Boost Affiliate Income 2: Honest Product Reviews

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This guy made US$750 in 4 days! Check out how he did it!

Hi again. I’m Nicole Dean and I’m John’s Guest Expert here this week, doing a series about “5 Ways to Boost your Affiliate Income”. Obviously he’s qualified to write these, but it’s always fun to have someone new come by to share their ideas.

Yesterday, I chatted about the importance of having a list so that you can earn more from every visitor to your website.

Hopefully you took my advice, so that all of these other methods of increasing your affiliate income will work better. But, if not, there’s still time. Go back and reread the first tip of this series here: Start a List to Boost Affiliate Income.

Our next strategy is all about showing a reason why someone should buy what you’re recommending. Yes, it’s one thing to say “OH! You’ll just LOVE it!” but it’s another to say “Well, honestly, I wasn’t sure either but this is why I recommend it. It’s given me these results.”

You see the diference? It comes down to one word. And, that word is “Why?”

Anyone with children know this one word.

Clean your room.

Why?

Brush your teeth.

Why?

Feed the dog.

Why?

Well, every time you tell your list members or your blog readers to buy something, they say the same thing. “Why?”

That is what we’ll discuss today. Sharing honest reviews about products that you recommend.

To make this work, you’ll need to be two things: Specific and Honest

If you’re recommending a book about Finances, or for instance, “The Four Hour Workweek”, you can say your honest opinion. For instance, I’ll write up an impromtu review of the “Four Hour Workweek” for you as an example.

There were some things in the book that I found inspirational. I enjoyed his “pep talks” very much.

Other areas like the online business part, I thought was weak (perhaps because I’ve been doing this for several years, so there was nothing “wow” about it). He pretty much says to start an online business so that you can earn money and quit your job. If you’re reading this blog then you’re ahead of the game already.

And the part about outsourcing your personal assisting overseas… well, I guess it’s just not what I want. I have my mom working for me, and my friend Tracy is my executive assistant, and I wouldn’t want them that far away. I like that my mom can come over on a moment’s notice to run to the bank for me or can notice that my hair is looking scraggly and call my hairdresser Shannin and make an appointment for me. And, she can grab groceries and bring them over. And, I love that Tracy makes travel plans for me – including finding the nearest Sushi place. I have nothing against working with people in other countries. I just prefer having people who are local to help with personal assisting.

My favorite part of the book was learning about how to spend time overseas working. I’d often wondered about a lot of the issues that he brought up like how to find a place to stay, getting wifi access, and even power cords in other countries. Speaking of which I should reread that book, now that I think of it.

Overall, the book is worth the money. I’d recommend buying a copy, then passing it on to a friend who’s thinking about leaving the rat race to work from home.

Do I actually WANT a four hour workweek? Not now. I’m still in the process of building my business and I enjoy the challenge that it offers.  In fact, every year I challenge myself to double my income.

So, while I like the concept of the book, some of it is just not applicable to my life. I prefer a 3 hours work day, to a 4 hour work week, honestly, with the option to take a week off to travel. Thank God for Outsourcing! My Virtual Assistants, Graphics Designers, and Techies keep me looking good whether I’m working of taking off 5 weeks to head to the woods where there’s no wifi.

See? I gave you my honest opinion about the book. So, now if you buy it and notice the part about the offshore assistant or feel the online business advice is weak, you’ll relate and say “Yes, she told me about that.”

However, if all I did on my blog an in my ezine was say “Oh THIS is the best thing ever” about something new each week, you’d think I was a big phony, just pushing stuff to push it, right?

People buy from those they KNOW, LIKE, ,and TRUST.

You can’t trust someone unless you understand whether they’re being real with you or not.

Be real with your readers. Nothing is perfect. Find one thing that is a weakness and warn your readers about it in advance. Honestly if it’s something really bad – they might buy it out of curiousity. (If you don’t believe me, you may need to start reading my Weird Niche Wednesdays – bird costumes, plastic turkey wishbones, etc. It’s a hoot!)

Well, that’s tip #2, guys. I’ll be back with #3 tomorrow!

Warmly,
Nicole Dean

PS. If you’d like to know HOW I’m able to spend 5 weeks with no internet access and still grow my business, you might be interested in my course about Outsourcing. Check it out here: Outsource Weekly – it’s very much for beginners and intermediate level marketers. You’ll learn how to be more efficient, more effective, and you’ll learn about pretty much every facet of online marketing at the same time, from Twitter to managing your passwords. (I also share ways to get people to work for you for free.)

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