Outbound links / Affiliate links

Hi all,

I am in the planning process of a new site. This will be a test for for SEO and various other things.

The type of site I am going to be building will be resource about a particular type of sporting good. Now we will offer a total guide to help purchasing this product. There will be how to guides, reviews and the list goes on.

Now the question here is, will the major search engines penalize me if I weave affiliate links into my website?

If i am going to offer a reviews section, and affiliate links leaving my site. Will this hamper the SEO that I will do on the site?

I have read alot and it seems the days of affiliate sites are almost over.

But i do not want to just build a site that has affiliate links, is it better not to have affiliate links or not just use that many?

Would monetizing with contextual advertising be better for ranking a website? and then just sell affiliate products to subscribers of a newsletter?


Any suggestions would be helpful

Timbor.