E Cigarette Direct Affiliate Program – Reasons for Declining
Monday, November 30th, 2009Our affiliate system has been building up recently and we are seeing both increasing sales from affiliates and more people joining our site.
Unfortunately, we have to reject more than half of applicants, and I thought it might be helpful to give some of the reasons why we do this.
1. Health Claims
We can not make any unsubstantiated health claims when selling the electronic cigarette. Any health claims should be backed up by studies and research. So you can say that the e-cigarette has not tar (it doesn’t have any) but you can’t say it is 100% safe. (It isn’t – even the most favourable scientists we have interviewed believe there is still a small risk. )
2. Smoking Cessation Claims
There is no long term evidence yet that the cigarette can help people quit. What we have are studies that show electronic cigarettes can help relieve nicotine cravings and can increase the level of nicotine in the blood. There was an informal study in South Africa where many smokers were able to quit in the short term, but there was no investigation into longer term cessation.
Our own survey suggests that many e-smokers have completely replaced cigarettes with e-cigarettes, but this is replacement rather than cessation, and was a snapshot in time as opposed to following smokers for a long period.
3. Poor/inappropriate websites
We have turned down porn websites, as links from these sites can hurt ours. We have also turned down websites because of poor content, very bad grammar and spelling, because we have not been able to access them and so on.
4. Other methods of marketing
We are open to email marketing, social networks e.t.c. but we need you to tell us how you will utilise this. Anyone using a traffic exchange site will be suspended pending an explanation.
For more information see our affiliate page.
