Are you an Honest Affiliate?

By David McKenzie

What is the biggest fear for people on the internet?

It is probably the fear of losing money, or being taken in by a scam.
It is the fear of having to deal with dishonest people.

As an affiliate with your own web site you need to take this fear
away from your visitors. You need to be up front and honest with your
visitors at all times. You need to install in them a feeling of trust
and security.

It is a virtual certainty that most of your visitors will not buy on
the first visit. So your objective should be to give them a reason to
come back. A good place to start is to ensure your site is honest.

If you are honest and not telling tall tales on your site then people
will find your story more believable. This will mean they are more
likely to return.

When they return they already know that you have an honest site as
they established that on their first visit. On this visit they are
more likely to dig a little deeper into your site. They are more
likely to be pro-active.

When they return they might even subscribe to your newsletter if you
have one. Then you have established a relationship.

If you offer a newsletter make sure you tell them you will not give
their email address away to anyone. Then after they have received a
few issues of your newsletter they trust you a bit more.

Now they are ready to become a sub-affiliate of one of your affiliate
programs. Now you are making money for every sale that they make.
Isn't that the objective for affiliates?

Of course! By being honest at the very beginning in your first
paragraph on your home page, you are starting to build a long term
relationship.

Another advantage of being honest is people will recommend your site
to others. And those people will in turn recommend your site to even
more people. Suddenly you have a web site that people feel safe and
secure about. They are happy to buy from your site. They are happy to
join up to affiliate programs from your site. They find you honest.

Then other webmasters will put a link to your site on their site
because they believe that you are a trustworthy online business to
deal with. This in turn will bring more traffic.

So next time you think about writing that headline "$30 thousand in
30 days Guaranteed" stop and think. Am I being honest? Will my
visitors believe me?

And if the answer is no, then start being HONEST. Many dollars over
many years is better than one quick dollar today.


You may re-publish this article at your web site or in your e-zine as
long as the following resource box is included at the end of the
article and as long as you link to the URL and the email address in
the resource box:

Are you an Honest Affiliate? - article by David McKenzie of
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