Everybody has an opinion on what’s “THE” key to getting people to buy from you. You’ll hear talk of “persuasion”. You’ll hear talk of “warming up” your list or “training them to buy”. You’ll even hear talk of “tricks” such as illegitimate limits and deadlines, “leaked” copies, hyped up promotions, etc.

Why make it that complicated?

There’s a much easier way to get orders: just ask your list what they want and offer it to them.

Why try to “warm them up” to an offer when you can much more easily just offer them something they are already “warm” (even “hot!”) towards?

Why try to “persuade” them to buy something when they are already actively looking to buy something?

Why try to “trick” them with schemes and scams when you can just say “here’s what you told me you wanted?”

If I see a tourist who just finished the North Rim tour of the Grand Canyon panting and sweating with parched lips, do I really need to try to convince them they need to buy a cup of hot chocolate from me? Wouldn’t it be much easier to offer them some cold water, since that’s what they really want?

Your subscribers are hungry for certain products and services. And when you advertise those products and services in a certain way, it’s like flipping a money switch that gives you almost unbelievable conversion rates – and commissions.

In short:

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News Flash from Dr. Glenn Livingston of Rocket Clicks:

I got word from several affiliate marketers that Google dropped the hammer today on affiliate review pages. Many pages went from quality scores of 10 -> 1 overnight. And these were NOT skinny sites, rather well build out, consistently updated blogs with good navigation above the fold, xml site maps, high click through, hyper-relevant keyword mapping, low bounce rates, long average time on page … everything else Google loves.

When we analyzed which pages survived, and we take it in combination with other information, it seems pretty clear they’ve added code which screens for affiliate links on the landing pages.

At the moment it seems cloaking and PHP redirects are untouched, … but I can’t imagine these are far behind. (I’m guessing they’re just avoiding this in order to decrease their server burden … takes some CPU cycles to visit every link on the page and evaluate for affiliate code)

I’d say it’s safe to conclude Google’s on the war path against affiliate review sites, and we should be advising clients towards a different business model… at minimum it seems necessary to avoid placing affiliate links on landing pages, but ideally, I think people need to move towards a deeper list building/relationship building strategy and/or a strong e-commerce model.

Time to stop “building on sand”.

Glenn

Many affiliates make their living creating product review sites.

Many product review sites are trash.

Many times the affiliates don’t even own the product and it’s a big pump and dump.

Savvy web surfers quickly recognize these sites and don’t trust their advice. Worse yet, it tarnishes the reputation of even a good product, because it’s cheesy and sleazy.

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How to go from where you are to the next level where the going gets good. If you haven’t snagged it yet, I have a freebie guide for newbies at-http://www.TurboProfits.com/tracking/go.php?c=5_30_newbie

I refer you to that because today’s article is NOT for you.  It’s for people who have gone beyond the newbie stage and want
to go the next level and the next level beyond that.

Yesterday on Twitter, Karen asked if I could produce a guide for “not so newbies” and “wannabes.” I’m going to assume you know the basics of building websites, blogs, market research, optins & aweber, SEO and Social Media.

But you’re struggling to get by and working 10-12 hours a day. Your biggest problem is building a stable, consistent income.

Let’s dive right in:

1. Get really comfortable with producing products and getting them out the door.

You need to get this down to a checklist. About everything you need to know is in ProductDashboard.com. But you still have to DO that process over and over.

When I was a kid, I loved to go to the skate rink. Now, before you could learn to backwards skate (which was the really cool thing to do), you had to learn to forward skate.

And until you’re comfortable going around the rink forward, you’re not advised to start working on backwards skating.

Same way in marketing. Getting products created is something you should do like breathing. Get comfortable with it.

2. There are several ways to get products out the door. Find one or two that work for you.

You can interview people over the phone, transcribe the interviews and create audio and pdf compilations.You can do webinars and record them.You can create Power Point presentations and record audio with them.

You can write ebooks (don’t attempt this unless you’re a fast writer).

3. Master Camtasia, Camstudio or Screen Flow.

These are what you use to record your screen in concert with audio. Screen Flow works on Macs. Camstudio and Camtasia are for use on PC’s. Camstudio is a freebie download.

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How do you choose the products you buy? Do you simply accept as gospel truth all the good things a merchant says about their own product? Or, do you ask your friends’ opinions and look for independent product reviews before opening your wallet?

If you’re a savvy consumer (which of course you are), then you put more stock in your friends’ opinions and independent product reviews.

As affiliate marketers, we become much more successful when we approach our site visitors as friends and take the attitude that they too are savvy consumers.

From that standpoint, an affiliate’s real work is to pre-sell our merchant partners’ products by writing fair and balanced reviews, also known as endorsement letters.

Sure, writing a review for each product takes a little time and effort, but it’s an activity that sets the super affiliates apart from their less-super counterparts in terms of rewards… read ‘income’.

Product reviews can be either stand-alone or comparative. The first type focuses on a single product, while the second is an evaluation of similar items that allows readers to choose which product best suits them.

Before you begin to write a product review, you’ll need to evaluate the product. (Nothing like stating the obvious, eh?)

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As a ’super affiliate’, I set stiff criteria for how and when I choose to promote products, especially products available within the Internet and affiliate marketing niche.

First, I rarely participate in the ‘big’ product launches anymore, as many of those products (and their producers) have gone the way of the dodo bird.

Stephen Ducharme is only one example.

Do a search for his name today and in the top results are an article by Damon Zaharides titled “Stephen Ducharme Belly Flop” and a thread in Michael Green’s HowToCorp forum “Screw Stephen Ducharme Over”.

People were that mad at him for selling them a pack o’ lies.

Marketers who promoted his product had to do some serious back-pedaling to regain their subscribers’ trust.

However, breaking a trust is like breaking a porcelain container. You can glue it back together, but the cracks will always show and it may never again hold water.

Do you want to lose subscribers or your reputation as an honest broker?

I thought not.

To protect your reputation, and more importantly, do right by your customers, here are my top 6 criteria for choosing products to promote.

1. Reputable Merchant. If Yanik Silver or Anik Singal tells me that they have a new product available, I know my customers will be properly treated and respected. These merchants have built their reputations based on quality products and excellent customer service, i.e. sound business principles. Likewise, there are merchants within your niche with whom you have worked that can be trusted without question. If you do not know a merchant, research their reputation online. Review and test their sites for attractiveness, usability and customer service responsiveness. If you have any doubts regarding their reputation, do not promote the product.

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