I have received the following email from several different bloggers (including some big name bloggers) during the last 24 hours. It is not spam as I have subscribed to these blogs but the thing is they all just use a copy / paste of the generic affiliate salespitch that any affiliate is allowed to use.
I received the same generic email from each of these bloggers. The affiliate link and the signature are different. Another difference is that some chose to start with “hi” some with “hey” and some do not even bother to include the “name” field to greet the recipient with the name.
“Personal recommendation” generic email
Hi Marko,
This will be short and sweet…
There are now less than 17 hrs left before the doors to Become A Blogger Premium are closing for any new members.
See here:
affiliate link here
After the doors close, you won’t be able to get in for months again. And apparently, the price may have increased by then as well.
The price has already increased once, so why miss out again and pay more later?
These guys are for real. Prove it to yourself by doing a simple Google Search of their course, and you’ll see what other people are saying.
To me, it’s a no-brainer.
The best part is that you can try out the course for 60 days, and if you don’t like it, just ask for a refund and they’ll arrange for it on the spot.
It doesn’t get much sweeter than this…
Here are the details again:
affiliate link here
Best Regards,
Signature here
PS: Oh, and don’t forget to check out their amazing bonuses. These will be gone in less than 24 hrs too. Here they are:
affiliate link here
Where is the reader credibility and trust?
I know it is very simple, fast and convenient to just copy / paste a generic salespitch from the affiliate program and publish it on your blog as a post or send it to all your email newsletter subscribers.
But what are you trying to accomplish? To sell some products and earning some commission but to lose your readership and credibility? Personally recommending a product with a generic message that the product seller wrote for all affiliates to use is not really a long-term thinking strategy.
- Do you think your readers / subscribers are stupid?
- You think they cannot see that your “personal recommendation” is just a copy / paste of a generic affiliate salespitch?
- Do you want to lose trust of your readers?
- Do you want to lose your credibility?
Conclusion
Trying out a product first, writing your own personal review, writing about your experience with the program, and telling your readers why you think it will be useful for them to join, is a much better way to sell something and earn affiliate commission.
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{ 16 comments }
I just delete those e-mails. I wish they would at least be a little creative.
I don’t get those emails, I must not be popular.
I can say that I think the success I have had with the Amazon affiliate program is because I recommend products that I have tried and am passionate about.
Marko,
Not too much I can say other than I agree with you 100%. There is nothing more insulting and demeaning than a generic BS sales pitch email.
marko,
very well said…i got the same email from a couple of guys…it is a matter of whom you trust …i personally delete such emails because they are all scam. there is no easy way to make money online..it takes time and effort
I agree with you Marko.Especially my Gmail id is full of spam.I hardly get time to delete so much of them piled up everyday.Other thing i want to say is i had sent you a guest blog post 3 days ago Marko and i would be happy if you review it.Thanks
I have also got some of these, 3 from top bloggers. I just delete them.
Well said. In any business dealing, but especially with media marketing, sincerity is everything!
Really a bad strategy!!! I never knew that even “big name bloggers” are doin this. But eventually it will result in loss of trust & hence loss of readers. So say no to such a bad way to kick yourself in the crotch.
Regards,
RP
Ravositti.com
What I can’t understand is how it appears that they really are making money from it. It is the basics of making money online (at least one way): gather a list of prospects and if you send them enough product options that they might be open to, they will eventually bite. They say it builds trust, and with the users who don’t possibly think as much as they should be, its an easy sale and can lead to the 6 figure income these guys seem to be making.
Personally I’m fed up with sites that use the same format (that came from some Make Money program I’m sure) with pages and pages of “testimonials”, the free offer, the upsell, the “added bonus” and the “buy now because I’ll raise the price in 2 hours” no matter what time you visit the site.
But… it does seem to work….
Hi Marko,
While I agree with you they are obviously making a lot of money doing this. I think once a lot of people grow their blog or site to a reasonably good readership they figure they can send the odd email like this to build their revenue. As many of these er ‘products’ are expensive and often give 75% commission then a few suckers caught is worthwhile.
One way that I deal with is whenever I subscribe to an email list I use a different email address for each one. So my email for this list is makemyblog@ I then link all these accounts to my gmail account.
I then use the filter system to push the emails into folders, rather than my main inbox. If a site gets annoying then I use the filter to delete.
Just checking my email today I’ve found that two sites I used to respect are now just hard sells.
I hate to confess that I have recently been taken by site where I subscribed to a ‘support’ network. The friendly forum where I could fellow entrepeneurs had around 20 posts and I found that I had subscribed to a site that has some useful articles and a series of fortnightly online broadcasts, which give the same sort of information you can get on a site like how to make my blog in a lot shorter time.
I think that many of the big blogging blogs move from being a service to becoming a cynical money making machine and the3y don’t care if they lose a few loyal fans.
Keep up the good work Marko – keep your independent voice and you’ll not only keep your readership but grow it.
@Paul – Thanks for the nice words! I appreciate your support! This post was inspired by one of those days, when I got some 4-5 same generic emails about same product launch. Some of these guys do not seem to care, the mailing list is just about numbers and they do not even try to connect and make anything personal as you mentioned.
First, Marko thank you. Thanks for having a voice of your own and sharing it through your own blog. You are honest and pretty damn transparent in your business. That says a lot.
I think this is one of those instances where we should rethink who we consider “top” bloggers, and why we would give them such a title.
To me a top blogger isn’t someone who has a large following. They are a blogger who cares what they communicate and provides readers with quality in return for their time. A top blogger, is not just a follower. Because if I follow a follower, how will I ever know where I’m going?
@Henry III – Thanks for the nice words! I appreciate it…
I have countless e-mails like this! So annoying!
In any business, if customers do not see you live behind the message you address to them, you are lost!
Nobody cares about clone messages.There are removed without second thought.
Thanks for all comments!
@Santosh Puthran – Definitely. They collect as many email addresses as possible via their blogs (newsletters, ebook downloads, plugin downloads etc etc) and then they “spam” them with generic messages like that in hope that somebody will click and pay. Not a really good long-term strategy!