[Hnrobert42]

How do you k ow this is an affiliate link farm?

What do you mean once again? I read WAY too much HN, and this is the first time I’ve read about this issue with someone whose site focuses on affiliate marketing. Are posts like this common if you read “new” HN articles?

[judge2020]

> How do you k ow this is an affiliate link farm?

This site's 'reviews' are based on existing product reviews and the descriptions of the products. A real review site will purchase the product to review it then post one or two short paragraphs on their experience using it.

And it's definitely affiliate links since all Amazon links have ?tag=gcaftext-20, which seems to be their affiliate tag.

[johnwdefeo]

I've spent most of my career working for "real review" sites and that was part of my motivation for creating Good, Cheap and Fast:

Good, Cheap and Fast isn't meant to be a substitute for lab-tested product reviews, but I hope it's a complement. I like Cook's Illustrated and Consumer Reports. These publications buy products, test them and cover their costs by charging a subscription. This is the best business model for protecting readers.

There are plenty of “free” websites that also test products, but visitors to these sites end up paying in less obvious ways:

Ad Bloat - The websites have great content, but it's hard to enjoy it because of excessive advertisements, autoplay videos (with sound) and third-party networks that hijack your browser and redirect you to pop-up ads claiming that you’ve won a free gift card.

Price Creep - The websites are great at reviewing products, but in order to cover costs, the tested products are more expensive than necessary. Many publishers do this (unwittingly) because the affiliate commissions that they receive are based on a percentage of a product's sale price.

These phenomena are common on legitimate websites. Nevermind sites that:

Rent studio space to stage their "lab testing;"

Don't know how to use lab equipment properly;

Fail to disclose pay-to-play relationships;

Give inflated reviews to maintain relationships with PR people; or,

Fail to investigate the issues that products have after extended use.

I’ve seen these trespasses throughout my career: Hucksters are everywhere.