No gardener would lovingly spend time growing his garden and suddenly indiscriminately drown his garden with bucketloads of water and fertilizer. The end result is that the plants will either drown in water, or be presented with so much fertilizer (a good thing) that it turns toxic.

However, this is often the issue with newer affiliate marketers.

They’ve built up a contact list over time, and perhaps with a judicious PPC (pay per click) budget.

And once they’ve built it to a decent size, they start drowning the list with every single affiliate product in their niche area.

It’s a good way to kill your list, if you feel it too big (your most valuable members could be the first to quit).

Consider systematizing your business and adopt a ‘best of breed‘ approach to product recommendation.

This means you might do a product review of autoresponders and give your personal preference (based on effectiveness and return on invesment – if you’re making judgements based on commission payouts alone, you’re shortchanging your list members and worst still, yourself).

You’d want to ensure that your products are relevant to your audience. I focus on blogging and affiliate marketing and you’d notice that most of my recommendations are related to these areas, or compliementary to them.

Depth of Use is an important consideration which affects your credibility when making a recommendation.

There are a few levels which determine how involved you are with a product:

• Descriptive: You describe the features of the product, possibly pasting a pre-made ‘product review‘ (supplied by the product creator. You might go further to describe its benefits and how the user can enhance their existing business. You might read the sales page and elaborate on how some of these features might be used.
• Application/hands-on: You go one step further to actually use the product. You might download a trial copy, or apply some methods described in a ‘leaked chapter’ (which is a selection from the ebook), and share your findings. To go into the application aspect, you might either request a review copy from the product creator. This works better if you are established in your niche and have published product reviews previously. Your reputation in your selected niche will determine the outcome of these solicitation efforts. If you believe in the product however, you might consider investing in a copy for your review. (assuming you have 2 sales, you’d generally recover your investment.)
• Value creation: Going beyond describing and using the product, you might create a bonus to enhance the use of this product, or bundle related products which further enhance the product. By going ‘above and beyond’ what a typical affiliate marketer would do (drive traffic and close the sale), you’ll establish a reputation for overdelivering on your marketing efforts. Freqently your major commitment is time and minimal funds, so this route is worth looking at, especially if you want to strengthen your credibility.

I cannot emphasize credibility and reputation enough.

As you’re continuing to build your personal brand, remember than product launch campaigns will come and go, but you’re here for the long haul.

If you’re unsure about promoting a product, it’s better to pass on it.

I personally feel it’s healthier for your brand and your business to forgo short term income (especially if your intution warns you about a product) in favor of long term viability.