Three Ways to Stop Affiliate Marketing Commission Thieves.

Affiliate Marketing is a fast way to make money online. You won't need a website to do it, you won't need to store the product, and you won't need to worry about customer service, all you really need is to find a niche market and recommend products to interested buyers in that niche by using pay per click (PPC) search engine marketing. I must warn you that: If done improperly ppc Marketing can cost you a fortune if your clicks are not converting into sales. Please do your homework.

Be careful: Your affiliate commissions can be stolen. You need to protect them from link hijackers who take out your affiliate ID from your link and replace it with their own.

#1 Do Not Direct Link To A Product

You should always cloak (hide) your affiliate link, in so doing you will be protected from these less than human characters who replace link ID so that they wind up with your commissions. Another reason for cloaking is that people seem to have an aversion when it comes to buying from an affiliate link. They simply cut your ID and go directly to the merchant, possibly thinking that they will get a better price.

#2 Look For What I Call Sales Cracks

You must test the sales process well, you may find that the vendor is the actual thief. Often the vendor is just new and doesn't know better, in other cases the vendor is just ripping you off because of greed.

Look for these killers.

When a perspective customer lands on a sale page, there should only be two ways of getting off that page. He or She either buys the product or hits the back button. The vendor has money opportunities such as Google AdSense ads on the sales page to try and make a few cents...Avoid this vendor at all cost.

Other Payment Options.

Often you may see a vendor giving payment options on the sales page such as "call us with any questions." What seems to happen is that costumer reps will redirect them or take their order by phone. Either way, you lose the commission. Stay Away.

#3 Find The Threshold The Vendor Uses to Hold Your Money.

Before signing up with any vendor, make sure you read the terms of agreement. Some affiliate marketers are shocked to learn that they must first reach a certain amount of commissions before seeing a dollar. That actual amount could be in the hundreds of dollars. Sometimes they learn that the actual vendor is charging them an accounting fee, just to lower their affiliate commission check.

I stated above, and I'll say it again...Please do your homework before going to bed with any of these marketers. A few minutes of your time can be the difference between peace of mind, and thousands more in your bank account.

So there you have it. Like everything else in life it pays to spend some time to educate yourself before jumping in.

I hope that this article has been informative and eye opening for you.

To your success.