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Will I Promote Your Product?
By Tim Gross - Internet Business Blog | April 27, 2007
A reader asks:
Would you discuss the possibility of doing a mailing to your list with me for a relevant high quality (proven) information product?
Well… probably not, although it’s possible. The reason I say that is there are tons of related products I (and other list owners) can promote that pay hefty commissions and are already proven to sell well, ie, are profitable to promote, on an affiliate program or joint venture basis.
I’m answering this question publicly because I think it’s important for people looking for endorsed mailings to understand that they often have a skewed idea of what they’re up against. I call it “inventor syndrome” (OK, I’ve never called it that, but I’m calling it that now 
heh)… If someone has a good product, all they consider is their product. For list owners, there’s a lot more to consider.
Most people with subscriber lists are on a regular time-table of mailing their list (once a week, or whatever), and they have expectations of how much money a promotion they make will bring in. If they endorse/promote something that doesn’t make as much money as something else they could have endorsed, they’re actually losing money (opportunity cost).
So the reasons it’s harder to get someone to promote your product to their list(s) is:
1) Opportunity Cost - Could they make more money from promoting something else instead? Then they won’t promote you.
2) How Do You Operate Your Business? - Some affiliate programs stress that they pay commissions for the life of the customer on all future purposes. Others say your affiliate cookie lasts for 3 months. Others purposely set up different products on different order processing systems (One on Clickbank, one through PayPal, another through their privately run affiliate program, etc) to purposefully NOT pay commissions on future products.
It makes a difference. If a list-owner promotes your $20 product and makes $10 a sale, and you aggressively lead-capture visitors into your free subscriber list and promote other high-priced products that the list-owner doesn’t get paid on, that’s a terrible arrangement for the list owner. (And most list owners have been burned by those types of work-arounds in the past).
Or, even if you only had one product but you aggressively lead-captured free subscribers and aggressively promoted tons of affiliate products at them, you’re still profiting from the list-owner’s list without compensating them.
Anyway - This is the feedback I’ve gotten from top marketers on the subject. If you understand the potential built-in objections, you’ll know better how to pitch your product to get promoted:
1) I’ve got a quality product that’s useful to your list
2) Here’s what I’m paying you in commission, our normal commission is xx% but I’ll pay you xx%
3) The sales letter has an average conversion rate of x%, and this is what you can expect by promoting it
4) I use XXXXX tracking software, and here’s how I’ll make sure you get paid
5) I’ve got my own list of xxxx enthusiasts and I’d like to cross-promote one of your products as well, which do you suggest?
Here’s A Secret: For the reasons I listed above, some marketers won’t even consider endorsing a product even if they were paid 100% commission on it without getting a return cross-promotion in return. It’s tougher these days to make these kinds of arrangements than you think.
Tip: One way to “sneak behind enemy lines” instead of asking for promotion is to sell resell rights to one of your products and let customers of your competitors be introduced to you in that way.
A list-owner may not be willing to send his subscribers to your website to check out your offer, but he may be willing to sell your product himself to his customers - And then of course inside your product will be a “free bonus when you register now” offer inside to build up your list that way.
Hope that helps, and best of luck to you - Tim
PS - If you want me to consider your product for promotion, feel free to give me the details, but answer the above 5 questions first.
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