serious question - Am I Obligated to tell AM my Traffic Sources

[romeo216]

Am I obligated to tell my affiliated manager how I drive traffic to my blogs? I've given all the other info he's asked for....my conversions started out pretty high(30%) so he asked me how was I marketing the offer...He told me to email him a list of all the blogs I had and I did so...then today he asks me to tell him how I'm driving traffic to my blogs. I am currently converting on a 5% clip now on my offer. I don't believe that's an outrageous rate so why am I being hassled by my affiliate manager?

I use several techniques that some of the users here have told me to use for driving traffic to my site. I just don't see why I should have to tell him everything. My offer currently has 805 hits for the month and around 46 conversions.

[Oregon Coast Guy]

I'd assure him that I'm not doing anything black hat (if that is truly the case) and ask him why it matters that he know all this information? As long as the sales are coming in, who cares?

Be happy and cash the checks.

[Julia]

In my experience when an affiliate manager asks in-depth questions on how you are driving traffic, it's because something appears suspicious to them, or because the merchant is concerned with the traffic. Basically I think they are just trying to determine the quality/legitmacy of your traffic.

Like Oregon Coast Guy suggested, why not ask them why they need this information?

[Linda Buquet]

There is a LOT of fraud in this industry so it's wise for AMs to question traffic or conversions that are out of the ordinary. One of the reasons they COULD be asking is to be sure you aren't using some type of Adware or parasite. If that's the reason then it's actually a GOOD thing because they are vigilant about keeping their program clean.

On the other hand, I'm sure there are AMs that want to get the info for their own gain somehow. So I agree you should ask. However they have the power. If they are suspicious enough for whatever reason and you don't give them the info they could deactivate your account.

[positivecarry]

This investigation by AMs seems a bit odd considering that they are profiting from you making them sales. How do AMs get in trouble if black hat is used? I can see if you abuse certain websites to promote your product , but you just earn them money, and all they have invested in you in some administration software that tracks your sales.

[Linda Buquet]

"...seems a bit odd considering that they are profiting from you making them sales. How do AMs get in trouble if black hat is used? "

WRONG WRONG WRONG...
And the concern is not just Black Hat - some things affiliates do are absolutely illegal and sometimes it's a federal offense and the FTC or FBI even gets involved.

Merchants can be legally held responsible for, even sued for the actions of their affiliates. If an affiliate is spamming or making outrageous claims that a product is "guaranteed to help you lose 20 lbs in a month" or "you will make a million in your underwear with no work" the FTC can even get involved and it's the merchant that gets in trouble. The merchant is responsible LEGALLY for knowing what their affiliate partners are doing.

Additionally regarding affiliate fraud some fraudsters send tons of traffic and make tons of sales and then after the affiliate check is sent the sales turn out to be fraud so the merchant is out all the money.

I was even involved in affiliate fraud. There was a HUGE ring of Chinese fraudsters, pretending to be me - my 5 Star site and reputation, my home address and phone number. They joined 100 affiliate programs and networks in my good name - made a ton of money in my good name and all the sales were fraudulent. So there are MANY reasons AMs are suspicious because they have dealt problems like this before.

Also with the spyware/adware/parasite issue a merchant's brand is at stake. If they start showing up in adware popups and illegal downloads that muck up the customer's computer what does that do to their brand and reputation? Sometimes it's not the merchant that advertises through spyware and shady apps, it's the affiliates. The FTC still busts the merchant and it's the merchant's brand that's all over the news not joesaffiliatesite.com.

Other concerns are whether the affiliate is using the merchant's trademark in unethical ways or using fake coupons - both of which hurt the brand and confuse the merchant's customers and tick them off.

SOOOOOO I am not saying Rome is DOING any of these things but all of these things are issues affiliate managers fight every day. They don't know Romeo personally, for all they know he's doing something illegal to make sales. Just trying to share the view from the other side.

[positivecarry]

Maybe relative to others they are, but it sounds like the AM is trying to find out what he is doing to copy.

[Rob_TID]

My answer assuming you are doing everything right:

Tell him.

PPC
Natural SEO
Article Marketing
Email Marketing
Banner Advertising

These answers are all legit and general enough to not give away your competitive advantage.

As an AM, I asked plenty of affiliates about traffic sources. Once you give a general answer, the AM will know how to verify whether you are telling the truth or not.

99.9% of my best affiliates would tell the truth, I would verify and our relationship would continue profitably.

The other 0.1% were frauds.


My answer assuming you are doing something shifty:

Dude, you are now *****ed. Suck it up cos you are a scourge on our industry and you deserve not to be paid. In fact I hope you lose money.

[OneOfEm]

They're right. They care because it's their name on the line if potential customers get ticked off because of unethical marketing practices.

Be general and answer their questions. If you're doing something you shouldn't be, they were certainly right to question the results.