Problem with Merchant..Need Advice

[Porkchop]

I had originally received an email from someone wanting to trade links...Long story short I ended up getting this guy to become a merchant at one of the affiliate networks and I am now one of his affiliates sending him a lot of business.

Problem....this guy has copy and pasted a huge paragraph of text I had worked up using a lot of valuable key words. While checking my own stats I seen his site ranked for a particular term and he was only ranked due to this information he stole off my site.

I called him on it and originally just asked in exchange for doing this the least he could do was give me a link back. He didn't. He finally took the information off this page he knows I have been watching but I have since found it on 2 other other pages. 1 page still on this site and he now also has it on a different site pointing back to his original site.

I am mad enough to tell him I am ending our relationship but I will be cutting my own throat because I make sells for this guy EVERY day.

The most recent site I found my info on is just a one page site that has all my information and at the top it has links to his 2 sites. Thats it. Just my stolen text and his 2 links. Naturally everyone is going to click on these links and go straight to his site bypassing my affiliate links.

I don't have any info copyrighted or don't even know if people do this. It is just basically listing the inventory of the merchants I have on this site. Which allows me to take advantage of key phrases. What do I do? I could tell him to buzz off and stop being his affiliate but my commissions stop and he will still use my paragragh.

The idiot didn't even have sense enough to change it up a bit. He just copy and pasted the whole thing word for word.

Advice?
Thanks......

[Michael Anthony]

Despite your feelings, I would try for a win-win here.

This guy has obviously concluded that if he and his affiliates dominate the SERPS then he will maximise his revenue. Perhaps, if the market has more than one merchant, suggest that you've been approached by his biggest competitor as your rankings are so impressive, but you'd rather work with him than against him. The threat of losing your help may prompt him to come up with an imaginative way of sharing the pie, and if you work together to gain maximum maket share you might just end up mutually better off.

This approach needs a head that can rule the heart, but some of my best business relationships have come from being nice when the expected reaction was nasty.

[Porkchop]

But...there is no win win
When he gets found in the search engines due to my information he stole...They will go directly to him without going through my affiliate link. That is a lose lose for me.

There was one term I was checking in my stats and when I pulled it up he was one spot ahead of me. It was "my" info that was highlighted for the term. Somehow he ranked the one spot above. I was boiling mad.

As far as his competitor I am their affiliate also and he did go through my link and purchased some items from him. I got the commission. I thanked him. But...what he is doing is getting stuff from the competitor and then selling it on his site for a cheaper price. I have both merchants featured on the site. Over all their merchandise is totally different so it really gives my visitors a large variety of items to select from. And...as long as I am making a sale I guess I should be happy.

I just want to call him a thief and yank his stuff off my sites. But....by doing this I am hurting my bank account by giving up sales.

[rfung]

Maybe a cease and desist letter (NOT email) will prod him to take the right action, especially if he's in the wrong.

[Michael Anthony]

I think in your case porkchop you either let your need for cash or your ethics win. Either you can live with it or u can't.

[MovingOnUp]

Is this really the type of relationship that you want to be in? Find a competitor of his and promote them instead. You need to be able to trust your merchants. If he'll steal from you this way, he'll steal from you in other ways.

[Porkchop]

Thanks for all your comments.

Follow Up:
I got to looking at this list he copied and checked my stats and they were not the keywords that were getting me all my traffic. So...I wrote him (again) and let him know I
was not pleased that he continued to use my information and the shock of him starting a new site using only my information and his 2 links. I told him it was wrong and unprofessional. He had been giving me a 15% commission so I told him I would give him permission to use this info on this one site only but I immediately wanted an increase to a 20% commission. I ended by using the L word and he was "disappointed" that I would even bring up the word lawyer and agreed to remove my info and he also gave me the 20%. We are speaking again and he is sort of kissing my *!% I guess he figured out you better not bite the hands that feeds you because I send a lot of customers his way.

I had to laugh when he suggested this info has not done him any good and he thinks it actually penalized him. Then he tooted his own horn saying how hard he words to constantly search for new products. blah blah I'm asking myself what does this have to do with you being a thief.

Anyway...I am enjoying the increase in commission and a few days have gone by and he has not removed the info yet. I guess it forgot...yeah right!

Thanks for the feedback.