Hey, Stop Stealing My Affiliate Commissions!
by Anik Singal
Published on this site: June 29th, 2005 - See
more articles from this month...
Don’t get offended, I was not speaking directly to you. I
was speaking to the horrible companies who are stealing not only
my affiliate commissions, but yours too!
These companies are called “spyware.” They specialize
in invading a consumer’s computer through unethical means and
then literally replacing YOUR affiliate ID with their own! It is
almost as if you never even existed!
Not only that, they even steal your future affiliate commissions
by making sure that all future IDs are automatically replaced with
their own. Even more, they can make it so that if the consumer goes
to a website, a pop-up for a competing website (with their own affiliate
ID) pops up and makes it impossible for you to get a sale.
As you likely agree, this is a major problem and it gets bigger
and bigger every day. The more we fight back, the slicker these
companies get.
How much are they really stealing?
Would you believe that studies have shown that these companies
could be stealing more than 50% of your affiliate commissions! Some
studies have shown that it may even be higher, but 50% has been
a repeated number in more than a few studies.
That means, as an affiliate marketer, you could potentially be
making twice the money you are making now.
How does Spyware work?
Spyware is basically a program that consumers will download onto
their computer. They usually get it “along” with another
program that they download for free. Spyware companies develop freebies
for consumers to download so they can invade their computers.
Then, the software pretty much takes over the consumer’s computer.
The software can replace affiliate IDs, create new cookies, make
pop-ups appear and even steal passwords or other private information.
In other words, spyware companies are also the masters of viral
marketing – they spread their disease via freebie information
and 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, but more
because the more we try to stop it, the more technical these companies
get. As always, human eyes are being required to track down and
stop these companies.
Affiliate managers and companies are becoming far more active in
monitoring their affiliates to catch spyware. Affiliates are also
becoming a bit more vigilant in reporting these companies (although
not near enough).
There has been a moving trend towards software products that block
these spyware agents. Consumers are slowly becoming more aggressive
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 to
affiliate networks like LinkShare and Commission Junction to be
far more active. Although these companies have strictly stated that
they will immediately shut down spyware companies, more and more
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 affiliates apply pressure,
these companies will be forced to be even stricter.
Do not get me wrong, they ARE starting to become a lot more active.
In all honesty, the next thing you can do, short of designing a
break-through program to stop this problem, is to be more careful
and report more actively. Any time you see an uninvited pop-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 spyware is enough
– spread the word and make sure more affiliates know.
Anik Singal, an extremely successful and young internet entrepreneur
and affiliate marketing consultant. If you like to receive his coaching
for FREE, visit the following link: http://www.AffiliateClassroom.com/free-course.html
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