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When becoming an affiliate marketer, you do need to consider your reputation.  If you continually recommend products or services that are of poor quality – your list (and I’ll talk more about creating a list for affiliate marketing in later articles) or community will not trust you.

Today, I would like to share my Golden Guidelines that I like to follow when creating an Affiliate Marketing, or any other sales, campaign.

Can you honestly recommend the product?

Have I used the product or service myself? Or… Has someone you know, like and trust used the product or service and recommends it?

Of course, first hand knowledge is far better however, it is entirely reasonable to make a recommendation based on the recommendation of a trusted colleague or friend.

Is the organization or person selling the product reputable?

By this, I mean will they support their product and will they stand up to the guarantees they provide?

Is it tough to determine how reputable someone is in the online world? Yes, it is – because often we don’t know who is really behind selling the product in the first place.  However, it is possible to conduct a search for the product name (and website) and see what it really being said about the product.  See if someone has done a review and provides a demonstration of it…

I have to say that I think a lack of anything negative being said, is almost as bad as too many negative things.

The reason I say that is because often many of the websites you will find when conducting this type of search are affiliate sites promoting the product, so of course they will say good things.  If there are no negative things being said – it is highly likely that only a few sales have been made – and maybe the product is all that it is said to be.

One final way to determine the reputation of the vendor is to sign up to their list and become part of their community. Read the emails they send, absorb what they have to say – you will soon get a feeling of whether you want to promote them or not.

How does the Vendor manage their affiliates?

Is it through an affiliate management network like Clickbank or do they run their own?  If they run their own affiliate management system – do your homework and find out how they treat their affiliates.

I was tempted to promote a product some time ago and while doing my research found a few references to late affiliate payments, or the payments not being made at all.

Does this product or service match your niche closely enough?

If your niche is Dog Training, why would you recommend a online marketing product to your customers or list?  I mean really!  People have joined that specific list or community to find out about Dog Training.  Sure, some of them may have an interest in online marketing – but is it worthwhile risking alienating the majority of that community to catch those few?

Nothing annoys me as much as receiving an email from a vendor in a niche (let’s say dog training) telling me about something completely unrelated to that niche.   To me, I get a feeling of desperation: something like, “I’m not making enough money from what I’m doing, so let’s see if this sticks.”

Be targeted!

Maintain your integrity – it is possible to be a gracious marketer and create a massive community who Know You, Like You and Trust You simply by following these simple guidelines.

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