Select Page

Soon you will have many affiliates signing up and even if you are set up to automatically approve you will want to keep a close watch on your network. The Federal Trade Commission is holding marketers liable for what their affiliates do. You will have large numbers signing up and some of them will great marketers and others will be spammers. Overall, you will want to keep close tabs on who is doing what to promote your product especially the legality of it.

Here are some good tips for screening:

•    Require your affiliates to have a website
•    The affiliate site must be compatible to your product
•    The site should have a good amount of information
•    Make sure they know how much of your content they are allowed to use

Affiliate fraud

Fraud is an ever-increasing problem in the affiliate-marketing field. This has been on a steady increase over the past few years. This is yet another reason to be on the ball with your affiliates. There are two main types of fraud in affiliate marketing, malware and fake purchases.

Malware is a computer program developed to install on a computer as part of a download. Then when someone clicks on the affiliate link, the malware replaces the good id with a fake one.

Fake purchases are most common on high yield products. In other words if your product pays large dividends on a sale then it may be targeted for fake purchase. Unscrupulous people signing up and making purchases with fake or stolen credit cards through their own links accomplish this.

Communicating with affiliates

As with any good business, communication is key. Especially if your affiliates are busy, take the time to check with them about your product and services. This acts as a gentle reminder for a busy affiliate. You do not want your products and services to end up in low traffic areas or worse yet deleted. So remember to stay in close contact, particularly with high performers.

If you wait for them to contact you, it is usually a problem they are reporting. Moreover, do not wait until you have a new product to offer to contact them. Affiliates appreciate the small how are you doing messages it shows them you are interested in them and willing to be a true partner. This is also a good avenue to request feedback on your program.

To be successful, you will not be able to leave this program on autopilot. Careful communication leads to happy affiliates and increased sales. The more sales that are made the more money you and your affiliate will make. And that keeps everyone happy and productive.