Marketing No Brainers

Have you read an infoproduct sales letter recently that promised outrageous amounts of income, but only if you buy the product in question? It seems like I get a new one of these every day, not to mention the repeats and follow up emails that jam my inbox.

What really gripes me is the infoproduct sellers’ income claims. Just recently there is a super-affiliate how-to product (hasn’t even launched yet but is being pre-promoted) that is claiming that the person in question made over a million dollars in affiliate income last year. And maybe he did.

But there is one key thing missing from this claim. The costs of making the money. But you say, there are really hardly any costs associated with affiliate marketing. Not so in this case, as the almost entire cost for traffic is from Pay Per Click (PPC) traffic.

I don’t know about you, but I have had plenty of PPC campaigns that lost money before I deep-sixed them. That said, given that our affiliate marketer in question is a PPC expert, I have no doubt that most of his campaigns were profitable.

So perhaps he doubled his money on every click. Now we have something more believable, income in the $600,000 or so range. That’s really enough to impress me. But the million dollars plus income is smoke and mirrors. Learn to see through this so you don’t get sucked into believing the hype.

It really is pretty simple. Any business has sales, expenses, and net income. Most overhyped internet marketing sales copy concentrates on the sales, as if that is what the infoproduct seller actually made, not what the seller made after all expenses were paid.

This is really business 101 type stuff. Never in these income claims do you see the actual NET PROFIT that the infoproduct vendor actually made. You see the GROSS SALES! Now you can’t have healthy net profits without healthy gross sales, but it is possible for expenses to eat into most or all of the gross sales, resulting in little or no net profit.

Don’t believe me? Consider those product launches that pay 75% (and higher) commissions. Say, with a lot of affiliate help, a marketer grosses $100,000. He ends up with $25,000 after paying affiliates. Then he pays $5,000 or so in top affiliate prizes. And he pays out $5,000 or so for a great sales letter, maybe another $1,000 for outsourcing his content. Payment processor fees account for another $3,500 or so.

Now that $100,000 income claim has been whittled down to $11,500. And that’s the reality of most of these over-hyped launches. It’s still great money. And the marketer has a great list of proven buyers that he can sell to over and over and over.

So the next time you get pitched by someone touting unbelievable internet marketing income claims, take a look at it like it was a real business. Because your internet business IS a real business. And so is theirs. Cash flow and accounting principles don’t stop applying just because it’s the Internet.

Share This

Close this Window Bookmark and Share This Page

Save to Browser Favorites / Bookmarks

Ask backflip blinklist BlogBookmark Bloglines BlogMarks Blogsvine BuddyMarks BUMPzee! CiteULike co.mments Connotea

del.icio.us Digg diigo DotNetKicks DropJack dzone Facebook Fark Faves Feed Me Links Friendsite folkd.com

Furl Google Hugg Jeqq Kaboodle kirtsy linkaGoGo LinksMarker Ma.gnolia Mister Wong Mixx MySpace

MyWeb Netvouz Newsvine oneview OnlyWire PlugIM Propeller Reddit Rojo Segnalo Shoutwire Simpy

Slashdot Sphere Sphinn Spurl Squidoo StumbleUpon Technorati ThisNext Webride Windows Live Yahoo!

Email This to a Friend

Copy HTML: 

 If you like this then please subscribe to the RSS Feed.

Powered by Bookmarkify™

More »