As affiliates start signing up to market your products or services, even if automatically approving them without checking their websites or backgrounds, it is good idea to audit your affiliate marketing network on a regular basis to ensure everything is running smoothly. Today, the FTC are making the merchants responsible for the actions of their affiliate networks. It could cost you a lot of headaches and cash, if your affiliates get out of control with their marketing.



Hundreds of affiliates could easily sign up for your affiliate program to market your products or services. People who are hobbyists, webmasters, spammers, and even other marketers. Reviewing each affiliate on a regular basis is very important, this ensures that the affiliate is promoting your product or service in an acceptable way for your company and above all, it is totally legal.

There are some tips when screening affiliates to look at.

a) All affiliates must have an active web site, if not, they might be spammers which is something that you are not looking to represent your company.

b) The affiliate web sites content must be related to your products or services, because it would make no sense to advertise.

c) The web site should have appropriate levels of content for products.

d) Misuse of content can cause problems. Be very clear with your affiliates and what content they can use from your websites.

Affiliate fraud, fraud with affiliates has been increasing over the last several years, which is another great reason to screen your affiliates on a regular basis.

With fraud, there are two main types.

Malware, some affiliates out there have developed software that is installed on a machine, normally as part of a free download. When someone clicks on the affiliate link, the true affiliate ID is replaced with the fraud.

Fake purchase, if you have a product of high value that returns large commissions for affiliates, you may notice some bad parties signing up, then using stolen or fake credit card information to purchase products via their links.

Communicating with affiliates, good affiliates are normally busy, as they can easily forget about your services and products. As time goes by, your offers can wind up less in less visited areas or accidentally deleted.

It is extremely important to stay in contact with your affiliates, even more so with the high performers. Do not wait for them to contact you, as if you do, it normally means they are reporting a problem. By taking the time to contact them, you are showing that you are interested in the partnership.

You do not need a new product as an excuse to contact your power affiliates. Even if it is just a quick note to ask if they need anything. You can also use the opportunity for feedback on your program as well.

A successful affiliate program is not an easy task to manage or to fully automate the process, as you will have to get involved, you have no choice. Happy affiliates mean more money and profits, so if they are more productive, and the more money they generate, the more profits your company makes, in the end you become very successful.