monqui - 9:42 pm on Dec 19, 2001 (gmt 0)

Thanks for the reply Marcia.

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Obviously, About needs revenue to do that and continue to pay guides to run quality sites - in a declining ad market, e-com initatives are helping to sustain revenue. it's that simple.
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I agree, but in this case, the fact is that About.com is not getting any revenue out of those affiliate links. Besides the sites listed are not exactly quality sites, they are xyz merchants offering good commissions for sign-ups.

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Quite frankly, if I had such a site and got a listing like that I'd be grateful for the traffic and be more than willing to pay out a commission for the increased revenue I'd see from it.
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I agree; I would not have any problems setting up affiliate links for about.com and sending monthly checks to the company. In fact, Looksmart was one of our top affiliates back then. The idea was simple: We got a succesfull affiliate program, looksmart becomes an affiliate, they send traffic and signups, we send monthly checks.... but not to the editor who approved the listing.