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Over 2 years ago now (has it really been that long!) Google introduced its landing page quality guidelines which had a big effect on affiliates at the time. Affiliates prior to this used to build \u2018thin sites\u2019 which provided little \u2018user experience\u2019 with the idea of using PPC to direct traffic to these sites and quickly on to the merchants site. The affiliates had their AdWords accounts slapped or suspended and as such lots of affiliates disappeared into the night.<\/P>
Fast forward two years\u2026<\/P>
Any merchant who runs an affiliate programme will in more cases than not get 90% (or more) of their sales from their top ten affiliates. These super affiliates have built sites that adhere to Googles landing page quality guidelines and have the infrastructure and tech in place to send traffic to these merchants sites. These are legit affiliates.<\/P>
Merchants still want to use affiliates as part of their marketing mix because they still bring incremental sales without big overheads for the merchant. In order for merchants to use these affiliates they go through affiliate networks.<\/P>
In going through affiliate networks they still open themselves up to other affiliates that can sign up to their programmes. This is where the black hat affiliates come in.<\/P>
Where as before affiliates would build thin sites, they no longer can do so thanks to Google. But as a result affiliates have had to evolve and become more sophisticated. Using dummy sites, redirects, masking techniques and alike these affiliates will find ways to make easy money. And whilst the Blackhatters don\u2019t condone any of these methods we are seeing this on the increase more and more.<\/P>
Now whilst were not the affiliate police (and nor do we intend to do so) we do know this goes on and the reason is simple\u2026<\/P>
Affiliate networks and agencies alike do not have the time or inclination to go looking for these affiliates and in some cases wouldn\u2019t know what to look for. One reason for this is due to staff churn rate at these agencies and networks means that they don\u2019t always have people with the knowledge of what to look for, (which is fair enough it took us many years to build our skills so we can spot another affiliate.) You also have to remember that its not always in the networks or agencies interest to look for these affiliates as they are counting as more affiliates on their programme generating revenue for them. They are earning on average a 30%\u00a0commission\u00a0on all affiliate sales and they are in the business to make money just like everyone else.<\/P>
Whilst there is some pretty sophisticated tech that has been developed to help spot these affiliates\u2026the affiliates will always find ways around the tech because the tech is not built by the affiliates and as such doesn\u2019t know what to look for. But what the tech does do is make merchants sleep better at night thinking there is a system in place.<\/P>
But whilst there is easy money to be made then black hat affiliates will exist (we should know they email us frequently) and whilst its not in the interest of the affiliate networks to catch them, the practice will continue.<\/P>
Brought to you by Black Hat PPC<\/P>
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