Affiliates: Dealing With Scammers

All affiliates know this situation: You’ve signed up, got a great deal on the traffic you’re sending and the conversions keep pouring in. The problem? You aren’t being paid for your work.

Affiliation is a great business that truly tests your abilities as a marketer and more importantly – your ability to follow up and keep track on your work and progress. The most frustrating thing that can happen is to not get paid.

Internet scams are nothing new – we’ve all been offered great rewards for helping a Nigerian prince, but we know better (you DO know better, right?). The problem is that scammers aren’t always so obvious. Affiliate scams are a great example – they provide every bit of information as any legitimate operation with one difference – the money never comes in.

How do you deal with this? Here’s a list of a few ideas to consider when figuring out who you want to offer your services to as an affiliate:

Choose Wisely – Try a more well-known affiliate program. You can always research the programs on many dedicated websites that not only detail the affiliate program’s possible deals, but also include reviews and comments from other affiliates who have had a chance to take part in the program.

Product Research – Try and understand as much as possible about the product you are promoting. You may run into user comments that can really tell you the whole story – is the product useful? Does it perform as advertised? Did the client even get the product? The answers to these questions reveal a lot about how business operates, and you can be sure that a good service on one end is a pretty good indication of how things are run in the other.

Trust Your Instincts – If something looks fishy or out of the ordinary and every bone in your body screams “no!” - don’t sign up. Even if everything looks decent but you still feel like something is a little off, you may end up saving yourself a lot of time and trouble. There are many affiliation programs out there, so there really is no need to proceed with a program that will not reward you in the end.

Be Smart – if an offer is too good to be true, it probably is. With little search you will find that there are probably many similar products out there – check out their affiliate programs and compare the deals offered. If the deal in question seems too good, you might have reason to be worried. The trick is, however, to distinguish between a scam and a genuine marketing push to out-perform the competition. Usually, the better offer will be marginally better, an not offer 4 times as much.

Cut Your Losses – If you are already on an affiliate program that isn’t paying, leave as soon as possible and let everyone know you’ve been scammed. That is the only way affiliates will be treated with more respect and dignity in the long run.