Now, Im a firm believer in knowing what youre getting yourself into. Its a universal fact of life. Ive heard nasty stories of people getting into allsorts of bother, all because they didnt know what they were getting into. Blindly signing contracts, buying dud gear, giving in to the suspicious salesman who reduces the price just for today, just for you these are all examples of looking over the chasm to the opposite cliff edgeand walking.

Yeh, ok but what are the consequences of not doing this with affiliate marketing?

In one word refunds. If you market info products, especially from clickbank, the 30, 60, 90-day iron clad money back guarantees are not exactly subtle on the sales page. Customers are being offered more and more outrageous promises. A typical product sales page would now include

Even if you dont like the color of the e-book cover, send me an email, and Ill send you a full refund

followed by the inevitable What?! Are you crazy?! The only way the refund policy could get any crazier than that is if they offered to pay you for it but thats just silly. Thats a different matter. What is important is that you understand, as an info marketer, that refunds are inevitable and have up to 90 days to show up as a deficit in your earnings, but also that you can cut these right down by firstly knowing what youre promoting.

Some affiliates buy the product theyre promoting and examine it page by page, CD by CD. Others just check that the sales page looks as though it will convert sales well and *boom* its apparently a winner. You shouldnt take the product creators word for it that

this converts like crrrrazy! 1/5 people!

You also shouldnt have to buy every product you want to promote, because your heart just might not be in the subject area of the product you might not want to read a 200 page book on optimum yawn...I mean lawn care. This is where the truth lies in working with what you enjoy or what youre passionate about it pays to promote something that you yourself enjoy. I would recommend you put some advertising money aside to narrow down and buy the products you want to focus on promoting as a starting point to building your worth to potential customers as an affiliate.

All I recommend is that you scan over the following criteria to nail down a good selling, low refund ratio every time

- Check the sales page for what I call hyper-hype. This is typically a sales pitch that is weighted more towards the side of emotive benefits rather than what the product really includes and talks about. This is important, because when customers get flooded with benefits, their expectations rise dramatically. People dont always think, they just see a list of unbelievable benefits (along with an unbelievable cash-back guarantee) and buy, often resulting in disappointment and a refund request. If they have some breathing space to make their own minds up about personal benefits (which only they can know), this will make a more stable after-sale response. If youve bought the product yourself, go back to the sales page and check if it truly lives up to the hype. Most people forget about the sales pitch that sold the product to them, but its beneficial to know if customers are getting the results they thought they were going to get.

- Check if the product youre promoting has a similar competitor, and the cost of each. Youll often find someones offering the same information or product for much less, meaning you can highlight this point to your customers (in many ways shown through this e-course)

- Contact the product creator/webmaster. Mention youre an affiliate planning to promote the product and ask for any additional information, exerts of the e-book or equivalent. I myself have done this many a time, and if youre tactful, you can get some juicy info that you will later be able to pass on to your browsers more on that later in this e-course. Very important.

- Additionally, contact the webmaster if the product sales page has very few or no testimonials and offer to provide a testimonial of your own. Again, Ive done this a few times and not only do you get a free copy of the e-book/product, you get your testimonial published and your name and website link badged right on there. People say this is a lot easier said than done, but if you can spot a new product you think will do well in the future and youre interested in, get your testimonial on there early. Even if you have no link to promote along side your words of praise, its powerful name positioning if that product becomes more popular and you can reference it to customers later.

If you're thinking "what's the point in knowing so much about the product?" well, this is part of a bigger picture that uses a more modern concept in affiliate marketing. Be part of it at www.futureaffiliate.com for free.