A Warning About Instant Commission Affilliate Programs

They’re not new, you’ve probably heard about them and their virtues. You get 100% commissions of the front-end product sale straight to your PayPal account. What could be better? But things aren’t so pretty if you consider what else you get with these programs.

Now, let me make this clear, I’ve nothing against the concept of instant commissions, but there are serious considerations to make and risks to evaluate before taking up on offers like this. It’s not all so great as your next “guru” claims to be.

See, instant commission to your PayPal account is another way to say your account is responsible for processing payments, payment disputes, honoring of refunds and accepting all other liabilities and risks that come with it. It’s not the same as collecting 100% commission to a conventional affiliate program and then getting a payout from the vendor.

In other words, it’s a great way for the “guru” to delegate the payment processing risks to the affiliates, at least on the front-end. However, that’s what always goes unmentioned, after all, you get a 100% commission!

If you make just a sale or two that’s hopefully not going to have any effect on your PayPal account even if you get disputes. However, should you start making more sales you’re on very dangerous grounds. If the “guru” pulls off a quick one (should I even mention how unscrupulous many of them are?) it’s you (and many other affiliates) who are going to be liable because you directly have accepted the payments.

So if you’re going to promote products for instant commission, do your research well on the background of the vendor. It’s your PayPal account you’re putting on the line so you better trust the vendor before doing business with them.

On a personal note, I’ve never liked the idea and I’ll never promote the products under such terms. If I’m going to process someone’s order payments with no control over the quality of the products or services they supply, I’d be much better off selling products of my own. The conspiracy theorist in me thinks it’s just a cute way for vendors to eliminate the risks associated with processing PayPal payments in the expense of unsuspecting affiliates.

Beware of what you’re dealing with.

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