An affiliate link is a special redirecting link that lets an online merchant know who sent traffic to their site, so they know who to pay a commission to if there's a sale.
(You have an Amazon widget on your site.  Are you in their affiliate program?  If not, sign up for that immediately.  You can earn commissions for sales through those widgets.)

So let's say I do a book review.  When I link to the book on Amazon, I make sure those links are affiliate links.  That way, if someone buys the book (or just about anything on Amazon, actually) through one of those links, I get a commission.

Now, let's say you were to have my book review as a guest post.  Asking you to include my affiliate link for that guest post would be asking an awful lot.  If you did, I could potentially make money with your traffic.  I wouldn't expect you to do that, and most people would take an affiliate link out (or would replace it with their own) if they received a guest post with one of them.

Anyway, that's what I was getting at.

But yeah, every online business you link to, check to see if they have an affiliate program, and if they do, sign up.

---

Great points! What is an affiliate link (I am a newbies, so I am clueless)?
 

(You have an Amazon widget on your site.  Are you in their affiliate program?  If not, sign up for that immediately.  You can earn commissions for sales through those widgets.)

So let's say I do a book review.  When I link to the book on Amazon, I make sure those links are affiliate links.  That way, if someone buys the book (or just about anything on Amazon, actually) through one of those links, I get a commission.

Now, let's say you were to have my book review as a guest post.  Asking you to include my affiliate link for that guest post would be asking an awful lot.  If you did, I could potentially make money with your traffic.  I wouldn't expect you to do that, and most people would take an affiliate link out (or would replace it with their own) if they received a guest post with one of them.

Anyway, that's what I was getting at.

But yeah, every online business you link to, check to see if they have an affiliate program, and if they do, sign up.

http://aloysaskitchensink.com/.....chen-sink/

Yes, these guidelines are much clearer.

I've also seen other bloggers give guidelines for the following or discuss the following:

• Recommended length
• How many internal links are allowed
• Whether or not affiliate links are allowed (usually the answer is "no")
• Whether the article is to be formatted as plain text or HTML
• Their stance on keyword targeting with linked text
• Whether the article can be / has been published elsewhere, and if so, when it can be republished

But what you have now gets people into the ballpark, and that's probably good enough.

Yes, these guidelines are much clearer.

I've also seen other bloggers give guidelines for the following or discuss the following:

• Recommended length
• How many internal links are allowed
• Whether or not affiliate links are allowed (usually the answer is "no")
• Whether the article is to be formatted as plain text or HTML
• Their stance on keyword targeting with linked text
• Whether the article can be / has been published elsewhere, and if so, when it can be republished

But what you have now gets people into the ballpark, and that's probably good enough.

---

OK, now we're getting somewhere.  You want posts that read more like stories, correct?

All well and good, but you didn't ask for this initially -- nor did you ask for this the last time you put out a request for guest posts.

You're of course free to accept or reject any posts you want, but it's a bit of a kick in the stomach to try to help out, follow the guidance you did give for the posts, and give you what you asked for in your request, only to have the post come back as "unfortunately not quite what you're looking for."

I'm happy to help, and others are as well, but you need to help us help you.  You can do that by stating more clearly what you want, and perhaps more importantly, stating what you don't want.

That was the point of my comment.  I don't want anyone else to waste time writing a post that isn't what you, or any other requester, wants.

 
Your comment actually made me think about my requests for guest posting and guidelines that I provided. I took a look at what I said and it does sound vague. So, last night I created a Guest Post page on my blog with guidelines that are expressed more clearly. Or so I think... Thanks to you, actually! Thank you for bringing it up to my attention and telling me how you feel about it. 

Re: rejection... I thought I sent a nice rejection (well... rejection is a rejection, it never can be "nice" no matter how gentle it is, right?) I probably should have explained better why I rejected your post. So, I apologize for not explaining why it was rejected. However, it does not mean that I did not appreciate your help.
 

---

All right... well... like Financial Samurai said in today's post - give me a good story!  I like personal attitude, opinion and a story that goes along. As fas as a topic goes - it is up to a writer. Does it make sense?
 

All well and good, but you didn't ask for this initially -- nor did you ask for this the last time you put out a request for guest posts.

You're of course free to accept or reject any posts you want, but it's a bit of a kick in the stomach to try to help out, follow the guidance you did give for the posts, and give you what you asked for in your request, only to have the post come back as "unfortunately not quite what you're looking for."

I'm happy to help, and others are as well, but you need to help us help you.  You can do that by stating more clearly what you want, and perhaps more importantly, stating what you don't want.

That was the point of my comment.  I don't want anyone else to waste time writing a post that isn't what you, or any other requester, wants.

Hey MBHunter,

This isn't the place for disagreements, please carry out any grievances like this in private or contact the admins (Sam or Chris or I) if you have issues with content being posted by any particular forum members.

 

Thanks, just trying to keep things friendly round here.

Well, I know for a fact that's not true.  Say what you're really looking for.

Please don't say "anything" and then get all picky like you did with the guest post I sent you last time (on very short notice, I might add).

This isn't the place for disagreements, please carry out any grievances like this in private or contact the admins (Sam or Chris or I) if you have issues with content being posted by any particular forum members.

Thanks, just trying to keep things friendly round here.

Please don't say "anything" and then get all picky like you did with the guest post I sent you last time (on very short notice, I might add).