Some citizens of the United Kingdom has taken advantage of the United States in that they are using affiliate marketing to trick U.S. citizens into believing that they have companies in the United States that need representatives. They don’t have companies here that need US representation (as they supply their own for their companies here in the states) and they guarantee an annual yearly income that they don’t pay. In fact, what they propose is extremely illegal.

Affiliate marketing takes many faces, distorted and otherwise and allows people to believe that they will earn money when in fact, that could not be further from the truth! My daughters recently found out what affiliate marketing is when they were on the web site for Jennifer-Love Hewitt’s popular television show “Ghost Whisperer”. While obsessed with the actress and her plight to help those trapped in this world “cross over”, a pop-up advertisement came up telling them that if they signed up now, they would get the very first entire season of that show on DVD for free! Because we had recently looked into buying this from our local Wal*Mart, we knew the cost to be around $50. The girls ran into the kitchen, pulling me in the direction of the computer saying “We can get it for free…they just want to know who to make the check out to!”

All of us have fallen for something or another that is not the real deal, be it a person or a product, the disappointment that follows the discovery can be heartbreaking. Affiliate marketing, in its rarest form is legitimate, profitable and as mutually beneficial as it is real. There are real companies that really pay you to add their advertisement to your website for the sole intent of redirecting your traffic to their web site. Because these real companies value the consumer and their time, they offer real products at real prices and really deliver. Your benefit for allowing the advertisement to be displayed on your website is real compensation.

Affiliate marketing companies make money when you make money. This is part of what makes it believable. If there is no address, no phone number, or if there is a phone number, but no one answers, then in all likelihood, the company is not real. If it’s something that you’ve never heard of before, like a media company in Canada that stole $40 from me when I had to pay to receive Request for Proposal materials and then never even would acknowledge my emails to confirm their receipt, they are probably not for real.

Be careful when choosing to affiliate yourself with a company that you are unfamiliar with. Most people are very trusting and it is to their disadvantage in this segment of marketing. People who are taken by an affiliate will remember that it was you website they visited that took them there (actually, they had to choose to click on the link, but they won’t see it that way) and they may accuse your site (on the internet with open blogs, etc.) of fraudulent business practices or what not.

I found it interesting, surprising and sad to realize that my eleven year old daughter was still innocent enough to think that what the computer was telling her was the truth…that it would really happen. My ten year old, while much less mature, was less disappointed than the eleven year old. The innocence of children, isn’t it too bad that we spoil that?