For me, ethics are everything. If I can’t be honest, I just won’t do it.
On the surface, this would put me at a huge disadvantage for affiliate marketing because so many people are so dishonest about it. Every sales letter gives an absolute best case scenario. Even with disclaimers that make it pretty clear you have to be a top 1% person to get these results, people advertise unrealistic expectations anyway.
In a way, it plays to the ego. Everybody likes to think of themselves as a top 1% person when it comes to getting things done. Everybody likes to think they’re smarter than everybody else. Or at least that they are in that 1%.
In reality, it’s a bit more complicated than that. You have to learn the right techniques and you have to be consistent in applying them. Because so much advertising is based on creating impulse purchases, we tend to view all marketing as a sprint when in reality, it should be a marathon.
For me, the process is simple: learn the right techniques, apply them consistently, keep getting better everyday, and don’t give up.
The Basics of Ethical Affiliate Marketing.
Here are the principles I follow when I Market anything. They mean everything to me. I do have to preface this by saying that I don’t see too many perfect offers out there.
The most ethical marketers I’ve seen are the people from MAP. Their favorite disclaimer is to remind us that we are all adults, that our results will be a combination of our own effort, our own ability, and sometimes luck.
Anyway, here are those basics.
Don’t Promote Garbage Products
The best thing I have to say here is that you should never promote bad products. It is easier to just say don’t promote anything you wouldn’t buy, but I have bought a lot of bad products over the years.
Most low-end products are promoted blindly. they don’t really tell you what’s inside. This is understandable because nobody wants to give away what they see as their proprietary information. However, the dirty little secret about the industry is that refund rates on digital products are somewhere around 20%.
Sadly, even one refund will put you on some vendors’ blacklists. Some of these people churn out a product every week. it seems to me that a majority of them will Blacklist you for two refunds. Apparently, they think two refunds is enough to qualify you as a serial refunder. At its best, it is a cynical way to do business. At its worst, it is a scam using a time-honored technique of blaming the victim.
How do you tell when a product is garbage?
The best way to tell when a product is garbage is to actually use it. For most affiliates, that means having to buy it first. There are ways to get to be beta testers, but they usually involve a lot of networking and begging.
I am fortunate in that I have review access to every product created by my mentor, James Fawcett. Luckily, James’s products are packed with information and solid techniques. He will tell you how to find shortcuts, but he also teaches that you have to do the work. He won’t try to sell you a magic button because there isn’t one.
Anyway, I made a video tour of one of James’ entry level products here.
So what is my point here? Certain vendors conduct themselves with integrity. Some don’t. Most front end products cost $17. I would suggest buying a few from various vendors to see who is putting out garbage and who is putting out solid products.
Don’t make exaggerated claims.
If you have an email list or a Blog or a YouTube channel or any social media account and every single thing you write or post about says they’re going to make $10,000 by this time tomorrow, you’re flat-out lying.
Worse yet, people are not stupid. Are they impulsive? Of course they are. How many products have you bought on impulse? There’s a reason supermarkets always have the candy bars, potato chips,carbonated beverages, and pop magazines right by the checkout aisle. Impulse advertising works. But you can do that ethically.
It is really difficult to be ethical because your competition probably won’t be. If you are only in this for the short term, it can seem like your ethics are a detriment. But being ethical is its own reward. And eventually, your community, whether it is a Facebook group, a YouTube channel, or an email list, will grow to trust you. They will know that you aren’t going to lie to them just to get them to spend money.
The last thing I will say about making exaggerated claims is that you can get in trouble with the law. If you guarantee that somebody is going to make money or lose weight or cure an illness, you are going to eventually have a government agency breathing down your neck. And once that happens, you might as well find something else to do as a business because they will hound you forever.
Don’t sell big ticket items unless you buy big ticket items.
I have bought four big ticket programs in the last 5 years. I bought two of them this year. I have links to both of them all over this website. Both of them are worth every penny I paid. But why am I recommending that you do the same?
First of all, if you haven’t experienced the level of coaching you get when you pay at least $500 and usually closer to $1,000 or $2,000, you simply aren’t qualified to talk about it. You may think you are a great writer and can overcome the fact that you haven’t experienced a product by using pure writing talent, but trust me: you can’t.
There is a subtle difference, but it comes through. Readers might not even realize on a conscious level that you haven’t actually bought this product, but deep down they know it. And when it comes to the decision to buy, there are a thousand exit points.
The fact that you don’t have the same depth or substance of communication as someone who has experienced the product is often the deciding factor in whether or not someone buys it or doesn’t buy it.
Plain and simple: if you’re not big ticket, don’t try to sell big ticket.
It all comes down to trust.
I’m not going to expound on the KLT factor that everybody has written about for the last 10 years. This is an abbreviation for know, like, and trust. You can find plenty of articles about it online.
I am talking purely about the trust Factor right now. Why would I trust someone if they recommended a crappy product to me? Why would I trust someone who told me I could make $10,000 overnight when I didn’t make a penny from that product?
Why would I buy a big ticket item from someone who is either too cheap or too afraid to buy a big ticket item?
There is a lot of competition online right now, especially in the Make Money Online vertical. It can seem like everybody is waving stacks of money at you in videos. Everybody is making promises they can’t keep.
People always try to teach you to find your own unique voice. Sadly, in this era, being ethical and honest is one of the most unique voices in affiliate marketing.
Just tell people the truth. Even if you think they don’t want to hear it. Ultimately, any kind of sales comes down to one of my favorite old sayings: “some will, some won’t, so what, next.”
I don’t know about you, but if affiliate marketing is going to be a numbers game anyway, I would prefer to do it honestly and ethically. You may lose a few extra bucks along the way, especially in the beginning, but you will sleep a lot better at night. And you will do better in the long term, even if it doesn’t seem like that right now.
To Your Success,
Steve T