Quote:
Originally Posted by pompousjohn
This. Join submit is basically an email submit, no payment information. A lot of people feel they can get more joins if they don't mention the price till the second page, and I tend to agree, however it also dramatically increases join submits by people who are never going to buy anything, ever.
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It also allows the sponsor to build a database of emails to use to try to sell memberships later. Or in some cases to push other programs. Guess what the affiliate usually gets for this? If I were an unscrupulous sponsor I might even rig it so any affiliate sent join is automatically declined 9/10 times. Then instantly (or an hour after the affiliate cookie expires if with the same processor) send an email using another processor and offer them a $5 discount for the inconvenience. This way you cut out the affiliate who originally sent you that join and even with the $5 discount you still come out ahead.
Affiliates need to be vigilant and check their sponsors for these things. Sign up a new fake email address to one of these forms and see what gets sent to you. You may be surprised.
Cardinal rule: If I'm not making money from my traffic my sponsors shouldn't either!