I mentioned in the previous article ‘Why Affiliate Marketing‘ that as an affiliate marketer, ‘it does not require that you ‘provide’ or ‘perform’ any particular service for anyone’.
Well, this is not entirely correct.
Now to clarify, if you are simply using a ‘Pay-Per-Click’ (PPC) affiliate strategy, which is very doable, then this statement may not apply to you.
But, if you are engaging in a ‘review-model’ affiliate strategy with your blog or website, you are in essence providing a ‘service’ that involves in depth reviews of certain products and services, and your visitors may grow to trust what you have to say, and if you mislead them, your reputation can get soiled very quickly.
You see, as a Review Affiliate Marketer, you are providing a valuable service to many people that you may never meet, and in doing so, you are naturally developing a reputation and creating a Bond Of Trust with your visitors.
In this ‘review-affiliate-model’ it is critical that you present and promote products and services that you would absolutely spend your own money on and use yourself.
It is not recommended that you promote a product simply because it has a high-affiliate-referral-benefit to YOU.
If you focus on the ‘affiliate-referral-benefit’ to YOU, as opposed to the quality of the product or the value of the service it may bring to your visitor, you may discover that your affiliate marketing venture may be short lived.
There are websites and forums, such as slashdot, quora, digg, and reddit, just to name a few, that can destroy a reputation overnight.
By the same token, these same sites can ignite your reputation and your popularity in a very positive way just as quickly.
It’s just not worth it to mislead people with a false review to simply earn a few extra affiliate percentage points.
When writing a review of a product or a service, take the time to do the deep research as though you were going to purchase the product or service for yourself.
Better still, do the research as though you were going to review the product or service for your family or close friends, in this way, you would have to bear the praise or the wrath of those close to you, and in turn, you would be most likely to make your review most sincere.
When you are engaging in affiliate marketing, YOU are trying to persuade someone to purchase a particular product or service by promoting the benefits of a particular product or service.
However, there is a significant difference in ‘HOW’ you go about promoting a particular product or service when you are engaged in affiliate marketing.
As an Affiliate Marketer, your promotional tactic is much more subtle than direct.
As an Affiliate Marketer, you need to be clever in developing your skills to persuade and to be low-key in your effort to promote.
In other words, you do not want to come across as salesy or pushy with your content, as this may come across as too aggressive and superficial, making your online visitors feel uncomfortable and click away, never to return to your site.
It is best to have more of an open, warm, demonstrative and conversational tone to your review, and focus on being helpful with zero expectations towards your visitors.
It is strongly advised (though not required) for you to ONLY promote products and services that you have had personal experience with.
In this way, your testimony on how wonderful a product or a service actually is, can be genuine and will come across as authentic.
Since the majority of affiliate marketing is done online, this authenticity is critical to your success as an Affiliate Marketer.
If you have never used the product or service yourself, at the very least, make certain you thoroughly do your research and present your best assessment in your review, including the PROS and the CONS.
As a Review Affiliate Marketer of a product or a service, you are essentially putting your NAME, your BLOG, your WEBSITE, your REPUTATION, on the line for whatever product or service that you are promoting.
If a product or service does not live up to YOUR VISITORS EXPECTATIONS… you can expect your reputation to be toast, if not right away, then surely very soon.
So, take caution, and make certain that you are promoting products that you do actually believe in, if you do not, your attempt as an Affiliate Marketer may never take off.