Comments on: Should You Block Affiliates from Certain Countries?

By: Geno

Geno — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 21:06:20 +0000

Ron, excellent testimony to illustrate my point!! Thank you for it! Much appreciated.

By: Ron Givens

Ron Givens — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 14:14:08 +0000

At one point, we had complete *blocks* on certain countries no matter what they had to say.

But, when I began as the affiliate program manager, I noticed that there *were* a lot of very honest and forthright marketers from these countries who simply wanted an opportunity to promote to their fellow countrymen and the rest of the world.

Instead of declining them, I simply asked for more details on their business location, business practices, and how they intended on promoting our service.

After gathering all that information and taking about 5 whopping minutes to verify their information, I would then sign them up as an affiliate.

And you know what?

I have not had ONE problem from an affiliate who I have screened.

I think screening would be the way to go with affiliates coming from a country with past problems of fraud. Like I said, fraudsters do not like to be interrogated at all.

By: Geno

Geno — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 23:53:20 +0000

Greg, I agree that some countries are more spam-dangerous than others, but I disagree with you. I don’t believe in generalizations, and my personal experience is telling me that things are frequently not what they seem on the surface.

“Countries like Egypt and India have a whole lot of spammers…” So what? Is an affiliate program manager with this approach presupposing that there no decent affiliate marketers in these countries, or are they just trying to make their job easier by activating that decline-by-country function (not to spend their time looking through their websites)?

By: Greg London

Greg London — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 22:30:43 +0000

I think you should block certain countries. I notice countries like Egypt and India have a whole lot of spammers that know how to hack and sign up a bunch of fake affiliates.

By: Geno

Geno — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 20:05:54 +0000

Exactly, Ron, and this was also mentioned on the above-quoted panel. Most of the players that you do not want in your affiliate program will never even reply with clarifications on how exactly they will promote you. However, I believe it is best to first email them, and then decline (if no reasonable explanation is received), and not first auto-decline, and then hope they will email you.

By: Ron Givens

Ron Givens — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 16:39:35 +0000

Also, one may consider employing a little more stringent filtering process for affiliates who apply from a “banned” country, as opposed to a block altogether.

This way, if the affiliate has a legitimate site and has a plan on how to promote your service that he/she can convey in a meaningful manner, it is much less a risk.

In my experience, most fraudsters do not like to be scrutinized at all, whereas legitimate practitioners are usually very honest and open about their intentions and methods.

I think maybe just a few more levels of security for high risk countries might work rather well.