Last month I was a guest on Kevin Rogers’ podcast and we talked about how I’m probably the biggest product launch jerk there is.
How so?
Well, for one thing I don’t like participating in them.
In my way of thinking, and from raw experience over the years, I make FAR more sales when I don’t participate in a launch and sell a product (in the rare cases where I sell products as an affiliate) weeks or even months later.
Why is this?
Because of something I heard Ken McCarthy say:
(And I’ve found it to be true)
He said (generally speaking) 5% of people in a given market will buy anything and everything.
They are the hyper-buyers.
They buy from every launch.
Every special sale.
Every offer dangled in front of them.
There are many reasons why I don’t like selling to this 5% — including a lot of this group (not everyone in it, obviously) are the biggest refunders, whiners, complainers, and disloyal customers in many cases. Doesn’t make ‘em bad people. Just not the kind of buyers I want.
Anyway, these are also the launch buyers, too.
Ooh they loooooove them some product launches.
They eagerly await everyone’s new launch, and the discount people usually get a launches, and the intoxicating hype and fanfare associated with a lot of launches.
And, I am happy to let the other affiliates get them.
(Which they will, during a launch.)
Me?
I go after the 10%-25% of a market who is skeptical.
This segment is 2-5 times bigger than the hyper buyer population.
And, most of them are turned off by a lot of the typical fake excitement marketing ploys and tactics, copy-and-paste affiliate emails, and all the hype and hootenanny. That means, the vast majority of marketers have no clue how to sell to them, making it way easier for me to. (Especially after all the other affiliates have tired themselves out during the launch).
Hey, when everyone else zigs, elBenbo zags.
(If’n you catch my drift…)
This bigger group are thinkers, too.
They carefully think before buying, sometimes need to read an ad several times (and will love daily emails done the way I do them), wait to see what the reviews are before buying, and so on.
Those are my kind of buyers:
(1) There’s a lot of them (way more than the hyper buyer population)
(2) They likey my kind of marketing (and turned off by most others)
(3) They like to be sold, but hate being pitched
(With my system, you sell, not just pitch.)
There’s also another aspect to this.
A technical side that has never sat well with me.
And that is imperfect tracking technology giving other affiliates credit for someone’s sales.
Example:
On the last launch I was an affiliate for, there were way too many people getting credit for sales generated, with proof (people who could not have possibly been cookied or retargeted by anyone else), that other affiliates got credit for. And, let’s face it, for every one that was caught there could have been others weren’t caught.
I’ll never know for sure.
But, as a wise man once said:
“There ain’t just one ant in your house”
BTW, I don’t want to imply there was any “foul play” involved.
There wasn’t.
It was purely a technology thing.
I’m also not the only one who’s experienced it over the years. And, I don’t know about you my little droogling, but I have no desire to waste my time and talents making sales for other people.
So there you have it.
Why I don’t do launches as an affiliate.
Incidentally:
The September “Email Players” issue talks about my 4 criteria for picking a product to sell as an affiliate. I’ve had some pretty good success with affiliate marketing, beating people with far bigger lists and influence than me. And, while my email system has a lot to do with it, picking the *right* product is far more important and profitable.
The formula I use has been worth a lot to me.
I can’t even count how much at this point.
And, I reckon it could be to you, too.
(Assuming you do affiliate marketing.)
Time’s getting tight with this, though.
Subscribe here in time to get it before it goes to print:
Ben Settle
