Rebate sites

[pmt3]

Hi everyone, I have been researching IM and SEO for awhile and narrowed my site ideas down to two that both where travel related using MS. I narrowed potential affiliate programs down to 6-8, but recently noticed an old post on another forum talking about rebate sites (big crumbs, ebates, etc) that has me concerned. I found that if my site drives a customer to affiliate x's site that they spend time on, I will recieve no commission if they then close the site and go into ebates, for example, to book their travel and get a rebate. I see this as a big problem because of the number of rebate sites these days and the frequency of reminder e-mails they send out (sometimes 2x a day)!

Many of the rebate sites have ALL of the major travel sites listed with rebates of 3-12%. In this economy, many people would find that attractive enough to use, especially on high ticket purchases. Is there any way around it other that avoiding merchants that partner with these rebate sites? In my case, that would eliminate most, if not all of the large "reputable" travel companies. Thanks for any advice!

[DeanRichards]

I found that if my site drives a customer to affiliate x's site that they spend time on, I will recieve no commission if they then close the site and go into ebates, for example, to book their travel and get a rebate.

Basically what you're saying is that if you send someone to Amazon and they end up buying on Ebay, you make no money. That will always be true no matter what you do.

The point of your site, however, isn't just to say, "here's a link, now click on it." The point of your site is to pre-sell and to build desire and to overcome the blocks to taking action. Your site should inspire them to click your link and get the happiness now! If you can inspire people to take action, you'll make sales. If you don't, you won't and that will always be true no matter what kind of site you have or what sorts of competition you have.