Are All Affiliate Marketers In BED With Each Other?
Affiliate Marketing is a great way to make money online. For those of you who don’t know what it is, Affiliate Marketing involves advertising and marketing someone else’s product. In turn, the creator of that product agrees to give you a certain percentage of the sale for each buyer you send their way.
You are usually given an Affiliate Link to use when advertising online, so that if someone purchases through your link, you get credit for the sale.
Affiliate commissions can run anywhere from 10-50% of the sale, so you can see how the money can add up rather quickly.
Let me state right now…
I do NOT have a problem with Affiliate Marketing or the people who use it.
But after watching closely the last several months, the question I have to ask is…
Are All Affiliate Marketers in Bed With Each Other?
In other words, it almost seems like all affiliate marketers do is market each others back and forth.
Someone comes out with a new product… the newest, best way for network marketers to “explode their business”
Pretty soon, I start getting emails from all my affiliate marketer friends (I am on a LOT of lists). And the countdown begins…
- Only 48 hrs left to take advantage of this great offer!
- 24 hrs left — don’t get left out of this once in a lifetime offer!
- You are going to miss out on the opportunity of a lifetime if you don’t act in the next 12 hrs!
And then the “extras” start getting thrown in.
Buy from this link and I’ll throw in my free Ebook on ……
Buy from the link below and I’ll give you a free, 1 hr business consultation….
And even this one…..
I’ll buy the product FOR YOU if you buy through my link… (this much have been one hell of a contest).
Then the deadline ends, there is some quiet time, and then the next Internet “Guru” announces the launch of his/her next product, and the cycle starts all over again.
Enough already! All of these products can’t possibly be the “one product that is going to take my business to the next level.”
It isn’t humanly possible.
But, as I said, I am not against Affiliate Marketing.
In fact, I also make money from Affiliate Marketing. It is a great way to supplement my primary business income.
But I do it with INTEGRITY, and that is what I am imploring others to do.
What do I mean?
I follow this very simple rule before I even think of suggesting or recommending any product to my valuable list of followers….I will only recommend a product if:
- I personally have used the product and can vouch for it’s usefulness in helping my followers… and it has to be worth the money.
- I know of someone who I respect that has used the product and tells me personally how it helped him/her.
- In cases of new product launches, I will only recommend the product if I have personally used the creator’s products in the past and have such an utmost respect for the integrity and knowledge of that person that I feel comfortable making a recommendation to my followers. This was true of the new product recently launched by Mike Dillard, MLM Traffic Formula 2.0.
In fact, in this latter group, there are only a handful of people who fit this category for me.
They include Mike Dillard, Perry Marshall, Eben Pagan and a few others.
That’s not to say that other Internet Marketers aren’t just as good or shouldn’t be included on this list. I just haven’t had the personal experience to add them to MY LIST.
As most of my readers know, I only really recommend a handful of products on this blog (see Resources Tab). But you can rest easily knowing that these products get my PERSONAL recommendation because I have first hand knowledge of their excellence.
After all, my reputation is on the line.
I know that if I recommend a really bad product that doesn’t deliver what it promises (just to make a small commission), I will lose the trust of my loyal readers. And I can’t let that happen! 
Enough already with the Affiliate Marketing Merry Go Round.
It’s making my head spin. Too many can’t miss products, too many empty promises, too many of the same old products gift-wrapped into the new and biggest thing.
Let’s have some integrity. Let’s get honest with people. Stop making a few bucks at other people’s expense.
The economy is bad enough.. we don’t need to add to other’s financial issues!
Your Friend on the Inside,
Starting a Home Based Internet Business — How Will I Get Paid?
This is the 3rd in a 3 part blog series about Starting a Home Based Internet Business.
The first part focused on “What Products Will I Sell?. The second post discussed the topic of “How Will I Market My Products,” and explained the value of using an automated marketing system to reduce the number of skills you must master to become a successful Internet marketer.
The third and final part of this series concerns the topic,
“How Will I Get Paid?”
When evaluating any home business opportunity, the compensation plan is critically important, because it is within these paramaters that you will derive your income.
What should you look for in a Comp Plan?
- Commission Percentage — what percentage of the products retail sale do you receive as a commission. Typically, commissions for home based businesses are around 20-30%, although a few are a high as 50%. Look for one with a high commission base — THE HIGHER THE BETTER.
- Residual Component — not only do you want to be paid through your own efforts, but also by the efforts of your team. Make sure that there are no sales quotas that must be met each month in order to receive these residual commissions. Again, the higher the residual commission base, the better — but look for some companies that offer residuals at 25% or greater.
- Multiple Streams of Income — look for multiple ways in which you can get paid each month. These could include straight commissions, residual commissions, funded proposals and affiliate commissions. Ideally, a home business opportunity should have all of the above income sources in place to maximize your income each month.
There you have it — the 3 characteristics to look for in a great compensation plan. Do your homework here, guys.
There are definitely opportunities out there that offer the best of all worlds — high commission base, a residual component, and multiple streams of income all under one roof.
Don’t settle for anything else.
To your success!
Curious which home business Dr. Clarke chose to work with?
Starting a Home Based Internet Business — Which Products Should I Market?
Congratulations! You’ve decided to make starting a home based internet business a priority in your life. It may be one of the best decisions you’ll ever make in your life.
Or it could be one of the worst. It depends on how well you do your homework.
Over the next week, I will be outlining and discussing the most important questions to ask BEFORE taking the internet marketing plunge. Because if you don’t get it right in the beginning, you could be in for a bucket load of frustration and misery.
Worse, the experience may cause you to think that ALL internet marketing businesses are the same.
Believe me, they’re not.
