Wrong, and it quietly poisons your program. Open approval inflates your active count but loads you with brand-bidders, coupon-leak sites, and trademark abusers who cannibalize sales you'd have made anyway.
What unrestricted approval actually does:
— Pays commission on traffic you already owned (brand-name PPC, retargeting on your own visitors).
— Buries your real partners under a long tail you can't manage or QA.
— Raises your fraud surface and your support load.
The correction: use a short approval gate — a working site, declared traffic sources, and agreement to your trademark/PPC policy. Auto-approve content partners who clear it; manually review paid-traffic applicants.
Caveat: an overly strict gate scares off small creators who grow into your best earners. Aim for a 5-minute screen, not a 5-day interrogation.
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Q: A consultant told me "approve every applicant — more affiliates, more sales." Right?
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