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by lotsofsnow
9 replies
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#actual #mail #product
  • Profile picture of the author tmitsoff
    Great advice. Thanks!
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  • Profile picture of the author WillR
    I often have affiliates asking me for free review copies of my product. I tell them that unless they are willing to invest the same amount of money into my product as they are expecting the people on their list to, they shouldn't be promoting it and how could they.

    You can't honestly evaluate the worth of a product without investing the same time and money a regular customer has to.
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    • Profile picture of the author lotsofsnow
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      • Profile picture of the author WillR
        Originally Posted by hpgoodboy View Post

        I have to disagree. I used to publish a high end watch magazine. The watches I wrote about were $10k, $20k and way more a piece.

        The watch manufacturers were more than happy to send us their watches for review purposes or to do a photo shoot. I also never had a problem getting high end cars for doing test drives. For example I got an Aston Martin for a weekend (well, I gave it to one of my writer to do a nice story on it).

        I do understand that you do not like go give out "review copies" but real review copies for real publishers should never be a problem.

        And if you expect to get WSO of the day you are out of luck if you do not allow Michael Lantz review access:
        "In order for us to consider your product for the WSO of the Day, we need to be able to access and review it. If any login info, passwords, etc.. are required, enter it here."
        I'm not talking about cars or watches here... obviously people can't go and buy those types of things to review them. I'm talking about IM products... more specifically WSO's.

        If an affiliate isn't willing to pay $10 to purchase a product they are going to promote to their list then how serious were they about promoting it anyway. If I approach you and offer review access, that's a different story. But when people I don't know contact me expecting to get a free review copy when in most cases even if you grant them that access, they rarely send you any sales at all. A lot of them ask for that free access because they are not confident their promotions will even be enough to cover the expense of them buying the WSO.

        I choose my promotions carefully and so I know I can easily make a few thousand dollars everytime I promote something. For that reason I have no trouble buying the product and going through it exactly as my customer would. After all, the delivery method, the OTO's you are presented on signup, they all play a part in whether or not I am going to recommend that product to a customer. How can you possibly know about all of that stuff if you haven't been through the process yourself?

        There have been several products in the past I was interested in promoting but then decided not to when I went through their purchase process and saw a bunch of unrelated OTO's, messy registration processes or the like. It's not JUST about the product. It's about the buying experience as a hole.

        If I am given free review access to a product then I have a much smaller value expectation from that product since I have not had to invest any money in it. So I might be happy with the information presented. Had I paid $27 for that same product though all of sudden my value expectation is much higher. I need that information to be worth more than $27 to me. The person who paid nothing though only needs that information to be worth something for them to feel like they got value.

        There's a big difference and this is why a lot of marketers are happy to promote products every other day of the week because they have not had to invest any money in them. If they had to actually pay the money they are wanting their subscribers to though, would they be recommending so many products? In most cases, I don't think so.

        One of the comments I see affiliates make in WSO threads all the time is...

        "$27? Are you kidding me?! I would have happily paid $197 for this information!"

        When in reality those affiliates were not even willing to pay the $27 for the product because they got free review access instead. It makes me laugh. The irony of it...
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        • Profile picture of the author ExRat
          Hi hpgoodboy,

          So in a nutshell, what you're saying is -

          "look at the products you promote before promoting them, otherwise it's unlikely that you will find an original/powerful angle to use in your marketing."

          Not much to discuss in this thread then, except -

          Today I got an email from one of my top affiliates. He happily told me that he mailed for me.

          I realized that I did not send him the download link so that he could take a look at the product. He replied:
          "I have no problem promoting your stuff without seeing it "
          That is great and sales actually are pouring in as a result of his mailing and I am happy about that and thankful.
          Doesn't that contradict everything else that you said?
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          Roger Davis
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          • Profile picture of the author lotsofsnow
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            • Profile picture of the author WillR
              Originally Posted by hpgoodboy View Post

              Yes, one product costs $10 or $20 but if you have very high standards you might have to buy 5 or 7 products before you have a winner. With winner I mean a product that is good enough to recommend.
              Isn't that why we pay taxes though? They are known as expenses and they are offset against the income you earn. They are a cost of doing business just like your internet connection and your autoresponder service. If people aren't willing to invest in their business then they are probably in the wrong business to start with.

              I would happily buy 7 x $10 products to find the one product that is going to make me $2000 - $5000 when I promote it. It's like saying you don't want to pay for traffic because it's too expensive. If the money you make from that traffic is bigger than the money you have outlayed on that traffic then it makes perfect sense to buy that traffic.

              Anyway, I guess it depends how transparent a marketer wants to be with their list. If they haven't been through the same purchase process and haven't invested the same amount of money as they are expecting their subscribers to, then I don't think they are being very transparent at all -- unless they make it clear in their review they were given free access and did not invest a cent in that product. Although a marketer who isn't willing to promote something unless they get a free copy of it is already telling us a lot about how valuable they think that product really is -- right?
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              • Profile picture of the author lotsofsnow
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                • Profile picture of the author davidjames42973
                  I always check out a product before I promote it. The reason why is because I only want to promote products that I feel are right for my list. Also if I can find some sort of bonus that I can add to the product that I believe would compliment it then I will. If the product is solid and something that I believe could help my list then I'll promote it.

                  If I know the product creator I'll ask them for a review copy. If I don't know them I'll buy it instead.

                  If the product I'm promoting is a software product I usually create a video on using the product out of the box without reading instructions. If I get stuck on something I then read the instructions and show them what I ran into and how to get past it.

                  By using these techniques I've been able to get on JV leaderboards without having a big list.
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        • Profile picture of the author emini_guy
          Originally Posted by WillR View Post

          One of the comments I see affiliates make in WSO threads all the time is...

          "$27? Are you kidding me?! I would have happily paid $197 for this information!"

          When in reality those affiliates were not even willing to pay the $27 for the product because they got free review access instead. It makes me laugh. The irony of it...
          Good point!
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  • Profile picture of the author WriterWahm
    Great advice, thanks! I usually prefer to go through a product and do a review of it before I mail out. Sometimes I buy the product but I also get review copies. Like someone pointed out, I have a relationship with my readers and it's one I value. I have a good idea what they need and I'll usually only promote relevant stuff to them.
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