The first questions to ask yourself regards WHAT you want to market?
FIRST QUESTION: Do you want to market your OWN products or get paid to market someone else’s?
Answer: Unless you are prepared for the financial outlay involved with creating, testing, producing, and keeping an inventory of your own product, I STRONGLY advise you to market other people’s products.
How does this work? Typically, you advertise and market someone else’s products and get a percentage of the purchase price when someone buys from you. This is a typical MLM model, but can also be found in direct sales and informational marketing. Sometimes this is called Affiliate Marketing.
It’s a great deal, done right. I mean, no inventory, no stocking, no merchant accounts, no worrying about guarantees. All this is typically done by the company that owns the products. You sole responsibility is to market the products.
NEXT QUESTION: What products should you market?
There are a couple of factors to take into consideration. First and foremost, the products you sell should be products that resonate with you, products that you believe in, and preferably products that you use on a routine basis. Your customers will smell it from mile away if you are not 100% sold on your own products, and you’ll repel people like rotten fish on a hot summer day.
What else should you consider? Consider the product saturation in the marketplace. Are you looking to sell products where the market is so saturated that it will be near impossible for you to get your foot in the door. One example is vitamins. There are literally hundreds if not thousands of companies that market vitamins, nutritional supplements, lotions and potions. I should know, I used to market them.
There were 2 problems with it. First, it was hard to convince potential customers that your vitamins or supplements were that much better than your competitors, so we ended up selling the vitamins at deep discounts to gain customers. The result was NEGATIVE CASH FLOW, a huge problem with low cost, saturated products.
The other problem is the low cost of most of these types of products. Low cost equals low commissions (which typically only run as high as 20% of retail. It’s hard to make alot of money when you are only making $10-25 dollars per sale, especially when trying to compete again hundreds selling the same thing.
I typically only get involved in opportunities that offer high end direct sales, where commissions start at $1000 and go as high as $7500 PER SALE. It’s the only way to make money quickly in an internet business, and when you’re just starting out, CASH flow is a major concern for most people.
Next time I will continue to discuss the very important questions you MUST ask yourself before you consider starting a home based internet business.
To your success!
See which direct sales opportunity Dr. Clarke chose above all others
The Ultimate Key to Success in Network Marketing
We’ve come a long way in the last 30 days. We’ve covered issues surrounding mindset, motivation, setting goals, the importance of keywork research, and some very specific marketing tips along the way. Today it’s time to tie it all together: What is the ultimate key to success in network marketing?
Welcome to Day 30 (finally!) of the “30 Tips in 30 Days” Holiday Blog Special, where I’ve given you 30 Business and Marketing Tips for each day of the month of December. If you’ve missed any of the previous posts, click on the Business and Marketing Tips Category on the right sidebar.
There are lots of things you can do to improve your chances of succeeding in your network marketing home business. Setting up your business on a strong foundation with well defined goals, understanding what motivates you most to continue, investing in your marketing education and ways to improve your marketing and sales skills, and learning how to support your new team members are ALL very important in making your business grow and flourish.
But there is ONE KEY to realizing success in this industry, that above all others is the cause of most business failures in this industry.
It’s one thing that 97% of people DON’T GET!
It’s not hard, and it’s certainly not rocket science.
Ready to hear THE KEY? Here it is…..
You need to STAY IN THE GAME long enough to realize the success you are building.
That’s it. Sounds simple, but the reality is that most people quit because they can’t stay in the game long enough to see the fruits from their labor.
People don’t start a home based business with the idea of failing. In fact, it’s usually just the opposite. They have visions of easy money pouring in to their laps after just a few months. But they soon realize that running any business is HARD WORK.
- Some don’t want to do hard work and they quit.
- Some get frustrated when they run in to roadblocks, and they quit.
- Some don’t like the idea of losing money, even at the start, and they quit.
To be successful in any new home based business opportunity……
QUITTING CAN NOT BE AN OPTION!
So how do you STAY IN THE GAME?
By having 2 things at all times:
- Fresh qualified leads to talk to
- Cash flow
When either of these 2 things are missing, you are running the risk of having to quit your business.
There are various ways to ensure that both of these critical components are in place, but I have found a system that combines both and is very inexpensive.
Regardless of what business you represent, this system is applicable and can be used to not only keep you in the game, but grow your business exponentially.
I have used it myself, and I continue to do so…. with great results.
The system is called MLM Lead System PRO.
It combines aspects of relational or attraction marketing (for getting you a constant flow of qualified leads) with a very strong affiliate marketing component (to keep you in a positive cash flow situation).
It is quite simply the best system I have found to keep you in the game long enough for you to realize all your potential income in your home business.
MLM Lead System PRO is totally generic…. you can represent any business opportunity, or can be just starting out and have your pick of opportunities to represent.
It is a system for new and experienced network marketers, alike.
And it has a terrific educational and training section to teach you how to use the system, and the best ways to market to acheive your personal and business goals.
I don’t recommend sites or systems on this blog unless I PERSONALLY use them and know for a fact that they are for real and potentially profitable.
I give MLM Lead System PRO my 5-star ****** rating.
As this blog is all about the truth, I will tell you upfront–
The link to MLM Lead System PRO is MY affiliate link. I will make a small amount of money if you join.
But I hope you trust me enough to understand that, by giving you this affiliate link, I am showing you the power of the MLM Lead System in action.
Take a look… you can try it for $1 for the first month, and cancel at any time if you are not totally sold on it.
___________________
I hope that these last 3o days have provided you with some useful tips or techniques that will help you in YOUR business. Please feel free to contact me at any time.
My personal email is bob@drbobclarke.com.
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! Make 2009 your best year ever…. IN EVERY WAY!
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