Let’s Talk About Affiliate Links
Most of us are aware of affiliate links by now. Alongside ads and sponsored content, affiliate links are how bloggers, influencers, and online media companies make money. Chances are, if you’re clicking on a link from someone with a following, it’s an affiliate link.
My website uses affiliate links throughout.
What are affiliate links?
Affiliate links are essentially a way to receive commissions. They are a link to a product or website; if you make a purchase after following that link, a small percentage of the sale goes to the blogger who provided it to you. Affiliate links are different than discount codes; there’s not necessarily “anything in it” for you aside from supporting the content creators you enjoy.
How do affiliate links work?
I primarily use a system called Reward Style. This is the back-end service to Liketoknowit, which you’ve likely seen used on social media sites. When there is a product I would like to share, I can click a button in my browser to create a link that is tied to my account. I embed this link into my blog posts. When you click on that link, the website knows it came from me. Then, if you make a purchase while you’re on that page, I get a small commission. It varies a lot, but it’s usually 2% - 5%.
A few things to note:
Affiliate links don’t cost you anything! Not a penny. You will pay the same amount whether or not you follow an affiliate link, because the commission is paid by the merchant.
Affiliate links only work if you use my link directly. If you favorite the item and come back another day, I don’t get anything.
Affiliate links apply to your whole cart. If you follow a link from my post about my favorite books to Amazon and then purchase a few more things while you’re there, I get a referral commission for your whole purchase. (Thank you!)
Your information is private. I don’t know anything about who is purchasing from my links. In the dashboards for my referral programs, I can see bundles of purchases and dates, but no user info at all. Example: Amazon might show me that someone followed a link for skincare, and they also purchased some pens while they were there. (Amazon will then encourage me to share a link to the pens with my followers, which I will not do.) But I can’t know what state they live in or any other information that the big tech companies surely have. Sorry, I can’t protect you from them, but they were already gathering that data anyway.
Are affiliate links good?
You may have noticed that this website doesn’t have ads. There are two primary reasons for this. The first is simple: this blog is not my job, and my primary goal is not to make money from it. So I don’t need ads.
The second is aesthetic and philosophical: I don’t like ads. They interrupt reading, they make me feel tracked across the Internet (I am! I know!), and they’re ugly. As the blog-runner, I don’t want them for my readers or myself. This is a spot on the Internet that is mine, and I intend to keep it that way. If I install an ad server, I can’t control what ads you see; I like the control I have here.
That brings me to affiliate links and why I like them (for me).
I have complete control. If I like a product and I want to share it, I can! It’s that simple. Not all of my links are affiliate, but many are. If you see a link to a big retailer like Target, Amazon, or Home Depot, it’s an affiliate link. Counter example: I am always hyping up Penzeys spices, but they do not offer affiliate links. I just love their products.
You can support me in a way that’s not icky. This requires some trust - you have to believe that I’m worth listening to, and that I’m being honest even with the possibility of compensation. I hope you do, but in a time when the Internet has become a shopping mall, I understand if you don’t. Lots of my posts don’t have any links at all, so feel free to just read those posts.
I get to share things I like and maybe make some money. I’ve always been that friend. The one researching, testing, forming opinions, and telling everyone about the cool thing she just found. I love doing this! When someone reaches out to say that they tried and loved something I recommended - whether it’s a product or a recipe or a book - I get excited. The chance to make some money off of the “free advertising” I was already doing is cool.
I can stay small. I don’t anticipate this blog turning a profit. It almost certainly won’t lead to sponsored posts from brands I love, and I’m okay with that! I’m doing this for me. But that means my “make a little money” options are: paid subscribers, ads, or affiliate links. So here we are. This option allows me to scale. And while the brands and back-end companies brokering these links obviously want me to grow, there don’t appear to be penalties for staying small.
But it’s not all good.
Incentivizing sales can get out of hand, and I think it has. This is why social media feeds are clogged with “get the look” posts, sales roundups, and “10 weird things I found on Amazon” listicles: they can be really profitable, especially if you have a large following! When everyone is earning a commission, the whole Internet turns into a store.
I get it.
When I started digging into “monetizing,” I was overwhelmed and then bummed. Because for all the reasons I listed above, I think affiliate links are a good thing. But is it a net-positive? I’m not sure. I don’t think they’re being used responsibly in a lot of cases.
My promise to my readers:
So here’s a promise (and a reminder): I’m not here for the sales. When I say I am in pursuit of a life well-lived, I mean it. When I say I tend toward minimalism, I mean that too. I don’t buy a lot of things. I want it to mean something when I say “I bought this! Let me tell you about it.”
If I say I love something, I do. That’s my promise. It’s not that I’ll never link to something I haven’t tried; it’s just that I’ll always note when that’s the case.
Thanks for reading! Thank you for supporting me. It means the world, I’m having so much fun here!
- Alyssa
This page was last updated in March 2021