Have you ever heard of an ethical bribe? In most cases, bribery will land you in jail or at least land you with a pretty hefty fine to pay. But when it comes to affiliate marketing, bribery is not only ethical, it’s essential to survival…especially today. If you’re wondering why, keep reading this article and you’ll find out.

Okay, so why is bribery so important today as an affiliate marketer? Well, in case you’ve been living under a rock, the FTC has recently made some guidelines that say that you MUST disclose that you are receiving a commission from the sale of a product as an affiliate. This usually comes into play when a marketer puts up a review of a product and then under the review, gives the prospect his affiliate link. In the old days, this was fine. Today, you MUST disclose that if the person buys from THAT link, YOU get a commission.

So why does this make bribery so important? Well, many people, after reading your review, if they see that you are in fact getting a commission from the sale of the product, they might not take your review as seriously and as a result, this might cut down on the number of sales you make. This is a perfectly logical concern of affiliates, as it should be. So how do we combat this?

That’s where the bribe comes in, and it’s perfectly ethical and legal. Yes, it’s going to take a little work on YOUR part, but if you want to survive in the new affiliate marketing climate, you’re going to have to learn to adapt. Okay, so let’s get to this bribe and just how we pull it off.

Assuming you have read the product and understand what it’s about, you know what it contains and what it doesn’t contain. No product is perfect…not even mine. So what you will want to do is this. You’ll want to write down all the things you wish the product had and then create a companion product that contains those things. Then, what you want to do (here comes the bribe) is offer that product as a bonus to anybody who buys the main product from you.

This way, you can be TOTALLY up front about the fact that you’re getting paid for the sale. In fact, I even tell people that they have to make sure that my affiliate ID appears at the bottom of the payment page or they won’t get their bonus. Full disclosure and I STILL make a boat load of sales. The key is having a bonus that is REALLY worth something.

Don’t have a product? No problem. Offer your time. Offer to help them with the product if they need it. If you go beyond what most affiliates are willing to do, you WILL make more than your share of sales.

There you have it..an ethical bribe that makes the customer happy, the FTC happy and you VERY happy.

To YOUR Success,
Steven Wagenheim

Tired of being an affiliate failure? Want to turn yourself into an affiliate assassin like I am? Want to land in the top 20 of every affiliate promotion you tackle just like I do? Check out my site at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/affiliateassassin/index.html and start earning a solid income as an affiliate marketer.