Affiliate Program Scams And Issues

Affiliate Program Scams And Other Affiliate Program Issues

If you going into affiliate marketing, or venturing in that direction you have to look at the possibilities that you may encounter an affiliate scam or two, as well as, some discourteous affiliate programs that have there own interests at heart.

Protect Yourself From Affiliate Scams

Anyone can be taken in by an affiliate scam. And usually it is those that are just starting out. Why are they targeted? If you haven't worked on the Internet before you may still be of the belief that "they wouldn't do that to me". Well, erase that mindset from you mind quickly. However, I do not want you to get discouraged, because there are more good apples than bad apples. And as you will find out, the bad apples will be quickly exposed on the Internet.

Affiliate Scams come in many forms, so if you are brand new to the affiliate game it's time to take notice.

Commissions That Are Too High?

A merchant will never pay more on a commission then what they will get out of the sale itself. This is the draw for the scam.

Whatever you are selling, or wanting to sell, it is always wise to look at the commission that is being offered and if the commission is appropriate to the product or service you are selling. Here is a quick listing of what to expect for the different types of products:

1. ebooks- ebooks will give you the biggest commissions from 10% to 50%
2. products- 2% to 15% (depends upon the product or service)
3. software - 5% to 30% sometimes higher

Returned Checks

You're excited, you made a sale and you've met your threshold (what you have to make to get your commission sent to you). The check arrives, you cash it-it bounces. Time to immediately take the links off your site. Complain all you want-but it may be in vain.

Contact Information

It is always wise to check the contact information from a prospective program. If there is no contact information on the website you might be wise to look for a different program, especially if the program is not within an affiliate brokerage firm. However, that does not mean that some bad eggs do not get through. With that being said...

Even if the affiliate program is within an Affiliate Brokerage firm, I would advise checking out their website, as well as, doing a quick search through Google and the Better Business Bureau. If something is amiss, you will know rather quickly. On the Internet, information travels quickly.

Check their email address and see if they respond. If they don't respond, you have a problem.

Other Important Affiliate Program Issues

Once you have selected your affiliate programs and placed them on your site, your job is still not done. I call it the Never Assuming Affiliate Program Check and Balances. On the Internet never take anything for granted. And the word "Trusting" should be replaced with "Due Diligence". With that being said, here are thing to keep an eye out for with your affiliate programs.

Disproportionate amount of Refunds on an Affiliate Program

You can always tell if an affiliate program is in trouble or it could be a scam if you are getting a lot of refunds through your affiliate brokerage firm. This is wise to do a quick search in Google to see what people are saying about the product. (Tip: Remove links and banners as a line of protection for your business)

This alone, is one good reason to use an affiliate brokerage firm. They protect you, by protecting themselves from individuals or companies that do not want to pay their bill. The affiliate brokerage firm will honor your commission, but will tell you to take the links off immediately because after a certain date they will no longer honor the commissions of a said company.

Tip: Before signing up for a stand-alone product, compare the commission base between the stand-alone and that offered through an affiliate brokerage firm. I'll guarantee you, 80% of the time you're get a higher commission through the affiliate brokerage firm.

Not a Scam-But is Your Affiliate Program About to Fold?

You think you have some good products on your site and you're coasting along nicely. But do not neglect to click on the links occasionally. If a company is not doing to well you may find the following happening:

1. The Link that once went to the site says "Sorry for the inconvenience, this vendor is currently not available". Meaning, they are not honoring their contract agreement with the Affiliate Brokerage Firm and the Affiliate Brokerage Firm has deactivated the client from all his/her or their affiliates. It may make you angry, but it does protect you and the affiliate brokerage firm from additional lost revenue.

In most cases, when an Affiliate Brokerage Firm deactivates a client, they will notify you. And yes, it's time to take all the links off your site. Why? You won't get paid if your visitors go to the company's web page. But the company will. And...if the Affiliate Brokerage firm does not get paid by the company-your commission will be locked until the defaulting company pays.

