Are You Cashing In On Your Relationships?
I got a call last week from an old school friend who wanted to catch-up with me over dinner.
We arranged to meet the following Saturday at a nice little restaurant in Central London.
I was buzzing with excitement all week with the idea of re-telling a good story or two over a nice meal.
Well, Saturday arrived and we met as planned.
Over dinner our conversation mainly covered family, friends and ‘who do you still see from school?’
Towards the end of our meal, having relived a few too many ‘stories that should never be retold’ from our youth, we began to discuss work.
Now, this is where my ‘friend’ revealed the true intention of our meeting.
He started to tell me how he had recently attended an ‘amazing’ seminar where the ‘secrets to wealth’ were revealed to him (at this point alarm bells were sounding in my head).
I quietly listened as he quickly stated that he had paid £195 for a wealth ‘starter pack’ and was now ‘recruiting’ people who wanted to know the secrets to wealth.
How it works is, each person purchases the starter pack and then recruits people to sell the starter packs to others.
These people then go on to also sell the starter pack and he receives a commission from each pack they sell (as do they); and on it goes (multi-level marketing).
The starter pack was nothing more than a brochure selling the system, all it revealed was some ways you could sell the starter pack and then retire rich of the sweat of other people who then go on to ‘sell’ the pack.
I’m not coming down on multi-level marketing, if that’s your thing then that’s your thing, what I’m coming down on is the fact that my ‘buddy’ was trying to cash in on our relationship.
This got me thinking about the Internet, blogging, affiliate marketing and the ‘make money online’ niche.
Selling Relationships
If I have one piece of advice for anyone that wants to make money from promoting products as an affiliate marketer, then it is this:
‘Make sure YOU believe in the product and it is helpful to your community of readers’.
Whether you promote something to your email list or on your blog through an article or banner, you should be promoting products and services that you KNOW do exactly what they say on the box.
If your regular readers or email subscribers feel like you are cashing in on their relationship with you, they will quickly drop you and never return.
People often enter the make money niche thinking that this is the quickest way to make money online.
A quick $97 commission here and there will cost you a lot more in loyal subscribers when the disappointment of not earning ‘thousands’ like the ebook promised.
That being said, there are some great products that CAN help your readers and improve their chance of being successful online.
Take a bit of time to thoroughly research a product you wish to promote before you promote it.
If you are not lucky enough to get a free copy of a product you wish to promote, how can you testify to the content being ‘valuable’ and ‘doable’ to your readers.
If you can’t afford to purchase the product you are promoting then, just maybe, the other ‘make money’ ebooks you have already promoted have, so far, not worked for you!
Affiliate marketing is a great place to start your online marketing career but you do need to start on the right foot.
If you are new to making money online then it will serve you better to look at alternative products, premium blog themes as one example.
On that note, before you promote a product, be sure to think about the benefits it offers those you have a relationship with.
If you cannot think of one thing, maybe you should move on to another product entirely.
To your success,
Karl Foxley
Image: Nicholas Tarling / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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I’ve been there. Had it happen to me back in my 20′s, when a guy I didn’t really consider a friend as much as an acquaintance pulled that stunt on me, as he’d just started selling life insurance. I’ve never seen him again.
.-= Mitch´s amazing last blog ..Google Toolbar Tracks Your Movements =-.
I’ve never done this to anyone, but I’ve had it done to me over and over. Well, not so much anymore, as I’m more aware and savvy as I’ve gotten older.
I hate the MLM approach to things because my mind says if you can’t just tell me what it is you do, then you must not believe in the product yourself. Oddly enough, one finds financial counselors and insurance salespeople often doing the same thing, and that’s irritating as well, though they’ve started moving away from that model.
That’s just a shame; I bet it left a bad feeling in your mouth after what had been a great evening.
.-= Mitch´s amazing last blog ..Content Is An Electronic Emperor =-.
Mitch, it really did leave a bad taste in my mouth. There is being down on your luck and asking someone for advice or there is the other option and selling out on a long-term friendship. Unfortunately he chose the latter.
Thanks for dropping by,
Karl
This should be common sense. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be. The circular idea of “I’m going to make money by telling you how to make money” is so silly right on it’s face.
