Question about Affiliate Ads

[bluebomberman]

I'm not sure if this is entirely appropriate to ask in a wide forum, but here goes:

Is it okay for MacRumors staff/owners/the-company-itself to buy stuff from its affiliate links (i.e. Amazon/Crucial/Apple Store) or is this strictly forbidden?

I've been perusing the legal agreements with Amazon and the iTunes store but can't find anything that says "as an affiliate, you can't personally go buy stuff from us and expect to receive referral fees."

Example: MacRumors needs a new iMac. Can they click on the iMac ads and get commission?

I guess the question is directed to the head honchos, but any affiliate participants on their own web ventures can chime in...

 

[kwood]

The question becomes how would they trace it? Unless they keep track of the IP address of the computer used to click the add and make the purchase. But that only works if the IP address is a Static address and not Dynamic. Unless there is another way to trace where the data came from that I am unaware of, there doesn't appear to be a way to trace it.

 

[bluebomberman]

Who needs IP addresses when you have credit card and contact info?

If arn buys a Mac through his affiliate link, then you'd bet that at the other end they can easily add 2 + 2.

The question is whether they care.

 

[kwood]

I personally can't see them caring. They are big companies and it's not a lot of money for just one person. Now if that one person had a habit of ding this on a regular basis and ended up making a lot of money off of it then I can see that being a problem.

 

[Doctor Q]

Is it okay for MacRumors staff/owners/the-company-itself to buy stuff from its affiliate links (i.e. Amazon/Crucial/Apple Store) or is this strictly forbidden?

If a limitation applies, it would probably be only to arn, since he's the owner and only employee. The administrators and moderators are all volunteers.

 

[bluebomberman]

If a limitation applies, it would probably be only to arn, since he's the owner and only employee. The administrators and moderators are all volunteers.

So arn, is it fair to ask you if you ever use the Macrumor affiliate links to buy stuff?

I won't hold it against you if you give a "no comment," since it is a rather probing question.

(Aside: This is all volunteer work for you, Doctor Q? You don't even get free iTunes credits?)

 

[Doctor Q]

(Aside: This is all volunteer work for you, Doctor Q? You don't even get free iTunes credits?)

I've gotten iTunes codes from personal friends over the years, including from a friend I met at MacRumors, but I'm not here for that purpose.

In fact, my real source of free iTunes has been Apple, and I can thank MacRumors for that too. If I hadn't been hanging out at this site, I might not have bothered tracking the free iTunes from Apple each week since April 2004. As of September 4, the total from Apple's giveaway will be over 500 free tunes!

 

[TheChillPill]

Amazon don't like people using their own links, but all other merchants are fine with it. In fact, most networks (the go between) actually encourage it.