How to respond to affiliates asking for free copies?

[Gordon_Gekko]

I received this email from someone I don't know with a random Gmail address:

"Recently, i have just founded out your product. I am interested to promote your product. However, I have not read your book before. May I request to have a book review from you? Hoping that I can promote your product better with the help of your review. Thanks alot!"

How would you respond to this request?

Thanks very much!

[rlharding]

I would send the person a book review, not a book to review.

[KimW]

I would say "My policy is that if I ask someone to promote for me,then I will offer a review copy,but if somone wants to be an affiliate and therefore make money of my work,then I am willing to sell you a copy at a discount."

[Gordon_Gekko]

Originally Posted by rlharding

I would send the person a book review, not a book to review.

Good suggestion! I just did that and will see how the person responds. Thanks very much!

[Gordon_Gekko]

Originally Posted by KimW

I would say "My policy is that if I ask someone to promote for me,then I will offer a review copy,but if somone wants to be an affiliate and therefore make money of my work,then I am willing to sell you a copy at a discount."

Do people react okay when you tell them that policy? I don't want to piss off potential affiliates. (On the other hand, I don't want to be a chump either.)

[ozduc]

The first thing I would do in such a case is to find out who they are.
Why are they interested in promoting my product.
How they will go about promoting.
Do they have a list of people in that niche. If so how big.
Have they made any affiliate sales in that niche with other products.
You never know this person could turn out to be a great asset or just someone looking for a freebie.

[KimW]

Originally Posted by Gordon_Gekko

Do people react okay when you tell them that policy? I don't want to piss off potential affiliates. (On the other hand, I don't want to be a chump either.)

Do you have faith in your product?
Do people react ok? Those that are sincerely interested and see value in a product should, and those that are looking for a free copy will usually just forget about it.

[CanEh!]

Just let them have a review copy, you never know they maybe your biggest money maker.

[TheJedi]

Originally Posted by CanEh!

Just let them have a review copy, you never know they maybe your biggest money maker.

Or he could be planning on distributing it on a torrent site. I think I would just offer him a discounted price. If he's a good affiliate marketer, he should make his money back fairly easily.

[Home Easy Earn]

You could ask to see their landing page that they have created first and then let them have an edited copy of the ebook so they do not get the whole product. On the other hand if your product is selling well and has your site links throughout the book, if they do host it on a download site you may get much more exposure than you may have expected.

[garyfromdurham]

I would offer him a review copy after he provided me with proof of other profitable affiliate campaigns he has done.

I would ask for a plan of how he was going to promote the book, the size of his mailing list and shown me a site he was going to promote the book from.

If he is a time waster he won't reply but if he is is a genuinely good affilate who could make you a lot of money he will be more than happy to provide this information.

Gary

PS. I was typing this as Gaz - above - posted his reply. Great minds think alike

[All Night Cafe]

Let them review a copy. Chances are they want do anything with it.

But who knows. They may take it and run a great deal of
sales for you.

You'll only get 2 or 3 asking.

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by Gordon_Gekko

I received this email from someone I don't know with a random Gmail address:

"Recently, i have just founded out your product. I am interested to promote your product. However, I have not read your book before. May I request to have a book review from you? Hoping that I can promote your product better with the help of your review. Thanks alot!"

How would you respond to this request?

I would ask them the stuff they ought already to have specified in their email to you but didn't:-

- what's their previous experience?

- what are their domain-names/websites?

- what lists do they already have?

- what's their interest in your niche?

- how are they proposing to market the product if they like it?

If they have proper answers to these basic questions, then I'd send them a review copy, for sure.

[Gordon_Gekko]

Thank you everyone for your extremely helpful advice!

[Pat Jackson]

Originally Posted by CanEh!

Just let them have a review copy, you never know they maybe your biggest money maker.

This for sure.

Take the potential scenarios;

1. You say yes.
- The person was a legitimate affiliate and they go on to make you a few sales or a lot of sales.
- The person was a scammer got a copy for free, but you didn't lose any money.

2. You say no.
- The person was a scammer and they didn't get your product.
- The person was a legitimate affiliate and decided you weren't worth their time so they went on to make one of your competitors a lot of money.

I can't understand why anyone would say no. So what if a few people scam you? You don't lose any money from giving away a free copy. You could, however, lose a fair chunk of money by turning down someone that could have gone on to be one of your best affiliates.

I always ask for a review copy of a product before I promote it. If they don't give me one I don't promote their product.

If a vendor is not willing to comply with a small request like that it makes me wonder how difficult they are going to be down the track when something else comes up. For every vendor that's not willing to give up a review copy there are plenty who are.

I prefer to just be an affiliate for the moment, but when I do inevitably become a vendor I'll treat my affiliates like gold.

If you can find 10-15 solid affiliates and treat them well, you could make a huge amount of money without having to do any marketing yourself.

[bretski]

I have yet to have one vendor even respond to my request for a copy of a product that I was even already promoting.... successfully! I always include the url for my websites, aff id and marketing "plan" (ie. blog and article marketing usually)

I guess they figure that they're making enough money off of my efforts.

