https://nh.vzones.com/affiliates/cgi-bin/clickthru-series.cgi/jphilipp

why oh why?

why not www.vzones.com? Arrgh

When I can, I tag links with affiliate IDs. It won't change my opinion on things. I do it for most books and DVDs I discuss here as well, not doing so would be throwing away money.

Why oh why? So I can make money to support this blog and cover my server costs. Just so you know I pay $200/month for this server because I get a lot of traffic and need a lot of bandwidth.

If you think it's easy covering that server cost, think again. E.g all the books and DVDs taken together that I ever received commission for, for all the time, for all my sites (including http://www.authorama.com) made me around $100 for the last two years (not per month, but all months added up). My VZones affiliation made me exactly $0 so far. If you think I'm posting the VZones links, or any other links (except those on the right hand advertising side) for the money, then think again.

So what oh what is your actual problem with "affiliating" a link? There are no additional costs for anyone.

If you would like to continue discussion with your actual name, I'd prefer that. If you run your own blog or web site, I would also like to hear how you cover server costs.

PS: I'm also open to discuss ideas on how to more strongly "visualize" affiliate links so everybody knows more easy what they are.

....probably U can use the right side of the page and inserting link between them...for example Im looking for a Gmail invitation and I would be very pleased to follow a link to have it.....just try to make "usefull" for everyone to follow the link

In the "Guide to VZones" post, that was only one aff link, out of six, that lead to that site (or related sites). It's not like it is an unrelated v14gr4 link, the M word, or a punch the monkey banner..

No mouseovers or any trickery and completly on topic for this site: "everything that's interesting, like programming, computer games, design, and watching the web"

Don't be dissuaded Phillipp

Thanks Rich. This is good to know.

I'll tell you why affiliate links suck: because you're pimping yourself out. As it is, you're not even making a lot of money doing it, so stop selling yourself already.

>> When I can, I tag links with affiliate IDs. It won't change my opinion on things.

>>PS: I'm also open to discuss ideas on how to more strongly "visualize" affiliate links so everybody knows more easy what they are.

Thank you, Philipp. That's all i wanted to know ;)

OK. In the future, I will find a way to emphasize affiliate links when they are in the content area, i.e. my regular posts. I will see what good way there is to do it, which might be included an icon with a link to an explanation, the words (aff), or similar.

PS: I might as well completely avoid affiliate links because any emphasis I give them, or icon I put next to them, might be too confusing to readers to be worth the potential commission.

I have never understood why people have an aversion to affiliate links and see little diference between them and Google adsense links.
If someone is interested enough to click on the link, why should it bother them that someone is being paid for it.
Obviously it would be different if the link took us to somewhere completly irrelevant to the article or if it was just blatent advertising but I very much doubt Philipp would ever do that here.

Thanks TJ, my thoughts go along the same way – if I'm talking about this and linking to it *anyway* where's the harm if I get a commission? I found VZones, liked what I saw, wrote the article, and as afterthought, checked if they have any kind of affiliate program. I am now a paying subscriber to VZones myself, simply because I like it. I was also thinking that if anyone wants to know, the affilate status is very obvious by looking at the URL.

I even make sure my advertisement section to the right-hand side makes sense. E.g. I chose Mind Hacks, a book which I ordered, or VisitorVille, a statistic software I use everyday. I also checked the SEO company I'm advertising to the right and I liked their design and approach.

In any case, like I wrote, I will either avoid affiliate links in the main content area in the future, or visualize them so they're instantly recognizable as what they are. I appreciate those comments telling me it would be OK anyway.