Merchants, particularly those who work through affiliate network, do a reasonable due diligence evaluation of affiliate or publisher sites to make sure they have a reasonable chance of leading to incremental sales, and dont have the obvious potential to hurt their brand or reputation.

For merchants, its a numbers game. They need to be sure that theyre receiving value from all their affiliates. A partnership with an affiliate costs the affiliate nothing to set up, and the commissions offset any site expenses, if theyre even reasonably successful across their entire program. But for a merchant such an arrangement requires monitoring, reporting, and management. For them, it important that every site they link to is appropriate, exhibits a high level of professionalism and, most of all that it delivers qualified buyers. But affiliates are putting their sites reputation on the line also.

Once youve signed an agreement with an affiliate, Merchants have some basic responsibilities: Seamlessly providing their site visitors with an easy way to buy your products. No link or fulfillment problems. Delivering the product as advertised, on time, and providing good customer service, including easy returns and refunds. Honoring the affiliate agreement and paying commissions without fail, and on time.

Keeping products up-to-date, so the affiliates site visitors will continue to feel compelled to buy. Being on the lookout for dishonest sites that may mimic your affiliates and steal away their would-be buyers. These include sites based upon misspellings, or those identified as using spamming, pfishing , or other techniques designed to profit from an affiliates good name.