Hi Daniel,
With bloggers and forum owners fighting constant battles against spam comments and people trying to "sneak" affiliate links into comments and posts, it is basically seen as very poor form to do it.
However, if you are ever tempted to push a link in either a blog or a forum you should first read the site's rules, the affiliate program's rules, and then and only then, if you are not breaking any of those rules should you even consider posting that link. (Blogs will often not have any posting rules, but that is not to say your affiliate link is acceptable - there are unwritten rules when it comes to blog commenting and you can easily find your reply labelled as human comment spam). If the owner/moderator of the site thinks you are out of order you will at best find your link deleted or at worst yourself deleted or blocked from future posting at the site in question, so you need to consider your action very carefully.
A great many bloggers will simply delete your entire comment if they think you are just trying to blag some free advertising for an affiliate program and possibly ban future comments from your IP, report your comment as spam, give you a public tongue lashing etc etc. (I would normally expect to see a link to a blog via the comment author's name. Anything else makes me look more closely at the comment). Whilst there may be instances where I feel an affiliate link is OK they would be very few and far between. Basically whatever the outcome, thoughtless posting of affiliate links in these areas will do you more harm than good in the long run.
If you think you have the ideal product or service to recommend in response to a question in a forum or a discussion on a blog, it is better to invite anyone interested to contact you for a URL if they want to know more, or perhaps mention that you have posted about the subject over at your own blog. If they are interested they can go there for more information and you won't have put anyone's nose out of joint. Be honest about being an affiliate too because a lot of people hate to feel that they are being deceived, even if that is not your intention, some will perceive it that way.
Hope that helps some.
Mo
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