Marketplace

Affiliate Marketing is a huge industry and is a legitimate way to make a lot of money online. Some of the biggest and smallest companies in the world have legit affiliate programs. However there are many that insist on doing things the illegal way. 

Affiliate Marketing Scam Examples

Like any other online industry, there are plenty of scams doing the rounds in the world of affiliate marketing. Scammers (unfortunately) are always trying to find new ways to make money off innocent affiliates.

These are some of the most common affiliate marketing scams we've come across.

1. Fake Affiliate Marketing Training

Most newbie affiliates like to do a training course to get started in the industry. There will be hundreds of people trying to sell you a course, an e-book, a webinar and various other kinds of information. Do your research before you pick your training program.

Many of these training programs are often nothing more than a rip-off. You don't actually learn anything useful and you're out whatever money you spent, as well. At the most, you might get an e-book that is full of fluff and no real, actionable lessons. So make sure do your training with a well known name.

2. Get-Rich-Quick Offers

The reason affiliate marketing gets such a bad rap is because of the proliferation of get-rich-quick offers everywhere. They promise you will make thousands of dollars overnight, or that you can just work 2 hours a day and have $5,000 in your bank account at the end of the week.

Don't fall for it.

If anyone tries to sell you a "secret system that works," don't believe them. Legitimate affiliate marketing takes a bit of time to learn and while you will make money from it, it doesn't happen overnight. You need a strategy and you need to implement it well before you make any income.

3. No Product/Service to Sell

Affiliate marketers make their money by promoting someone else's product or services. If a company is promising you thousands of dollars in income, look closer. What is it that you're actually selling? If there is no actual product or service, it's nothing more than a scam.

These affiliate marketing "opportunities" are designed like pyramid schemes where no one is actually making any money. You make an investment to join the program and after that, money is just passed around from one person to the next. These schemes are totally illegal! You will lose your investment, and you're not going to make any affiliate income from it, either.

4. Pay-To-Join Programs

Real, legitimate affiliate programs are free to join. An authentic affiliate program should be risk-free for affiliates. You should never have to pay a fee to sign up to a program. If you are asked to pay a fee to join, steer clear. It is most likely an illegal multi-level marketing scheme. (My Comments: Here is what i don't agree with in this section. There are fees to join or use programs, so saying you should not have to pay to join is not accurate, However you should not have to pay to join the affiliate program. Not all Multi-level Marketing companies are a scam, They are a scam if they don't have a Product or Service of their own)

5. Domain Name Scams

This was a popular scam doing the rounds a couple of years ago. Say you owned the domain abc.com. You would receive an email (usually from China) telling you that someone is trying to register the domain name abc.cn in China. They are emailing you out of concern as they have noticed you own the .com domain. They want to make sure your trademark is protected in China.

If you fall for the blatant lie, they will tell you as the original owner of the particular business name, they will give you preference. So you have the right to register the abc.cn domain name with them, first. You will be sent a price list and they will make money off you by making you purchase a domain name that you didn't ever need.

There are a few other variations of this type of scam, so beware of any random emails concerning your domain names.

www.affilorama.com

Avoiding Affiliate Marketing Scams isn't easy, Here are a few tips to help you.

Before joining any program or affiliate program you be doing your research on the program. This is called "Due Diligence" and is the most important thing you can do to protect yourself from being scammed.

Do a search for the program in Google, Look for reviews and scam reports. A good way to search for them is by adding the words scam, ripoff, or review after the name of the program. Then read them carefully. 

Next go to the companies main website, and read the Terms, FAQ's, and How it works. Most legitamate companies have a professional looking site. If you find a bunch of misspelled words, and sentences that do not make sense. Stear clear.

Compensation percentage is a huge factor, Not a single legitamate company will pay you 100% commission on anything. There are some that will go as high as 75% however the most common commission is between 15 and 50 percent.

Last but not least, If it sounds to go to be true it usually is.

Todd Perry

Skype: nascardei8

© 2019,Todd Perry. All rights reserved. on republishing any parts of this post, you must supply a link to the original post