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Online Affiliate Scams: Don't Be a Victim of One

When selling affiliate products in your online store, avoid these common online affiliate scams. I lost a ton of money promoting useless non-paying affiliate programs until I found these guys. It's time to learn the truth about affiliate products and sales from someone who KNOWS the business!

If you want to sell products as an affiliate, where do you look? There are all kinds of affiliate programs to join on several major affiliate networks. There's likely to be lots of decent sales generating affiliate companies right?

Not true, according to Adam Fisher, the Affiliate Product Sourcing Editor for Net Worth Radio:

When you see all these "Incredible" affiliate companies and programs and products of affiliate networks on the internet, promising phenomenal sales and offering commissions ranging anywhere from 5% to 50% or more, what you're seeing is 99% junk.

There are thousands of scammers, snake oil salesmen and con artists on the Internet who are just lying around waiting to AMBUSH you when you begin looking for REAL affiliate programs to do business with. Believe it or not, there is a whole niche industry built up on the Net around this kind of scamming! The folks who run these scams have all the moral fiber of a box of hair, and the only reason they even recognize the word 'Scruples' is from the TV ad for the party game.

You may have even fallen prey to one of these con artists, selling you on their "exclusive" affiliate programs as if they are the greatest money-makers since the internet bubble burst. Me too. I've joined so many programs that I can't even recollect how many. I don't know why, but I tend to find the "good" in people, and I was "sold" by these marketing schemes time and time again, even after being scammed by the latest one. Finally, after so much disappointment and frustration, I had HAD ENOUGH. I decided to get to the bottom of this appeal we all have with online affiliate companies, and find out if there really were any PROFITABLE ones for selling "hot" affiliate goods at premium prices.

I literally contacted the administrator of every affiliate website I could find. Posing as an investor, I managed to persuade the owners that I was seriously interested in purchasing their entire website and business. That way, once the cartoonish bags of money flashed in their heads, they would grant me free access to their member's areas to examine what I would be "selling". Well, I was appalled with 99% of what I found. Many of the owners actually bragged about how many people joined their useless non-paying affiliate programs. I repeatedly found:

*outdated links

*non-working links

*links leading to other sites that wanted you to sell crap

*no help section

*no real email support

*few if any sales

I quickly realized that these so-called affiliate networks were totally pointless. And the owners knew it, yet they were laughing all the way to the ATM machine! Needless to say, I didn't respond when they asked if I was still interested in purchasing their websites. Surprisingly, while sitting through all of the scam artist's websites, I was able to locate a group of individuals that actually ran profitable and legitimate programs.

The owners were common folk like you and me that found a way to earn extra money working from home on their computers. Their membership areas were impressive, with a great deal of quality information on how to make $100-$200 per day on your computer doing very little work. I even chatted with a few of their affiliates in several online forums, and they confirmed that they were earning extra money using the information, support and products that the affiliate websites had provided them. It was like I found a few diamonds in the rough. But don't take my word for it, you can drop by the over one dozen sites I found. See what you think.

They DO NOT charge a minimal fee for access to their program, which is to be expected for any legitimate program that actually has people on staff who are dedicated to helping you get earning online. What a warm group of people! Anyway, if you do decide you are interested in any of the dozen companies, I advise you to join post-haste, as the owners have informed me that they are getting so many new affiliate members by word of mouth referrals, that they will be blocking off membership completely by month's end. (By the way, you didn't receive this news from me!) They don't have a large enough staff to welcome many more people, and they are driven to providing excellent service to each person. Well, my quest to find legitimate online affiliate programs has come to an end. I have to mention I was profoundly disappointed with most of what I found, and I strongly urge you not to take any chances doing business with any companies other than the twelve I will share with you.

Whatever you do, I hope you and your loves ones have a healthy, prosperous year.

Take care and I wish you all the best.

Cathy Johnson has researched and uncovered numerous scams in the corrupt online affiliate industry. She has written special articles to help people avoid affiliate scams. However, Cathy has also discovered over a dozen legitimate affiliate programs, networks and buyer/seller communities she would encourage you to do business with. She provides this report in a valuable information package on her website, http://www.restaurantandbar.org/