Being upfront your an affiliate

whats the effect?

[phidentity]

How do consumers react to good old fashioned honesty?

Ie: "The books below we have tried and tested, and I reccomend them to my family and friends as I do you, and yes, we do make a 15% Commission if you buy them, which goes to cover the costs of running this site, (but doesn't quite cover them!)"

How do consumers react to it? Do purchases go down, or increase. Is honesty not the best policy?

Cheers

Jon

[Procyon]

I don't hide the fact that I'm an affiliate, but I don't outright tell the user either. Personally, I wouldn't do it, but it might work well for some products.

As always, the only way to find out is to test. Run one page that identifies yourself as an affiliate, and one that doesn't, and check conversions. From there, you'll know what works for that particular product.

Procyon.

[rfung]

I'd say don't disclose it. There's no need to give the hint of being biased by openly advertising your recommendation comes with a payment.

Just put yourself in their shoes - sure, if the site looks home made and it's a personal site, then the honestly might get you some brownie points, but if you look like a slick professional site, then it will come off as fake.

Better be safe and avoid the issue alltogether.

MHO.