By Denise Hall
Expert Author
Have you ever tried to check your stats for an affiliate program and discovered either the website no longer exists or the owner has changed the affiliate script and your link is no longer valid?
Isn't it annoying, frustrating and *absolutely maddening, * to say the least?
You've promoted a product, possibly even made some sales, and you may never get paid.
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Your efforts may have brought the program owner some cash, but there's no cash for you.
Whatever happened to common courtesy? How about business ethics? It seems they've gone down the drain when it comes to doing business on the Internet.
Don't get me wrong. Not all Internet business owners are that way. But those who are can give affiliate programs, and marketers who promote them, a bad name.
I don't know how many programs I've belonged to over the last couple of years that have gone belly-up or changed affiliate payment processors and I was no longer an affiliate or wasn't sent the new link to promote.
And who knows how long I was promoting, sending traffic and possibly sales to the owner's domain, before I knew my affiliate URL wasn't valid!
All I know is, there are program owners out there, somewhere, who owe me $10 or $20 here and there and I'll probably never see that money. It might not be much, but it's mine.
Why didn't I e-mail them about it? I did! Guess what? No reply! I'm sure they "conveniently" didn't receive my 6 or 8 e-mails.
Am I on a rant while writing this? You bet I am! I'm an honest person and I like to think I'm dealing with others who have high levels of integrity, too.
I have a few things to say to all affiliate program owners who operate in such an unethical way:
1. If you change your affiliate script, why the heck don't you move your affiliates to the new script?
2. How about sending an e-mail to let your affiliates know there's a new link for them to promote? If you need them to sign up again, just say so.
3. And here's a novel idea - pay your affiliates all money due them *before* changing or closing the affiliate program! I don't care if it's only $1 - it's *their* money for gaining you a customer!
4. As if it's not bad enough that I got screwed out of my money, what do I look like to my subscribers for recommending something they joined, then they got shafted? There goes *my* credibility and I don't appreciate it at all!
Whew! I feel better getting that off my chest.
So what can any of us do about this situation?
Unfortunately, it's not always easy to judge whether or not you're joining a *good* affiliate program. Perhaps the best thing to do is keep an eye on your stats on a weekly basis. It's not a perfect solution, but hopefully you'll be able to correct the problem within a short period of time.
And for Heaven's sake, if you run your own affiliate program, now or in the future, don't fall into the same bad habits. Treat your affiliates with respect and your name will never be "Mud.
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