I shared earlier that I applied for some affiliate partnerships. I was declined by some of them and was accepted by one of them. I wasn’t happy with any of it.
Why? Probably because a few days ago I read that the affiliate company that I am trying to work with was panned in online reviews at Trustpilot. Trustpilot says they don’t offer pay to remove negative reviews, but some other reviews said they do. Let’s say they do pay to remove views. That affiliate company had 90% 1-star (worst) reviews.
What concerned me is that the people who wrote the reviews said they did the work and didn’t get paid. I don’t want to be in that situation. The evidence is clear that I need to stay away from this company. I have not yet asked them to close my account. I’d like to see what happens with the other affiliate relationships I applied for and see if it is what I suspect.
Why wasn’t I happy that I got accepted? That company only offers 10% of the payout if someone buys their product. On many products, it is 50% or more or a huge number. Frankly when you write a post, present a company in the best light, and then get perhaps 10% of $80 it just isn’t worth it. You are working for minimum wage, just like YouTube.
What bothered me immediately with this company was that they couldn’t verify my website. They had a variety of ways to verify but none of them worked. I had to manually verify it, which isn’t a good sign. Their forms were broken, and their customer service was poor. I tried to submit a new issue yesterday 6 times but it wouldn’t submit.
Another red flag was that when I first joined there was a list of companies that said I was “pre-approved” for their affiliate marketing. It was a list of companies that were scum. They were the worst in the market, and I could see why they wanted hype men. I would never affiliate with someone I didn’t believe in.
All in all, so far the affiliate relationship has been a waste of time, abusive, and scammy. Not what I thought it would be.