No Replies To Your Emails If they do have their email address on their site and you send them an email but they never reply then you should drop them like a hot rock. If you can't trust them to take one minute to give you a reply then you shouldn't trust them to spend a few more minutes cutting and mailing you a check.

Returned Affiliate Payment Checks If they do send you a check and your bank returns it then this would be another reason to draw up red flag of being scammed. Of course you should always contact merchant to try to resolve issue, it could be an honest mistake. But if it happens in conjuction with no email replies and lousy affiliate support then I wouldn't waste anymore of my time with them.

The bottom line is that you should always use your gut feeling when dealing with affiliate programs. If you are not sure about an affiliate program then search search engines for merchants name. If they are known for scamming affiliates you are sure to find it in search engines and affiliate forums.

I have heard both positive and negative reasons to open links in new windows. The main reason to do it is to avoid losing customers by sending them away from your page with no way to get back. That is what I used to do until today.

How can I tell which links open in a new window (generate a pop-up)?

A lesson in Html is beyond scope of this article but, in general, if you do not have any tags after URL in HREF tag, you are not generating pop-ups. If you have a target="_blank" after URL, it will open in a new window and is considered a pop-up.

What is an easy way to fix my links?

If you only have a few pages to fix, just edit them by hand. Pages with many pop-up links can be easily edited in Notepad or other software with a search and replace option. Simply replace target="_blank" with target="_top" (or target="_self", target="_parent" if you are using frames). If you have a lot of files to change, try ReplaceEm (http://www.orbit.org/replace/ ), a freeware program that replaces text strings in multiple files and directories.

The bottom line:

It may just be a coincidence but this morning I changed majority of my links so they do not open in a new window and saw my affiliate commissions as well as overall site traffic jump within hours!

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