This article is about an Internet scam technique or a cool affiliate marketing trick, depending on how you look at it. Did you ever read a pitch page and think: wow that sounds too good to be true? Happens to me all the time, especially I seem to find sites that promise for a limited time only you can learn the secrets of how to make millions online. I could use a few million, but I rationalize and think it must be too good to be true. So what do I do, I check out the offer, I search Google for “product name” plus “review” or “scam” and see what others say about it. The result might surprise you.
What did I find?
The result on Google and other search engines is there are hundreds of reviews with links saying the product is a scam…but clicking the links reveals something different. Each article is carefully crafted to say how they thought the product was a scam too but then they tried it and experienced great success. Hmm…seems fishy.
So what’s going on here?
Well, welcome to the world of affiliate marketing. Good marketers know that people most commonly search first for the product then secondly they search for reviews of the product. Competing on the product name is often difficult, however, competing on “product name” plus “review” is often very easy and setting up hundreds of affiliate pages that repeat the process is even easier.
My experiment
Recently, I wrote an article Tweet Tank Review about the Twitter software called Tweet Tank. The goal of the article was to drive traffic to my affiliate link. I used my knowledge of SEO and the affiliate marketing tricks to see how effective they were and surprise, surprise my article ranks top 10 for both “Tweet Tank review” and “Tweet Tank scam”. Another cool thing that resulted from it was over 400 people in a 24 hour period went from my review to my affiliate link. Now, before everyone gets upset with me for tricking them, my plan was not to deceive anyone. I actually highly recommend the product and use it on a daily basis.
My point is…
Most people use search engines to review a product for them. Savvy marketers can take advantage of the authority and trust given by being the top-ranked result. Many people believe if a review site is ranked #1 it must be an unbiased review. Remember this is not always the case. Don’t trust everything you see on the Internet. The best way to avoid wasting money or falling for Internet scams is to be aware of them and know how they work. On the other hand, if you plan to promote products try testing out my little experiment for yourself.
Your experience
Tell me about your experiences with such Internet scams and I’ll post your comments here. Write to me at allanp73@gmail.com
Any questions about my affiliate marketing tricks, please feel free to contact me at 905-417-9470 or by email at allanp73@gmail.com
