The sheer extent of the problem of fraud in the Affiliate Marketing space was very well pointed out this week when a specific issue was raised on the AffSpot Forums (and elsewhere) by Peter Bordes of MediaTrust (You can read the original thread here). Which highlights the evil ecosystem of affiliate marketing fraud.
Some people were posting on “freelancing” sites that they needed freelancers to obtain and sell accounts on more than a few networks! Now think about this for a second. People are actually advertising for (and willing to pay for) accounts on affiliate networks! And what kinds of things are keeping them from just signing their own accounts up for themselves? Well, the first thought is that they’ve been “kicked and banned” from every network for one.
It was pointed out (in this thread) of a possible scenario. Which seemed to me to be valid. Let’s say there is an person that has learned over time that they can put up a particular style of landing page.. And that it converts well if they can forward traffic from Craigslist. So they do. And they make a few thousand dollars a week. They receive their first check from the program (via the network carrying the offer) and then the merchant gets a message from Craigslist to “cut it out”. So they tell the network, the network looks at the affiliate… And they kick them off the network (to make the merchant happy).
Okay.. Work the money side of this scenario. Affiliate.. makes some bucks. Network… makes some bucks. Merchant… makes some bucks but needs to make Craigslist happy. So what does this particular person do? They find similar offers on other networks and do it all over again! And over time a cycle of account creation, destruction occurs such that before long the affiliate can’t get onto networks and/or programs.
What to do? Why, get someone else to qualify for the networks and programs and sell the accounts to you! All so you can maintain the cycle over and over because you can make some dollars.
So, it’s obvious that this is not a sustainable business model. But so many disreputable people are doing this very thing that there is actually an open market for network accounts! And PayPal accounts. And such a large market that there are pages of postings on “freelancing” type sites with people willing to buy and sell these accounts. And they’re hurting your business!
And this cycle only highlights an ecosystem where the dishonest are defrauding merchants and networks. And collaborating with others such that an entire underground industry designed to defraud merchants, networks, and affiliates alike is occuring. Thus is an evil ecosystem of affiliate marketing fraud that we must fight against.
For the vast majority of us in this industry behaving in this manner is unthinkable. And rightly so. But the few who are engaging in such behavior are forcing costs to increase for our merchants, OPMs, networks, and that’s less money available for our profits. Let alone that engaging programs and offers for your sites are getting more difficult as ethical networks are having to do more intensive screening of affiliates. With time = money that’s costing your business too.
Here’s the real mystery…. I’m not seeing many networks willing to take a powerful public stand to end the continuing practice of buying and selling their accounts! It seems to me that some networks care more about keeping the status quo (and short term profits) instead of building a more sustainable business.
Is this going to change? Well, not as long as Affiliates are not engaged with their networks about it. If every affiliate would add in their communications with the networks they are active with (and applying to) about where is their public blog and are they taking an active role in both preventing fraud on their network and encouraging others to do the same.. well, the networks would listen to that. Same if the merchants and OPMs did the same.
The blackmarket dealing in network accounts is hurting our profits, our reputations, and our industry. And this issue is just as important as fighting unfair affiliate taxes. It’s time we focus not only on our own endeavours, but in advancing our industry for our collective long term benefit.
Start discussion.....