HURDLES?
PAYPAL!
Picture this, you've been promoting your program vigorously, a prospect signs up from your affiliate link, and you've made a sale! But you set up PayPal to receive your money and PayPal says sorry, we're putting your money on hold because you've violated our "Acceptable Use Policy". You promote affiliate marketing programs and we frown upon that business model.
I know PayPal doesn't come right out in plain black and white and tell you that they don't accept affiliate marketing programs using their platform. It's jumbled in the way they word it in their Acceptable Use Policy. We as affiliate marketers can be greatly affected by this and many like yours truly have had their monies frozen for six months.
Whatever monies are in your account at the the time you receive the following email... "Your Account Has Been Limited", you will have that money held for at least 180 days if not more.
So my advice? Avoid using PAYPAL. Today there are all kinds of alternatives you can use. For instance there is the option of setting up a merchant account with a company called Authorize.net. This allows you to accept payment via credit or debit card from your prospects. Also there is Stripe, Cash App, Venmo, and Zelle just to name a few.
Another Hurdle?
It's 2026, but you still have people who think affiliate marketing is a scam.
Another Hurdle?
Google.
I've been around this game for awhile and have seen "the powers that be" make it difficult for those of us trying to make money online. I don't know how old you are, but some of you might remember the days when you could sign up with ClickBank, grab hold of a popular digital product that's selling well and create a Google Adwords campaign to sell it. You could then directly link to that product and make sales. I made a killing back then. But low and behold along came something called the "Google Slap" and put the kibash on all that. Many people lost a ton of money and a very easy way to earn money online.
My advice? Unless you know what you're doing and you have an expanded advertising budget (a lot of money) using Google's Adwords to promote your business can be very costly, so avoid using them. Try using Bing, they're quite affordable.
Another Hurdle?
Craigslist.
Once upon a time you could place ads there for free to promote your business everyday and in different cities to boot. You could even place hyperlinks in your ads and images that led right to your company's sales page to make sales. Well, they put a stop to that. Now Craigslist charges anywhere from $5 to $35 to place ads. Plus you better post ads in your own locale, do it 48 hours at a time, and no more hyperlinks in your ads. Otherwise your ads will be "flagged" or "ghosted". Either way, your ad is not going to show for anyone to see.
My advice? There are a host of free classified ad sites you can use to promote your business. If you don't want to labor for hours a day posting to free classified ad sites, let the guys over at Classified Submissions do it for you. For a nominal monthly fee, they'll post your link to hundreds of sites to expose your business to hungry prospects.
Another Hurdle?
Facebook.
Facebook forbids you from placing ads that have anything to do with MMO ( Make Money Online) programs. Sure, there are plenty of MMO Facebook groups you can post to, but if you try advertising your MMO business with a Facebook ad you'll wind up in what I hear is called "FaceBook Jail".
So as you can see, there are HURDLES we have to jump over to do our business. But of course this is no reason to give up. I've always believed in affiliate marketing and will continue to press on. This article was just to let those of you who might be novices to the game know that there are a few hurdles out there that might make it tough for you to promote your business online.
Hurdles are just another obstacle for you to jump over on your way to the top. Don't let the hurdles stop you because many before you have quit because of them.