Affiliate Networks - Working for you? A look at the attitudes and methods of affiliate networks, the giants of internet resale.	Visited: 883 5.0/5.0 (3 votes total) Rate: Select 1 - Terrible 2 - Poor 3 - Average 4 - Good 5 - Outstanding
by Jimmy McGrath August 21, 2007

I’ve noticed a trend in the last few years - that the affiliate is getting less respect and rights in the common markets. With many affiliate networks running companies with a zero tolerance kind of attitude. Even a misplaced or incorrect advertising code seems to be a reasonable excuse to exclude or terminate an affiliate these days.

Why is it strange? Affiliates “make” an affiliate program don’t they? Well that isn’t the view of the most powerful networks around on the internet today, who seem to think protecting the interests of their merchant clients is infinitely more important than the 'small' people who sell and ultimately make money for them.

I’ve known countless webmasters who have had money withheld, delayed or even disappear from the networks, all with insignificant or no reasons for doing so.

I’ve contacted various affiliate networks about their general attitudes towards their affiliate partners with repeated emails for 3 months, the only replies received were auto-responses and two hand typed emails, one stating that if I was not happy with the service I could terminate at any time! The other and only decent satisfactory reply I got was from AffiliateBot, which stated that they were continuing to improve their services and that I could contact them at anytime if their was a need for any additional resources.

It is certainly wrong that the 'small people' in the affiliate industry should be left in the cold by these large organizations that they are 'working for'. After all the small people do make up a large percentage of the income that they deal with.

Another aspect of todays affiliate networks is - What do they actually do?

A prime example is CJ or commission junction - No disrespect to them, they have become by far the largest affiliate network on the internet, and their business practice is definitely up to scratch. But what do they do? As far as I can tell, not much. Each company affiliate program approves their affiliates, CJ don’t do that. The company gives them all of the affiliate advertising tools, CJ don’t do that.

As far as I can tell the only things CJ actually does is encode urls, track data, and pay people. Which as simple as it is, it’s amazing they have become such a large online company. How do they do it? I’ve no idea, but they must have some of the best internet marketing and sales people around!

In all seriousness, well done to them, they have cornered the market and have made a relatively simple initial idea into an internet world beater.

So how do you choose an affiliate network for the first time? I’d suggest research, don’t research on the affiliate networks website as you know everything will be as subjective as ever - type in the networks name on google added by “forum” or “scam” and see what people have to say about the networks services. Don’t just type the name of the network or followed by “review”, as you’re likely to get completely subjective opinions from people who are trying to promote or sell the affiliate networks services.

So a last word for you all, be careful, and choose carefully - it’s better taking your time to decide than rushing in, advertising on your site, and then finding the network you chose isn’t right for you.