Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Brendan Behan

Brendan Behan once wrote: "There is no such thing as bad publicity except your own obituary." Now, the topic of a future life under a mortician's scalpel is not what I am here to discuss, but instead, my fingers drift across the keyboard to communicate what many online marketers already know.

Go negative.

A couple months ago, my brother asked me to do some research on Google Adwords and affiliate marketing programs. After a couple hours of reading PDF documents that talked about how you need to add "bonus" and "value" to your affiliate marketing page, I realized that this was a BS approach to making money. But, I did learn one very important concept.

Many affiliate marketers capitalize on Google algorithms and Google Adwords to make money. They do this by associating their product with the product they are competing with, so that a search brings the products within close range of each other in the results. Then, in an invention of pure genius, the new marketer changes their ad and product name to be a criticism of the other product. They go negative. They go negative because nobody wants to be duped, so everybody will want to get the upper informational hand.

In the world of affiliate marketing this therefore becomes a reflexive scam community. Each person is selling their own bullshit PDF that reveals how to make a wheelbarrow full of money through affiliate marketing. How do you do it? You sell your own bullshit PDF that reveals how to make a wheelbarrow full of money, except this PDF is the real deal. Don't believe me?

Exhibit A: http://www.affiliateprojectx.com/

Exhibit B: http://www.affiliateprojectx-posed.com/

With that in mind. What do you think would spread virally better: A positive video? or a negative video?

Cookie monster is dead.

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