I agree Dom, to a degree. I’m ok if a cert costs a couple hundred bucks, just not thousands.
We are about to launch, and I had AGD and GPWA look at mine, no charge, to make sure I was affiliate friendly, so maybe a couple organizations, just for check and balance.
After that, I think something like this:
1. Agree to an arbitration by “someforumorothers.com” in regarding any disputes / disagreements. This is good for both parties as many times, these things do not need to go public and get solved faster, as neither party feels wrong by the other. Much more professional.
2. MIN hours available by phone, email, Instant messenger etc, and a MAX time to return a message, email etc.
3. A rating. I think can be something like this.
Program A is certified. That is day one, and you have a rating of 1500.
Every x days with no compliants, payments on time, responisviess ok ,etc etc you move up say 10 points a month. Everytime you havea band month you loose 5 points.
If you ignore arbitration requests, loose 500 points.
etc etc etc. This way, the plans are spot checked, rated fairly, and the longer you play nice, the better your score. And new guys like us, may hurt to start, as we have to pay dues, but over all, I think is fair. If you liek the concept above, I can elloborate.
4.”Aff choice awards”
Basically a place on the forum where a constant vote is going, and affiliates can vote for one program a month, and evry 3 or 4 months, all scores back to zero.
I am thinking of these ideas, as I was once an affiliate myself for many years, before jumping ship to manage one myself. Just some things to chew on.