The Affiliate Marketing Industry Can Be Real Shady… And You Know It.

Posted in Affiliate Marketing on May 29th, 2008 by Amin

I’m talking about these types of offers you find on CPA networks: ringtone offers which incur hefty recurring payments for the consumer, ‘debt free’ loan offers which charge the recipient ridiculous repayment rates, ‘bizz-opp’ products which only mention the large weekly/monthly subscription payments in the small print, the list goes on and on…

Ultimately, it is down to the consumer to make sure they read the damn small print. But a major part of this business is to make the lead/purchase occur as fast as possible: landing pages are optimised to convert well and convert FAST. A typical zip/email/cell submit page is entirely focused on getting the consumer to enter their details in the field and hit submit without pausing to read the small print, which is conveniantly displayed at the bottom of the page in a font which challenges you to read it all the way to the end without causing your eyes to water.

If you promote these kind of offers then you know what I’m talking about.

I would personally never fill in a email/cell submit myself, or recommend a friend or family member in debt to apply for one of those debt solution/loan offers, and I’m sure you wouldn’t too.

So why do we do it?

In case you’re wondering, I’m not taking a ‘holier than thou’ stance. I myself have promoted offers I deem as ’slightly shady’ in the past, in fact, I’ve got a few running now too. Heck, I even made a post about one of my ‘debt free’ campaigns last month.

But I’m interested to know WHY we do it.

It seems like it all boils down to greed - those offers pay damn well after all, don’t they?

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2 Responses to “The Affiliate Marketing Industry Can Be Real Shady… And You Know It.”

  1. SlightlyShadySEO Says:

    We do it because it’s the only way to compete. Sketchy offers with hefty recurring payments can afford to pay us more, and affiliate marketing is insanely competitive. You can’t afford to be promoting the 3rd or 4th best offer. You are forced into worrying about conversions and payout, not the product quality.

  2. watch tv Says:

    ….because they make US money.

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