As more online businesses get comfortable running their affiliate programs, they are starting to become a bit more restrictive on their rules for affiliates.

Gone are the days where companies can just have people sign up for their program and then promote it in any way that they want. That casual attitude has been leading to lost profits and credibility for the company the affiliates are sending traffic to.

There might be a few lessons here for you to consider with your own affiliate programs.

Issue #1: Mutual Competition

One concern is that affiliates are competing for the same traffic as the business itself. In particular, pay per click traffic.

As more affiliates also pay for the same keywords, your own costs start to rise because you are "competing" with them for the same clicks.

The solution: some companies are banning affiliates from using the businesses name or title of the product in pay per click campaigns. This allows them to still run ppc ads, just not ones that mention the company or product specifically.

Issue #2: Reputation

This is a biggie.

Many companies specifically take steps to protect their reputation. This includes specifically banning spamming affiliate promotions.

No company wants to feel the wrap of being blacklisted by internet service providers because of some rogue affiliate.

Attempts are made to filter out sites which aren't a good fit. That is, perhaps a site has a flea market type feel to it and a company wants their product or service represented in a better fashion.

The Solution

All of this takes quite a bit of work to keep an eye on things.

That would help explain why most affiliate programs don't take these steps.

There is some work involved to keep up on it. The payoff however can be more effective and cost saving affiliate marketing. At the very least, take some time to consider what rules you have in place for your own affiliates.