It would be cheating if you broker some rule. But there's no rule against recommending a product or store to family members. If it were, my sister-in-law would have never tasted the great ice cream at the Creamery on Waukegan. I'd have cheated her had I not recommended that store to her.

A customer is a customer.. It doesn't matter if they are related to you or not ==> I think your honesty is simply awesome!

I think it's good to recruit family and friends as customers. I buy from my own site once in a while just to make sure the links are working.

No way; I think that was a great idea. I was considering doing something similar; I have a squidoo page with Amazon links and was going to use it to purchase something for my daughter for Christmas, but I was scared it might be against Amazon's rules.

No I would say that was smart!