RosalindGardner.com

Learn Blogging & Affiliate Marketing with Rosalind Gardner

Shareaholic’s Failed Attempt at Revenue Sharing

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I am unimpressed with Shareaholic's attempt to start an affiliate program, and ‘unimpressed' is putting it mildly.

Shareaholic is a WordPress plugin that allows social sharing, following, social analytics and related content recommendations.

Below are 2 screenshot examples of how Shareaholic shows up on a blog.

Shareaholic Example

Shareaholic Example

I've used the Shareaholic plugin (aka Sexy Bookmarks) for many years, but I WON'T be using it anymore.

A few days after I did the latest Shareaholic plugin update, I noticed a strange link in the ‘Related Content' links supplied by Shareaholic.

shareaholic

I clicked the link and it took me off site to a fat burner, diet and exercise site… a topic that is completely unrelated to the content in the post I was looking at and to my site in general.

Shareaholic's ‘related content' links NEVER linked externally before, so, I reviewed the Shareaholic plugin settings to find out why that was happening.

The reason wasn't immediately apparent, but ‘Revenue Generating Apps' as shown circled in the graphic below provided the first clue.

shareaholic-account

The new ‘Monetization' section at the bottom of the Shareaholic: App Manager page was the next clue.

shareaholic-monetization-settings

Although the instructions state “To turn this feature off, move toggle to the left“, neither of the toggle switches (circled in red in the screenshot above), ‘toggled'.

The slider below “Earn Money with Promoted Content” did however slide left and right.

So, my understanding up to that point was that you could choose to show fewer or more ads, but you couldn't turn off the ads completely unless you opened a Shareaholic account — which is what I did next.

Shareaholic Account Setup

The red-circled toggle in the screenshot above did in fact work, so I toggled it into the ‘off' position after verifying my site.

Site verification in itself was a little tedious. First I had to enter the domain URL and name, then choose the platform (WordPress), select a site category (very few from which to choose), and pick a language. Once that was done, I grabbed the setup code and installed it within the document head.

The first verification attempt didn't work because the plugin had already been installed and therefore had its own site ID, which was different than that listed on the Shareaholic site and contained within the setup code. Only by deleting and re-installing the plugin could I get the site ID's to jibe.

UGH.

So all that done, I thought I'd check out their compensation model. (Note how I wasn't willing to give them a single free click in the meantime. 🙂 ) I found the answer by clicking the ‘learn more' link within my Shareaholic account. The only note regarding compensation stated:

We will be delivering a report with your initial payment distributed on November 1st, 2014 (learn more about payments). We are currently working on a dashboard that will display how much you've earned in Shareaholic Settings. This feature will be available soon – stay tuned!

The “learn more about payments” statement wasn't linked out to more information, so it was impossible therefore to “learn more”.

That said, what was I left with? Virtually the same Shareaholic service that I had prior to entering the fray and I decided that I was not interested in going through the same rigmarole for each of my sites and therefore chose to dump Shareaholic and use the Genesis Optimized Social Share plugin instead.

The Genesis plugin was super simple to install. Just download, activate and you're done. Granted, it doesn't have a bunch of options from which to choose, but it does have the most important social networks, (Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest) and that's all that anyone really needs.

Quite frankly, I think Shareaholic's Promoted Content attempt at revenue generation through affiliate marketing / revenue sharing is a miserable failure — quite scammy, in fact.

I understand that since the initial roll-out, they've changed the default affiliate linking toggle to opt-in, as opposed to opt-out. My guess is that change was made in response to numerous angry users who went through the same discovery process as I did.

What Shareaholic did reminds me of what Roger's Cable tried to do in Ontario Canada with a ‘negative option billing plan' that they introduced back in 1995. Their plan was that you had to opt-out of paying more when they introduced new services, rather than allowing consumers to opt in, or choose to purchase their expanded service.

After severe public backlash and 2 members' bills in parliament, common sense prevailed and THAT practice was outlawed. The underlying theme is that consumers should pay only for what they've agreed to pay.

