Marlon Sanders has released the latest issue of ‘Sell Products Like Crazy’ eZine.

The featured article is reprinted here.

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Google or Affiliates — Who Will You Bet Your Future On?

Will Your Model Succeed Or Blow Up In Your Face And Leave
You Crying In Forums Looking For Sympathy?

Who are you going to bet your future on?

Google? Or Affiliates?

That may seem like an odd question. It takes a lot to explain why I’m even asking. If you read this whole article, I’ll circle back around to that at the end.

First off, I’m no newbie in this business. I developed a lot of the concepts that people use and teach. And created whole entire categories of products that people now sell (such as letter generators).

But time flies and I wanted to see if my model was still relevant and current — or not.

So I spent the last two months deep in research on state-of -the-art Internet marketing. I’ve bought the big name promotions, WSO’s from Warriors, attended seminars, spoke at seminars, networked and tapped into my resources.

You haven’t heard from me much. Mostly, I’ve been doing research.

In 2007, does “The Amazing Formula” still work? Does it still apply? Here’s what I’ve found:

People are STILL obsessed with search engine traffic. It’s ironic to me because it was true when I wrote the very first edition of “Amazing Formula” — and it’s still true.

Virtually all of the methods people are teaching and talking about concern pay-per-click marketing and seo positioning.

That was true years ago when I first pecked out Amazing Formula and it’s still true today. I mean, I was really the SECOND person to come along and say, “Don’t play the seo game. The affiliate model is better.”

My friends Declan Dunn and Jonanthan Mizel deserve credit for being the FIRST I know to do and say that. I’ve often not given them enough credit for their contributions to this industry early on.

“Gimme My Money Now” as a follow up to “Amazing Formula” certainly had a HUGE role early on in convincing a lot of people to do affiliate programs. My friend Paul Myers says the model basically bought a house for him. Then again, Paul IS my friend (see talkbiz.com). But others have said the same.

Early on, (we’re talking old days here folks) it was Sitesell vs. Amazing Formula and Gimme in terms of marketing models. Gimme was a model based on getting traffic via affiliate programs.

The Sitesell model was dominantly built around seo for traffic. Although the model didn’t exclude affiliate programs. It’s just that as I recall, the original Sitesell model was based mostly on seo for traffic IMHO (In My Humble Opinion).

For all the work I’ve done over the years, people still don’t get it. PPC is good. It’s great. I love Perry Marshall, Affiliate X and even XRay Domination.

I think the XRay Domination script that lets you track conversions down to keyword level is neat. Amir Darwish sells a script with at least somewhat similar functionality on Warriors (see the WSO’s forum).

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know all the buzzwords. Let’s see. Squidoo inbound links. NMOC (niche marketing on crack), Bum Marketing. Social bookmarketing for inbound links. Tag and ping. Technorati links. Diretory submission for inbound links. And the list goes on, and on, and on.

And let me say that I think NMOC, Bum and other methods are great for beginners to “get their sea legs.” Article marketing is a sound base for other Internet marketing endeavors. They’re good products by people extending a valuable helping hand.

But still, article marketing is used by most people to get 1-way inbound links from a good PR site like ezinearticles.com. (To be fair, you should still do articles because their are so MANY ways you can use them.)

Which means at the end of the day, it’s STILL an seo model. Trying to out-game Google to get traffic. I love articles. They’re great. But honestly. Who do you think I’ll bet on in the long run?

Google preventing people from “gaming” the system? Or the “gamers”? You can out-game Google in the short-term. But long term? I don’t think so!

>From what I’ve read (and it’s hearsay) the links from ezinearticles.com are already passing through less PR than they did before. It’s the nature of the beast. A lot of people start using a method to gain an advantage and Google cracks down on it.

(My “Red Factor” system was built to counter-balance that effect.)

And what SHOCKS me is how Google keeps turning the screws tighter and tigher not just on seo’ers but also on PPC’ers. I mean, they’re so freakin’ strict now the casual ppc guy or gal has a hard time getting ads and landing pages accepted.

THAT, in my opinon, is what gave Google the advantage over Overture to BEGIN with. It was like almost impossible for a casual user or newbie to get Overture to accept an ad.

And Google came along and made it EASY to give them your money. And now? It’s like once Google won the game, they’re doing the same stupid (IMHO) thing — making it hard for the newbie or the casual person to even get ads accepted.

I honestly think Google doesn’t get that they’re built on the backs of “average people” running ads with them. Not big boys and girls with complicated software and time to wade through tons of complicated rules.

That’s my two cents. Google can do what they want. But every time you figure out the rules, they SLAP you again. And now you’re in a whole new learning curve again. You need new software again and so forth.

Their latest LSI (latent semantic indexing) will only make things 10X more complex for the average guy or gal. Not to mention the complexity involved in trying to theme sites, do mini-nets and all that.

