The most successful IMs I know genuinely believe in the product and are honestly care about their customers. Not only will you see more success, you’ll feel better about yourself and so will your customers

This post was mentioned on Friendfeed by Michelle Mangen: Affiliate Marketing: Why the negative assocations?: http://ping.fm/IM3TH...

I disclose my affiliate links as well – it’s all part of being “transparent” in my opinion.

As for internet marketers – I agree I was chatting on Skype last night with a friend who does IM. I told him that I think so many of us have been burned by that amazing sales copy on the landing page with promises of riches and we end up throwing away our funds because the product is never what we were lead to believe.

However, with Affiliate Marketing – in many ways I like to think of my affiliate links as “referrals” to companies and services that I trust. For example I would always refer people to billyhost.com — it’s a referral. With affiliates, if I get paid for the referral that’s great – if not – well I still do it because it’s just a great practice.

And as always….you and I will see each other in the Twitterverse!

Thanks, Owen!

I do agree that Affiliate Programs are a win-win opportunity, and I do think if you are an ethical business person, disclosure isn’t an insult. I use Amazon Affiliate links on my site, I don’t hide the fact that I use them because I put a note beside the link (Amazon Affilaite Link) in the article.

It’s hard enough to gain trust, avoiding the question of being an affiliate only hurts your opportunity in the future to keep them or anyone as a customer.

In the end, preception is everything. If you act shady or avoid answering direct questions, you’ll find doing business online harder and harder as time goes on.

Great post, thanks.

Owen
Owen Greaves´s last blog ..Two Key Factors To Your Social Media Success