Lamest Affiliate Programs Ever

We have spent countless hours scouring the Internet for the best affiliate programs and testing them out so that you can know where to sign up. In the process of doing this work, we have come across some incredibly lame affiliate programs, so that's what we want to talk about now:

Lame affiliate programs and why you should avoid them like the plague!

ClickBank Scams

ClickBank talks a good game, no doubt. Their business model is based upon the sale of digital goods such as e-books, education, and tutorials. In the world of affiliate marketing, where you're looking to run a low overhead business, selling information sounds like a great idea.

And in truth it is.

The problem with ClickBank arises when you sign up and start searching for digital products to promote…and then you discover that 99 percent of the stuff on there is a complete scam.

If you search the Business / Investing section, for example, you will find such gems as "RichJanitor.com" and "Child's Play FX Trading" as ClickBank top picks. When you see the commissions per sale paid on offers like this, $50 or more, you may be tempted to promote these products. But be wary, especially if you have any kind of reputation to uphold.

ClickBank is not a bad company and we don't hate them, but quality affiliate marketing programs are very hard to come by on this site. Mostly the place is just filled with scams.

iTunes Affiliate Program

It's easy to fall in love with Apple's products. But it's hard to fall in love with Apple's iTunes affiliate program. This is because the iTunes affiliate program is butt ugly.

Yes, iTunes is the largest seller of downloadable music, videos, podcasts, and so forth, and yes all that stuff is very cool, but that's about the extent of what iTunes has to offer affiliates.

Lameness includes:

-- Commission is 5 percent. Caused 100 sales this month? Great! Here's 5 dollars. Enjoy!

-- No lifetime commissions. You just sent a brand new customer to Apple, and that customer becomes a customer for life. Don't expect your commissions from that customer to last for life, because they surely won't. Expect your commissions to last for 24 hours only.

-- 24 hour cookie life. Cookies, of course, are the tracking software that follows your referred customers and enables you to get paid when they buy. Apple's tracking cookies expire after a mere 24 hours. If someone comes from you, browses iTunes, then two days later comes back and buys a bunch of songs, you get paid absolutely nothing. Not cool!

Affiliate Programs That Don't Pay

Affiliate programs that outright don't pay are thankfully hard to find these days. The overwhelming majority of affiliate programs do pay according to their terms and conditions. Know why?

Because the affiliate marketing community as a whole has done a fantastic job of weeding out the scammers who think they can use you for free advertising and then not pay you a dime. There are many affiliate programs who won't pay you much more than a dime, but it's pretty rare nowadays to find an affiliate program that outright does not pay.

These scammers still come around from time to time, but they are usually quickly rooted out as disgruntled affiliates post detailed descriptions of the scamming all over the Web. If you ever fall victim to an affiliate marketing non-payment scam, please take the time to share with the world.
Post your bad experience on the Internet, so that affiliate programs that don't pay become what they deserve to be: completely extinct.