| I strongly suspect you are. In fact, I will bet that | | | | you were expecting unbiased reviews from these |
| you are much better at reviewing products than | | | | affiliates, well then, you are exactly the kind of |
| the thousands of professional reviewers that litter | | | | prospective customer they were hoping would |
| the web. First, I am going to tell you why I think | | | | click on their paid advert! |
| this is the case. Then I am going to convince you | | | | No wonder the rate of refund requests on digital |
| to prove that I am right. | | | | products is high. The barrage of affiliate sales |
| == The Problem With Digital Goods == | | | | copy you find perfectly whitewashes the true |
| I am sure you are familiar with the problem. If | | | | nature of the product. It might be good. But it |
| you have purchased an online ebook, or some | | | | also might be a clunker that converts well with a |
| other form of digital goods, only to soon be | | | | high affiliate payout. So how do you get to the |
| disappointed by the quality of the downloaded | | | | truth, and save yourself both time and money in |
| product, then you have contributed to that | | | | the process? |
| communal sigh of despair that issues forth daily | | | | == How You Can Solve The Problem == |
| from thousands of people just like yourself. When | | | | Well, that is where you, the perfect reviewer |
| it happens there is not a lot you can do about it, | | | | comes in. Because unlike those thousands of |
| other than request a refund. But even if you get | | | | affiliates who make a living using interchangeable |
| your money back, you have just wasted several | | | | product names on the same high-converting sales |
| hours of your time, the process has caused you | | | | copy, you are a real product user. You know the |
| unneeded frustration, and you are back to square | | | | truth, and most importantly, you have nothing to |
| one, still hungry for a product to plug the need | | | | lose by telling it to the next person who might be |
| that sent you shopping in the first place. Surely | | | | thinking of buying that product. Sure, it takes a bit |
| there has to be a better way. After all, shopping | | | | of time for you to write a review. But if |
| for a quality refrigerator is not hard. Why are | | | | everyone follows your lead, and does it the right |
| digital goods such a problem? And is there a | | | | way, then--as I am about to show you--the |
| solution to this? | | | | outcome can be pretty amazing! |
| As it turns out, there is a simple solution to this | | | | Here is why. If you were to write one accurate |
| problem. You *can* have your digital cake and | | | | review for every ten digital products you |
| eat it too. But before I tell you what the solution | | | | purchased, and others did the same thing, in short |
| is, I want to briefly take a look at that | | | | order these aggregated reviews would provide an |
| refrigerator purchase again, because it will highlight | | | | extremely accurate barometer on the quality of |
| what is missing in your search for that elusive | | | | digital goods on the web. These aggregated |
| "just so" digital product. | | | | reviews would characterize the benefits of digital |
| == Quality Comparisons Between Digital Goods | | | | products with relentless precision. No longer would |
| And Store Goods == | | | | taking the sales copy of affiliates and merchants |
| When you go out to buy a refrigerator you | | | | at face value be the crap shoot it is now. Of |
| benefit from the fact that the companies which | | | | course, these reviews need to be collected in one |
| build them have been doing so in most cases for | | | | place, the user ratings for products averaged and |
| a very long time. They have hashed out the | | | | then presented for product-wise comparison, but |
| technical problems decades ago, and then duked it | | | | the model is known to work. We see it used with |
| out with their competitors for marketplace | | | | extraordinary success in places like the Amazon |
| dominance using all sorts of business tricks you do | | | | marketplace and the endless pages of Epinions |
| not care about. All you care about is that only the | | | | reviewers. |
| best of those companies were left standing. The | | | | == Awarding Quality Seals To Digital Products == |
| result is that you, the consumer, are more than | | | | One of the benefits of using a reliable statistical |
| happy to hand over your money, because these | | | | model to characterize product quality is that we |
| "brand name" companies have finally earned your | | | | can use the results to award "quality seals" to the |
| trust by coming up with robust and dependable | | | | best performing products, where performance is |
| products. | | | | a direct measure of consumer satisfaction. When |
| Not so with purchases of online digital products. | | | | this is done, and accurate quality seals become |
| Most online companies have not been around long | | | | commonplace, they provide affiliates with an |
| enough to establish recognizable brand names. | | | | incentive to consider them when selecting |
| Almost all of the digital products you find on the | | | | products for promotion. Why? Because a product |
| web will be less than a year old, in which case, | | | | that bears a quality seal on the official sales page |
| just how good can they be? Instead of being able | | | | of a merchant is going to convert better than a |
| to select from an array of trusted digital solutions, | | | | product that does not display a seal. In this way, |
| the way a typical consumer finds a prospective | | | | quality products get the recognition they deserve, |
| "solution" to their immediate problem is to type | | | | they make the merchant a better profit on their |
| some keywords into a search engine and then | | | | investment, and this in turn allows the merchant |
| see what comes up in the way of | | | | to offer affiliates higher commissions. After a |
| recommendations. | | | | while the high commission products actually reflect |
| == Choosing From The Chorus Of | | | | the quality products and consumers end up with |
| Recommendations... == | | | | the right product no matter which route they |
| What are they going to find when they do this? | | | | take to get there. |
| More often than not they will see a slew of | | | | So. If you would like to help sort the wheat from |
| sponsored advertisements for a handful of | | | | the chaff in the digital goods marketplace, a large |
| products. But of course the ads seen are just | | | | portion of which is mediated by the ClickBank |
| those that belong to the highest bidding | | | | merchant/affiliate network, get yourself to an |
| advertisers, and very often these ads are placed | | | | online voting booth now and have your say. Time |
| by affiliates of products with very high sales | | | | magazine voted You the person of the year |
| commissions. You may be looking for | | | | recently, and one of the reasons for doing so is |
| recommendations for a quality product, but what | | | | that you wield more power on the web than you |
| you will find is recommendations for the product | | | | may have realized to date. So why not put it to |
| that pays the highest sales commission. And if | | | | use in a place where your opinion really matters? |