I do see your point on this, it is hard to find a happy medium with so many dishonest people out there.

I absolutely agree with you about the nonsense of minimum payments.

As an affiliate for a major accounting software vendor, I’d make a sale from time to time, but still fall below their payment threshold every quarter. It took me two years to convince them that they still owed me the money and had to pay it out even if I never got over their minimum.

I’m not a lawyer, but I think legally they have to pay you the commissions you’ve earned.

And then there’s CJ. If I don’t make a sale at least once every six months, they deactivate my account and cancel any relationships I had with their vendors. What a great way to encourage me to keep trying.

A few weeks after the most recent time they canceled my account, they sent me an email saying I was getting lots of clicks but no conversions and what could they do to help me.

Too funny.

And I get the problem of self-discounts every now and again… it’s obvious to spot. I mean, 1 click, 1 referral, and it’s the (usually) the same name… duh! 🙂

I assume they don’t.

It’s a 1ShoppingCart default setting, I believe, since I get these so frequently.

Amen, sister! 🙂

As long as the program is not allowing self-discounts, unlike Clickbank (which has to have the minimum in place, until they come up with a better method) – I see absolutely no reason to hold my payments either.

Don’t get me on my soapbox again about the values of affiliates beyond the actual sales they generate. I could go on all day on that topic! lol.

Hi Tigue. 🙂

The topic of self-discounts came up on a forum that I participate in awhile back.

This was my contribution to the discussion at the time. While it sounds like a valid thing to do, many affiliates feel it’s their right to self-discount everything they buy, which is where it gets really uncomfortable for me, as an affiliate, since I could have been the referring affiliate.

Here’s what I said at the time, and I still feel the same way…

My affiliate programs state this very clearly:
http://www.easyplr.com/affiliate.htm

————–
Please note: Self-discounts will be reversed.
This is an affiliate program for referring others. In order to ensure that our affiliates are all treated fairly and receive credits for their referrals, anyone using the affiliate program to discount their own purchases will find their commission reversed and credit will be given to the actual referrer.
————–

My helper goes through the aff payments at EasyPLR each month before we pay and she reverses commission (and tries to track down the legitimate referrer to issue credit) each month. It’s something that I feel I owe my affiliates — that they receive the commission that they earned. This is especially important with a product like PLR where many customers will come back week after week, buying more.

This is the reason why a lot of affiliates will NOT choose clicbank — because too many commissions are stolen by customers. As of now, we can’t do anything on the publisher end. I love clickbank, but this is definitely a negative for attracting super-affiliates.

As an affiliate AND an affiliate manager — I’m very generous on both ends. But,l I also think it’s a fairness issue, as well.

A person can’t just walk into a store and pay 1/2 of what the price tag says. These thieves are not intending to promote as an affiliate (usually) — they just want a bargain. (And, since I sell very limited quantities of PLR at EasyPLR — this actually costs me money.)

Good affiliates should be rewarded with free preview products as well as extra love and discounts.

I just love my hard-working affiliates and I know that many of them rely upon their affiliate income to pay their bills. I can’t stomach someone coming in and bypassing that. Sneakiness & theft… makes my belly hurt.

Hope this helps.
N

PS. Of course, this doesn’t apply one iota to those who test their link and a week later, order, totally forgetting they ever clicked it. I don’t make assumptions ever when we reverse the commissions — it happens to everyone. 😉

Your post hit the nail on the head for me. Having a minimum payout is ridiculous for the very reason you cited.

One of the best ways to incent people to sell your stuff is to let them see money coming their way — even if it’s a couple of bucks.

Many more affiliate owners would have affiliates with better success if they just drop the minimum – now.

I hope the product owner just doesn’t realize that people are receiving those emails, because if they do know it’s happening, well… that’s not good at all.