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A strange question I ask, or is it?
You and I both know we have never seen a Pepsi commercial stating that Coca Cola is an awesome soft drink and that we should all run out and buy it. Quite the opposite.
In the real business world, the proposal to do a Joint Venture is a sophisticated operation. Two companies have to work in parallel and their products/services must complement one another before they would consider doing a joint venture.
Google does a joint venture with Samsung. Makes sense, Samsung is a brilliant hardware company that makes phones, tablets along with other devices. That is what they KNOW and that is what Google does not KNOW. Google owns Android, the open source platform that can run on these sorts of devices. That is what they KNOW and what Samsung does NOT know. Match made in heaven.
Google is not going to do a Joint Venture with Apple and promote the iPhone and get Apple to reciprocate by promoting devices with the Android OS on it. The same reason Google is not going to promote Facebook in exchange for Facebook promoting the +1 network.
Why? Because they are in direction competition. This does not make logical sense. And this leads me to a big question...
Why does it happen ONLINE then?
The main reason is because these are "business models" that gurus completely rely on. If they didn't get their "turn" where the 10 people's product whom they promoted reciprocated, promoted theirs, they would have absolutely no business. I am serious when I say this.
This works in a vicious cycle and works because of the massive influx of people coming onto the Internet looking for opportunity. There will always be people looking to make money and there will always be a group of gurus to benefit from this.
The most effective way to do this without a brand is to join a circle JV promotion system, develop a mediocre product, launch it, and earn a chunk of money. Then start working on another mediocre product, in the meantime they earn money off of products that they are obligated to promote, yet have no product knowledge of (or do they care about).
That in a nutshell is how it works.
But who is compromised in this situation?
The customer. You. Me. The customer.
Unfortunately the people that are impacted most by the JV circle phenomenon, are those that need the help the most. Those seeking opportunity, those seeking to improve their financial situation. Those seeking to find a quality program.
The attitude of the person that is partnering to sell you this product is quite the contrary though. They are selling you the product out of obligation and they are doing it purely as an attempt to make money.
I have issue with this. I think that the goal of anyone that is selling something or marketing something should be to offer a service or a product that surprises the customer with it's high quality. It should not be just to make money.
What about a BRAND?
Let your service and brand speak for itself. If you don't have a brand, then this is because your brand has been adversely affected by something you have done, likely in the name of money versus the customer. Likely in the name of one competing marketer promoting somebody else's product they know nothing about (it could be the worst scam in the world for all they know).
I personally care a lot about our brand to ever compromise it by promoting a sub-par product, in particular one that is within the exact same niche. Honestly, how does this make sense. To be truthful, it would be like saying "You could buy my product for far less which is superior, but instead I recommend you buy this product which is really not that good, but I make money by telling you about it".
A brand is strange concept in the Internet Marketing world. but shouldn't be.
Don't get TRAPPED in one of these circles?
I know I rant on occasion, and that is when I have reason to. I want you to do yourself a favor today and consider everything I have said before buying a product. Also, if you are on several Internet marketing lists, you need to consider dropping the ones that continually are promoting other people's products. If you are dealing with a "Pepsi" that is selling "Coke" without a meaningful explanation (other than just to buy it), you need to stay away from this person.
If you want to see how the behavior is in the real world with competing products, you have to look no further than the Godfather commercial Pepsi vs. Coke (look it up on Youtube). This commercial always gets me for a good laugh! :)
What are your thoughts on my comparison? Am I out to lunch or bringing a systematic problem (and moral problem) to the surface within the Internet Marketing industry. Would love to hear you feedback!
This is a really good article and so true, especially the part where you just keep promoting in an endless cycle of mediocre products!
I am so grateful that Wayne and I stumbled across your WA site. We did it quite accidentally. We were looking at another Internet Marketing program. They offered lots of bells and whistles, but when we asked hard and probing questions there was lots of back-peddling. The concept of Internet Marketing resonated with us. It seemed legit. We are so glad we kept digging until we found a company that could 'over-deliver'. We are amazed at all the services you offer. We've both been surprised, I think, in how much work is involved in learning this system. At the same time, there is a real sense of pride knowing we are creating a legit business with real value. There are no shortcuts to providing awesome service. Thank you for reminding us on a consistent level that this does require a real work ethic and lots of persistence. You are changing the lives of people world over. We hope to do the same, in a way that feels win-win for all who enter our websites.
Thanks for the kind words Becky! I do appreciate you guys and I think that you are both headed in an amazing direction. People tend to look for something that is out of the box, ready to go and ready to succeed but those of us that have created success and have worked hard for it, realize that this is just a pipe dream. Success takes hard work and LONG TERM success takes brand. If you can create your brand from the initial starting point, you are setting yourself up for a long and very successful journey through IM. If you ever need a hand with anything, you know where to find me. :)
Yes we do, Kyle....and we will ask....if we have questions. Thanks for being there to answer them.
