Every affiliate application is a tiny fork in the road. Approve the right people and your program gets stronger. Approve the wrong ones and you get refunds, brand headaches, and a whole lot of noise. In today’s episode, I’m sharing my approval criteria for screening affiliate applications, plus the exact process we use to make decisions quickly and consistently. You’ll learn what to look for, what to ignore, and how to handle the “maybe” applicants without turning your program into the Wild West.
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Previous Episodes of The Affiliate Guy
How to Set Up Affiliates to Win (Onboarding Checklist)
How to Grow Affiliate Program Revenue 20X in 48 Months
How to Fix the Biggest Affiliate Marketing Mistakes
How to Get Affiliates to Trust You (So They Actually Promote You)
How to Get Affiliates to Actually Promote
How to Screen Affiliate Applications (My Approval Criteria)
How do you determine the good affiliates from the bad affiliates, especially on an affiliate network? How do you know if you should accept or decline someone who applies for your affiliate program? Or is there some sort of middle ground where you don’t have to decline or approve something in the middle? So listen up to find out exactly how we process affiliate applications.Thanks for joining me today. Let’s get started. So how do you determine good affiliates from bad affiliates, especially if you’re on an affiliate network? I got a question from a client recently that I thought was pretty good.
I shared the answer with her, but I feel like it’s appropriate to share this with you guys as well. She, you know, she. Here’s the question she asked. She messaged us. She’s one of our clients in your affiliate launch coach.And she said, Our ShareAsale account. Because we recommended ShareAsale to her. They’re on the network now. Our ShareAsale account is now active. I’ve been getting applications in, but I’m not sure how to determine if an affiliate is good or not.Do you have a checklist podcast that could help me shift out good versus bad affiliates based off their websites? Now, again, we put her on shareasale because there’s two reasons. Number one, we recommend the network. It’s great. I’ve worked with them for years, almost 15 years now, and we love the network.
Number two, if you’re one of our clients, you get a pretty substantial discount on share sales. So, you know, the fom the Friends of Matt discount is what we call it. So that’s why we recommended it to them. And so she’s asking basically, how do I know if somebody’s good? How do.How do I know if they’re bad? And how do I determine if I should approve or decline an affiliate? And, let me just share a little bit of what I shared with her. You know, first of all, almost never flat out decline an affiliate just from their application. You want to take the extra steps and reach out to them.Now I say do that on the affiliate side as well. That’s important. You know, if you’re an affiliate, don’t just fill out a lame application that I would want to do as an affiliate manager that I. You think I might just decline. You know, write a lengthy application.
Make it hard on me. Actually, don’t make it easy on Me, make it hard on me, make it so long, I just go, holy crap, I’m just going to accept this person because it’s detailed. But on the affiliate management side, reach out to them now. There are some factors that you can take into consideration. I’ll talk more about reaching out to them in a little bit.But these are in no particular order. Okay. This is not like, okay, if they fail, number one, then it’s just an automatic decline. This is not, you know, order of hierarchy here to be clear. So the first thing I’m going to just get the controversial one out of the way is country.
You know, I know this is controversial, but it is what it is, right? Some countries have a higher fraud rate now. I’m not going to list them here. You can Google them. To be clear, I don’t rule out someone just because of what country they’re from.I’m not saying, oh, that’s a red flag. It’s a bit of a yellow flag though. Okay. I’ve worked with affiliates from nearly every yellow flag country. There’s no red flag ones.I’ve worked with some of these affiliates and they were great. But the chance of a fraudulent or black hat tactics is higher. So it is something that I take into consideration. To be clear. It’s like if you fail on that one, you know, if you’re in those countries then you now have to be better at some of the other things.
