The Fallacy of Affiliate Marketing

[drwhogoesthere]

When I first heard about affiliate marketing and other forms of making money on the internet I was quite impressed. New that the thing to do was learn as much as possible and then apply what I knew.

My first real attempt at making money online was via eBay. Over a period of 7 months I did quite well, however, there were a few problems. First was I was drop shipping. While not a bad way to get started, your profits are not as great as they could be as other people are always trying to undercut you. The second problem I found was fees. EBay fees chewed up what was left of my profits and I was doing a lot of work for very little.

My second attempt was a twofold approach: my own web page and eBay. I wrote my own eBook and recorded a motivational course. The plan was, sell the eBook on eBay, then through emails drag people over to my web page to buy the course. It was a great plan. Kind of.

To compete in the eBay eBook market I had to sell my book for $1. I also had to put the book on to a disk and post it. The disk and postage were over $1 each time I sent one away but that wasn’t a problem. I was happy to take a loss in return for sales of my course.

While I got plenty of sales on eBay, I got none of my course and for the next 7 months I went nowhere. You would think by now that enough was enough, but no. I refused to give in. I refused to give up my dreams. Giving up will never get you anywhere.

So I took some time and revised what I was doing. Why eBay was good it wasn’t good enough. I knew my whole problem was marketing and that I needed to learn more about how to market on the internet. That was when I bought my first course. It was good and taught me a lot. Then I bought my second and I was blown away. I then got my third, fourth and fifth.

By the time I got my fifth course I was pretty well ready. I shut down my web page and decided to start again with just affiliate marketing. I knew that to be to make money on line I had to be good and marketing, regardless of the product.

So for the last 5 months I have been applying all I know about affiliate marketing. I am slowly building my lists, but not yet had any sales. That’s not an issue as I am about to launch a big push in the next few weeks. Yet through this all, not matter what I read about marketing or what courses I took there has been something that people are not telling. A little secret the big boys were keeping to themselves.

All the people that promote affiliate marketing are willing to tell you how much they have made, how little they work and how you can do it too. Yet none have ever gotten to the real truth about the money they made. They tell us that affiliate marketing is the way to go but they don’t tell you about the benefits in selling your own product.

They want you to think that affiliate marketing is the way to go so that you will help promote them. They are hoping that you will be so over whelmed by greed you will just follow blindly along. However, if you notice that once you sign up for a course you will be constantly emailed by the course provider about how you can get their mates course or a new one they have just put out.

You have just joined their mailing list. They will promote under the guise of the next best thing or doing you a favour or even giving you a special deal. All you really are is another email to try and get money out of later. Now they and their mates will be able to use you for their own affiliate marketing needs and product promotions. They’re double dipping.

I am not angry about this, but I want to warn anybody that is going into affiliate marketing to be careful. Don’t put your trust in affiliate marketing alone. Yes it works but you can make so much more by copying what the big boys do. You need to promote your own course/product.

By some PLR material and sell it. Get the emails and then you can promote your products and any affiliate program you want to your list. This is a better way of making money. At least now you have two chances, not just one.

What’s my plan now? Simple, run my own web page, undertake my entire internet marketing strategies, sell my own products, build my list and double dip just like the big boys. I may even revisit eBay and get some more people from there.

It quite easy to see that this system works, and I am not one for bucking the system. And if I feel bad about this at all I’ll just requote my mantra, “Do I want to be right, or do I want to be rich?”

[Rod Cortez]

Trust me, there are plenty of the "big boys" that make a killing doing nothing but affiliate marketing. You can make money from one offer or from thousands so you can be extremely diversified. I don't see any fallacy here.

[scrofford]

I also think that creating your own product is a better way to go. Yes you can make money through affiliate marketing, but I think you can make more money by creating a product and selling it and having the leverage of affiliates to help build your business. Of course you can do both if you like! =)

[Slin]

Ah! Don't reveal my way of doing things! I just found this out this year too, after 1 year of affiliate marketing.

The best way to be an affiliate is to sell your own product and build a list.

All I can say man is, you got it down pat.

[drwhogoesthere]

Originally Posted by Razer Rage

I didn't read all of your post, sorry.

If people undercut you, just add more value to your own product. They can't compete with that by simply lowering the price. And if they do, so what? You'll end up making more money.

Yes I realise that now. At the start with no idea about what I was doing I did the normal reactive approach and tried to compete.

I may try eBay again. That is of course I can get access to my external hard drive. It cooked itself the other day and I can't get in. And to think I was planning on getting another this week to back up my information. Back up your information today.

[TimAtkinson]

Originally Posted by agentsully

I think the fallacy occurs when you dont build a list. I have a few lists in major markets, and i often mail them separate offers, its like doubling your income

Took the words right out of my mouth! Not only can you make millions off of well marketed affiliate products but you build a list that pays you forever...well until they opt out but you have so many campaigns going that your list is always building! Bottom line you if you aren't doing affiliate marketing your leaving easy lay down money on the table everyday. You need to learn how to be a master marketer my friend. Don't forget making your own products and affiliate marketing is like milk and honey.

