In elementary school I was crazy smart. I could rattle off my times tables faster than you could say "Conjunction Junction, What's Your Function". However, I hit a brick wall in 8th grade and instead of being the kid that everyone copied off of during tests, I became the kid that always sat right next to the smart kid on test days. I'd put my forehead on my hand like I was concentrating, when I was actually blocking my line of vision from being noticed by the teacher as I studied the smart kid's answers and replicated them onto my own test.
Different scenario, same principle here: When my mom would cook something that I know I despised, whenever she would leave the room, I would grab an assortment of raunchy spices from the pantry and poor them into the mystery meat loaf of the day. My plan was, if I could make it taste so bad that my parents thought it was terrible, than we'd have no choice but to get take-out instead. It worked often and well, I'm reluctant to say....
So, did I ever get caught? Nope....But that's not the point!! Cheating as a whole is wrong, in pretty much every aspect of the word. So, when you are tempted to do something "cheatish" while doing affiliate marketing, think again.....
Say you have a new site and you're wanting to pump it full of content, however, aren't boiling over with creativity and would prefer to take a shortcut. So, you scour the internet, find some verbiage that is relative to your site, and copy and paste and Presto Change-o, you have yourself some worthy and interesting content. There's a word for that, and it isn't "CopyCat"....It's something way more cool sounding, and that word is Plagiarism!! Not only is it wrong, it doesn't help! Search engines favor original content, not recycled and repetitive verbiage. Don't cut corners and spend your time copy and pasting, when it really is not worth it. Take some time and be an authority on your topic and use that knowledge to provide insight on it for your viewers. If you are running a credit card offer from our Credit.com Credit Card Affiliate Program, don't just copy what other people think of the Card Act.... voice your own thoughts and review. It will help you gain credibility at the same time. On the flipside, if you think you may be a victim of others copying your work, there are great sites, such as copyscape.com, that you can utilize to check.
Have you ever watched America's Funniest Videos where they show people's reactions to a winning lottery ticket, only to be informed painfully later that they were set up by a friend (with obviously no soul) and that ticket is bogus? These people go from overwhelmed and excited to stunned and silenced in seconds-- just like when Taylor Swift was interrupted by Kanye West at the VMAs. Come on Kanye, Beyonce is good, but one of the best videos of all time? Have we forgotten a little known production entitled "Thriller"? sheesh....anyway, back to the topic at hand. What I am getting at is the same thing unfortunately happens with publishers and affiliate networks, advertisers, etc. When publishers send leads through, and volume accumulates, the sales team takes efforts and adjusts and modifies processes and forecasts to accommodate. Each lead that comes in is part of the bigger picture, and essentially, can really alter many procedures in place. The last thing you want to do is try and sneak under the radar and provide bogus leads intentionally. Not only is this entirely unethical, but it is likely to violate each and every terms and conditions you are under and the end result could be suspension of your account and potentially foregoing of any payment. Yes, some publishers have scammed some of the biggest known networks around, however, keep in mind that the affiliate world is an incredibly viral atmosphere, and wrongdoers names spread like wildfire, so some may have gotten away with it in the past, but odds are, it won't happen again.
All in all, the main takeaway from my rambling is to just "play nice". No one wants to deal with deception. Everyone wants to deal with legitimacy. Like my mom always said, "Be honest and be true to yourself. Doing so gains the respect of others." Well said Mom!....now, about that meat loaf.....
-Ryan Zimmerman
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