The “Don’t Do What I Do, Do What I Say” Scenario

Monday, June 7th, 2010 at 9:20 am

One of the many things which both confused and annoyed me when I first became interested in Internet marketing, was the “Don’t do what I do, do what I say” scenario used by so many affiliate marketers and guru’s alike.

Lambs to the Slaughter

I think it’s fairly safe to say that all who become interested in making money online, do so because they’d either read or been told that there’s easy money to made on the net. So, the next move is to go looking for a means by which they can become another rich internet millionaire.

Now, the one thing we are all invariably guilty of in our searches, is to sign up to what seems to be promising free news letters or actually subscribe to paid ones?

While there is nothing wrong with that “initially”, in that there is so much great free and paid information available online, one of the first pieces of advice every internet marketing course, affiliate newsletter or subscription regardless of cost will provide you with ….. Is to “unsubscribe from all the other subscriptions you have signed up for”.

The “Delete Your Cookies” suggestion

Many marketers will also tell you to delete your cookies and temporary internet files as well to ensure the security of your computer. But this ploy is really only to ensure that there is less likelihood of you buying the same product they are promoting from another affiliate who’s URL you may have saved or will be in the history of your browser. (This is a sneaky little trick which became popular a couple of years ago but fortunately seems to have lost flavor somewhat in that it lacks ethics, integrity and credibility.)

So once having done what is suggested, the next thing which will happen is that you start to receive the affiliate newsletter you subscribed to, which will usually contain several product links.

Circles within Circles

That’s fine as well because that’s how many affiliates sell the products they are promoting…..but, the links provided when clicked on will almost invariably take you to an auto responder opt in, sign up page. Now since you’ve already signed up to the page your now on, the new sign up will more often than not, subscribe you to one of the subscriptions you were advised to sign out of in the first place??????

The Gullible Newbie

Like so many newbies, I couldn’t understand the logic of this until I realized that by re-subscribing, I was actually doing so under the affiliate link of the person’s newsletter I had recently subscribed to and if I actually purchased anything from my new sign up, the affiliate I had just signed up under would receive commissions for that sale.

The problem is however, for newbies, they find ourselves in the exactly the same sinking boat they started in, with the same confusing glut of information overload they were advised to avoid in the first place.

The Catch 22

It’s all a bit like the dog chasing his tail in one direction and then turning around and doing it in the other. Poor old Fido doesn’t realize that the solution to his problem is to simply sit on the damn thing to keep it still and he can bite it and it’s fleas all he likes.

Internet marketing has it’s similarities in that if you find a method that you can sit on which will help you achieve success, don’t go spinning off in another direction.