Got Rogue Affiliates?

OPW - Aug 30 -A rogue affiliate is running this ad on Facebook. We removed the identity of this site to protect the [somewhat] innocent. The site in this ad is definitely NOT 100% free. Its a paid dating site. This is NOT COOL. It's not good for the idating industry as a whole when affiliates falsely represent dating sites. How can you/we possibly police against this practice? Affiliates often find innovative messaging and methods to get high click through rates and conversions. This is great for short term profits for both the affiliate, and the dating sites. But the industry suffers when rogue practices mislead people. Users remember that they had a bad experience with 'internet dating' and we all suffer, in the long run.

When I was an affiliate manager at FriendFinder in 2003 we had to police affiliates who used email, and then CAN-SPAM came about. FriendFinder could not risk breaking CAN-SPAM rules. So the FriendFinder edict was, if affiliates used email their affiliate accounts would be cancelled. Affiliates were not permitted to use email to promote FriendFinder. It was relatively easy to monitor. If an affiliate had bursts and lulls of traffic that was an indication that they were using email promotion.

Dating sites can use similar edicts to get the attention of affiliates. Your brand related ad messaging should be consistent and pre-approved on all site promotions. If an affiliate mentions your internet dating brand name in an ad, that ad should have been approved by you. Protect your brand! Protect this industry from misleading, rogue affiliates.