An Affiliate Gone Mad?
A friend called me last night – to tell me her good news.
She sounded extremely happy about a seminar she had attended on Saturday afternoon. She had been invited to attend a seminar by her nephew’s girlfriend’s mother.
She told me she had signed up with a company called YBT – Your Travel Business, a company located in the United States and now open for business in Canada. You become a travel agent of sorts and get 60% commission when you make a travel sale through your website. You become an affiliate marketer for this company. The afternoon had been one of videos, success story after success story and the promise of instant big bucks. My friend told me that there were ex-lawyers, ex-teachers, ex-principals, who had stories to tell of making instant big huge bucks. For example, even the nephew’s girlfriend’s mother had made $1600 in one week.
Okay, so the story sounds good. Almost too good.
How do you do it?
Well, you have to sign up with the company for a $500. fee. Do you have to pay right away? No. Sounds somewhat good. What do you get for the $500? Well, you get a website for your business. Sounds good. What if you don’t have the $500? Well, you have to get others to signup and pay their $500 fee and then when you have enough people signed up and paid – you don’t have to pay the $500 fee. I didn’t ask how many people you have to find to sign up before you get your “free” website.
But I’m starting to see visions of pyramids dancing before my eyes.
What’s more – my friend continues – you have to pay a maintenance fee of $40 a month for your website. What’s that for, I ask. That’s for tracking your webstats. Wow! It’s starting to sound expensive. I host my site at a marvelous web hosting company and I’m paying only $6.95 a month.
I’m not responding much to her because I’m feeling full of doubt. She asked if I want to go to the next meeting with her in a couple of weeks. I told her we should meet to discuss it. I get off the phone and tell my partner about the phone call.
She said to call my friend back.
First of all. You are not getting your own website if your URL is http://www.companyname.com/youraffiliatename . It shouldn’t cost you $500 for a website of your own if it’s a sub-directory of another company’s website. It shouldn’t cost you $40 a month to track your stats for your own website. And what’s more, to my knowledge of online marketing, no affiliate publisher should have to pay $500 plus $40 a month to sell another company’s products. Sorry, doubtful set up right here.
I checked the company online to see if there were any comments/ratings about the company and found some negative stuff about the company and about marketing to family and friends and ending up with souring those relationships with family and friends when they too don’t make the big bucks. Maybe a few people are earning big bucks, but I’m willing to bet that the majority who sign over their $500 don’t make it into the big times.
What’s more, I’m thinking that with flight prices as cheap as they are – earning a 60% commission of the selling price leaves very little money left to actually pay for the airplane’s fuel and airline staff during the actual flight.
I’m saying, if something is too good to be true, it probably is. I’m also saying, check out a company before you sign on. And I’m also saying, it shouldn’t cost a web publisher anything to become an affiliate marketer for a company.
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