A publisher is ready to share their earnings or a bonus with a user to motivate them to perform a target action. Such traffic may be quality but there is a high risk that it will be low-grade.

Example of low-grade incentive traffic: Active Advertising Systems. Here's how they work. Suppose that an advertiser pays $5 for every user who registers in an online game and tops-up their balance (thereby confirming they are an active player). A publisher wants to deceive the advertiser. They resort to the Active Advertising System and publish a task, "Register in the game following my link and top-up your balance by 3 cents. $1 per registration." A user doesn't need that game, nor do they plan to play it. But, money has a persuasive way, the user is ready to provide a few sign-ups. On the other hand, the advertiser doesn't need that traffic as it won't bring activity or income.

Example of quality incentive traffic. A publisher (e.g. a blogger) starts a giveaway with the only condition: a participant needs to purchase an advertiser's product to get a reward from that advertiser or host (blogger). While users are motivated by the prize, they are loyal to the brand as they are truly interested in making a purchase. So they buy to get a prize. Another good example is mobile apps that need a lot of installs at the early stage — to get to the application store's top. But, in this case, the advertiser sets all this out in the terms, while the permission for incentive traffic only remains valid for a limited period.

A publisher cannot create websites or communities with mentions of the advertiser's brand, or create spaces resembling the advertiser's website, or send newsletters in the name of the advertiser. The advertiser cannot fully control what the publisher places under their brand, while the publisher may delude users. It's forbidden to pretend to be the advertiser's official space (website, community, or channel). Any customer must be able to distinguish the advertiser's official website from publisher's offers. Allowed: Gizmo Time (community). Not allowed: AliExpress Gizmos.

In other words, spoofing cookies. Unfair publishers substitute cookies of their affiliates, who truly lead customers, with their own ones. With that, they don't publish any ads. Instead, they spoof with the help of special scripts and programs an ordinary user won't even notice. As a result, they replace other publishers' cookies, get rewards for those who really led users. Eventually, the publishers offering quality traffic quit cooperating with an affiliate program, while advertisers pay for nothing.

Publishers may place orders by themselves (to cancel them later and get money back) or place related tasks in Active Advertising Systems. It's forbidden by all affiliate programs (we all remember that advertisers need real sales to real users).

If a user didn't give their consent to receiving any information via email, such a newsletter should be considered spam. With that, the suffering part is the advertiser because their brand is mentioned in the newsletter. To prevent such situations, publishers are often required to demonstrate how they compile their email bases and what terms users agree to when subscribing. Only after such verification, a publisher is allowed to start working with an affiliate program. Also, the advertiser may work with this traffic type "On approval" — i.e. the publisher will have to show a template of a made-up message before sending.

Teasers combine a text with a small image. The teasing element is an intriguing message. In fact, this traffic type is not bad if real deal terms and product photos are used. But, there are gutter teasers — ads containing fake info being too attention-grabbing. Gutter teaser example: "You will lose 40 pounds in a week if you... ", paired with a photo stock image of a fitness model. Quality teaser example: "Get up to 60% off on healthcare cosmetics", with a photo of a product subject to that 60-percent discount.

Banners usually clicked accidentally rather than intentionally. They appear suddenly after a user comes to a website, or can be an active background of a page (when a user is redirected to another resource after clicking on any spare space). Most advertisers don't love them as such banners don't provide target clicks. Also, they may irritate users, which negatively affects the advertiser's brand. One needs to use such techniques responsibly. For instance, show a pop-up when a user is going to leave your website or has just reached the page bottom.