Recently I have been looking at affiliate networks to find programs that pay per lead or action. I have been quite shocked at what I have found. <rant> 1) Actions that require customers to jump through numerous hoops before they are classed as active leading to few to no conversions. 2) Landing pages with adsense and other advertising that draws the user away from the action. What the hell ! Why would I send a targeted visitor to a merchant just so they can monetize them, to me that seems criminal. 3) Worst of all merchants who change their landing pages to promote some other offer where the affiliate gets no commission. We are essentially sending them free traffic. Obviously these merchants are out to make a quick buck and don't care about any future relationships with affiliates. This leads me to the the point of what the hell are the affiliate managers/networks doing. Do they not care or are they just lazy. </rant>
this is inevitable among affiliate networks, lots have popped up in the past few years and they are going to try to maximize their own revenue as much as they can and the line gets blurry, you just have to pick the ones you trust and stick with them.
If you are dealing with ad networks (CPA) many focus on their sales reps recruiting affiliates to see what they can produce. So the affiliate manager is a used car salesman. On the other side of the fence is the retail based rev share affiliate networks. Those AM's are focused on revenue and conversion. Of course there are bad apples there to.