Shopping for Uverse deals truly does require that one understand just how Uverse deals work, especially since there is a lurking danger in the room. Before discussing the danger, let us take a brief look at how and why AT&T Uverse deals found online work:

AT&T is a large corporate entity that manages multi-million dollar advertising campaigns, yet many people are immune to the effects of these campaigns. This is why AT&T has approved other companies to act as their affiliates, or partners. These companies are free to use whatever techniques they find persuasive in order to generate additional sales. AT&T offers customers a discount, generally referred to as Uverse deals on the web, in order to attract these customers via third party affiliates.

Affiliates need to do something to generate these sales, whether it is create useful data or content, or find unique niches that AT&T does not see in its monolithic size. Either way, the goal of any company starting an affiliate program is to increase their overall customer base and offer incentives for those organizations that can help them do so. What a company like AT&T does not want to do is offer lower prices to potential customers that do not need third parties such as affiliates to make the deal happen.

So, what is the danger? The danger comes in the form of so-called affiliate sites that ask users to clean their browser cache and/or dump their cookies before signing up for exclusive Uverse deals without providing any content or reason to jump on the Uverse bandwagon. The same Uverse deals are available elsewhere at sites that actually do follow the Uverse affiliate program guidelines, and this is very important because it is a case of splitting the pie versus growing the pie. If affiliates just use price as an incentive, then the Uverse deals will wither and die. If affiliates try to steal sales by requiring a cache be cleared, then they are actually not earning their commission.

These affiliates undermine the entire system that puts Uverse deals in place for consumers that AT&T cannot attract with their existing marketing efforts. Good affiliates that add value to the system by making comparison tables, or writing useful content help grow the pie by giving users a reason to sign up other than the discount. If everyone only signed up for a discount, then the discount would have to go away or AT&T would be unable to sustain its Uverse business and meet investor expectations, both of which are long-term losses for everyone including customers.

By: Charles W. Walter

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