It kinda makes sense to me. By being able to see if the affiliate has a legit site and already got paid by other programs the affiliate is less likely to be a fraudster.

I think with so many affiliates joining PPS programs planning to scam the program with stolen cards, prepaid cards (that wont rebill) and chat traffic, it makes sense for an affiliate program to ask for some references regarding stats/referrers/payouts.

I think more and more programs will start asking for this. If you look at how many programs closed their doors or completely stopped paying lately it only makes more sense that the affiliate programs that are still around are trying to protect themselves for any possible fraud as much as they can.

none of the above, they need to see how much do you make to adjust the shave feature.

sometimes when I am approving applications I get webmasters that list google as their website or say they are from the US when they're not (South East Asia is where they are usually from when they misrepresent their location). I see red flags I click deny. I may suggest some changes to our application but I wont be asking for screenshots, that seems just a bit overboard to me.

Or sites loaded with content that's possibly child porn.
Or today sites using free content to load Tubes with that never send anything.

Affiliates are the MOST expensive part of this business by a long long way. In these times it seems sensible to make sure they can produce a profit.

oh shut up.

and sponsors should provide their screenshots of solid payouts and conversions.

i'd hit em up and talk about it.. no reason you should be providing that info if you're not asking them to invest anything.. on the other hand, you have to admire how thorough they are about protecting their business

is AMA kings same as AMA content?

If they have to protect their PPS like THAT, maybe investing in working with their content and links isn't worth enough. Who knows, maybe tomorrow they'll close the program like many others done AND tell you to Go Fuck Yourself with kind words like "Thanks for working for us, but we have to close the affiliate program, starting tomorrow. (and we'll never pay your earnings)"

Yeah, but if everyone does that then it becomes a "catch 22" where a new affiliate
can't join any sponsors since they all require that he/she already made sales.

Domain verification would make more sense, especially since I could photoshop some stats.

You know, "place this file on your domain with this value in it".

I would only ask for proof if the account you were approving seemed a little shady.. If the whois is private, the email is a gmail account, the signup ip is a public access ip..

Sounds like a great, mature idea. Companies that as a cost of business have less affiliate fraud (which is RAMPANT and has been for years as a % of business) will have lower charge backs and long term a greater solvency.. in addition, the inherent ability to PAY OUT more. If there is a proper confidentiality agreement in place and an potential new affiliate is only asked to submit a limited view screen shot, there is no harm in this.

Unfortunately, the masses of webmasters who completely a) skate income taxes and b) feel a sense of entitlement for complete anonymity to their business *partners* is unusually high... coupled with c) laziness.

Best of luck to all-

Brad

lol crooks & fraudsters worried about you ripping them off, there's an old saying for that, but I forgot it.