From my perspective, it's too big of a conflict of interest for AM's to be running campaigns and competing against affiliates. AM's have too much access to the IP of affiliates and there is too much potential for misuse of that data.
I've heard the horror stories here on WF of affiliates who have had their LP's jacked by networks or AM's, and I wouldn't want one of my AM's being the one to do that. They'd be fired instantly.
Yup! This is is a big issue with media campaigns, and is why I have no intention on running any; everyone is simply in direct competition with one another. Im not sure what you mean by the "ip of affiliates".
Email Marketing has been my "go to" source of traffic, and with an organic source im not competing with anyone.
A more larger issue is networks like traffic vance, lead impact, etc stealing an affiliates campaign. They have access to EVERYTHING right down to the targeting. Its one thing to have a landing page jacked, but an entire campaign?!?
With the amount of spy tools around, you cant expect any landing page to go by unscathed in a matter of days.