If you have an affiliate program with CJ or Linkshare they already have
a legal sign off that the affiliate must sign saying they don't do any
illegal activities, etc. That said... it definitely does happen. The
merchant/advertiser has different options depending on their own
companies affiliate agreement (which the affiliate/publisher also agreed
to when they applied to the program). If you have a specific clause
against this and you can prove they broke it you may have legal
recourse. Another option is to contact the network (CJ/Linkshare, etc.)
and have them look into the affiliate and its practices. CJ is pretty
good about this if you can prove your point. You also have the ability
to simply terminate the affiliate relationship with an individual
affiliate, but that won't repair any damage done to your brand.
I think if brand image is an important thing to a company, and to a
majority of companies it should be, then manual approval of affiliates
is absolutely necessary. It won't cure all your problems, but it will
greatly reduce and limit them.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Josh Dahmes <> Marketing Strategist <> Ciceron
www.ciceron.com <> tel: 612.204.1919 x42
Get Web Results -- Ciceron's monthly eNewsletter
http://www.ciceron.com/enewsletter.asp
Received on Wed Oct 16 2002 - 22:56:58 CDT
