Affiliate links in paid blog posts

Hi guys,

First time poster here, long time lurker.

I make most of my income as a content writer online right now.

One of my clients owns a rather large blog that I write for while collecting a small fee per article. My pieces for them get a few hundred social media shares usually, my best one has about 100 backlinks throughout the web, etc.

Recently, they agreed to let me drop a few affiliate links into one of my pieces as the content was relevant to the products I mentioned. One was a credit card "refer a friend" offer, and a few affiliate links from Amazon.

I'm wondering if this is common in this sphere as I've been missing out on a big way to make money, and why I don't see more people talking about "sneaking" affiliate links into stuff like these. Is there any drawback to letting writers put affiliate links into the pieces they write for a larger blog?

What's more, is there a good way of hiding the fact that you're using affiliate links should you want to drop a few in without anybody knowing? Shortening the link on Amazon seems to work okay, but if they're tech savvy they can likely see something fishy going on once the full URL appears when they open the link itself.

Would love any input here.

I wouldn´t worry about the links themselves although it is etiquete in some places to include affiliate links in posts that state they are "sponsored". To be honest, the etiquette really depends on the country. Anglo Saxon countries (US & UK) can be more sticklers for rules while latin countries (Spain, Italy etc.) are more laid back.