Disclosing Affiliate Links Effectively in Blogs
My friend Carsten Cumbrowski just sent this over:
I have a tip for you. It came to my mind when there was the discussion about the KeyCompete post at SEOMoz. KeyCompete have an affiliate program via Commission Junction, paying 30% commission.You might want to try something like the following.Have your designer create a link CSS “class” for affiliate links. A style that makes them stick out (e.g. a little “A” icon next to it or something like that), maybe also a formatted tooltip that has a disclosure text, e.g.:“This is an affiliate link. SEOMoz receives a commission for referrals generated by this link. The fact that the link is an affiliate link does not change our opinion about the referred to product or service, but you can support the SEOMoz team by using this link, if you consider the purchase of the product or services because of our post. Thank you.”You can also add that disclosure on a special page and only refer to it from the tool tip. This would allow you to make additional revenue with the blog.You don’t have to use it for the company, but the blog, such as to pay for drinks at a tradeshow to SEOMoz readers or do something like http://www.affiliatedinner.com e.g. “SEOMoz Dinner”.I just came back from Affiliate Summit and in especially good “free tips mood“, so you are welcome
This is great advice from Mr. Cumbrowski – probably not something we’d use on SEOmoz, but a fantastic idea for those seeking to effectively utilize affiliate links while keeping their visitors in the know.
Make Affiliate Links Count at the Engines
Aaron Wall uses a brilliant affiliate linking strategy for his SEOBook.com website that should be employed universally. A quick example – an affiliate link might point to http://www.seobook.com/rf/idevaffiliate.php?id=1706, but that URL re-directs to the book’s sale page URL – http://www.seobook.com/buy-now.shtml – using a 301.
Since the search engines count 301s as passing the link value, Aaron can have his cake (the affiliate tracking system) and eat it, too (by getting search engine link love). As you can see, it’s paid off to the tune of 950,000 links.
p.s. This doesn’t just apply to affiliate links, it works for any type of link that’s being pushed out but needs to be individually tracked.
UPDATE: SEOmoz reader Raffi Vartanian had the following to add:
It looks like the affiliate program that Aaron is using offers “SEO Links” as an upgrade to their regular package: http://www.idevdirect.com/module_seo.php
It states on the page, “The module also uses 301 redirects rather than traditional 302’s. This means all the “link juice” is carried from page to page.”
So it’s not really Aaron’s doing as much as it is the service he is using. Unless, of course, Aaron owns idevdirect.com, in which case, nevermind
However, on another note, there is an affiliate program called LinkConnector ( www.linkconnector.com) which allows the use of “naked links”. They put a script on the target site that checks for the referrer of incoming traffic. If the referrer is a client of theirs, it gives them credit for the sale. Kinda neat.
Thanks, Raffi – definitely appreciate your contribution.
