The Warrior Forum WSO (warrior Special Offers) offers seem to have taken a massive leap in popularity over the last 6+ months, but are they the "Crystal Meth" of the internet marketing world..?

I've been promoting more WSO's over the last few months, partly because there have been some really good ones, possibly because there are now SO many to chose from; partly because it's so quick and easy (my natural laziness sneaking in); and partly to see how well it works as a business model, especially as there has been such a backlash against Clickbank products because of the high number of crap stuff sold through them earlier this year.

I'll come back to my thoughts on whether WSO's are good or bad in a moment, first I want to cover something that I discovered about the "warriorplus" affiliate system last weekend.

If you're not aware, "warriorplus" is a platform used for many WSO's to allow affiliates to promote them, although you do have to pay a subscription fee each month to have the "privilege", unlock most affiliate programs.

In order to promote any WSO on warriorplus you must first request permission from the owner/publisher of the WSO and then wait to receive confirmation that your request has been "approved".

The confirmation comes in via email, and you're then good to go.

So last week I requested, and was approved for a particular WSO. It was on a topic that I'm not that interested in learning more about myself, as I've been doing it successfully myself for years, and have even written an ebook of my own on the topic (which I will get around to releasing one day, laziness again!).

But I did want to get a copy to review it before telling my email subscribers about it, so I bought a copy through my own affiliate link.

I didn't think the owner would be too concerned on the basis that, if I liked it, I would tell my (19k+) subscribers about it and bring him some new business.

It turns out I was wrong...

I checked it out and whilst it wasn't "ground breaking", it contained good solid information that I knew many of my subscribers would find useful, so on Friday I scheduled an email to go out on Sunday morning.

I had my kids staying for the weekend so I didn't get around to checking my email until late on Sunday and when I did I discovered a whole pile of emails from subscribers who had read the email, clicked on the link and ended up on a page telling them the link was "invalid"...

I logged in to warriorplus to see what was going on and discovered the owner of the WSO had rescinded my permission!

No warning, no "PM" in the WF (WarriorForum), no attempt to get in touch at all as far as I can tell, he'd just gone ahead and shut me down.

So I had to replace the dead link with a different WSO that I had intended to promote a few days later, which obviously didn't "fit" with the email I'd written, so was never going to convert well.

The obvious immediate results for me (and my business) were: -

1. a bunch of unhappy/confused subscribers
2. I effectively looked like a “Muppet” for not checking the link before I hit send, although it had been working when I had checked when I was setting up the email
3. a loss of revenue/profits for the day

But on top of that I now feel more than a little hesitant to promote WSO's from marketers that I don't personally know and trust, not just this particular “Muppet”, who (imho) seems to be a classic example of the old saying "I'll cut of my own nose to spite my face"...

I posted a question in the thread for the WSO asking why the permission had been withdrawn, and obviously the WF being what it is, he managed to have the post removed (rather than posting a response), I guess because it may have appeared "negative" and hurt his conversions...

I also sent him a PM ("personal message" in the WF, to which I did receive a response: -

So I get it, he's had a few other people buy through their own link, so he's pissed off and to make sure that they can't actually promote HIS WSO for him, he decides to pull their permission.

hmm, ok, I'm not sure that's actually the smart move, whilst I obviously lost out on some sales, SO DID HE, AND what about the long term view here...

what's the odds on me EVER promoting one of his products again..?

If, on the other hand, he'd got in touch and asked whether I was actually going to send an email, he might have realised that losing one commission on a review copy might actually be not a bad thing after all.

My guess is he just wasn't in a "happy place" at the time, and I suspect if he ever tried out Clickbank ("hoplink hijack" central) he'd spend a LOT of time in the same frame of mind! lol!

Here's the screenshot from AWeber to show the email going out at 9:44am EST on Sunday 18th Sept to 19,985 (without duplicates) of my email subscribers, which was taken Sunday night, the same day the email went out, so the clicks he would have got ended up being quite a bit more than that: -

Forgetting what I think of this individual (can you say "Muppet") in the circumstance, there's also the worrying fact that any WSO's that I set up as scheduled emails to be sent out at a future date could have the same "permission withdrawn" problem, which makes me think twice about how I work with WSO's in the future.

So, back to the original question: are WSO offers good for your internet marketing business or not?

I'm starting to think that they are not.

There are some great ones at absolute bargain prices, but it seems to make the "bright shiny object syndrome" that many newbie and struggling internet marketers have, to go after the latest "new thing", buy it, and then not do anything with it, even worse...

Although the only "hard evidence" I have to back this up is the number of WSO's sitting on my own hard disk that I haven't done anything with, many even un-opened/read, but I'm pretty sure I'm not alone...

