Be sure to Read the Rules

Knowing what you are getting yourself into is usually a good thing to find out.  Most people do not take the time to read the terms of service or the contract they are about to sign figuring it is the same mumbo jumbo.

Over the last couple months I have read the Terms of Service or Terms & Conditions for a handful of different companies and guess what, IT IS NOT THE SAME MUMBO JUMBO.  Especially when dealing with Affiliate Marketing companies.

The TOS/TOC for the affiliate marketing company sites I visited and read all had some different language in them.  The first – Commission Junction actually stated what types of results they would be expecting from you.  If you did not perform to the minimum level they would start charging you a monthly fee.    — How’s that for a slap in the face?  That is one of the reasons I am not signed up with any of the affiliate sites just yet. 

Most of them had some sort of expectations and minimum traffic standards to achieve before they would consider allowing you into their site.  Commission Junction was a little different in that they seemed to be willing to let you in just fine even if you had little to no traffic, but of course were going to either charge you or kick you out if you didn’t perform.  That is certainly understandable since their infrastructure would have to maintain thousands of dead accounts if they didn’t have that policy.

The other TOS/TOC I read spelled out how they were going to approve / disapprove you when you registered.  You essentially should be expecting a call and should already have a site up producing some sort of traffic stats.  They didn’t spell out what the minimum level of traffic was, but I took it to mean you actually had to have some.  This is the main reason I started off telling you about generally needing a website. 

Still unwilling to read the TOS/TOC?  Google the latest news for Facebook.  They changed their TOS over the weekend allowing them perpetual use of anything anyone ever uploaded even if you delete it, and even if you close your account.  By the end of Tuesday after some major bad press, they reverted to their old TOS.

What are your thoughts on the TOS/TOC?  What types of problems have you run into?

Chuck