Rotten Apples and Real Winners How to Tell the Difference
This past week or so has been very interesting. There are several “new” things out there all being promoted like crazy. Funny how some are very successful (for the affiliate owner) while others just languish into nonexistence.
However, this is not a post of praise. Sure there ARE many fine, young and old, upstanding affiliate program owners out there who really give a damn if their affiliates are successful. You can tell these individuals from the crap (sorry but it’s true!) because they are fully involved in ensuring your success. They offer lots of tools upfront for advertising and marketing, and keep things fresh and current for newly arriving individuals.
What burns my butt is the man (or woman) who is having the time of their life making money hand over fist who doesn’t really care what happens to you after you’ve paid your money.
Sure, they put up a front – the emails they bombard you with (try) to have the look and feel of a “real person” talking to another “real person” (you). So much canned spam it’s not even funny.
And that’s all they do – talk big promise big.
Then what happens? Support emails go unanswered (even with claims of “we respond to all emails within 24 hours”) and phone calls (phone numbers) are either nonexistent, fake, or their voice mail is cramped to overflowing. And they have no intention of ever clearing out those messages so you can leave yours. Why should they? If you were able to get them, then they’d have to do something to help you, right?
One way to tell? Really investigate the website! Do a BetterWhoIs domain lookup, do searches for the program in Google and Yahoo!, haunt forums, ask questions. Listen to what you are hearing. And, before spending money EMAIL and/or PHONE the parties involved. Do they reply within a reasonable amount of time? No? Then, you’ve found another rotten apple. Get answers to your questions. (Don’t ask the obvious if they have an FAQ, of course, but tell them upfront “I want to know you are really there for me before I buy, email me back so I know FIRST); If you get a response, then you’ve got yourself a potential winner.
No one is THAT busy – and if they are they certainly have the bucks to hire someone to help them with their own public relations, right?
Let’s face it, “they” (the bad apples among us) achieved what they aimed for… your big bucks in their bank accounts. Watch! In a few days, weeks, months, these programs die a sudden death, until a little while later “voila!” the next best thing to sliced bread is brought online – by these same shysters.
==== ADDED NOTE AFTER WE POSTED ====
And, they don’t mind using up other people in the process! Ezine advertising has always been, and continues to be, a great resource for advertising. You get to use publisher’s lists and let their subscribers know about what you have to offer. The problem arises when irresponsible affiliate program owners who never keep a fresh supply of material on hand, end up using up the very resource they tell their affiliate about. Why deliberately set out to hurt someone else’s business in the process? Let’s face it, how many times are you wiling to receive the very same email in your inbox? A few maybe, hundreds… forget it! Yet, ezine advertising and solo ads in particular are the life blood of these publishers. They generously allow others to use their lists. In return, they should be treated courteously and with respect. Because, let’s face it, where else can these affiliates go? (Yes there are other ways of marketing, but very few who sign up for the “fast promoting” will take the time to write articles, blog, search engine strategize, etc.)
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Is there a reason I’m ranting today? You bet! This week, on behalf of the affiliates of two programs I am NOT involved in, I tried to contact the program owners via support tickets, direct email, and phone calls. Their affiliates need help. I’m the one talking to them on the phone (which is fine, but come on Mr. Program Owner, do your own duty and due diligence to your affiliates yourself!). No replies, zip, zero, zilch! The only one person who did return my call was my indirect attempt to get information on a certain someone. Hats off to Charles Ryder’s support person (so sorry I cannot remember your name!). She did not need to call me back, they are NOT the ones I really need to talk to, but she DID. Now there’s real class! (BTW, turns out they had over the course of time tried to get this one person themselves only he’s “difficult” (read impossible) to track down.)
We’ll say it over and over until it sinks in. Stop depending on other people, and start depending on yourself for your degree of success online. Make your own place, do your own thing, join what you want, and promote who or what you want – from your spot on the net. The net is too full of quality, real opportunities for you to spend your time on the fly-by-night, quick buck stuff. Honestly!
There are MANY GOOD PEOPLE out there! It’s just unfortunate that there is also a large percentage of people who will learn via the school of hard knocks that “if it sounds too good to be true” it is!
