JDE

Here is a link to an FTC bulletin discussing weight loss free trial offers, and lawsuits against the companies. FTC Targets Weight-Loss Marketers’ Allegedly Bogus ‘Free’ Sample Offers

I have recently noticed that many of the CPA networks are shutting down many of the Acai Berry, Colon Cleanse, and other weight loss offers WITHOUT WARNING.

What does this mean to us? It depends on why the offer was stopped. If the FTC shut it down, then we can assume that the company is, or will be out of business soon. This also means that they will not be paying the CPA networks, which means that the CPA networks are NOT obligated to pay us anything, according to the TOS for most networks.

If the offer was just discontinued, but the advertiser is still doing well, we should expect to be paid. However, if the offer was discontinued because excessive chargebacks through PayPal, or through the advertisers' merchant accounts caused their accounts to be closed, the advertisers no longer have the means to collect payment, which means it is unlikely we will ever be paid.

Not only is it possible that we won't get paid when offers are shut down, but what about the $100s or $1000s that we spent in PPC / PPV / SEO expenses promoting those offers. Not to mention the time we invested. Will we ever recover any of our expenses? Probably not.

How can we prevent this from happening?
We, as publishers / affiliates are responsible for doing our due diligence on all of the following:

• The PPC / PPV / Advertising Networks. Are we getting truthful data from them?
• The Affiliate Networks-Are they legit. Are they scraping leads? Are they taking our successful campaigns and copying them for their own profits, while scraping so many leads from us that we give up on the offer, and leave all of the profits to them? (Trust me-this happens)
• The Offer. Is this product / company here to stay, or is it just a "flash-in-the-pan" product that is on the FTC's hit list?

I would like to open this thread up to ideas about how we can protect ourselves from the above scenarios. As a group, we can accomplish a lot. We can identify legitimate advertisers. We can identify trustworthy Affiliate Networks that do NOT scrape leads, nor copy our campaigns. We can research products and the companies behind them to make sure we are promoting offers that won't "crash", and that we'll get paid for.

I hope I'm not the only one concerned about this! Please share your ideas on how to make this better and safer for us. The Affiliate Networks only make money when we do (supposedly, although many run their own campaigns), so if their income depends, to a large degree, upon our efforts, doesn't that put us, as affiliates, in the "driver's seat"?

ChrisBa

They aren't really banning them, it's more or less making them more legitimate/clear, people will be responsible for flogs, farticles, etc.

JDE

Thanks for your reply. I had heard that many of the products are being taken off the market. But you may be correct that in fact the products themselves are not banned, only the companies behind them.

Thanks for the clarification. Any comments on the rest of the post?

DrewClement

Well,

I am not sure if this idea works for everyone, or every network, but I personally used to always request free samples before hopping on full time in terms of promoting new products and campaigns.

If you are serious about promoting legitimate offers and really care about what you are selling, then getting your hands on the actual product is a must (whether it be digital or tangible goods or even services)

I know that our affiliate network will gladly give out a few free samples to proven affiliates to instill confidence in the products. Even if you do not plan on utilizing the product, you can find out quite a bit by just looking at the packaging, reading the full ingredients on the package, and holding it in your hands or reading the material.

That is especially true when it comes to acai berry, colon cleanse, and those types of products. If you request a free sample and are disappointed in how it looks and feels when it shows up.....then chances are that whomever you sell it to is going to be disappointed as well.

If the company took the time to really package it well, label it clearly, and make it look like a legitimate product, there is a far better chance that it actually IS a legitimate product.

Acai berry pills in a ziploc bag for example=NOT Legitimate...

and yes...I have seen that before....sadly.

50% Commission, Proven Products, and MASSIVE Profits

Drew@SellHealth.com

RyanEagle

Old news....

RobAdvertMarketing

What got hit was these Scam Advertisers and a few legitimate advertisers got caught in the cross-fire. In the US since DEC 31, 2009 there are a handful (8 total) processors nationwide that will even accept continuity products. And it's a retarded long process trying to get into these processors (that is if they are even willing to accept new continuity merchants). And with the Vulture-Opportunity invention of the Brand Protection check list it's just that much harder for these advertisers to obtain processing again.

So why the network's remove the offer is because their advertisers more then likely do not have processing any more or are trying to scramble to obtain new processing by other means. However there are a few still out there, we have some exclusive advertisers on our network who offers Acai and Colon Cleanse products still.

They are not going away, just becoming compliant with the new rules Visa/MC issued out for all Nutra-Pharmaceutical (dieting) products.

TimScott

Yeah his started happening last year, this is really old news

mtmjohn

Oh, man! This is really, really, really OLD news!

rvrabel2002

haha, yeah this really is old news. But it makes you wonder, why don't they just do it the right way?

Why not just sell a quality product and don't make the terms and cancellation impossible?

Is the only way for the merchant to make a profit through scamming people from their money?

I agree that if you are promoting the offer, you should definetly try the product out yourself. I am in the process of testing out a couple myself, and I have found that one product that has been selling really well for me has a very easy cancellation policy and actually works.

Then there is another product I "purchased" the free trial 13 days ago and i still havent received it yet? I'm about to "cancel" it, but they want to charge me $20....

And would ya know it, that offer is currently not active on any of my affiliate networks anymore......hmmmm, thats a mystery....

LilBlackDress

Here is a thought for you....if you are promoting acai products where you get paid $40 for a free trial offer then maybe there is a good reason the gov. is cracking down.
There is a reason that you are getting $40 and that is because the buyer's credit card is likely to get socked with a $100 charge.

If you are promoting a legit acai product from a reputable company where you get a small fee per sale then you most likely have nothing to worry about.

Just sayin

JayInOrlando

Yea, but speaking as someone who is in this area... who is working with legit offers?

I'd love to know who.

Jay

LilBlackDress

I have been working with the same legit health supplement company that sells acai berry for 2 years. No sexy, hyped up ads featuring Oprah, Hollywood Celebrities and a lot of bull, just pure fact about the supplement.
No trial offers and a flat fee commission for me. Do unto others right.....

Sorry to see you have to ask that question.

PPC Savior

To me it seems the whole point of running traffic through an affiliate network is to ensure that as long as you send legit traffic, you will get paid. Why should a network take a cut of my earnings if when the advertiser doesnt pay, I don't get paid?

I have really started to move away from the rebill space, it is just too much of a hassle not knowing if I will get paid or not. It seems many networks are encouraging affiliates to start looking into their lead gen offers.

Full Time Affiliate Marketer and PPC Consultant.

numba8

this has been going on for a while

wilsonusman

so does this mean we can't make money with cpa anymore?

jayesser

I promote a lot of CPA offers but have always stayed away from these types because of the bad experiences people have had and thebad publicity. Plus I only like to promote what I feel is of real value to people rather than sthg that doesnt give what it purports to!

davemiz

listen to ryan eagle.... dude is gangsta.

Dave Miz

“Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.”
― Dalai Lama XIV