Is This Fair?

[Lee]

Im thinking of terminating all affiliates who signup to Condom Cash and put a URL for their site in the CCBill that has a URL that they obviously dont own, hotmail.com, yahoo.com etc.

Also, what about people who signup and put a non-working domain that just goes to a registrars holding page? Do you think it is within reason that new affiliates should provide an 'actual' working URL when signing up for an affiliate program?

Regards,

Lee

[gaybucks_chip]

I think it depends on the situation.

We have some affiliates who market exclusively through TGP and social networking who don't have a website, yet produce good sales.

But in general, if you don't know the affiliate and what they're planning to do, then it's probably best to decline random signups with no site.

[marcjacob]

The thing is if their making sales why ban them? Can CCBill merchant stats show where the clicks are coming from?

I think that in this game you have a right to know where your banner ads are being put, and how their marketing you.

[Bec]

I know I had to do signups for an undeveloped domain initially so I had something to build it with! Newbies often don't have a developed site ready when finding sponsors they want to promote. If it's showing a holding page - I'd say they're getting their ducks lined up first.

[Lee]

Well heres my concern, as a program owner i want to see prior to an affiliate sending me a single hit if they are going to be sending fraudulent sales.

http://superiorpics.us/
http://love-honey.org/
http://www.xcba.com/
http://nihaoma2.com/
http://fundsexylady.com/main_index.html

All of those are URLs that affiliates have put as the sites they own.

All of the affiliates that owned those sites sent fraudulent sales, chargebacks and shared passwords from purchase THEY made.

By requiring a working url on the signup form, its going to make it a lot easier for me (and CCBill) to tell which affiliates are going to send fraudulent sales so we can cut them off before the sales start coming in.

In recognizing the type of site layout that sends fraudulent signups when an affiliate joins the program, its a lot less hassle then dealing with the fraudulent sales once they have been made.

Regards,

Lee

[DEVELISH]

There are also some webmasters who can not put their real names and contact information into the whois of an domain if spreading porn in their contry with no proper age verification system is illegal or it is illegal to spread porn from their contry at all. Those webmasters use the whois protection some registras offer

[wnc]

There are also some webmasters who can not put their real names and contact information into the whois of an domain if spreading porn in their contry with no proper age verification system is illegal or it is illegal to spread porn from their contry at all. Those webmasters use the whois protection some registras offer

I am afraid that I would have to agree with Lee. If a person, as you wrote Develish, is breaking the law being an Adult webmaster in a particular country, they either need to move or create an off-shore company.

I would think that program owners would prefer active sites - so that they can quickly review and decline a working relationship if the host domain has questionable content or apparent questionable sales tactics.

I understand Bec's comments on a potential new site wanting to get "ducks lined up for the grand opening". If anything, that particular affiliate should be flagged and watched for sudden referral sales.

[SPACE GLIDER]

you'd think that by now the technology would exist that could show the origin of the sales

[attis]

If an affiliate would sign up with a domain they obviously don't own, I would block them first and send an email to their contact address. If they within a few days or so with a good explanation of their situation, and maybe giving a bit more information about themselves, I'd be happy to accept them as resellers. If I don't get a reply, I won't take them as serious business and they are not accepted.

[marcjacob]

Lee part of the problem here may be that with CCBill you set up your profile and just add programs. So you put in a domain name of a site years ago and dont bother updating it. If that site doesnt work out, or you sell the domain, you may forget to update it. That could be one reason, the other could be fraud of course.

IMO if you get fraud affiliates then you must do whatever it takes to protect your business. As an affiliate i would understand that, but i think a quick email to explain would be a great idea as some of these webmasters may just be lazy rather than fraudsters.

Personally if i ran a program id want to see where my site was being promoted, so yes that is fair imo.

[jIgG]

mainstream CPA networks do something similar

i signed up for one the other day and entered my domain but used @hotmail.com address

and they told me no can't do
email address must be from the domain from which you apply
also WHOIS data that doesn't match with email could be grounds to term

if it poses a threat, especially fraud joins, absolutely terminate them or alternatively give them a choice to submit an active url with content and @url.com email address to stay with your program

[DEVELISH]

understand Bec's comments on a potential new site wanting to get "ducks lined up for the grand opening". If anything, that particular affiliate should be flagged and watched for sudden referral sales.

As you should do with all affiliates producint a high volume of declines/paybacks/chargebacks...

I have control over DNS and Whois settings and if I write a name in the whois does it make it a proper valid name? so having a working domain and proper looking names in the whois is worth next to nothing.

You can track where your traffic comes from and who sent it so one could use this knowledge. ccBill could help by checking banking information (names, cities, countries) with past "high volume chargebacker sites" and just decline them.

Writing an email and asking for some domains the affiliate has should be doable... verifying if he "owns" the domains, too - just let him alter some page on the domain and he at least has access to the site.

Or ask him to create a specific email account on that domain (if he chooses to have none that is like I have on many of my domains - don't want to check them) and send an email verification to him...

€0.02

Dev...

[padabum]

develish you are absolutely right. the only thing thats really of interest is, if the signups are fraudulent or not. nobody in his right mind would for example turn down youtube as an affiliate just because of their content. people who say they would are in my opinion liars.