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Hey, Stop Stealing My Affiliate Commissions!
By Anik Singal, Sat Dec 10th
Copyright 2005 Kurma Group Don’t get offended, I was not speaking directly to you. I wasspeaking to the horrible companies who are stealing not only myaffiliate commissions, but yours too! These companies are called “spyware.” They specialize ininvading a consumer’s computer through unethical means and thenliterally replacing YOUR affiliate ID with their own! It isalmost as if you never even existed!
Not only that, they even steal your future affiliate commissionsby making sure that all future IDs are automatically replacedwith their own. Even more, they can make it so that if theconsumer goes to a website, a pop-up for a competing website(with their own affiliate ID) pops up and makes it impossiblefor you to get a sale. As you likely agree, this is a major problem and it gets biggerand bigger every day. The more we fight back, the slicker thesecompanies get. How much are they really stealing? Would you believe that studies have shown that these companiescould be stealing more than 50% of your affiliate commissions!Some studies have shown that it may even be higher, but 50% hasbeen a repeated number in more than a few studies. That means, as an affiliate marketer, you could potentially bemaking twice the money you are making now. How does work? Spyware is basically a program that consumers will download ontotheir computer. They usually get it “along” with another programthat they download for free. companies develop freebiesfor consumers to download so they can invade their computers. Then, the software pretty much takes over the consumer’scomputer. The software can replace affiliate IDs, create newcookies, make pop-ups appear and even steal passwords or otherprivate information. In other words, companies are also the masters of viralmarketing – they spread their disease via freebie informationand programs that unsuspecting consumers download. Who
pays the price? You and I. What is being done to stop it? In all honesty, not much. It is not because no one cares, butmore because the more we try to stop it, the more technicalthese companies get. As always, human eyes are being required totrack down and stop these companies. Affiliate managers and companies are becoming far more active inmonitoring their affiliates to catch spyware. Affiliates arealso becoming a bit more vigilant in reporting these companies(although not near enough). There has been a moving trend towards software products thatblock these agents. Consumers are slowly becoming moreaggressive in trying to stop their computers from being invaded(they are tired of pop-ups). How you can help in the fight against spyware? The biggest area we need to work on is by applying pressure toaffiliate networks like LinkShare and Commission Junction to befar more active. Although these companies have strictly statedthat they will immediately shut down companies, more andmore cases always seem to slip through. You cannot really blame them, since the more affiliate sales,the more money they make. But, if enough genuine affiliatesapply pressure, these companies will be forced to be evenstricter. Do not get me wrong, they ARE starting to become a lot moreactive. In all honesty, the next thing you can do, short of designing abreak-through program to stop this problem, is to be morecareful and report more actively. Any time you see an uninvitedpop-up on your computer that has an affiliate ID in the link –you can be 98% sure that it is spyware. Take the time to report it! Other than that, for now, being educated about is enough– spread the word and make sure more affiliates know. About the author:This article has been authored by Anik Singal, an extremelysuccessful and young internet entrepreneur and affiliatemarketing consultant. If you like to receive his coaching forFREE, visit the following link:http://www.AffiliateClassroom.com/free-course.html
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