I just thought of this so if its considered very bad then sorry. but... Sign up for one affiliate program and then use your link to sign up the the affiliate program again (only works with 2nd tier programs). This way you'll make an extra 10-50% income per sale. I would recommend reading the terms, but if its against them, you can always enlist a friend to help you get around this.
You're a real genius - it's people like you that have resulted in so many programs not offering a second tier.
Well that depends, If your primarly promoting the product (as oppossed to the aff program) then you probably wont get any second tier affiliates anyway - depending on the product. Yeah exactly I diddn't claim anything and its not my problem that theres a flaw in their system. Sorry for mentioning it.
There are probably many ways of getting a bit more out of a Merchant. I will simply make the observation that the best, most successful and wealthiest affiliates I have worked with never bother with stuff like that and go out of their way to remain squeaky clean. Why would you jeopardise your relationship with a Merchant if they are doing the right thing by you?
Good affiliates allways can get a rise if they produce some x-amount of money; on the other hand - if the catch you cheating the system, they can close your account or both; depends what the terms says about violating rules or unethical behaviour; play safe
This is almost definitely agains your affiliate's terms and conditions if you read the smallprint. Why not do someone the favour of giving them an extra 5% or so for pointing you in the right direction?
I agree with Shawn on this one. We have safeguards on our network that prevent affiliates from doing this. Affiliate Marketing is all about relationships and why start out on the wrong foot with deceptive practices such as these? ~Susan
I mostly agree with all your comments, I was only mentioning it to see where others stood on the issue, and I also think that I should share idea's even if they are slightly evil (as I don't have much else to offer). I actually realized this (I'm quite new to aff marketing) when I signed up to an affiliate program and they gave me a number username like 482043, which I promptly lost and then signed up again inadvertently as my own second tier affiliate. I only realized after a couple of months when my checks were about 30% larger then I thought they should be, and I was getting 2 in single letter instead of one. I thought this might be ok as why would they not noticed they were sending me two checks instead of one? Anyway I'll email them as I am making quite good money and I agree that that should be based around a good relationship with the program.
I would bother doing it. You may earn a little more, but then all you are doing is trying to get more out of the merchant which may find out in return. I don't see the point in doing this. There is always people trying to find out ways of trying to earn money from doing as little work as possible. That is why there is so much fraud in the ppc industry.