Opinion
The problem with the affiliate system
by Rick
Hendershot,
small-business-online.com
"I've recently been reminded that product reviews
and recommendations from 'affiliates' are completely unreliable and
untrustworthy ."
Anybody who has dabbled in web marketing knows that a prime
source of revenue for web marketers is selling "affiliate" products. If you
don't have your own product — and many of us do not — then all you have to do
is get your web visitors to click thru to "gurus" like Jim Daniels, Cory Rudl,
or Ken Evoy, and they will gladly give you anywhere from 25% to 60% of the
retail price just for the click thru.
Everybody in the business seems to think this is a wonderful
system. What could be better? You build traffic to your site and gradually
gain credibility as a reliable source of marketing information. And you leave
the product development to the guys who really know what they're doing.
You send them the prospects. They send you the checks. Ka-ching.
But I prefer another way of looking at the affiliate
relationship.
While you build your business and (maybe) develop your own
products and services, you prostitute yourself to the gurus who already have
the products.
Why do I prefer this interpretation?
Because as far as I can tell the "affiliate" relationship
turns us into lemmings.
It encourages entrepreneurs to latch onto affiliate products
in an absolutely uncritical way. Many of these products are
nothing more than glorified "how to" manuals, but intense hype by experienced
marketers turns them into "super products". And a bevy of willing affiliates
cannot offer objective information about these products because their
livelihood depends on selling them.
For instance, Ralph Wilson (www.wilsonweb.com) is known for
his extensive research into all aspects of web marketing. He is also a major
affiliate for products like Site Build It. Do
you think this affects his objectivity about these products?
Is there any question? In fact I have never
read a critical review of a program like Site Build It. Why would you be
objective about a product if you stand to make money every time it is sold? In
fact, this seems to be an unwritten rule about web marketing products. No
criticism. Ever.
And therefore it is virtually impossible to get objective
third party information about products that are sold through affiliates. And
please don't tell me to look on the discussion forums. Why should I rely on a
bunch of disgruntled consumers to do the job the "experts" won't do?
Do you see what a beautiful system this is for enterprising
marketers? Create a product. Make it available to affiliates. Offer a handsome
commission. And no one (except the poor suckers who buy it) will ever say a
negative word about your product again.
In fact, it gets much worse. Not only are affiliates
uncritical about products, but they can be downright misleading in their
praise of them.
For instance,
I was recently searching for an autoresponder program, and because I was
an affiliate for Cory Rudl's products, I thought I would try his much-hyped
program called "My Email Manager".
One of the
reviews I read about the product praised it up and down and gave it a
glowing "five star" rating.
After struggling with My Email Manager for a week or so I
concluded it was a turkey. It just didn't do the things it claimed it could
do. The product promotion was clearly misleading, and the review I had read
bore no resemblance to my experience. I doubt very much whether this person
had actually tried the program.
But that's how the affiliate system works.
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