LTTStore, Affiliate links and Integrity

[GTBTK]

The only integrity that you have control over is within your own realm, the downstream manufacturing, sourcing etc. If you are trying to control upstream third parties you will fail, no matter what you try.

 

The simple solution to your problem is that the affiliate ink page at lttstore.com highlights that the product is "the best in your opinion the product is top quality etc., the purchase from this affiliate link gives a kickback to the originator of the link but does not change the final purchase price". or words to that effect.

 

It then doesn't matter if the creator discloses the connection or not, You are controlling your own destiny and the customer decides if he want to proceed or not before completing the purchase. I don't think that it will impact your sales as the buyer doesn't lose anything. the only difference is the promo is from someone other than LTT

[Thomas A. Fine]

I think Luke was in some sense more right than Linus in terms of the examples they were trying to use.  The thing that makes it different between selling a hammer that might be used for bad things (statistically, it definitely well, though not at all frequently), and the affiliate link program is that the hammer retailer does not make additional profit each time a hammer user does something bad with it.  If an affiliate linker does something "bad" that artificially or fraudulently drives traffic to lttstore (somehow) Linus benefits.

 

BUT... the thing I found most frustrating about their argument was that there was no specific example of a "bad thing" that an affiliate linking website might do that would really be ethically problematic.

 

I do realize that some sites might put products on web pages without reviewing them or without checking them out.  That's going to be commonplace.  But that's not some horrible evil thing that makes me feel at all mad about LTT.  What if they don't disclose that they're using affiliate links?  Again not a big deal (although this one is in LTT''s control — they could make it visible somewhere to the users that they arrived there via an affiliate link — disclosure problem solved).

 

But again, I'm not going to get really upset about this unless someone can find some concrete examples of what would be really troubling, or I'm just going to get bored and find a different thing on the Interweb to get cranky about.

[Nanotyrann]

On 4/1/2023 at 7:01 AM, GTBTK said:

The only integrity that you have control over is within your own realm, the downstream manufacturing, sourcing etc. If you are trying to control upstream third parties you will fail, no matter what you try.

 

The simple solution to your problem is that the affiliate ink page at lttstore.com highlights that the product is "the best in your opinion the product is top quality etc., the purchase from this affiliate link gives a kickback to the originator of the link but does not change the final purchase price". or words to that effect.

 

It then doesn't matter if the creator discloses the connection or not, You are controlling your own destiny and the customer decides if he want to proceed or not before completing the purchase. I don't think that it will impact your sales as the buyer doesn't lose anything. the only difference is the promo is from someone other than LTT

Yeah, I came to a similar conclusion. Aggressive transparency is the solution. They control where the link goes and can just shout the affiliate nature of the link in the customer's face with a pop-up, etc. Exposes the bad actors if they would actually generate money from them. If the sites were really diligent and excluded the link because they don't want the affiliate nature disclosed, no loss.

[swimtome]

Yep +1ing everyone that was my thought also. On top of the page to the effect of “You came here from an affiliate link, we stand behind our products but we don’t control what these websites say”

 

@LinusTech can we get Luke’s opinion next WAN?

[Hana5205]

+1

 

You cannot control where affiliate links are on the internet, but you can control where the links lead to, you can add a disclosure banner that appears when you follow an affiliate link to LTTstore which informs the user that the link they clicked on generates revenue for whoever distributed that link

[GTBTK]

It seems that we all agree.

 

Personally, I cant really see a difference between getting to the to of a google search and being the top of an AI generated list. They both direct traffic to the lttstore site and Linus is standing behind his products so really there is no harm, no foul.

 

It only becomes an integrity issue if Linus is trying to sell a Sow's ear as a silk purse, (which I don't believe he is). the choice is still with te customer.

 

[aeternum0011]

I can see where both of them were coming from. I do believe though that the best option would be to have the affiliate links associated with the affiliate in a way. Have the page display that the affiliate received the product for review purposes, and that they will be paid when you use their link.