Inside Affiliate

Posts Tagged ‘cpa networks’

I got an email this morning with an article from mThink (Revenue Magazine) about how Hydra is dumping 15,000 affiliates off of their network.  I’m sure that every network goes through a phase where they want to tighten up their ranks and get rid of the fraud affiliates that have penetrated the approval process, but isn’t this a bit excessive?  It seems to me that the only reason Hydra would do something like this is to get some free publicity. 

The best part about all of this is that Hydra states they are doing it to separate themselves from “ad networks peddling nutraceutical diet remedies, cash grant opportunities, tooth whiteners and other non-branded campaigns of low consumer value.”  Oh, you mean the exact same type of offers that you made hundreds of millions of dollars on?  The offers that established Hydra as a force in the industry?  And now that the rug has been pulled out from under the rebill market you are focusing on other things?  How valiant of you Mr. Brandenburg!

I don’t usually post about things like this but the way that Hydra is positioning itself right now combined with their ongoing legal battles and the arrogance of their CEO has just really rubbed me the wrong way for a while now, and this new move is the icing on the cake.  I had to say something.

I feel much better now.  Back to the grind!

We had a surge of bad leads on Email & Zip Submit offers on my network in August, so I’ve been digging into where this traffic is coming from.  The thing that was puzzling me is that some of the fraud leads were coming from established affiliates that we know and have done business with for a long time.  Weird, right?

Upon further examination & questioning, the truth came out.  My affiliates were suckered into hiring freelancers that promised that they could “get lots of email & zip submit leads” for them.  Of course all the freelancers were doing is submitting fake email addresses & zip codes into these offers on a massive scale.  I’m assuming that they were paid up front for their services, so they don’t care what happens to the affiliate once the advertiser discovers the bad leads.

So… If you are cruising eLance or BlackHatWorld and find someone selling their “excellent” email & zip submit marketing services to you, don’t fall for it.  If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Long story short, here’s what will happen: you will not be paid for the fake leads, you will most likely be terminated from your affiliate network, you will scar your reputation in the industry so it will be harder to get into other networks, and you will be out the money that you paid to the freelance scammer.  There are plenty of legitimate ways to promote email & zip submit offers, if you need help just ask your affiliate manager or listen to my podcast with Andrew Wee where I discuss a promotion method.

Stay classy San Diego.