The Dark Side of Affiliate Marketing

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4.1K followers

One thing you’ll notice once you really get into affiliate marketing and start researching various Make Money Online (MMO) opportunities is this:

It’s very difficult to find a genuine review of anything.

Any money-making guide/course/software/opportunity with an affiliate program attached to it, will have loads of affiliates writing reviews for it. And because these affiliates want to earn commissions, these reviews will almost always be positive.

This is why beginners get sucked into them. It’s not because these beginners are flawed human beings. It’s just because all the information they read points them in that direction. They hear about a new money making method that sounds like the answer to all their problems, and when they search for information on it, the first few pages of Google are all full of positive reviews.

Any product with an affiliate program attached is likely to end up like this.

This is even true for ClickBank products that are not in the MMO niche. Okay, so you’re thinking of making money in the diet niche, but you want to know which is the best ClickBank diet product to promote. You take a look at the one with the highest gravity rating, which is a good place to start.

But gravity just means lots of affiliates have sold it. It doesn’t necessarily prove it’s a good product. So you search Google for reviews so you can try to find out if it’s actually a good quality product worth promoting, but Google is crammed full of positive reviews precisely because there are lots of affiliates promoting it.

So how can you trust any reviews for products that have affiliate programs attached to them?

The truth is, you can’t. Until you find a trustworthy authority website in your niche that only writes totally honest reviews of products, you can’t really believe anything you read in any reviews you randomly find in Google.

But please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying all products with affiliate programs are bad. Some are good. What I’m saying is that you will really struggle to find unbiased information on them to help you decide which are the good ones.

It means the only way to know for sure whether something is any good is to try it yourself.

This is why many people who try a particular money making opportunity have already fallen prey to lots of other opportunities that failed to deliver on their promises. This is not a flaw in the character of the people who fell victim to them. They are not idiots. They are just going where all the signs point them.

In fact, if you have not fallen victim to bad MMO opportunities in the past, you’re one of the rare ones. You’ve been very lucky.

It’s like if you were driving your car trying to find your way somewhere, but most of the signs are pointing the wrong way. Imagine if you were trying to drive to London but most of the signs saying “London” actually sent you to Manchester. It’s not your fault, you were only going where all the signs told you to go.

(If you live in America, replace London with New York and Manchester with...I don’t know, anywhere; all the cities are far away from each other in America.)

When it comes to physical products…

...the need for genuine reviews on individual websites is not so critical. Since Amazon has almost every physical product you could possibly need to buy, except maybe a house or a car, you can just go straight to Amazon and look at the real customer reviews.

This is why if you are writing reviews for physical products that are on Amazon, you need to go the extra mile somehow. You need to provide an extra level of insight and expertise that potential customers won’t get just by looking at customer reviews on Amazon.

Personally, I buy nearly everything online, but I hardly ever look at review sites.

I nearly always go to Amazon to read the real customer reviews, then I head over to eBay to buy it there. Yes, I know, it ruins the whole system. And if I’ve ever bought a ClickBank product, I’ve always bought it through my own affiliate link because, well, you can. I’m an affiliate marketer’s worst nightmare.

Sometimes I look at YouTube video reviews, though. But they need to be REAL reviews where it’s an actual expert demonstrating the product in front of the camera.

But coming back to the Make Money Online niche, there is something you need to realise.

There are a significant number of people out there who make a lot of money by selling MMO opportunities to people.

For the product owners, this means enticing people in with a cheap front end product, then having a huge upsell funnel that tries to sell them increasingly more expensive products once they have bought the cheap front end product. Almost every successful MMO product launch does this.

The product owners and affiliates that make money from these upsells will tell you it’s just like a fast food place asking you if you want fries with your burger, but that’s not really a fair analogy.

A more accurate analogy would be if the burger was the size of a tiny coin, and to get a normal size burger you have to pay $100 extra, then to get fries with it you have to pay a further $500, then if you want a drink with it you have to sign up for a monthly membership.

For the affiliates, it means either blasting out to a huge email list of people who are known to be particularly susceptible to these tactics, or it means making sure you get your glowingly positive review on page 1 of Google for a product you know is going to get lots of searches once it launches.

So if someone tells you that it’s not possible to earn a lot of money quickly online, they are lying.

It is. It just means it’s not a suitable path for those with a conscience. It means that the most effective ways of earning lots of money quickly online involve getting other people to fall prey to the very things you’ve been trying to avoid yourself while searching for the best way to make money online.

And while we’re here, let’s get another thing straight. The experts who claim to show you how to build a successful business online, will have got most of their online success from showing others how to get successful. So even if the methods they teach you are genuine and effective, just be aware that they spend most of their time and earn most of their money from showing others how to get successful with their methods, rather than using those methods themselves.

