Biased Honesty - A Look at Web Affiliates

Many of you who know me, respect my opinion. I thank you for that. It is my quest to tell it like it I see it and hopefully help you out along the way. My belief is that if I help you get what you want, I will get what I want.

My biggest gripe in the whole adventure in contextual ads has been that very few seem to know what they are talking about, and they talk about it in an incredulous way. Since the concept is a hot topic, I expected the arena to be saturated. And, that's okay. But what frustrates me more is that 98% of the so called "gurus" do nothing more than lure you into buying something to which they are an affiliate. Many times it is not even original work.

I must tread wisely here because I am about to launch my own e-book on how to work my contextual ad system.

The point is, you are expected to read through these sites with the hope that you will get enough information to form an educated decision on your potential purchase. What you get is hyperbole. Some go as far to admit it is "honest" hyperbole.

I am not knocking the affiliate system, just the way some affiliates go about presenting the information. Don't you feel the same way?

Here's what we're used to: Some large consumer reporting firm tests the product and gives us a score. We go to Costco and buy it. epinions.com is a favorite of mine. But that only works mainly for hard goods. Software without a large consumer base doesn't quite make the cut.

Is there any other way? One large testimonial seems to ask a little too much. Webmasters should gather many opinions and create a site similar to epinions.com. And then, let other webmasters write their own rating.

Sounds like a project.