Bizopps WTF

Of course not. But if it's proven, I can tell you right now several network AMs who I talk to already told me they would go right to the Advertiser and tell them to clean up their act or else theyd be dropped. Networks lose $ too when this shit happens. Theyre just one notch above us in the food chain.
 


Jon,
How do they do this when the network's pixel is on the final landing page? Do you mean that they have in their backend a ratio algorithm (e.g. 10% of all people about to go to page 2, where the pixel fires, now go to a DIFFERENT page 2, hidden by the Advertiser, that is the same page but without the pixel to fire)?

Exactly. They don't even have to have two pages. It's fairly trivial to just wrap the pixel in some sort of conditional statement to only render the pixel in HTML as some percentage of time.
 
Of course not. But if it's proven, I can tell you right now several network AMs who I talk to already told me they would go right to the Advertiser and tell them to clean up their act or else theyd be dropped. Networks lose $ too when this shit happens. Theyre just one notch above us in the food chain.

Then the network will loss money as well. which way should they choose?(there's only few advertisers behind these offers)
 
Exactly. They don't even have to have two pages. It's fairly trivial to just wrap the pixel in some sort of conditional statement to only render the pixel in HTML as some percentage of time.

They wouldn't do this, its too easy to spot a missing tracking pixel.

Dont forget the pixel itself is just a script, they'd do the processing inside the script itself. So the pixel would always display they just put a conditional statement inside it to ignore the affiliate.

At least that's how Id do it to make it harder to catch me doing the wrong thing.
 
I'd say a good way to prove this would be what the previous guy suggested, we get 30-50 WFers to use their wife's credit card or something, sign up and complete the sale, and then post our success rates to see if an offer was shaved.

Don't even jack with the wife's CC, just go to an Ace Cash and buy a prepaid debit card with 5 bucks on it, just enough to cover the postage nut on the "free trial", then you don't have to worry about cancellations. I always kind of wondered how much you would be able to make, if anything, that way before getting shut down (and probably sued).
 
They wouldn't do this, its too easy to spot a missing tracking pixel.

Dont forget the pixel itself is just a script, they'd do the processing inside the script itself. So the pixel would always display they just put a conditional statement inside it to ignore the affiliate.

At least that's how Id do it to make it harder to catch me doing the wrong thing.


That may be true in some cases but not most of the time. The pixel is typically hosted and controlled by the network itself, so if the advertiser shows the pixel, the network can detect the customer based on the cookie they set when the visitor originally passed through the link that redirected to the merchant's site. If the advertiser handled notifying the network of a sale through direct server-to-server communication, then the pixel wouldn't be needed. That scenario is less likely as it would require some technical person on the merchant side to script the communication (more man hours, more problems, more risk, etc.)... ergo, the network just gives them a simple pixel to drop onto the page.

Anyhow, as you probably agree, the point is that it's ridiculiously easy for these advertisers to "shave".

The only way for a network to prevent an advertiser from shaving is to make the server-side code public or to take the control of the process out of the advertiser's hands. Either way, advertisers wouldn't like that and the networks would lose potential business over the perceived "mistrust".
 
The easiest way to fix this problem is for the advertisers to give away at least SOME value.

Read consumer reviews about these products and it will make you want to puke. They provide NO value, what so ever.

Either way, I love re-bills : )
 
I don't know alot about that offer since i'm not testing it but it surprises me that google lets it run via their adwords platform.
Seems like they would ban accounts for linking the product with them.
 
This is a predictable by product of shady offers. All of your suggestions are cute as far as better relationships between advertiser and affiliates. That is not going to change anything.

As mentioned on this thread, affiliate marketing needs higher quality products. So customers don't feel screwed and don't chargeback.
 
As mentioned on this thread, affiliate marketing needs higher quality products. So customers don't feel screwed and don't chargeback.

You mean Biz Opp marketing right? e.g. if someone buys into an Acai offer theyre getting a new supply every month.

How could "product" be provided for biz opps? I don't see how. When it comes to get rich quick schemes, which these all are, the product is really training one in the principles behind making $10 a month through Google, which is what they probably will make following the steps.

What I'd love to see is an Advertiser with real balls, someone who says "MAKE MILLIONS FROM HOME - DO WHAT I DO, SELL LOUSY EGUIDES AND REBILL THE SHIT OUT OF PEOPLE"

An honest offer like that would kick ass, because people know its shady, they probably dont care, they just want to learn how to do it.
 
They could do something like ppc-coach where they get access to something new every month. Theres no reason why these biz ops cant provide real information. Fuck, they could do a week by a week or a month by month on techniques to monetize a blog and I am certain they will get less cancellations. Most of the people that try it will fail but keep paying anyway similar to the members of ppc-coach :) *

* I am in no way trying to discredit ppc-coach or his members