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What to do when You are Not Getting Paid by an Affiliate Network

Posted on September 21, 2006 in Affiliate Tips  

It’s happened to all online marketers at some point in their careers. You find an excellent merchant with a top notch product and a campaign that converts like wildfire. You happily advertise them for months, but soon their payments start to slow down and eventually stop altogether. You’re not getting paid, and no one is replying to your emails. Sadly, getting ripped off by an unscrupulous merchant is almost a coming of age for affiliates.I worked as a debt collector during my college years before Internet marketing became a career, so I have seen and dealt with this problem more than once. There are good and bad ways of handling non-payment issues. Whether or not you get paid depends heavily on the actions you take. Success is never guaranteed, but here are some suggested DOs and DON’Ts to help lean the odds in your favor…

- DO attempt to establish a communication with the merchant and find out if the problem is cash flow, or something else. Not all payment delays result from lack of revenue. Perhaps the company is being sold and the bills are temporarily in limbo. Some companies only pay out when they receive a proper invoice and never received yours. Maybe they have the wrong payment info for you and your check went to an old address. Your first step is to send polite queries through email and phone calls.

- DO register a complaint with the local Better Business Bureau in their city if your attempts at an amicable resolution fail. If you have proof of your claim, the BBB will try to make an initial contact on your behalf to see what’s up. If the merchant ignores the BBB, or still refuses to pay, the BBB won’t pursue it any farther, but just their attempt at contact with the merchant is often enough to get you paid. The Better Business Bureau can also tell you how many complaints this company has received, and what percentage of complaints became resolved (which is a good indicator of your likelihood of getting paid). If you don’t get paid, at least you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing your complaint is registered and will be seen by others who check on this company.

- DO register an online complaint with the FTC if the merchant is a publicly traded company or you suspect outright fraud. Their website provides forms to lodge such complaints. If enough complaints come in, the merchant’s standing as a public company could become in jeopardy, and/or if it’s outright fraud (and you get lucky) an investigation could ensue. The FTC should also be able to tell you the number of complaints against a merchant, and how many have been resolved.

- DO offer to settle. If the merchant isn’t calling you back or replying to your emails, it’s not a good sign and it’s likely won’t see a penny. They are however no doubt reading your emails, so try sending a different kind of payment request. If it’s been over a month or two and nothing works, offer to settle the debts on a smaller amount… some of your earnings are better than none of your earnings.

- DON’T blow your stack. No matter how tempted you are, don’t send an angry email. I’ve learned the hard way that venting might feel good, but won’t get you paid. Ask instead if they are having financial problems and require more time to pay. If you come across as understanding, there’s a better likelihood they’ll open communications with you.

- DON’T threaten legal action unless you really intend on suing them. Delinquent merchants will see your threat simply as a desperate attempt to get paid, and will only serve to put them on the defensive as to why they can’t/won’t pay you. Litigation is certainly an option, but not an easy one. Can you actually prove you generated these sales to a judge who might not know much about e-commerce? You might win your court case, but know that doesn’t necessarily guarantee you’ll get paid. You then need to attach the judgment won in court to some asset. Do you know where these assets are located? Litigation should be your absolute last resort. If it’s getting to the point where you want to sue, try putting the delinquent merchant in a third party collection agency instead. The better ones won’t charge you any up front fees, and only earn them if the claim gets paid out.

- DON’T wait too long before you push for payment. This is of paramount importance. There’s no reason why someone needs a week to call you back, or a month to make a partial payment on the amount owed to you. Push for some sort of immediate payment to show good faith on their behalf. If you leave a message and they don’t get back to you within 24 hours, you’re not getting that call back, so follow up many times per day. There’s a good reason for speedy resolution of debts. The older the debt, the less likely you’ll see any of your earnings. This goes for any collection attempts you make yourself, or through a collection agency, so start asking about missing payments as soon as you recognize the problem. Also know that collection agencies typically keep 25-50% of what they collect, with the higher percentage kept from older claims. I personally recommend waiting no longer than 2 months without any contact from the merchant before you place them in collection, perhaps 90 days if they are at least actively making promises to pay which aren’t kept.

One final piece of advice, don’t work with just one merchant. Work with a handful of merchants/networks and spread out your earnings. It’s much safer that way.

BY: JP Sauve has been marketing online since 1997, and started his own advertising network MaxBounty.com in 2004.
Maxbounty.com



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Comments

2 Responses to “What to do when You are Not Getting Paid by an Affiliate Network”

  1. aeiouy on September 23rd, 2006 6:33 pm

    The only thing I would suggest is not to worry about the Better Business Bureau. They are their own extortion racket, and nobody checks with the BBB before signing up for an Affiliate Network. They are likely to have little to no impact on your ability to get your money back.

  2. DJ on February 23rd, 2007 5:31 pm

    Here is a suggestion: do a Google search on the person who isn’t paying and see what kind of speaking engagements they have coming up. Contact those companies and let them know that you are having an issue with getting a payment suggesting they might want to reconsider doing business with the delinquent internet marketer. Odds are, at a minimum as they are putting their reputation on the line, they will forward the email to the offender who will assure them there isn’t a problem.

    I did this today to the contacts of four websites where my offender had speaking engagements. The payment was almost two weeks late (last month it was almost a month late any only paid after repeated emails and phone calls). Within a couple hours of sending the first email I had a payment in my paypal account. Was it a coincidence? I don’t think so. They don’t return phone calls nor do they respond to emails – emails. The key is not to blast them or be obnoxious. Be factual and to the point. If not they take you as a irrational.

    Denise