Andrew Conru's illegal and deceptive spam network known as the Friend Finder Network includes what is likely the largest and most corrupt affiliate network on the Internet today. It has been estimates that the Friend Finder affiliate network has over 3 Million individual affiliates that have participated in it.
Most of these affiliates do not participate for long. The smart ones quickly realize that Andrew Conru shaves his numbers and pays out his affiliates only a fraction of what they are owed.internally, these guys are sometimes referred to as the tards. These smaller, less sophisticated affiliate enable Andrew Conru to pay his larger, more established affiliates a higher commission so he can keep them in his illegal spam network.internally, these guys are sometimes referred to as the 50/50/50 guys because they are paid half of all revenue. That is half for upgrades, half or recurring, and half for re-bills. If you're a webmaster participating in any Friend Finder affiliate program, and you're wondering if you are a tard or not, simply call them up and ask if you're on the 50/50/50 program. If they don't let you get on that program, they're telling you that you are a tard and that they have been ripping you off with a smile on their faces.
Which brings me to my next point. Despite what Andrew Conru says on any of his deceptive sites, they do not pay for recurring billing unless you are a 50/50/50 guy. Their regular affiliates only get paid for account upgrades, but none of the recurrs. They do pay for something they call a re-bill which they define as an account that has been upgraded, recurred for 6 months or so, then cancelled and was idle for a few months, then came back and decided to upgrade again. Under that example, the affiliate would be paid a commission on two upgrade charges but not the 6 recurring charges. Re-bills are very infrequent but recurs happen on average 7 times per initial upgrade. So, an affiliate is really losing out here.
There affiliate software has been programmed so that what an affiliate is paid for and what they have actually earned is only loosely based on the affiliate's performance. The entire system is set up to over reward their largest and most important affiliates with underpaying the smaller ones.
Then, there's another kind of affiliate in the program that is referred to as the Internal Affiliate. These are affiliates accounts that are set up for the sole purpose of allowing Andrew Conru to send massive amounts of illegal and pornographic spam to children all over the country, heavily spam the search engines so that a search for the word Chair brings up results like AdultFriendFinder and Alt.com, and perform other illegal and immoral marketing activities where he is comfortable hiding behind the anonymity of blaming his affiliates.
And we all know how much spam Andrew Conru sends each and every day! The latest estimate I have seen indicated that over 55% of all spam on the Internet today comes from Friend Finder Network. If you do receive spam for any site involved in the FriendFinderNetwork, please send them, along with their full header information to spam@uce. Gov
So, if you're a FriendFinder Affiliate
- Try some of the other, more respectful affiliate programs out there. The worst that could happen is that you will better diversify your revenue source and establish a benchmark for what you traffic is worth.
If you're not a FriendFinder Affiliate
- Stay far, far, away from these thiefs. You'll be sorry if you get involved?
Andrew Conru has, on many occassions, blamed his affiliates for spam that has been sent out from his network and by himself personally. Do you know webmasters that have been investigated for spam? Do you know other webmasters that have not? I'll bet the only difference is that the on that had been investigates was once a Friend Finder affiliate.
Steve
San Antonio, Texas
U.S.A.
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