Don't Make Me Call You "Mud"

Have you ever tried to check your stats for an affiliate
program and discovered either the website no longer exists
or the owner has changed the affiliate script and your link
is no longer valid?

Isn't it annoying, frustrating and *absolutely maddening,*
to say the least?

You've promoted a product, possibly even made some sales,
and you may never get paid. Your efforts may have brought
the program owner some cash, but there's no cash for you.

Whatever happened to common courtesy? How about business
ethics? It seems they've gone down the drain when it comes
to doing business on the Internet.

Don't get me wrong. Not all Internet business owners are
that way. But those who are can give affiliate programs,
and marketers who promote them, a bad name.

I don't know how many programs I've belonged to over the
last couple of years that have gone belly-up or changed
affiliate payment processors and I was no longer an
affiliate or wasn't sent the new link to promote.

And who knows how long I was promoting, sending traffic and
possibly sales to the owner's domain, before I knew my
affiliate URL wasn't valid!

All I know is, there are program owners out there,
somewhere, who owe me $10 or $20 here and there and I'll
probably never see that money. It might not be much, but
it's mine.

Why didn't I e-mail them about it? I did! Guess what? No
reply! I'm sure they "conveniently" didn't receive my 6 or
8 e-mails.

Am I on a rant while writing this? You bet I am! I'm an
honest person and I like to think I'm dealing with others
who have high levels of integrity, too.

I have a few things to say to all affiliate program owners
who operate in such an unethical way:

1. If you change your affiliate script, why the heck don't
you move your affiliates to the new script?

2. How about sending an e-mail to let your affiliates know
there's a new link for them to promote? If you need them to
sign up again, just say so.

3. And here's a novel idea - pay your affiliates all money
due them *before* changing or closing the affiliate
program! I don't care if it's only $1 - it's *their* money
for gaining you a customer!

4. As if it's not bad enough that I got screwed out of my
money, what do I look like to my subscribers for
recommending something they joined, then they got shafted?
There goes *my* credibility and I don't appreciate it at
all!

Whew! I feel better getting that off my chest.

So what can any of us do about this situation?

Unfortunately, it's not always easy to judge whether or not
you're joining a *good* affiliate program. Perhaps the best
thing to do is keep an eye on your stats on a weekly basis.
It's not a perfect solution, but hopefully you'll be able
to correct the problem within a short period of time.

And for Heaven's sake, if you run your own affiliate
program, now or in the future, don't fall into the same bad
habits. Treat your affiliates with respect and your name
will never be "Mud."