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And I’ve got 10 criteria, right? 10 criteria. It’s one of these things. If you fail in like four or more, then you are automatically out, but that’s very rare. So the second thing is their domain or lack thereof, right.If they don’t have a domain or it’s a shady domain, then I take this into consideration. So this client will just say, you know, they’re in the, you know, they’re in the nutrition niche and if somebody applies and their domain is like, you know, bill-clinton-sex-scandal. blogspot.com well that’s not a good fit for my nutrition product. You see what I’m saying?
It’s like, what is the deal with that? Or if their domain, you know, if. Well, this is number three, right? Does their site pass the smell test? So you take a look at their domain and you just go, I don’t know, feels kind of fishy.You take a look at their site. Is this something you want to be associated with? Is it adding value to your brand or is it just like a banner farm? Does their site load a software? Well, that’s not good.Does it give you an error message? That’s a big yellow flag now. Okay, their site’s down. My site’s down about two hours a year. So if you just happen to go to my site on the wrong two hours out of the year, does that mean I’m some sort of a bad affiliate?
No, just means you went to my site when my server company was doing maintenance, they were doing something and just happened to go down. Maybe I got hacked. Does that make me a bad affiliate? No, I just haven’t caught it yet. And we, you know, we’ll fix it in five minutes, but it’s a yellow flag.So again, it’s like, okay, they’re from a, fraud, you know, a higher fraudulent rate country with a really shady domain name and the website doesn’t load well, then they’re out. They’re just out, you know, okay, fraudulent country, really shady domain name. And I go to the site and it’s a banner farm. Okay, they’re out. Number four, does their site match your values?
You know, this is a subjective thing. Your values are different than mine. Now if you have hard and fast rules such as not associating with illegal activities, pornography, politically charged sites, legal drugs, but you just don’t want to be associated with them, whatever you choose, like take that in consideration. This is subjective. You get to choose what your values are.I have no issues with somebody saying, I don’t want somebody who’s politically divisive. You know, I don’t care if I agree with their politics, but if everything they post is, you know, anti this politician or all people of this political party are bad, I don’t know that I want to be associated with that website, you know, for some of our branding. And that’s nothing against them. So that person might even be my friend. But I don’t know that I want that site associated with it.
So you get to choose. Does it fall in line with your values? If you are advocating a vegan lifestyle and you have a product that might be of use to non vegans, but you just say, you know what? I don’t want to be associated with products that talk about, you know, meat. Those of you who know me know I love bacon.I have no problem with that. But if you’re a vegan and that’s a, thing to you, then you get to choose that and that could be that. In that case it could be a red flag. And this is one area where I will just decline an affiliate without even reaching out to them. Now one thing to keep in mind on a network is affiliates might have one site that is displayed but own others.
So maybe they own a anti, you know, Democrat or anti Republican, you know, website, but they also own a family friendly site that would be a good fit in this case. Just make it clear that you only want them promoting on the good fit site. Okay? That’s important and you get to choose that all. right.So the fifth considerations only applies if they’re on a network is how long they’ve been on the network. If the network shows you how long they’ve been on the network, use that as a consideration. So generally speaking, someone who has been on the network for five years is going to be better than someone who’s been on for seven minutes. Okay. Or you know, a few weeks.
I will look at that. Generally, anything over one year I kind of just count as the same. But if they’ve been on for a pretty short period of time, I’m not going to decline them. Unless, okay, shady domain, you know, some of these other factors and they’ve only been on for three months, I’m probably going to decline them or at least do what we’ll talk about later, you know, and reach out to them. The same is true.Like I’ll look up their domain. Do I decline people because their domain was registered three days ago? Absolutely not. I encourage starting affiliate marketing when you’re new, but if I look at your domain, it’s shady. You’re from a more fraudulent country and your website’s kind of funky and you registered a domain three days ago.
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I’m probably not going to let you in if that’s the only thing, how long your domain’s been registered, it’s fine. So number six, are they using trademarks in their URLs so they apply to your program, especially if it’s not a fit. Their website is, you know, buy-adidas-shoes.com all they’re doing is not adding any value to Adidas whatsoever. They’re just, you know, basically profiting off their trademark.
