The E-Zine All About You,
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What To Look For In Affiliate Programs
Thea Swafford
I offered to preview programs for subscribers to our
newsletter to help head off obvious pitfalls and was surprised at the
response.
99% of the people that contacted me were ready to spend a
substantial amount of money on business models that had:
-
Software that make promises of some sort of Online
success if used, but the software creator either doesn't use them or
the software is a flop, based on the fact that the search engine
rankings for the creator stink and they have no traffic to the site.
Let's take a look at these two situations .
First of all, anytime you are making a commission off the
sweat of another person's back you're going to go hungry.
The reason for that is that the person you bring into the
system became a participant the same reason that you did; they want
someone else to do the work so they can reap the rewards.
It ain't gonna happen, period.
All that you have created with this business model is a
bunch of slackers that within 2-3 months will fall out of the program. The
only person benefiting is the person that pays to keep bringing in
the slackers.
One of the more popular formats for this type of business
model is the self improvement or motivational report for $1200 that allows
you to keep a couple of hundred and give a thousand to your sponsor for
the first few sales.
Not, this girl. The other front
running business model that falls into this category is the 'amazing
wonder product' that you have to have 'autoshipped' to you to qualify for
your commissions. These are commonly nutritional products that average
$120 to $140 p/month to qualify for a $5 commission check. Do
the math .
The second scenario is what I call the software ruse. This
is where 'Joe Guru' has this week's super duper software application that
will all but save your soul from eternal damnation... for either $67 or
$97. Sound familiar? In the words of Colonel Potter,
"Horse hockey!"
If Guru guy is selling it, 9 times out of 10 it is either
available free (if you know where to look) or you can have an application
made for less, to your own specifications, at http://rentacoder.com.
The last software application that I had made for my own use was $20.
You will find 10 categories of free software applications
in our free membership site at
http://secrets-to-your-successful.com/Member
by clicking on the 'software' link.
Before you sign up for an affiliate program, or buy from
anyone, do your homework. Understand that if you get
screwed, it's your own fault... whining and asking for refunds will
reflect poorly on you. Gossip travels really fast online...
yes, those of us that live Online know each other.
I'm more than comfortable saying that. Most sales are
impulsive, whether it's for a product or to buy into a business
opportunity. It's very easy to:
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Find out about the person that you are buying from.
Put their name into the address bar at Google.com with quotation marks
and see what comes up. Put your own name in and see what comes up
("Your Name")
-
Go to message boards in the same market as the product
or biz opp and ask about it... and the owner.
-
Ask the owner for references from people that have
purchased the product/biz opp and contact them!
-
Ask if they're happy with support.
-
Ask if they recommend purchasing.
-
If it's a biz opp ask if they've made any money
with it.
After you have screened, questioned and made an informed
decision to purchase or participate understand that this is the beginning.
Set aside an affordable budget and promote, promote, promote!
That's another article , but if you need help there are a lot of tutorials here
that teach creative promotions.
Invest in your future, but invest wisely.
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