Have you come across any affiliate-phobes in your network marketing Internet business experience?
What is an affiliate -phobe?
Of course I’m referring to those individuals who don’t want any affiliate offers coming their way and who will do anything not to have you earn a commission from the sale of a product or service you may be promoting.
Why do affiliate-phobes exist?
It may be that they don’t understand how affiliate marketing works. The fact of the matter is this is how we earn a living. It’s no different to you going into a store to buy some jeans. On top their wage earned, the store usually pays the sales assistant a commission for facilitating each sale.
Secondly in my opinion these can also be people with scarcity consciousness issues. They don’t want to give to others because they perceive that they are losing out in some way. They don’t really want to part with any of their money because they don’t yet understand that there is more then enough money to go around and that they just haven’t figured out how to access it yet.
If you are hoping to be an Internet marketer yourself and this describes your behavior then you have an even more serious problem on your hands. Until you learn to give to others how can you expect others to give to you? It just won’t happen so rather give it up now, you’re wasting your time.
Two ways to deal with affiliate-phobes
The fact of the matter is you may not even be aware that you have come across anybody like this because they may be so adamant that you don’t receive a few cents commission, that they edit your affiliate link or even find another computer to use if they suspect that theirs may be linked to you via their computer’s IP address. Sad !
The first way is to educate people so that they understand how affiliate sales works. The FTC has helped us in part by stating that we must inform others that when they may make a purchase we could earn a commission from the transaction.
I suggest you add an explanation to this so that they understand THEY are not paying us a commission. In fact it is the product or service provider who does, so whether they decide to use our links or not, there is no difference in price. All that is different is that the provider will earn the full price rather than giving a proportion of that sale to the person who represented it.
The best way to do this is to have an Affiliate Disclosure link somewhere on your blog which explains this too. You can see mine at the bottom of this page.
The second way is to simply get rid of the annoyance.
This week I received an email from someone on my list threatening that if I ever sent him an affiliate offer he and everybody he knew on my list (?) would be history.
Let’s not pretend here. We are all in business to form relationships but with the objective of marketing to these same people on our lists.
This does not mean we spam them with affiliate offers or that they need to like or buy anything that we present to them. The have free will at all times.
Anybody who is on your list who does not expect to be marketed to at some point does not deserve to be getting any value from you so I suggest you simply unsubscribe them which is exactly what I did.
I’d love to hear what you have to say on this topic so please leave me a comment and also if you enjoyed this post and want to spread the message, please share it on your social networks. Thank you.
My goal? Helping you achieve yours.
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[...] Two Ways To Deal With Affiliate-phobes | Network Marketing Internet Business | Network Marketing Int… [...]
Hey Marcus
Get rid of the time wasters on your list or they will in-time naturally unsubscribe themselves.
I haven’t knowingly come across an affiliate phobe, but after reading this I will definitely be more mindful of them. Thanks for bring it to our attention.
Dwayne
Dwayne Huggins recently posted..How To Create A Network Marketing Blog | MLM Blog Secrets Review
[Reply]
Marcus Baker Reply:
June 22nd, 2010 at 9:25 am
Hi Dwayne,
They are out there and I just have less and less tolerance for them everyday now.
~Marcus
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Hey Marcus,
It’s a great thing that you have a disclosure link on your blog page to educate people. But if they’re negative and too ignorant to educate themselves then the best thing to do is to unsubscribe them since they won’t even look for the value you have to offer.
Sherman
Sherman Smith recently posted..How Did They Recruit That Many People In Just 2 Weeks?!?!?!?!?!
[Reply]
Marcus Baker Reply:
June 22nd, 2010 at 7:02 pm
Hi Sherman
Agreed! I feel happy that I am being totally upfront with them and they have free choice until they whine then I just hit DELETE!
~Marcus
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Wow, sounds like this guy is having a bad hair day. Advertising and marketing is all around us. It’s on television, radio even last night it was all over the stage as I was listening to my favorite blues band at a beach side bar and grill. The band was promoting their newsletter and blog. I didn’t tell them “if they mentioned it one more time I was going to leave”! Sounds like you handled it great though… It’s all about attraction marketing and he did not sound attractive!
The Haole Kahuna recently posted..The “Biggest Kahuna” Of Business And Personal Development
[Reply]
Marcus Baker Reply:
June 22nd, 2010 at 7:01 pm
Ha ha hey Rick too right about being unattractive! Perhaps it is a matter of people having a “bad hair day” some days and I get that.
Like you say we are surrounded by constant marketing so one just needs to exercise one’s personal power and filter out that which you don’t want to be subjected to.