In summary, if you use Shareaholic, check your settings now. If you don't agree to their monetization plan, choose an alternative now.

Affiliate Marketing Scams and How to Avoid Them

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Scams exist everywhere online, including affiliate marketing scams.

If you have taken up affiliate marketing as a way of making extra money, you may already be aware of the many pitfalls you might encounter in the process.

Affiliate program owners run into scams sometimes, such as people trying to sell products and pocket the refunds, affiliates who promise bonuses and don't deliver, and so on. Affiliate marketers, too, can be scammed by the program owners or even by the public. Make sure your blog avoids affiliate marketing scams with these crucial strategies.

  1. Research first, apply later.

    The first red flag you should look out for is pressure, especially time pressure. Any affiliate program that tells you that spots are limited and you can only apply in a certain timeframe could be trying to pressure you into committing to market their products before you find out the truth about the company. Before you apply to a program, search for their name on Google and include the words “scam” or “payment” to make sure they have no outstanding complaints.

  2. Make sure your links stay intact.

    Your website can look beautiful, but if people are stealing your traffic, you won't see any income. Some affiliate programs will refuse to acknowledge your hand in making the sale if you aren't careful. Once you add your affiliate program link, always double-check by clicking on the link and viewing the product page yourself. Make sure your affiliate ID is still on the page or in the URL.

  3. Research payment terms first.

    Whether you're marketing a product to a consumer in exchange for a cut of the profits or doing affiliate marketing for online products and services, you should know when and how you will be paid. The research you do on the company should make sure that they actually pay out, but you won't know exactly when to expect the check unless you look in the terms and conditions.

  4. Make sure your customers will be satisfied.

    It's just as important to make sure that your website isn't scamming people, as people can destroy your reputation or even sue you if you go about marketing improperly. Plus, it's just good ethics to make sure you're selling something worth the price they will pay. Request a review copy of the product or check a lot of customer reviews before deciding to try marketing the product as an affiliate.

  5. Stay honest all the time.

    Contrary to popular belief, it's not a good thing to write entirely positive reviews if you're going about affiliate marketing this way. Even if your intention isn't to scam people, it can look like your website is a scam if you never have anything negative to say. Try criticizing a few weak points of what you're trying to sell, then point out how people can overcome that problem or when the advantages outweigh these disadvantages.

Affiliate marketing is a noble enterprise: connecting people who desperately want solutions with the solutions they need. If you're not careful, however, you can fall victim to some of the many affiliate marketing scams. Make sure you follow these strategies and trust your gut instinct when something feels too good to be true. Your website can be scam-free and profitable!

Guest post contributed by Peter Nevis.

You may also be interested in the following article, Starting an Affiliate Marketing Business during COVID-19 which highlights some of the scams that arose during COVID, including affiliate marketing scams to entice people to buy training and other products while people were desperate and out of work.

Beware Bait and Switch Affiliate Programs

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Yes, barely 3 months into a year in which I vowed that all my posts would be positive, I find myself in the unfortunate position of having to share some bad news with you.

It's what I call the “Merchant Bait and Switch” and it works like this:

  • Merchant gets you interested in a product.
  • You sign up for their program.
  • Loving the product, you promote it in good faith.
  • You discover (if you are lucky) that your affiliate links no longer produce commissions.

Fortunately, this is a relatively rare occurrence.

However, if you learn that you've driven thousands of visitors to a site without the hope of being paid what you are due — you might be somewhat teed off.

Especially if you learn that one merchant has done it not once, but TWICE.

Sadly, that's the story behind my dealings with Affmeter.

When I started to promote their product, they were using one payment processor with an affiliate program.

Sometime later (read years), I discovered they'd switched to Clickbank.

Yet, despite the fact that I'd done beta testing for them to help them improve their product AND then given them a great testimonial after they'd made the changes to develop a great product — no one ever notified me of the change.

The last time I checked, my testimonial was still on their homepage (although I expect it to disappear shortly after this article is posted).

So, what did I do?

