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Do you know what you are Recommending?

Guest post by: Andrew Rondeau

Article Overview: It’s no secret I make money by recommending and selling other peoples products as an affiliate. I try to be as open as possible about that fact and I actually have an “Affiliate Disclosure” page. But I do have one strict rule. I only recommend products I have tried out and gained something from, myself. Not too long ago I received an email from someone who invited me to partake in a joint venture for a product that was converting at 12.5%.

Do you know what you are Recommending?

It's no secret I make money by recommending and selling other peoples products as an affiliate. I try to be as open as possible about that fact and I actually have an "Affiliate Disclosure" page.

But I do have one strict rule. I only recommend products I have tried out and gained something from, myself.

Not too long ago I received an email from someone who invited me to partake in a joint venture for a product that was converting at 12.5%.

The email went on to say:

"Finding the right offers to promote can be tough, since most of the stuff out there is junk. That is not the case with my product."

All you have to do is copy and past the profesionally written promo (wich is written to sound like it is foming from you), and send it out to your list."

(I left the spelling mistakes in, so you could see!)

The email was all fairly standard stuff but I was intrigued by the 12.5% conversion rate. That rate is very, very high. 3% is thought to be a great conversion rate.

So I had nothing to lose. I wrote back and explained I don't recommend anything unless I've seen, used and benefited from the product.

The owner kindly gave me the link to download the product, which I did.

How do I say this without being blunt...oh I can't:

IT WAS ABSOLUTE GARBAGE

There were a few bonuses but the main product was a PDF report.

There was no intro. There was no information about the owner. There was no structure to what I was reading.

50% of the report was recommending I purchase even more tools using his affiliate link!

Obviously I will not be recommending the product.

But some blog / website owners would. They would be taken in by the 12.5% conversion. They would think that's an easy way to make a blog income.

They would send out a promotion email to their list. They would blog about it. They would recommend it even though they haven't even seen the product.

And, yes, they would make some sales.

And some won't even open the product. You know the ones, buy everything and never do anything.

And some would use the product - perhaps even like the product.

But this is a poor product and, personally, if I purchased it, I would be asking for my money back.

The blog owner's reputation would be shot to shreds if they promoted such a product.

Many of their customers would never trust them again.

So if you are in the affiliate game and promote other peoples products, make sure you have used and benefited from the product first...otherwise you run the risk of your credibility going down the pan.

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Article Tags: blog income, blogging guide, make a blog



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