The biggest act of online theft is, in my opinion, perpetrated by affiliate programs. You might think I mean the theft of commission by those mean sponsors who only register a fraction of the leads you generate them but, no, that is not what I mean. You might think I’m talking about the affiliate marketing programs that change their terms and conditions so that they only have to pay out “if” you send them enough business each month, but you’d be wrong again. You would even be wrong to think that I intend sponsors who “go out of business” just as you start to earn commission or those who suspend your affiliate account just before you’ve earned enough commission to earn a payout. Nope, there is an even bigger scam!
When did you last confirm that your affiliate sponsor pays out when the sales you generate are made by surfers from a country outside of your affiliate program’s catchment area?
I mean, does the affiliate marketing program you use to monetize your web site with ads and links have multiple online presences – one for different regions of the globe – to market products for its vendors to people in different geographic locations?
No More Amazon Ads, Yippee \Q/
Just a quick comment to let you know I’ve removed the Amazon ads that once adorned the sidebars. I’ve been considering their removal for the past month or two because they slow down the site’s page load time but I wavered on the side that some visitors might find them useful so I left them up. However, Amazon has twice adjusted its user agreement within the last 30 days. One of those adjustments changed their linking policy and the second one served to combine its Amazon U.K, Amazon FR and Amazon DE user agreements such that one agreement for Amazon EU covers all three programs. That latter change is a little guise about EU harmony and a big ruse to inflict ever more stringent rules to its affiliates; rules that heavily favor Amazon over its affiliates. As you can tell, I am not happy with the changes. To be blunt, I feel pretty shafted by Amazon and I am sure many other webmasters will feel the same once they read Amazon’s new user agreement.