Advice on copyright + advertising

A while ago I started promoting Widgets and so I bought a long tail keyword domain with their brand name in it: wheretogetWidgets.com for example. I started bidding on Widgets in Adwords and then the owner of Widgets got in contact with me to tell me to stop bidding on the Widgets keyword. I explained I only used wheretogetWidgets.com as a landing page.

I then sent him an email saying I stopped the PPC campaign and if it was ok for me to continue using wheretogetWidgets.com-- he never replied.

Since then I've gotten steady SEO traffic since I'm ranking at the top for 'where to get Widgets' so I've got a couple hundred $ in the affiliate account.

I'm nervous they'll deny me my money since it's SEO traffic to 'where to get Widgets', so I did another type of marketing to be able to say that it's not all SEO traffic and that I deserve the $ for my advertising.

Also, on the landing page I make it clear that I'm not an owner of Widgets.

Should I do anything else to ensure getting paid?

Any help at all would be hugely appreciated!

So the company that makes the "widgets" told you that you can't use their name in your domain name, and you are promoting their products? This sounds pretty sketchy, if they are this involved with it to where they are watching your every move, I would recommend finding a bigger affiliate program where you can fly under the radar, and if necessary, take steps to hide your identity (use mail forwarding services, register a business, etc) so you can just bail on them if they start to get all bitchy on you, but the major affiliates pay regularly so you don't have to worry about not getting paid at least.

Thanks for the tips madblacker but I'm really trying to figure out how to legitimize this a little more just in case they try to keep my earnings.

Anyone have any ideas? Christmas is spiking sales massively and I'm worried they're going to put up a fight for my earnings.

flow please pm me as I would like to help but I am a bit confused as the widgets and what not I would be happy to speak to you privately and tell you if your ass is hanging out or not. also if your on skype we can talk or you can call me. I can get the info and tell you in a couple of minutes if this company will have any leg to stand on.

Hey mr.breakit, I appreciate the help but I'd rather not reveal the product.

I think I'm doing the right thing by creating more marketing avenues, but any ideas to do it quicker, easier, or even sneaky, would be great.

ok sounds good, if you need any help please feel free to contact me. best of luck to ya

i'd think you'd want to do just the opposit. I mean creating new avenues to earn is great - but if you have such strong doubts that they'll pay you why would you invest your time?

if it comes down to "we're not paying you for your traffic because your domain is infringing on our copyright'" kind of crap, they aren't going to pay you no matter how well you explain to them the 'other' ways you are marketing their wares to get them sales. If they want to keep the money that badly for what I assume is legitimate traffic why bother with them? Plenty of fish in the sea...

Mac, unfortunately it's my biggest earner.