How To Avoid Popular Affiliate Marketing Scams And Stay Safe
/The number of scams and fraudulent activities on the internet has grown at an alarming rate in recent years. So, many people see huge opportunities on the internet as yet another avenue for scammers to reach their hard-earned funds. By doing that, many people have also thrown away some highly beneficial affiliate marketing opportunities.
There are many genuine affiliate marketing schemes accessible to individuals on the internet. The catch is in your ability to identify the good from the bad eggs. Join us as we proceed in this article to learn how to avoid scams related to affiliate marketing.
How To Identify Affiliate Marketing Scams
You won't fall victim to scammers on the internet if you know how to identify which program you should venture into or avoid. Resulting from several years of experience, we have identified some common properties with affiliate marketing scam sites. A chief thing to look out for on these sites are spammy content. To identify spam, below are key things to look out for:
❖ Stock images of inferior quality.
❖ An excessive display of dollar bills all over the place.
❖ When the page contains a very large number of copied contents.
❖ Too many links to redirect you to other sites.
❖ An annoying display of irrelevant ads.
How To Stay Safe From Affiliate Marketing Scams
● Avoid sites with sugary promises
Scammers know that sooner or later, their victims will realize that they’re being exploited. Therefore, they go the extra length to sugar-coat their programs. As promising as affiliate marketing is, there’s no way it can make you get rich overnight. Still, that doesn’t imply that it is impossible to make huge loads of cash from your hard work.
A red flag you should look out for on scam sites is when they make unrealistic promises. For instance, some sites will promise you huge rewards for a considerably small amount of work. In reality, the reverse is the case – you'll need to put in a considerable amount of effort to reap corresponding benefits.
● Don't pay to join any affiliate program.
It may seem logical to invest some money into something that will fetch you some money in the future. Of course, you’ll need to make sacrifices involving money in the long run – not when you’re just joining. If you see a site that demands a fee for membership, run and don’t look back.
Just like you wouldn't be paying your real-world employers to get employed, you also shouldn't pay for affiliate membership. Credible and legitimate affiliate marketing programs don't demand money from affiliate marketers seeking membership. The affiliates are working for them, so there’s no need for that.
● Suspicious browser extensions
Many browser extensions are used for data theft and fraud. This doesn’t undermine the increased functionality extensions add to your browser, but some are not safe. When you find an affiliate marketing site with too many browser extensions and requests that you download them, you probably just landed on a scam site.
These malicious extensions achieve affiliate fraud by adding or changing parameters contained in a URL. Unfortunately, victims don’t detect the malicious activities of these extensions early enough. After a few weeks, you’ll notice some red flags such as modified traffic, intercepting requests, and insertion of JavaScript snippets.
● Phishing
Some hackers occupy the internet as affiliate marketing programs. You may sign up on such supposed affiliate marketing platform. These platforms will demand an email address and send phishing links directly into your mail. Clicking on this link allows them to have access to personal information saved on your computer.
Some phishing links may ask you to renew your password, confirm an online activity, or verify personal information. If you don't have software to test links for phishing, we strongly advise that you be wary of links you click.
Conclusion
The risks associated with affiliate marketing scams can affect the affiliate and the merchant. Sometimes, the merchant may pay money to a hijacker instead of a real affiliate that generated the sales. Notwithstanding, this shouldn't make you completely dismiss the idea of affiliate marketing. Some red flags to watch include platforms with sugary promises, excessive links and ads, and paid membership.