An example of this is the sales video for Google Sniper, where George Brown shows us the earnings in his ClickBank account. But what George doesn’t tell you is those earnings are from selling Google Sniper, not from implementing the methods he teaches in Google Sniper.

This is like if a salesman was trying to sell you a particular smartphone based on its video quality. He shows you some videos he recorded himself while on holiday, but he actually recorded it with a GoPro, not with the smartphone he’s trying to sell you.

So, again, with MMO products, pay attention not just to what they teach you, but HOW they teach you. You can learn a lot.

So let’s end with a top tip:

Sign up to the email lists of a bunch of successful internet marketers. Do this not with the intention to buy the products they recommend, but rather to observe how they sell them.

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Recent Comments

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Your final top tip is golden. I signed up for a bunch of email lists because I was watching tons of webinars on marketing. I was wasting so much time watching the darn videos that I was no longer being productive, so I considered unsubscribing from everything. But now I just glance at the emails to get an idea for what sales funnel they are using (and try to get an idea of how successful they "really" are) and then save the interesting ones for inspiration.

Great! :-)

Thanks for your honest blog Marcus. Unlike some people like yourself I am somewhat O.C.D. about purchasing things online. I do however feel safe about purchasing from sites like Amazon or even ebay, but sometimes it is hard to tell what is safe and what is not. I have to admit though that I have been lucky so far.
Also, I have to agree that it is possible to make money online for someone like you who know how to properly go about it. Those who do think it is possible are close minded, and are afraid to take a chance. I do not know if you want to use the phrase "make money online quickly" though. I believe it can be done, but it will just take some time and effort.
The upside of making money online with the WA is that we get great teamwork from an awesome community.

Thanks for your comment

Thanks for this, Marcus. This is, I think, a grand overview of my own dilemma about this thing I am doing. Is my content based on a desire to help people or is it focused on making that sale?

I'm definitely not opposed to making sales, but my way of walking is important to me and I'm not real yipsy about compromising my own authenticity.

My own take on it is that everything throws a shadow and you have to decide where and how you are walking....

You do also have to keep an eye out for the potholes. But, that's true no matter which road you walk.

Excellent way of looking at it. I like the bit about the shadow.

If the affiliate marketing companies and gurus make their money mostly by teaching how to make money, isn't that what Wealthy Affiliate is? I was asked what I did online and told them and they said so you make money promoting a product that promotes a product? Where's the product?" I said "The training is the product." She shook here head and laughed and said. "Yea, ok. Good luck with that." But even if Wealthy Affiliate really does make their money on selling a training platform on how to promote you don't really have to promote WA. I admit their are a lot of road signs that point to that direction but we don't have to take it. You do make some valid points though and I have to admit sometimes I really think the whole thing is kind of a scheme probably because I have always been a get my hands dirty type. You work hard and you make money. I have yet to start sweating typing on a computer. Lol. I think it's a different animal more designed by a younger and more think smarter not harder crowd which can make older and more seasoned workers in the real world shaking their heads. It sounds too flim flam as my dad would say god rest his soul. My real issue is time. And time has always meant money. The more you work the more you earn. This has been the longest I have tried anything with zero earnings. I will say that these young guys that created this are pretty smart and are probably the wave of the future. I just think it's way over the heads of those who worked in the fields and trenches because they had no other choice. But, that's just my own personal opinion so I could be wrong.

Yes, I include WA in the same thing. Although there is a lot of good at WA, it is not perfect, and the bootcamp course is not good for newbies as it encourages them to just get out there and write a positive review of WA before they even know WA particularly well. Hence, many of the review of WA you find in Google will just be WA members who have done the bootcamp course and are raving about how great WA is before they have even had any success with it themselves.

I think the reality is anyone with common sense can see the forest through the trees. You have to see the light past the dark side of the net, if that's possible...

Thanks Marcus. Only just the other day I was doing some resaech about a product online when I clicked on a so called review. But there was no review just a couple of links pointing me to what the affiliate website owner recommended! So awful! I clicked away immediately.
You're right. So many people out there who are not genuine and only in it for themselves. They don't care about helping others at all. The sad thing is that many of them lead people astray and get away with it!

Unfortunately, I don't think this will disappear any time soon.

Interesting perspective, you don`t know any of this stuff when you are starting out in the online world it takes a lot of hard work and losing money in the process.

WA is a good place to be because of the members who have more experience than a new person and you will learn a lot about the good and the bad stuff in online marketing.

:-)

This a top post Marcus!

I love this" "The experts who claim to show you how to build a successful business online, will have got most of their online success from showing others how to get successful." You nailed it with this statement.

