As a merchant or affiliate manager, when was the last time you had any dialog with your affiliates? If they’re generating sales or have clicks, do you know they’re doing this? Is their main traffic from PPC, SEO, software, toolbar or email? If you auto-approve all applicants, or don’t know what you’re affiliates are up to, you may find yourself facing some future legal action.

There was a court case settled in Nevada where an affiliate and their merchant partner were charged with violating the CAN-SPAM act. The affiliate allegedly sent out millions of spam emails promoting his sexually explicit merchant. The interesting part of this case is that the merchant was held liable for the actions of their affiliates. Granted, this case involved a porn merchant and their affiliate but can’t the same ruling cover those outside of the porn industry? Can this also extend beyond the CAN-SPAM Act and reach into other possibly illegal marketing practices of affiliates? Is one of your affiliates promoting you by using spyware or adware that could be accused of causing harm to the user’s computer or capturing private information? Are your affiliates violating the CAN-SPAM Act?

Take a look at what Elliot Spitzer is doing in New York or check on the Attorney General of your state to see what they’re working on with regards to spyware, adware and the CAN-SPAM Act. Some large merchants removed spyware and adware affiliates from their program after numerous complaints from their customers. Customers were upset when they discovered they had this type of software on their PC and saw the merchant’s ad displayed. And, on top of all this, there are class-action lawsuits in numerous states.

Given all of the litigation revolving around this industry, can you afford to auto accept all affiliate applications and turn a blind eye to what they’re doing? Affiliate management is just that: managing affiliates. This role, however, can and should extend beyond affiliate management. The person in this role should also be a guardian of your business and protector of your brand name. If you wouldn’t advertise your products on seedy websites, why would you allow these same types of affiliates to display your products or list you as a partner?

With all of the shady affiliates out there, should you continue to approve all applications and be ignorant of how your products are displayed to the public?

This entry was posted on Friday, November 25th, 2005 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.