There are a couple of backend things to talk about.
Link Color Change
First, I changed the in-article link color, ever so slightly.
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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, ToolGuyd home page before color quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint ToolGuyd home after change occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
Can you see the difference?
Update: “Lorem Ipsum” is gibberish placeholder text.
It’s something I’ve been meaning to do f or a while. When reading back a post in a desktop web browser, links within paragraphs sometimes tend to blend into the text. The color blue that I’ve been using for ToolGuyd’s “theme” color – it’s a tad too dark.
Here’s a more dramatic example of the color change. Scroll back up to see the difference within a block of text. Does it read a little better?
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Holiday Links
I added quick-reference links at the top of ToolGuyd pages. I’ve done this for a few years now, each time a little differently.
Currently, there’s a “Black Friday Tool Deals” section, and a “Quick Links to Promos” section. Both sections will be populated a bit more as I continue with my coverage of the season’s very many tool deals.
A few years ago, I had rotating banners to a few Amazon promo pages, such as reminders of the $25 off Dewalt or Bosch promos. But I found that having quick-access text links to the posts and stores’ landing pages I revisited the most would be more helpful.
Do my quick links work for you? As in, do you find them helpful or potentially helpful? I figure it’s slim enough that you could easily ignore it if not. Would you like to see something else?
What would better help you plan and execute your holiday season tool purchases?
Affiliate Relationship Updates
Sears paused our affiliate relationship. They asked that all links be removed, and so I was left with 2 choices – remove 9 years of Sears.com links from countless posts, or redirect all the links to the same place – my last post about the fall of Sears and Craftsman, for lack of a better landing page.
As far as I am aware, this is not ToolGuyd-specific. *cough*
If I or they fully terminate the relationship, the redirect will stand until I have the time to go back and edit years of Sears and Craftsman content.
Current Affiliate Relationships
We have a new affiliate relationship, with Leatherman. I haven’t added any links, but we’ll see what happens. Maybe I can squeeze a coupon code or special reader promo out of them.
I very rarely agree to new affiliate relationships. I only maintain partnerships with retailers I could recommend and stand by. And how many do we need?
What’s an affiliate program?
Basically, If you place an order through a certain link, ToolGuyd might earn a commission for the referral.
I use affiliate links in “buy now” buttons or “price check” references, and while they could serve as suggestions or recommendations, I generally believe that everyone will have their own retailer preferences. I make sure to include model numbers in every post, so you can “grab and go” if you don’t like my choice of linked retailers and have your own favorites.
I have always had somewhat strict practices when it came to affiliate links. For example, I can’t use an affiliate link in any way I wouldn’t use the same link in the absence of an affiliate relationship. I try to be sensible and don’t spam links.
Basically, I try to run ToolGuyd in the way I wish the sites I visited were run.
Example: In a recent post, I wrote about KC Tool’s selling-out supply of Wera advent calendars. Someone commented that they wouldn’t “help us with KC Tool sales.” While we’re friendly with KC Tool, we don’t have an affiliate relationship with them. I also linked to Amazon DE, which we do have an affiliate relationship with, but mentioned that I’d personally more inclined to go with KC Tool.
I’ve tried to be honest and transparent from the start, a policy that’s still going strong.
Here’s a list of our current affiliate partners:
- Acme Tools
- Amazon (USA, UK, DE)
- BladeHQ
- Home Depot
- Leatherman
- Lowes
- Ohio Power Tool
- Rockler
- Tool Nut and Festool Products
- Zoro
ToolGuyd has one or two other relationships that we haven’t been active with, since they don’t fit the content as well as I anticipated.
When ToolGuyd was just getting started, I tried to follow some slightly off-topic promos, but it was too time consuming.
New Affiliate Link Disclosure
The last few times I checked, we were inline with FTC guidelines and common industry practices. I have a disclosures page, as several programs require.
None of the FTC’s examples perfectly fit how we use affiliate links, and I believe us to be in perfect compliance.
The FTC guidelines tend to be aimed at bloggers, “influencers,” and others who actively endorse or recommend products when there are material connections or monetary incentives for them to do so.
Ben brought up the idea of a better disclosure. I pushed back a little, because it’s such a messy grey area, and you don’t see other magazines with disclosures cluttering their posts and reviews.
But, I recently came around, and added a short disclosure to the top of posts, right under the small content column advertisement. It reads:
If you buy something through our links, ToolGuyd might earn an affiliate commission.
I made it smaller than article text, but readable, italicized, and dark grey in color. It’s short, to the point, and you should notice it. There will be a “details” link, as soon as I can repackage much of what I’m saying here into a new page.
