I have a plug in that stealthily converts links to merchant web sites into affiliate links.
It all happens in the background and it doesn't change the look of the link.
So, it's not obnoxious.
This is all done through a service and they take a cut of the affiliate payout and then pay me my share.
Fair disclosure, it's added up to $25 over a year. So, it helps, but I'm not giving up my day job.
There is a feature that can automatically turn words into links, but I think that IS obnoxious. If there was a way I could turn it on only for non-registered users, I might do it, but at the same time I wouldn't want to put off potential new members.
I did post about this when I turned it on so that you all knew what was going on... I'll go find that thread in a second..
It works for a LOT of merchants. So, just about anything you look at online could be a potential affiliate pay out through this system. But some merchants even pay just for the click-throughs as they see it as a successful advertisement..
It just has to be a link posted here and then clicked through from here.
This same service is what gives me the list of the weekly deals that I started spamming you guys with. I tried to keep those posts in appropriate forums and hopefully they work to give you inspiration for purchases for yourself or as gifts. That's how I have seen them myself. I wanted to make it more like a service to you rather than a money maker for the site.
If I just wanted to make money, I'd flog get rich quick schemes and shit like that.... Which I actually do elsewhere on the web (with no success at all, by the way. Absolutely zero.)