Lead fraud is possibly the largest obstacle to successful lead gathering via Affiliate marketing on the internet. Finding pre-qualified leads online can be either very successful or very frustrating depending on how you set up your program to deal with fraud.

Gathering leads through an Affiliate program can be a very successful venture if you find the right Affiliates. Names and contact details of people who have an active interest in your product increases conversion rates for offline sales and hopefully increases your bottom line. That benefit may, however, be adversely affected if the time you spend sifting through rubbish leads becomes too great. But there are a few things you can do.

Choosing Affiliates

As with all Affiliate programs, you will need to choose your Affiliates wisely at the beginning to have a fraud-free campaign. This means manually vetting Affiliate applications to join your program. Look at other sites your Affiliates have gathered leads for and ask for references if you think it is warranted. Remember also that seeking legal redress against fraudulant Affiliates is much easier to do in your home country, or countries with a similar, enforceable legal systems. Be sure that you know all of the contact details of your Affiliates so if something goes wrong you can contact them quickly.

Monitoring Your Lead Campaign

You will need to monitor your campaign manually, especially at the beginning to ensure you are receiving quality leads. Look at the leads you are receiving - if they all exhibit similar properties then you could have a problem. Things to watch out for include similar spelling mistakes on each lead (which would indicate one person is filling out the lead many times) and identical IP addresses (which could also indicate that one person is filling out the lead form several times or getting friends and relatives to do it). You will need to keep doing this manually until you are happy with your Affiliates and the quality of leads they are sending through.

With just a few hours of diligence at the beginning when you are setting up your lead campaign you can avoid days of frustration. The bulk of lead fraud is preventable - it just takes a little planning.

Rob Wood is a professional Affiliate fraud investigator. He runs a site over at eFraudster on click fraud and general affiliate fraud prevention. efraudster.com

Merchant Account’s For Small Businesses

If you own or operate your own business and are starting out small chances are you don’t want to spend a lot of money on a merchant account. Fortunately there are many merchant accounts out there that offer reasonable fees and prices for small businesses. You don’t have to sacrifice quality either when looking for discount merchants to accept online payments from your customers.

So how do you go about selecting a cheap merchant account? First you should know that there are dozens of inexpensive and even free merchant accounts available on the Web. The key is finding a quality provider, a company that is reputable and willing to offer you the support you need to get your business off the ground. What you don’t want is a company whose computers go down frequently (meaning your customers won’t be able to make payments) or a company that offers little support.

The key to quality service is also timely payments. You want to make sure you receive all of your payments in a timely fashion. Many free or inexpensive merchants have problems in this area. It is important therefore that you investigate a company thoroughly before selecting them as your merchant account provider. Some sample small business merchant accounts include Charge and 2CheckOut.

One way to find good merchant account providers is to ask around. You probably know one or two other small business owners. Find out who they use and that way you can rest assured you are working with a reputable provider.

Article by Frank Owen, visit his web site on merchant account for more information on merchant accounts
http://www.merchantaccountinsiders.com