=== UPDATE TO MY UPDATE ====
Pleasantly surprised to receive a phone call back from one of the support people for one of the programs driving me crazy and not named above. While I did not get to talk to the “person in charge” the woman/girl calling me back hopefully was taking notes. She told me she would forward on my concerns and suggestions. So affiliate worldwide don’t hesitate to speak up for yourselves and demand new tools! You are the life blood of their companies/businesses. They should bend over backward keeping you happy 
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Thanks for reading! Not done being angry, just done ranting for the moment
I encourage ALL responsible program owners to comment back on this post! If you’re the participant in a QUALITY affiliate program with great support TELL YOUR AFFILIATE OWNER to come on by here and leave their comments. It would be great to have a potential (note POTENTIAL) list of quality people willing to respond against the rotten apples! Let’s see what happens…
And in the meantime, while YOU are here…I would dearly love your feedback!
you go girl! I agree with you…. I cannot seem to get a dime out of some of these guys muchless get a response!
Hey Linda! Had to vent my spleen today, thanks for reading!
In the interest of fair play, please see this response I did receive from one program owner I had contacted. I have removed names of programs and owner/support names since this is not a promotional but an example of what you can achieve (the proof will be in the seeing of new advertisements mind you) if you persist:
RESPONSE RECEIVED
Thank you for your support request regarding [removed by OIMS].
You have reached the support desk for [removed by OIMS], I have forward your message to Mr. [removed by OIMS].
He’s taken your advice, and will have some new solo ads ready to use by this evening. It seems everyone will benefit from creating new solo material for our members.
We appreciate your outgoing responsiveness to this issue, and we welcome further communications.
If you have any other questions or comments please contact us again.
Customer Support
[removed by OIMS]
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So know we wait
OK, I’m guilty of not providing new ads on a regular basis – not even for myself. If it ain’t broke…
In this age of blogs, it’s honest reviews and recommendations that really sell – not canned ads.
I have one affiliate who gets a check pretty much every month, and she hasn’t promoted for over 2 years. She owns the products, and wrote reviews and she brought in a couple of good affiliates.
On the other hand, I’ve purchased ads in my affiliates ezines and made sales. They could have done that themselves.
Now, I thought your rant was going to be about some unsavory marketers who take your money every months with these ‘membership sites’, and you can’t seem to cancel. Emails bounce. Phone calls go to India where they just can’t seem to understand that you want it cancelled, and you want a refund because they couldn’t get it right the last 2 months, and they still keep taking the money out of your account. That’s what I’m dealing with with Nick Marks. I’m very leery of signing up for any of these free give aways now since they all have recurring monthly billing attached. The hottest new money maker.
That’s my 2 cents…
Carole
CommonSenseLiving.com
Hi Carole, great to see you again! Maybe I should have worked something into the title as a bigger clue to the guts of the post, but actually my mind was traveling like lightning down one path LOL!
Unfortunately, at all levels of interacting with others, you’ll find the good and the bad. We’re with you (our whole hog blogs is the helpful steps we’ve taken to help others, along with the free information here at OIMS) that blogging and promoting from a whole different direction is the “wave of the future here now.”
However, ezine advertising is a mainstay of marketing and as a co-op owner it drives me insane that those “rich get richer” at the expense of so many. A solid resource should be preserved – because whose going to need it most… the very same affiliate guy building his (her) next project.
I’m not 100% sure of your reason for ads (I’m heading back over to your site next), but there is a huge need for a large inventory when someone launches a “work at home” opportunity, new software, ebooks, what have you. If you’re expecting a huge amount of people to promote for you, you best better have the tools on hand to help them do it!
Ah oh! Here I go again LOL!… Better stop now!
Okay if there’s one thing I dislike (okay there may be many lol, but this is a particular dislike), it’s being lied to… I put up the reply I’d been sent by that particular program owner (sent to me LAST FRIDAY), and here it is Wednesday, and according to one of their affiliates (who received an email from them this morning), this new material they swore was going up Friday “isn’t quite ready.”
So are these affiliates being snowballed? Or what? And I just hate being lied to!!
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