The Legal Side of Affiliate Marketing
A Few Legal Issues to Consider when Affiliate Marketing
Over the last ten years the world has seen the most dramatic change in the way business is transacted. Major companies who once ridiculed the concept of online selling, and certainly did not believe it would have any part to play in the future, are now using e-commerce to dramatically increase their sales.
These sales are being made to a generation that is relishing the supreme convenience and almost unlimited choice available to the internet home shopper. Now shoppers can, in the comfort of their own homes, browse a truly international marketplace to find the exact goods and services they want, and shop around to get the best price possible.
Along with this huge growth in online commerce, has come the emergence of a new way of doing business. This is affiliate marketing. Now, businesses can have their products and services promoted by people who they do not employ, who will take over the role traditionally played by paid advertising in bringing the potential consumer to the merchant.
Affiliates, from their point of view, can begin to promote products from all over the world with no initial outlay, and no risk. They can begin businesses without the need to create any product, or provide any service. This model of mutually beneficial relationships has become phenomenally successful, with over $6 billion being earned by affiliates last year.
Of course affiliate marketing, like everything else, is not without its problems or pitfalls.
The law is a complex beast, and does not always act to serve those interests that it should be serving. At a recent affiliate summit meeting, one of the most hotly discussed topics was the law, and how it affects internet marketers. The legality, or otherwise, of bidding on trademarks with affiliate links was so hotly debated, it was presented in front of a sell out crowd with only standing places available.
As ever the topic of unsolicited commercial email and the CAN SPAM act was a major discussion point. Ill thought out laws which are having little or no effect on the criminals they are designed to combat, are nevertheless making life unnecessarily hard for legitimate marketers, who are only trying to earn an honest living in an increasingly litigious society.
There is also the problem of affiliate marketing scams. Many websites which did not set up with the intention of selling products as an affiliate, later decide to use this business model to help defray the expenses of running the website. This could easily happen if a website becomes hugely popular, and starts having to pay for extra bandwidth as a consequence.
Browsing the internet, you come across a site peddling weight loss or hair loss ‘miracle cures’, with the promise that, as an affiliate, you can earn large commission checks. Little do you know, that these ‘miracle cures’ are actually drugs that should be licensed, and that you will soon be in a boatload of trouble. Always be very careful whose programs you promote on your website.
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Tags: affiliate marketing scams, legal affiliate marketing, affiliate programs law, online ecommerce, internet marketing
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