Those of us ‘in the space’ often comment on the plethora of new sub-affiliate networks that are continuously popping up. They basically broker affiliate deals to a sub network of their own affiliates, which can lower the quality of advertising and make quality control much more difficult for both the network and the advertiser. As we have also seen in recent news it can many times lead to spyware and adware advertising once the ad chain of command and control passes through too many hands. Lisa Riolo, from Commission Junction, Jeff Molander, Jarvis Coffin from Burst and some people who wish to remain anonymous weigh in on this story from Clickz.

How Advertisers Get Stuck in the Sub-Affiliate Swamp “Whether it’s a dirty little secret or the elephant in the room, rumor has it some ad networks care more about the quantity than the quality of their affiliate publisher sites… When publisher affiliates outsource ad buys to sub-affiliates, quality control can be greatly diminished, especially when those sub-affiliates serve up spyware or questionable content.”

Affiliate sites realize if they take on sub-affiliates, they can bolster inventory and earn higher commissions from their parent networks. Affiliates still earn more after passing along a cut of that revenue to their sub-affiliates. (Sub-affiliates sometimes even get a bigger cut faster than they would directly from the parent networks.) Forming sub-affiliate networks “can be very lucrative,” despite industry standards, explained Lisa Riolo, SVP of business development for the Commission Junction affiliate network.”

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