Affiliate Marketing Scams

If you are new to affiliate marketing, you must know that there are as many affiliate marketing scams in internet marketing as there are legitimate business opportunities, or probably even more. I’ve helped numerous newcomers who enter affiliate marketing with hopes of earning only to be disheartened and robbed off their money and time by affiliate marketing scams. Unless you want to be one of them, I suggest you arm yourself with knowledge about affiliate marketing scams.

Affiliate Marketing Scams Red Flags

Red Flag #1: No Affiliate Support

Absence of affiliate contact support: If you come across an affiliate marketing program with no contact information like toll free phone numbers, emails addresses and contact forms, then you probably have hit one of the affiliate marketing scams. But just because a program does have the necessary contact information does not ensure its legitimacy.

Red Flag #2: No Website Or Real Product Or Service

Absence of a website: A legitimate affiliate marketing program MUST have a website with detailed information. Affiliate marketing scams often don’t have this information. But again, just having a website is no guarantee that the opportunity is a legitimate one.

Affiliate marketing scams sometimes lack an actual product or service: If the idea of earning money is the only thing they talk about, it’s highly like that it’s one of the affiliate marketing scams or maybe a pyramid scheme, which of course is illegal in the United States. If the only way the program earns its revenues is from the new comers’ fee, you should not sign up at all costs.

BIG Affiliate Marketing Scams Red Flag #3: Look For Blog Comment Spammers

One way you can spot affiliate marketing scams is simply by checking around the internet to see if you find blogs where affiliates are posting their links IN their comments. As any good affiliate knows that’s something that will instantly get you labeled as a blog comment spammer and could be a tipoff that the company being promoted is one of the countless affiliate marketing scams.

In fact, I would STRONGLY recommend you stay away from ANY training where you find affiliates posting their links within the comments as any experienced affiliate marketer knows that is considered affiliate marketing spam. And my guess is that you don’t wan to be labeled as a spammer.

Red Flag #4: Excessive Bad Press

Excessive bad press: Do some research about the program you have just heard about with help from the good old Google. Don’t forget to include “scam” or “reviews” in your keywords. If you come across lots of people who have nothing but negative things to say about a program, it is wise to move on. But don’t take a single negative review to be the determining factor of affiliate marketing scams either.

Also there are countless affiliates who will try to rank for the program name along with the word scam and then actually post that the product they’re promoting is not a scam. Most reputable  affiliate marketing companies no longer allow these types of tactics.

Red Flag #5: Fake News Site Promotions & Affiliate Marketing Scams

Many affiliate marketing scams are promoted by fake news sites. Even the fake news sites with an advertorial disclaimer at the top almost always lead to  affiliate marketing scams. In fact I’ve tracked thousands of fake news sites promoting affiliate marketing scams and warned people about them over the years.

Red Flag #6: Too Good To Be True Opportunities

Affiliate marketing scams are usually too good to be true opportunities: Yes, affiliate marketing is a great way to make many but it is no magic bullet. So, if you come across affiliate marketing opportunities that promise to make you rich overnight, you’ve just found one of the affiliate marketing scams.

Red Flag #7: Programs That Steal Your Commissions

Scams that steal your commissions: there is a long and disturbing history of merchants who steal their affiliates’ commissions. To avoid such merchants engaging in these types of affiliate marketing scams, stay away from the floater box technique (the one in which pop-up boxes known as a browser helper objects encourage the customer to register right away by entering his info into the box). Also you should normally stay away from merchants who offer you free websites that you don’t control because with free websites, you don’t know the stats of who visits or what actions occurred due to which you will have absolutely no knowledge about whether or not your receiving all of the commissions due to you.

These are just a few affiliate marketing scams red flags you must avoid to protect yourself from being scammed. Stay safe!