Affiliate Program Scams and Whack Products

Affiliate Program Scams and Whack Products

Affiliate programs are a favorite for Internet marketers (including myself about a couple of years ago) for a variety of reasons. For one, you don''t have to worry about creating your own products. This can take a huge chunk of time out of webmaster''s time who have various websites and projects. Running multiple websites, updating content, etc and creating your own products can seem like way too much trouble.

But lately, there has been reports of scam affiliate programs. And guess what?; some of these scams affiliate programs are the same ones that get high reviews and praises from other Internet marketers. Here is the lowdown on most affiliate programs: 98% are scams and at least 25% of your true earnings are shaved and pocketed by the owner of these affiliate programs. This was made quite evident when I signed up for one of the "hottest" affiliate programs on the net. (I will keep their name''s of this affiliate program under wraps to avoid any backlash before I can provide proof, but if you want to know the name of this affiliate site, then email me at [e-mail]).

Anyway, I signed up with this affiliate program because of all the rave reviews I have read on other people''s blogs. (Most reviews are a bunch of crap as the blogger is paid a nice penny to write a good review about the company).

Anyway, I happily signed up and waited to get a call from an affiliate manager to approve me. Eventually I was approved and I went write away to get promoting campaigns. The first thing I noticed about a lot of campaigns were that they had the old played gimmick of putting a sneaky caption page on the sales page. So in other words, if the person decides not to pay for the product, the advertiser can follow up on that lead. So not only do they have a FREE lead, but your not paid for it.

Anyway, I thought this old trick would have gotten played out real quick with the whole Clickbank thing. Many affiliates have started to catch on to this, but what makes me scratch my head even more is; why the hell would the affiliate program allow such a campaign to be included in their database? I am sure there are many legit advertisers who wouldn''t mind signing up to make a little money!

There is one answer to that; GREED! One time, I noticed something even fishier with these campaigns. They are starting to add a new trick besides the old outdated lead caption page; they are starting to pretend that you will get paid! For example, I ran across a landing page that said I would be paid per sale. Well, what I noticed was the caption page had 2 sales pages. The first one was to make it seem like you were signing up for something. They didn''t give a price for the item or a "buy now" button, so the person who signs up doesn''t know they will be purchasing anything until the next page!

Anyway, after the person signs up, they are taken to another page that has a "BUY NOW" button and the price of the item. Uuuuuuuummmm......WTF!!!?? First of all, the person who gave their info in the first place is going to be pissed because they didn''t know they were purchasing anything, and they are going to leave the page. But wait........the advertiser just got a free lead and guess what else: the affiliate program gets paid for it while you get goose-egg.

This came directly from the horses mouth when I called them about the situation. I asked my "affiliate manager", why the hell are they getting free leads and I am not getting paid for it. His only explanation is "for some reason, the code can''t be inserted on the first page." First of all, that doesn''t make any damn sense, and second of all, does it look like I was born last night? UGH

The affiliate manager even went on to say that they get paid $5 for the lead!!! So I get nothing for my hard work and everyone else gets a good deal! Can you imagine the amount of money these affiliate programs and advertisers are making off of ignorant affiliates? All to promote bogus products that are worth dog-pooh.

This coupled with the fact that most affiliate programs tell on themselves with their inaccurate "real-time statistic" page showing your the amount of visitors you get to your offer. PURE BOGUS HYPE! I have heard many affiliate complain that their stats were showing hundreds of visitors when their stat counter was showing 10-15 clicks/visitors!

So, in my opinion, you should take the time to promote your own products. If an advertiser can create a whack product that no one needs and they still buy it, then you can make money with your own e-book (software, etc). At least you know you will get paid for it!

Williams is a successful article writer and author. She has written various articles for webmasters on a variety of topics. To check out some of her blog post please visit:

Affiliate Program Scams and Whack Products
Tips To Increase Number Of Sales On Your Blog
Get Paid To Write Articles
Article Marketing and Your Blog For Traffic