Over the past few months, I have seen an influx of affiliate managers and OPMs entering the affiliate arena as affiliates. While I have to say they have every right to do this, it concerns me when I see those whom I have shared information with that could now be used to compete with me.

I see a larger and larger number of affiliate managers complaining that affiliates are aloof, don’t enter the right sites or methods of promotion into network interfaces or some affiliates who use bogus email addresses and other ways of remaining invisible. Well, certainly this is not true in every case, but to these concerns that affiliate managers have, why would an affiliate share everything about their business with you when you are their competition?

In coming months I will be keeping my guard up when speaking with AMs whom I know are active affiliates. I will indeed shield as much information from these people as I can. I see a conflict when the AM has access to information such as your sites and your methods of driving traffic to them.

Am I saying never to trust an affiliate manger? No! What I am saying is that before you blindly trust someone and get them so involved in your business that they can see your methods and results, know what you are potentially getting yourself in to.