Affiliate Scams Versus Affiliate Opportunities
Selling Tangible Products Instead of Empty Promises
A scam affiliate program sells virtual air. That is that it sells nothing. It sells the idea of getting rich. They pitch you a bunch of eBooks or training materials that are supposed to give away the latest and greatest secrets to making money online. They might also sell you a website that is a duplicated copy of the website you first visited when you were drawn to the program. The only difference is that your website is encoded with your personal id. Then, your job becomes the task of drawing people into the same program you just signed into when you were promised a million dollars in three weeks. So, how do you see them coming? An affiliate scam asks you for money. They ask for your credit card number and they promise you everything under the sun.
A legitimate affiliate program is full of merchants who are trying to sell real products or services. Merchants sign into such programs as ShareASale.com. A team of sales people, known as affiliates sign up for the merchant program if they like it. A sales person looks over the merchant's merchandise and determines whether it's salable. A merchant might be selling shoes, furniture, pharmaceuticals or anything else that online buyers might want. There is an actual tangible product or service. Sales people who spam potential buyers lose their affiliation. So, what's the difference? If you can't see it already, it comes down to the fact that merchants don't ask for a credit card number. They ask for a W-9. You fax them a W-9 only after you've been approved. At ShareASale.com, this can take up to two weeks depending on the merchant. Some merchants allow for automatic approval.
In my book Making Money, available free, I detail how to market just about anything. If you look at the growing trends throughout the internet, there will always be a perfect market for you. Online casinos are hot right now. Becoming an affiliate of an online casino can be profitable if you look at the terms and conditions that apply. For instance, fulltiltpoker.com is one of the most lucrative casino sites. It has found its way to remain perfectly legal in light of U.S. legislation and you can gain an affiliation through them if you choose to promote the site. To further improve your income, sell poker merchandise through a merchant who sells such things as chips, cards and tables. Make a generic website like mine, and you can make money all day long.
Likewise, you can simply sit back and think about the trends you are faced with every day. Health is a big push these days and you can become an affiliate of such merchants as Native Remedies who have treatments for mood enhancers, brain stimulants and cures for such things as ADD, ADHD and autism.
Legitimate merchants exist all over the internet and they love the idea of a team of sales people who are willing to do all the selling for them. Some of them have some of the greatest compensation plans available. If you know how to increase traffic to a site, you'll do very well in sales on the internet. After all, the internet is responsible for making millions of millionaires. It just doesn't happen the way the affiliate scammers make it sound. Download Making Moneyfor free and learn how to drive traffic. Then visit ShareASale.com and look around for a merchant who best fits you. That's the real way to make money online!
Published by Michael Allen
Michael Allen is the author of Thoughts and Reconsideration, A Danger to Society and When You Miss Me. His works show his wide range of writing from a novel to a children s book, and now a journey in poetry.... View profile
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- It comes down to the fact that merchants don't ask for a credit card number, they want your W-9.
- A scam affiliate program sells virtual air.
- A legitimate affiliate program is full of merchants who are trying to sell real products or services
8 Comments
Post a CommentSince publishing this article in 2007, I have forgotten about the book that I promise for free. It's not that I have a problem giving it away. Never have. It's just that I keep moving it. It was first published on Lulu. Then, I put it on Scribd. Now, I'm just going to put a link up where anyone who wants the PDF can download it and the link will stay up forever...well, as forever as I can be:
http://michaelallenonline.com/pdfcollection/Making-Money-The-Techniques-of-the-Gurus.pdf
Grab the Supplement while you are at it. Has more information, very relevant to today!
http://michaelallenonline.com/pdfcollection/Making-Money-Supplement.pdf
These books are years old and some information is outdated, but a promise is a promise and in these locations they will remain!
I have been scammed twice by shareasale-once for 3200.00 in sales commissions and once for 1190.00 in commissions-the second time my affiliate account was suspended and I was not given a reason-I guess that is why they are so successful-why pay out to your affiliates when all you have to do is suspend and keep the commissions-I searched the terms and could not find any violations on my part-I also often wondered if they were being honest about the sales records and commission payouts-and how many reviews were written by shareasale employees?
ShareASale is a scam. As soon as I ordered payment, they just banned my account. I was promoting multiple merchants which had no any complains. ShareASale just banned an account for no reason. I've been using dozens of other affiliate networks without any problem. ShareASale has been the dishonest affiliate network I have ever used.
This article was brought to my attention again and I wrote it over two years ago. I'm glad that people are still reading it and that it's been able to stay relevant. But, my business model has a changed and along with it some of the links. For instance, the link to Full Tilt Poker no longer works. I'm not promoting that anymore. And like I said, this happens. Especially after years of working a business model and making changes that work best, there are some things like articles and links across the internet that are going to stay...for lack of better words, uninformed.
My apologies. I wrote this article over a year ago when it was free and then just recently decided to put a price on it having forgotten all about this article telling everyone it's free. Things like that happen. I'm actually going to rewrite it, update it and then offer it free again.
So is your book free or not? I went to download it but it has a price!?
Thank you! It's hard to distinguish a book called Making Money Online from all the scams out there. But, I really don't let that bother me. Those who find it will appreciate it. Others will just walk away without knowing anything about it.
I downloaded your book from Lulu and I loved it. Love the fact that you are honest. I have been conducting my business online that way as well.
My father is a writer and I can't wait to tell him about Lulu.com.
Best Wishes,
Alicia