Selfishness in Affiliate Marketing
So last night I was up all night with my allergies, didn’t get to sleep until 7:30am. In that time period I got up and took a shower, and started to really think about my life, and affiliate marketing. I started thinking about something I had completely avoided thinking about, because I knew it would change my perspective on the industry, and knew it would also severely negatively affect my income.
Whether we like to admit the fact or not, A LOT of business in affiliate marketing completely scams and screws people over; and we’re the guys in the background making a profit from it. I started thinking about the most popular niches out there and the effect it had on the hundreds of thousands of people signing up for these offers. I myself have promoted these offers, and even was currently promoting them, until now. We completely take for granted all the money we make online, and the lengths we’ll go to to make that money sometimes. Let’s just look at a few of the popular niches out there today…
Payday Loans
Payday loans are one of the biggest verticals in the financial sector. I personally know affiliates making over $30k/day on payday loans, and I myself have gotten into them quite a bit. What is a payday loan? Simply put, a person in desperate need (here comes the first moral issue, targeting people who are desperate for money) signs up for a loan. When he doesn’t pay the loan back, he’s charged 400% in interest and ends up being in debt for years. Rather then rambling on about it, I’ll just quote some real testimonials I searched and found last night.
Small Loans, a predatory lender owned by Money Tree, Inc, gave a $200 “payday loan” to a disabled, elderly, illiterate man and thereafter took in his benefits check for him and paid him a small “allowance” out of it, less the money they deducted as “repayment” on the loan. All told, they took thousands from the man over a period of years, bleeding him so badly that he ended up homeless, begging for power to run the machine that treated his chronic lung infection.
Mr. Milford is chronically broke because each month, in what he calls “my ritual,” he travels 30 miles to Gallup [New Mexico] and visits 16 storefront money-lending shops. Mr. Milford, who is 59 and receives a civil service pension and veteran’s disability benefits, doles out some $1,500 monthly to the lenders just to cover the interest on what he had intended several years ago to be short-term “payday loans.”
Sure most of these people are stupid, but can we use that as a legitimate excuse to ruin their lives? Hell no. Payday loans completely screw people over, and for this argument’s sake we’re going to disregard idiots using it for gambling debt or something like that, because either way we’re still harming thousands of good people.
Green Tea/Acai Berry Diet Pills
The green tea/acai phenomenon is huge right now in affiliate marketing. There’s ads all over Facebook urging overweight people that they can really lose weight for free with the help of green tea. The fact alone that we’re leading these people to believe that drinking green tea is going to make them lose fat is bullshit. The sites are filled with fake testimonials and people even pose as fat chicks to get conversions. It gets worse though, they think they’re paying $3.95 to get a free trial bottle, but in the fine print they opt-in to be sent a bottle a month if they don’t cancel within 7 days. These assholes charge $90 for a 1 month supply bottle and just rebill the persons credit card every month. Most people don’t realize it until they’ve been hit a couple times and paid $200 bucks and gotten crappy pills that didn’t help anyways. What makes it worse is that these places don’t pick up their customer support number, don’t respond to emails, and don’t try to every provide ANY help to the poor suckers that were charged. I’ve bought this stuff to examine it myself, and it’s a crappy little bottle in a small plastic wrap that gets mailed to you. Do you know how much it costs the advertiser to produce a bottle of this shit? UNDER $1.00. Trust me, in the past I looked into doing it myself. They charge people $90 for something that cost them a buck, and then upsell them on 10 other crappy products that don’t work.
I took the week’s supply…felt no different…and said “oh well…I’ve done worse things with $3.99.”
I know you’re waiting for the other show to hit the ground and duck…here it comes!
I get a package in the mail with a bottle of 60 pills. I go on line and look at my credit card and they have charged my card an additional $74.99!!!!!!
First I called the c/c company and am disputing the charge but I know I will lose. I contacted Performance Products USA at acai.performanceproductsusa.com and was refered to their webpage buried among millions with a click on accept terms which has a negative marketing plan and they will continue to hit my card for $74.99 until I opt out of the program.
I used the sample GreenTeaLLC sent for 4.99 they claim I signed a contract to take 84.90 a month for their Product I did not! It does not work it is a scam.
I called the told them to cancel any further orders.
They have charged me for three orders 2 i didnot
receive.I was told they will only refund 60 dollars.
THey were supposed to stop taking the money from
my Acct. But Haven’t. I received my bank statement
and they taken another 84.90 out I am very angry
what can I Do ?
Ringtones/Crush/Mobile
I don’t even really have to go into ringtones and mobile stuff because everybody knows they’re deceptive. Again these people are idiots for reading the text that says $9.99/month or $2.99/day, but either way we’re taking advantage of them because they just read the PIN and confirm it. I did ringtones for a long time, who hasn’t tried them? Sure they’re the least harmful of any of the other offers I’ve mentioned, but it’s still the principle of ripping people off. Crush offers advertise “You have (2) new crushes!”, so you sign up to find out and just get a retarded horoscope subscription service.
