Making it clear where an affiliate link goes to

[macnpaul]

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Taking a product review style site as an example, is it better to make it clear to a user where they will go when they click on an affiliate link?

So instead of having: "Buy Now" have "Buy now on amazon" and/or include an amazon logo somewhere.

My thinking is that it's better to be transparent with your users, and from a design and usability perspective I've always believed it's important to make it obvious when a user will leave your site and go to an external one. Though of course I'm prepared to disregard that if it means my sites convert better

Could the fact that you feature a site like amazon either in text or as a logo give your site extra trust in the eyes of users?

Also by making it clear where a link goes to it will give the user a better idea of how the site works, you don't stock the products you act as an affiliate - I still get the odd email asking if I have such a product in stock though...

And of course some networks (eBay) put it in their terms that you have to make it clear to a user where a link will go to.

Obviously there are plenty of affiliates on here with much more experience so it would be good to get some feedback.

Paul

[accelerator]

You should test each option to find out which one works best, see:

Conversion Rate Optimisation

Rgds