Can an affiliat network cheat it's publishers ?

Discussion in 'Affiliate Programs' started by stefanta, Dec 31, 2007.

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  1. #1
    I own a affilaite website that has lots of free offers running through a couple of networks. I've set up my own click count - my links are in a db and I'm counting the queries to that DB, so I beleive that's 100% accurate.
    Let's say I have 300 clicks counted on my side, but only 200 clicks on the aff network's report. That's a 30% click loss which is way too much. Is there any way to check for sure if someone's cheating and if yes to know who ?
     
    stefanta, Dec 31, 2007 IP
  2. dnk

    dnk Well-Known Member

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    #2
    I feel it happens all the time if you are a honest publisher, better to sell something directly
     
    dnk, Dec 31, 2007 IP
  3. stefanta

    stefanta Member

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    #3
    Unfortunately the product I market are limited to only a few networks. I guess I'd best start my own network and market my own products...
     
    stefanta, Dec 31, 2007 IP
  4. Dubz

    Dubz Peon

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    #4
    In theory yes they probably could so go with trusted ones if you don't awnt the risk.
     
    Dubz, Dec 31, 2007 IP
  5. darkmessiah

    darkmessiah Peon

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    #5
    are you sure the links you are directing to aren't being blocked by the users hosts file? I've seen times where I clicked on a ad only to be sent to my error page. For a while I couldn't think as to why someone would advertise something with a bad landing page. Then I realized what happened.

    I'm sure it will look like a click, but they will never get to the other end.
     
    darkmessiah, Dec 31, 2007 IP
  6. john269

    john269 Notable Member

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    #6
    Yes any site can cheat their affiliates/publishers. Looking at the way you have done it though, I would think your script is the one that is inaccurate more. You have using a script that will input a new click count once someone clicks on an external link from your site to the networks offer or something like that. Now the networks will try to filter out the bad clicks. These include clicks that are done by search engine robots, etc. Don't forget that search engines that crawl your website ends up finding pages by going from link to link, so they will also be increasing your click count on your database whereas the networks will not include them I believe. I had this happen with a product price comparison I had where my site was not getting to much traffic, but the number of clicks on each merchants products was huge meaning the script was not really that affective unless I used referrers within the script, which I didn't bother doing and just stopped using that script on the product price comparison as I thought it was not really needed after all.
     
    john269, Jan 6, 2008 IP
  7. rishabverma

    rishabverma Banned

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    #7
    I really dont think a network would cheat their pubs. I own a network, and I wouldnt even think of doing that. Consider this case though......possibly you sent them fraudulent leads, and they scrubbed one or two without saying?

    I suggest you to email them regarding this.
    OR...come to our network :)
    EliteCommission.com
     
    rishabverma, Jan 6, 2008 IP