Before I give my list of CPA network myths, let me just say that CPA networks are indeed not for all affiliates. If you run content loaded websites, you might find little success with CPA and would be better suited to stick with CPM or Adsense style advertising. (Message boards, blogs, articles). If your website is specifically geared to send surfers to the sponsor (loyalty programs, free stuff websites, etc), CPA is probably best for you. If you run a website which pushes a catalog of products from a variety of sponsors, going with an Affiliate Network is probably your best bet. From 9 years of experience in this business, I can say that usually these affiliate types don’t mesh well. An affiliate doing well on CPA won’t touch shopping cart affiliate programs, and those who see fantastic results with product-catalog type merchants balk at how horrible CPA networks are. You can ask if CPA in general is bad on boards like ABW, but you’ll usually only see one side of the affiliate coin… from people who honestly have little experience dealing with CPA networks… and repeat what they’ve heard and not what they know. Your best bet is to match your sponsorship to the type of website you run.

MYTH: CPA networks are just middle men and you should just work through an affiliate program instead.

TRUTH: Most affiliate programs are run though a network, be it LinkShare, CJ, or elsewhere. These networks charge the advertiser fees, 30% in the case of CJ. Most CPA networks make deals with these merchants outside of their affiliate network, outside CJ if you will, and avoid these 30% fees. The CPA network will keep a margin too, but it’s usually significantly lower than 30%. This is part of the reason why CPA networks can give you a higher payout than doing “direct” through the affiliate network. You can in theory go outside of the affiliate network and work direct yourself, be like a CPA network, but most affiliates don’t command the volume needed for direct deals.

MYTH: CPA networks only deal with spammers

TRUTH: Like it or not, email marketing is a legit business. The gov’t passed the CanSpam law a couple years ago which defined how affiliates could use email marketing, set rules in place to follow, and if the marketer follows these rules, he’s not a spammer. Most CPA networks do not tolerate real spam. Beyond whether it’s right or wrong, doing business with spammers will get your ISP shut down, risk litigation, and cause all kinds of nightmares. True spam, the Viagra and porn stuff, don’t follow any of the CanSpam rules and you’ll notice don’t run through CPA networks. There are of course exceptions to the rules, some networks are more gray area than others, but they are the exception. So how did CPA networks get this bad reputation? Most CPA network, ourselves included, are run by companies that started out in email marketing. Like anything, there are exceptions, like networks with bad histories in email, but most were/are legit email marketing companies. Unfortunately some unlearned affiliates label all commercial email as spam.

MYTH: CPA network are just a front for adware.

TRUTH: Adware is problem for everyone, be it a CPA network or an affiliate network. There is as much adware in big affiliate networks as elsewhere. The sad honest truth is that these adware companies are so big now, command so much traffic, most strike direct deals with the end merchants and don’t use any networks at all, be it CPA network or otherwise. Again, there are exceptions, but most affiliates in CPA networks are just normal publishers earning via their website/newsletter/search engine marketing, small businessmen just trying to run a legit business.

MYTH: The merchant would rather you join his affiliate program.

TRUTH: While this is sometimes true, it’s not always the case. MANY merchants run an affiliate program as an afterthought and would rather not deal with individual publishers. They start their program on a big network like CJ simply to access CJ’s large pool of existing affiliates, not out of a want to run an affiliate program, and have no interest in dealing with individual affiliates. They set their program on auto-approve, and do nothing other than let traffic roll in. It’s far easier to manage working with 5 CPA networks who have a total of 10,000 affiliates than working with those 10,000 affiliates direct in an affiliate program. In many cases, it’s no work at all for the merchant to run with a CPA network. They just give the network a landing URL and watch traffic come in. At the end of the day, most merchants just want as much traffic as possible, be it from their affiliate program or a CPA network… or most usually a combination of both.

Tags: abw, advertiser, affiliate network, affiliate programs, best bet, catalog type, cj, CPA Myths, CPA Network Myths, cpm, free stuff, loyalty programs, merchants, mesh, middle men, myth, myths, Network Myths, product catalog, Shopping Cart, sponsorship, surfers, t touch