Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul Markham
Yes, I think that's the future for many.
It's $15 out of Melissa's pocket.
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If they make traffic generation in house, why is that. When you close up shop. You will leave the traffic behind. No reason for the program to go.
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Because they were generating traffic in house or closing down?
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Paul, realize though that if an affiliate sending sales disappears it does not necessarily mean that a given sponsor will get all those surfers. The traffic ends up being distributed more by niche and can easily go to another sponsor within that niche. For example if I got that surfer by being #1 on Google for a given term more than likely after my site falls the #2 person will become #1 and get that surfer. This is especially the case for smaller sponsors where more than the likely that traffic will go to the bigger players. Sponsors don't just give affiliates free money for nothing. There is a reason for the system although it's importance has lessened over the years.
It's not really $15 out of her pocket because that $15 contractually really doesn't belong to her in the first place. Affiliate programs have been getting away with it for years but there is a case for calling it fraud. In theory if an affiliate wanted to really push things they could cause legal trouble. More than likely civil but it isn't unheard of for it to be criminal.
Often the programs who start ripping off affiliates are doing so out of desperation so it isn't unusual for these programs to disappear shortly thereafter. In most cases if they were doing well they wouldn't have to rip off their affiliates.