
FF - 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.