Quote Originally Posted by Lee
Was curious to see what your thoughts on sponsors that shave were?

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Also, how do you know whether a sponsor is shaving or not, what are some tell-tale signs that you would look for as an affiliate?

I think sponsors that shave are dishonest scums that get off on fucking ANYBODY over for as long as they can. Sponsors that shave know they might as well put a gun in their mouth and pull the trigger if anyone found out what they were doing. I don't do business with dishonest companies, or individuals. When I find one I blacklist them.

I can tell when a sponsor shaves by clicks and conversion ratios. Certain ad spots on my site retain a tried and true click value and corresponding conversion ratios, as do particular kinds of content.

Red flags are:

1) Sites or programs with many sites running their own affiliate software
2) High payout values
3) Reps constantly pumping sites that don't convert well
4) Click and/or conversion ratios that consistently don't match to ad spots on my site with steady click conversion ratios.
5) Content and/or sites consistent with high conversions that don't convert

I tend to trust sites with third party processors that run the affiliate programs. My best conversions are almost ALWAYS with sites where the processor runs the affiliate program, except for one site.

The fraud perpetrated by surfers is bad enough, let alone having to watch our backs with affiliate sites running shady programs, but that's business.

Does anyone here favor shaving?