Nothing is easier and fast way than embarking on the Affiliate Program by click and join some of the most luring commission offering Affiliate sites and creating a blog to promote their affiliate products on the very first day of making the decision of earning online.
But as mentioned in my last article that there are some difference in action that decides your future success as Super Affiliate or you will be out of the affiliate game. Read my previous post -
Secret Strategies of Super Affiliates.
Today, let's talk about
Affiliate Leakage that some of the merchants use to
hijack your affiliate commission.
Yes, you have read it right, it is no one but some (not all) affiliate merchants who are willingly trying to hijack your traffic to make their own money and they are least bothered about your time and effort invested. They never respect their affiliates.
So before embarking on any affiliate program, it is worth to understand -
what are affiliate leakage and types of Affiliate leakage?
In simple terms, Affiliate leaks are a path that is prominently present on merchant sites and when the traffic you sent to land on that site, they get distracted by several ways to complete the conversion process, but those paths are not associated with your codes and are untraceable so that the merchants doesn't have to credit commission to your account for those sales.
In short Affiliate leaks are path or ways present on the Merchant's Website that does not help you make money out of the traffic that you have sent them.
So, Why most of the affiliates ignore Affiliate leaks?
Most of the affiliates don't even have heard about this term and hence everything seems perfect to them. The only thing that feels tempting to them is the highest affiliate commissions that are mentioned on the site and those affiliate marketers start with all the full fledged effort spending all their time and energy to promote affiliate products for those merchants who are just adamant to take unfair means to keep the commissions of their affiliates to themselves. When those innocent affiliates are even succeeded to convert lots of potential online visitors to potential buyers but at the end those wicked merchants succeed to divert those traffic to an untraceable path and the sales commission for those sales are not credited to the affiliate's account. So, it is really not a big deal to find an affiliate program that lures you promising big sales commission but your action before joining any affiliate program to ensure that there are no affiliate leaks will definitely make a difference in your chances of success.
What are the types of Affiliate Leakage?
The Pro Affiliates are well aware of all types of possible leaks present on the merchant sites whereas the new affiliates are not even aware of the,. Here is the type of affiliate leaks that every new affiliate should understand and ensure that they should not fall prey to those merchant traps.
- Telephone numbers
- AdSense units
- Amazon widgets
- Links to “network” stores/sites
- Affiliate links & links to other merchants
Let's explain these Affiliate leaks and check out how tactfully they are draining your affiliate commissions to merchant's pocket -
Telephone Numbers or Toll Free Numbers present on the merchant site is no doubt a good effort to show you and the potential buyers that the merchant product is genuine and they are willing to help the buyers out in every possible way and a good assurance to you that they will try app possible means to convert your lead. Sounds Good? OK wait and think again. These telephone numbers could be a possible leakage diverting your traffic to a untraceable path. Please ensure that the merchant has mentioned some way out to trace the phone calls made by the visitors referred by you with your affiliate code and any sales conversion should yield your affiliate commission. Some genuine merchants who value their affiliate's efforts are deliberately mentioned about their phone call tracing and affiliate sales commission but others just avoid it in an intention to make their own money.
Fishy Affiliate program and AdSense Ads - You may not believe it but it is true. You may notice some AdSense Ads on some Affiliate Merchant sites. Those are some other smart people who wear hats of Affiliate Merchant but their main intention is to earn from AdSense and offer high affiliate commission in the market to attract affiliates for driving quality traffic towards their site and make money from AdSense. So, before joining any affiliate program it is worth researching the merchant site.
Presence of Amazon widget on Merchant's site - You may notice some amazon widget present on the merchant site. Though the widget list contains related products same as the merchant but it is just another way to make money from those merchants using traffic sent by you on their site. So, if you catch some merchant uses this trick to make their money then there is no doubt that they are not serious about selling their product and affiliate's efforts. It is always better to not join these affiliate programs.
Links to “network” stores/sites also caused leaks - Some merchants are smart enough to place a list of their sister network sites on their website sidebar or display the list of Amazon or eBay store they own. Though there is no issue in placing the list of sister networks but you should ensure that they are using some tracking system to pay you a sales commission whenever someone from the traffic sent by you make a purchase. On the other hand it is absolutely wrong job on the merchant's side to list eBay or Amazon store own by them because eBay or Amazon never allow to place any sub-tracking system of your merchant's site with your affiliate code. The all they allow is tracking code of the merchant alone. So, if someone from your traffic will make any purchase from those stores listed on your merchant's website, it is the merchant who is benefited alone for your hard work and you will be rewarded with nothing.
Affiliate links & links to other merchants is another type of leak in this list - This is another very interesting trick, often adopted by some new merchants who are not serious in their business product. Some merchant themselves wears affiliate hat. They themselves join other affiliate programs and use banners and links with their affiliate codes on their sites, so that if someone from your traffic takes interest in those products on banners and links then they will be benefited from the affiliate sales and they will earn affiliate commissions from other respective merchants. Really silly trick.
These are the lists of leakages that hijack your affiliate commissions. Though sometimes the leaks are due to merchant's ignorance and sometimes they do is intentionally and unprofessionally. Hence is it always worth to check out all about these leaks and ensure that you are signing up a genuine Affiliate Program and your time and energy invested to promote the product really worth it.
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