Should affiliate links be allowed on Indie Hackers?
I keep seeing affiliate links on Indie Hackers.
And it undermines my trust in this community. Especially considering they are rarely disclosed as such.
I come to Indie Hackers to exchange with likeminded people and discover new ideas. And it's a shame to see so many people trying to make a quick buck by adding their affiliate links.
Am I the only one thinking affiliate links shouldn't be allowed? Or at the minimum, clearly labelled as such.
Here is a recent example of post with affiliate links and no disclosure.
Edit: there is now a disclosure :)
Trending on Indie Hackers
I agree.
I only think that self promotion is okay, meaning you're talking about your product and posting a direct link. But affiliate/refs/partner link etc shouldn't be allowed
I agree. I love seeing Indie Hackers promoting their project and sharing what they are working on. But affiliate links feel wrong.
I agree. I think it's really shady to include non-disclosed affiliate links on a public forum.
(Funny enough this gives me a business idea because our SaaS has an algorithm that detects affiliate links, we could sell it as a forum filter that blocks people from including them altogether 😂)
That would be a great feature. I really think online communities are better without affiliate links.
I feel extremely sorry for not adding affiliate disclosure.
I have edited the post and from now onwards, if any post contain affiliate links, there will be an affiliate disclosure first.
(And you may not believe me but I just learned yesterday that adding affiliate links without disclosure is illegal in some countries.)
I may have made this newsletter a paid but I always hunt for Free stuff and I believe learning should be Free.
If you feel adding affiliate links will ruin this awesome community, I can stop this newsletter here Or show me any viable method to monetize it. (P.S Stripe, PayPal not available in my country)
And curating a post takes a lot of effort, upto 4-5 hours. I first read top posts then each group posts (almost). Then I curate it by mentioning relevant people.
Thanks for adding a disclosure :).
I showed your post as an example because it was the one I saw the most recently but you are far from the only person adding affiliate links.
I totally understand that curating a post takes a lot of time but I think Ko Fi and Patreon are a better fit.
That's just my opinion though.
Here are some stats of my posts on IH 42+481+259+299+654+46+57+43+469+44+29+37=2460
And I am promoting it on twitter etc.
And only 1 person bought me a ko-fi. (I also loved this model but I don't think people are willing to support this way.)
And personally I think no-one will be willing to work 100 hours for 3 bucks. Will You?
@Falak
You're writing like you deserve that in some way. That's not how it works IMO.
No one forced you to write here, so if you do not get the result you want from posting here, you can stop you know.
I'm not saying your shares are not valuable - they are. But if you're doing it only to earn money, well IMO that's not the place to do that. Build an affiliate website or something else. And if you're okay writing to help people and start discussions, then feel free to continue without affiliate links and you will get love from the community.
If you want to make money from affiliate links, there are a lot more effective options than posting in a forum. I'd recommend building a content site that receives search engine traffic - it takes longer but you will make a much higher volume. But you're right, the ROI on writing content takes a very long time to even out.
(Speaking as someone who has built a website with affiliate earnings, which became my primary income source. I also built an analytics tool specifically for optimizing affiliate sites.)
You're welcome to shoot me an email if you're looking for tips on building profitable content sites, I'll be happy to share specific pointers :)
Most websites and forums disallow links for this same reason. It simply changes the incentive of a person from contributing because they want to engage with your content to contributing because links/SEO, etc.
I understand IH wouldn't exist without our ability to share what we are working on. But affiliate links are a straight no. This will kill the community.
Personally, I don't mind it. An affiliate link requires me to buy something, for you to make money, and if you sold me something of value that I truly need, then why wouldn't it be okay if you make a dollar?
I mean, what if I told you that Crowd Cow sources truly the best beef I have ever had, and once you tried it, you will do your best to eat less, just so you could have more of their beef?
If you are a vegan, or don't eat beef, or don't live in United States, you probably don't care for CC, but if you actually want great quality cow then why shouldn't we both get $25 when you buy your first box?
The problem is that you won't find out how good the quality of something is until you try it. And communities like Indie Hackers like Reddit have always been places go for trusted advice because they know the only incentive people have is to be genuinely helpful.
Adding affiliate links means that there is now an incentive to promote a product over another just because it's more profitable.
Over time, this is likely to erode trust.
Oh btw, plenty of companies pay people to promote their products without links. For example, they pay you to go on a Facebook group and say something like "I think Huggies are the best diapers because they keep my 2 year old sleeping through the night." It could (and probably does) happen on Indie Hackers, and it's the ads that you cannot track. Between those and tracking codes, let the codes be, imo.
That's true but the same person always promoting a particular product will be quite easy to notice, especially if the person is a popular Indie Hacker. If this happens, it's easy to draw conclusions and think the person probably works for the company.
If someone promotes affiliate products, it's much harder to tell which productst are genuinely good and which are just the most profitable.
You could also make a counter point that affiliate links encourage best products to be promoted. DNSimple for example is by far the best way to register a domain and to maintain your DNS records, and I love their product and their team. But if they didn't give me $5 when you sign up for an account, I would only yell about their service off the top of the mountain one time, and then tell close friends. An affiliate link is simply an incentive for me to voice my opinion more often.
I agree. There is a famous saying "marketers ruin everything".
I have seen too many forums becoming a hotbed of affiliate link sharing.
Even big companies like StumbleUpon, Digg etc. suffered due to too many affiliate link promotions.
I think it's especially ironic on IH.
It is a place that teaches and encourages marketing (because it is obviously important for your business).
But the more popular IH will become, the more obnoxious marketing here will get.
This will bring more moderation and BOOM suddenly marketing will be not allowed on the platform that is in part devoted to learning marketing. ;)
To be honest even right now I am starting to feel like there is more and more "fluff" here. I see more and more posts that seem to be created purely for the purpose of self promotion (and I am guilty of that myself). Meanwhile posts with actual questions and advice are not gaining visibility and traction, because there is simply too much content appearing.
This post is an example of what can go wrong. You just have to read the comments on this exact post and you have already posts from people that goes like "oh yeah we're speaking about affiliate links. I think they should be allowed because you know, [XXX company affiliate link] is really such a good product I wouldn't be able to promote them otherwise as they deserve..." and boum, affiliate link plugged, ad vitam eterneam on this post indexed on the internet, well done.
And we're not even discussing a problem or a product here, so just imagine the amount of affiliate links that will be posted (and are posted) here for no other reason than "I want to get some moneyyy" in genuine recommendations asking post.
And don't tell me you won't do recommendation of tools without an incentive of making money, come on, no one will believe you. You are just in it for the money, affiliates.
I totally agree. The idea that people don't recommend products they like without being paid is a bit sad.
And frankly, communities like Indie Hackers wouldn't be what they are today if the majority thought like that.
Honestly, i dont care what link i click.
But if I were the dev of this Site, i would just automatically remove Affiliate links or change them to the site owners id. Pretty sure, those People would stop using affiliate links then
Aff links might be okay only if they disclose. if they are not disclosing then that might be against the rules too of affiliate policy
Even though I run an affiliate tracking company, I dislike and I'm totally against using affiliate links anywhere without disclosure. Even when I see my own affiliates doing this I notify them and tell them to always disclose it's an affiliate link.
Agreed 100%. Direct affiliate links is not allowed on most groups and forums. And not disclosing them is even bad.
Agree.
I wouldnt allow them.
And yes I do have affiliate links.
Self promotion, is not the same. We are somehow already doing it just by being here or even making a question regarding our side project/startup/product...
I vote for NO affiliate link to. Thanks for bringing it to our attention.
Count me in against affiliate links.
I don't do it, but with respect, @kielo, I think it is okay. They may need to learn what they can accomplish by posting here rather than elsewhere, and might need to motivation to post something worthwhile. Just an opinion.
I totally understand your point of view. I just worry that affiliate links will slowly erode trust in the community because people will wonder whether a recommended product is the best or whether it happens to have the best affiliate program.
Ah, right. Yeah, I have to concede, with you on that totally.
I don't mind at all so long as there's a disclosure. I like that IndieHackers has a healthy level of self-promotion. We're all building each other up and supporting each other's products, so if your product is info-based, you should be allowed to support it.
The content will determine the attention you get.
I also think that promoting this behavior directly affects the quality of content and unbiased direction that this community should offer.
Isn't that a slippery slope? Personally, I think sunlight is the best disinfectant.. posts like this talking about why shameless self-promotion without adding any value can hurt you are the way to do it. Not banning it out-right.
I agree with the premise, not the solution.
I think there are worse things happening on IH. What do you guys make of this?
https://www.indiehackers.com/post/what-are-some-services-to-try-out-clothing-9b36548356
https://www.indiehackers.com/Sabria?id=jwZP8SmkOBX2XJzdMcv0yOidi8o1
I mean, if we really want to delve into some real talk, the community as a whole is a bit of a echo chamber, especially in terms of attempting to sell other IHers on products and services.
I post monthly retrospectives about my business, the issues and successes we've run into as well as about my own personal well being AS an IHer and it never fails that I end up getting a half dozen emails from people trying to poke some hole in my post to try to sell me their XYZ service that will seemingly fix something I had mentioned.
Don't even get me started on no-code landing page builders.
interesting question, if true i don't know
This comment was deleted a year ago.