Affiliate Fraud - Avoiding Fraud In
Lead Programs
by: Rob Wood
Lead fraud is possibly the largest obstacle to
successful lead gathering via Affiliate marketing on the
internet. Finding pre-qualified leads online can be
either very successful or very frustrating depending on
how you set up your program to deal with fraud.
Gathering leads through an Affiliate program can be a
very successful venture if you find the right
Affiliates. Names and contact details of people who have
an active interest in your product increases conversion
rates for offline sales and hopefully increases your
bottom line. That benefit may, however, be adversely
affected if the time you spend sifting through rubbish
leads becomes too great. But there are a few things you
can do.
Choosing Affiliates
As with all Affiliate programs, you will need to
choose your Affiliates wisely at the beginning to have a
fraud-free campaign. This means manually vetting
Affiliate applications to join your program. Look at
other sites your Affiliates have gathered leads for and
ask for references if you think it is warranted.
Remember also that seeking legal redress against
fraudulant Affiliates is much easier to do in your home
country, or countries with a similar, enforceable legal
systems. Be sure that you know all of the contact
details of your Affiliates so if something goes wrong
you can contact them quickly.
Monitoring Your Lead Campaign
You will need to monitor your campaign manually,
especially at the beginning to ensure you are receiving
quality leads. Look at the leads you are receiving - if
they all exhibit similar properties then you could have
a problem. Things to watch out for include similar
spelling mistakes on each lead (which would indicate one
person is filling out the lead many times) and identical
IP addresses (which could also indicate that one person
is filling out the lead form several times or getting
friends and relatives to do it). You will need to keep
doing this manually until you are happy with your
Affiliates and the quality of leads they are sending
through.
With just a few hours of diligence at the beginning
when you are setting up your lead campaign you can avoid
days of frustration. The bulk of lead fraud is
preventable - it just takes a little planning.
About The Author
Rob Wood is a professional Affiliate fraud investigator. He runs a site
over at eFraudster on click fraud and general
affiliate fraud prevention.
http://efraudster.com. |
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