6 Common Affiliate Marketing Scams You have to Avoid

Affiliate Business is the most lucrative way to boost our online income. Unfortunately, you have to be careful about these common affiliate marketing scams to achieve your success.

Last week, we have discussed whether Is Affiliate Marketing a scam (or) not. Today, we will learn more to develop our knowledge of common affiliate marketing scams.

Affiliate Marketing business is a legitimate business in the online industry and there is no second opinion in this decision.

Some people are achieving success in this business and many people fail due to some sort of issues they are facing during their course.

This is happening because of little (or) no knowledge about the business and mostly lots of newbies often fall prey to these scams.

The scam is common in every online industry, many people are doing these kinds of practices every day in the world of online business.

They always try to find innocent people using various online resources and approach them with some magical offers to take money from them and will go away.

Social media is one of the widely used platforms by most scammers. Let me explain to you some of the common affiliate marketing scams in this article so that you can be safe in your course.

Why Are Affiliate Marketing Scams Common?

No way, we deny that the Internet is full of opportunities for all people with different skills.

If you are a web designer, you can easily find a freelance career on your own or work with online marketplaces.

This affiliate business is suitable mostly for bloggers, who share information regularly through their blogs.

Though there are many other ways to make money online, this performance-based business has its place.

So, if you are just planning to start earning online, you are likely to face some problems and find ways to overcome them.

Mostly newbie bloggers and affiliate marketers are the targets of these scammers. They can be easily trapped with un-believable offers, finally, end up with nothing.

So, this article is for those who are new to this business and want to learn to avoid scams.

Common Affiliate Marketing Scams

1. Get Rich Quick Schemes

The most important reason every people start working online was to make money. When you search the Internet, you will find lots of online job opportunities available to all people with different skill sets.

Affiliate Marketing is one of the successful business models in streamlining that makes you earn thousands of dollars every month without spending much effort and time.

This achievement is possible only if you are ready to put such great efforts into your beginning to become a successful affiliate marketer.

Success in this business takes time, but some people have created a magical wind that Affiliate Business is a kind of Get Rich Quick online business.

They promise you will make thousands of dollars overnight (or) in just a week of work (or) some people even say it’s an autopilot mode which is set one will pour money into your bank account every day.

If anyone tries to sell you a “Secret Method”, do not fall into them and be cautious. Stay away from such offers because legitimate business takes a bit of time to learn and deploy.

You need to create your own strategy and implement it into your daily routine to achieve success to make such a great income.

2. Fake Affiliate Training

This is another common affiliate marketing scam targeting only newbies and novice affiliate marketers.

Hundreds of new people were entering this business without any knowledge and with some basic reports, they found themselves searching through the internet.

These online scammers target these few hundred people every day trying to sell their useless courses, Ebook, webinars, Video tutorials, and other kinds of online stuff.

I am not saying all training programs are a scam but do your own research before you pick the best ones.

The strategy that worked for one’s success will not guarantee success for the other. But many newbie marketers were not aware of this thing and often fall into them.

Even when you bought those training materials, you don’t actually learn anything and all you lost is your money invested to buy the materials which are pure profit to the scam seller.

Think that, if one scammer sells his fake training program of $500 value to at least 5 new people every day, he makes a pure profit of $2500 every day.

I recommend One-on-One training as the best and worth taking for newbies because every business is unique from one another.

3. Phony Marketing

In this type of online scam, the scammers use to call the newbie marketers and convince them to try their Affiliate Courses. It’s a new way of scamming people, and on Facebook, you can see a lot.

Telemarketing is a common practice in all businesses to get customers very easily and interact with them directly. Today online marketing is becoming more competitive and businesses want to compete with others.

These phony marketers will call these newbies and offer them some Ebooks, DVDs, CDs, Webinars, etc for some offer price. It also includes Private YouTube Videos, Live Seminars also recently added in this line.

Also, the course providers promise you that once you have successfully completed their amazing course, you will become rich quickly. They actually explained some practically impossible ways to follow.

The marketers will say a huge price if you buy individual products or things and offer less price if you buy all combined together. Combo offers – Don’t fall for it.

Once you are ready to purchase the thing, they will ask you to pay the money to their account. Then, they will send you some useless items for your invested money.

The phony marketer’s also promised that there is a guaranteed money-back if you didn’t succeed. But, practically, they will become unreachable and your money is gone forever.

This is an ultimate scam and you should be aware of this method of affiliate marketing scams and stay safe from being scammed.

4. Fake Products (or) Services

Affiliate Marketers make money by selling products (or) services on behalf of other merchants. On every successful sale, the merchant will pay a commission anywhere from 10% to 50% of the selling price.

If any company (or) an individual promise you thousands of dollars as income, analyze them very closely. Ask them about the actual product/service which you need to sell.

