[wheelerwj]

> By consistently making good recommendations, they will build a loyal audience, driving further affiliate sales.

I mean, that's exactly how bias works. In fact, this is exactly what amazon is cracking down on right now, incentivized reviews.

If your revenue model is based on ads, you grow revenue by growing readership which is grown by writing quality content. However if you're revenue model is based on affiliate income, you increase revenue by selling more stuff.

[Implicated]

> In fact, this is exactly what amazon is cracking down on right now, incentivized reviews.

Well... not exactly...

They're cracking down on incentivized reviews on amazon.com product pages. Those onsite reviews being a far stretch away from offsite recommendation blog posts that feature affiliate links, which aren't included in any of their product rating/review metrics.

[Spooky23]

There's a practical and ethical difference between implicit bias and pay for review.

The review for a particular product isn't an example of pay for play because the Wirecutter gets paid for anything they review that is sold on Amazon. The bias is the push towards Amazon vs Newegg or Walmart and assessments if price based on ephemeral Amazon pricing vs MSRP.

The Amazon crackdown as I understand is about corrupt vendors incentivizing good reviews for shit product.