Should You do Product Reviews?
By Alan | May 24, 2009
You might be wondering if you should do product reviews of Internet marketing products on your website or blog. In most cases, the answer is a resounding yes…but with a small caveat. 
The Caveat
If you have visited the current review sites out there you probably realized that most of those reviews are fake. Meaning that the person writing the review has not really reviewed the product. The sole purpose of that review is to sell you the product so the writer can collect a commission. In my book that is not a review but a sales pitch thinly disguised as a product review.
Those people are devaluing the product review format. I don’t know about you but when I’m searching on Google for a product review I know that all the “click here to find out if product review is a scam” AdWords ads are worthless. They won’t have a real product review so why bother checking it out. Sadly even most of the so-called product reviews that rank well on the firs page of Google are fake.
There is no doubt that if you are an affiliate marketer, product reviews are an excellent way to offer more information about a product than what a sales page delivers. This is a great opportunity to set yourself apart and really deliver the goods because you will have more knowledge about the product because you have purchased it, love it, and are now selling it, or you have been asked to review it by the product creator. Either instance puts you in the position of product expert, so take this job seriously.
I suggest you start by reviewing the products you already own. If like me, you’ve been in Internet marketing for longer than a minute you’ve already purchased an e-book or 10. Plus you probably have already purchased some sort of Internet marketing related software. I’m sure all those products you already own have an affiliate program. If can’t find the affiliate program email the author and ask them about it. This will allow you to have REAL product reviews on your site.
If there is a product you want to review out there check the merchants terms. Many do not mind if you buy via your own affiliate link if you’re planning to provide a review so you can promote their product. However if you found the product because another affiliate sent you to it than you can not buy it via your own affiliate link since you’re basically stealing the other affiliates commission by buying via your own affiliate link. Don’t buy via your own link to get a discount do so only if you plan to review the product for a review.
You can also ask the merchant for a review copy. If you’re just starting it is very unlikely that they will acquiesce to your request. But once you get established and your review site becomes popular you will not only find merchants will send you a review copy after you ask them but many will contact you offering you a review copy.
Setting Up a Review Page
A review page can be done in different ways; you can follow a set format or just wing it with some pros and cons. The main thing to remember is that you are not selling the product here. What you are doing is warming them up and then sending them on to the sales page through your affiliate link. This is also called a pre-sell.
A great product review page should tell more about the product, give some insider scoop, be your honest opinions, talk about the benefits to the review reader, mention a negative, explain precisely how you have benefited, and allow your enthusiasm to shine through. You are not only educating the reader, you’re making them want to click through to the product’s sales page.
I think the most captivating thing you can do in a product review is offer personal proof. For example, if I bought product xyz and found it to be:
easy to install and use (and I’m not techy at all),
cut my research time in half,
allowed me to write double the number of articles,
which then got me double the traffic and double the sales…
I’ve got personal proof as well as a list of benefits. Do you think my enthusiasm for the product will shine through? You bet.
People want to know about a product because they want to know if it will save them time, make them money, allow them to make money while they are sleeping, is easy to use, and is a good value. If there is something wrong with it, you need to be honest and tell them. It might not be for beginners, or it might be grey hat, or maybe it’s for beginners and not experienced marketers. There should at least be some small negative or two that you can share, because you want them to continue to trust you and your reviews. No one product is good for every person.
Product reviews are tailor made for blogs. You might have a product review blog that is nothing but product reviews, or you might have an Internet marketing blog where product reviews can be one of the things you share with your readers. Make yours honest and believable and tell your own story. If you do, you should have readers clicking through your affiliate link and one step closer to purchasing.
If you want to see an example of my Internet marketing product review page you can click here:
http://www.imnirvana.com/alanreviews/
As you can see, Wordpress is perfect for this. I use a wonderful review blog style theme and plugin that makes setting up the reviews a snap. The reviews come with “star ratings” and readers can even add their own reviews which makes my reviews even more powerful since social proof is huge. Readers don’t only get my reviews but also reviews of others. This is one of the reasons why Amazon is so popular. You get to see the reviews and ratings of other customers. You can check the review Wordpress theme and plugin I use here.
