Affiliate Marketing is a Game of Blind Faith

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The following is what Rexanne Mancini of Rexanne.com had to say in response the the question, What is wrong with affiliate marketing and how can it be improved?

My biggest gripe about affiliate marketing is that as affiliates, we are basically stuck with trusting the tracking and integrity of merchants.

While I’m assuming the majority of online merchants are honorable, I have seen firsthand how, when switching from a large, usually corporate non-performing merchant to a smaller, mama-papa merchant, sales increase overnight.

This has left me wary of most big corporate online merchants. Without the ability to track our own traffic and clicks to sales ratio, we are at the mercy of merchant integrity and potentially corrupt software.

In a brief stint as an affiliate manager, I’ve seen how easily affiliate tracking software can break down and stop tracking correctly.

Whether this is the problem or less than honorable merchants is the problem, it still remains a thorn in my side to have to accept having so little control over these statistics.

How would you answer the question, What is wrong with affiliate marketing and how can it be improved? There are no right or wrong answers - just opinions that can help improve the industry.

The author of any response that is published at affiliatetip.com or affiliatesummit.com will receive a limited edition “It’s an affiliate thing, you wouldn’t understand.” t-shirt.

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