Forget E-Cigarettes

It takes a tough skin to thrive in this big bad world. Zach makes a good point. But you have to decide where to draw the line on promoting products.

I would guess that more than half (conservatively speaking) of the lucrative offers out there are for lame and bogus products and services: credit counseling, weight loss, internet markings, adsense templates, dog training, etc. You name the niche - and the majority of the products offered are ineffective or worse.

You are not trying to be Consumer Reports. Online promotion is in some very important ways, the same type of game as traditional broadcast media. E.g., create content to attract attention, then try to channel that attention to offers that make you money. Period. The only difference is the basis on which you get paid. You get paid for performance (CPA, affiliate sales) or visits (PPC).

You are just the means that the company making the offer is using. You are not the advertiser.

But don't forget to put up a good disclaimer on your site.

I hadn't even started yet. I don't want to invest a whole lot more time on a product that will disappear in a few weeks. I also don't want to count on getting paid from a company that may not be around or be able to pay me.

Im not trying to get you to stop, thats totally up to you.

I was pointing out that I had about 2 days work in already on this one and I should probably can it or change direction.

The FDA hasn't banned them yet, just warned against them and made most imports illegal. A couple states have or are in the process of banning them (including california). Even Amazon and Paypal refuse to do business on them. So there is some time left to make money but since it would take me time to ramp up, I'll invest that time somewhere else. Im looking for something a little more long term.

Been lurking here for quite a bit but need to get my two cents in on this one..


E-cigarettes is my biggest source of AM income right now. I also own two and just gave each of my parents one for christmas. They work awesome and are worth the initial expense. That's why they are such an easy sale. Plus I use an awesome e-cigarette affiliate company that I trust and has never let me down.

The whole FDA thing started with a politician (who has his hands in the pharmaceutical cookie jar) requesting the FDA take action. FDA's first response was to go against them because they might encourage teen use. A few complaints that this just wasn't a good enough reason to hold up and they had to move quick to start testing.

They tried to pass banning them in California, and the "Governator" shot them down and vetoed.

Tobacco companies don't want them because if e-cigs are available, why smoke regular cigarettes that contain 4000+ harmful chemicals including the FSC chemical in the paper that is making everyone sick? Pharmaceutical companies don't want them because it lowers a persons desire to seek expensive ways to quit smoking and use stop smoking aids? Both groups have lobbiest working to get e-cigs out of the country.

The "component of antifreeze" the FDA is using to spin their own campaign is diethylene glycol which actually isn't in antifreeze, its in coolant, but is also found in toothpaste, mouthwash, and cough syrup among many other everyday consumer products. Its just an ingredient with a big shiny scary name. But it is toxic just not on the level the FDA wants to talk about. It is one-tenth the toxicity of regular aspirin.

Personally, I'm not going to sit around and wait for the FDA to make up their minds. Regardless of what happens, they aren't going to be able to shut it all down overnight because the FDA has too many holes in their current findings. It's not secret to anyone they aren't trying to find out if their safe for consumer use, they are trying to find ways to prove they aren't.

Maybe I only have till summer, maybe next year, but I consider myself to be just an affiliate marketing beginner and am only using article marketing to bring in sales with these yet the money I make each month for just promoting e-cigarettes a few hours a week is almost as much as I make for my full time day job.

I'm sticking with it. I'm a huge fan of e-cigarettes and know personally they are a solid, worthwhile product to sale. At the rate I'm at, I'll either be making twice as much or possibly more as I do at my full-time day job by summer. Which will just continue from there for years to come, or eventually they will get shut down and I'll have the experience to do a full article marketing campaign for a single product that brings in thousands monthly with a seriously part-time effort.

Win-Win and for now it's paying down my debt and will be put towards a downpayment on a house soon..

I wouldn't jump ship on the idea of selling e-cigarettes.. Stop reading the propaganda (oh my a US government affiliated company using propaganda!!!) and start reading the counter opinions presented by lawyers, doctors, and those who have truly researched the actual effects, pros, and cons and not just what those with big pockets and even bigger opinions want you to think.