Ben Edelman published a report yesterday, saying that some Vista Print allowing affiliates to use adware to get commissions on sales they’re not responsible for. I saw the story originally at Mediapost and was a little disturbed by a couple things in the story, so I went to Ben’s site to investigate more.

I was really concerned with the fact the whole focus of the Mediapost story and even Ben’s report was focused on adware affiliates hurting the merchant’s bottom line and VPRT stockholder’s profits.

Maybe I missed it but I did not see ANY mention of the fact that using adware also steals from Vista Print’s HONEST AFFILIATES! The way I see it, if a merchant blatantly disregards the use of adware by affiliates, as Ben’s research suggests, then they DESERVE to have their profits jacked! So I see the damage in a scenario like this, as primarily being an issue of dishonest affiliates STEALING from and affecting the bottom line of honest affiliates!!!

The other thing that really IRKS me is the attitude of the President of Hydra Networks (see quote below). Basically it sounds like he is saying if the merchant allows adware, Hydra thinks it’s OK. I have a problem with that basic philosophy but I have a really big PERSONAL PROBLEM with the following! Hydra contacted me awhile back wanting to be a 5 Star network. I put them on the waiting list because I already have Advaliant and ShareResults (high integrity networks) and Google Affiliate Network is still coming on board soon, which fills my last network opening. I questioned the guy I talked to about their policy re Adware and parasites. He told me Hydra is the “Most compliant affiliate-friendly network out there” and assured me they don’t allow adware. Sounds like the info I was given was not true, so guess who is getting pulled from my waiting list???

So following are a few quotes from Ben, but you need to read the whole thing to get all the details, which includes all the networks that Ben found using Adware referrals to VistaPrint. Then following that is the Medapost article with a quote from Hydra about allowing adware.

Auditing Spyware Advertising Fraud: Wasted Spending at VistaPrint
“It’s easy to present VistaPrint as perpetrator: VistaPrint fails to adequately oversee its marketing partners. As a result, VistaPrint’s advertising spending helps fund spyware and adware programs that sneak onto users’ PCs, with serious harms to performance, reliability, and privacy.

But I also see an important sense in which VistaPrint is a victim: VistaPrint’s marketing partners are defrauding VistaPrint by claiming commissions on sales they actually did nothing to cause. Such commissions are entirely wasted, yielding no bona fide marketing benefit to VistaPrint.”

“When VistaPrint is cheated by rogue marketing partners, the costs fall in the first instance to VistaPrint shareholders. Every dollar wasted on worthless advertising leaves that much less for corporate profits, and VistaPrint’s advertising budget is already strikingly large“

And Ben… what about the affiliates that were stolen from???

MediaPost reports: Report: Affiliate Marketers Use Adware Deceptively - “But Zac Brandenberg, president and CEO of Hydra, one of the affiliate networks examined by Edelman, said the tactics mentioned in the report don’t appear to violate any VistaPrint guidelines. “We are complying with the instructions we’ve been given,” he said. “Maintaining the integrity of the advertisers’ campaigns is very important to us.”

Brandenberg added that VistaPrint allows affiliates to use adware, as long the adware providers don’t deceptively install the pop-up serving software on users’ computers.”