Here's a great example of affiliate application problems.

Today I applied to join the BlahBlah.com CPA network. The application process was dead simple. Click to accept their Terms of Agreement and Can-Spam policies, fill out the usual mailing and site address information, and away you go.

However, the first sign of trouble was that the ‘referred by' form was blank.

“So much for affiliates getting paid their due for referrals”, thinks I.

A few hours later, I received the following confirmation:

Hi Rosalind,

Thank you for your interest in BlahBlah.com. On Jan 24, 2006, you registered for one of the largest CPA networks on the web! Before we proceed to approve your account, please take this opportunity to review and respond to the following questions:

1. Will you be promoting our offers via websites?
2. If yes, how much traffic does the site(s) receive on a monthly basis? Are you an incentivized site?
3. What is the country of origin of the visitors to the site(s)?
4. Will you be promoting our offers via a newsletter or email list?
5. If yes, are all the opt-in records readily accessible if requested?
6. What is the size of your list?
7. How did you build your email list (purchased or created your own)?
8. How often do you email your list?
9. Are there any specific types of offers that are currently working well for you or that you prefer to run?
10. Are you working with any other ad networks? (If so, what is your average monthly revenue earned from them?)

In addition, please provide me with a contact person and telephone number, as procedure dictates that we must speak with you prior to the approval of your application.

Once your account is approved, we can work together to achieve your marketing objectives.

Looking forward to working with you!

Someone from BlahBlah.com

BlahBlahBlahBLAH…. why do you go out of your way to cause affiliate application problems?

OK, I know it's vital for networks and merchants to know exactly who they're dealing with nowadays.

But why the heck weren't those questions part of the original application form?

As to asking for a contact person and telephone number… I already gave that information – why didn't a BlahBlah.com representative just pick up the phone and call me?

Joining their network is absolutely NOT worth the affiliate application problems of having to write long answers to questions that could have been handled at the time of application.

So too bad, BlahBlah.com, my time is better spent on this blog post and your loss!

Having read this post, you might also find Affiliate Agreements: Make Sure You READ Them! a useful article.

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Cheers,