Many former readers of Pink Truth were bothered by a blog entry there on January 26, 2007, encouraging visitors to sign up for a new 0% Discover Card account. Tracy Coenen apparently thought this was a good opportunity to transfer some of that Mary Kay debt to a new card and save some money on interest.
There was a little more to this story, however.
Anyone who followed the link in that post were also making money for Tracy Coenen. The link that took you to the Discover Card deal was an affiliate link, meaning when someone followed that link and then signed up, Tracy made some money off the deal for referring you.
I suppose that’s fine and dandy to some, and the affiliate link is clearly identified as such. It left a bad taste in some people’s mouth, such as the person who wrote me, whose comments are below:
“At that point, reading that Discover Card post, I felt sick to my stomach. Here was someone I thought was operating with the interests of women who had been burned by MK in mind. I felt like I was being used as a way for her to make a few quick buck and it was a turn off. I wrote her off that day.”
A similar post appeared on the Pink Truth site a week earlier, this time encouraging readers to take out a savings account. Again, Tracy made money if you followed the link. Here’s a link to that post:
Pink Truth post: “Start saving money now”
Hey! Maybe with all the interest you make on that savings account, you’ll have some extra money to spend on some self-serving Pink Truth merchandise!
