In every industry there are aspects that work and ones that need to change or be integrated out.
Affiliate Marketing is an extremely lucrative business: basically you have the advertisers who have the campaigns they need promotion on, and you have the affiliate publishers who provide you with promotion.
TLC describes a scrubs as a guy who thinks he’s fly but he’s also known as a busta. Well, scrub in the Affiliate Marketing game has just as bad of a sentiment as TLCs version… or maybe even worse. This is when an advertiser hides transactions and leads from the reporting in order to increase their revenue margin, while supposedly easing the mind of the publisher with the promised payout. However, that publisher is not getting that payout in reality if there are scrubs, and it lowers the overall margin the publisher is receiving.
Now, if you’re in the Affiliate Marketing game… you’re probably asking why this girl has not mentioned Networks yet. Well, imagine everything I said, and then pretend the publisher now brokers out this campaign to another publisher [which is what Networks essentially do]. If this publisher [or namely network] takes a margin and a scrub the less the campaign will convert for the publisher and their traffic will essentially be giving free money to the guys from the top of the path, while those at the bottom lose the fruits of their labor.
If split testing is possible, do NOT hesitate. You never know what is going on in the backend… unless you’re my publisher :) Then you really should be thanking yourself you’re in good hands. Transparency is my name and sales are my game… I just wish the rest of the industry felt the same.
