Affiliate Guild Program Inclusion and Membership Guidelines:

Affiliate Guild maintains an "Affiliate Program Directory" of approved affiliate programs.

Affiliate Guild is a resource dedicated to affiliates and affiliate managers. We have a strict criteria that we believ an affiliate program should meet to be included in our directory. Affiliate Guild reserves the right to remove any affiliate program at any time at our discretion. The same is true for removing members that Affiliate Guild finds not to be worthy of professional status afforded them as members of Affiliate Guild.

The following criteria is largely non-negotiable. Some minor matters may be negotiable depending on the credibility of the program.

We highly encourage all affiliate programs to read the following criteria very carefully before applying. If you have any questions regarding any matter, please contact us immediately. If you have any doubts, please feel free to apply. If not accepted we will provide the reasons why and allow another application.

The Affiliate Guild Directory and Membership Approval Criteria:

• You must provide at least two means of contact in addition to a physical address; email, phone, IM, etc.
  
• A dedicated contact does not have to be a dedicated affiliate manager, but affiliate manager's contact information is preferable.
  
• Affiliate program can be new if it's using the services of a respected affiliate program network. Otherwise, the affiliate program should be no less than three months live on the internet.
  
• We prefer the affiliate program to provide at least 5 promotional resources for affiliates; banners, buttons, pre-written ads, text ads, etc.
  
• Clear cookie* and affiliate program tracking policy clearly explained must be linked to on the affiliate program's website. We prefer cookies with longer live spans than 90 days.
  
• The affiliate program must make at least monthly payments to affiliates. We will allow a few exceptions to this rule given the credibility and long-standing of the program.
  
• The affiliate program may not have a minimum payout of more than $100.00.
  
• All affiliates must have 24/7 easy access to live updated stats for the affiliate program through the internet.
  
• There must be no charge for affiliates to join the affiliate program.
• All affiliate programs that do manual approval, must issue a decision within 2-5 days.
  
• The affiliate tracking system being used must be a reputable system. All pre-approved third part tracking systems such as Commission Junction, Link Share, NetTraction are pre-approved.
  
• If the company has their own affiliate script to maintain and track the affiliate program, the following questions must be answered:
  
  • Was the affiliate program script developed in-house? If so, what language has it been developed in?
    
  • How long has the script been running on the affilaite program's website?
    
  • How much flexibility does the affiliate program script allow for the affiliates to see their stats?
    
  • What stats are shown to the affiliates?
    
• The affiliate program must have a clear and easily visible policy of termination and any other actions the affiliate program can take in case of any violations made by an affiliate.
  
• No strict policies on keyword bidding or generic SEO ranking are allowed. This does not include trademarks of the company.
  
• Clear policy on tax implications. What are tax consequences for affiliates, US and non-US based?
  
• All affiliate programs must have a clearly stated CAN-SPAM policy, privacy policy and all other legal documents required by law.

If you have any questions about any of these guidelines, please contact us. If you have any doubts about the qualifications of your affiliate program, we encourage you to apply – we will contact you if any of the criteria is missing or unacceptable. If contacted, after meeting the Affiliate Guild guidelines, you may re-apply.

*Cookie Example:

• Does the cookie reset when a new affiliate refers a person who has already been to your website?
  
• How long does the cookie or tracking mechanism last?
  
• Your affiliate program policy must have a clear and adamant policy against spyware companies.

Affiliate Guild is a self-help learning resource for people who want to learn to be affiliate, are already affiliates, and want to learn to be super affiliates. The website offers a wide variety of help-tools and is a great resource to keep open on your desktop as you work on your affiliate programs.

Are you interested in becoming an Affiliate Guild Member?

Affiliate Guild members can enjoy courses taught in the Affiliate Guild online school classes.

Affiliate Guild members are the only ones legally allowed to use the Affiliate Guild logo with a link back to the Affiliate Guild indicating they are working within professional guidelines as an affiliate.

Membership is FREE for all affiliates!

Affiliate Guild members also enjoy our exclsuive Affiliate Guild Newsletter.