This way, the small percentage of people who may be concerned can download the inevitable plugin if needed, management and links to privacy and disclosure pages automated, etc. Of course, the real drivers of this may need to the actual affiliate programs – if CJ for example put this in their auto code generation tool.

As for Twitter, the major URL shorteners like BudURL could simply set up a complementary domain for affiliate/sponsored links and maintain the disclosure on their site via a link preview function. Again, it would help if Twitter then autotagged the URL.

A modest proposal, at least. And requires no one else’s permission to start!

In the end, I decided that it really was a non-issue because first of all, all the products I would recommend are ones that I have personally used and feel would be beneficial for others.

Secondly, prior to this I had read a post by Steve Pavlina that talked about people who begrudge the fact that you are making money from your blog/website. Basically he said that all they want to do is abuse you by taking everything you are giving without you receiving anything in return.

These people are to be avoided because all they will do is suck you dry and generally make you regret the day you thought to help other people.

It really does come down to a matter of trust as you point out. As long as your audience trusts you and knows that you have their best interests at heart than there is nothing wrong with using an affiliate link.

The difference between affiliate links and paid text links is that it’s quite easy to control what affiliate programs will be promoted vs. automatic paid link scripts which nearly always link to junk.

I would probably disclose it just to avoid the perception that I was trying to “get one over” on my readers by slipping in an affiliate link under the guise that I had nothing to gain whatsoever.

See, that’s what I’m talking about: why does that perception exist? How is it a deception? Who told anyone that to do otherwise was a deception? That’s just mis-conceived thinking.

I like to support my fellow bloggers by purchasing things through affiliate links. I’m not sure why anyone would have a problem with that?!?

Yes, increasing my readership is the main focus now. I don’t plan on adding any affiliate programs for quite a while.

And I’m in Teaching Sells also…so there’s other plans too .

Also perhaps the greed of the companies that try affiliate links to pull in customers to sub-standard products and services. I know a lot of quality products and services can be purchased through affiliate links, but as you say it’s up to the integrity of the blogger to steer his/her readers to only the quality affiliates, not the rubbish that may pay a higher/larger commission.

And Steven has a good point too – if you don’t disclose and your readers notice anyhow, they may see a perceived conflict of interest.

If you just can’t see it that way, then do what you feel is right, and your audience will respect you for that.

All I will say in addition to that is that if what you say about your market is true, then you most certainly stand to benefit from affiliate sales. But getting your traffic up will help a lot.