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It seems like every week there’s another company charging exorbitant fees for people to become affiliates, but is it worth it? Sometimes the answer is yes, and sometimes the answer is no.
There are a lot of companies out there that require you to be a member of their product/service before you’re allowed to be an affiliate. This is most commonly done to prevent affiliates from abusing the affiliate program or to control the user experience. After all, how can you be an effective or honest affiliate if you’ve never been a member or customer yourself?
In my experience, this is a really reasonable requirement for things like monthly subscriptions, annual subscriptions, etc… As long as you’re being delivered something of value for that fee (membership fee, product fee, etc…) then it’s perfectly reasonable for that company to require you to be a member or customer before you can be an affiliate.
If you’ll gain any benefit from the product or service, go ahead and join. Then if it’s everything you hoped it would be, apply to become an affiliate and promote away!
The most common industry I see this in is MLMs, but there are other companies following suit. If you’re already a member of a product, whether it’s a one-time, monthly, or annual fee, and they are going to charge you ANOTHER fee to be an affiliate, in my opinion that’s completely bogus.
That policy isn’t for quality control. That policy isn’t to prevent abuse. That extra fee to be an affiliate is solely to increase revenue for the publisher. If you’re going to be their affiliate, they’re ALREADY making money off of you, so charging an additional fee exclusively for being an affiliate is completely bogus and inexcusable. You’re being required to pay them to make them more money. It’s completely illogical.
Sure, you can make some decent commissions with certain companies if you know what you’re doing. But every time I’ve seen this business model employed it has been for a completely immoral or illegitimate business.
Bottom line: If you’re not getting anything in return except for the right to make commissions off of other people you sell the product to, it should be a big red flag and approached with caution.
The general guidelines above will hold true at least 9 times out of 10, but there are instances where the decision isn’t so “cut and dry”. They also vary from person-to-person, and you may feel like it’s completely reasonable to pay to be an affiliate in certain situations where the person next to you may think it’s completely unreasonable.
Use your discretion and trust your instincts. If it feels wrong or fishy to you, there’s probably a reason and you should pay attention to what your gut is telling you.
I also highly recommend checking out the thread in this free internet marketing community, and joining in on the conversation if you want more advice.
Are you struggling with the decision to join a program that requires you to pay to become an affiliate, but you’re not exactly sure whether or not it’s worth it? Describe the situation in a comment below, and I’d be happy to give my opinion and help any way that I can! I personally reply to all comments within 1-2 business days.
I've been in internet marketing for over 10 years, and I've purchased dozens of illegitimate products for the sole purpose of evaluating them and exposing the truth about these products to anyone who's thinking about purchasing it. I never let money influence my rating of a product and your success/safety is my absolute highest priority. Don't want to buy a product? Register for one of my 100% free internet marketing training courses>>
