Affiliate
Program Scams, Legal Loop Holes, and Dishonest Crooks
We have been hosted web sites for
years (since 1997), we currently have over a dozen domains and 100,000+
web pages. We have plenty of experience with affiliate programs and
unfortunately... plenty of experience with dishonest affiliate programs.
Many of dishonest affiliate programs are exactly that "DISHONEST", You
can not legally list them on a site labeling them as a Scam because legal
loopholes and other nasty misleading tactics. So, in order to keep from
possibly being sued... we will not list the bad guys here. Instead,
we will list the Affiliate Programs we are certain or believe to be honest
in our Affiliate Programs Directory.
Affiliate Program Scams
You should be very leary and skeptical
of many affiliate programs. Be sure to carefully read the affiliate agreement
before you Apply/Sign up.
Affiliate Program Agreements
A careful look at the affiliate program agreement
can help you weed out many Misleading and Dishonest Crooks from your potential
Internet Affiliate program partner sites.
Here are important things to look for in the
affiliate agreement.
1) Payment Details, Payment
options, is money earned from page impressions,
banner
impressions, click thru's, leads, or sales (either flat rate or a percentage
commision)
2) When are payments sent
out to affiliates. Will you be paid weekly, monthly, quarterly (every
3 months), or annually?
3) Is there a payment
threshhold? Most affiliate program sponsors have a payment threshhold.
Meaning... a set minimum amount of money must be earned in order for each
affiliate web site to recieve a payment. This is very reasonable. It would
be accounting hell, expensive, and counter productive to send out $2.00
checks to hundreds of affiliates weekly. But... make sure the minimum amount
earned threshhold is realistically achievable. Most balances below the
payment threshold are carried over to the following pay period until the
minimum amount of money has been earned in order for a affiliate payment
to be sent.
4) Is there a phone number
for the business? It would be important to be able to speak with a human
if a problem should arise (ex: non payment)
Affiliate Program Scams,
Legal Loop Holes
Take a careful look at the affiliate program agreement.
Print it out and put a date on it (if there is not one already). Read the
terms carefully, specific legal wording can be used to make an agreement
appear good while rendering you powerless to collect due payment.
When linking to companies using a affiliate program
(with your code embedded link) check to see if the company uses cookies
to track repeat visitors/shoppers, you may only earn money on a visitors
initial purchase.
Once you sign up and have the links embedded with
your unique linking code, follow the path and click the link so you can
see exactly what visitors you send would see.
BEWARE OF
THE THIRD PARTY TRACKING TACTIC
Beware of companies that
claim you have no need to worry about getting credit for sales, sign ups,
leads of whatever because they have third party tracking. Honestly, the
third party may be able to track traffic. But they do not have access to
a companies cash register. Suppose they do not post that a sale was made,
or that there was a return. Boasting about third party tracking only scares
me from promoting them as they appear to be interested in achieving a position
where credit/blame can be directed elsewhere.
(example: I set up some advertising
through a "Third Party Tracking Company" on a highly targeted domain.
In the end (of a very short period) I had 141,000 page views, 8,000+ click
throughs and yielded only $31.00 in sales. If that were not bad enough.
I received a check for under $8.00.)
AFFILIATE
PROGRAMS FOR USA COMPANIES and WEBMASTERS
Aside from Offshore companies... If a company
located in the USA...
Most USA Businesses offering Affiliate Programs
have you sign a form to join. When they do... they have you give your social
security number (or business tax id #). This is so they can send a 1099
form to the IRS (Internal Revenue Service), stating that they paid you
X-amount. You must file this income as earned income if you earn X-amount
of dollars from them is equal to or greater than $500 per year (I believe
(I am unsure of the exact amount as my accountant takes care of that (I
will findout and change this soon))). This is so the company offering the
affiliate program can claim it as a expense paid to reduce thier own taxes.
So...if they do not ask you for your social security number or business
tax ID then either they do not expect you to earn $500. within a year or
they are crooks. MOST IMPORTANT: If ever you need to give your tax ID or
social security number... be certain it is in a Secure area.
SKIMMING
YOUR SALES
Are there links on there site that DROP your
linking code?
If there are links on thier site that do not contain
your code, you may not get credit for visitors going further than one click
into their site. If the company you are linking to does not offer products
or services one click deep then no matter how many visitors you send you
can not earn anything.
Do you earn money from sending visitors to
the companies homepage?
Some companies will only pay for visitors sent
directly to specific product links.
Do you earn money from ALL products you sell?
BEWARE of terms such as "Commisions on Qualifying
Products"
(example: You promote store which
offers thousands of products but "Qualifying Products" could
be extremely overpriced bandages.)
SKIMMING
YOUR TRAFFIC AND PROFIT
Are there 1-800 phone numbers plasted all
around there site?
Many of the visitors you send would rather call
than to place a order or inquiry online. Therefore.... much of your potential
income can be skimmed away.
Are there advertisements for third party companies
for which you do not earn money?
Many affiliate programs use affiliate programs
of thier own. Your hard earned traffic is sent to the affiliate site only
to be skimmed away by a third party advertisement.
FOLLOW THE
EXAMPLES OF SUCCESSFUL WEB SITES
Are other webmasters using this affiliate
program?
If you see large successful sites using a specific
affiliate program that is a good indication the affiliate program is good.
DO A LITTLE
RESEARCH
If you are going to send your valued visitors to
a third party. Do a little research. Search the popular web master forums
for complaints and/or compliments of various affiliate program hosting
companies. A good way to find scams is to search the popular search engines.
If there is a dishonest sponsor and web masters feel they are or have been
ripped off it is no surprise the word travels fast.
Example: A Search on Google for the term "linkshare
scam" will yield 11,500 pages!! Not all of them are saying that linkshare
is a scam, some just happen to have the term "linkshare" and "scam" on
their web page. Still that is quite a lot of negative thoughts towards
Linkshare. In my personal opinion and from my own experience....
I believe they are DEFINATELY A SCAM!! A little research and I could
have saved alot of time and avoided losing a lot of money.
*Note: They Linkshare was recently
sold to another company but my negative thoughts about them will remain
here. Perhaps the new company should have done some research as well
because as far as I am concerned they bought the problem. My reasoning..
suppose I bought a house and back taxes were due. I would then owe that
money. Similiarly, I feel back payments are due to many web masters.
Also.. a search fpr the term "linksynergy"
will yield close to 2.5 million results. Linksynergy is a cookie
used by linkshare to track your movements on the internet.
JOIN HONEST
AFFILIATE PROGRAMS
Click
Here for Recommended Affiliate Programs
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