Arrgh, I have to reveal this since it’s urgent for anyone to know it. It’s Johnchow’s trick to get paid from affiliate link but with dishonest way. I am sorry doesn’t mean I don’t respect the guy yet truth must be revealed. Mr, John Chow few days a go published a post called “evil affiliate marketing trick of the day“, it’s the old trick to get credit for any sales albeit our readers don’t actually click on an affiliate link.

John writes:

The problem … is you still need to get the reader to the affiliate site in order to set the cookie. Here’s an evil way to do that without requiring the reader to click on anything.

Embedding The Cookie With An IFrame

You need the user to actually click on the affiliate link? Do you hope to get paid for not referring any visitor?

He continues his post and convincing his readers that anyone whose practice his trick be undetected by an affiliate tracking with John Chow’s hidden iframe.

Now I can say, “Hey! Check out AuctionAds and make money online†without using my affiliate code in the link URL and I would still get credit for signing you up because I’ve already opened the AuctionAds home page with my affiliate ID in this post. Can you find it?

To be honest this trick was popular 5 or 6 years a go, it’s called cookie stuffing and it will risk your account to be kicked out if you practice it.

This is covered in most terms of use and service agreements that the networks have in place. For example, from the Publisher Code of Conduct in use by both Commission Junction and Performics:

Non End-User Initiated Events. Publishers may not use invisible methods to generate non End-User initiated impressions, clicks, or transactions. All click (“Click†) events must be initiated by an affirmative End-User action.

And from Linkshare’s Terms:

4.2 Valid Referrals Only. You will place or use qualified links of a Network Merchant only with the intention of delivering valid sales, leads, applications, accounts, clicks or other specified compensable tracked activities for the benefit of such Network Merchant. You may not, nor knowingly permit any person to, activate a qualifying link or inflate the amount of any sought-after or resulting tracked activities through any method or technology that does not actually deliver an end user to the destination Site associated with such qualifying link.

In fact, according to an update that John provided on his post, it looks like his actions got him kicked from the AuctionAds program.