Here's the scenario  - Poster A asks "What is the best hosting company for my website?" (yes, yes, it's a dumb question along the lines of "how long is a piece of string?" but it's clear the questioner needs some help, simply because of the overly simplistic query). So what help is offered? Well, out of 14 respondents there are two who actually attempt to offer any meaningful advice and one of those plants an affiliate link twice in the answer. All the rest were blatant ads with affiliate links and no attempt whatsoever to offer anything else. 

The stupid thing is that the community has quite clear guidelines about this sort of behavior, it's a no-no. Now, there is nothing wrong with posting an answer and putting a link to your site in the resource box at the foot of it. Simple. So, is it ignorance, stupidity, greed, desperation or a plain disregard for principles over sell, sell, sell?  All I know is that a person will respond far better to some unbiased advice, they may even decide to check out the website of the person who offered that advice and perhaps become a customer or regular visitor. That should be the aim of the affiliate marketer.

It's no wonder that the world of affiliate marketing gets tougher all the time because of all the idiots who do this sort of thing - one guy blatantly cuts and pastes from a host's website and posts it as a response to every single question with the word "hosting" in it, right along with his affiliate link  - he doesn't even attempt to disguise it! What is sad, is that the folks asking for help are often not very knowledgeable and are easy victims (at least that's what the affiliate hopes) and are easily persuaded to buy something that is quite plainly not the best for their needs.

I wish that these people would p*** off and send bulk email and blog comments about performance enhancing pills - at least they are easily dealt with by spam filters - oh, and to all you losers and users of blog blasting, forum blasting, bulk ad blasting crap software when will you learn?  

OK rant over, thanks for reading and if you are an affiliate, try to inject at least a modicum of common sense in your tactics.

TCH