There are many situations where it is not appropriate to buy a product using your own affiliate link. These situations mainly have to do with ethics and giving credit to the person who referred the product to you. However, there are situations where it is perfectly okay to buy from your own affiliate link.

Many times when you are investigating a product to sell, you go directly to the affiliate network you belong to and start checking out the different products. If your intention is to simply investigate the product, then it is perfectly okay to purchase through your own affiliate link if no one else referred the product to you.

One thing I notice online are review pages usually composed of reviews for a group of related product. If your intent is to simply write a review and no one referred the product to you, again it's perfectly okay to purchase through your affiliate link.

The reason why both of these situations are okay to purchase a product through your own affiliate link has to do with intent and the fact that no one referred the product to you. You really have to be honest about the reason you are purchasing the product as well. Just because you buy a product and eventually end up writing a review, does not make it okay to use your own affiliate link. It's really the intent at the time of purchase. One rule of thumb to follow, however, is that if someone else referred the product to you, give them the sale if you do buy the product.

Additionally, even if your intent is to investigate or to review, you might want to think about finding someone who is selling the product and give them credit, anyways. Doing something good always comes back to benefit you.

For more articles on affiliate marketing tips and resources, go to AffiliateMarketing101.net

The author of this article runs AffiliateMarketing101.net and AffiliateMarketingGuides.com, an affiliate marketing guides review site.

Source: www.a1articles.com