I am an affiliate of a online shop, and I recently purchased a domain name to use as a affiliate site to them. I either want to list the items on my site, with links back to their site for comisson, or completley list them on my site, take their payment info, and then order it myself, using their shipping address. If I do the second option, is that even legal? I was considering a small mark up for profit, I can list the items for sale, they purchase them on my site, send me the money, and then I go and order the item from the site, using their shipping and credit card info, can I do this, is this a bad idea? If so, what about just listing the items, but using their affiliate links for each item, so I get comisson? Thanks in Advance!
Here in the US the second option would be "legal" but it may violate the affillate agreement. That would be a matter of cival law and not criminal law. If you are dealing with a reputable comapany and their cookie has at least a 30 day life, I think your life would be far simpler using the affilate links. With the option two you are left holding the loss in the event of a chargeback. Chargebacks seem to happen a lot with digital goods.
Agreed. Affiliate links are definitely the way to go in this situation. Option two will be messy and could easily run into a whole pile of trouble from it.