Sketchy Affiliate Prgm...Check up on them?

[alphacooler]

I have an Affiliate program that seems to be really good fit for my site, but I am not quite sure they are trustworthy. They manage their own tracking and I'm not quite sure I trust them. I just joined a few days ago, so I have yet to receive any payment, but I have heard feedback from a few visitors that they purchased an affilate's product, yet those sales don't show up on their tracking. Its been about 24hrs, so I don't think its a delayed statistics issue either. I know I can't verify sales, but is there some JS code I could possibly use to track clicks TO the affiliate? Anyone know of a place I could find a script like that? Thankyou very much.

Warm regards,

k

[XY7affiliatenetwork]

What is the name of the site? What tracking software do they use? is it a trusted 3rd party? Unfortunatley "shaving" is still evident in alot of small programs :(

[edited by: XY7affiliatenetwork at 10:31 pm (utc) on Mar. 5, 2005]

[rfung]

not to mention, some merchants only post the sale in your reports in batches, so you need to know if that's what they do.(although if it's in house, it should be real time)

[MovingOnUp]

In-house programs can be the best or the worst of programs. It's hard to tell until you test them out. If they don't perform well, track right, or pay on a timely basis, just move on.

[alphacooler]

anyone have any scripts I could use to track clicks on the link at least? it would help me out a lot. Thanks for the replies.

k

[MovingOnUp]

Just write a redirect.asp script to log the click to a database or log file and redirect to the affiliate link. This is often easiest in conjunction with a database where you store your links.

For instance:

[example.com...]

This should log a click for link ID 1234 and then redirect to it.

This has the added advantage of hiding your links and making it easier to change them. If a link needs to change, you just change it once in the database instead of everywhere that you have the link.

[Michael Anthony]

Forget all this script stuff - if you think that there's a problem with the tracking, ask them to demonstrate it's efficiency by allowing you to make a test purchase. You could also ask to speak to some of their more established affiliates too.

If they have a problem with either, maybe then you need to resort to some other checking methods. My own recommendation would be to switch merchants if they seem untrustworthy, but you have to give them a chance to prove their honesty first.

[MovingOnUp]

Having a redirect script log your clicks is a good practice anyway.

Talking to their top affiliates and placing a test order are also good suggestions. You don't really even need to ask about either of those. Just search and you'll find their top affiliates. Place an order for something you would use anyway.