Saturday, December 22, 2007

Affiliate Program - The Saturation Myth

Affiliate Program - The Saturation Myth
A lot of people say that there's no point in joining an affiliate program unless you get in early. Their reasoning is that when the program gets too big and has too many members, there aren't enough people on the Internet for all those members to promote to. In other words they say that the program itself has become saturated. Well, we're going to blow that myth out of the water with this article. So hang onto your hats because everything you ever thought about affiliate programs is about to be destroyed.

Saturation is a myth, plain and simple. It was started by unsuccessful people who could never make one program they ever joined work. They always claimed it was because there were too many people promoting the program. They of course forgot to mention that they had no success with programs they joined in pre-launch as well.

The truth is, there is no such thing as saturation. Everyday there are more people coming onto the Internet. Today, only a fraction of people in the world even have Internet access. As the years roll by and more and more people hop on the Internet express, there will be even more people to market to. The proof that there is no saturation is that one affiliate program in particular, Secrets Of The Big Dogs, has been around for six years and still sells over 1200 ebooks each month. Another program, Strong Futures International, which used to be Six Figure Income, has been around for seven years. They're still pulling in new members even today.

Obviously as more and more people get into a program there is more competition. But that competition is NOT bad. As a matter of fact, it is very good. Why? Simple. When a program is brand new and there aren't a lot of people promoting it, when a person sees the program, because it is unfamiliar, they're hesitant to get involved. They don't know if the program will be around the next day and are more reluctant to join. But when they see a number of people promoting it they're more likely to think that this thing is here to stay. They are experiencing what we call brand awareness. The program that yesterday was an unknown is now a household word.

This is not to say that there aren't some negatives associated with some affiliate programs, but they have nothing to do with when you get in or how saturated the program may be. The problems are inherent to the program itself. The commission structure may be poor or the program itself may have poor or even non existent customer support. The program may have too high a price tag. Of course these days that seems to be a non issue with programs like PAS ($3,000 price tag) doing very well. Still, some programs don't offer enough benefits for their price tag and people stay away from them.

The point is, there is no such thing as saturation and no such thing as too much competition. These are just myths started by chronically unsuccessful people.

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