chodadog

With chargebacks threatening to cost many program owners a pretty penny over the next few months, or their ability to accept VISA or MC altogether, why aren't affiliate programs doing everything in their power to reduce them?

One major problem, which i believe is overlooked by most is over selling a website. KK mentioned this on another board, and i think it's very true. She calls it <i>inadverdent fraud</i>. How many of you have seen galleries that promise "millions of pictures" and "thousands of high resolution full screen videos."

Fact is, most of the sites that these people are promoting don't have what these affiliates using in their sales pitch. It makes sense that this will lead to a higher rate of chargebacks than a gallery that was using a realistic description of the contents of the website.

Solution: Add a new item to your terms and conditions. Inform webmasters that they can and will have their accounts terminated for falsely advertising the website. Don't make it a guideline. Make it a proper rule. Of course, something like this would be hard to police. Random checks of referring pages would be a start, i guess. Making an example of terminated affiliates would let the others know it's time to wise up.

I also believe this would have a positive effect for affiliates. I think surfers are tired of these sales pitches. They've seen them before, and they know it's bullshit. And the ones that haven't seen it before end up being dissapointed when they arrive at the tour. Be honest. You'll have more genuinely interested surfers arriving at the front page, and a happy horny surfer is far more likely to whip out the plastic than a disgruntled surfer who has just been led into pop-up hell with a bullshit sales pitch.

Your income is at stake. The income of your affiliates is at stake. Personally, i'd be first in line to promote a program that took a tough approach on inadverdent fraud like this.

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