I contacted Firuze Okten Gokce, the owner (whom I knew personally from conversations over the phone and at industry conferences), to tell her that I think she's committed a major faux pas in terms of fairness to her affiliates. I then change my links over to the new Clickbank links.

When I next met her at an industry conference, neither of us mentioned the incident and life went on.

Duh. me.

Considerable time passed and one day I'm reviewing all my affiliate links again and guess what I notice?

The Clickbank link to her product works, but when you go to the order form from the merchant page — the processor is NOT Clickbank.

Not only THAT, but the affiliate signup page on her site still gives you Clickbank links.

Here's the video I took to show what happened.

I'd like to say this was an honest mistake, however, in this case, I know better.

The owner of this company started in this industry as an affiliate, and as an affiliate, she'd have known better. At least you'd think she'd have the integrity to contact her best affiliates to let them know of the changes… but no.

And, to prove I was a super promoter of her product, just search “Affmeter” on Google. My 4 year-old review (January 2008) still comes up 3rd in the listings. Granted – what a waste. Gotta wonder how much she owes me. I assume it is a LOT. (The listing in 2nd place doesn't even have a link to their site… weird).

Anyway, fool me once, shame on you — fool me twice, shame on me — and I should have kept a much better eye on this bad actor.

On the brighter side, it looks like Affmeter recently went out of business, which I'm sure has nothing to do with the software – which was great – but really, really bad karma on the part of its owner.

I wish I could say this was the only time I've seen this happen, but it's not.

Over the years, I've soused out a number of links to programs and products that had been terminated and the links redirected to totally different products. The links still worked so you won't get a broken link error notice like you would if they were a Commission Junction merchant.

In most cases, they are Clickbank merchants of products that are no longer viable (out-of-date or violated Clickbank's terms of service) and their affiliate links redirect to a landing page with an email opt-in form.

Hopefully in the future, Clickbank will contact every affiliate who ever sold a specific product to advise them of changes to the product or terminations of the product.

Most recently, my affiliate links to Bizzites redirected to a Chinese Bee Pollen site.

Fortunately, the owner of the company had warned me that he was selling the company and that he didn't know what they new owners would do with it — so when a subscriber informed me that the links were being re-directed, I wasn't as surprised as I might have been otherwise.

The point is — keep an eye on your affiliate promotions. Don't just check to see that they redirect to the merchant site, but make sure you are getting credit for the sales as well, i.e. check the order page.

Comments, questions or suggestions? Please leave a comment below!

Cheers,

Ros

Better Business Bureau Scam Emails

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BBB ScamDo you sell a product online?

Would you be alarmed if you received a complaint notice via email from the Better Business Bureau?

I was… for a about a nano second until I got to the ‘bad English' portion of the message. A quick Google Search confirmed my suspicions that this was indeed a spam message.

Here is the message that I received.

Attention: Owner/Manager

Here with the Better Business Bureau would like to inform you that we have been sent a complaint (ID 18537343) from a customer of yours related to their dealership with you.

Please open the COMPLAINT REPORT below to obtain more information on this problem and inform us about your opinion as soon as possible.

We hope to hear from you shortly.

Sincerely,

Fernando Grodhaus

Dispute Counselor
Better Business Bureau

Council of Better Business Bureaus
4200 Wilson Blvd, Suite 800
Arlington, VA 22203-1838
Phone: 1 (703) 276.0100
Fax: 1 (703) 525.8277

If you get one of these, trash it. Do NOT open any links or attachments.

BTW, all I did was search for ‘Fernando Grodhaus' and Google responded with a page full of complaints about this ‘complaint'.

Comments, questions or suggestions? Please leave a comment below!

Cheers,

Ros

Affiliate Promotions on Craigslist

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Well, I've just come across another example of an affiliate marketing coach who charges through the nose for training that takes people down a path leading to nothing more than a waste of time and effort.

In this case, the affiliate ‘coach' teaches his students how to place ads for Clickbank products on Craigslist.

If you've come across this advice — request a refund and leave the program now!