Dorian (I hope I got the name right) did a brilliant presentation at Yanik’s seminar on seo methods. But I bet a lot of eyes glazed over when they say the flowchart on the big picture. You know, to play the game at a high level isn’t exactly a 30-minute an evening endeavor.

And I know someone will come along and say, “Yeah, but not with MY system. It has never been slapped.” OK. But still, the average guy and gal ain’t got time to wade through 30 programs, models and methods to find the one Google won’t slap (at least until the NEXT round).

All I’m saying is, Google seo AND ppc is a hard game to play. Yeah, there’s MSN, Yahoo, etc. And some day, if they’re SMART and make it EASY for average folks to play their game, maybe they’ll rule and Google will go the way of Overture and become a niche player. Who knows, right?

So as good as PPC is, and as useful a tool as article marketing is, I still feel affiliate programs are better.

I mean, I don’t kinda sorta feel affiliate programs are a little better.

This is something I feel VERY strongly about. At the end of the day affiliate marketing rules the world. I include in that companies that generate leads on ANY pay-per-action basis. So that includes letting Click Flippers generate leads for you on a cost-per-action basis.

Why? Because at least with affiliate marketing, it’s relatively evergreen. Yes, the rules of the game do still change. Competition has gotten a lot stiffer in some arenas.

QUESTION: Take virtually ANY program on how to get traffic to your site. How is it marketed?

Answer: Affiliate program and joint ventures.

Understand that joint ventures are simply a form of an affiliate program. You pay for sales someone else makes to their list or using their efforts.

I’m NOT criticizing people for creating a product on ONE method of traffic and selling it with another. You know why? Because you sell what people wanna buy…as long as it’s moral and legal.

You have to. Otherwise, you starve. It’s a fact.

People LOVE to buy seo stuff and ppc stuff. It’s a lot more seductive pitch than having your own product and pimping it (i.e. selling it) via an affiliate program.

It sounds easier. You don’t have to TALK to anyone. You don’t have to answer affiliate inquiries. You don’t have the risk that a wacked out affiliate does something stupid that gets you in trouble.

But I said it before. I’ll say it again — The best traffic and the most serious traffic comes from your own affiliate program. I was the first person to talk about the “food chain” of Internet marketing years ago. And I’ve been talking about it ever since.

You’re either on top or bottom of the food chain. And the top is your own product and your own affiliate program.

And when I hear people complaining about being in this business and not making more than $200 a month (or whatever) as is sometimes the case, I ask:

1. Do you have your own product?

They seldom do. And if they do, it’s PLR (private label rights). Nothing wrong with PLR to get started.

2. Do you have your own affiliate program and aggressively promote it?

The answer is no.

Do you realize that Google Adsense is Google’s affiliate program? Do you realize Amazon sells via an affiliate program? Do you realize Ebay has an affiliate program?

This does NOT mean I don’t like or do PPC (God bless Perry Marshall, Affiliate X, etc). I do spend some money on PPC. Actually, I like PPC.

It doesn’t mean beginners shouldn’t do Bum, NMOC, and some of the other clever article marketing methods. I know Jason has come out with his new article marketing thing, and it looks pretty slick.

But seriously folks. A lot of you have ppc/seo on the brain. And some days I scratch my head and ask why. Because if you open your eyes and look around, you’ll see that for the most part the people who know what they’re doing get their traffic via an affiliate program.

Frankly, I’m totally mystified. It’s like a cold day in Miami when you hear someone talk about getting traffic via an affiliate program vs. seo/articles/ppc.

I really believe the REASON you hear so much more talk about seo and ppc is as follows:

1. People WANT to hear it. It’s a more seductive pitch.

2. A LOT of people LIVE off of selling ppc/seo TOOLS, software, courses and programs. There are many, many, many people with a vested interest in the market.

3. It IS cheap traffic WHEN you get it.

It really boils down to this:

Who do you wanna bet on: Google or affiliates?

Google has proven over and over and over they wanna continue tightening the screws and making life more difficult for the average guy or gal.

Affiliate marketing isn’t perfect. You have to pimp, and promote and hustle. I’m not going to pretend it’s Nirvana without any hassles or issues. This ain’t Disneyland.

My two cents from having been in this biz a long time is that the FAR more evergreen of the two is having and promoting your own affiliate program.

And yes, you can start with PLR products if that’s all you got. But as soon as you can, move on up to your own info products.

Your choice for traffic is fairly simple:

1. seo 2. ppc 3. affiliate program 4. viral marketing

Make your choice wisely. Your future depends on it.

Marlon Sanders
Marlon Sanders is author of Push Button Letters, Amazing Formula, Gimme My Money Now, Design Dashboard, Marketing Dashboard and many other famed Internet marketing products. His latest program helps you start your own affiliate program: http://www.affiliatedashboard.com/coaching.html

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*IMNewswatch would like to thank Marlon Sanders for granting permission to reprint the latest article.

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