Well, the saga of my experiences as an Affiliate Marketer continues. My faithful WAHM readers may be familiar with my promise to keep you informed on how things are going with being an Affiliate Marketing Independent Consultant.
It’s not going. In fact, it’s going bye-bye.
My list of banners and buttons is getting smaller. Tonight I resigned from 4 more companies. Another one bites the dust. Why you may ask?
Well, I’m sick and tired of having to meet “Quota” each month or quarterly. Many of these Affiliate sales companies require you to make a quarterly purchase of at least…$25.00, which, I don’t feel like spending on something I may or may not need if I haven’t had any sales. There’s only so much I can put aside for Christmas, or give to my DDs.
I’ve decided to take the advice of a member of a WAHM forum who had commented on the same issue. Instead of spending money on Quota items, I’d rather spend the money and invest it into inventory for my own stores, either my eBay store or my Moomette’s Magnificents Olde Towne Shoppes. Actually, the way the economy is going right now, my gas tank might even be a good place to spend this “new-found” money.
The competition on the forums is fierce, with too many moms hawking the same affiliate products. They’re hawking the products through Yahoo Groups (don’t get me started again on those); through traffic exchanges; through forums. Not only that, turf wars exist. For example, before tonight’s drop and run, I had posted on a forum and apparently had stepped on someone’s toes ~ and heard about it. Give me a break. Thinking there were too many cooks in the kitchen, I resigned.
Here’s another example of why I dropped out. I invested in a domain name for one of the companies, and had it redirected to my affiliate URL. Each time I thought I had made a sale, I got an email from the company owner saying “we’re having a problem with the server ~ sorry, it came through the main site, not your affiliate URL ~ commission denied.” This happened one too many times. I wasn’t born yesterday, lady.
To add to this headache, I know I have “downlines” who signed up under me. One company refused to give me the name of my downline, except under pressure when I asked. Think I’ve seen any money in my Paypal account from any of her sales? Not.
I’m still giving the companies a shot that don’t require a sign-up fee, nor require that you meet a monthly quota.
So tonight ladies, I’m just here to suggest that ~ perhaps your hard earned money can be better spent someplace else, rather than trying to meet a company owner’s mandated quota each month and fattening their pockets.
It’s brutal out there, and besides, it’ll cut down significantly on the junior high chit-chat e-mails when I unsubscribe from those Yahoo Groups.
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About Moomettes
Hi Cindi – I can totally understand your frustration! There are many disreputable companies out there that do not deliver on their promises unfortunately. I did want to clarify though that you seem to be talking about Affiliate Marketing and Direct Sales as if they are the same thing and they really aren’t. Direct Sales companies have actual products that you will physically sell to someone either in appointments or home parties. It doesn’t sound like that is what you were doing? I love direct sales and cannot imagine working a direct sales business and losing money, you sell a product, you make a commission, it is great. If you are still open to direct sales (the real ones!) get involved in the Direct Selling Women’s Alliance. They have a huge library of support materials and trainings for anyone who wants to earn a good income working smarter, not harder. Good luck in all you do!
Karen
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Hi Karen ~
Thanks for your upbeat response & the clarification regarding affiliate marketing v. direct sales!
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Hi Cindi,
Thanks for sharing your experience on Affliate marketing. I have been very skeptical about it and have yet to really do any affliate marketing.. even products that I have pulled from clickbank before doesn’t really seem to bring in any real $$. I think ultimately the best way would be to sell my own products but I haven’t had the time to create any lately
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