With WSO's people can get their "shiny object" fix quick and easy, but because they're so cheap they don't bother reading, using or acting upon them, in the long term hurting their own chance of success with online marketing.

Summary: For my own business, I'm going to back off from promoting as many WSO's as I have over the last couple of months and go back to concentrating on the core products and services I use in my own business, so I know from my own experience that they work.

as always your feedback and thoughts are very welcome!

**Note: If you want to do your own WSO then make sure you get it right:  WSO Profits Blueprint

[this post: http://mattgarrett.com/warriorforum-wso-offers-good-or-bad/]

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It's a fairly standard marketing approach for professional online marketers (big and small) to make such an offer and can be very effective.

However, it can also cause confusion and irritation if people are not expecting it or haven't come across it before, I recently recieved a support ticket accusing me of being a "con merchant" because of it...

I use AdSwaps as part of my list building process and it works very well, adding over 2,000 new subscribers to my newsletter in the last 24 days for example.

After signing up for my free offer the visitor will be sent to a OTO page, as well as being sent an email with a optin confirmation link in it (for "double optin" to comply with the "Can Spam Act" rules).

Only once they have clicked on the link in that confirmation email they will then get sent the download link for the free offer/report, as the "free report" is being offered on the basis that they sign up for my newsletter.

But, if someone is not familiar with this practice they can end up looking at a OTO page where there are no free download links and they're being asked to pay for something...

This can obviously cause a feeling of having been "conned" by a free offer that they're not going to get, even though it's already on the way to them via email.

for most of my AdSwaps I make sure that people are sent to a "email confirmation instructions" page first so that they know what to expect, they are then sent to the OTO page when they click on the confirmation link in the email.

but I've recently set up my OTO on the PayDotCOm affiliate program so that I can offer my adswap partners a commission, however this means I have to leave out the confirmation page and this has resulted in me receiving a LOT more support tickets and emails about this.

When I say "a LOT", it's still only around 5-10 people out of close to 10,000 emailed (which is around 0.1%), so it's not a huge number, but it is higher than I am used to seeing or wish to see.

To be fair the problem seems to have been made far worse over the last week or so as the autoresponder service I use (aweber) has had some real problems getting the confirmation emails sent out, with delays of over 12 hours last week, and the same again yesterday.

I have over 100 optins that are showing as unconfirmed from yesterday and from the support tickets I've received it seems to be simply because they still haven't received the confirmation email, nit a good situation.

In fact, these problems, combined with AWeber's recent SIGNIFICANT price rise have promoted me to look at alternatives to aweber, but I'll save that for another post, once I've had chance to test out the best.

So what's the solution?

1. Make a post like this and send it to my list to help people understand how an OTO works and that they are not being "conned".

2. use a different affiliate pogram for my adswap OTO affiliate program that will allow me to put the "confirmation" page back in so people know the download link will be received via follow up email

3. mention the OTO process to people in the adswap emails that I send out so that it's not unexpected

guess i've got some work to do to get all that done...

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You can read the original post and the replies here: -

http://mattgarrett.com/jv-tips-100-prize/

There are a few bits especially that I'd like to highlight: -

All of Reed's points are bang on, unsurprisingly, but meeting someone at a seminar shouldn't be underestimated. Just one JV partner that I made at the last seminar I went to paid for the cost of the seminar for me...

Giving the person a testimonial for their product is also a great tip.

Ben mentioned that it's a good idea to offer potential JV partners a review copy of your product, you shouldn't really expect them to pay for it after all, and they're not likely to promote it if they don't get to check it out...

Ben's point ofmaking sure you give the right information so the potential jv partner can make thedecision easily is also very important. Most people you get in touch with will get several such emails each and every day, the more clearly you can present your offer the more likley that it will be read, rather than deleted.

John's suggestion of creating a product to promote their product can also be very effective...

Andy also mentions that you REALLY want to try and get them to include an email for your product in their autoresponder follow up series, as this can bring you long term profits.

Andy makes another exellent point that your really do need to keeo in mind from the start - "if you first consider what you can do for them before thinking about what they can do for you, you can build a much stronger JV relationship"

and there's a couple of other ideas that occured to me: -

1. offer the potential jv partner a special discount that they can give their readers. I've even set up permanant discount offer pages for some of my jv partners.
2. offer to put one of their "offers" on your download page as a "unannounced bonus"
3. and obviously offer to put a promo for their product in to your autoresponder follow up series

so who've I picked as the winner?

well, all four posts covered important points, heck I could probably turn the answers in to a mini ebook or report, so I'm gonna be a total wimp and call it a draw and send Reed, Ben, John & Andy $30 each, which should be enough for a beer and a pizza on me as a thank you for their suggestions and time.

Thanks guys!

