You run a small blog and pull in a bit of extra dough from advertising, but it's nothing significant. That is, until a friend of yours tells you about affiliate marketing. She informs you if you partner with a company, you get paid any time a visitor of your website follows a link to the company's website and buys something.

It sounds perfect to you, as someone looking to pull in a bit of extra cash (who isn't?!). You partner with a company you found through a link online, but after a while you notice there's still no revenue coming in.

You might think the link is not working. You click on the link and a popup tells you to register right away. You figure its working fine, so you leave it alone and just assume no one's buying.

Little do you know, the company you're affiliated with is reaping all the benefits. The embedded code they gave you creates a popup by itself, skipping your account. If the user isn't directed to the sale right from your website, you're not getting the commission.

How to avoid: there are plenty of great affiliate marketing sites that actually do offer up some fair rates. To check the company you're looking at click the link they sent you to post on your website and see where it goes. If it's a pop-up, you aren't getting that revenue. It's also a good idea to research the company before partnering with them.

Other hints that your "partner" is taking advantage of you are as follows:

1. They do not have contact information listed on their site.
2. A fee is required for you to sign up as a partner.
3. You can't find information about their affiliate program anywhere.
4. They promise you will make hundreds of thousands of dollars.
5. The fine print specifies that payments are not given to an affiliate partner.