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RawAlex - I guess the best way to answer your question is with a question - if an affiliate program continues to accept sales from an affiliate that is using these methods, arent they still just as culpable? So really it doesnt make a difference in my mind whether the program or one of their affiliates does the keyword buying/installs - it is still stealing from their other affiliate partners whether it be the small-time guy that does one sale a month or the cross sale program that does a hundred.
When I announced the three prong approach on the other board - I was primarily basing my listing of sponsors that are accepting these referrals or supporting these installs as both an "education of the webmasters" and an "inform the programs" comprehensive list so that if a program is unaware that they have affiliates that are bidding on the keywords(which in this day and age I find hard to believe they wouldnt have a clue) then once they are on the list it would seem a pretty easy fix to remove those offending affiliates.
Im basing most of this on what places like commission junction and other major mainstream aff programs did back in 2004 to combat this - and remember quite well the sudden removal of many programs from their rolls that Im sure cost those aff sales companies quite a bit - Im not out for blood(yet) but just to inform and take my own actions to make sure that these programs dont get any of my traffic
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