Flycell, a NY company, billed me $20 a month on my cell phone bill for four months (total $80). By the time I tracked down who was billing me, I contacted them and told them I never asked for or received any service from them (I don’t even know what they do) and asked for a refund. They refused.
The sources above took me literally 10 minutes to find, and there’s hundreds of other stories out there. Now sure you’re going to have pissed off people in any niche or any place; there’s always people who aren’t satisfied with what they bought into. But the point is at least they knew they were buying into it. People taking out payday loans are unaware to the fact that if they don’t pay the loan back, they’re going to end up in debt for years. There’s a reason payday loans are completely BANNED in several states. Fat people signing up for the next hot thing in acai don’t realize they’re going to be billed $90 for a horrible product; they just want to try it for a week and see that it does nothing and only a healthy diet and exercise will help them achieve what they want. Teenagers with cellphones don’t really care what’s on the bill, most of the time their parents are paying it so the parents end up being the ones screwed and pissed off.
I’m certainly not saying that now we should just all stay away from every niche out there, because there are consumers out there who do want to buy products. Even if the product doesn’t work out for them how they wanted it to, they still were aware of the fact that they had to pay for it. I believe in karma and that’s what got me thinking on the subject, and I’m done promoting these things that either completely ruin peoples lives, or scam them for a quick buck. Is it worth making a lot of money for yourself when you know that you had to screw literally thousands of people to do it? Just think about the kind of negative effect you’re having on all these peoples lives.
I’m going to lose A LOT of profit but I’ve already paused my campaigns and sent emails out to the networks/direct advertisers that I was working with giving them my reasons for cutting the campaigns. There’s plenty of legitimate money to be made online and I do have a few of them running so I’ll be fine. I already have enough money and doing these things to thousands of people just isn’t worth it and I feel better already now that I’ve stopped. Sure just because my ad drops off means someone elses ad will take it’s place, and this stuff will always be promoted, but that’s not the point.
If you do want to promote in these shady/deceptive niches, head over to my page for shady affiliates who want to do shady things and let me know what you’re interested in and I’ll see what I can do.
Bring it.
and that link is not closing either!!!
Paul,
Though I frequently read your blog, I have never commented before, until now. Let me just say that I am extremely impressed even proud of your realizations and common sense empathy. I believe this sense of right and wrong and your mature conclusions will eventually lead you to higher long term profits than you have ever imagined!
Thanks for sharing this with us. It made my day to see other affiliate marketers thinking like this.
There is NO Need at all, for any cowardly cyber racism like TF was saying. It really is curious how you a few post you don’t agree with could leave you so unhinged.
So was this intended to be a terrible joke or is that ” april´s fool” link some kind of hack and you really think what you said?
I call bullshit. If you really believe in karma, won’t the money you made pushing the crap be at risk? According to your new found morals, it is ill gotten money right? I think you ought to make one hell of a donation to some charity if this is truly the way you feel. Maybe you could find a bunch of these morons with payday loans and payoff their loans or something?
I think Pauls easily at a position where he could pick and choose what types of offers he wants to run with hardly any financial setbacks. However it’d be kind of hard for most people at a lesser financial position to get “idealistic” and suddenly stop running a profitable payday loan campaign. That’d be a pretty tough decision to give up for example 30k a day.
Well then the way forward is clear. Start investigating everything you promote before you get your hands dirty from now on, and start teaching people “good karma” ways to make money. And BTW good luck. Pretty much everything humanity does feeds off of other life in one way or another and once you start down that rabbithole of trying to find something squeaky clean, you won’t believe what you find! Try to do everything by the book and you’ll soon end up a broke mother f*cker like me hehe… ;) And be aware that as well as “positive hype” promoting products, there is also “negative hype” finding paranoid faults with everything.
Maybe you could start a new site which is an independent review of affiliate products, where you actually buy them yourself, or use all that cash to get them lab tested or do some research or something cool… then spotlight and promote the good stuff and diss the bad stuff… need a few disclaimers and a few hours from a lawyer but I reckon you’d get an audience, what with your position and that…
you could call if affiliatedirt.com – bet its available… :)
Glad to see you’ve left the dark side, Paul :)
I may not be profiting $30k / day (barely / year) with affiliate marketing, but the products & services I promote aren’t ruining peoples lives.
When you’re ready for a cup of Tim Horton’s again, let me know!
EXACTLY!!!
Dude, if a product would really be that harmful – people wouldnt spend money for it. People arent as stupid as you think.