2. If the company decides to kill their affiliate program, in most cases, the Affiliate Brokerage Firm will notify you that the company is leaving and you will have to either 1) remove your links immediately; or 2) give you a date to when the links have to be removed.

3. If banners are not being updated-warning sign

4. Not sending you new offers, warning sign

5. Commission restructure downward

6. New banners and links go nowhere-404 return. Don't believe this won't happen? It does. A company may find that the expense is not worth it and will silently leave, without a courtesy of saying they are closing their affiliate program. If you based that product or service around a web page, be prepared to hustle to get all the links and banners off your site, because those dead links can stop the search engines from venturing too far into your website.

Affiliate Programs that Want You To Pay Them

If you encounter an affiliate program that wants you to pay them to join. Click that mouse button as quickly as you can, because you are not going to come out on top. Examples of such programs are: Typing jobs. Other scenarios that can be a scam are:

Typing Affiliate Program You Don't Have to Pay For
Also be careful about putting a Typing Job Affiliate Program on your site even if you don't have to pay for it. Why? Because these people could be defrauding your customer. This alone can make those visitors that are in the "know" to quickly click away. And sadly, unbeknown to you, your creditability has been taken down a notch.

Granted, there are legitimate typing jobs out there, but my advise is simple, research the company thoroughly before putting them on your site. Here's an example of a borderline scam for typing:

What Your Customer Could Be Getting - Borderline Scam Typing Programs

The customer joins your affiliate program, but unbeknown to you the customer will find it difficult to make any money. Why? The scam perpetuates the "lack of knowledge" and the "desire of the customer" to make easy money online. Trust me, this is not easy money. They may find themselves working 7 days a week for the next 6 months trying to recoup their $39.95 or $49.95. And, within that 6 months they will find their own online reputation tarnished-they could end up being labeled as a spammer.
Typing programs are immediate pulls for the novice-don't bite.

If you find an affiliate program for typing programs-move away from the notion. It can destroy your creditability as an affiliate marketer.

Tip: If you do have an affiliate program on your site that is getting a lot of chargebacks-it's time to eliminate them.

Nigerian Scam just for the Internet Marketer

The new Nigerian Scam puts it's aim at the Internet Marketer's website. They want to do a deal with you. The deal goes like this. They will approach a webmaster with a proposal of buying space on their website. The webmaster, unbeknown that this is a scam, bites because the deal-I mean the money, is just to high to turn away.

The scammer sends the money...and the amount of the check is even higher than what was agreed upon. The scammer sends an email and states that they had inadvertently sent a check that was above the amount requested, and requests that the webmaster please send the difference back. The webmaster, thinking it is a legitimate mistake, sends the overcharged amount to the scammer. The webmaster is out the money, and the scammer is much richer. How to avoid this scam:

Check to see if they have a blog or website
Has the website been around for 6 months or more
Wait till the check clears
Request payment through Paypal-This will kill the deal immediately

To conclude, there are many, many legitimate affiliate programs and ways to make money with your website. Your job is to do your research. Yes, it's tempting to get a little lazy and not do the research. Remember, that sudden spurt of laziness, or inattentiveness, can cause you to lose revenue and jeopardize your integrity as an online affiliate marketer.

If you need to report a scam-go to my web page "Report Your Scams"

Checking Your Affiliate Program

Here are some helpful hints to protecting yourself, once you have decided on an affiliate program that you may want to advertise on your site.

Do a quick check on Google. Put the "name of the business", a plus sign, then the word "scam". If there is anything out that is a repeated offense, it will come across the Internet quickly.

Check the status of the Better Business Bureau. I've put several companies on my site, then after the fact, decided to check the Better Business Bureau. At times, I've not been pleased with what I saw-and had to take them off my site. Always check the Better Business Bureau-they can tell you the rating, if there were any complaints, and if the company resolved them quickly or not at all.

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