If you’re new to affiliate marketing Rosalind Gardner’s ebook, The Super Affiliate Handbook, is a fantastic guide. She made millions as a super affiliate by setting up a review style site in the dating niche. Click here to learn more about The Super Affiliate Handbook.
About the Author
Alan Petersen is a full-time Internet marketer. Sign up for his free newsletter to receive tips, news, and product reviews about Internet marketing:
Topics: Affiliate Marketing | 5 Comments »
How to Repurpose PLR (Video Report)
By Alan | May 20, 2009
I received some awesome feedback to my PLR Action video post. There seems to be a lot of a-ha moments on how to get more mileage from your PLR content by repurposing it. So I’ve recorded a follow up video. Here I get into specifics and I show you the entire process from start to finish.
About the Author
Alan Petersen is a full-time Internet marketer. Sign up for his free newsletter to receive tips, news, and product reviews about Internet marketing:
Topics: PLR Video Case Study | No Comments »
How to Re-purpose PLR Easily in 17 Minutes
By Alan | May 17, 2009
In this video report I go through how I re-purposed a PLR article into a video presentation using Google Docs, a blog post, and an email for my subscribers in 17 minutes.
About the Author
Alan Petersen is a full-time Internet marketer. Sign up for his free newsletter to receive tips, news, and product reviews about Internet marketing:
Topics: PLR, Video | 3 Comments »
4 Easy Ways To Build Your List
By Alan | May 15, 2009
Yesterday I blogged about the the supposed “death of email marketing” and I shared 4 easy ways you can build your list. Here is a video post that goes into more detail on the 4 ways to build your list.
Please enable Javascript and Flash to view this Viddler video.About the Author
Alan Petersen is a full-time Internet marketer. Sign up for his free newsletter to receive tips, news, and product reviews about Internet marketing:
Topics: Video, list building | 2 Comments »
Hardly The Death of Email Marketing
By Alan | May 14, 2009
Lately there has been a lot of buzz in the Internet marketing community about the “death of email marketing”. Some folks believe that with the explosion in the popularity of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook that email will be a thing of the path. Some are suggesting on the Internet marketing forums and on blogs, that email marketing is dead.
Look, I don’t know what the future holds but it’s way too early to declare email marketing dead. I wish the death of the “death of” reports would arrive right quick!
No matter how you slice it, it’s still very important that you continue to build your list.
I’m a firm believer in social media and it’s darling sites like Twitter (you can follow me on Twitter here) but list building is a model that has been at the forefront of the direct response industry for over 100 years–from send a self-addressed-stamped-envelope (SASE) to enter your name and
email. It’s a mistake to declare it dead. I mean even mail order is still alive and kicking. Check your mail and you’ll see.
Okay, back to email marketing. It’s important to remember that while getting traffic to your website is very important, it’s not
going to mean much if they visit you once and never return. To keep them interested in you and your products, you need to bring
them into your fold. In other words, you want them on your list. That way you can give them helpful information, establish a
relationship of trust, and market your outstanding products or other people’s products to them.
Let me share four ways to grow your list…
1. Have an opt-in box in the top fold of your website. That means those who come to your site will see the box without having to
scroll down. You have a better chance of catching them this way, since people often only spend seconds to a few minutes on a website
and don’t want to bother with scrolling down.
You might have an opt-in box, but what is it for? It should be there to offer something free, irresistible, and valuable to your
target market in exchange for their email address. People are savvy on the Internet these days so you have to bring your “A”
game. You want to give value so people think, “Wow, this guy knows his stuff. I’m going to stick with him and see what else he
knows.” The offer should be irresistible in that you know something they might not and this could help them out. These are
hungry people, targeted people, people who just might buy from you.
