Since inception of Internet based and work from home business opportunities, affiliate marketing is one of those to be substantially proliferated. Entries of affiliate marketers and merchants joining from various spectrum of industries, different parts of the world are adding popularity to the affiliate marketing. Greater popularity is leading more independent marketers to join affiliate chain of business and earn affiliate commission by endorsing products and services under an affiliate marketing program. Because affiliates need not to pay any upfront initial payments while joining an affiliate program and get paid as per their participation in generation of sales – therefore, affiliates bear zero risks of sign up as marketers.

However, some programs can be fraudulent and deceptive enough to deny affiliates to pay out for their promotional efforts. Sooner an affiliate can identify these scam affiliate programs, better and quicker they can save their time and efforts from going to trash bin. Luckily there are some signals that ‘torch’ lights for affiliates to identify these scam programs better -

1.No contact details provided by affiliate program owners – If an affiliate program owner is not willing to divulge contact details such as email id, telephone numbers, street addresses etc., then it is to be avoided. If you cannot contact the merchandiser to inquire about products or commission or other factors related to the program – you must raise your eyebrow in suspicion. Next thing you should do is to probe the merchant with lot of common questions – if you do not receive answers from his/her end within a couple of days, simply discard that program.

2.When an affiliate program charges joining fees – An affiliate program charging joining fess should be strictly avoidable. Usually, a genuine affiliate program welcome affiliates to join without charging them any fees for signing up and endorsing their program – when it does, it should be considered as a fraudulent one.

3.Lack of operational track records on an affiliate programs – The best way to distinguish a legitimate affiliate program from scams is after completion of six months period of operation. A genuine program exists with quality products while the scam ones fade with time, without performing well then it should be excluded from the list.

Affiliates may also access negative testimonials on the affiliate program you have chosen from Google and affiliate network where the program get launched.

Author: M Wali is an expert author of Rupiz Affiliates, a leading affiliate network that caters to global audience. Which is into affiliate program, search engine optimization, online advertising, affiliate network.