The web is rife with many fake websites that actually serve as landing pages for affiliate marketers. The content contained therein is sometimes plagiarized from other sources, or may contain spurious information (such as fake reviews) in order to persuade the visitor of the veracity of the products being mentioned. It can be difficult though to determine whether a site is genuine, or whether it is merely one of many landing sites marketers are using in order to generate commissions.

Affiliate marketers are quickly becoming a plague of the Internet as a result of their heavy handed (and sometimes black-hat) techniques to generate revenues. They do not generally operate the same way spammers do, since their content is not generally unsolicited (and they must rely on commissions to earn income), but they have become just as shady in tricking readers into purchasing affiliate products for their own profit.

However, Affiliate marketers do follow a common pattern that may be easy enough to spot once you know what you’re looking for. Once they decide on a niche, they then sign up for the most lucrative affiliate programs that appeal to that particular niche, and then they’re off to work their dark magic. For an investigative look at how these affiliate marketers might operate, I provide an inside look at affiliate spam.