Affiliate Marketing Question

You answered your own question

Try before you buy. Use before you sell.

Some affiliate programs allow you to try the product first-hand for free, so long as you review/promote it on your blog.

To be honest, I don't buy each and every product I review, but I try to be as accurate as possible gathering information about the product across the web, trying to convey the general feeling towards the product.

Plus, I'm sure that there are many other marketers who do the same thing.

It is not possible to try all products especially when you are dealing with hundreds of items. But in some cases, there are other reviews that the manufacturers are the ones who are providing the products to the reviewers for free in return for fair reviews. My friend who is making a decent amount with his travel blog is being paid by hotels and restaurants to travel around the country and write reviews about their services. He has a very good life doing this..

I think SterlingWebb has it right. If you are honest with your customer, then you can't go wrong. It is better to write reviews of products you have tried. Some organizations give a free trial, such as Traffic Geyser, and then you can write a review.

Other times, you can just ask for a review copy. There are rules about that in WF, asking for reviews in a thread, but you can ask privately. What's the worst that could happen? If they say no, then you haven't lost anything.

Best wishes,

Ruth

If you want to write reviews, you'd better try the product yourself first.

But if you only want to promote it, you can find some statistics data about conversion rates and refund rate, you will know if the product is good by the data, choose the winners.

There is great leverage also in having used a good product. Most affiliate offers have good sales copy, but often there are insights they don't have space to convey. Those benefits will allow you to create an effective pre-sales copy that will improve your conversions.

I wouldn't buy anything from anybody who doesn't know the ins and outs of a product.

If you want to build loyal customers, always try it first. If you want a quick buck just sell it. Personally I like to make sure that I only offer products that have actually been worth it and my readership has come to know that i don't sell any old tat.

So it just boils down to your own personal values and whether it is important to you.

Hi,

For sure its far better to actually try a product first before promoting it.

But not every affiliate does this.

They use the sales page of that product to get some of the best
bits they can write about in their emails.

Many sales pages come with proof screen shots so what the affiliate
can do is then add that within their email message when they send it
out to their lists etc.

In a perfect world everyone would promote only products they've
bought themselves.

But we all know that this always isn't the case.

Hope this helps

Best Regards
Gavin

Hello,
Many of affiliate marketers gives review without using the product but if you are honest to your list and don't want to buy product for just giving a review so just check the other people reviews that what they feels about the product..

Hope this will help you.....

To give an honest review of a product, you'll want to try it out first. Otherwise how do you really know what you are promoting? If you are just reviewing without trying, then it's more about your own needs to earn money and not helping your readers solve their problems. And, the first time you make the mistake to recommend a dud, your readers will abandon you for a more credible blogger who actually has taken time to try out the product first to ensure it does what it says and delivers on the promise.

This is a good question. Personally I think it is always better to promote something you have purchased and tried yourself BUT it is unrealistic to buy every single affiliate product before promoting it.

For one thing they will bombard your email inbox with follow up emails and we all have better things to do than reading and deleting hundreds of emails all day long. Instead of buying everything, only buy what will help your own business and increase your know how and promote only those that work for you. Just because the gravity is high that doesn't guarantee the product's worth. Most people selling an affiliate product never buy them or know jack about their value nor care? They create high gravity if other fools buy from them?:rolleyes:

As for other affiliate products that you don't need yourself but look like something others might buy, check them and the seller out using the search engines to find blogs,videos and reviews and ignore those which only say how wonderful it is because that is someone selling it; often the one's I mentioned in the previous paragraph.

Look for reviews that also list the less good bits so the review looks balanced and impartial and rewrite what they say in your own words if you decide to promote it. This is how I sort the lame product scams from those that give value and do as they claim it can. Also some products are from well known marketers who have been successful for several years so what they sell as their own product should be worth buying or promoting, once you get the information as I mention here

Hope this helps you as this is how we do it. Don't forget to drive traffic to your review page and link to the squeeze sign up page before sending them to the product website.

Stephen & Jennifer.

The best thing to do is to ask the seller for a review copy. If they will not give you a review copy, then purchase it and review. If you are really strapped for money, then just go to the sales page and review what they have on there. Make a review off the sales page. Hope this helps.

I would say it depends on the product... However in order to make it work you should always think as a customer and think would make you buy it.

I would never promote something that i don't use. Also i would suggest you to promote a products where you make a monthly commission. If the product is good! They will stay using the product!

Another is writing a review! You donbt have do this in order to sell a product. Personally i use facebook to generate free leads. And i dont mean posting links everywhere like everybody else.

You can try it and review it.

Yeah i actually try it. This gives me a good way to pitch the offer to my newsletter subscribers. Wouldn't make sense to constantly promote a product that gets refunded often.

you answer your self in the question

I agree with most people here. Even if you know the product is good based on others recommendations and the company reputation, etc. In order to really market it effectively you need to have first hand experience with it.

At a minimum get a trial version if you can.

Lately I promote stuff that I can get an idea of how it works.
Stuff like: plugins, software that has a demonstration video.

Not only that they have better payouts, but also convert better and have way less refunds.

You should probably buy it before you promote it or ask the product creator for a review copy and tell them that if you like it, you will promote it for them.