I’m just gonna say it how I see it; affiliate marketing is driving me to the point of extreme nausea.

There’s nothing wrong with wanting to make a little jingle to put in your pocket, but when I visit your site or read an RSS feed and every other image or link is an affiliate ad, you have lost my interest and respect. I feel like this over the top, in your face pushing of products is like a cheap whore who will do anything for a nickel. I don’t mind people sharing a great service or product, but when you continually throw it out there and every thing you write includes (affiliate link) over and over again, it just communicates to me you are desperate.

Here’s another thought. People don’t want to be hit up all the time.

I started to follow you because I trusted you and your expertise or insight. When you turn into a marketing machine for every company you can make a buck from, I feel that trust has been broken. You’re no longer a friend, you’re a snake-oil salesman.

Yes. Being an affiliate is fine. Really.

I admit that I have signed up for a few affiliate programs, but I rarely try and promote those links. I tell people about MailChimp, FreshBooks, House Industries, HostGator, and others because I love using their products and think they’re awesome. They don’t have to pay me to spread the word because I already believe in them. I’ll gladly do it for nothing.

My rant is over.

What I want to say is be careful how you do your affiliate marketing, because if you do it wrong, it sucks and people are going to get tired of following you. I’m deleting a couple well known people from my feeds and bookmarks because they’ve abused this privilege.

Am I off base on this?