Affiliate Marketers Articles
We want to remind all our affiliates that Health Converter has a ZERO Tolerance policy regarding deceptive advertising practices. If we are made aware of an anyone violating the terms and conditions of our Affiliate Agreement, specifically Health Converter’s Marketing Policy, we will immediately reject all their leads and ban them from the network. The marketing policy clearly states that:
All online advertising of Merchant’s products by Affiliates shall comply with the Federal Trade Commission Act, the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003 (“CAN-SPAM Act”), Federal Trade Commission regulations and guidelines implementing the FTC Act and the CAN-SPAM Act, and all other federal and state consumer protection laws and regulations.
Each Affiliate is responsible for ensuring that his/her online advertising of Merchant’s products adheres to the following standards:
- Advertisements must be truthful and non-deceptive
- Affiliate must possess evidence to support claims made in his/her advertising and
- Advertisements must not be unfair.
When speaking this year at the Affiliate Summit West on Identifying Network Scam Networks with Kim Riedell (Commission Junction), Lucas Brown (Has Offers) and Rebecca Madigan (Performance Marketing Association) we got into an interesting discussion on who’s responsibility is it to make sure affiliates and advertisers on a network are not being deceptive or breaking laws. Since networks are in a unique position to have access to both affiliate traffic sources and advertiser landing pages, the consensus is that networks will need to have strict policies and enforce them when they discover a violation in order to avoid liability themselves.
Health Converter itself has always taken a proactive role in encouraging advertisers and affiliates to comply with FDA, FTC, and Visa/MasterCard Regulations. This is why we recently banned over 200 affiliates from our network. We strongly recommend that affiliates do not engage in practices that are deceptive to consumers or violate FTC regulations and laws, especially by creating fake testimonials or flogs (fake blogs).
How to stay compliant:
- Review the FTC Advertising FAQ Pay attention to key sections:
- How does the FTC determine if an ad is deceptive?
- What makes an advertisement deceptive?
- What makes and advertisement unfair?
- Disclose your relationship with the advertiser and that you are being compensated for promoting the product
- Have a testimonial affidavit for any endorsements you post.
- Often times advertisers have real testimonials they will let you use, ask your affiliate manager to make a request on your behalf.
- Testimonials and claims must be of the typical results (results not typical disclaimers don’t cut it anymore)
- Content is still king. Work on developing great copy that follows the FTC guidelines.
- Consider using professional resources like Media Buyers
- If you do PPC campaigns continually optimize them, wPromote is a great company to help you with this process. (No compensation given for endorsement).
Please contact your affiliate manager if you have any questions regarding our policies.
Health Converter was the only affiliate network at this year’s Super Affiliate Think Tank in San Diego, CA. As usual we made a big splash! Check out the behind the scenes video of the event and see John Chow, Zac Johnson, DK and Jonathan Volk compete for Health Converter bragging rights:
Here is a photo of me and the boys (John, Mike, Zac):
XoXo
Cheri
DK (Dr. David Klein) hosts the most important even in affiliate marketing every year. It’s called Think Tank and this year Health Converter has decided to sponsor the entire event. Come out for 3 days of open bar free drinks, free food, and lot’s of free events. Learn more about the Think Tank here
As an affiliate marketer myself I know how difficult it can be to work from home when you have kids. I think it’s safe to say that around 99% of affiliate marketers work directly from home. Yes, it is very convenient to get up in the morning, walk into the kitchen with just a pair of boxers on, grab a cup of coffee, and get to work. After about 5 minutes of getting into the groove your kids come running downstairs asking you to make them breakfast, get dressed, etc. So you handle your business and sit back down to get in the groove. A few minutes go by and bam, your kids are back at it again, “Dad, I’m bored. What are we going to do today.” Before you know it you’re ready to pull your hair out because you just can’t get anything done. It’s the weekend, or summer vacation, and you’re simply going to have to entertain your children. If you fail to plan in this situation, then you should certainly plan to fail.
Here are The 5 Most Effective Ways To Manage Your Kids While Working On Campaigns:
1. Marry A Good Woman: If you’ve yet to find the right match then seek it. Having a wife that will understand your career as an affiliate marketer and respect the fact that while you’re at home working she needs to treat it as if you’re away at the office, is rare. The most successful affiliate marketers have an understanding wife behind them.
2. NetFlix Movies: Set your kids up with 2 NetFlix movies that are at least 72 minutes in length. In between movies prepare a snack for them. Avoid shows unless you want to live the life of a yo-yo affiliate – constantly getting up to turn on new show every 22 minutes.
3. Summer Activites: Get your kids involved in summer camps. My daughter attends a cheerleader and gymnastics camp. Work out a car-pool arrangement with other parents.
4. Sleeping Schedules: You’ll need to put your kids on a pretty strict schedule. 9pm means 9pm. That way you can effectively plan your working schedule. Several affiliate marketers get most of their work done after hours. The kids are asleep and there’s no distractions.
5. Pandora: Put Pandora on and plug in the headphone sets. When you’re kids are home playing and you know they’re safe, tune out to some good tunes. Put the volume all the way up and ride out.