I could put it at the end of posts, and avoid any kind of affiliate links in post content, but there are occasional links outside “buy now” buttons. I tend to include links whenever I look something up. For instance…
In today’s Lowes Black Friday tool deals post, I paid special attention to the Bosch Colt router that will be on sale. It’s currently $99 at Amazon, which is already discounted from its regular or formerly regular price of $119. Lowes’ sale price will be $79, which is even better – a great deal if you ask me, even in light of the new model coming out.
That “$99 at Amazon” in the preceding paragraph is an affiliate link. I don’t expect anyone to actually buy anything through that link, but it’s there for your reference, and tagged up as an affiliate link in case you do. In talking about the product, I opened up another browser window to check the current price, and so I would expect for you to want to do the same.
This is what the FTC says:
“The FTC is only concerned about endorsements that are made on behalf of a sponsoring advertiser.”
When talking with Ben about all this, I pointed to a post about Stanley DiamondGrip pliers. There’s an affiliate link in there, to Amazon, but no endorsement or recommendation for or against the pliers. So… does that call for a disclosure or not?
The post certainly isn’t made on the behalf of anyone. None of my posts are.
Recently, I’ve been really annoyed by what some other sites and magazines have been doing, and how they’ve been pushing affiliate links hard and with no disclosure. That helped sell me on the idea that there MUST be a disclosure here.
As I mentioned, I like to run ToolGuyd in a way that agrees with my wants and preferences as a reader. As a reader, I want to start seeing more disclosures on other sites, and so that pretty much tells me what I need to do.
Putting a blanket disclosure on all content pages just seems right, the more I think about it. I at least have to give it a try.
dong
Stuart, thank you for the time and effort you put into running this site.
Stuart
Thank you, and you’re very welcome!
James
2nd this statement
ktash
3rd this. Also, the new link color is great!
Hilton
Ah, you are referring to me about the KC Tools non affiliate links from a previous post. My reply about not helping was taken completely incorrectly and I’ve responded accordingly to your post. No malice intended.
Stuart
I didn’t take it negatively, but more matter of fact. When I respond to comments, it’s sometimes to everyone and not just one person.
For that matter, I liked your comment, even though I misinterpreted how you meant that latter part. As immodest as it might sound, I don’t mind occasional opportunities to pat myself on the back for the policies and practices I’ve adhered to over the years.
Hilton
Full on! You are incredibly good at not showing too much bias (we all have a bit) and most of your posts I read thoroughly. Keep it up!
Satch
Stuart, good show. I have no issue with affiliate links. And I am pretty sure no one is getting wealthy off the commissions these affiliations bring.
The services provided by this site are well appreciated by me. There is no other tool blog I am aware of that updates like this one and the tool news is beyond helpful. Thank you.
Lack
That’s a nice burn with Sears.
Whiskey and Wood
Can you burn a company that’s already going down in a not so glorious blaze? 🙂
fred
Thanks once again for your transparency with your readers.
Does the FTC get really intrusive with blogs and bloggers?
I know that the government (FTC, IRS etc. ) can be difficult to deal with – particularly when they get a “bee in their bonnets” so to speak.
Stuart
They’re guidelines, but not enforceable laws. I’ve always taken them as examples of good practices.
Tool industry marketing is shifting, with some reviewers, especially newer ones, adopting some “mommy blogger” type behaviors and tendencies. That’s not a bad thing necessarily, it just means that the tool industry is catching up with some others, and that proper disclosures and transparency is going to be even more important than before.
Scott K
From my limits knowledge of this subject- I believe they are starting to enforce rules more strictly due to the sharp rise in Instagram/Twitter “influencers” not properly labeling posts as “sponsored.”
I’ve always appreciated the extra effort you (Stuart) put into the transparency of this site and and your affiliates. If partnerships and affiliate links allow you to better support your self and the site without compromising your integrity- go for it.
The yeti
Im not sure how many foreign readers u have . I know myself i live in canada . The links u post are always for the US sites . If u were to post canadian links on occasion i would be happy to buy a few products through your site .
fred
Stuart has posted about things at Lee Valley – Veritas (Canadians with a presence in NY too.)
http://www.leevalley.com/en/home.aspx
I have also bought some Makita tools (not available at the time) at this site:
https://www.mississaugahardware.com/
Stuart
There are ways to “regionalize” links to certain affiliates, but I’ve never been serious about looking into it. There are too many other things on my to-do list before I could even think about that.
To effectively link to Canadian retailers would either require a lot of additional effort on my part, or a level of automation with links I might not be comfortable with. (I have said no to 3rd party software that tracks readers and auto-parses my links in order to serve localized affiliate links.) And even then, you might have a different favorite tool dealer.
