Affiliate Marketing Scams: Tell-Tale Signs That You're About to Get Ripped Off

Affiliate marketing is a legitimate industry that is only getting more legitimate as more people learn about and do it. Still, there is no shortage of affiliate marketing scams circulating around the Internet. Sometimes it's hard to tell the gold from the fool's gold.

Here are a few surefire signs that you're looking at an affiliate marketing scam:

No Work Needed MAKE MONEY FOR NOTHING NOW!!!

Hopefully someone at some point in your life told you that you can't get something for nothing, because that's the truth. Earning money through affiliate marketing entails work. Period. Get that through your head before you even think about getting into this business.

The easiest way to spot an affiliate marketing scam, then, is to look for language that promises you money for nothing. The poor grammar and excessive use of exclamation points that accompanies such "HOT OFFERSS NOW!!" is icing on the cake of a guaranteed scam.

All Feelings, No Logic

Most people make decisions based upon how they feel, rather than an objective evaluation of the pertinent facts. Internet marketers know this, and may be the new and undisputed masters of feelings-based sales manipulation.

This is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, you should absolutely be studying the art of speaking to people's right brain feelings if you want to make it in affiliate marketing. Not using people's feelings to sell them stuff is a dereliction of duty for the affiliate marketer.

Nevertheless, sales offers based exclusively on feelings are disgusting, as well as a trustworthy scam alert. When evaluating an affiliate marketing sales proposition, then, look for logic. Does the sales copy include "hard stuff" like verifiable facts, statistics, and demographics?

If not, if the whole pitch is just one continuous orgy of "imagine the feeling you'll have when you tell your boss to shove it," your ears should perk up and your wallet close up.

No Money-Back Guarantee

A money-back guarantee has become a requirement for selling on the Internet. So many scammers have taken advantage of so many people that everyone who sells anything on the Internet--especially a digital product, like an affiliate marketing course or an ebook--simply must offer a money-back guarantee. It's a rule of Internet marketing that's more like a law.

People who do not obey this law are scammers. Or if they're not scammers, they're still not worth buying from. How can you buy something with confidence having never seen it and with no ability to return the product if it doesn't work for you? The answer is: you can't.

But don't just take the seller's word for it. Research the money-back guarantee and make sure it's valid. Hear from customers who've returned the product and been refunded fully and promptly. Blogs and chatrooms are valuable sources for this purpose.

Affiliate marketing, as an industry, is desperately seeking to weed out affiliate marketing scammers. Do your part by not buying their B.S.