~Marcus
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[...] Two Ways To Deal With Affiliate-phobes | Network Marketing Internet Business | Network Marketing Int… [...]
Hey Marcus,
I never thought of there being “affiliate phobias” out there. Thanks for bringing to my attention.
You make a good point that no matter who they purchase the product from, it’s the company that pays the comission to us. If they do any research on a certain product, they will see that no matter who offers it, it’s the same price!
They don’t need to be on anyone’s list to begin with then.
Have a great day!
Twila
Twila Jacobs recently posted..How To Make Your Blog Comments ‘Nest’
[Reply]
Marcus Baker Reply:
June 22nd, 2010 at 6:57 pm
Hi Twila,
Great that you have not come across this type Twila. They are out there but most of the time they unsubscribe themselves which saves me a lot of time.
~Marcus
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Hi Marcus,
I like the term affiliate-phobes…so appropriate
I carry a disclosure link right at the top of my blog. Let’s ‘em know before hand that I am an affiliate, and if they do have a poverty consciousness don’t even bother complaining! I’ll be happy to help them get rid of it but it’s their decision to make.
Ryan
Ryan recently posted..Where To Get Ideas For Blog Posts
[Reply]
Marcus Baker Reply:
June 22nd, 2010 at 6:55 pm
Hi Ryan,
That’s about as much as we can Ryan – thanks for spelling that out!
~Marcus
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Hi Marcus,
I haven’t run into any affiliate-phobes but I’ll keep my eyes open.
It’s a shame some people feel that way. If they’re going to get some thing anyway how could it poosibly hurt them to let someone earn a small commission?
Great tip on having an Affiliate disclosure on your blog, I’ll have to work one in ASAP
Great Post,
Mike
Michael Cole recently posted..Success Lessons From A Child
[Reply]
Marcus Baker Reply:
June 22nd, 2010 at 6:54 pm
Hi Mike,
Yeah I don’t get it myself but hey people are all different so I guess we just have to manage the issue so that we can power along.
~Marcus
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Hey Marcus,
I guess it all boils down to the fact that…
People just don’t get it:)
Steve
Steve recently posted..How To Get A New Stream Of Leads And Cash Using Text Ad Exchanges
[Reply]
Marcus Baker Reply:
June 22nd, 2010 at 6:52 pm
Hey Steve,
You summed it up beautifully so all we can do is help educate generally and get rid of those who continue to not get it.
~Marcus
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That is the thing about the internet, some expect everything to be free.
I noticed that some lists I am on they try to hide the unsubscribe link by spacing it to below the fold. I am the exact opposite, I tell people in each email that if they do not like what I am sending then just unsubscribe.
Peter Fuller MBA recently posted..Why I started my own Home Business
[Reply]
Marcus Baker Reply:
June 22nd, 2010 at 6:51 pm
Hi Peter,
In every email I tell people what to expect form being on my list and if they no longer wish to be on it to unsubscribe. And when they complain I simply do it for them, I don’t even take it up with them because it’s not my issue.
~Marcus
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Marcus this is a great post but what “jumped” out at me was the part about the scarcity conscious. Dealing with people who are operating out of this small view of the world and who they are can be very aggravating. They don’t realize that they are their own worst enemy and it’s why they are in their present situation.
Steve Shoemaker
steve shoemaker recently posted..Now GROW Your Internet MLM Business
[Reply]
Marcus Baker Reply:
June 23rd, 2010 at 7:51 am
Hi Steve,
I guess we just have to allow people to travel their journey and not let it impede our own progress Steve but yeah I have to agree it’s frustrating at times.
~Marcus
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Hey Marcus,
Nice job bringing up this topic. Once in a while I’ll send an email to my list about affiliate products and some folks will unsubscribe themselves. The way I look at it…It is a great way to clean the list!
Chat with you later…
Josh
Josh Garcia recently posted..Can You Give Me 2 Minutes of Your Time – So I Can Serve You Better!
[Reply]
Marcus Baker Reply:
June 23rd, 2010 at 6:27 pm
Hi Josh,
That is a great approach since you don’t need these types on your list anyway!
~Marcus
[Reply]
Hey Marcus,
Great topic. It’s amazing that people would rather give their money to a store, or a perfect stranger, than to support someone who is providing them with tons of free information.
I’ve also noticed the “phobes” will sometimes unsubscribe when I send an affiliate email. I look at the same way Josh said prior, it’s just a way to “clean” the list.
Thanks for this, and have a great day!
Ken
Ken West recently posted..The #1 Reason You Should Consider Network Marketing
[Reply]
Marcus Baker Reply:
June 23rd, 2010 at 10:18 pm
Hi Ken,
Yeah I like that idea too. Never thought about it like that.
~Marcus
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