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Affiliates - protect yourselves from this situation by selecting affiliate program carefully.
Ask yourself these questions.
Has site existed for more than a year? Is it clear what site is providing and are terms and conditions of affiliate program explained clearly and comprehensively in simple language? Are there good online reviews of program in websites or discussion forums? Does program provide realtime commission stats online? Are ready-to-use affiliate marketing tools available?
Shady Practice #2
Affiliates are sometimes guilty of misleading or false advertising - making claims or promises about product or services which are totally untrue or greatly exaggerated.
Shady Practice #3
Illegal use of logos, trademarks or other branding. This includes infringement of intellectual property rights and violation of copyrights.
Shady Practice #4
Spamming.
While legitimate affiliates are jumping through hoops to comply with can-spam laws, shady characters continue to find their way around it.
Shady Practice #5
Affiliate link hijacking is replacement of your affiliate id with hijacker's in affiliate link.
You don’t get your rightful commission - hijacker gets it instead by buying through his own affiliate link.
It's best if you can avoid displaying your affiliate link and affiliate ID in browser address bar.
One technique uses a zero-frame or invisible frame to make it appear you are sending visitors to a page on your website when, in fact, you are really sending them to your affiliate link.
To prevent hijacker from viewing web page's source code to see that you've loaded an affiliate link, use javascript encryption to scramble page code or software to prevent source code from being viewed.
Make no mistake about it...
In any area of human activity, particularly where there is money to be made, there will always be people who try to cheat, exploit gullible and do harm.
The proper way to engage in affiliate marketing is to act ethically, build a relationship of trust with your prospects and customers then provide value by consistently exceeding your customers expectations.
And this applies to any business either online or offline.
Keith Rougvie is an ethical marketer. To get the free ebook "How To Pick And Promote Affiliate Programs" and other free resources, advice and recommendations visit http://www.make-money-online-website.com