It seems that majority of Internet Marketers feel the need to hide or mask their affiliate links. While I can somewhat understand why they want to do this, I don’t quite buy into this as being effective. In my opinion, there really isn’t a mainstream niche audience who is aware of what affiliate links look like.

There are only a few niche audiences who know how to spot out an affiliate link. One of the most predominant niche markets that can spot out an affiliate link is the Make Money Online niche. It just so happens that publishers in the Make Money Online Niche are also the most predominant about hiding or masking affiliate links.

At any rate, for whatever the reasons may be, publishers within the Make Money Online niche are very keen on making sure that their affiliate links aren’t known and secondly they don’t want their readers or site visitors to discover that the products that they recommend are affiliate based products. People need to be aware of this and that is one of the main reasons why I am writing this article.

When there is an incentive to market or promote a product or service, there is also a natural tendency to do so in a way that doesn’t provide the best service to readers and site viewers. Flashing money in the faces of people make them dishonest. Presenting an incentive to sell a product or service can cause people to go to great lengths to mass promote and market. Any element or tool that can be used to help and aid in having higher sales conversions will be used. That includes hiding or masking affiliate links.

Internet Marketers want their readers to feel like products and services are being made off a true and genuine recommendation. Internet Marketers want to down play the fact that they are making commission or scoring an incentive for making sales. However, within the Make Money Online niche, consumers are becoming more conscious and aware of not only what an affiliate link looks like but more so, what a hidden or masked affiliate link looks like.

The Make Money Online niche is one of the most “cover your ass, dot your I’s and cross your T’s” niche I have ever seen. It has now gotten to the point where we as consumers within the Make Money Online niche are now faced with the Ultimate Hidden Affiliate Links.

The ultimate way to hide affiliate links is by not actually having an affiliate link. Instead of using affiliate links to score sales and make money online, Internet Marketers are now starting to make back end deals with product and service developers and owners on the side. There are private, offline and off the record deals that are taking place between Internet Marketers and product owners.

These private deals may actually have adverse effects on the make money online consumer. As mentioned above, money has a tendency to turn even the most honest folks into a crooked and corrupt marketers who will promote anything that scores the biggest incentive and largest profit. Recently, I had a personal dose of experiencing this first hand, as told below in a recent conversation I had with an Internet Marketer in an instant messenger conversation.

“Garry I’m affiliated with the company OIOPublisher and I will give 2 copies of it to you ($74 value). I can speak on its behalf, so we’d be happy to give you 2 copies to give away. I don’t have an official title, but I do a lot of the marketing as well as a lot of back end stuff and negotiations with certain aspects of the business.

I work on negotiations with networks, dealing with affiliates, dealing with bloggers and our public images as well as a few other marketing things and I can have this verified for you if you don’t believe me.”

- Source Asked to Remain Anonymous

For consumers who follow the advice and product and service recommendations from Internet Marketers, there is now a new element that one must consider when deciding on whether or not to make a purchase based on a recommendation. The days of stuffing affiliate links into post evolved into hiding or masking the links; however, today emerges the ultimate way to score an affiliate commission. And that is by doing back end deals and private off the record negotiations with product and server developers and owners.

So who can a consumer trust to give them a truthful guidance in the business of learning how to make money online? How do you find the right Internet Marketer to trust who isn’t infested with the evils that follow with making money online? How do you know if the products and services that are being recommended to you are genuine and not motived by a secret incentive to sell?

My advice to you when considering whether or not to purchase a product or service based off a recommendation from someone you don’t know well or completely trust, is to question them and determine what their true motives are behind why they are recommending the product.

Obviously many Internet Marketers are going to be compensated for selling products they recommend. There is nothing wrong with that. However, as a consumer, it is ultimately in your best interest to make sound and secure decisions that will help you the most in your ventures of learning how to make money online. When deciding on making that purchase, don’t hesitate to contact the person who made the recommendation.

Find out what affiliation the person has with the product or service. Find out if the person making the recommendation actually owns the product and uses it too. Most importantly, don’t allow other people to take control over your conversation and don’t allow any piece of information to be left untouched. Question anything and question everything, especially in the Make Money Online niche…. believe me folks, it’s ten times worse than being on a used car lot.

While I don’t necessarily think certain people are crooked individuals, but the conversation above does aim to raise some flags and it does unveil to me that there is a huge opportunity for Internet Marketers to develop on the side or behind the scene deals with product and service developers and owners for the purpose of bypassing the standard level affiliate programs that are in place for marketing and promoting products with an incentive for making money.

People who follow Internet Marketers are more likely to purchase a product or service based off a recommendation that doesn’t carry an affiliate link (hidden or not) compared to a product or service that does. All in all, it just goes to show you to what huge lengths Internet Marketers will take towards closing the deal and making the sale.

The majority of the money made in the Make Money Online niche is done by selling the consumers (the people who want to learn) products and services that are advertised as things that will help or aid people in learning more or expanding on their ability to find success in the business of making money online. Rarely will you find a product or service that truly will help you to the extent of what’s being advertised.