2. Another way to grow your list is to offer a free product in a giveaway event. The premise here is to offer something of value and if people perusing the giveaway event like the look of your product and your squeeze page, they will opt-in to get said product. Now, these opt-ins are not necessarily going to stay on your list. They might opt in for the free gift and opt right out again. At first you feel rejected by these freebie seekers, but it’s best they get
off your list right away or they’ll be the ones calling “spam” on any email you send them in the future.
It is true that people who join your list for the freebie in the giveaway are probably not targeted customers, but some will be.
It’s a numbers game; 700 people grabbing your product at a giveaway and 300 of them opting out the next month leaves you with 400
targeted potential customers. And that’s 400 people on your list you didn’t previously have, right?
I’ve participated in several giveaway events and each event adds at least 200 subscribers to my list. Well worth it since it’s easy to setup once you have your offer ready.
3. An additional way to increase your list is to set up a Warrior Special Offer (WSO) on the Warrior Forum and instead of selling a
product you’ve created, offer it for free with an opt-in. Marketers do this to not only grow their lists, but to get
testimonials and feedback that will help them make their product better. A lot of these people might just be looking for the next
free thing, but they also end up learning from you and will be your loyal supporter. I’ve added over 500 leads doing this myself. Well
worth the $20 fee to post the WSO.
4. Finally, you have the Ad-Swap. The premise here is that you and another list owner cross promote each other. They send your
promotion to their list and you do the same to yours. I’ve added hundreds of subscribers to my list doing this. It’s very effective
because the person sending out your promotion to their list already has a relationship so it’s a warm mailing.
These four ideas, having an opt-in enticement, joining giveaways, ad-swaps, and offering a product for free on the Warrior Forum, are
some of the ways you can grow your list.
Remember getting a big list is not an overnight thing for a relatively unknown marketer; it will be an ongoing but worthwhile
process. You also need to ensure that you offer your new subscribers value with good, quality content. Don’t just flog them
to death promoting everything under the sun. That’s the easiest way of losing your subscribers.
My friend and mentor Lee McIntyre has put together a phenomenal video presentation where he shows very clearly, why list buidling is
a must for your business. The video is free, no opt-in, nothing for sale. Watch this free video training now.
About the Author
Alan Petersen is a full-time Internet marketer. Sign up for his free newsletter to receive tips, news, and product reviews about Internet marketing:
Topics: list building | No Comments »
How Not To Use Twitter
By Alan | May 13, 2009
A lot of buzz surrounding Twitter lately. A lot of people offering suggestions on ow to use Twitter. Myself included. Check out my latest product, Twitter Unwrapped. I interviewed 6 Twitter experts on how they use Twitter successfully in their businesses.
It’s up to you how you want to use Twitter unless you want to just flog links and become a Twitter spammer. So in this video I’ll show you how not to use Twitter or how to get your Twitter account suspended one tweet at a time.
Please enable Javascript and Flash to view this Viddler video.About the Author
Alan Petersen is a full-time Internet marketer. Sign up for his free newsletter to receive tips, news, and product reviews about Internet marketing:
Topics: twitter | No Comments »
How to Easily Build Your List with Giveaway Events
By Alan | May 11, 2009
In this video report I go over how you can easily build your with giveaway events. Put your negative preconceptions about giveaways away. Done right giveaway events can hundreds of subscribers to your list per event. In this video report I cover four ways you can easily create your own gift for these events so you don’t use the same ole PLR report that has been doing the rounds in a zillion giveaway sites.
Here are links to two upcoming giveaway’s I’m participarting in. After watching the video above, click these links and get going!
Scott Drake’s Memorial Day Giveaway (starts: 05/25/09 - ends: 06/14/09)
Reed Floren’s Top Marketing Downloads (starts: 05-15-09 - ends: 05-22-09)
About the Author
Alan Petersen is a full-time Internet marketer. Sign up for his free newsletter to receive tips, news, and product reviews about Internet marketing:
Topics: giveaway | No Comments »
How Gmail Led To My Email Subscription Forced Spring Cleaning
By Alan | May 8, 2009
For the past two years I’ve used one Gmail email address when I sign up to email lists, so I was bit surprised when my friend Scott Drake told me my email bounced back to him when he sent out an email for his most excellent upcoming giveaway: Memorial Day Giveaway (side note: you still have time to sign up as a contributor).
