I was giving a little thought to Philipp's credibility and affiliate links post today, and it struck me, not for the first time, how ludicrous some of the arguments for disclosing affiliate links in blogs are. At the extrememe end of the disclosure argument you have those that think every affiliate link should be followed by (aff link) in the post, to let people know. But, many of these people show Adsense right? Can you see where im going with this?

People want you to disclose your affiliate links so that you're upfront and transparent about your advertising and motives right? So, why is it ok for Adsense bloggers to blend their adsense, and place it in, or nearer the content?

Isn't that the height of hypocricy? I have to declare my affilate links, but it's ok for me to remove the border to my adsense, make the title's the same color as my links and place the units within or seriously close to my actual content.

And let's be clear about this, there is only one reason people blend adsense and place it in their content: To fool readers that it actuall IS content and get that click!

Personally, with disclosure i prefer the sitewide method, where you tell readers that some or all of the links to products are affilate links, rather than put a daft mini-disclosure after every link.

And yes, of course i blend my adsense.

Thoughts?