Shoemoney and Seomoz debate
- 5th Jun 2007
- Leave a Comment
- SEO
Ok first off I going to say I’m on Shoemoneys side on this, I still love you Rand < -free link.
Ok, so if you haven't read what Jermery said here :
http://www.shoemoney.com/2007/05/29/full-disclosure-assume-the-position/
http://www.shoemoney.com/2007/05/31/seomoz-vs-shoemoney/
and Rand’s Post
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-vast-ocean-between-shoemoney-seomoz-and-why-you-should-be-able-to-trust-blog-links
I guess the reason why I am on Shoemoneys side is, I get paid to promote and help people. so the trick is to reckon on if I am linking out because.
a) They are a client ( Rand I would dig deep into your posts on that one lol, unless your clients don’t pay you.. Joke ) and I have Written about clients before on this blog, and I think i mentioned that at the time, Like Farecompare when they did the Same Day Cheapest Airline Ticket Refunds
thats was awesome news to and wanted to share, but i do get paid off them, so tricky.
b) I doing it for link bait to increase my own visibility or to increase my pr etc etc
c) it’s a reviewme post or sponsoredreviews yes these are more risky than a client post, but I always include in the post that it’s a paid review but I always give a fair review.
Take getclicky Joost pointed it out, I loved and wrote about yes I linked to it and yes I used a Aff link but more to see what the take up would be than the Money all $43.60 lol
GetClicky Account balance: $43.60
Your affiliate link: http://getclicky.com/6800To learn more about how our affiliate system works, please visit the help section.
61 user(s) have signed up for Clicky through your affiliate link, of which 7 have upgraded to premium. All of your commissions are shown below. If you don’t see anything, you haven’t earned any money yet… sorry!
d) and I link out sometimes because it just makes sense too
I bet if I dig deep enough into any blog a can find a link out with a motive
DaveN
7 Comments | Leave a comment »
Hey Dave, I hate to cite you, but it is a perfect fit hehe.
“Welcome to my world.”
And I thought I have to write a book over at SEJ and RN, before people get what I am writing about since end of last year, and even more so after Matt opened the special little can of worms in April.
I am on your side, which would make it also Jeremy’s side. Well, Jeremy is an affiliate marketing as I am, so go figure. Rand is not, so he can’t understand it or pretend to not understand it for some link-baiting, like his Wikipedia post from last week :)
Heh, can I just say: hurrah for second tier referrals? :P
But everyone already knows you are a whore.
A lovable one with that Fookin accent… but still a —–
Dave — wait a sec. I think you agree with me if you wrote this:
it’s a reviewme post or sponsoredreviews yes these are more risky than a client post, but I always include in the post that it’s a paid review but I always give a fair review.
That’s all I was disagreeing with.
I am all for “full disclosure” if they’re a client of yours. If they’re a client or you have some sort of affiliation with them then it’s fair to be honest to the readers. I think they sort of expect that.
If you’re throwing in an affiliate link then wouldn’t you think that the readers would know it’s an affiliate link? So, with affiliate links I’m not sure if you really should disclose it.
If you’re writing about a product/service/site/whatever and you’re being paid for it then I have no problems or issues (as a reader) if you don’t disclose that it’s a paid post or paid endorsement.
After all, think about it this way: if someone paid you to “endorse” or “write about” something and you really didn’t believe in their product/service/site/whatever then would you really continue to “endorse” it and write about it in a positive light? Most likely you’d actually just tell that person or company to “go away” if you don’t like them, right?
I don’t disclose aff links on blogs where my visitors are just fish and my posts are bait. The point of those blogs isn’t to build readership but to catch Google traffic and to monetize on it. But on a blog like seomoz, an undisclosed aff link or a link to a client obliterates a post’s credibility.
Then again, some people don’t have the luxury to run different kinds of sites, so they need to do what they need to do to monetize on their traffic. At the end of the day, if surfers keep coming back, and checks keep coming, there’s no reason to change tactics.
I say, link sensibly. We can’t let Google screw up the web by making us think twice every time we want to link to something. When I post on this blog I link prolifically because I know that a well-linked article is useful to users.
The more we pander to Google on this one the worse it’s going to become, and anyway, we’re supporting their citation model so they should have nothing to complain about.
On the subject of affiliate links - if I’m going to link to somewhere and I happen to have an affiliate account there then why not? :)