Good decision @stellabelle, I stand with you on that one!
I generally avoid "affiliate stuff" at pretty much all costs... I do have amazon installed on a couple of my blogs; but not the way most people use it-- I only point to very specific items mentioned in the associated blog post.
Long before there was Steemit, or even the Internet, I wrote for the "Entrepreneurial Press" and specifically did a lot of writing about network marketing... and quickly became Persona Non-Grata for calling scams "scams" and burying more than a few get rich quick schemes with my pretty direct analyses.
Experience tells me that there is-- most of the time-- a direct relationship between the dodginess of a venture and the degree to which they depend on amazing affiliate promises to spread the word. Most of the time, the real math doesn't add up. These ventures depend almost entirely on whipping otherwise semi-sensible people into a blind frenzy of greed, using half-truths and omissions.
"Our top affiliates made over $20K a month last year!"
ABSOLUTE TRUTH!
Four people, in fact, did. Omits the fact that 27,000 other "affiliates" lost an average of $250 each.
"Most of our Affiliates MAKE MONEY in their first year!"
ABSOLUTE TRUTH!
51% of your affiliates made between 10 cents and $100 in their first year ("most") while 0.01% made actual money. Which conveniently is "true" but omits the fact that aforesaid 51% were earning an average of $0.02/hour for their work. A fine example of "how to lie with the truth."
It all stands and falls on greed and desperation. And-- to some extent-- on a false sense of entitlement on behalf of many who feel they are "owed" money for almost nothing.
Now, I must apologize for losing my shyte all over your comment section...