martinibuster - 5:05 am on Dec 10, 2006 (gmt 0)

I agree with JD about the link pop already passing. But the twist is that without a little tweaking, it's not counting as a vote. So is it the vote that's under dispute and not the link itself?

In general, sending a visitor to another site is a vote. When you send them to get a download, authoritative information or to view a funny video, it's a vote. You get something out of that transaction, which is usefulness to your users.

Now suppose you send them to another site for widgets. You could be sending them elsewhere but chose this particular vendor for any number of reasons- product quality, desirability, prices, choices, their reputation, financial stability, likelihood they won't shave, honesty, commission percentage, markteting assets, and probably a mix of those and other reasons.

Now here is the question: is the act of choosing an affiliate vendor and linking to them a vote of some kind?

If you don't wish for that vote to count then no-following it or masking it in JS are among many solutions. Should affiliates resort to masking their affiliate links? Aren't many already doing it for a number of reasons related to ranking?