The self-professed "front page of the internet" has announced plans to rewrite links across the site to add affiliate referrals.
Reddit said the affiliate URLs will credit the site with the referral to approximately 5,000 merchants, excluding Amazon, and this will only happen in cases where an existing affiliate link isn't already in place.
The site has partnered with Viglink and in a post announcing the changes, Reddit user starfishjenga wrote: "Only a small percentage of users will experience this during the test phase, and all affected redditors will be able to opt out via a setting in user preferences labelled 'replace all affiliate links.'
"We’ve signed a contract with [Viglink] that explicitly states they won't store user data or cookies during this process," continued starfishjenga. "We're structuring this as a test so we can better evaluate the opportunity. There are a variety of ways we can improve this feature, but we want to learn if it’s worth our time.
"It’s important that Reddit become a sustainable business so that we may continue to exist. To that end, we will explore a variety of monetisation opportunities. Not everything will work, and we appreciate your understanding while we experiment."
The affiliate links will still work with adblockers and the outgoing links are HTTPS. Reddit said using Viglink allowed it "to integrate a much larger number of merchants than we would have been able to do ourselves."
In a follow-up post, Reddit added the site will be testing the changes directly and monitoring for user complaints. It has also updated its FAQ to answer more questions and concerns from users.
How Reddit's affiliate links will work
The redirect will be inserted by JavaScript when the user clicks the link. When they hover their mouse over the link, it will show the original destination. However, clicking it will forward users through a third-party service called Viglink which will be responsible for rewriting the URL to its final destination.
An example given by Reddit said that, in practice, if a user posts a link to a "storm trooper necklace" and they haven't opted out or included an affiliate link, when someone clicks the link it will be rewritten. This means the user will be redirected through Viglink and Reddit gets an affiliate credit for any purchase made.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