A great statement. Integrity is something that cannot be taken away nor can ethics. Brands can be diminished very quickly, but they are very hard to create. I don't think that brands are on the forethought of many companies within within the IM space these days, however there are some great branding examples of Internet based companies. There is some hope and some really awesome stuff going on right now. :)
While involving in the internet marketing world for a certain time, I always wonder why some internet marketers of 'big names' promote the same 'big' product at the same time? Is the product really good? I have no knowledge at this moment to say who is mainly for money and who is helping people. I just judge by my instant feeling. After reading this article, I have more grounds to make a choice. Thx. Furthermore, I am puzzle if affiliate marketing works. Without using the product myself, how can I know it is good or not and promote it? How can the affiliate marketers promote one product after one product? If I have knowledge and experiences, for example, in beauty and health and have my own products, how can I promote other people's product in beauty and health?
If the product is very similar (coke and pepsi) and they are promoting it, chances are it is for the money. If it is complimentary (pizza and coke), then chances are the person is ethically promoting something that will help you out. If you get several emails coming to your for the same product, this is exactly what I was referring to in this article. This is the circle.
What you're saying Kyle is so obvious that I often receive offers for the same "New Product" from three or four marketers within a couple of hours, and they all use the same email sales letter! They don't even bother to change it a bit...it's entirely the same. They will all say something like, "I've been working with my good friend on this awesome, new breakthrough product..."
Yeah, pretty tacky. These are called swipe emails and the product owner writes these for the people that are going to promote them so they really have to do "no work". They just send out the email and collect the money from the poor people that fall victim to this circle. This clearly indicates they have no product knowledge and haven't taken the time to look at what they are promoting. I just don't understand how you can promote something that you don't understand...that is why these are not businesses, they are schemes.
Great article Kyle, I have recently become a Coke and Pepsi wholesaler myself, that's what our new business is, but getting to the heart of what you said, I like the way you do business, you are ethical but oddly enough you are very successful and I see no reason you should not sleep well at night, I know who I am going to learn from, and it aint the guy promoting there competition
Yeah, it is quite apparent that our ethical is different from many others. I actually don't think many of the people out there promoting other people's products (that they have no clue as to what they are) and that are pumping out low quality "junk" in attempt to earn revenue realize they are doing anything wrong. Again, I think this comes down to the floating bar of what some people think is ethical and what others done. Our goal is to remain near the top.
You learn something new everyday. This just so happens to be one of those things. Thank you kyle you always have good information. The funny thing is I bought a few services before wealthy affiliate and most of them do JV's . One of them sends me an email everyday like "Don't tell your wife about this product" or "its your last chance to be successful". I learned the hard way last month but after joining W/A i really feel l came to the right place. thank you again
Yes, if you are on almost any list, you will notice that people promote a new product almost daily. That is because they are part of the circle or promotions and they are waiting for "their turn" where everyone can promote their next product launch. These people don't know what is in the products they are promoting, nor do they care. It is about money and has very little to do with relationships or their customer.
thankfully i caught on to that quickly. You have to have a relationship with your customers in some way or they wont trust you. The reason why mcdonalds is so popular is because they've been around for so long that generations grew up with it and the food is "addicting" even tho its the crappiest food you can eat out there, but at first when they started must have had a good relationship with the customers and selling quality food at the time in order for them to be this big today. If they sold what they sell now back when they first started tho they would be crushed >:0)
This is so true, and I read through as if I was listening to a sermon from a favourite preacher. Great article Kyle. I have learnt a lot from this.
Glad you liked it Josh. Far too many people don't understand what is really happening and if I can wake a few people up to the idea that they are getting promoted to, not because a product is good...rather because it is done out of money and obligation, perhaps I will prevent a few people from wasting money going forward.
This article really gave lots of thoughts to me. When I was starting in IM, I was also looking for some niches that can give me "more money." Only to find out that it is really hard to write articles about something you are not so familiar with. In the end, you will just be selling and not really helping. I can relate with what the article is saying and now I learned the lesson. Customers are of more value than money - I really agree with this now.
Exactly Cham, customers are far more valuable. The money is a by product of selling something, but you can sell far more to a happy customer than one whom you have "peeved" off. So, really, long term success is proportional to how you treat your customers and it starts with "what you recommend to them".
What's really interesting is when you're on several folks e-mail list and you get several e-mails saying the person has an exclusive deal for you. Got to watch out for stuff like that. Thanks for calling attention to it.
Yeah, they want to exclusively "hurry" before you get the next email from the next person on the list. Glad I could have written something that is revealing to many Steve, hopefully it will prevent people to succumb to many of these offers and do their due diligence (other than taking someone's word for it) that a product is of quality.
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