Im posting this because im reading in a lot of threads here compliants from affiliates that they dont get paid, get a huge amount of chargebacks, are not happy with payment terms, etc. The one that gets blamed in these posts is usually the advertiser or network, but I think the truth in most of these stories is probably somewhere in the middle. Things are usually never that black & white, there's always more nuance. That's why I'm sharing the checklist we are using at Addiliate.com to determine whether we launch a campaign or not.
The things you should do as an Affiliate, IMO, are:
1. Agree with the advertiser on the max % of disapprovals they can reverse
2. Agree what the exact reasons are the advertiser is allowed to chargeback your conversions
3. Agree with the advertiser a final cut off date to approve the numbers (e.g. august numbers need to be approved by september 10); after that cut off date, you bill them and they need to pay
4. Agree with the advertiser to send you a detailed fraud report (on a lead/sales level) for all chargebacks. Ask them for an example of such report BEFORE you launch
5. If you have the leverage & negotiation power of them, ask them for either a prepayment or weekly payment (you probably will only get this after proving yourself for a month or 2 with big numbers)
6. Agree on intermediate non-final quality checks during the month (e.g. make them send you an email on a weekly basis about the quality of your traffic) - its harder for them to reverse everything if they have given you a heads up, week after week
7. Agree what traffic sources will be allowed vs non allowed; be as specific as possible --> RESPECT THIS; only drive traffic with sources that are allowed; dont try to cheat on the advertiser/network. It might work in the short run but in the long run you're just shooting yourself in the foot
8. Describe on paper what the conversion flow is + how a valid conversion is defined. If you have in a contract that a valid lead is en email 1st page submit, then they cant come back at you months after that those leads didnt convert into sales for them. that's their bad. your deal with them was to deliver 1st page submits and that's what you did --> you'll get paid
9. Always sign an IO with all these agreements in there; it is time consuming and a bit annoying but it will save your ass in these kind of situations
10. Run a background check on whatever advertiser/agency you work with (google, facebook, twitter will tell you everything you'll need to know if there is some dirt to dig up)
In order for you to be succesful in the long run, you need to do the above steps BEFORE launching the campaign
This checklist will make sure you get paid more often, in more circumstances, you will have less disagreements about fraud/chargebacks/"im not getting paid" and it will give you more peace of mind about the entire payment process when you're scaling your campaigns and have a lot of $$$ pending