As for MLM, I’m not an MLMer, but the program you described isn’t really MLM, it’s a ponzi scheme.
MLM can be legitimate, but usually it’s designed with fatal flaws. The flaws come in from, as you said, a structure that says, “You don’t have to sell any PRODUCT, you just have to get other dupes to do it.” This just plays on the greed too many have.
Seriously, people, if you want money, just earn it. Provide a real product or service that other people will pay you for. It’s that simple.
.-= Alison Moore Smith´s amazing last blog ..7 Things You Must Avoid When Choosing Your WordPress Theme =-.
Excellent advice and what a refreshing surprise to read something like this here. I’ll be back.
.-= Holly Jahangiri´s amazing last blog ..Meet Prunebutt, What’s Left of my Muse =-.
An old high school friend of mine recently invited me to a business seminar… I couldn’t make it–it just seemed so suspicious, since we hadn’t talked in forever, and all of a sudden he’s complimenting my intelligence and telling me I’d be great for this project, and great for running a business, etc.
Red flags all over. =(
Just an FYI – you should inform your friend he is not with a true legitimate MLM company; what he is doing is illegal, and blatantly so.
Have him check with the FTC.
Hey Dennis,
I gave him all the advise I could.
It’s a hard one because unscrupulous companies do not, as a rule, mention how within the law they are operating.
If people on the receiving end do not know then it becomes a costly lesson when they find out the hard way.
FYI, it’s the Office of Fair Trading here in the UK.
One of the best things that I do within our business’s is give our associates specific products for free so they can decide which ones they actually like. Let them sell what they like.
.-= Extreme John´s amazing last blog ..11 Things You Probably Don’t Know About Me =-.
John, I think that is so important for Joint Venture partners and affiliates.
Giving them samples to test and trial gives them a much better and informed picture of what they are promoting.
I think digital marketers, such as those that write ebooks, can increase their affiliates understanding of the product by releasing one of the chapters or creating a walk-through guide without revealing the meaty chunks of content that they are selling.
It’s quite simple: how important is your relationship with your true friends? If you answered important then make sure you really believe in what you’re selling and that it does exactly what it says it will do with no exceptions. Period.
If, however, your relationship isn’t that great, don’t do a damn thing! Just walk away and never try to sell anything because that’s going to spread around and hurt you any way.
What do you think?
.-= Eric´s amazing last blog ..Lets Help Each Other =-.
I totally agree Eric.
Oh man, I’m happy I haven’t received such talks from friends. Or actually it could be quite interesting because then I could tell them about the true secret of wealth (that there is no secret).
As for affiliate marketing, if I would add some link anyway, I do check if there is an affiliate program available, but on the other hand, I do not link because there is affiliate program if I wouldn’t link normally, which is what I understood you meant with believing in the product. In the end, the number of products I actually promote and recommend is quite small and that works nicely.
If I talk about a book, it makes sense to link to Amazon (or where-ever it’s available for sale), just in case someone does want to buy it. As I would link to the book anyway, might as well use the affiliate link.
There are huge numbers of bloggers out there who refuse to make money by not adding affiliate links to products they’re talking about anyway. Heck, I’ve seen someone not link to their OWN product when talking about it and that’s just weird.
.-= Antti Kokkonen´s amazing last blog ..A Secret to Making Money Online =-.
Hi Antti,
I agree that if you are linking out to Amazon and that then that is fine, my concern is when people promote ‘money making’ products to any one who will listen just to try and earn a commission without first verifying the content of the product can actually help you make money. What’s worse is when they just through out a product at the expense of their relationship with their readers. Example, I read a ‘make money on Twitter’ report the other day and it was filled with the sort of marketing practices that will get you marked as a spammer for sure, but people are recommending it.
Thanks for dropping in,
Karl
Great article, I have friends that do this too me all the time, I usually tell them to buy my products then maybe I will buy theirs LOL
I don’t think it is bad to promote your products to friends and family, but a scam is a scam plain and simple.
Hey Keith,
I agree. If I would recommend a product to my family then I know it has to be of an exceptional value to my readers also.
Similarly, if I wouldn’t recommend a product to my closest friends then I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone else either.
Regards,
Karl