Maybe it's time for a bit of a crackdown on
AW merchants in much the same way that DGM did a little while ago. I say this because of recent postings about the likes of - Loanmakers - The Whisky Exchange - Pure Profile etc.
While it is great in some respects that there are cost effective Affiliate Marketing solutions offered by networks like Affiliate Windows, what it does open the door to is those merchants that do not really take Affiliate Marketing too seriously and are not willing to stick their hand in their pocket to make an investment in their Affiliate Marketing Program.
There is an old saying that if you don't have to pay for something, you don't place much value on it - and don't take it too seriously.
The trouble is when a merchant can get his hands on a Affiliate Marketing Program without having to make a decent investment in it, there is always going to be a reasonable percentage that really don't make the necessary investment in the running and operation of that Affiliate Program too. The end result is we will see growing numbers of unconfirmed sales...and unpaid affiliates.
If Affiliate Window are unable or are unwilling to take a more proactive roll in ensuring that sales are validated in a timely manner, and that commissions are paid in a similar fashion, then it is obvious that we are running a great risk using merchants that are using their Network.
All the more reason that we affiliates ought to be making more postings about those merchants we are concerned about.
Also I wonder if it might be possible for
AW if they cannot proactively monitor merchants "reliability factor" to come up with some type of ratings system which might indicate which merchants are operating their programs in a proactive and reliable manner as opposed to those which little is ever heard from after their program goes live. Such a system might help Affiliates like myself which have had nagging doubts about the quality of some of these merchants for an ongoing period of time.
This would encourage Affiliates like myself to use more of their merchants - something which frankly I have been wary about for a couple of years now.