I went to check it out and sure thing the addy is dead as disco. I get this error message:
Remote host said: 550 5.2.1 The email account that you tried to reach is disabled
Not sure what’s going on and Google’s Gmail support isn’t very good so I have no clue what is going on. I use one main Gmail account (which still works fine) then I have the other Gmail addresses forwarded to my main Gmail account. So I actually haven’t logged into that newsletter email addy in a couple years since I just get the emails forwarded to my main account. So not sure if that’s part of the problem.
So now basically, I’ve been unsubscribed from many Internet marketing lists in one swoop. The funny things is that I’ve always meant to spend time cleaning up my email subscriptions and opt-out of crappy ones, etc. but never got around to it (aside from one at a time unsubscriptions to really bad lists). That’s now a moot point since Gmail has forced my hand to do some spring cleaning of my email list subscriptions.
At first I was bit freaked out but then a calming force came over me. I’m basically starting new. A lot of folks don’t bother building a relationship with their mailing list instead they just flog product after product anyway so how can that be a loss to me?
I used to think it was so important to see what everyone was mailing so I could learn from them but, since most Internet marketers send the same stuff using the same old tired lines it’s not that big of a learning tool as I thought.
As I made an inventory of lists I definitely will rush out to re-opt in, I only came up with around 10. Wow, only 10 out of the probably 50-100 lists I was on. Maybe even more.
This has really made me think. If this happened to one of my subscribers would they rush out to re-subscribe to my list with a new email address or would they not even bother?
When I thought of the reason why I’m running out to re-subscribe to certain people’s lists vs. not giving a damn on the other ones–it comes down to a simple reason: value. Marketers like Lee McIntyre, Lynn Terry, Jim Cockrum, John Thornhill, and others. Their emails provide quality information and that is of great value to me. They provide free quality information that is worth more money than the stuff the others are flogging for $17, $27, $97 a pop.
Their promotions are always well researched and reviewed. Not just “hey buy this because I tell you and I’ll get a commission. I know that if I’m buying something they promote it will be a quality product.
That all adds up to value for me. And as a subscriber it’s important that I’m seeing a two way street. I’m getting valuable information/prodcuts you get a commisson or sale of your own products. That’s a win-win.
That is the email list I strive to run myself. Every time I send out an email to my list I’m going to think back to this day and I’ll ask myself: If this persons email address would suddenly die would they run out to re-subscribe to my list with a new email address? Or would they not even care/notice?
About the Author
Alan Petersen is a full-time Internet marketer. Sign up for his free newsletter to receive tips, news, and product reviews about Internet marketing:
Topics: email marketing | 2 Comments »
Jim Cockrum’s 36K Auction
By Alan | May 4, 2009
A recent auction by Jim Cockrum ended with a winning bid of $36,600! The winner will have Jim Cockrum’s team create the winner their very own information product!
Why would anyone pay 36K for this? I discuss this during the video.
Click Here After Watching This Video To Learn More About Roy Carter’s Masterclass!
About the Author
Alan Petersen is a full-time Internet marketer. Sign up for his free newsletter to receive tips, news, and product reviews about Internet marketing:
Topics: information marketing | No Comments »
Internet Marketing Dog Video
By Alan | May 1, 2009
I’ve read that integrating your pets into your marketing campaings is an effective strategy. Which is why President Obama now has a dog for the first time running around in the White House and why all the other presidents have also had dogs.
So I’m trying it out. Watch this video then go buy all my stuff.
About the Author
Alan Petersen is a full-time Internet marketer. Sign up for his free newsletter to receive tips, news, and product reviews about Internet marketing:
Topics: Internet Marketing | No Comments »