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Blank Generation of Internet Marketers

June 4th, 2007 · Comments

Thanks for visiting the Affiliate Tip blog. Subscribe to my RSS feed or enter your e-mail on the top right to get updates by e-mail.

I’ve noticed an increasing number of people on affiliate marketing blogs and forums that proudly detail their efforts in cheating to make money online.

They label their doings as evil tricks, grey hat, etc. All sorts of cute little names for lying, cheating, and stealing.

As far as I am concerned, any affiliate manager that works with affiliates that are known to be shysters ought to be on the unemployment line.

This all reminds me of an excerpt from the keynote at Affiliate Summit in July 2006. The keynote was delivered by Jim Bouton, New York Yankee 20-game winner, best selling author, TV Sportscaster, actor, inventor, and businessman.

Jim recalled a story about legendary golfer, Arnold Palmer. Palmer was once asked why it was that whenever he played golf with Jack Nicklaus, Jack would beat him.

Arnold Palmer explained that he “was always trying to beat Jack. And Jack was always trying to play good golf.”

Good business will win in the end.

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Tags: Affiliate Opinions

Viewing 6 Comments

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    I recently was on a Webinar for an Internet Marketing product that would help you generate trackbacks to your site.

    I was actually interested in what it could do.

    Then, I found out that what they were advertising their product could do is generate trackbacks to you, making it look like you had written about someone else's blog, without you ever writing anything about their site.

    On the call, the direct quote from this scam artist was "So you will want to find the less-savvy blog owners who won't come to your site..." to make sure that you've actually written something about them.

    Why would someone create junk?

    Oh yah... in search of the almighty dollar.

    Well, on the plus side, it does make it easier to stand out as a person who is doing good things, yes?

    Thanks for commenting on this Shawn. As always, timely and insightful.
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    Stop hatin' - your just jealous that they're making the big money.
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    Stop hatin’ - your just jealous that they’re making the big money.


    Do you really believe what you're saying?

    I've been managing affiliate programs for a decade, and for most of that time, I've been making it a habit to monitor the latest scams.

    Trust me - I know very well how to cheat.

    I don't do it by choice, because I have integrity.
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    Thanks SO much for blogging about this issue, Shawn.

    Only someone without integrity would fail to understand the point, label it jealousy and/or flagrantly flaunt their nepharious ways.

    Sadly, that lack is supported by merchants, managers and network representatives who refuse to implement policies that would stop or deter even the most obvious affiliate liars, cheats and thieves.

    For example, when I discover that one of my affiliate sites has been copied with only the affiliate links changed, I'll report the infringement with all the necessary supporting data to the appropriate affiliate manager(s) and the network, if applicable.

    Sometimes the managers respond favorably and terminate the affiliation, however, more often than not they don't respond at all.

    The most frustrating reply came from a network representative who basically said that copyright infringement didn't contravene their terms of agreement.

    Go figure.

    If an affiliate can blatantly and publicly rip off another affiliate with impunity, we have little hope for action from account reps when the thief is more savvy or subtle.

    Although I still regularly report evil affiliates, I rely primarily on karma to deal with them appropriately - not the managers.
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    I think this is a sympton of society. What has happened to trust and integrity? Yes, the goal of business is to make money for its owners. But one still has a social responsibility to its consumers and society as a whole to act in a respectable manner.

    I would not worry about "Gray Ghost", as he does not have enough class to even use his real name.
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    I missed your post from April somehow and had to comment on it anyway. I seriously start believing into parallel universes. I feel more frequent as if my experiences from the past are different from a large group of people who seem to have never heard of those obvious things. Tsts..

    Jonathan, regarding Track-back spam. You might want to check out the scam I wrote about back in January. Its rather interesting.
    Here is the Link.
 

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    June 7, 2007 at 11:21 am

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