How Do You Spot an Affiliate Marketing Scam

Who wouldn’t like to run their own business? Most of us want to get away from our 9 to 5 low paid jobs and seek newer opportunities. Generally all of us are bored with the routine jobs and would like to seek newer challenges and make life more interesting.

The freedom and independence that an own business brings, answering only to yourself and working when you want is an incredibly desirable thing. However, the reality of this materializing is slim to none for most people. Most of us don’t have the capital required to start a small business. Others are frightened off by the risk factor involved. Your steady income will be gone as well as the fact that nearly 90 % of all new businesses fail within the first year.

With online opportunities booming, Affiliate marketing the best way around the risk and start up costs for an aspiring entrepreneur. Affiliate marketing costs next to nothing to join and the risks are minimal. You are paid according to what you produce and not according to how the company is performing. There are many wonderful affiliate programs for you to get involved with, however as with any business opportunities, one needs to be cautious.

Unfortunately for the internet community and online businesses, we live in an age of internet and business fraud. Countless people loose large sums of money on a huge number of home business scams. The world of affiliate marketing is not immune to this risk. While it is impossible to create a list of precautions a person should take, there are some signs that people can look for. This doesn’t always mean that all opportunities or organizations are fraudulent but they should be looked into carefully.

With affiliate marketing you may not run the risk of losing much money through scams. However the bigger risk is losing the most precious commodity you have – Time. Many affiliates lull themselves into a false sense of security when it comes to marketing affiliate products. Many an affiliate tries to get into each and every program that comes along and waste precious time which they should be using to promote quality programs or products. You may get away with no money being lost but you could lose loads of your next most precious commodity, that being time. You’re going to have to work very hard to build up your affiliate marketing business so you will want to be legitimate.

Before joining an affiliate program check out all facts. Look at the testimonials and ask for names and emails if in doubt. Don’t rely on just the testimonials that they post on their website. Anyone could have written these. Read the testimonials carefully. If you find a few bad reviews, this shouldn’t put you off. Sometimes people just are not cut out for certain programs. If there is more good than bad then things are likely okay. You can also use these testimonials for advice on what to do and what not to do.

You can try searching on your favorite search engine with the program key words. You can query the search engines with the “program name+scam”, you’ll have a good chance of digging up any dirt that is there.

If you have problems finding information then this should be a warning. Good affiliate programs will have been around for a while and will have a track record. Resist the temptation to join up while the offer is still hot. If it is a good program it will still be there in 6 months time. If the product or service is worth having, there will still be plenty of profit to make out of it.

As an affiliate check out the products too thoroughly by using them. Most good affiliate programs would offer a piece of the product for you to experience. If they do not offer any trials, you may always write ask for a trial or sample. If you are promoting a bad product, all your efforts would be wasted with refunds. Most of the good affiliate programs confidant about their products would offer a sample or trial.

If you apply your time and efforts intelligently, Affiliate marketing is no doubt the best way forward without the financial risk.

Gopal Srinivasan

P.S. I can strongly recommend a new program about to be launched. I have tested Clcikbankfortune personally and can recommend it without hesitation. The private JV invite for this program is now open.