Promoting an unproven product

[Chris Douthit]

I have a list of about 50,000 and would like to promote many of the products on here. But I would like to get a sample of the product first to make sure it does what it says it does, especially from people new to the market or people I have not heard of before. Is it ok to ask for a free sample?

I just don’t want to promote something that does not meet its claims and have my list lose faith in my recommendations.

[Jennifer Hunt]

I do! When I want to promote something that I think my list would benefit from - I ask for a copy to review. As a product owner, I also don't mind when an affiliate requests a copy to preview. I'd say - start asking.

[Venkata Ramana]

Hi Chris,

Yeah, to ask for a sample is a MUST especially when you
haven't heard about the author.

If you are very serious about promoting it, you could
ask the author to give you a call or vice-versa so that you could
discuss a lot more.

We do that all the time.

Take care.

Venkata Ramana
http://www.FlashMarketingVideos.com

[charleskirkland]

Chris

I would never promote anything at all with out seeing it unless they have a proven track record.

I understand that sometimes the product is still being worked on right up till the launch.

But I still want to see it and the copy if possible.

Also if you have never heard of them before then it is even more important to see everything.

Thanks
Charles

[Chris Douthit]

Thanks for the input, that’s pretty much what I have always done. I asked because I am new to this site and I asked a couple of webmasters which posted here if they would be interested in having me promote their product launch.

I explained in a very polite way that I have a list of about 50,000 and that their product would probably do well with my list. I asked for a copy to review, but never heard anything back.

I just want not sure if they didn’t want to give out the free copy, they some how didn’t get my email, or my list was not large enough to bother.

[Mike Merz]

Hey, Chris.

The reason also might be that JV Notify Pro has been listed in a few unsavory e-publications since it's inception as a great place to rip off products ... I've warned the merchant partners to be a little less trusting and ask for a track record if the name is not well known ... more times than not it's just someone with more nerve than substance to back their claims, and they don't bother replying.

If your request is an honest one, simply be prepared to offer a little proof that you're worthy.

Best,

Mike

[David Fransko]

And it's going to get worse Mike.

I hear JVNP is mentioned in Alok Jain's Project Quick Cash. And if that becomes the huge seller I think it will, we will see a flood of new people to this site requesting free samples.

[Mike Merz]

A lot of IM products mention JVNP as a resource ... that I'm proud of.

But I'm far from proud of those that exploit the community and it's partners by showing others how to steal from them ... those that can't do teach others the same, I guess.

Anyway ... I'm working on something for January that will greatly reduce the likelihood of that happening much ... and make JVNP bigger and better than ever in the long run ... details in the New Year. ;)

Best,

Mike

[Darren Kaye]

Some great points here.

I would also be weary giving my product to someone I have no knowledge of, but likewise not many people would have heard of me either.

I have just joined here, with a view to finding some JV partners for my launch next week. I hopefully look forward to working with a few of you guys

Thanks

Darren

[Ralf Skirr]

I agree promoting a product you have not even seen is not a good idea.

From the merchants point of view however it is understandable that product owners don't want to give free copies to every affiliate marketer and their dog...so to speak.

How would a merchant know that the affiliate
- has a list that really matches the size the affiliate says it has? It's easy to say 'hey, I have 200 thousand people on my list'
- will follow through with his promotion?
(see Mike's rant http://www.jvnotifypro.com/community/index.php/topic,353.0.html)

Ralf

[charleskirkland]

It is almost a fine line between having your JV's look at it to promote it and having people steal from you.

I have been thinking about this for a long time since I'm getting ready to launch on January 22 with a $997 phyical product.

I will being giving all the top JV's a peek with a online copy.

How do I know who to let see it and who is going to steel it?

I don't I'm just going to give access to people I know or who can prove they can help push it.

Will there still be people who steal it and never promote?

Yes, but after the first time I'm going to make sure I keep a list and block them from any future events


Thanks
Charles

[Mike Merz]

Great feedback, everybody.

The reason I warn our fellow partners more so here, is that multiple publications that have been heavily distributed list this site as 'easy pickins'. Actually, the pubs refer to a time when we had the old set up and it was much easier to do. But the fact of the matter is that I've no doubt that freebie seekers are still joining this community to simply try to coerce partners into parting with review copies by making false claims ... we've already nailed two in the last week (people forget that I know the top affiliates in every campaign I'm part of ... so saying 'I sold 400 copies of Google Payload' will only help you if you actually did).

A few things you can do to qualify a fellow JVNP partner ...

1) Ask me, Reed, Sam, Richard, or any of the other experienced partners if they've worked with the person before. If they say 'I sold 1,000 copies of X ..' we'll probably know about it.

2) Do a search, yourself ... Google, Alexa, etc. See if they pop up, and if what they're saying to you jives with the results.

3) Watch out for partners that don't use their actual name, and have no profile ... pretty self explanatory. Also keep an eye on partners that just joined a day or two previous to asking for a review copy.