Your over estimating people, You can sell HIV Pills to someone if your landing page was appealing enough. Hopefully they rebill when they need the AIDS Meds…….
Short form, high CPA lead generation for the win.
Bravo… :)
I’m so happy that someone finally brings this out. I’m really starting to think twice about a lot of MMO niches. I won’t be able to sleep at night if I’ve screwed thousands, jeez.
I’m really glad your doing this, even if it means loosing out on a lot of profit. WHO CARES. Money is not everything. Think about that.
Regards,
– Mark Cuda
What about the guys who got a payday loan and it saved them from being evicted?
What about the fatass who bought the tea and lost weight?
What about the guy who bought a ringtone and was happy with it?
You don’t read about the “satisfied” side. When people have a bad experience, they’ll tell the world. When they have a good one, they might tell one friend. Btw, other sites have been giving away niches for over a year now.
:)
Yes sir. You are correct. Because one or two less people in payday loans is going to make a big effect on the industry.
I’ve talked to uber about this. It seems legit, and it’d be pointless to try and scare people away.
Hater.
very good post.
Interesting post Paul – thanks for sharing your insights. I agree with you on some your points, but not all. Here’s my thoughts:
Green Tea/Acai/Ringtone offers that opt-in users to a monthly fee that is only mentioned in the terms of use (and who ever reads those anyways) are morally wrong. You left out an even bigger catagory of scam offers – biz ops. If the pricing information is clearly stated somewhere on the page, it’s fine, but hiding it in the TOS is unacceptable.
Payday loan offers, though, are not morally wrong on this account. Most of them very clearly state their interest rates somewhere during the process, and even though they are only for idiots, they are not deceiving. That is really the litmus test for a good offer vs. an immoral scam – does it deceive a good, conscientious consumer who makes a reasonable effort to understand it? Biz ops that hide their bi-weekly $89.99 fee deep in the TOS that opens in another window can scam all but the most savvy; payday loans will only scam the stupid – and they don’t deserve their money anyway.
I’m certainly glad you’ve had the balls to write this. Being that you have an authority blog, it will be a good wake up call to anyone with a conscience thinking that they just need a quick buck.
Given the state of the economy, even though the consumer isnt being smart about their online purchases, doesn’t mean we have the right to take advantage of their ignorance and desperation. The networks may tell you different. Don’t listen. The advertisers will tell you different. Put it back on them. Call bullshit bullshit, and let them know there are moral affiliates with integrity out there who simply wont promote shady offers, no matter what the payout.
The point is, is that we/you/ i can sleep better at night knowing we are contributing positive things is a world of suffering, instead of being part of the problem. More marketers need to come to this realization and follow the road less traveled.
tons of selfish people in affiliate marketing lol
Exactly. We all know there’s no Magic Pills or Formulas that work for Weight Loss, so why not promote something that DOES work?
Sure, it MIGHT not convert as easily, but for every scam – there’s plenty of LEGITIMATE offers out there. Just get to know your market and you’ll find a TON of legit offers out there that will make you feel good about yourself, and not the way Paul feels (like so many others do in this Business — they’re just too afraid to admit it).
Excellent post.
You do for now – until you actually find out about someone who’s life you may have affected in a negative manner… Karma’s a bitch and that’s why Paul wrote this because I think he has come to that realization.
Paul, I get the post. What I don’t get is why at the end of the post you put a link to contact you and you attach it to gay porn. That’s really retarded. What if someone was sitting with their mother or at work, and you pull a stunt like that. That wasn’t cool dude! You are now showing your age. Always be professional.
Well what can i say, Good for you.
If you feel you’ll sleep better now then great.
In this world, making big money most of the time require that you move big numbers and take advantage of the weaker ones.
Becoming rich is for the STRONG HEARTED
My 2 cents
I have no problem pushing credit card offers. I justify it though, by helping people get the most out of their credit cards and showing people with good credit how to make money off of the cards that they get from my site.
undedicated huh? you are a fucking moron. Atleast lie and say you meant undedicated and not “uneducated”
Yea. Keep your head straight and your be honest to people. Thats always been my belief.
Congrats Paul! It looks like you discovered you conscious! (no sarcasm there)
If other affiliates began to realize this, the industry could really change. This is the great thing about the free market, we have the ability to change how business is done! If enough affiliates stop promoting these types of offers then networks will stop them too and start having a lot more morally-acceptable offers.
good post.
Paul, terrific post. Good for you to come around. You might have a temporary setback as you scramble and make changes, but I’m sure you’ll come out even better in the end.
Affiliate marketing is just like most any other industry. A lot of it is legitimate, but some of it isn’t. Where it might be different is that a lot of people who were scammed may not complain as much as if they had been ripped off by a physical, real-world store that they can go back to.
