Using your own affiliate link for a discount - is it just wrong?

It depends upon the terms of service for the affiliates.

Some owners don't care - they get the product sold and pay out a commission - but don't care who it goes to.

It's against the terms in some affiliate agreements.

If you don't feel right about doing it . . . just don't do it!

Steve

I wouldn't personally do that, but that's kinda what all the cashback / rebate sites do. They get an affiliate commission and pay it to their members for buying through their affiliate links.

In the larger affiliate networks it's stated for each product what is allowed and what's not, and i have seen it pop up recently too for some IM software products.

I've bought ClickBank products through my own hoplink if (a) I want to see the product to assess whether or not I can/should/will promote it as an affiliate, and (b) the vendor won't give me a free copy (though they usually do), but if I've done that, I never ask for a refund, however dreadful/useless they might occasionally turn out to be. (Vendors who don't want affiliates to do that shouldn't be using ClickBank in the first place.)

The only two companies I know of who openly allow people to buy through their own affiliate-links are ClickBank and GetResponse.

There may be many others, too, but those are the only two I know of, myself, and my understanding is that normally it's against the terms of service, in affiliate marketing. (It certainly is with Amazon and JVZoo.)

With ClickBank products, in general, customers aren't going to substitute their own link for yours, because (i) they wouldn't know how to anyway, and (ii) the Customer Distribution Requirement effectively protects the referring affiliate in these instances, by not rewarding anyone doing that with a commission-payment unless they also make other sales (in other words they can't do it "just for one commission").

However, customers for ClickBank products who are themselves already ClickBank affiliates naturally can and will do this all the time, so there's not much sense in promoting IM/MMO-related products from ClickBank, as an affiliate, because of course those products' customers are the people who are often existing affiliates, and they're allowed to do that and they know how to! In other words, you can make the sale, but by no means always get paid for it.

For this reason, "IM/MMO-related products" at ClickBank are just about "top of the list of things not to promote", as an affiliate.

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Clickbank allows you to do so, then why not doing it if you need to?

Darius Vaduva

You can do it if it's not mention in the terms or conditions.

Here are some reasons why networks and sellers are bring more careful..

1. Some network won't pay you your affiliate commissions unless you make at least 2 sales.

2. YOu need to be approved to become an affiliate. If after you get approved and you have like 1 unique click and 1 conversion... That calls a red flag and most likely vendors will share who the affiliate is and no one will ever approve you.

There's obviously more stuff but you get the point.

I mean at the end of the day, every product has a refund period.

Another question is why not just buy all products and refund everything.. Who cares about the discount.

some vendors kindly ask the buyers to do so (buying through your own aff link), I think the 'right or wrong' is not the case here.

It's about the strategy they use, if you comply with what they say to do or not to do, you'll be safe.

Most companies will have safeguards in effect to detect such a thing. Simply opening up a new browser is not good enough to hide your identity as they use more sophisticated tracking to keep up with customers. If an affiliate wants to risk their account by doing this (assuming it's against the site TOS), then they are welcome to go their own path.

The affiliate programs I work with would ban the affiliate or not pay out the commission. Think about it? That would ruin the guys business. Who would want to promote for him?

So it sounds like the best approach is to check the t&c's and if there is no issue then go for it. If it is a product you want to become an affiliate of then contact the owner to ask for a review copy. And if you are promoting to the IM niche then expect to lose commissions?

Thanks for your responses, it was something I was struggling with from an ethical point of view, getting other opinions really helps put some perspective on it.

There will always be people online and offline who are looking for that 'better deal' or a way to get something of value for nothing. And for some, buying through an affiliate link is just another way to do that. Though I think an affiliate would get banned from most programs for that.

Some sites like Clickbank that allow this, also balance out the equation by insisting that you have sales from more than one IP or location before payout is achieved.* And, that ensures that the affiliate is not just the only one using their own link to get a discount/rebate and cheat sellers.

Say a salesperson came up to you and said "I have a great widget for $100".

And then you found out you could get that widget for free through your Credit Card rewards program.

Would it be unethical to get it for free through your CC rewards points denying the salesperson their commission?

Overall, I think that if a vendor is willing to pay a commission to an affiliate then it's okay to buy the product as an affiliate even if it's for your own use.

The exception would be that if the affiliate network didn't allow it. In that case, I wouldn't do it.

My motto is to treat others the way I want to be treated. If I was offering a commission on one of my products I wouldn't care who got that commission. Simple.

I believe that what goes around comes around....someone will do the same thing to you....its karma baby!

Most programs has it within their terms of service that this is not allowed, to me it's not worth tarnishing a relationship to save a few bucks

Always check the terms and conditions. Most won't allow it, some will. As an earlier poster said I've previously used this to get review copies of something I probably wouldn't buy but am interested in reviewing.

The money is in the know how. Being an affiliate should have its benefits and honestly I don't think there is anything wrong with buying products from you own link if it doesnt break their terms. The chance of losing a sale to someone who knows they can get a discount on their own is realistic online as it is offline.

As a product owner I don't have time to worry about that. To that end, I guess what I'm saying is it doesn't bother me. I still get the buyer.

As a buyer...... I don't do that because my time is worth to much to be spent jumping through hoops to join an affiliate program for the sole purpose of a discount.

If I see something I want, I just buy it.

Another issue might be if you are an Amazon affiliate and have recently visited Amazon website recently (via your own affiliate link), then you would also have your own affiliate cookies. Could that get you banned? I'd say just don't click those links from your own site, no need to get banned over that situation.