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,
Looking to Start a Home Based Business? Watch the Hype!
Enough is enough.
The HYPE in the network marketing industry is OUT OF CONTROL. The unsubstantiated income claims, the guarantees that can’t be met, the promises that can’t be kept. Enough already!
My wife Rosemary and I are network marketers, and up until recently pretty proud of this fact. But we are embarassed by the current state of online marketing. It seems that:
HYPE IS IN, INTEGRITY IS OUT.
Just today, I clicked on a website link for a friend of mine, one who I respect quite a bit. And up at the top of her site, I see these words…
“I guarantee that you’ll make $5000 your first week, or I’ll give you a free Flip camera!!!”
First of all, the claim is ridiculous. Unless you are an experienced network marketer with tons of marketing experience, or you are bringing a huge downline into a business opportunity with you, there is no way this will happen.
So what if it doesn’t and you call her on her promise? So she spends $125 bucks, gets you your FLIP camera, and pockets the remaining commission money she received when you signed on.
I call these types of claims misleading at best, unethical at worst. AND THEY ARE EVERYWHERE.
So what to do?
Well, I was lucky. I joined my current business opportunity on the advice of a very good business associate, someone who I trust and respect. And it turned out his advice was 100% correct.
But for the people who go into this blind, who have to place their trust in people making outrageous claims on the internet, I feel sorry for you.
How the hell are you supposed to trust people you don’t know?
It’s no wonder there is an atmosphere of mistrust, skepticism, and cynicism on the Internet these days.
It’s well placed and justified.
My wife Rosemary and I are doing well enough in our businesses that we don’t have to rely on hype.
We don’t need to exaggerate and we don’t need to mislead people to join us.
We market with integrity and we believe that we have to EARN people’s trust before they will join us.
It’s the way that resonates most with us, even if it takes us longer to make our millions than others.
At least we can sleep at night.
To your success!
Bob
Cresskill, NJ; September 15, 2008
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