Learn How To Profit With Review Sites

Niche marketing is the fastest way to make money online and one of the quickest ways to get started in niche marketing is by creating affiliate review sites. This is an important technique that shouldn’t be ignored. Finding the right niche takes time, but once it is found, the profits could be endless. Most people who use niche marketing choose to promote affiliate products in their niche and review sites are a key way to promote your niche products.

There are several ways to promote your affiliate products but review sites do tend to work very well, as long as they are done in an informative, clear and detailed way. People are always looking for information to help them make a decision about what to buy. So, the first thing you should do is find a few affiliate products related to your niche and then put up a website that compares those products.

I prefer to actually use the products I review as it makes the review much more authentic, and you will be a step ahead of the competition because you will be giving an added dimension to potential buyers, that others who haven’t directly used the product will just not be able to provide. In fact, many product vendors will provide a review copy if you ask.

When writing the copy for your review site, you should keep the writing short, yet informative. People shy away from reading lengthy paragraphs of unbroken information online. Two to three paragraphs of three to four sentences in length should be sufficient. Make sure you point out the benefits of each product you’re reviewing, but include minor flaws, as well.

Don’t overdo it on the negatives, unless the product is truly awful. People tend to trust reviews more if there are some caveats listed in them.

Highlight the product you deem the best value for the money, and make it clear this is your opinion and that you are an affiliate of the product that you are marketing. My belief is that people are not put off by this, as long as you are upfront about it and that the information you are providing is factual.

Finally, be sure to include links to the merchant pages of each product, and make sure those links are embedded with your affiliate code. There is no point in making a sale and then not being rewarded for it.

These affiliate review sites can be put together on a simple website, but I prefer to use WordPress blogs as they are super simple to set up. As you start to make some income you can consider outsourcing the building of the websites and thus focus more on writing great reviews.

Before you know it you can have several sites in front of potential customers and the beauty is that all the shipping, downloading etc of the product is handled by someone else. A large share of the profits however is yours, and you can’t get much better than that.

I want to thank Alison Wood and Big Sky Marketing for these tips on using review sites.

All The Glitters Is Not Gold…

In this somewhat lengthy article, I will give you my tips on How To Avoid Internet Marketing Product SCAMS and how to decide if a product is worth your investment.

If you’ve been involved in affiliate marketing for any length of time you are probably familiar with Clickbank.com and PayDotcom.com as well as other digital product sites.

Recently, Clickbank.com has come under fire as a result of so many products that failed to produce the results claimed by their creators. As a result that have made several changes to address the matter. In my opinion this is a good thing.

With all the challenges we as online marketers face daily, becoming the victim of some unscrupulous “guru” pitching a SCAM Internet marketing product is the last thing we need.

Here are my tips for avoiding scams that waste your money.

1. Self Evaluation – Know your strengths and weaknesses. By performing a self inventory you will discover that you probably do not need to purchase every new shiny object that promises instant success.

Get a blank piece of page and draw a line down the center. In the left hand column, write down all the things you see as necessary for building your online business. They might include:

Traffic Generation
List Building
WordPress Blogs
Keyword Research
and so on…

In the right hand column, rate your ability using A-B-C-D, you get the picture. This is a quick way to determine areas that you already have skills in as opposed to those for which an eBook or training course would be helpful.

Before you spend a dime, ask yourself – Do I Really Need This?

2. Learn the Basics – I talk to folks all the time who cannot perform the most basic tasks related to marketing online.

There are fundamental skills that every online marketer should possess. These are tasks related to your business that you can do without the use of software, a training guide or a coaching program.

Basic skills should include:

How to perform Keyword Research using Google’s Adwords Keyword Tool
How to set-up a WordPress blog
How to do basic on-page SEO
How to write a basic 500 word product review
How to post on Web 2.0 properties, i.e. Squidoo, HubPages, Blogger, WordPress.com, Weebly, etc.
How to use Social Media, i.e. Facebook, Twitter, G+, Instagram, Pinterest, etc.
How to set-up a Squeeze-Page for list building.
How to use an autoresponder service such as Aweber, GetResponse, etc.

