The Product Launch Merry-Go-Round – The Cons

"Gordon Bryan"
Written by gordino

In this second of a 2 part article, I’m taking a look at the downsides of one of the most outwardly attractive looking models in the internet marketing field – what I call the product launch merry-go-round…

Previously I covered how the model works, and the huge benefits that can be there for both people who create products, people who are affiliate, and most of all people that are both!

I’ve linked to that article below, but in a nutshell, the merry-go-round aspect of the model is the positive angle to the ‘you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours’ concept. That goes that if you promote the product launch from another marketer to your big list, and bring in lots of sales and therefore profits, that other marketer will then promote *your* own product launch to *their* big list, bringing in lots of sales and profits again.

Then they create a product and launch it, you create a product and launch it, and so on, and it’s something that can be repeated with all the other marketers on this product launch merry-go-round.

Great, right? Lots of profits all round, right?
Well, it can be, yes.




It’s not all rainbows and sequins though, so let’s get stuck in to some of the downsides…

In my view, the downsides are mainly to do with a group of people who often get pushed way down the list of priorities, and that’s the customer!

To be involved in this launch/promotion merry-go-round, you first have to get on it. That needs a few things to be in place. You need to have a big list of buyers so that you can show big sales to the other marketers, as one example.

If you want them to promote your product, you might have to give massive commission bumps to give them a reason to promote. If they’ve already scheduled up a long list of promotions that they are confident will bring them sales and money, the onus is on you to show them why you should get in there.

You can send them your product, naturally, but as it happens they’ll be less interested in the product, and more interested in the profit potential for them.

I was trying to get some affiliates for one of my own books, and I sent it to a marketer with a big list. The marketer got back to me that they liked my book, but would not promote it until I could show which other big name affiliates were having success with it.

That’s a massive problem for me, and it’s an illustration of pushing the customer down the list. If the product was good, and served a need for the people on that marketer’s list, that should be the driving reason to promote it.

The customer can be reduced to simply a cog in the money making process with this merry-go-round.

I’ve seen some of these products being promoted. Some of them are good, but some of them are most certainly *not* good. The affiliates are promoting them not because they know they serve the customer, but because they’ll bring in profits for themselves as the affiliate. Big problem for me.

Another problem comes if we look at why affiliates might be promoting these less than stellar products, and that reason is reciprocity. If they promoted your product to their list, you will be *expected* to promote their next product to your list.

You can choose not to, of course, as it’s your list, but then can find yourself booted off the cash merry-go-round pretty quickly. Anyway, why wouldn’t you promote it? Never mind the quality, or how it serves a customer, it’s all about the launch/profit, promote/profit cycle, right..?

Hmm, you can see why I have a problem with this. The customer is a by product consideration, and the merry-go-round fuels the shiny object syndrome which stops people making progress.

Now, at this point, it’s important for me to say that there are pros to the model. I covered those in the other part of the article. There are some good people promoting good products. No-one is forcing any customer to buy anything, and pretty much all of the products will come with a secure money back guarantee.

This is all true. I’m not saying there is any conning going on, because there isn’t. It’s a marketing model that can work well, and make a lot of money for a lot of people.

I do have concerns though, as I’ve covered. The pros are there yes, but so are the downsides – the need to constantly create new products, the need to have a big list and big affiliate on board before anyone will promote, the need to ‘return the favour’ of promoting the others back – in my mind these definitely lean away from serving the customer and more towards self serving the marketers.

So, look at the product launch merry-go-round by all means, get on board it if you choose to by all means, but make sure you go in with your eyes open!

Do let me know what you think as ever – I love the feedback!

‘Til Next Time,
Health & happiness,
Gordon
P.S. Don’t forget to go and watch my free video series looking at the basics of my Passion Profits system!
P.P.S. Here’s that first article I mentioned – Product Launch Merry-go-round, The Pros!

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