The Wrong Affiliates Can Sully Your Reputation

By Ken Cobb

Affiliate marketing is an easy, effective method of increasing sales for an online business and if the right affiliated companies are chosen, can provide sustainable income without the site owner having to do a lot of extra work. Affiliate marketing is simple in its concept, in that a website can post advertisements from other companies and receive a commission on sales from that company, if one of their visitors makes a purchase.

There is an old saying that says if you lie down with dogs, you will probably get fleas and it also applies to who you associate with in your business dealings. Having just one affiliated company that develops a bad reputation can ruin any positives your site has developed over time. In business, it has been said that a person that has a good experience will tell three others, but a person that has a bad experience will tell a dozen of the friends. Of course, those 12 friends will inform six to eight others, and so on, leaving a trail of negatives from one bad experience.

For website owners, an attitude of hey, they only advertise on my site, there is nothing this site can do to help, is not going to create any good will among your customers. While it is true, the affiliated site's customer service is completely out of your hands, you need to do something to let your site's visitors know that you care about their experience with your company.

Many reputable websites that host numerous affiliate accounts will offer their visitors a means of sending feedback about their experience with their affiliates. When a customer complains, and has received no satisfaction from the company, the site owner does have a means of contacting the affiliate coordinator for the company to attempt a resolution on behalf of the customer. While it is true they have no real power, if enough websites see no attempts by the company to resolve customer disputes, and enough complaints are submitted to the affiliate hosting site, they will lost that capability.

Your visitors will also know that while you have no control, you at least tried to help them and now that business is not longer a part of your offerings. A half-good reputation beats a bad one in any business. Additionally, it can help put a lot of bad companies out of business before they can aggravate more people.

You have to always remember that it is your website and your efforts to attract visitors to your site that had them go to the affiliates you host. Once word gets out that the businesses you are affiliated with do not care about the customer and are only interested in ripping people off, it will not take long for your traffic to fall.

Keep tabs on the companies you host and make sure you deal only with reputable companies. This will not only insure your customers have a good experience, but also that your reputation stays in tact. Additionally, if the business is not treating their customers honestly, there's a good chance you will not be paid your due commissions as well.

Ken Cobb is the founder and CEO of Next Level Enterprises, LLC an industry leader in home business Internet Marketing, Consulting and CRM Solutions

For more information: info@NextLevelEnterprises.com