I have had a few vendors approach me recently and give me a copy of their product. I will tell you that those are the vendors that I will work for. Those are the vendors that I focus upon if their product converts. Even if it doesn't convert great I will still put forth an honest effort to promote their product.

The ones that are stingy? I can just change the redirect to another similar product of someone that DOES want to work with me.

[duncanb]

I would want to hear more about them at least.
I would want a profile of the person.

That person may want to promote you product

BUT

Do you want them to promote your product?

[Kim Standerline]

It sounds as though you are doing it exactly right!!

Originally Posted by bretski

I have yet to have one vendor even respond to my request for a copy of a product that I was even already promoting.... successfully! I always include the url for my websites, aff id and marketing "plan" (ie. blog and article marketing usually)

I guess they figure that they're making enough money off of my efforts.

I have had a few vendors approach me recently and give me a copy of their product. I will tell you that those are the vendors that I will work for. Those are the vendors that I focus upon if their product converts. Even if it doesn't convert great I will still put forth an honest effort to promote their product.

The ones that are stingy? I can just change the redirect to another similar product of someone that DOES want to work with me.

[Scott Ames]

Originally Posted by Gordon_Gekko

I received this email from someone I don't know with a random Gmail address:

"Recently, i have just founded out your product. I am interested to promote your product. However, I have not read your book before. May I request to have a book review from you? Hoping that I can promote your product better with the help of your review. Thanks alot!"

How would you respond to this request?

Thanks very much!

Me founded out you does sell book too. Me likey to have copy.

[bretski]

The funny thing is that I've even emailed vendors that had their download pages indexed and given them a heads up that they have a big problem...I did have one vendor give me a free subscription to his course for that one It's kind of difficult to promote a product that the download page is basically found on page one of Google!

[Dennis Gaskill]

Originally Posted by KimW

I would say "My policy is that if I ask someone to promote for me,then I will offer a review copy,but if somone wants to be an affiliate and therefore make money of my work,then I am willing to sell you a copy at a discount."

I like that answer for this particular inquiry. Look, if you have to ask who the person is, how they plan on promoting your ebook, and other questions like that, then the person is either a complete newbie or s/he isn't legit.

Anyone that's halfway professional about it will identify themselves, identify any relevant websites they own, and would give some indication of their experience, audience size, and how/if they plan to promote the product. I think this particular inquiry is just someone trying to scam a freebie. Personal opinion, but opinion based on experience.

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by bretski

The funny thing is that I've even emailed vendors that had their download pages indexed and given them a heads up that they have a big problem...I did have one vendor give me a free subscription to his course for that one It's kind of difficult to promote a product that the download page is basically found on page one of Google!

I was involved in a very similar conversation in another thread a few weeks ago in which a Warrior had had a significant amount of traffic to a hoplink for a product without a sale. Trying to find the sales page myself, to see whether anything was grossly wrong with it, I put the product's name into google, didn't find the sales page but found the download page. I suspect this sort of thing may be a little more common than many people realise.

[Scott Ames]

Originally Posted by bretski

The funny thing is that I've even emailed vendors that had their download pages indexed and given them a heads up that they have a big problem...I did have one vendor give me a free subscription to his course for that one It's kind of difficult to promote a product that the download page is basically found on page one of Google!

I've done much the same. One guy was advertising via Adwords and his link was toast. I told him and he offered a free product. That was super nice of him. He never did follow through however even with a reminder and and "Oh yeah! Sorry.. I will get that to you"..

[deertrail]

I would encourage you to have an abundance mentality on this one and just send a review copy.

I've promoted CB products as an affiliate for years, and I almost always ask vendors for a review copy before I promote. In almost all cases, the vendor is happy to comply because he wants me to promote for him.

I almost always work strictly with vendors that are already proven winners on CB.

Think there's a connection between the fact that they give out review copies without hesitation and are successful?

In my experience, it's the small time vendors that obsess about this kind of stuff.

[TylerF]

Ask them to provide their results of past promotions of other products.

Most will just be freebie seekers, and will back away when you request info like that.
On the other hand, you might be able to find real super affiliates like that.

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by TylerF

On the other hand, you might be able to find real super affiliates like that.

Not this time, though, I think: "Recently, i have just founded out your product. I am interested to promote your product. However, I have not read your book before. May I request to have a book review from you? Hoping that I can promote your product better with the help of your review. Thanks alot!" are not the words of a super-affiliate, by any stretch of the imagination.

Actually, now I look at it again, it's not even clear that he's asking for a review copy, is it?

He might just want a "review" of the product that he can use as an affiliate?

[mghowell]

LOL Thought I was the only one with people asking for free copies of my work in broken English.

[Jill Carpenter]

I would ask their intentions on a campaign.

Ask if they have a website you can review, or if they have articles in a directory so you can check out their past experience.

If they have a web presence, you are probably safe.