Keeping It Clean
Affiliate Marketers make a lot of money. Not all of you, but a lot of you do. If you have made a lot of money in Affiliate Marketing, chances are you have had to tread the line between what is ethical / fair / moral, and what is not. It always turns out that the campaigns that make the most money are the ones that take the consumer right to the edge of what they are willing to pay for / sign up for / get involved with.
First let me say there is nothing wrong with this. Good marketing is the same as good salesmanship, and it takes a good salesman to make somebody get out of their own way and take action. But there are plenty of those that routinely cross over the line, and it is these people that worry me.
The reason that Affiliate Marketing works is because advertisers are willing to pay for what you have to offer. They want real customers, real leads, and real results. When bad affiliates scam offers or send fraud leads, they are not just ripping off the advertiser, they are also doing a disservice to their fellow affiliates. Yes, I know, advertisers do shady things too, but the ones that do go out of business sooner or later, because what goes around comes around.
I guess what I’m trying to say is this: If you aren’t careful what you promote and how you promote it, you could set things in motion that will make it much harder for you (and everyone else) to make money online. It doesn’t have to be that way, and if you focus on doing real marketing, and not scamming people into things they don’t want to do, we can all continue to see the increases every year that our industry has enjoyed since its inception.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying don’t be creative. I’m not saying you can’t ride that line and market on the edge. Just avoid outright deceiving people or spending your time thinking about how to cheat the system. There is plenty of money to be made in this industry legitimately. There are millionaires being made on a monthly basis. Just make sure that you are truly an Affiliate Marketer and not an Affiliate Scammer.
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[...] Keeping It Clean – Josh Todd writes on the GetAds blog about why mischievous affiliates are making it harder for the rest of us to make money. [...]
[...] Keeping It Clean – Josh Todd writes on the GetAds blog about why mischievous affiliates are making it harder for the rest of us to make money. [...]
[...] I always say “Market with Integrity and Everyone Wins!” However I’m sure that for affiliates who want to make the big bucks, it’s not always easy to draw the line between what’s legal, ethical and RIGHT for the consumer and what borders on being a rip off offer. Josh Todd from the GetAds blog has some good advice! Keeping It Clean [...]
Got examples to illustrate the statement how “it always turns out that campaigns that make the most money are the ones that take the consumer right to the edge”? I think I understand what you’re saying, but just want to make sure… Also, are we talking this in the context of the so-called “CPA network” affiliate marketing?
I love posts like this. This is exactly the kind of thing that we believe very strongly in here and try to relay to affiliates as much as possible. Affiliate scammers only hurt prospects overall, and it makes the industry of performance marketing, as a whole, just that much more attractive for merchants, affiliates and consumers when people run solid, honest campaigns.
Great post, Josh.
I mean that a lot of successful campaigns work because they are shocking, or extremely creative in getting the conversion. Usually this means they are saying or showing something on the landing page that, while not outright deceptive, is very appealing to the consumer so they have less hesitation in signing up.
This is a very good article. I have seen more and more of the “scammy” type of offers creep in even on my local news site. I think in addition to hurting the industry, that site owners should be more aware of how it hurts them. I think that it cheapens and devalues the content of your site if you have borderline legitimate offers flashing around your pages.
I’m an advertiser just trying to break into affiliate marketing. I’m researching the possibility of starting my own network and I’d like to think that most are Affiliate Marketers and not Scammers. Any tips on getting started. I’m looking at using Has Offers. What do you think?
You make a great point here. It is very hard for some people to draw the line when it comes to making money.