And your tip: "Sign up to the email lists of a bunch of successful internet marketers. Do this not with the intention to buy the products they recommend, but rather to observe how they sell them." Perfect .. It has taken up a lot of my time but I have clarified my path.

Again, a Top Post, thank you.

Cheers, William.


Awesome William, glad you found it helpful

Awesome post, Marcus, especially the two points William mentioned which were on my mind also... especially I like the part where we can learn from them how their sales funnel works. Thanks for sharing, Marcus.:)

What I am reading is surprising, how come you don't do HONEST review because you want to sell? This is against the law of nature, to which NO ONE CAN ESCAPE ITS JUSTICE.. I read reviews before buying anything, unless I know it before. I am disappointed that people are putting profit before integrity here.

i agree with you. It's better to write honest reviews.

How about this, you go to Amazon and buy a water filer which has 4.9/5 rate. I reviewed it in my site and know well it does not work. 1) The pump did not work. 2) It does not filter bacteria as promised.

How I know? The manufacturer sent it to me to test and review. Tested by drinking filtered water from a polluted river and was seek for one week. Can provide all extra info if you need, and can send you the rubbish filter if you want it.

This same water filter is sold also under another name on Amazon, with very poor rating. So whom do you trust?

So you are making mistake. Do not trust Amazon's customers reviews. Many of them get products for free to write good reviews. Read honest reviews. I also received it for free, but I described my experience as it was.

Thanks for your comment Jovo.

How do you know which are the genuine reviews from the
other sites? At least on Amazon, if there are enough reviews, doesn't it balance it out a bit?

But even if I'm wrong on this point, which I might be, what do you think about the other things I said.

On Amazon, you will see a statement next to review like 'confirmed purchase' or similar. This should be more reliable but only up to some point. In many situations people do not properly test the stuff.

As you realize, in my testing I wanted to try the water which was obviously polluted, this is the only way to know if it works, better to test in a more or less controlled situation (close to the toilet in my case + some pills ready) then when I am in mountains. You must be sure about tools of that type, if they work or not.

Genuine reviews are those where you see the guy testing the thing himself. There are sites with only this type of reviews. Unfortunately I am not on that level yet, cannot afford this approach. But I can see if something is rubbish, this is called experience.

I like the rest what you wrote, could only repeat what William pointed out. You are right.

But sometimes there is no need to try products yourself, somebody else has already suffered with stomach problems due to an unreliable water filter, or spent a night in a leaking tent, or had an inflatable sleeping pad flat in the middle of the night.
So read what such people write about the items. There are reliable reviews.

Thanks for your input Jovo.

Spring water is the best...everything else they told you its a ..lie

I was born and raised in a rural area where no other water was available than source water, so I am aware of that.

On the other hand, when I look around where I live now, I do not see it anywhere, and the same must be at your side. Source water is a luxury which not many have.

On the yet another hand, when I go to the Alps, I never drink so called source water. You never know what is above you. And can tell you there can be many things: waste water from the toilet from some mountain hut at 3000+ meters, somebody's body in the melting glacier (from the first world war as example, I have such things described in my site), or just a carcass of a goat like the one you can see in the clean water stream from my tour to Hochfeiler (Gran Pilastro).

After reading about somebody from UK who collected flesh-eating bacteria from a great clean alpine stream, and about a girl in US who got such a clean water through her nostrils when kayaking, and later discovered she had brain-eating parasites in the head...

Trust me you need a reliable filter.

Brain eating parasites in the head???? Wow, that's a bad day...

"After reading about somebody from UK who collected flesh-eating bacteria from a great clean alpine stream, and about a girl in US who got such a clean water through her nostrils when kayaking, and later discovered she had brain-eating parasites in the head"...This is a review..Where can i buy that filter?

Now imagine, the trip was organized by a church group, so many people around, no doubt many have had water in their nostrils on a speedy mountain river. But only one got the thing in the brain. This is a bad luck.

I remember years ago hearing about someone who went surfing on holiday and ended up with someone growing inside their brain.

Hi Leonard, the lines you quote are not from my review, just typed them right here.

But I have reviewed practically all filters worth reviewing (and some less worth the efforts). There are no many I would fully trust. Frankly speaking, there is only one.

It really boils down to who can rank and not have to have a review to do so. Proper SEO is the trick and in order to have a higher spot in the world then our sites need to have good elements in DA and TF.

Thank you Marcus for the post and the time.

But if Product X gets launched, and all the reviews on the first few pages of Google are 5 star positive reviews from affiliates hoping to make commissions from the launch, that paints an inacurate picture of how good the product is, doesn't it?

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