In recent times, the style of selling Internet Marketing (IM) products online via affiliate marketing has taken a new twist. Granted, marketing through Email is still the predominant method, but this works only for affiliates who have built sizable lists of subscribers. For newer affiliates with no lists, writing reviews is the popular marketing choice.
Nowadays, an affiliate would publish a dedicated review website to promote each IM product. Typically, this site would contain a blog with a handful of posts sprinkled with product affiliate links. Invariably, bonuses will be offered to sweeten the deal, so that website visitors are enticed to click those links to buy the IM product, thus earning the affiliate commissions.
It appears that review sites offering bonuses is a workable method. Many potential customers are attracted to such offers and often spend time comparing which sites provide the best "deal". This is a likely step done just before committing to the purchase. It is not so clear, however, if these customers spend a similar amount of time, or more, to read the different reviews and assess the suitability of the product.
Strangely, the quality of the reviews do not seem to matter much. If you do a quick search for any popular IM product, you could find a large proportion of review sites that do not go deep enough. On some sites, their reviews read like the reviewers have not actually used or even seen the products in question; mostly, they are simply rehashes of product sales letters and other marketing materials.
As the author has noticed, this tactic of giving bonuses has spilled over to other product niches. A notable example, almost a hilarious one, is the promotion of a Forex product by giving away an eBook on abs building. Hardly a relevant item for the Forex trader looking to improve his trading; in such a case, the freebie might actually turn away the customer.
Should such a development in review sites be worrying? Visitors ought to put much faith in the reports they read, since these reports say they are product reviews. But some sites are just so narrowly focused in ringing the cash register that their tendency is to pile on the bonus offers. It then becomes a numbers game, both in terms of quantity of bonus items and their total dollar "value".
Without doubt, offering bonus items is now a popular form of Internet Marketing. But are these items necessary for the customer? Do they add value in terms of complementary or supplementary functions for the purchased products? Considering that they were given away, are they even useful at all?
The author believes that buying a product on the merit of its review is a stronger case than buying for the sake of freebies. Should competing reviews be of similar quality, then the purchase decision may be swayed by how the free items fit into the overall use case of the product. Scrutiny of the bonuses should be performed, not just sizing up their perceived dollar values.
Of course, favoring one website or reviewer over others can be a good choice, especially when the favored party has gained sufficient customer trust, garnered loyalty and built a strong online reputation. Like in the "offline" world, word of mouth and recommendations go a long way to reward such reviewers and website owners. Indeed, it remains valid that good old marketing truth still triumphs, even on the digital frontier.
Mark Etin is an Internet Marketer and avid watcher of online business developments, in particular SEO, Affiliate Marketing and website design.
For examples of good quality product review websites, read the Instant Income Cash Machine review and an excellent Forex product review.
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