That’s usually a bad sign in and of itself. Doesn’t mean they’re nefarious or bad affiliates. It’s just again, it’s a yellow flag. Especially if they don’t have other websites. That’s their only website and you’re that vegan, you know, let’s say you’re in the vegan supplement industry and you’re like buyadidashoes.com. that’s not really that great of a fit. So if they’re using trademarks in the URLs, that’s a consideration. Seventh, if they flat out say that their promotional methods violate your terms. So if you don’t allow adware, BHOs, toolbars, trademark bidding, you don’t allow pornography, you don’t allow politically divisive statements, whatever it is you don’t allow, again, you get to determine what you allow.
And they say, we’re going to do this. Whatever you don’t allow, that’s a giant red flag that leads to declining them. I mean, straightforward. Part of what that is is they will copy and paste the same message 2500 times to different programs. And some people do allow toolbars, some people do allow trademark bidding.I actually have no issue with trademark bidding for most of our products. There’s one where we don’t allow it. There’s the whole reason behind that. I won’t get into here. Some of our clients allow trademark bidding, some don’t.
I would say it’s probably 70, 30, you know, 70% do, 30% don’t. None of our programs allow adware or, toolbars. Just to be clear, we get to decide what we allow and so do you. So if they say they’re going to violate the terms giant red flag, the number eight thing to look for is just look at their promotional methods. Are they utter nonsense?You know, read their proposed promotional methods. Do they actually make sense? I’ve seen applicants just put my site, or they put like, your product is nice, or I like your product. My followers. Your promotional method is your followers.
Like, could you give me even, like two fricking sentences on that? So again, if, this is where you have to kind of be subjective. If it’s someone maybe that, like, if I invited them to the program, well, then clearly. But if I’m looking at the site and I’m like, oh, it’s Jeff Walker. And Jeff Walker says, my email list and site.I go, well, it’s Jeff Walker, and he’s got a lot of people. I’m going to approve that and not use that against him. But if it’s somebody I’ve never heard of with the domain name, that’s a little bit shady. That was registered 13 days ago, and they’ve been on the network for two weeks, and they put promotional methods my site, I’m not going to let them in. You know, it’s like, really, you couldn’t write a few sentences?
Just let me know. You clearly don’t want to be in my program anyway, so why am I Going to waste time with you, number nine. Do some research. You know, if you aren’t sure, do some research. If you’re looking at this and going, I don’t think I’m not 100%.I’m going to let them in, and I’m definitely not 100%. I want to decline them. Do a little bit of research. If they’re truly bad, you’ll be quick to find some negative feedback about the affiliate and affiliate forms, blogs, et cetera. Just go Google them, see what pulls up.
You find something where, you know, maybe you see some of their other promotions, you see how they promoted another product, and you’re like, oh, my gosh, that is shady stuff. I am not working with that affiliate. That is some seriously messed up stuff. Like, I don’t want anything to do with them. So those are nine things to look for.The tenth thing, so let’s just say we’ve reached the nine and we’re looking at this and we’re going, I’m not sure. It’s definitely like, if all nine are green flags, I’m letting you in. If everything else is a green flag, but your country, I’m letting you in. If everything is a green flag, but you’re new to the network, I’m letting you in. You know that’s a yellow flag, right?
If everything is a green flag, but you know, your domain name is a little bit funky, I’m letting you in. You know, if I maybe everything’s a green flag, of course, by then I don’t even do number nine. I don’t even do research. If everything else is a green flag, but everything’s a green flag and I just can’t find anything on you, I’ll probably let you in. But if I reach out and just say, hey, I’d love some more information on, you know, on these things that maybe weren’t very clear.I’m just not sure if you’re a good affiliate, blah, blah, blah, and they don’t reply, that’s number 10. They don’t reply. When you reach out, if you reach out to ask them to clarify something, to get some more information and they don’t reply within a week, that’s an easy decline. At that point, I’ll just leave it pending and then I’ll decline it a week later, you know, in the end, you’re making a subjective decision. It’s kind of like a scoring system.
