> _Please change the title to "My recommendations for Ruby on Rails hosting services that have affiliate programs."_
This seems a bit uncalled for. When did it become not OK to have referral ids in one's articles? There is nothing shady about this. The page clearly discloses the presence of affiliate links.
> _It's amazing how almost all the links are affiliate links._
3 hosting companies out of 9 have my referral id.
> _I had to look twice, since some of them do redirects so that it's not obvious from the final url that you've followed an affiliate link._
I use a plugin which prettifies links and provide statistics for each link (much better than Wordpress Stats does).
"3 hosting companies out of 9 have my referral id."
But the point is, you didn't disclose the role of commercial sponsorship in your "recommendations" until you were called on it.
Because this article smells like an advertorial and it is not clear whether you are representing our interests or your own, I think this raises two questions:
(1) Why should we take seriously any recommendations from this blog if there is such explicit commercial deference?
(2) How many older posts need to be revisited for commercial sanitization that we have not called to your attention?
They're not explicitly sponsoring the blog post they are merely hosting companies that he trust whom happen to also have affiliate schemes. Why not benefit from a post like this?
If I were to recommend or talk about books I'd most likely use afiliate links to Amazon. Is that really suc a big deal?
As a blogger, there's really not much cash to be made
to offset the time/money investment other than ads (which tech savy audiences are mostly blind to) or affiliate schemes.
If the affiliate links are disclosed I don't see the problem and am often willing to help those who produce valuable content.
As with anything your read on the net, you can choose to trust what you read or not. And you can further research it elsewhere. A critical mind is a good thing.
I like to think that most people here, and definitely my habitual readers, know me and trust me thanks to a solid reputation that I've built over the past few years.
If a prominent Django developer where to post a hosting article about Django, I wouldn't question his integrity just because some referral links were used. If I didn't trust what I read, I would simply not buy.
Back to your accusation of not disclosing my commercial sponsorship, I'll remind you of the disclosure posted from the get go:
"Disclosure: Some of the links above have my referral id. Pretty much any hosting site out there offers affiliate programs these days. Here I only report the Rails hosting sites I consider the best for you, regardless of the small commission I may get. By buying through these links, you get to support this site, and ensure its continued operation. At zero cost to you. Isn’t that nice of you? I feel a bit of love already. :)"
I think this makes where I coming from fairly clear. For example, I believe Slicehost gives you less than $10 for each person who buys from them through your referral. Do you have any idea how many hosting companies pay referral fees that are 5 to 10 times more than that? Yet, I wouldn't even dream of including them if I didn't know (directly or indirectly) that they were reliable.
To write this article, I first created a list of shared, vps and cloud providers I trusted. And only then did I check if I had an affiliate link to them (or if one was readily available). And it turns out that 3 out of 9 do.
The few spare bucks I may make, will help with the hosting fees (currently $85 a month) and the great investment of time I put towards blogging. Again, this is not shady.
You are of course free to choose not to trust what I write, or what I've written in the past.
To everyone else: I think we have beaten this horse to death already. I've made my position clear. If you don't concur, we'll just have to agree to disagree.
This seems a bit uncalled for. When did it become not OK to have referral ids in one's articles? There is nothing shady about this. The page clearly discloses the presence of affiliate links.
> _It's amazing how almost all the links are affiliate links._
3 hosting companies out of 9 have my referral id.
> _I had to look twice, since some of them do redirects so that it's not obvious from the final url that you've followed an affiliate link._
I use a plugin which prettifies links and provide statistics for each link (much better than Wordpress Stats does).
> _I use http://www.railsplayground.com_
I didn't have a chance to try them out.