I won't blame you or be mad if this gets me a "tl;dr" or even a "cool story bro" but while the wound has been temporarily reopened, I figured right now is a good time to go to one of the most personal and realistic affiliate marketing communities on the web and see what's up.
I'm sure everyone who has been in affiliate and internet marketing for a good bit of time has had to hang up their keyboard and move on from pushing offers on one network and transfer to working for another.
Last year is when I really saw my first success in affiliate marketing and dug deep into the game, which actually happened to be running a couple adult offers. I found a really good method that was being accepted by this network, they basically told me to open the flood gates and send them in as many leads as I can if they can retain they quality I've sent so far, and eventually I was up around the $1200/day mark and I was really pleased and just completely excited. Depending on my will to work, this continued for about 3 months where my profits fluctuated anywhere from about $300-$1500 each day. I was really still learning how affiliate marketing worked and was doing a lot of testing, learning what works and learning even more from what wasn't working.
As time progresses, you get smarter, you learn things about affiliate marketing and I was no different. Instead of being a stat watcher, I started looking into other affiliate networks and basically saw that the network I was sending traffic to was not much more than a basic whitelabel that was paying me out about 20% less than I could be making if I ran my little operation through this mother network of theirs. Everything was the exact same and I considered my options and being a grown man, self-employed, completely capable of making my own choices I said it's time to get after the money I really could be earning. Slowly, I began testing and rotating traffic (at this time I had really learned about "shaving" and like any inexperienced marketer, I thought the world was out to shave me [or is it?] and I was completely paranoid about having my leads stolen) and this original network (Network A) noticed my traffic declining and started checking my landing pages.
Upon discovering I was now splitting traffic evenly between Network A and Network B (the higher paying network running the same exact offer), affiliate managers and the owners of Network A treat me like garbage and basically completely exile me. Things such as "You're sending us fraudulent leads!" and such begin to surface with Network A, and within a week I am terminated. You can't expect everyone to react positively, I guess, in losing a decently-performing affiliate, so I really just let it go in consideration that I was being paid higher at Network B, anyway.
What truly bothered me about this situation though is that the people behind Network A tried their absolute hardest for about a week to throw out a disgusting reputation about me. They made claims that I costed them around $26,000 in chargebacks and the biggest head-scratcher they came with was what they published on a few forums that a couple of their AMs were active at. This forum really exclusively promotes using this network and the people behind Network A made posts calling me a scammer, thief, claiming that if they knew where I'd live they'd "come and break all of my fingers", etc.
Here is what really had me confused though: The way Network A acted as if I owed them so much for "what they did for me." Have you ever had a network or AM treat you like they made you as a marketer and high-earning affiliate simply because... they paid you on time? I don't understand the mindset that, because I am being paid what I have worked for and earned, I should owe that network and be completely worshiping and loyal to them. Isn't being paid the bare minimum? Is something like this common in affiliate marketing, as in should this be how I expect any AM or network to respond when I find an identical, higher-paying offer elsewhere? Is it bad etiquette to make a decision that is best for yourself to move on and get paid more for your work?
Although the last paragraph is really why I made this thread, I should go on to mention that within a month I was also terminated from Network B, based on the hateful and false information Network A had thrown out there about me. I understand the industry is really cutthroat when it comes to losing any money, but situations like this just strike me as wrong.
Let me know if a similar situation has happened to anyone, or I'll even accept "tl;dr" responses actually.
I'm sure everyone who has been in affiliate and internet marketing for a good bit of time has had to hang up their keyboard and move on from pushing offers on one network and transfer to working for another.
Last year is when I really saw my first success in affiliate marketing and dug deep into the game, which actually happened to be running a couple adult offers. I found a really good method that was being accepted by this network, they basically told me to open the flood gates and send them in as many leads as I can if they can retain they quality I've sent so far, and eventually I was up around the $1200/day mark and I was really pleased and just completely excited. Depending on my will to work, this continued for about 3 months where my profits fluctuated anywhere from about $300-$1500 each day. I was really still learning how affiliate marketing worked and was doing a lot of testing, learning what works and learning even more from what wasn't working.
As time progresses, you get smarter, you learn things about affiliate marketing and I was no different. Instead of being a stat watcher, I started looking into other affiliate networks and basically saw that the network I was sending traffic to was not much more than a basic whitelabel that was paying me out about 20% less than I could be making if I ran my little operation through this mother network of theirs. Everything was the exact same and I considered my options and being a grown man, self-employed, completely capable of making my own choices I said it's time to get after the money I really could be earning. Slowly, I began testing and rotating traffic (at this time I had really learned about "shaving" and like any inexperienced marketer, I thought the world was out to shave me [or is it?] and I was completely paranoid about having my leads stolen) and this original network (Network A) noticed my traffic declining and started checking my landing pages.
Upon discovering I was now splitting traffic evenly between Network A and Network B (the higher paying network running the same exact offer), affiliate managers and the owners of Network A treat me like garbage and basically completely exile me. Things such as "You're sending us fraudulent leads!" and such begin to surface with Network A, and within a week I am terminated. You can't expect everyone to react positively, I guess, in losing a decently-performing affiliate, so I really just let it go in consideration that I was being paid higher at Network B, anyway.
What truly bothered me about this situation though is that the people behind Network A tried their absolute hardest for about a week to throw out a disgusting reputation about me. They made claims that I costed them around $26,000 in chargebacks and the biggest head-scratcher they came with was what they published on a few forums that a couple of their AMs were active at. This forum really exclusively promotes using this network and the people behind Network A made posts calling me a scammer, thief, claiming that if they knew where I'd live they'd "come and break all of my fingers", etc.
Here is what really had me confused though: The way Network A acted as if I owed them so much for "what they did for me." Have you ever had a network or AM treat you like they made you as a marketer and high-earning affiliate simply because... they paid you on time? I don't understand the mindset that, because I am being paid what I have worked for and earned, I should owe that network and be completely worshiping and loyal to them. Isn't being paid the bare minimum? Is something like this common in affiliate marketing, as in should this be how I expect any AM or network to respond when I find an identical, higher-paying offer elsewhere? Is it bad etiquette to make a decision that is best for yourself to move on and get paid more for your work?
Although the last paragraph is really why I made this thread, I should go on to mention that within a month I was also terminated from Network B, based on the hateful and false information Network A had thrown out there about me. I understand the industry is really cutthroat when it comes to losing any money, but situations like this just strike me as wrong.
Let me know if a similar situation has happened to anyone, or I'll even accept "tl;dr" responses actually.
