it’s to make money.
Blogging/writing in particular is a lot of work. I.certainly don’t do it just to be nice and I doubt you or anyone else does either.
Bottom line: If you provide good value, you’ll be rewarded. If you don’t, you won’t. Scammers will be outed sooner or later. For the record, you’re not one of them. You and the various bloggers on Saverocity provide tons of value.
I was merely exploring this topic, and as I’ve stated, it was not my intent to offend. As a blogger, you’re aware that any post is subject to dissent. I won’t be dissenting anymore & will give you the last word.
I’m not offended- I just talk like this 🙂 carry on!
It is scrummy overall. I see so many posts for mediocre cards with mediocre signup bonuses that read more like an ad than a real analysis of the card.
That said, I feel like anyone who’s about to submit an application really ought to spend a minute googling just to be sure they’ve got the best offer.
Yeah, try googling a credit card and see what results you get… Bloggers are the top of the pile.