Absolutes Will Kill You

Posted by Steven Wagenheim on September 09, 2010 in Affiliate Marketing, General

I wanted to take a short break from my usual instructional type article to cover a subject that I feel is very important. This is one of the main reasons why many marketers and home business owners end up failing. I’m talking about absolutes and how they will absolutely kill you. Kind of a paradox there, isn’t it. I’ve just stated an absolute myself. But it may just be the only one that makes sense. Okay, maybe it’s time I explained.

This article was inspired by a thread at one of the forums that I attend. I’m not going to go into too much detail on what the thread is about, but in a nutshell, one of the members of the forum claims, with absolute certainty, that if you are into affiliate marketing, you will one day reach a point where you will kill your reputation and stop earning an income from affiliate marketing. He says other things about affiliate marketing not being a real business, but that’s besides the point.

If you do affiliate marketing, you will someday, beyond any shadow of a doubt, destroy your reputation and go broke.

That is quite a statement. How does he come to that conclusion?

Because as an affiliate, you have no control over the products you sell. If you promote a product that a vendor creates and that product is bad, you don’t get to find out until after you’ve promoted it and by then, it’s too late. Your reputation is shot.

Well isn’t the same thing true for the person who created the product? Isn’t HIS reputation shot too?

His argument is that if the vendor creates a bad product, it’s HIS fault and it’s all on HIM. If the affiliate promotes the bad product, it’s NOT his fault and totally out of his control until it’s too late.

Well, he has a point there. You do take a risk as an affiliate promoting the products of others.

But common sense dictates that you carefully examine the products that you sell. I do. I have yet to promote anything that has tarnished my reputation and I’ve been at this for over 7 years.

Get a copy of the product. Examine it. Make sure it’s solid. Then, if it is, promote it. If it’s not, don’t promote it. It’s that simple.

But affiliate marketing isn’t the point of this article, though there is a good lesson to be learned here about promoting affiliate products, which I just outlined above. Don’t promote anything unless you’ve examined the product yourself.

However, the point of this article is that absolutes will kill you. Yes, you may hurt your reputation promoting other people’s products. But that doesn’t mean that you have to.

It’s the same thing when people come to you and say, “XYZ doesn’t work”. That is an absolute. It may work and it may not. YOU are not going to find out until you test it for yourself. It’s no different if somebody says “XYZ DOES work.” It may and it may not. The only way you’re going to find out is through testing.

Anytime ANYBODY spits absolutes at you, be very wary of them.

They usually have an agenda.

And no, that is not an absolute.

Sometimes they’re just misinformed.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Tired of being an affiliate failure? Want to turn yourself into an affiliate assassin like I am? Want to land in the top 20 of every affiliate promotion you tackle just like I do? Check out my site at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/affiliateassassin/index.html and start earning a solid income as an affiliate marketer.