Under Craigslist's Terms of UseSection 7, subsection k, you must agree

… not to post, email, or otherwise make available Content that constitutes or contains “affiliate marketing,” “link referral code,” “junk mail,” “spam,” “chain letters,” “pyramid schemes,” or unsolicited commercial advertisement; …

Obviously, that includes posting ads that link directly to Clickbank products, which is exactly what he advises.

UGH!

Perhaps, that's something that worked for him in the past — but teaching it as an affiliate marketing method to new students of the topic is just wrong… especially when the lesson is part of his “Quick Start” series.

Seriously, if he's teaching this crap, how can you trust any of his other advice?

So, like I said before, if you see this video in your training package, just cancel that $200 per month subscription and join a REAL affiliate training program – Affiliate Blogger PRO – (shameless self-promotion of my own product).

I specialize in sharing REAL, honest promotional methods that work (and don't abuse Terms of Service) — but only if YOU work. 🙂

Facebook Stalker Spam

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Good grief. What's up with the Facebook Stalker app (and all the idiots that are promoting it)?

Folks, it's just another way that scammers are getting you to give up your Facebook password.

Don't fall for it!

First of all, if your Facebook security is good (no telephone numbers, addresses or real birth years), then you don't need to worry about those who will steal your identity.

And if you have played fast and loose with your personal information get LifeLock identity theft protection!!!

Secondly, it's easy enough to tell if you have a REAL stalker (and I've dealt with 2 of them over the years).

They don't just lurk – they pursue you — relentlessly.

They send you every app in the book, send you loving messages and then express real frustration when you don't respond. (Have you seen “The Resident“? Watch it.)

Dealing with Facebook stalkers is easy — defriend the creeps.

I have 2 Facebook accounts. One for family and REAL friends (those whom I've actually met, spent time with… love). The other is for people with whom I do business. Some folks are on both accounts… but never would I allow a stranger into my ‘friends and family' account.

Back to the point, as far as an Stalker Trackers application on Facebook — there's no such thing.
The original stalker app was removed from Facebook very quickly due to security issues. Don't believe that others will be any different.

So, don't fall for the bandwagon and promote it. In too many cases, it's just a front for nefarious programmer/scammers to access your account.

How to Spot a Scarcity Marketing Scam

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Scarcity marketing is a strategy used by sellers to create a sense of urgency in the prospect to buy a product immediately.

This is most often accomplished by stating that the product is available for a limited time or in limited quantities, e.g. “Offer ends March 31st” or “Only 36 copies left”.

The latter tactic works especially well when the prospective buyer knows that there were only a couple hundred units originally and now there are only 36 available.

For example, take a look at the screenshot below which shows the order page for a Clickbank product that I looked at this morning.

“WOW!, that is selling like hotcakes – I'd better buy it now!” you might think.

That's almost what I did until I stopped and thought harder for a moment.

The text under Item Description, “… WARNING: ONLY 36 COPIES LEFT…” is the description that the vendor supplies to Clickbank when they post the product in the Marketplace.

Smell a rat?

Wait, it gets stinkier still.

A seller might want to limit sales if they have a training program to which they attend to students personally (like I do at Affiliate Blogger PRO) and therefore more sales means more work.

But no Clickbank vendor in their right mind would limit sales of an ebook to 215 copies. It just doesn't make sense. Maybe if they were doing a deeply discounted offer – but not for the full price of $47.

Nor would that Clickbank vendor get hundreds of affiliates to promote the product. Seriously, would YOU bother to promote a product where there were only 215 copies available and you knew that all the so-called ‘Top Guns' were promoting it as well?

I hope not!

Don't get me wrong.

I'm not saying that scarcity marketing is not an ethical strategy – it IS, when used in an honest and upright manner.

But I sure as heck wouldn't even consider buying a product from someone who so blatantly lies to (tries to scam) their prospects.

Anyway, check out the sales page (it's great copy although I wish he'd stop yelling at some point) and then click through to the order page and see if there aren't still just 36 copies left. LOL

By the way, if you really want to buy the product – that is my affiliate link – feel free to use it. 🙂

As always, stop and think before you click “Order”.

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