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1. The simplest way to start a "relationship" with a potential JV partner is to get on their newsletter, read it for a while, and when something comes up that you don't understand or that you could help them with (i.e. have a genuine reason, don't just make one up), get in touch.

note: being on a marketers newsletter for a while will also give you an idea of the sort of things that they promote to their subscribers. Don't waste your time (or theirs) getting in touch with someone who only promotes a particular type of product or service if your offer is totally unrelated to it, focus on those who are likely to be intrested in what you have.

2. Always try and offer the potential JV partner that you're approaching more than you will be getting in return, for instance rather than just sending out a promo email for them, you could also add a blog post that gives them a permanent promo for their product/offer, as well as a link back to their site

3. Sending something via old fashioned "snail mail" can be a great way of getting a potential JV partners attention, I've received not only postcard invites for JV offers, but even a mini remote control helicopter, although it turned out that was actually intended for another well known marketer.

4. Never ever send a broadcast email to several people, even if you use "BCC". If you're trying to build a relationship with someone, which is what a JV partnership is, it has to be based on trust and respect. Even the slightest hint that you've sent a "broadcast" email is going to get you off on totally the wrong foot.

5. Never be afraid to ask, if you don't ask you can't get a "yes", but ALWAYS be polite and respectful.

That's just a few extra tips that popped in to my mind while writing yesterdays post on building JV partnerships, so here's your chance to win $100 cash (paid via PayPal)...

Post your best tips in the comments and I'll pick my favorite from all the comments as the winner and send the poster $100, can't say fairer than that can I...

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If you're just beginning and don't have a list or product then that's really where you need to start.

JV's are usually based on a relationship that you've built up with the prospective JV partner, but you still need to be able to offer something of value, good JV partnerships are never "one sided", and you want to make them as good an offer for your new partner as possible, as it should be seen as the start of a long term relationship/friendship, not just a "one off" thing...

Just writing an email saying "promote my product and you'll make a bunch of money" is simply not going to work, unless you have something new and exceptional, which is rare, and it's more likely to stop that potential JV partner from ever wanting to work with you.

So Step 1 of your plan should be to start building a subscriber list/newsletter.

the simplest way to do so is to grab a PLR product, re-brand it, and preferably add some extra value to it with your own perspective and ideas on the topic it covers.

then you can start using it as a free offer on a "Squeeze page" to get people to sign up to your newsletter.

I recommend using AWeber for managing your list, you can get a free trial here

There's also some free videos on using AWeber and ading optins forms to your blogs here:

Free Internet Marketing Tutorial Videos

but how do you get traffic to that offer page to start building your list?

Well, the quickest way is to use PPC (Pay Per Click), but that can be expensive depending on your market.

I recommend trying out some less well known PPC sites (e.g. 7search) if you're on a smaller budget.

The cheaper, but slower, way is to use good old fashioned article marketing, just don't forget to do some keyword reseach to make sure you're targetting terms that will get you some traffic and are targetted enough for it to convert in to optins.

The advantage with article marketing is that you do the work once and the traffic will keep on coming for months and years to come, so all you need to do is keep writing and submitting more articles to increase the number of optins you're getting each day.

Step 2 - AdSwaps

Once you have have 250+ subscribers on your list you can use a free forum like Internet Marketing Ad Swaps to start doing AdSwaps with other list owners, which can easily double the number of optins you get each month.

Step 3 - Giveaways

Giveaway events are a great way to get even more optins for your list, but most will only allow you to join as a "contributor" once you have a list of a certain size.

Alex Perez-Prat runs a very useful group on FaceBook where you can find out about upcoming giveaway events: -
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6405644093

You can get more suggestions on how to get your own products for giveaway events here:

List Building With Giveaways and AdSwaps

In the month of May this year I added over 1,500 new subscribers to just one of my lists from just doing Giveaways and AdSwaps, so I know this works...

All this extra list building and taking part in giveaways will also raise your profile with other marketers, so you should start to find it easier to build those all important relationships for future joint ventures, especially as your new list will allow you to promote other peoples products and become a JV partner for them.

It's a lot easier to approach someone to become your JV partner if you've already promoted their product!!

Step 4 - Permanant JV agreements

Your long term aim should be to set up permanent JV agrements with other succesful marketers.

This could be as simple as trading spots in your autoresponder follow up sequence with another marketer, or it could be something a little more sophisticated, like setting up a "partnership" site with some fellow marketers that you get on with and compliment your own areas of expertise, so that as a group you can offer even more to potential subscribers and customers...

To see an eample of this in action take a look at the newly launched AskTheIMExperts.com

This is a great example of four succesful internet marketers with diffeent areas of expertise working together on an ongoing basis, to the benefit of all four, Kevin Riley, Daniel McGonagle, Fabian Tan, and some guy with a silly goatee...

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