5 Comments

Affiliate Links Disclosure Can Help Performance

Mar 9, 2008
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Tris Hussey live blogged the Online Advertising for Newbies panel this morning at SXSW (hated I couldn’t make it this year… I’m on baby duty this week). The panel members were:

Heath Row: Research Mgr, DoubleClick
Darren Rowse: ProBlogger
Rett Clevenger: Online Media Mgr, Backcountry.com.
Wendy Piersall: CEO, eMoms at Home
Jim Benton: VP of Sales, AdBrite Inc

sxswadvpanel.jpg
Photo Courtesy of Tris Hussey

From Tris’ blogging (and as the title suggests), the panel seemed to be aimed at getting bloggers and those not already running ads caught up on the possibilities to monetize their content through various ad networks. However, affiliate marketing was mentioned repeatedly given the long tail possibilities of the affiliate networks.

I particularly thought these responses about disclosure were interesting and right on:

10:40: Darren [Rowse] on Digital Photography School http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/ has a site-wide disclosure but not on every link. On ProBlogger http://www.problogger.net/ Darren puts a disclosure on all the links. Wendy didn’t at first … but now is. Both Darren and Wendy agree that it depends on the type of site.

10:41: Darren and Wendy [Piersall] have found that when they disclose an affiliate link, they perform better … because you know that it’s helping them personally.

In the disclosure debates that erupted following the Calacanis keynote, one aspect that was often overlooked is that disclosure can (and normally does) increase performance of ads on your site. Readers don’t like to be duped, even if they are looking to make a purchase or conversion. Be honest, open and upfront in a way that suits the nature of your site/blog/platform and your ads will perform better.

There are a few more interesting points from the panelists that Tris covered, so make sure to check out his post.

About Sam Harrelson

Former ReveNews and CostPerNews Publisher, Former Affiliate Marketer, Current Middle School Science Teacher, Current Publisher of AffiliateHack

Twitter: sbharrelson22
Filed under: Affiliate Marketing + Events + Micro-Content
  • http://blog.affiliatetip.com Shawn Collins

    Darren [Rowse] on Digital Photography School http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/ has a site-wide disclosure but not on every link. On ProBlogger http://www.problogger.net/ Darren puts a disclosure on all the links.

    I was hoping to see an example of how Darren was doing it "on all the links" and the first post I found with an affiliate link didn't have anything.

    See http://www.problogger.net/archives/2008/03/08/eli…

    There is a link to http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?af=713531 for Elite Retreat.

    Similarly, I poked around http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/ and couldn't find the "site-wide" disclosure, but did see lots of affiliate links.

    Still looking for examples. :-P

  • http://www.revenews.com Sam Harrelson

    Do as I say do, not as I do do?

  • http://www.onlineartsmarketing.com Chris O'Byrne

    It does make sense that disclosure will increase performance on sites where the content provider tries to establish an actual relationship with their readers/viewers.

    Any stats on how this works in other situations?

  • Pingback: Disclosure can Help Improve Ad Performance | BlogOnExpo

  • http://www.palatnikfactor.com Pablo Palatnik

    Darren probably discloses all affiliate links on ProBlogger because his reading demographics know exactly what links would be affiliate links and probably trying to promote “bloging ethics” on that end.

    The photography demographic is very different and doesnt know the difference between an affiliate link and regular link.