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Jebediah
Member
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# Posted: 26 Sep 2016 04:20pm
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I just recently found out that when someone provides a link to a manufactures site or lets say Amazon, some people are knowingly advertising for said companies, they are actually paid a fee when you click on the link, now I'm not sure if they only get paid if the person using the link purchases the item or not. I know I came across one person who admitted this in a forum that he was paid 2 dollars every time the link was used. So I just thought I would put this out there as I know some people are providing links innocently in forums while others are not. I was recently on a building Forum, only to find out that one person had many profiles and was providing links in everyone of their posts....I'm not sure if this is old news and a common practice or if there are people like myself that didn't have a clue....
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toyota_mdt_tech
Member
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# Posted: 26 Sep 2016 05:15pm
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Rockies should be rich by now.  
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rockies
Member
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# Posted: 26 Sep 2016 08:34pm
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Hmm. Being retired (from an architectural background) I find I spend more time now pouring over websites, trade magazines and articles about construction than I ever did when running my practice. With public interest in small houses, cabins and living off the land gaining more and more ground I look at a lot of magazines like Mother Earth News, various Prepping sites and other sustainable building sites for news on interesting products and methods of construction.
I do wonder why more people on the site don't post links to products. It's one thing to advise someone to "get a really efficient wood stove" for example, but I think it's far more helpful to suggest a particular brand or model. At the very least it starts a discussion of similar or better options, whether the person chooses to buy that product or not.
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tichalet
Member
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# Posted: 26 Sep 2016 08:50pm
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@Jebediah:
Amazon and other online vendors have Associate or Affiliate programs which give commissions for referrals. It’s a way for bloggers & people with niche interest websites to be compensated for the work they do & the expenses they incur to provide us content and they often make this clear they can be compensated on their sidebars or somewhere on their site if we use their links.
It costs money & is often a headache to keep websites live and most readers are usually more than happy to throw websites the spare change from their purchases because 1) customers pay the same thing regardless of whether we’re referred there by anyone & someone receives a commission 2) it’s an easy & painless way to show gratitude & keep the websites we like around.
In fact as a consumer, you can even join Amazon's Smile program & designate that the unclaimed commissions in any purchase you make goes to your favorite charity. Again, we're all paying the same price no matter what, this is just redirected from Amazon & perhaps their sellers to your charity.
But in order for anybody to be compensated anything (even the $2/link your friend told you about - is that GoogleAdsense maybe?) for sending people to these sites, there would have to be a referral ID for them embedded in the URL so their accounts can be credited and they can be paid.
Always hover over the link provided to products elsewhere offsite to see it's address previewed in the URL target status bar wherever your browser shows that. Does it go directly to the product page with no referral number/tag coded in the URL?
Because if doesn’t have an associate/affiliate ID tag, I don't see how the person providing the link can be compensated for anything since the destination site would have no way of connecting it to the person doing the referring, let alone identifying them & calculating the hits they brought to the page, do you?
Now, as you implied, this would seem like a pretty sneaky way for people to make money by slipping links encoded with their own ID numbers into comments on sites owned by other people and I haven’t clicked on all of Rockies’ links, only a few. But I’ve yet to see a referral tag in his links. If you are unsure, do what everyone else does & just hover before you click it.
But now that you’ve mentioned it, I’m thinking the owner of this site (Cabin Builder) really should think about getting accounts himself at some of the sites like Amazon (Home Depot has one too for "Affiliates", heck, they probably all do) that we all provide links to other members for their convenience. He could then convert any links people give here so he can be credited with a few pennies in any commission on any sales we can send their way, since he pays the rent around here.
No shame in it, lots of website owners do that. They certainly earn whatever compensation, no matter how small they can eke out of it. Letting their readers 'tip' them this way is how we can help ensure they stay in business.
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DaveBell
Moderator
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# Posted: 27 Sep 2016 08:29am
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Quoting: toyota_mdt_tech Rockies should be rich by now.
Quoting: rockies I do wonder why more people on the site don't post links to products.
Because you are doing a great job.
We do post once in awhile when something notable is found.
Thanks Rockies!
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Jebediah
Member
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# Posted: 27 Sep 2016 11:04am
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Thanks for the info....just never understood how it all worked...
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Shirleydavis
Member
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# Posted: 22 Nov 2016 12:30am
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We better be careful from these fraudsters.
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