Shady Affiliate Dangerous to Advertiser?

Ace Rimmer

Ace Rimmer

Banned
Mar 26, 2010
57
8
0
I used to be a naughty boy in my career as an affiliate and didn't see how it affected anyone as long of the leads payed out for the advertiser, the customer got their moments pleasure and I got paid.

Now that I am an advertiser, I have begun to see the flip side of the coin. And I don't know how it will turn out for me. Customer satisfaction is number one to me so they aren't a problem. I pay my affiliates on time and well, so they are happy. But one affiliate has done something to piss off a third-party.. by abusing their copyright on his lander... and now the 3rd party has come all pissy to me.

This affiliate makes me great money. In fact he is in the top 5 affiliates across all my offers. I can see why now!

What do I do? Rat out one of my best affiliates? I don't see that I have to. What he does is his responsibility. If he gets screwed, its on him. I don't think he will, as I have an inkling he has protected himself.

Is he solely their problem or will he become my problem? Meaning: can I get sued for his activities?

Thanks for any insights.

Edit: One other question: all those advertisers who got screwed by Oprah... that was because they had Oprah/Ray on THEIR landers as well, wasn't it? Well, my lp does not even hint to the copyright infringement this affiliates presell lander alludes to.
 


A truly bad affiliate is someone who sends you sales/leads that are worthless...

It is better to have ONE good affiliate that sends you 100 sales/day than ONE bad affiliate that sends you 1,000 liabilities/day.

This doesnt sound like one of those types of pubs. The only real liability he's creating here is for himself/herself. Inform the pub and move on.

:2twocents:
 
I'd suggest you go talk to a copyright lawyer. Trying to arrive at an answer here based on what anyone posts would be pretty dumb.

I'd wager a guess that any good lawyer could make a pretty good case that if you were benefiting from the copyright infringement they could go after you.

Look at it this way : If you created a separate entity to create and own a presell page that sent traffic to your page owned by your primary entity do you really think that your primary entity could avoid all risk from illegal activities undertook by the other entity? If that were the case businesses could do whatever the fuck they wanted as long as they created a separate entity to do the dirty work and expect the buck to stop there. I'd wager a guess that's not the case and the law allows all those that benefit from the illegal activity to suffer.

It's not black and white however so just find a lawyer to figure this all out.

I know for a fact that shell companies don't protect affiliates personal assets much at all when they infringe on copyright.

You probably should try to even get a mod to delete this thread since it provides evidence you know about the copyright infringement which already is a point against you.
 
Do you care about building a long term brand for your business or do you just want that money now?

Let him know he's gotta change it and if he doesn't cut him off.
 
Ace Rimmer said:
.. one affiliate has done something to piss off a third-party.. by abusing their copyright on his lander... and now the 3rd party has come all pissy to me.

This affiliate makes me great money. In fact he is in the top 5 affiliates across all my offers. I can see why now!

What do I do?
Click to expand...

You have been notified so you must solve the problem, quickly, the clock started ticking when you were notified.

Ace Rimmer said:
..
.. Rat out one of my best affiliates? I don't see that I have to. What he does is his responsibility. If he gets screwed, its on him. I don't think he will, as I have an inkling he has protected himself.

Is he solely their problem or will he become my problem? Meaning: can I get sued for his activities?
Click to expand...

No he is now your problem too, you are the benificiary of his infringement and you are paying him. His "activities" are directly related to your operation. You need to act promptly. Your potential liability will increase dramatically if you allow it to continue once you have been notified. The issue of "Rat out one of my best affiliates" could be mute if you are served and the discovery process gets underway. You would be surprised at what can be dug up once the "follow the money" process begins.

The question is whether you can tell them now that you were not aware of the problem but have now corrected it promptly, and still hang on to the affiliate with the understanding that he never pulls that act again. You would have to watch him real close, if he cannot be trusted, and it appears that he cannot be, then you have to drop him like a brick. That is even if you weren't building a brand, the fact that you are in to a long term build makes the decision more crucial. You can't have it both ways.

Ace Rimmer said:
....Thanks for any insights.
Click to expand...

You're welcome.

Ace Rimmer said:
Edit: One other question: all those advertisers who got screwed by Oprah... that was because they had Oprah/Ray on THEIR landers as well, wasn't it? Well, my lp does not even hint to the copyright infringement this affiliates presell lander alludes to.
Click to expand...

No, they can cast a wide net, you can be a participant by proxy of the process.

Ask yourself the question, do I benefit directly from his violation, am I paying him for the results of his actions. A yes and yes puts you in the line of fire.
 
Had this happen on a real estate offer, the person got quite upset, and I couldn't do anything but report the aff to the network, and give the guy instructions on how to do the same. He wanted to come guns blazing thinking we're being sly and bidding on any real estate term we could (remax, coldwell, his brand, etc.), meanwhile it was an aff and his campaign didn't even do well but he caused a lot of shit for me = banned, fuck the money minimize risk and the guy truly should have known better than to put me/my offer at risk like that so fack him.

And I JUST canned 2 guys yesterday, idiots were taking a software offer I have and putting up fake .exe's and 'cracks/serials/activate patches' that were all just pdf's converted to .exe's with an aff link but he labeled his shit with competitors brands in his tags and copy... Cute old trick but my brand suffered a lot from it, as this created way more results than I thought it would. So now people do a search for my shit, they see fake free downloads on more than half the results, and they get pissy - emailing me demanding their free trial they see everywhere = gladly banned fuck the sales he/she makes. Can't follow instructions or common sense then you don't deserve to promote. Wanna hurt a brand to make your $18, then you don't deserve to promote. Wanna get my competitors banging on my door because of your doings - you deserve a lot more than a ban, and are lucky if that's all you get.

If you managed to attract 5 amazing promoters, you should be able to attract 5 more, and keep them within legal bounds on your shit.
 
The problem is being a vendor opens you up to risk, a lot, and one affiliate can bring down your whole ship with shit like this, fraud aside. Then you DON'T earn, I don't earn, and I spend 5-6 more months creating a great offer and testing to death, so a few idiots can come along and ruin it for everyone/repeat.
 
Have him move to a different offer.... Advertiser happy and business keeps on going...

Not sure how if the copyright thing will not work with others though.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom