In the world of affiliate marketing, there are two types of knowledge: what’s said out loud, and what happens behind closed doors. If you’ve been working with affiliate programs (APs), you’ve likely encountered moments when things just don’t add up — conversions drop without reason, payouts get delayed, and some offers feel like they’re set up to work against you.
Today we’ll dig into the shadowy sides of working with offers and what affiliate networks prefer to keep hidden from affiliate marketers.
1. Are you being shaved?
“Shaving” is the holy grail of shady AP tactics — reducing your conversions without your knowledge. It can happen in different ways:
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Manual shaving. Account managers manually cut conversions, knowing you can’t access raw stats.
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Automatic shaving. Algorithms silently drop a percentage of leads — you send 100, but only 70 get “counted.”
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Traffic filtering. The AP claims your traffic is low quality, when really it’s just too profitable for them.
How to tell?
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Sudden conversion drops without logical cause.
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Your numbers don’t match third-party trackers.
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Multiple affiliates report the same issue.
What to do?
Use trackers, send test leads, talk to managers, split traffic across networks, track everything.
✅ With us: Full transparency — you see what we see. No shaving, no games. Stats update live, and you can always contact a manager. We believe in pure analytics and trust.
2. The affiliate network is your real competitor
Think your rivals are other affiliates? Sometimes. But often, your biggest competitor is the AP itself.
