Question on how this sites makes money

[chrisswany]

I am trying to compete in the colon cleanse niche and there are two sites that are almost always #1 or #2 for most of the keywords that I use. They are review sites and actually seem to do a good review of many products. They are advertising heavy on adwords and other areas but what I can tell from their sites is they all link to all of the products directly. What I mean by that is there are no affiliate ids, or hidden redirects. They simple have a link to the reviewed product. I am wondering if anyone knows how they are making money. The only thing I can think of is who has the #1 rated product (same product on both sites) is who is running the sites and they figure 90% of the people with select the number #1 product.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Linda Buquet]

There is a guru who is selling a method of advertising that stuffs cookies. So even though these guys use a 'bare' link they are still setting a cookie so when the person clicks the bare link and buys they still get credit.

So it could be that type of trick or it could be like you said the product owner.

Check to see if they are dropping a network cookie on you when you click through.