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Summary
Participating in Affiliate Programs is one
of the most exciting methods webmasters large and small can use to
build an income or even a full scale business online. Care must be
taken, though, not to participate in affiliate programs that have a lax
attitude towards spam control. Although there may well be short term
financial rewards for an Affiliate Program to encourage, permit or
'turn a blind eye' to spamming by affiliates, this will ultimately be
to the detriment of the honest affiliates in the program.
Affiliates should therefore protect their
own reputations, while also not rewarding recalcitrant affiliate
program managers, by steadfastly boycotting affiliate programs that
have an unsatisfactory history or policy in regards to spam control.
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Principle or Proposed Principle
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| APA001 |
Prior to joining any Affiliate Program,
affiliates should closley examine the Terms of Service and the Privacy
Policy of the Program. They should ascertain that the Affiliate
Program:
- Contains strongly worded anti-spamming
clauses, which provide for immediate termination without further
warning and forfeiture of accrued commissions in the event of violation
of the anti-spam clause/s.
- Guarantees the privacy of customers sent
to the Program Site by the Affiliate, including assurances that
customers will not be contacted by email by the Program or associated
parties (other than for purposes directly associated with processing
and verifying orders and delivery) without their clear, express, prior,
optional and voluntary consent - and that such consent may be easily
revoked by the customer at any time.
Affiliates should refrain from joining programs that do not meet these
criteria. |
| APA002 |
Prior to joining any Affiliate Program,
affiliates should conduct "due diligence" into the program and company
offering the program to ascertain whether the company/program has a
history of spamming, inaction on abuse reports, or privacy violations.
Such "due diligence" should include searching the archives of
discussion lists, newgroups and other forums, as well as researching
the commentaries on the program provided by several of the well reputed
"affiliate program directory" sites.
In conducting such "due diligence" affiliates should be aware that a
single complaint may not of itself be sufficient to conclude that a
program should be avoided. (It may have been a misunderstanding, a
malicious post, etc).
Affiliates should not join Affiliate Programs where, after conducting
"due diligence", there are reasonable grounds to believe that the
Program or it's operators have a record of spamming, ignoring abuse
reports regarding spamming by affiliates, or privacy violations. |
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