Promote Products That You Have Used & Believe In

A few weeks ago I purchased Site Build It! SBI happens to have an affiliate program that pays a commission of $75 - $250 per first-purchase commission. This really excited me, so I signed up for the SiteSell.com 5 Pillar affiliate program.

In case you are wondering, Site Build It! is a web host that provides the tools, a domain name, and a detailed ten step guide to create a successful e-commerce website. It costs $299 US. However, there are many loyal SBI owners that swear by the product.

Anyways, before even making a firm decision on what my niche was going to be, I wrote a post in this blog all about SBI and what a wonderful product it is. Of course, in this blog post I had some affiliate links to SiteSell(SBI).

Almost immediately after writing the post I had a bad feeling about it. How could I promote a product, going on and on about how superb it is, when I have not even created a successful e-commerce website with SBI. In fact, I was only on Day 2 of the 10-day Site Build It! Action Guide.

I just didn't feel right about promoting SBI, when I had barely even started the program.

I was especially bothered that I had written a very positive review about SBI, without even having a SBI website. I think in order to write a fair review of SBI or any other product or service you need to have used that service. Or as in the case of SBI have created a successful SBI website, that is making money.

I felt like I was writing a book review, where I'd only read the back cover, and skimmed through the first couple pages. How can you write a book review on a book that you haven't fully read?

I am currently reading Problogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income. It is written by the successful bloggers Darren Rowse and Chris Garret.

One of the points that they make is not to not to "reccomend products that you don't fully believe will benefit them[your reader]". I agree with them 100 percent. I've read some wonderful reviews on SBI. However, I've not personally had success with SBI, so I can't deep down honestly say that I fully believe SBI will benefit the reader.

Darren and Chris also say, "suggest your readers purchase a lousy or disreputable product and expect to lose your good reputation very quickly." Truer words have never been spoken. I certainly dont want to take that chance, even though I am quite certain SBI is a good product.

There is yet another problem with promoting any product or service that you have not personally had success in. That is, you lack the credibility, compared to someone that can personally tell you their experience with a product. It would be hard for me to sell SBI to others, when I have not created a successful e-commerce business with SBI.

In fact, I was recently talking with a SBI affiliate. She told me that it took two years to make a single SBI sale prior to her purchasing SBI. She also told me that all the top 10 affiliates of SBI all have successful SBI websites themselves.

It is so much easier to promote a product that you've had success with, that you truly believe in. You can than give a personal testimony on the product. The lady that I mentioned above now can tell the reader in her various websites how successful and profitable her SBI website has been. This makes her so much more credible than someone who doesn't have a SBI website.

Problogger actually says that "the best results I've had from affiliate programs are where I give an open and honest appraisel of the product, including both its strengths and weaknesses." He goes on to say that "people want to know what they are buying. consider your own experience of shopping at Amazon or anywhere else that displays reviews."

This makes a lot of sense to me. People want honest and fair reviews. How can I write an honest and fair review on SBI when I have not personally had success with the product?

Needless to say, I've deleted the post promoting SBI. I have no plans on promoting SBI until I myself have a successful SBI website.

I want to build a solid reputation with my readers. I want my readers to be able to trust me.