A lot of us are guilty of it – clicking on an affiliate link and then erasing the affiliate part of it and refreshing the page, or hovering over the link and finding out the website and then typing it in ourselves. I used to do it too! For some reason it seems embedded in us to want to avoid clicking affiliate links and helping out the website owner. It seems that humans by nature are very selfish beings and we need to work to over come those feelings of selfishness so we can bring ourselves to click those affiliate links!
Why should you click the affiliate links? Why wouldn’t you want to? We should want to help each other succeed, not be jealous of others success. If a website owner has taken the time to research and write a post and include affiliate links he/she should get the reward of that click, or the commission from that sale. When you buy something from an affiliate link it isn’t more expensive for you, so why not buy it? In fact, when you buy something from an affiliate link the company is then SHARING their profit with that web owner. That means it is the company that is taking a small hit to pay the person who brought them a sale. By clicking affiliate links and buy affiliate products we are essentially helping a small business owner.
I definitely consider this blog my business. I work hard on this blog, marketing it, finding fun giveaways to provide my readers, contacting businesses for reviews and giveaways, researching for articles, designing buttons and the templates and finding out about fun products to recommend to you and finding awesome guest bloggers to share their perspective! That is a lot of work, this is my job and so I feel like I would deserve a small portion of the profit from any sale that results from my work.
I used to feel the feelings of selfishness that would compel me to erase the affiliate ID or to type in the website url on my own so that person wouldn’t be getting any credit for it, but since I’ve start this blog and realized how much work goes into it, I have changed. That website owner deserves my click. They deserve to be rewarded for telling me about that product, or getting me to that website. You want your affiliate links clicked and bought, so why not do that for others? I now feel like when I click on someone’s affiliate link that I am in a way paying it forward. You know all those sayings “do unto others as you would have other do to you” or “what goes around, comes around” or Karma! All of these saying relate! If I am generous to someone else, if I sincerely want a product they are recommending and I buy it, then perhaps others will treat me the same way. So I am no longer stingy with my clicks when I’m interested. Or if it is a program or website I want to sign up for I don’t erase the affiliate link, let them get their credit. I am all about giving credit where credit is due!
The other thing to remember while you are snatching that commission away from website owners is it really isn’t that much money. It is usually a couple of dollars or LESS so why not let them have it, give them the credit, because it really isn’t that big of a deal. Seperately all your couple of dollars here and there add up to be their paycheck that they do deserve! So let’s start supporting the small businesses on the internet – the website owner!
AnnJ says
I agree, I used to do that too, and than I got to thinking…They do it for the same reason most of us do! I’m gonna keep clicking!
al says
I agree with this wholeheartedly. I too wrote an article in this line of thought. However, after some time as a simple user, I became grossly tired of ads, I then installed and used ad-blocker and script blocker programs for quite some time, years in fact.
Then … 9 months ago, I started a blog: bowierocks.com
And that’s when I realized what a putz I was for doing that, not only for doing it the way you mention in your article but after the installation of ad and script blockers, how more so of a putz I truly was!
Since then I use no ad or script blocker. There are 2 good reasons why and I can successfully do that. 1) I use Mac computers, 2) All of my Windows based machines have been converted to Linux.
I wouldn’t catch a bug, virus or spyware even if I tried with those 2 operating systems.
However, that being said, if you ditch Internet Explorer (any version) and use Chromium, Google Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Safari, or SeaMonkey as your new web browser you’ll benefit from their latest technology that prescreens sites for these malicious baddies and alerts you to it before you complete the page render. So even if you are on a Windows based machine there is no reason to run with “ads off” ever!
This ofcourse takes us down to the brass tacks. By supporting websites you like in clicking their ads, you also get to vote your conscious by not visiting sites that advertise too much to you. I personally like to think of sites that advertise too much as those corner stores that you can see through the windows because they allowed everyone to post fliers on the windows and then when you do get in there, they’re a cross with a gift shop to boot! Just clutter, clutter, clutter everywhere. So as in real life, I frequent those places less often, if not rarely. In effect, I voted.
The reality is that most sites, yours “makingofamom.com”, mine at “bowierocks.com” etc, are filled with excellent content, have unique aspects, are laid out really well and while having ads, those ads are unobtrusive. Those sites can be enjoyed. And if you see an ad you like, you should click it.
My original article can be found at http://bowierocks.com/ad-free-internet-what-i-would-do-without-ad-block/