[redicelander]

There's many more methods to make money online than using ebay. Of course you see that now. So take charge and good luck.

[Greg guitar]

I hope this doesn't hurt your feelings, but it's quite noticable that english is not your first language. I don't know if your salescopy reads like your post, but if so your language barrier is putting you at a real disadvantage.

You may be doing everything else better than the competition, but it's all about the words. If the competition have better language skills, you're lucky just to stay even. Hiring a ghostwriter or proofreader might just give you the edge. Good luck.

[Lawrh]

Fallacy, what fallacy?

Affiliate marketing = commission sales

This model has been around forever. The Internet simply provides another
avenue for promotion. Forget about blaming the model, concentrate on your
ability to reach people and persuade.

[TheBrainchildGroup]

Originally Posted by Lawrh

Fallacy, what fallacy?

Affiliate marketing = commission sales

This model has been around forever. The Internet simply provides another
avenue for promotion. Forget about blaming the model, concentrate on your
ability to reach people and persuade.

I totally agree. Affiliate marketing is synonymous with affiliate sales and such a platform is difficult to work under. I myself can't stand it.

To really do it right, you need to hookup direct accounts with wholesalers, which will allow you to offer lower pricing as long as MAP pricing isn't in place. Wholesale accounts typically offer 20-50% margins whereas affiliates programs are 5-10% at absolute best.

I hope this info helps.

-AS

[bennicolette]

Success and failure can occur very quickly in the affiliate marketing - here are some tips on how to survive the tough times. Thanks for your post.

[jasonmorgan]

I'm sorry but I have to disagree with most of what you said about affiliate marketing.

Affiliate marketing is easy and it really come down to one simple thing:

Rank on the first page of google for a product people are willing to buy and you will makes sales. It's as simple as that.

Of course, the devil is in the details and it can take a lot of hard work to reach that position but that is all anyone needs to do.

You don't need mailing lists, videos, articles or any of the other junk that people like to pitch. It's about hard work, patience and persistence.

I guarantee, if you are ranked #5 for funny t-shirts, you are going to sell funny t-shirts.

[WealthWithin]

Originally Posted by Rod Cortez

Trust me, there are plenty of the "big boys" that make a killing doing nothing but affiliate marketing. You can make money from one offer or from thousands so you can be extremely diversified. I don't see any fallacy here.

Can you please name few of those 'big boys', who does it big - without their own product?

I'd like to study them.

[jasonmorgan]

Can you please name few of those 'big boys', who does it big - without their own product?

This guy is on page 1 for 'ipod accessories' and it's an ebay affiliate. I'm sure he is doing OK.

Just google viagra or porn or any other very popular item that can be bought. You'll find endless examples of people selling other peoples stuff.

[JayXtreme]

I have to laugh at some of the opinions stated on this board sometimes...

Because it didn't work for you, it doesn't work?... isn't it?...

I'll keep hogging affiliate commissions

Peace

Jay

[jasonmorgan]

I'll keep hogging affiliate commissions

I agree.

It's the gift that keeps on giving.

[Agoge Warrior]

Personally, I am just starting out in this whole affiliate deal and I've read most of the opinions in this thread.
I am of the opinion that if you work hard enough, study the basic concepts of affiliate marketing, whether you are just selling as an affiliate of someone else's product, or selling a product of your own.......You will make lots of money and great profits......
You just need to find out based on trial and error, most of the time more error with disappointing results, but eventually you will find the way that works.

The original poster might be better at selling his own product versus selling someone else's. And another poster might be fabulous at affiliate marketing.

If you work hard enough, I think you can be successful with either endeavor!

Even though I'm just starting out and haven't seen my own efforts rewarded yet but I sure am going to give it a go whichever direction I choose.

[clint48]

Originally Posted by WealthWithin

Can you please name few of those 'big boys', who does it big - without their own product?

I'd like to study them.

You might check out Mark Ling, I think he does mostly affiliate marketing.

Clint

[drwhogoesthere]

Originally Posted by Greg guitar

I hope this doesn't hurt your feelings, but it's quite noticable that english is not your first language. I don't know if your salescopy reads like your post, but if so your language barrier is putting you at a real disadvantage.

While English is my first and only language, would you believe I am also a teacher? True. I know I need improving but most of the time I write to get ideas out that spelling and grammar become unimportant to me.
But I will check to see that I don’t make silly mistakes in my copy again.
Oh and it is very hard to offend me.

[Brad Spencer]

With all due respect to everyone on this thread...

One of the biggest fallacies of being a "newbie" is that things appear so far away. Really they aren't.

Money or time...or both are all that's required to build a nice business online.

Find a need, be the best offer (whether on what you give or how much it costs), and then find all the people who want that...

It's not that hard.

As far as ebay goes...I can say I haven't had much success with it...however it's one of the biggest data sources around on what is selling... (no tire kickers).

Also, for all the people on here who don't actually make money...let me ask you one question...

What are you selling?

If nothing, that's your reason for not making money...

Best wishes,

Brad