These are the core elements of marketing online. A lot of new marketers skip past these basics, drawn in by the allure of 1-2-3 click software like a butterfly to the flame.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the leverage that software provides and I use software daily. However, I do not want to be like so many of the kids working in retail today who cannot count change without the help of the computerized cash register.

Okay, you’ve done your self-evaluation and determined your basic skill set. What’s next?

3. Performing Your Due Diligence

“Due diligence” is a term used for a number of concepts involving either an investigation of a business or person prior to signing a contract, or an act with a certain standard of care. It can be a legal obligation, but the term will more commonly apply to voluntary investigations. A common example of due diligence in various industries is the process through which a potential acquirer evaluates a target company or its assets for acquisition. Wikipedia

There is a HUGE difference between promoting a product as an affiliate and choosing a product for personal use; although there can be overlap.

Don’t forget, the goal of product creators is to sell products and generate profits. They employ affiliates to accomplish this.

This is why most review sites are little more than “pre-sell” pages. This is often masked in the headline of the product review with phrases such as: “Don’t Buy”, “Is It A Scam”, “I’m About To Get A Refund and Here’s Why”.

However, you soon discover that the “review” is simply a veiled sales pitch.

And review sites work for sure. Suffice it to say that it is the nature of the industry. Skilled sales people know how to push psychological buttons and trigger emotions that cause us to buy their products. More on that later.

Here is what I look for when choosing an internet marketing product…

Do I really need the product? How will the product impact my bottom line.
Who is the product creator? (This is not always a positive factor.)
- Does the product creator have a good reputation in the marketplace.
  - Check forums like the Warriors forum. Read all the responses.
- Have they released other products? What are people saying about them?
- Have I purchased a product from them in the past? Was it of value? Did it perform as promised?
- Do they provide product support?
- Is there a money back guarantee?
What is the learning curve? How long will it take me to master this strategy, technique, or software?
- Does the product provide a step-by-step guide or video tutorials?
Are there additional costs? Will I need to purchase the upgraded version to really see results or can I achieve them with the basic version? (this is the Catch 22 with many software products)
If the product is software or a WordPress plugin, will the product creator provide free updates? (WordPress upgrades almost monthly and often plugins become obsolete)

Final Thoughts on Avoiding Internet Marketing Product Scams

Avoid the “herd” mentality. There is a tendency for humans to get caught up in the frenzy of “group” thinking. Well, everybody is buying it, it must work!

Most successful product launches rely on “BUZZ” created by the product creator and their JV Affiliates who promote the product. You may receive email boasting about the GRAVITY a product has achieved on Clickbank. Know that gravity is merely a metric that measures the number of affiliate that have made a sale of a given product that month. It is not a true indication of whether or not a product is any good. I can tell you that I have fallen victim to the hype myself many times, until I started implementing these steps.

If you decide to purchase a product; especially if it is a marketing system, work that system until you see results. Do everything outlined in the course. Generally you will have 30-60 days to evaluate the product for free. Use that time wisely. If the product fails to perform, you can legitimately ask for a refund. If it worked for you as promised, you can provide a meaningful testimonial and promote the product yourself if you like with confidence and proof that it works.

Bring The Fresh Review

Lastly, my recommendation. I use the principles taught in Bring The Fresh daily. It has been an invaluable resource and has paid for itself over and over again. And no, it is not a new product. Moreover, it teaches fundamental as well as advanced techniques for making money online quickly and there is no additional software required. If you decide to join Bring the Fresh, you’ll automatically gain access to the BTF forum where you can discuss successes and challenges with other marketer and get advice which is pretty cool.

If you are just starting out, or even if you have been marketing online for a while – you will benefit from this course.

The product creators (Mike Long & Kelly Felix) are well known and credible – check it out, Bring The Fresh.