Like I said, you know, if someone’s from a yellow flag country, their site is hideous and they’ve been on the network for two weeks, I’m going to decline them. And here’s the thing, they have the choice to reach out to me and say, hey, you declined me, but here’s why. I think I’d be a good affiliate. I actually have another site and I know I’m new to this network, but I’ve been, you know, in affiliate marketing for six years. Oh, brilliant, you’re in.I’ve said this before, if you just reach out to me, I’m probably going to accept you. But if they’re from the U. S. their site is okay, but they’re new to the network and their site’s a little off base for you. Then you reach out to them.
That gives them the opportunity. If they want in, they reply. They reply. It’s a subjective decision. I usually, unless I’m really feeling like, man, I could regret this later because of fraud or something, I usually err on the side of just approving them and then giving them a chance.Just to be clear, the rules are different. If you’re in like a financial niche or something like that, then you almost err the other way. I’ve been in the insurance world and you know, back when I got started, you know, I was in the insurance world up through 2011. Most of my time in there, I erred on the side of declining them, you know, because I just. It’s not worth the chance, like we could get sued over stuff.
We could end up in some serious hot water with the government. Not worth it to me. But if you’re in retail world, you have a course, you have a digital product, something like that, a membership, err on the side of letting them in. Keep a close eye on new affiliates. We always do that.We always do a manual review of any affiliates, first five to ten sales to make sure, like what’s going on here? Is their return rate normal? Is anybody saying, I don’t know what the heck’s going on? Was there any credit card fraud, things like that? We do a manual review usually, you know, like immediately on their first couple and then, you know, we’ll review the other ones later.
We look at things like is their conversion rate just way too high? You know, if our normal conversion rate from click to opt in is 58%, from opt in to sale is 7% and their opt in rate is 94%, that’s a, that could be a yellow flag. Now if it’s 94% on say 47 out of 50, I go, well, it’s a little bit early. You know, we had an affiliate, I’ll say his name, Jonathan Milligan. We were converting at over 90% on webinar registrations for like 400 clicks years ago.I remember going holy crap is like what is he doing? That’s amazing. Or maybe our webinar landing page is just really, really good. Guess what it was. And it ended up converting it like 62% for everybody else.
He was just sending great traffic, you know. But we look at things like that. If the opt in to conversion rate is normally 8% and somebody converts like their first 12 people. Okay, is that fraudulent or are ah, these things just like, they’re just really good, you know. So we look at things like that.we monitor people that we accept in whether or not they could be fully green flag unless it’s somebody I know, you know, things like that. But typically anybody new, we monitor them because we want to be safe on those things. So there you have it. How to accept or you know, decide how to accept or decline an affiliate. Hopefully that helps you out with that, with the decisions that you’re making.
Like our client was. So do a friend a favor. If you know someone who’s struggling with this in their business, an affiliate manager or an entrepreneur marketing person, you know they’re struggling with this. Share this episode with them. Just text them the link, email them the link, DM them the link, whatever so they can get the benefit of this lesson.Make sure you subscribe as well because the next episode I’m gonna share the secret worst part of my entire business. I’m gonna tell you. I’ve shared this with about three people. Every single one of them was like jaw dropped, floored that this was the worst part of our business. I think it’ll surprise you.
I’m gonna share why it’s been the worst part of our business and what we’ve done to correct it. Because it’s something that’s going to be revolutionarily game changing blast, blah blah blah for our business. So make sure you come back for that. I’ll see you then. Thank you so much for listening today. Remember to check out all of our deep dives into affiliate marketing at the Affiliateguide TV. And if you have a question, ask it@asktheaffiliateguide.com who knows, maybe you even be featured on an upcoming episode. And lastly, if you haven’t yet, make sure to leave a rating and review wherever you’re listening to this episode. See you soon.