This post is mainly for the few other people on here who actually sell their own products. My company promotes affiliate offers AND acts as a merchant, so we have solid experience on both sides of the fence.
We are currently promoting a product on a popular CPA network, and one of our campaigns just so happens to be incentivizable. I would have to say that going that route has been one of our more amusing forays in CPA marketing, as well as internet marketing in general. Here is why:
Volume
No shortage of volume. We're doing a payout-per-order and them orders just roll in. If you were working for a company and wanted to impress your boss, create an incentivized campaign and sit back...because within a few days you'll be rolling in the dough.
Fraud
The bubble must be popped, because there is no way THAT many people are interested in what you are selling.
Ok, that is debatable, but the fact is that of those 50 orders you got today, 45 of them are probably fraudulent. Is that a problem? Fraud, in our case, rampant credit card fraud, is a HUGE problem.
Many of our orders are being placed with stolen credit card information. The people behind these orders? They seem to be originating from China...but why don't we just block Chinese IPs? It's not that simple - the scammers use american IPs as proxies. Using a simple PHP script, any $5.00 web host can be turned into a proxy.
Response
We were actually glad that are faced with this problem, because it really let us plug up a lot of holes. If you are a merchant and you want to enjoy an incentivized campaign while minimizing your exposure to fraud, here is what worked for us so far:
- CAPTCHA: You know that verification code thing where you need to type letters/numbers presented on an image? Have one of these on your sign-up page to eliminate fake form submits and form spam.
- Require Email Validation: Before a user can place an order on our site, they must click a validation link that is emailed to them when they sign up. Why? It's an extra step, but it ensures that they're using a real email. Many people just love using random emails like "agaeihg@whatever.com"
- IP Tracking: We track IPs like they're going out of style, and ban the ones associated with fraud. If we see a lot of fraud coming from a particular netblock, assuming it is not part of a major ISP, we just ban the entire netblock.
- Prohibit Free Emails: Look, even if you don't get an order you at least want a solid lead. There is NO GOOD REASON to allow people to register with free emails, because that is usually their "throw away" email. This one change put the brakes on 80% of the fraud...most scammers go with yahoo, gmail or hotmail...but there are numerous free email services out there. Sure, you cant block them all, but getting most of them will make it a big pain in the ass for the scammers since they have to try registering with all these different free email services just to find one that works...and when they do, we block it.
Hope that helps someone...and if you have anything to contribute, please do!
We are currently promoting a product on a popular CPA network, and one of our campaigns just so happens to be incentivizable. I would have to say that going that route has been one of our more amusing forays in CPA marketing, as well as internet marketing in general. Here is why:
Volume
No shortage of volume. We're doing a payout-per-order and them orders just roll in. If you were working for a company and wanted to impress your boss, create an incentivized campaign and sit back...because within a few days you'll be rolling in the dough.
Fraud
The bubble must be popped, because there is no way THAT many people are interested in what you are selling.
Ok, that is debatable, but the fact is that of those 50 orders you got today, 45 of them are probably fraudulent. Is that a problem? Fraud, in our case, rampant credit card fraud, is a HUGE problem.Many of our orders are being placed with stolen credit card information. The people behind these orders? They seem to be originating from China...but why don't we just block Chinese IPs? It's not that simple - the scammers use american IPs as proxies. Using a simple PHP script, any $5.00 web host can be turned into a proxy.
Response
We were actually glad that are faced with this problem, because it really let us plug up a lot of holes. If you are a merchant and you want to enjoy an incentivized campaign while minimizing your exposure to fraud, here is what worked for us so far:
- CAPTCHA: You know that verification code thing where you need to type letters/numbers presented on an image? Have one of these on your sign-up page to eliminate fake form submits and form spam.
- Require Email Validation: Before a user can place an order on our site, they must click a validation link that is emailed to them when they sign up. Why? It's an extra step, but it ensures that they're using a real email. Many people just love using random emails like "agaeihg@whatever.com"
- IP Tracking: We track IPs like they're going out of style, and ban the ones associated with fraud. If we see a lot of fraud coming from a particular netblock, assuming it is not part of a major ISP, we just ban the entire netblock.
- Prohibit Free Emails: Look, even if you don't get an order you at least want a solid lead. There is NO GOOD REASON to allow people to register with free emails, because that is usually their "throw away" email. This one change put the brakes on 80% of the fraud...most scammers go with yahoo, gmail or hotmail...but there are numerous free email services out there. Sure, you cant block them all, but getting most of them will make it a big pain in the ass for the scammers since they have to try registering with all these different free email services just to find one that works...and when they do, we block it.
Hope that helps someone...and if you have anything to contribute, please do!
