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Posterous silently changes all external links to affiliate links

shamrin.posterous.com

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Re: Posterous silently changes all external links to affiliate links

#121

Post by dave1619 »

tino wrote: post #116
dave1619 wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I post on our blog via postereous. Meaning, I email my blog post to posterous and posterous posts on my wordpress account. My original link in my post was http://www.apple.com/wwdc , but it does this crazy URL forwarding that viglink added in. It clearly affects users.

Even if you are somehow using Posterous to post to WordPress (I'm not familiar with Posterous' features), they're not the ones doing your redirect. It actually looks like WordPress is doing the same link affiliation as Posterous. They're using Skimlinks, not VigLink, but the result is the same. (Open a javascript console while on your blog and take a look at the skimlinks function.) FYI, Skimlinks is based in the UK.…

Thanks, that's helpful. I didn't know wordpress does affiliate links too.

Re: Posterous silently changes all external links to affiliate links

#123

Post by ZeroGravitas »

jamesbritt wrote: post #58
jon_dahl wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely. What's wrong with a business having a revenue model? Better this than advertising or a crippled free version.

The problem for me is that visitors to my site may think that I'm the one who is using this affiliate code, and that I'm looking to make a buck off my links. Is that a problem? Depends; some readers are put off by this sort of thing. Witness the comments on HN when someone discovers an affiliate link in a article posted here. You can dismiss this as a fairly benign way to increase revenue, but I'd prefer no one alter…

I'm amused at the thought of the common practice of linking to Amazon and explicitly disclaiming in the text that you aren't getting kickbacks you just really like the book and then the readership finding some semi-obscured javascript that adds affiliate links.

Re: Posterous silently changes all external links to affiliate links

#125

Post by jfornear »

jfornear wrote: post #87
a4agarwal wrote: post #77

Hey guys, Posterous partnered with Viglink.com back in December as an experiment to see if we could generate revenue by adding an affiliate code to links that don't already have one. We chose to work with Viglink because their technology doesn't interfere with the user experience at all. 1. Links in Posterous posts are not edited in any way 2. Viglink javascript intercepts clicks and adds an affiliate code when possi…

Overall, I think you handled this well, but... > Our goal is to be 100% transparent with everything we do at Posterous, especially when it affects your blog and content. I'm sure users will be forgiving, but your credibility may be blown (re: transparency) by not announcing something like this. Why is it so trendy to be 'transparent'? Why claim to adhere to principles that you clearly didn't follow? (Sorry to nitpick…

I kind of feel bad now because this really isn't that big of a deal... I think I just couldn't pass on the opportunity to take my general dislike for 'transparency' out on someone. Sorry, Posterous! :(

Re: Posterous silently changes all external links to affiliate links

#126

Post by ErrantX »

a4agarwal wrote: post #77

Hey guys, Posterous partnered with Viglink.com back in December as an experiment to see if we could generate revenue by adding an affiliate code to links that don't already have one. We chose to work with Viglink because their technology doesn't interfere with the user experience at all. 1. Links in Posterous posts are not edited in any way 2. Viglink javascript intercepts clicks and adds an affiliate code when possi…

The only bit that doesn't sync there is where you mention how you've attempted to make it un noticable to users. That doesn't feel 100% open. It's not about making a blog post about it - it's about having it in the TOS and FAQ. Otherwise it looks like your trying to hide it - which feels sneaky :-p

Re: Posterous silently changes all external links to affiliate links

#127

Post by stuntmouse »

a4agarwal wrote: post #77

Hey guys, Posterous partnered with Viglink.com back in December as an experiment to see if we could generate revenue by adding an affiliate code to links that don't already have one. We chose to work with Viglink because their technology doesn't interfere with the user experience at all. 1. Links in Posterous posts are not edited in any way 2. Viglink javascript intercepts clicks and adds an affiliate code when possi…

An "oversight" for four months? On a critical part of your business that has a direct impact on the perception of the quality of the blogs you host? Are you trying to become the Facebook of blogging (in a bad way)?

You have a nice service, but this is too much. Also, it prompted me to take another look at your terms of service, which are surprisingly onerous. You've lost a user and an advocate. Good luck.

Re: Posterous silently changes all external links to affiliate links

#128

Post by richardburton »

buro9 wrote: post #55
buro9 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's pretty much the deal. Only URLs that don't yet include affiliate info gets re-written. There are a couple of companies in this space, viglink, skimlinks, etc. They all operate on the basis that they sign up to every affiliate scheme and they become the single publisher with which the merchants have a relationship (or more likely, the merchants use a marketplace that puts all merchants together so that they can…

It's just occurred to me... Posterous could make themselves THE publishing platform by simply sharing the revenue again. All they need do is to act like another viglink or skimlinks and to record the clicks made per publisher using their platform. Then offer the publisher 50% of the revenue. This is then an incentive to use Posterous beyond all of the ease of use. Anything you posted that included a potentially monet…

I've met the CTO from Skimlinks and he ran me through just how incredibly hard it is to build and, more importantly, maintain an affiliate marketing aggregation program. If Posterous decided to build their own they would certainly sacrifice product-development.

Re: Posterous silently changes all external links to affiliate links

#130

Post by ash »

Update: After several hours after posting this I couldn't repeat "copy link" trick. Neither in Chrome, nor in Internet Explorer. And middle click now works as intended in Chrome. It seems Posterous and/or VigLink changed some of their algorithms. They didn't get rid of affiliate magic (VigLink javascript is still there). But thanks for fixing bugs - the most annoying for me was non-working middle-click in Chrome.
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