How to tell if a link is an Amazon affiliate link?

Easy tricks to spot affiliate links in the articles you read

Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

Have you ever wondered how people make money on their websites? I have, and I’ve been exploring the subject intensely for the last year.

One of the more interesting ways that people earn on websites is through affiliate links.

If you haven’t heard of the term, this is Wikipedia’s description of the business model:

“Affiliate marketing is a type of performance-based marketing in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought by the affiliate’s own marketing efforts.”

Or in layman's terms:

1. A writer puts a link to an external product/service/company in an article.
2. A reader clicks that link and purchases something from the external company/website.
3. The writer earns a small commission from that purchase.

It’s an interesting business model with many pros and cons. I always found it extremely similar to hiring a salesperson to work purely on commission.

Except almost anyone can be the salesperson in this case.

The problem with affiliate links

I personally think this business model is a great way for content creators to add another source of income to their portfolio.

However, just like a greedy salesperson selling you a lemon car — content markets can do the same thing.

Why is that?

Incentives, reliability, and disclosure.

Incentives:

If I write an article listing 10 amazing hats to wear, and strongly recommend 1 hat over the others.

Is that because I actually enjoy that hat? Or is it because only that hat is paying me a commission if a reader also buys it?

Reliability:

If I did the above in an article, I wouldn’t be a very reliable writer, would I?

My opinions would be biased based on how much money I can make — and not from a place of experience and expertise (as it should be).