As I mentioned earlier, I'm going to be making changes in the New Year that will only benefit honest, active partners ... and make this community better than ever.

Best,

Mike

[ralph]

Chris


Hello
I have just joined today and I am looking for ways to partner with someone who has access to a large list.
I would be happy to give you a sample of my products.
As a matter of fact on my main page I offer a freesample to anyone interested,all they need to do is fill out the autoresponder form.

If this meets your criteria I would be honored to hear from you
The link to my site is in my signature and I will answer any pm's

Best Regards
Ralph(dude17111) ;D

[Chris Douthit]

Ralph, I went to your site and took a look around. Your contact link and your terms link shows page cannot be displayed. The affiliate link brings up a page for trafficswarm and no affiliate information about the site?

Is this site even done?

[stephen glazer]

Hey Chris,

I would have to agree with everyone else. Not only would I not promote a product I haven't yet seen but I also would avoid products that have not been tested on the market yet.

I have had to give affiliates back door access to my product before they would agree to push it and I don't mind at all. Yeah maybe one or two snakes got free access but the majority were indeed affiliates and giving them access to my members area was well worth it.

Take a look at my product and if you think it would go well with your list let me know and I would be happy to hook you up with a free account to give it a test run.

[affiliaterockstarx]

I think there should be a monthly fee for using this forum.

It is worth it.

That will also keep the freebie seekers away.

Craig

[agbeyegbe]

I also agree that there should be some kind of monthly fee but that should be after
a free trial or something, because I remember I first came here after reading operation
affiliate storm I did not come here because of the free copies, I came here because this
is where things happen.
You can have all the e-books in the world and it won't make any difference but as a jv
partner if I do not have a feel of the product there is hardly any way I am going to promote
unless the person has a good track record.

[Marcus Schroefel]

Hey Chris,

I think it's a MUST if asking for a Joint Venture to provide a review copy
of your product right away. This way your potential JV partner doesn't
have to ask and he/she can check immediately if it fits to his range of
products.

Best regards,

Marcus

[Abi Noah]

It is important to promote products that you have tried out yourself.

Obviously if it is a dog food then you may be excused on that occasion. Actually, you can try it on your dog.

Most of the products i promote are products i have bought and use. It just goes a long way when writing a review of the product.

If you are promoting high end products, like armand's new relaunch, your costs could add up pretty quickly

I wonder if merchants would consider giving affiliates a sample of the product even if only for a limited period.

[charleskirkland]

I mail over 100 copies of the SEO CodeBreaker videos this week to JV's that I want to get signed up to for the launch on the 29th.

I did this for a few reasons.

1. I would not ask them to promote anything they have not had a chance to review or use.

2. I have been running a massive direct mail camping to get JV’s. From looking at my sign ups I can tell you that the 2 biggest factors in getting JV’s on board was JVNotifyPro and direct mail. Now combine the power of both of them and you will get a great response.

3. Did it work? Yes and I will have the proof on launch day.

4. I want to make it as easy as possible to say “YES” as I can.

5. It gives me a better reason as to why I’m calling them on the phone.


Thanks
Charles Kirkland
http://www.seocodebreaker.com/

[Chris Douthit]

Hi Charles,

I must of missed your product out their the first time. I just signed up.

[charleskirkland]

Chris

Cool I would love to have you as a JV. Let me know what you think of the vidoes.

Charles

[stiqan]

Hey I'm new here and I read this first as I was interested in this topic and I'd GLADLY share a review copy of my e-book anytime for JV's etc. That's what I came here for... giving away stuff =)

- Chris

[Chris Douthit]

Hey Charles, how did the launch last week go? I was considering adding some prizes for my next launch and was curious of you thought it added a few more jv partners?

[charleskirkland]

Chirrs


Not nearly as welled as I had planed.
First I had some technical & health issues at launch.

But one of the biggest problems is getting people to mail. I called a number of JV’s who were committed but when I came down to it only a few people really mailed. I had about 199 JV’s signed up. Most of them were freeloaders who only after launch admitted they didn’t have any list at all.

I had one JV give me a call to let me know that he posted his 2nd tier JV invite link in to a free traffic exchange and a few safe lists and that I should be getting a flood of “JV” signing up under his down line and he wanted to make sure he got his 10% commission for all the new people he was going to bring to me and how thankful I should be to him.

So the 2nd tier did not play out as well as I had hoped for.

But it was a learning experience that I’m going to take with me for the next product.

[charleskirkland]

Chris

But one thing I had working againt me was timing. Most of the JV' that did not commit were going to be mailing for Frank just 2 days after my launch date.

Even Harris Fellman told me I might be lost in the wave of that Frank had.

But to me it was a success in a number of ways.

Thanks
Charles

[Chris Douthit]

Sorry to hear you didn’t get the results you were expecting. But I can tell you I blasted for you and not Frank, oddly enough the blast I did 2 days after did far better than the one on launch day.