Generally, scammers create a duplicate copy of the product or service by using the name of a famous company. You cannot easily differentiate between the original and the duplicate.

They are well-trained and run thorough research about the product before copying one. And the scammers create a portfolio with testimonials to scam people.

Duplicate always looks more catchy and attractive than the original. The scammers also use telecallers to do phony marketing to promote their affiliate products or services.

Do a small research to get a few reviews and testimonials about the product and/or service before promotion. If you don’t find the product/service, then it’s a pure scam.

5. Pay to Join Programs

Affiliate Business is about selling a product/service and you get payments just for directing your referrals to the merchant site. Then, why should you invest to join?

Even if you are not doing any bulk purchases and stock your inventory in a godown etc. Then, why should you invest to join them?

A legitimate affiliate business is free to join and they won’t ask you for any kind of direct (or) indirect means of investment. There are various kinds of different affiliate marketing programs but all of them are free to join.

So, when next time, if any merchant (or) an individual asks to pay a fee to sign up for their program, just quit them and disconnect from further communication.

6. Domain Name Scams

This sounds like something unique and not popular with us, even for me in the beginning. I am currently running this blog in the name of easyonlinehomejobs.com, one fine day morning I saw an email in my inbox.

I opened the email and it was mentioned that someone is trying to register a domain name in our country with the same name you owned (in my case it’s easyonlinehomejobs.com).

The funniest part is that they said as a note of courtesy to maintain your brand integrity worldwide, we are sending you this email as a part of growing your business.

They want me to protect my trademark in their country. My business is in India, then why should I bother about other countries’ trademarks? Sounds very funny, isn’t it?

Here the actual affiliate marketing scams come into action, when you reply to the email, you will be sent a price list of all the available domain names.

Then, they will take off your money by making you purchase all the domain names which are not necessary to you ever.

Better put these kinds of affiliate scam emails into your spam folder.

How to Avoid Common Affiliate Marketing Scams?

The common rule of success in this business is laying your own strategy and implementing it through your course.

Not everyone’s business is the same. I am doing the Amazon Affiliate Program and I have my own strategy to get more leads and sales.

I have started a blog for doing this affiliate business but many people out there in the world are doing this business very successfully without a blog.

So, this reveals the fact that success completely depends on your own knowledge and interest. Follow the below best tips to make sure you don’t get caught in affiliate marketing scams.

Research More

The things you see and you hear may be a scam, but the thing you research deeply won’t turn you scammed. The easiest way to join any program without being scammed is possible by making a thorough research.

Simply do a small Google search to find all the necessary information such as Reviews, Testimonials, Merchant/Company history, and lots more.

In the Amazon Affiliate Program, every merchant product has a lot of reviews, ratings, and testimonials which helps affiliates to promote them with strong moral strength.

Search for the scam history of the merchant/company using the following search variations,

• [affiliate program scam] + scam
• [affiliate program scam] + testimonials
• [affiliate program scam] + history
• [affiliate program scam] + reviews etc.

Visit the Company Website

Legitimate companies always want to imprint their identity, and brand name everywhere on the Internet. Also, those companies do have a professional website to showcase their product or service.

But spammy websites do not disclose their identity all over the Internet. Yet they have a professional website describing the business, but they don’t have a proper address, etc.

You need to be a little cautious in choosing the right affiliate program. Perform thorough Google research to understand their presence, business profile, their long existence, and more.

Ask your inner instinct about your findings. Also, post about the business on your social media. If you get good comments and suggestions, it is the right sign to join the affiliate business.

In the current trend, people are knowledgeable. They always keep visiting the websites often. So if any affiliate program doesn’t have a website or a long history, better stay away.

No matter how big is their affiliate commission. Because affiliate business is about selling your trust to others. If you are selling the best products, you will earn a good name.

Ask for the Commission Percentage

Affiliate Marketing Business is all about earning commissions on every sale of the product/service. Normally, most of the programs pay a nominal percentage of commission only.

If the merchant/company is offering a very high percentage of commission, then they must be a scam in some ways and it’s better to avoid them.

Do some more research as I mentioned above to understand their reality and learn about their legitimate business.

Make sure their products/services are good and genuine by getting feedback from their previous customers.

Conclusion

Every business has Good and Bad, Legitimate and scams. It’s completely our own responsibility to find legitimate business from the scam.

A little awareness about unrealistic ways of quick money, Ponzi schemes, and no actual product-based business will help you stay away from these common affiliate marketing scams.

Use your common sense and follow your intuition, nothing to worry about anything. There are many kinds of different affiliate programs available on the market.

PS: Easyonlinehomejobs strongly recommend starting the affiliate business with a blog. If you were the one searching for a good mentor (or) planning to start this business, then visit my offer page here.

I can get you your own domain name suitable for your business, and provide you one-on-one training 30 days around the month until you begin to make your first affiliate income.