To prove my point: I just went through BeFree, where I was already registered. I added a brand new site of mine to the account, that was not an affilate of anything.
After that, from start to finish, from the time I clicked the button to become a Dell affiliate to the time I was on the page ready to cut and paste my customized links (just like the ones on HCI), was THREE MINUTES.Anyone who doesn't believe it is absolutely free to try it themselves. Go to reporting.net.
MM
P.S. Shall I post the text of Dell's acceptance e-mail so all can see what it looks like? There is NO SCREENING.
The gist of my post was not that I doubted your claims. I had no idea of what the details or requirements were, and was and still am taking your word for it. But, being curious, I did take you up on your offer of trying it myself. While I didn't register for anything, I did get far enough to be able to read the terms, a portion of which follow.
1. PARTICIPATION IN THE PROGRAM
This agreement governs participation in the Dell Business Systems Division ("BSD") Affiliates Program only.
Once you are accepted into the Program, you will be able to participate in the Program subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement. You should also note that if you are accepted to participate in the Program and your Site is thereafter determined (in our sole discretion) to be unsuitable based on the criteria below for the Program, we may terminate this Agreement:
- Promote (including, without limitation, links to) sexually explicit materials
- Promote violence
- Promote discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation, or age
- Promote illegal activities
- Manipulate key word searches on portals
- Misrepresent themselves as a Dell Website by co-opting the visual "look and feel" of or text from Dell's Site
- Include "Dell" or variations or misspellings thereof in their domain names
- Otherwise violate intellectual property rights, including, without limitation, "scraping" text or images from Dell's Websites
- Have traffic of less than 500 unique visitors per day
- Do not clearly state an online privacy policy to its visitors
- Otherwise are considered offensive or inappropriate at Dell's discretion
Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but, these are requirments that must be met to continue participation in the agreement, right? So, while you are indeed immediately accepted into the program, these terms must be complied with to continue in the program. While you may not refer to that as screening, I do. It isn't immediate screening, but to say that 3 minutes and your in like Flynn is not quite the case.