The Affiliate Marketing Challenge
As an Affiliate Marketer there are some things I have a challenge with and wonder if any of you are finding the same thing?
My main goal with affiliate marketing is to maximise my earnings through Wealthy Affiliate as I truly believe it to be the best Hosting and training platform online today. However I cannot Just write about Wealthy Affiliate but will try to direct people to it with every educational or information based post I write.
I also promote other resources that I have found useful in building my business and have no issue with writing a great review on them.
The Challenge
My challenge is that writing a review on a product that I believe to be rubbish or a scam goes against my personal instincts or morals if you like. I am happy to write that something might not be a great idea and why, but slagging off a product or service for a whole post of a 1000 words or more ?
That to me sounds like overkill and my sales training tells me not to knock a competitor because your reader may be using it and then you are telling them that they are an idiot for using it. Instead accept that it has great points but point out how your product may be better.
When leaving comments for others, I have read and commented appropriately on posts that are downright rude about products or services and then go on to say Wealthy Affiliate is what they should join instead. They always make me feel uneasy.
For this reason, I have avoided reviews in the main because I find it difficult to say something is rubbish. I know this goes against the training and I will have missed out on opportunities but I have to be true to me.
The solution
I have now found a way to review products I am not in favour of by focusing on facts about the product and then comparing them to better solutions which is usually Wealthy Affiliate or it might be a different comparable service, that I use or recommend. I am still working on them but it has definitely helped me to become more focused on reviews as the training tells us to do.
Does anyone else struggle with Reviews ? And If so how have you overcome the challenges you have with them?
With Grace and Gratitude
Karen
Recent Comments
33
I have reviewed some products I have found and have tried out personally. They are what I would call scams, I still will review them. I will give honest good points about the products that I can find but will include my personal experience/recommendation as to why I feel the product is a scam. Most of the review is positive but I will include a small part of my personal experience. I will always state of course that this is my personal experience.
I hope this helps.
Tried and True
Elaine
I think that’s a great approach Elaine. If you buy something and it is rubbish it is okay to give your personal view alongside the facts of the products.
With Grace and Gratitude
Karen
So far, I have only written about products that I have personal knowledge of. I'm uneasy about trying to write about a product that I have no prior knowledge of as well.
This is what I struggled with at first too but I have learnt how to research the product and then provide the facts to the best of my knowledge.
We all know that no one has invested £1000s to buy a product they are going to knock afterwards. Who would ? Occasionally someone might have in naivety. But so many times I see people say that they invested in aid of research to help us realise it is a scam. You would have to be loaded and stupid with money to do that.
No sane affiliate marketer would waste their money.
Research and presenting facts is just fine. You shouldn’t say you bought it or didn’t buy it in your review. As someone below said, just be subjective.
With Grace and Gratitude
Karen
My reviews have all been products that I truly love and can wholeheartedly recommend or products that I feel are definitely in someone's best interest to avoid and are borderline scams or pyramid schemes.
Years ago I got into a program that literally sucked several thousand dollars out of me before I wised up, and it took me a long time to try another online business. If I research a program thoroughly enough to determine that someone in the same position that I was could be scammed by it, I research it until I'm confident of the facts, write the review and give my opinion based upon the facts I know.
As long as I'm not downing another business just for the sake of promoting my own and as long as I research and present the facts for my opinion respectfully and truthfully, I will not feel bad about it.
I rely on reviews that I feel are thorough and factual when I'm making purchasing decisions, so that's what I try to provide my readers.
Janelle
I think that is a fair approach too. I don’t have a problem with things I have used and love, it’s the ones that cost a lot and wouldn’t buy that I struggle with. I do lots of research but just because everyone else is knocking something, doesn’t always mean it is totally bad because all the negative reviews always point to something they want you to buy instead.
It stands to reason that an affiliate will promote their product or service over another but I don’t think that we need to say scam, scam, scam in order to promote our product straight after saying it.
When I read those kind of reviews it just makes me think they are knocking something else in order to sell their product.
With Grace and Gratitude
Karen
Couldn't agree more . Going the way of comparing the pro and cons is the best way to go. Who can argue with the facts!
No one can argue with those. I will say if I had a negative experience but will balance that out with someone else’s point of view if I can.
With Grace and Gratitude
Karen
Yes, I struggle saying negative things. I know what you mean. I think you have a good solution.
Alex
Not doing reviews yet, Karen, but I do agree with you to a large extent. Dealing with facts is the safest route in any critique.
All the best and ...
Awesomeness!
Mojalefa.
Thank you for reading Mojalefa,
I hope you remember the points made in this post when you do start. I know I did and still do find them difficul5 to a certain extent.
With Grace and Gratitude
Karen
I have done something similar focusing on the pro and cons of the product and then comparing it to the pros and cons of a better product or service but still need to improve this presentation style
I think I still need to improve too but then I guess we all feel that way, no matter how accomplished we may be.
With Grace and Gratitude
Karen
Good post, I share your views about reviews and agree with how you are going to do this. I believe its called subjective, put the facts, explain if it works and to what degree, but let the reader make up their mind
I have the same struggle but I write from a point of being a beginner and trying to find any easy to understand product that can deliver.
It has helped me review products without saying nasty things..I agree with you. Being true to yourself is the way forward.
Great read and Thank you.
I’m pleased I’m not the only one, though there comes a point when you have covered all the ones you recommend and people do search for the bad ones because they want confirmation if it’s a scam or not, so we may be missing out on traffic.
But like you say we need to be true to ourselves.
With Grace and Gratitude
Karen
See more comments
Reviews are always touchy so to speak. You don't want to be over critical of a competitive product, but at the same time you want to give an honest opinion. Some products are so bad that you have no choice but come across harsh toward them (so to speak), and unless you go into more detail than needed, it is hard to write as much as you would normally like to have i a post.
I guess if you have personal experience of a really bad product then you are giving the facts from your point of view.
I think the trouble arises when we write reviews of products we haven’t personally used. We can’t all buy everything and why would we ?
With Grace and Gratitude
Karen
Totally agree with you