An Interesting Phenomenon

by Tom Busch

Being a student of internet marketing and marketing in
general, I don't pretend to have it all figured out. This
article probably won't give you all of the answers, but I
hope it at least gives you a few good questions.

I subscribe to dozens of newsletters/ezines because I'm
always looking for more and better information, solutions,
strategies, answers, tips, tricks, etc. I don't think I'm
unique either. In fact most people who are determined to
make their living online, get as many or more newsletters
than they can handle.

In the past few weeks, I've begun to take notice of an
interesting phenomenon.

Two new ebooks, and a program which is supposed to bring
you more traffic, were all introduced around the same time.
I happen to subscribe to the newsletters of the prime
sources for each of these new offers.

Both of the ebooks come with resale rights. The traffic
program, which is free, has a multi-level scheme, whereby a
user's benefits increase by introducing new users who in
turn introduce new users and so on.

Now here's where it get's interesting. Within a day or two
of receiving these offers from the prime source, the same
offers started pouring in from all sorts of newsletter
publishers.

In other words, they bought the ebook(s) and/or signed up
for the traffic program, got out their lists and got busy.
And they wasted no time.

Now, this probably happens all of the time, but it was the
first time that I actually stopped to watch it take place.

This "phenomenon" brought up the folowing questions.

1) Is there any money to be made on products when the
resale rights are so easily obtained?

Money is money and even a couple of sales will cover the
purchase price and a put a few extra dollars in your
pocket. But I think there is a deeper question here. Is it
worth using up some of the precious but limited amount of
attention your audience can give, on offers like these, or
are there better ways to take advantage of it?

2) Is it a good idea to give away resale rights to everyone
who purchases your product, when instead you could line up
some good affiliates and profit from each and every sale?

I think that I know the answer to this one! When it comes
to ebooks, yes, it probably is a good idea. Most likely,
the author is employing the following, rather clever
strategy. He or she is counting on healthy back-end profits
from links within the ebook to other products/services.
This is even better than making it a free ebook, because
now there are hundred or even thousands working very hard
to distribute it, thus vastly increasing the number of
people exposed to those profitable links.

Hey, I guess I do catch on.

3) Is multi-level promotion, as in the case of the
aforementioned traffic program, inherently flawed?

Now, I'm not talking about two-tiered affiliate programs,
or even products that come with resale rights. I'm talking
about anything you promote in which your profits/benefits
are dependent upon getting other people to promote it too.

I'm not going to answer this question, as it is much like
debating religion. When it comes to MLM or multi-level
marketing, there are believers and non-believers and both
are equally passionate.

I want to make it abundantly clear that I am not knocking
anyone who employs any of the marketing/promotion methods
outlined in this article. As I stated at the very
beginning, I am just a student, struggling to learn. There
is one thing I've learned for sure though, he who is the
prime source stands to gain the most.

About the Author

Tom Busch publishes The Power Player newsletter
and has an internet marketing resource site with
Free downloads available at http://tombusch.com