iLegal – Pre-Screening Affiliates

A solid compliance program requires that you genuinely check new affiliates before allowing them to run your offers. This is a common sense process, which requires the staffing to actually do the work. Unfortunately, this process can’t be automated, as it’s often about sensing when something doesn’t “smell right” about an applicant to your

Each company that pays attention to this phase of the affiliate relationship has its own way of doing things, but in order to help you get going, I’ve prepared the checklist below. You may have heard some of this in a panel presentation by our CEO, Shai Pritz at LeadsCon in Las Vegas. And he also wrote a follow-up article from which I have extensively borrowed. So if it sounds familiar, that’s where you might have seen this before. It’s what we do every day, so it’s hard to set it out in an original way.

And remember, it’s not meant to be exhaustive, nor exclusive. You may do things differently, and we’d love to hear about it if you do. We can all benefit by listening to, and learning from each other. How extensively any affiliate gets checked varies from company to company and situation to situation. But if you choose to use this list as a guide, you’ll be a long way towards protecting yourself from the rogue affiliates most likely to damage your reputation, and ultimately your revenue. So let’s get started:

1. Have a standard form that prospective affiliates fill out. Seems simple, but many networks don’t take this simple step.

2. Check the following information:

   1. Phone Number

      1. Does the area code match the location of the affiliate’s address?

         1. If not, why not?

      2. Is this a cell phone, or a land line?

         1. If there is no land line, why not?

      3. When you call the affiliate, do you get an office, an answering machine, voicemail, or nothing? Does what you get match your impression of who the affiliate claims to be?

   2. Domain Name Registration.

      1. Is the domain registered in the name of the affiliate or is it in another name?

         1. If it’s in another name, why?

         2. If it’s anonymous, why?

      2. Does the domain name list a contact or registration address different than the one the affiliate provided to you when signing up for your network?

      3. Is the domain name registered to an offshore entity?

   3. Email Address.

      1. Is the affiliate using an address that matches the domain of their company, or are they using something like gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo for their address?

         1. If it’s different, ask why.

   4. Search the Web

      1. Search the affiliate’s real name and the name of his or her company on the web. You’ll be amazed at some of the things you’ll find. And you should also be surprised and perhaps made suspicious by what you don’t find. It shouldn’t be too hard to find your prospective affiliate on the web.

As you can see, these items can’t be accomplished in an automated fashion. And yet, if you don’t do them, you aren’t really vetting affiliates. And even if you aredoing them, you need to make sure the people responsible are using “common sense.” This is more than an exercise in filling out a form. You need to be looking for the things that just don’t smell right. When you spot them, that’s where you dig in.

Unfortunately, there are no hard and fast answers here. An affiliate may have a great explanation why the phone number they provided to you doesn’t match the phone number on their domain registration. But someone has to have enough sense to ask the questions, and judge the answers. The risk profile of your company depends on the exercise of that common sense

Come back to the iLegal column every week as we get specific about the rules, regulations, laws and trends that affect the online advertising industry. Each week we discuss important legal issues, talk about how to avoid the pitfalls, and cover the breaking legal and regulatory advertising industry news.

Legal Disclaimer: Information conveyed in this column is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. These materials do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Digital Moses, and is not guaranteed to be complete, correct, or up-to-date. The column is provided for "information purposes" only and should not be relied upon as "legal advice." This information is not intended to substitute for obtaining legal advice from an attorney. No person should act or rely on any information in this column without seeking the advice of an attorney.

Mark Meckler is the General Counsel for UniqueLeads.com, Inc., and Unique Lists, Inc. Mark is the Vice Chair of the eCommerce and Technology Committee of the Association of Corporate Counsel, and is a member of the International Association of Privacy Professionals. www.UniqueLeads.com

Copyright 2008 Mark J. Meckler