I’m not sure what’s gotten into me lately. First thoughts of rebranding away from “make money online”, then denouncing spam, now thinking of dropping any activity with cpa networks as they have a rather shady side to them.

If it feels wrong it probably is

Here is an offer from neverblueads (picked randomly, they all have similar offers) about selling some ebay package.

They say “Order today, and you only pay for shipping!” which comes to $1.95.

What are you getting for only paying the shipping? The secrets to ebay success kit! Of course if you only pay shipping that would imply the kit is “free”.

However in the fine print, on page two, almost after you hit the pay now button there is this very light, small text, and buried in the middle of the paragraph it says you get enrolled in some program that will charge you $59.00 per month from now on. SHADY

“After the 14 day trial you will be billed $59.90 monthly for the continued service of the website”

Hold up, what’s the problem?

Besides a moral problem, offers similar to this one are on the edge of what is legal and what isn’t in my opinion. Let’s look at the a recent quote from a settlement with the florida attorney general and Azoogle Ads:

“Consumers in Florida and throughout the nation have long been victimized by internet marketing that promises one thing and delivers another,”

Promising one thing and delivering another is called deception or fraud.

Even if it is 100% legal (I’m no lawyer), it’s still scummy, trickery, and not doing yourself or the “industry” any favors by promoting this type of nonsense.

And it is nonsense, and it is Everywhere

CPA networks are something newer to me. I haven’t been a member of a CPA network for more than a few months.

A couple years ago when I started things like cj.com, amazon.com, shareasale, chitika, adsense, or linkshare were what affiliate marketing meant to me.

Now CPA networks are promoted pretty heavily in the blogs and forums.

The types of offers that are confusing to the customer or potentially deceptive are extremely popular and prevalent in the CPA networks.

I assume the competition is getting rough that they are trying to gain the spotlight pretty aggressively lately and I assume they used to play low key because they have a bunch of “questionable” offers. Just two assumptions.

Not all the offers on CPA networks are scummy and deceptive, but they do have quite a few.

Do You Promote Things You Would Recommend Your Friends And Family Run Away From?

So would you? And why are so many people promoting these networks in the industry at the moment, knowing good and well there are plenty of respectable affiliate companies around to promote without all the garbaqe and potential liability to yourself and the “industry”?

I’m not saying jump ship from every CPA network that exists. Just opening the conversation up.

Why is it respected to be a non spammer but at the same time it’s ok to be in bed with CPA companies who make a good chunk of their money with deceptive offers?

I would tell my friends and family to run as far away from most of the “offers” on these networks as they can get.