Alli the Book Giraffe

Hello readers! In today’s post, I would like to broach a subject that has been weighing on my mind for almost a week now. I am keen to hear your reflections on this matter, particularly if you are an avid consumer of blogs or a writer of your own.

In recent weeks, I have been engaged in endeavors to secure participation in various affiliate programs. In the year 2021, I had the privilege of affiliating with esteemed entities such as Amazon and Better World Books. However, the affiliations were terminated after a certain period of time.

So recently, I became affiliates with Amazon (again), Books a Million, Graphic Audio, and Blackwells. Blackwells is a UK bookseller that ships all over the world. I wanted to get more affiliates that ship in many different countries that aren’t Amazon. I know many people are Amazon antis and that’s perfectly fine if you feel that way.

Now, my issue came when I made it to the Blackwell’s affiliate site. It’s something I think many people should be aware of, especially if you consume content on any platform where someone promotes Blackwells. I took a screenshot of their affiliate program page to show. This page was informing me about DirectLinks, which can be hidden, from what I learned.

This information did not sit right with me ever since. This basically told me I should hide be affiliates with companies because the readers won’t like it. That it will make them think I’m dishonest. Is it not more dishonest to lie about an affiliate?

I would personally never do that to my readers. If you ever happen to see an undisclosed ad or link here, please tell me and I’ll fix it. For the most part, I put affiliate links on my New Release Saturday posts, which consists of books I haven’t even read.

What they are trying to get me to do is literally illegal, is it not? FTC laws apply to every country, as far as I know. I’m not the most educated when it comes to laws like that. However, it’s also morally wrong to deceive people, in my opinion.

I just wanted to know your thoughts on this information and see how everyone feels about affiliate links, especially when they are not disclosed. It is super popular on Tik Tok right now to skip disclosing an ad. No one deserves to be swindled or manipulated in that way!

As a user of affiliate links, I really only want you to click on them if you personally want to. Please do not feel obligated to click on my affiliate links or ads ever! You, as the reader, do not owe a content creator anything on any platform, thats for sure.

Where to find me: https://linktr.ee/Allithebookgiraffe

Add this user on Goodreads for all your trigger warning needs: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/86920464-trigger-warning-database