I posted a few days ago about Google’s new pay per action program. Today I read a great post over on Shoemoney analyzing some of the potential issues Google may face. It’s very much worth the read, as are some of the comments.

CPA as a model has some issues, and Shoemoney points some of them out, such as fraud. Google has gotten pretty good at detecting click fraud - I wonder how well they’ll do on CPA fraud. Then there’s handling chargebacks, as well as other issues.

Perhaps the biggest issue may turn out to be how easy it is to get a site into Google AdSense, versus how hard it is to get a site into many CPA programs. If Google isn’t pickier about these things there could be some major issues.

I’m sure to some people these issues could actually make it a prime time to sign up for the beta program. But I prefer knowing how things will work and feeling comfortable that things are running right for all sides of the issue.

I won’t go over Shoemoney’s entire post here. The discussion on it is quite interesting and may well have grown by the time you read this, so I strongly recommend heading over for a good read.

No, I am not worried that this model will do away with older forms of affiliate marketing, which is what some seem to fear. Not every company is going to want to run their program through Google, even if things do turn up solid and have strong selling points. If this turns up solid, other affiliate networks will no doubt find ways to adapt. Might knock some down but I don’t think they will all go.

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