Caution – If You’re a WAHM Affiliate Rep – Pay Attention to the Yahoo Group Company Boards

Well, after my diatribe the other night about Yahoo Group Swap, Trade, Barter and Shopping groups, I feel it’s necessary to bring to the forefront my experiences so far in Affiliate Marketing. Read on. This is important stuff I’m going to tell all you WAHMs.

Back in February I posted a very good article concerning the advantages of signing up to be an Affiliate Marketer ~ here. The article made some excellent points. While I still believe there are benefits to being an Affiliate Rep, I am now adding a proviso to my previous comments.

I’m specifically referring to the section concerning..

Remember that not all affiliate programs are good. Many of them only offer products that you would not want to give away for free to your mother-in-law. Furthermore, the support program and training offered is not always top quality.

As you can see from my blog header, yes, I am an affiliate for a number of companies. However, not all the companies I started out with have their banners on my site any more. Let me explain why.

I thought I carefully researched each company I wanted to represent. If you’re considering joining as an affiliate for supplemental income, just don’t make your decision based on the the fact that the company has a “pretty banner” (I didn’t). The point in the article is to believe in the product you will be representing.

What the article doesn’t say…and mark my words…is ~ here I go again, pay attention to what’s going on in the Yahoo Membership Groups that you’re required to join. Pay attention to the chit-chat and bantering between the reps. It’s almost like being in a room at a party – you have to be in tune with the “body language” of people ~ or in this case, “virtual body language” ~ the nuances of the conversations going on.

Case in point. One of the affiliate companies I belonged to, I noticed that reps were constantly asking “I ordered, but my product hasn’t been sent out yet.” Red flag. I hadn’t had an order (yet), so not to worry for me. As time went on, I noticed the owner kept making excuses (not exactly exaggerating here) ~ there were: floods; tornadoes; ice storms; the electricity was out; family emergency out-of-state; doesn’t work on Sundays; someone broke into her house ~ you get the picture. And this was when she did bother to show up and answer any rep questions on her own site. Sometimes she had a friend post on her behalf. Click, “delete the banner” ~ I’m outta there.

Two recent examples ~ I was an affiliate rep for a company where the Yahoo Group posts from the company owner included “Please donate to my 18-year old daughter who’s in a family way, and make a virtual shower purchase from Walmart (here we go again) and have it sent to Walmart Store # xxx.” Nice photo of the kiddo.

Yahoo Group chit chat included details of the birth, blah blah. Then the posts started showing that the owner was having financial troubles, and conducting all her business from the local library, because her electricity was shut off. Reps wanted to know why their customer orders were taking so long. The final straw for me again ~ some “friendly, loyal reps were starting a “fund” to help the owner with her financial troubles. Click, “delete,” banner gone from my site.

In the second example, the owner of the company posted on her Yahoo Group board, whining that no one was contributing to her “fund” to send her two kiddos to Girl Scout Camp. Apparently they didn’t qualify for a scholarship this year. She had a fund set up with some internet-based group called “Chipin” where you get to donate money to whoever the whiner of the day is. My take on this was, which I posted before I hit the “delete my banner & remove me from this group” key (again), was ~my DH & I worked hard at our own FT jobs to send our own two DDs to summer camp when they were younger without asking the extended fam, much less strangers to contribute. Should you be in a philanthropic mood you might rather consider contributing to (and at least get a legitimate tax deduction)  the Paul Newman’s Whole In the Wall Gang Camp, or to the Petit Family Charity Fund. Get a life.

My point with this blog is, if you sign up to be an affiliate rep, try to make informed decisions. Do your research. And just don’t sign up for Yahoo Group notifications from the site administrator. Pay attention to what the posts are saying. You may not need daily emails, but check in at least once or twice a week on your own ~ read the posts, see what’s going on.

Again, most of it’s not pretty. There are some excellent companies out there, but then again, not.

If the banner’s still up on my site ~ so far, so good. Believe me, my eyes are watching.

Copyright 2010 Moomette’s Magnificents – All Rights Reserved

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YAHOO GROUPS ~ Trade, Barter, Swap & Shopping Groups ~ Think Twice Before You Join

Back in January or so, I did a couple of blog entries here and here praising the benefits of joining Yahoo Swap, Barter & Trade Groups, as well as Yahoo Shopping Groups, as a means of shedding excess eBay inventory and meeting quota for the various companies I’m an affiliate rep for.

Well, I’m eating humble pie now, and am here as a hard-working WAHM to tell you, whoa nelly, slow down before you do anything like that and make the same mistakes I did.

I’m so much wiser for it now, and I’d like to tell you why. If I had come across any blogs telling it like it is before I joined, I would have thought twice.

I played by all the rules. One rep per company, listed my items, tried to join in the conversations, promoted my specials, yada yada yada.

But it’s not pretty. On the swap groups, I got taken for a ride. I’ve withdrawn from all I ever joined. I listed pretty good inventory from my eBay store – NWT (New, With Tag) kids Baby Gap PJs, Webkinz, etc. I sent my items with Delivery Confirmation when the vultures snapped them up. Any time I went online (which was really, really often) to try to “grab” an item – nothing was listed. What was on there? Pacifiers (used?)…. I’m not kidding here; coasters, probably just junk that was lying around the house.

All the gals were begging for “Walmart” gift certificates, and grabbed anything they could get their hands on, leaving nothing else. What really was the last straw for me on one group was that someone was offering to “burn DVD’s” to swap. Now, anyone with an ounce of ethics knows that it’s illegal to do that. As a paralegal, I protested and said I didn’t want to be any part of that ~ guess what ~ the group owner decided to hold a “vote” to see what the group thought about burning the DVDs. Well, I was outta there – and withdrew faster than you could hit “enter.” And I left behind probably several hundred dollars in “points to spend” and figure the Walmart gals could use them more than I need them.

My latest rant today is about the “Shopping Groups” that promote one rep per company, and you get to be Consultant-of-the-Month (COTM.) I belonged to two groups. Each month, I faithfully placed my order, and waited my turn to be COTM.

There’s supposed to be two COTM per month. As a COTM, everyone is supposed to place an order with you, and theoretically, you can get 4-5 orders, which would allow you to meet quota. Well, the other rep got all the orders, and I only got one.

I got an email from one group member in response to my withdrawal, who had this to say about me: …. maybe no one wanted what i had to offer that month?

At this point, I’ve had enough of these cliquey, greedy groups. When I withdrew from one other shopping group today, one nice gal e-mailed me and said she was in agreement with me and ‘right behind me on her way out.’ Fortunately, there are some nice, honorable people that I met on these groups, but they’re  few & far between.

Am I whining? Yes, in a way, I admit it. But the only positive experience that I feel has come of this, is that I’m brazen enough to post it here and try to warn anyone who’s thinking that this is the next best thing since sliced bread, to think twice. You don’t want to end up with a bad taste in your mouth.

Copyright 2010 Moomette’s Magnificents – All Rights Reserved

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