Looking at anonymous analytics data from last Monday, there are 10.5 visits to ToolGuyd.com pages from the USA for every 1 visit from Canada.
Deals are going to be different, and so even if I did link to Canadian retailers, chances are that you wouldn’t be able to take advantage of the same deal at the same time.
Prices are sometimes different, and sometimes features too, not to mention the currency. And so for something like a review, that would require checking and adding different pricing information would could potentially be confusing.
I hate to say it, but it would be too messy to link to Canadian retailers, at least at the moment.
The yeti
Ya i understand. . There are rarely good deals up north anyways .
I dont understand why amazon cant figure it out all on their own .
My comment was in no way a jab at your site
David R Zeller
After reading this post, I went to the next post, and the first thing I did was read the disclosure as if it were the first line of the article. Perhaps you could center the text so it is not left justified. When left justified, readers will tend to go to it as regular text.
Just an idea.
Thanks, as I’ve posted in the past, for a terrific site.
David
Stuart
Thanks!
I’ve been weighing that.
On mobile, the text wraps and the second line is also centered, and it looks weird. I suppose I could change it so that it’s centered on laptops and desktops and not on mobile.
*Done*, at least for now.
I think I’ll be happy keeping it to one line. As it appears now, for desktop, and then for mobile it might just read: “If you buy through our links, ToolGuyd might earn a commission.” That way it wouldn’t take two lines.
Or I could intend it from the left, but that might make it look weird in some browsers or devices.
Jason. W
Am I the only one who has the first paragraph show up as something other then English?
“Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, ToolGuyd home page before color quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint ToolGuyd home after change occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
Can you see the difference?”
Super weird
The yeti
Lol. Latin lessons on tool guyd . I see it too.
Brian Puccio
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorem_ipsum
fred
Thanks Brian
This site and its readers/commenters are great. I learn something new everyday.
Stuart
Yesss. I occasionally have to refer to a dictionary when reading an unfamiliar word in your comments, making this somewhat of a personal victory for me. =)
Stuart
hehehe.
Lorem Ipsum is gibberish. It’s a common placeholder for text, and was simpler for me to grab and use than crafting an “example” paragraph.
I don’t remember where I first saw it, but it was definitely after I started ToolGuyd.
fred
All I remember from Latin are phrases like “Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres” – or sometimes Gallia divisa est in partes tres.
My French is a bit better – because I get to practice it a bit more.
Joe
Look forward to toolguyd every lunch break…..interesting stories,deals and tool info…also you definitely go above and beyond as far as disclosing everything.
Paul K
Why would Sears want you to remove all the links? I understand that they don’t want to pay you as an affiliate any more, but what do they care if you’re still sending people to their site?
Hang Fire
I’ve been musing on this, and can only speculate. They may be considering a huge site-wide revamp. They may be anticipating the next owner of Sears will do the same, and won’t be burdened with excessive 404’s.
Or maybe they’re just too incompetent to shut down referrals, so they expect other people to do the work for them.
Mind you, this is the site where the order form crashes if you type a dollar sign in the Notes field. It’s also the site that has repeatedly charged my credit card more than the amount listed on the order form, a practice in the industry affectionately calls “fraud”. I have screenshots.
Stuart
Policy?
They asked that I take down all “offers to the Sears.com store” and I took that to mean all links.
I waited 3 weeks before doing it, only doing so after I lost faith that they’d be able to pull things together.
Sears.com is indeed riddled with bugs. I’ve had login issues, and with my last order fiasco, they managed to refund my order minus tax. Then, when they did, they refunded it as “points.”
Toolfreak
It’s a crazy move by Sears to ask a tool review site with LOTS of info on Craftsman tools and links to the products on the Sears.com site to remove those links.
I guess maybe they are going to have completely new listings for the remaining products (not likely) or they’re already anticipating a January bankruptcy and just going to sell the remaining inventory to SBD to stock at Ace/Lowe’s/online.
I’ve noticed the “Craftsman Warranty” statement on the back of the tool packaging that used to mention returning it to any Sears store or Craftsman outlet in the U.S. for replacement has since been replaced with a more generic version saying to visit the Craftsman.com website for warranty details. Guessing that means selling off the Craftsman brand and making new stock compatible with non-Sears retailers was anticipated quite awhile ago.
max
I read your articles way more than my tools needs would dictate, largely due to your policies about advertising, affiliate links, and comment moderation.
Keep rocking it!
David Burdsal
I like these changes! And I like the lighter blue, as well.
Lastly, I agree with the first comment… Thanks for the time & effort you put into running this site, running by Lowes/HD all the time, surfing Amazon… Thanks for all you do. I look forward to your daily emails!