I love the moral-less jerks like John above who “sleep fine at night” while exploiting people. They just don’t get it. Yes, people can be adults and should be responsible for every decision they make. If everyone knew everything, John would have no business and might even be in jail. But we can’t know everything, and so we must often turn to experts or people posing as them and there lies the rub. The problem is that the copy-and-pasteness of the Net makes it very easy to look like an expert.
It’s only a question of time for browsers to have Web of Trust-like features built-in and that might kill parts of the industry overnight.
I agree with Patrick. If you want us to take you somewhat seriously, let’s be professional. Also, how about in your next post listing some of the positive, legit fields. I think most of already know what the crap is.
just do ctrl+alt+del then end task it will close lol he is crazy though lmao
DID SOMEONE GET HURT? hahahahahahaha LMAO piss on you! lol
oh yea thats a nice one there…can you do that dude? I second to this!
Just the fact that you took the time to set up that page says something…honestly, pretty low man.
wake up- what makes you think it’s ok to force sexual content on people? It’s not- it wasn’t all right with me at all. You suddenly change your position- after you don’t need the money anyway so it must have been hard- then take the power to punish people who held the view you held yesterday- who do need the money, or who never thought about it at all.
People who read this blog look up to you and you ask them to contact you and you don’t think everyone will click on that link- just to see what’s behind it?
I was in public when i did and you had no right to show sexually explicit images to me- not funny. Your actions had real consequences and were uncalled for and I lost respect for you.
hope you feel great about yourself.
Awesome post Paul. I see you pissed off a lot of people here, but hey, you’re not successful enough if you don’t have haters right? Congratulations on the boost in comments, traffic and loyal followings because of this post!
“Imagine all the big aff networks finding good offers for great products … things would be a little different”
Couldn’t agree more with that statement.
Let me THANK YOU for this great, great post. 100% agree.
Your decision is SHINY, and if the crap will not stop being promoted (and we know it will not), at least it won’t be promoted by YOU.
If you feel having sentiments like that, stop doing this bullshit is a RULE.
Internetz and businez are both full of LEGIT money also that waits to be earned. It’s a choice.
Respect.
What a bunch of saps…
You guys should seriously watch The Corporation then stick it in your peace pipes and smoke it…if you think “legitimate” companies are pushing there products/offers just to make a world a better place you should go back to sleep in lala land..
So Paul, why not just give up your campagins and start promoting dishwashers and shit from Amazon or Sears.. earn $3.45 for every $1500 fridge you sell..
Fake it till you make it…
Sounds like a real “Jerry McGuire” moment.
I’ve had them and changed things because of it. You’ll be better off for it.
Be care not to confuse “selfish” with just wanting to make a good living. There are ways of being in business without being selfish, but it is a fine line.
lmao if you read the actual paragraph saying “if you want to promote these shady niches”…
Don’t worry bout the haters Paul, you now know within yourselt that you can sleep easy at night without bad karma on your tail. These offers ARE scams and one less marketer pushing these the better. AM can be very profitable, look to better product marketing, I do very well off physical product niches that is only giving people what they want, not what they dont need. Focus on helping people find what they need and the world will turn for you.
Great article man, props
Uberaffiliate,
Finally, a shining example of the long view. You should stand tall knowing that you are now in a position to do good and not evil. If we were only about the quick buck, we would continue to support these vitamin-weightloss-diet-pill-acai-berry chareletons.
I have only been in Affiliate Marketing for two months. In that time I have decided to run my business clean, honest and straight-up, with the thought that no one needs to suffer financially from my efforts to make an on-line income.
I respect your position, and vow to follow your example in conducting my on-line business. This is more than mere altruism, this is the only way I can sleep at night. What many people forget is that one day you will need to make an accounting of your activities. In my case the report will come back, “Excellent, you followed an ethical path, here is your reward”.
Respectfully, Nicholas
Paul, I’m proud of you for being willing to think about this. Many of the best offers out there are the worst for people. People commenting on this blog will come up with a million justifications but you’re on the right track. I think about if I want my daughter eating “X” pills, or doing whatever is in these offers and my answer is almost always “no”. Don’t listen to anyone else telling you otherwise because there is much more than karma at stake.
eh, i would read the fine print, so they should too. if the program does not add all the fine print, then how is an affiliate to know anyway, to not promote it.
Wait a sec…if that’s Paul’s private contact page then that must be Paul…wow man so all along the guy in the meatspin video has been you!
Congrats, now email me all of these unethical keywords, text ads and landing pages. :)
I am also impressed. It will be interesting to see how long it last… Was this something the concious was getting at you about?
According to this you would also have to close this blog and stop promoting affiliate networks.
Since this is all about shady stuff.
What are you planing to do now?
Ideas for you: do some dating site which is not shady. example:plentyoffish.com