In reply to kevinhaig.

@kevinhaig -- I might be nit-picking words here, but I think it's important to address your use of the word "never" in your comment.

In a majority of cases, affiliates recommend products & services with the highest paying commissions, or just the ones that have affiliate programs to begin with. This sucks. It's selfish & it hurts innocent users. I wish it didn't happen.

But I think to say that...

"It never holds consistently that the author truly believes the plugin is the best one to use."

and

"They are making the recommendations for these plugins because they get paid for the recommendation."

is going too far, and does a disservice to those of us in the community who only recommend products we use ourselves, and truly believe are the best, even when the affiliate programs pay out far less.

I do this frequently, and I know I'm not the only one.

That being said, it'd be impossible for the TRT to decipher an author's intent or beliefs, so any policy derived from this idea would not be fairly enforced.

I agree 100% with your point about disclosure. In some countries, it's actually illegal to use affiliate links without disclosing that you are making money from them. How one would do this tactfully within the WordPress admin area, that would certainly be a challenge.

But like Justin said, making some money off referrals isn't, by itself, a bad practice. I don't think we should rule it out simply because of an affiliate relationship. If it's disclosed & truly genuine, there's nothing wrong with it. But I still have no idea how the TRT (or PRT) would be able to write a fair, enforceable policy around it. I commend them for even trying 👏.