Monday: Monitor Red Flags in Affiliate Applications As I was working on this book, a new affiliate program manager emailed me a question: I am new to the title of "Affiliate Manager" and I'm having a hard time discerning what classifies an affiliate as a "good" or "bad" affiliate. Do you have a "list" of what to look for when it regards accepting/declining affiliate applications? I don't know what I'm looking for. Immediately it struck me that this simple yet extremely important question isn't something that is systematically answered anywhere. I talk about what's acceptable and what's not, but there really isn't a checklist of the things to look for in "bad" affili- ate applications. So, I took a stab at compiling such a list. It consists of some red flags you should watch out for while reviewing affiliate applications: 308 AT I C A F F I L I AT E S URL-Related Mismatches and Problems If there is a mismatch between the category in which the affiliate website is listed and the category it truly belongs to (or the listed title of the web- site and its the actual title), this should raise a red flag. Additionally, you want to be aware that some affiliates use a popular site's URL when filling out their affiliate application. If there are reasons to suspect that it is not their actual URL, ask them to verify it (generally, a message sent to and from an @theirURL.com email address should do). Trademarks in URLs If you see an applicant use another merchant's trademark in their