Managers Guide to Screening out Fradulent Affiliate Applications
I was reading Ian Larsen’s blog over the weekend. He has some good tips for affiliate managers about how to screen out fraudulent affiliate applications.
Phony Affiliates Prevention Guide for Managers “Affiliate marketing is prone to fraud due to the lack of quality management, unsophisticated tracking systems, invisible affiliates and the basic principals around your links and pixels. It is the affiliate managers job to follow through with due diligence and screen out the bad from the big fish.
Not every affiliate network or platform allows a completely transparent affiliate application but those that do; you can really get crazy with your investigations. The bottom line here is that you identify the quality of the site, legitimacy of the affiliate and gauge the performance of every affiliate as you bring them on. There are several things you can do to stop the phony affiliates from entering your business, choose one or all, but instinct has become my #1 adversary.”
Ian goes on to offer about a dozen tips and tools for affiliate screening.
Read the rest: Phony Affiliates Prevention Guide for Managers.
New here? Subscribe to RSS feed or follow me on Twitter. Thanks for visiting!
#1 Edwin wrote on Sunday, May 11th, 2008:
Quote: “Payment methods – Have an affiliate insisting on PayPal or other strange and not so business friendly payment method? Be careful, stick to your policy and keep your payment methods in the box.”
Some good points where made for sure, but why would PayPal be labeled as a strange or not so business friendly payment system?
I don’t have any problems with it and it seems widely adapted by businesses worldwide?
The Google street view tip is a solid one!
#2 Ian wrote on Sunday, May 11th, 2008:
Edwin,
Thanks for the comment, you’re right it is widely accepted. The point was, most businesses have fixed payment solutions/methods. Wire/ACH/Check. If those are the tools the merchant has to offer and an affiliate is pressing to open up new ways of payments, “so he’ll work with you”, your better off playing it safe.
~Ian
#3 Linda Buquet wrote on Sunday, May 11th, 2008:
Hi Edwin, thanks for raising the point.
Hey Ian, thanks for coming over to clarify.