Parasites in Affiliate Marketing

When you think of parasites, you most often think of small creatures that you get infected with. These aren’t precisely what I’m talking about. While they share many of the same characteristics as the physical parasites, there is one major difference—they’re electronic. There is a particularly evil criminal form, a dark side of affiliate marketing that uses them.

It can’t honestly be said that affiliate marketing is the complete motivation for using Internet parasites. There is too much of a sociopathic mentality about it. What are these “bugs,” as they’ve been commonly referred to, and what exactly do they have to do with affiliate marketing?

Adware

Adware is the most commonly used Internet parasite for shady direct and affiliate marketing strategies. It and spyware are often considered to be interchangeable, but there is a primary difference. Spyware scans your computer for browsing history files. Adware generally just sticks to delivering unsolicited advertisements by either generating pop-up, pop-under and banner ads, as well as possibly hijacking the browser to a sales page.

Spyware

Spyware is very much like adware, with one major exception. As said above, it collects information from your computer. What it does from there is it sends this information to a remote server, where it gets evaluated and filed away. Then the remote server sends more user-specific ads, either company direct or affiliate marketing. It also tends to sap more resources out of a computer than adware. Otherwise, it’s virtually the same thing.

Rogue Security Tools

While Adware and Spyware may or may not advertise fraudulent products, rogue security tools are patently fraudulent. They don’t have much to do with affiliate marketing, but the potential is certainly there. Essentially, your computer gets infected, and receives a false warning that it’s been infected with an astronomical number of malware files. It claims that if you buy the full version, you can get rid of them. This is never true, and you wind up buying a junk program, and may be a victim of identity theft.

Viruses and worms are other well known malware programs, but they typically have nothing to do with direct or affiliate marketing. With the exception of the XP Antivirus virus and its family, it’s pretty universal.

How is it that Internet parasites are so prevalent? After all, wouldn’t they be illegal? In fact, most types are illegal in most parts of the world. The problem is that most of the people who transmit them do business in countries such as Russia, where they can get away with it.

Adware is often debatable as a legal direct or affiliate marketing practice, depending on certain circumstances. Some adware programs come bundled with other programs, and whether the user knows it or not, they often will sign consent forms to accept these adware programs. I personally think it’s a despicable and dishonest practice, regardless of how they cover their tracks.

In the end, it’s highly doubtful if the results you get from using Internet parasites are worth the risk. If nothing else, think of it this way—would YOU want them on your computer?