The success of your affiliate marketing business is greatly reliant on your ability to identify and promote products which have real value to your community. The issue that’s all to present, however, is that there are many lame affiliate products because information-based products are so easily created or rely too heavily on hype despite the item having less features than a well-produced, trusted item.
What will happen, if you begin promoting lame affiliate products, has a double negative effect:
- You won’t earn money because no one will want the product
- You “burn” your community by promoting items without value
Good affiliates are able to make the sale but great affiliates are the ones that have the keen eye for identifying great products since it will build long-term value exchange within the community.
The focus of this article explores the basic process for identifying a lame affiliate product so you can avoid making costly mistakes chasing a promotion of little value.
A case of too much hype
The first step of identification should come from your gut reaction.
There are many, many affiliate opportunities but not everything you find may be exactly “ethical” in nature; there are those that create products and services that are essentially short-gain projects which fail to provide a long-term solution.
For example: It’s very common to see a program, such as a link building automation tool, that bends the line on ethics because it’s essentially a tool for spamming – – though this tool may have been worded and hyped to sound as if it were a legitimate, ethical program.
Do a three second test:
- What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you see the product page?
- What type of wording do they use (emotional versus logical)
- Are there other products you can think of that are already well known and documented?
Basically – – if it looks too good to be true than you’re probably thinking the right way.
There are those that rely solely on using hype to sell the product; it riles the emotions and encourages individuals to purchase a product before there is real feedback for it from the community – – then the marketer dips out with the money and leaves the community void of support.
What’s in it for them?
Information products are very easy to create, as mentioned, and we sometimes see a product come along that is merely a re-hash of freely available information across the Web.
Yes, you will find many information products covering the same topics but can you trust the expertise of a producer that can’t show the real results of their work in a transparent manner?
Would you:
- Buy a product from an individual that is new in the industry
- Buy one from an industry professional
The product needs to display immediate and long-term value for the individual and this can be achieved when it is created by those that have the experience, expertise, and mastery of the topic.
The easiest way to find an appropriate product for your community is by being a customer, yourself.
Spend the money (and time) on the product and to learn how to use it effectively. Not only will you have a thorough understanding of its value but you could offer a real opinion of the product, and support.
Even if you lose out on the monetary investment, after discovering the product doesn’t have value to your community, you still gain the knowledge and dodge a very harmful bullet rather than grabbing an affiliate link to any old product just because it sounds and looks good.
The updates and support really do matter
Finally, you should really take support and updates as a consideration when selecting an affiliate product from the bunch because a producer that makes the effort to revise information, code, or any other element of their product than they’re in for the long-haul rather than the quick buck.
Check back through the history of product development along with the track record of the individual (or business) behind the company. Compare their reviews, support, and update cycle.
Lame products come and go, they can certainly make you money due to the hype but what you really want out of being an affiliate is a stable influx of commissions rather than gigantic spikes that only happen on the rare (unpredictable) occasions.