So far I have I have gotten through topics 1 and 2 and so far I think the product is quite good. Ill get your banner up on one of my higher site later this week. Thanks for the input Charles.

[ExMachina]

But one of the biggest problems is getting people to mail. I called a number of JV’s who were committed but when I came down to it only a few people really mailed. I had about 199 JV’s signed up. Most of them were freeloaders who only after launch admitted they didn’t have any list at all.



I know what you mean. I have a new e-book coming out next week that has had some excellent reviews. So I contacted a cross section of JV partners I have a relationship with from previous ventures and new partners... I have had 1 reply!.

I could understand if I hadn't worked with some of these people in the past but 2 I contacted earned around $80,000 from a previous JV with me last year. It's amazing how quick you can go off of people!!

I explained when i contacted some of the new potential JV partners that I didn't mind if they only had a small list as i appreciate that we all have to start somewhere but so far they haven't even acknowledged receipt of the book...

Back to doing my own promotion i think!

[charleskirkland]

Mark

I right along with you on that. But I have seen a number of higher profile launchs over the past 4 months that did not do what everybody expected.

A number of bigger name marketers are telling me things are very different from just 1 or 2 years ago.

Are product launchs are dead?

NO!

It just means we all need to start taking a different look at how we do them and the partners we have on board.

Mike might argree or disagree with the above statement.

But I think there are so many proudcts coming out that it is hard to get traction in the market place. For every launch that is posted on the front page there are lots of smaller launchs going on that you never hear about.

This makes getting people attention much harder today then ever before.

Thanks
Charles

[Scott Soloff]

I don't see anything wrong with that.

I wouldn't expect to anything less.

Best,

Scott

[Chris Douthit]

Mark, what ebook did you put out this week?

[Rick Wilson]

Are product launchs are dead?

NO!

It just means we all need to start taking a different look at how we do them and the partners we have on board.

Mike might argree or disagree with the above statement.

But I think there are so many proudcts coming out that it is hard to get traction in the market place. For every launch that is posted on the front page there are lots of smaller launchs going on that you never hear about.

This makes getting people attention much harder today then ever before.

Hi Charles,

I was having a similar conversation with another person on a different forum. He says products launches are dead because people have become immune to them. I say that is becoming more true in the "how to make money with Internet marketing" niche. NOT other niches.

As you mentioned, there are "lots of smaller launches going on that you never hear about." THAT'S where most of the successful product launches are gonna come from in the future (IMO, of course) ... all the other "non making money on the Internet" niches.

These may not be the gaudy numbers that we have seen recently in such launches as Mass Control & StomperNet but the numbers should still be very good overall for these other niche launches.

Jeff Walker (PLF) has already put out (ala MC) a few short vids of others doing well with their launches in other niches. It should be interesting what happens after Jeff releases PLF 2.0.


We'll have to wait and see, I guess. http://www.cashjunction.com/forum-images/shrug.gif


My 3 centz anyway ...

http://www.cashjunction.com/forum-images/rickakacorp_blk2.gif (http://www.cashjunction.com) 8)

[Chris Freville]

Charles (or anyone else)...

I was wondering how you did JV invites using Direct Mail?

Do you find JV partners home/business addresses and send them a personalised letter?

If so, how do you go about getting all their mailing addresses?

Chris

[charleskirkland]

Chirs

I had my assestent do it. But it took about a solid week of looking and creating a huge list of names and contact info.

I used vista print for the post cards and they will also mail them for you if you give them the address.

The key is you have to do a mailing first to see what address you have that are clean. There are lots of people who have bad contact info on there sites.

My first mailing was post cards.

Then every week of 7 weeks I mailed the Big JV's letters, cd copys of the product, post cards and some of them even got Christmas candy from me.

I started my direct mail campain around Christmas so it worked great as to why I was mailing them greeting cards.

Now I'm working on the thank you notes of everybody how mailed and those how didn't.

Charles

[Chris Douthit]

Wow Charles, you dont mess around!

[gzeus]

Is there a practice in having prospective first-time JV partners sign non-disclosure agreements (by printing out, signing and scanning them with a copy of a personal ID) or is this seen as too much?

I mean I wouldn't mind signing and providing proof if I was serious about promoting someone and taking a healthy cut. But maybe that's just me :)

[charleskirkland]

Bo

I think that would be overkill and stop your ability to get JV's dead in there tracks.

Charles

[Bobby Walker]

Perfectly understandable Chris....

How will you know if you don't ask to see it?

I have to admit, I've been duped in the past
by this same tactic from freebie seekers pretending
they are super affiliates with big lists.

Those two phrases usually gets your attention
"super affiliates" "big lists"

A great sales page and graphics is great, but
if the product isn't just as good, your list will
have a bad taste in their mouths.

I think you can only make this mistake once,
so you have to ask to see the product.

Bobby