Keep in mind that the Steem whales have the most to gain if the price of Steem goes up and the most to lose if the price goes down. If you ever get questioned about it, I'd say something like:
I know affiliate marketing isn't something people do much on Steemit yet, but I think it's actually highly-beneficial to the Steem ecosystem. I'm writing posts with certain search keywords that may end up getting picked up by Google. If they do, that means more traffic for Steemit. More Steemit traffic means more Steem accounts being created, more demand for Steem, and ultimately making your Steem worth more. I'd argue that more people should be writing posts for Google's eyes. It's one thing that will help make Steem huge. Plus, if Steemians are earning money from affiliate marketing, they'll have more cash to purchase Steem Power. This would also benefit the Steem price.
I agree. But, it will need a large enough following - just as a Youtube channel.
That's exactly why I started adding affiliate links to my posts, to attempt to generate income to be used solely for 2 things: 1) buying more Steem and powering it up to increase my voting power and reward amounts, 2) paying upvote and resteem bots so that my posts are seen by more than one person.
The other day I almost spent all of my remaining SBD on a few bots trying desperately to get a couple of posts out there in front of people. The results were not at all encouraging.
This got me to thinking, I shouldn't be PAYING to post, so maybe with an affiliate link or two in most, but not every, post I could make a few cents to help with this unfortunate expenditure.
In time, as my followers increase in number and SP, the bot-use will decrease. Hopefully it works that way, we will see.
Thanks for the help!