Many internet marketers make their money by dealing with affiliate programs or with CPA networks that have various kinds of offers they can push in order to make money. Most of these companies are legitimate and will pay you the earnings that you have made on time, every single time. But there are a couple of bad players in the industry. Here are some ways to spot and avoid them:

• Do some research first

Before even signing up for a network simply doing a Google search for their name can bring you a lot of information about the company. You will often find blog posts, forum posts and articles that mention them. Read these. See what other internet marketers are saying about them and look at whether the general opinion is positive or negative.

• Be wary around “start ups” and smaller networks

If a company has not yet established their reputation in the industry, remember that things can go in two ways with them. Either they will grow to become a productive and successful network or they will fold. If it’s the second thing that happens, things are not likely to be pretty. There have been several cases of networks going under and skipping out on tens of thousands of dollars of payments to affiliates. The large majority involved CPA networks which were operating for less than a year.

• Be careful around networks who seem to approve everyone

While there are some notable exceptions to this, such as Commission Junction and ClickBank, which are very reputable networks, as a general rule you should be quite wary around a network that seems to approve every publisher that applies without giving them a phone call or emailing them to ask them about their marketing methods. While you may think it is convenient, this can cause problems down the road, if large amounts of fraudsters manage to sign up and merchants start dropping the network.

• Carefully check the terms of any offers that you run and ask questions if necessary

This is especially the case for “trial” or “membership” offers. While you may be offered a good amount for every sign up, some merchants have been known to use underhanded tactics if not enough of the sign ups that you refer have converted to full members on their end. Some may falsely accuse you of sending fraudulent leads or deliberately using bad quality traffic and refuse to pay you. For this reason, it is very important that you check the terms of the offer to see if the merchant has any special requirements with regards to the type of traffic you can send and its productivity.

• Work with multiple networks and run different offers

It is not a good idea to focus all of your marketing efforts for the month on just one offer or on offers from only one network, no matter how profitable they may seem. Spread out your traffic around several different offers in the niche on different networks. That way, if there is any problem with one of them, you will still be getting paid by the others.

Information products like ebooks, and reports can be a great way for a strong writer to bring in some money online. You’ve probably heard that part before, but just how do you go about selling an ebook online? There are a few effective methods you can use to get your information product out there.

Clickbank offers services other than affiliate programs. By registering with them, you can sell your information straight through them, and they’ll even help you set up a network of affiliates that push your product for you. If your product gets enough affiliates, you’ll have to do very little active selling in order to make a profit. If other people are doing the legwork for you, you can spend your time working on your next ebook rather than spending your time selling your current ebook. Click bank does charge for these services, but the fees are reasonable, and there’s a good chance you’ll be able to offset the fees  easily with a strong product.

Commission Junction offers similar services, but they offer you a little more control.  With CJ, you can choose to approve each potential affiliate who wants to promote your product. By choosing your affiliates carefully, you can minimize the risk of fraudulent transactions, as well as minimizing any damage a bad affiliate could do to your brand.

Of course, you could always just opt to sell your information product straight through your website. You’re going to need a few important things if you decide to go this route. First you’re going to need a well designed website. If your site looks unprofessional, your customers are going to be reluctant to purchase anything from you. You’re also going to need a method for accepting payments. Paypal is an affordable method to take payments, and you can also go through a bank in order to get a credit card gateway set up.  Be sure to shop around for the right credit card gateway for your needs. There are often a lot of fees associated with accepting credit card payments, and you might find that those fees can eat into your profits if you’re not careful.

Whichever method you choose, your success will depend on the quality of your information product. Take the time to write a good product, and be sure to promote it heavily after you launch it, and your information product will sell well.