I enjoyed the article except for 2 things. The link in Joel's RSS has an affiliate code, and they made me click on a link to go to page 2. Both of these suggest the kind of incentives he's railing against.
I'm suggesting that affiliate programs are the kind of incentive he's complaining about. And the artificial need to click to page 2 is even moreso - i'ts a direct attempt to inflate page views while reducing the quality of the customer experience.
Amazon Affiliates: get people to buy something they wouldn't have otherwise considered buying. I'm reading a book review and thinking about buying it, perhaps. But if I can be referred and the entire process takes two clicks, I'm much more likely to do it. Why pay? To give reviewers motivation to it; plus, that's the marketplace. You think Barnes & Noble don't have an affiliate program?
Affiliate code for inc: That's a tougher one. I doubt Joel actually gets paid for the viewers he brings to Inc, more likely there for traffic purposes. Paid affiliates to news sites kind of scare me, yeah.
2nd page: yeah, as a reader I LOATH this, especially now that NYTimes.com has removed the 'single page' button. Not really an incentive issue, though, is it? More of a trade-off between making money and pissing off the audience.
