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The frenetic pace of sales letters and affiliate advice leads you to believe that if you don't act now, the opportunity will be lost.

I personally hate the hard sell. How many times have you read…?

* This Coupon will expire 3 days from

* I reserve the right to end this introductory offer at anytime without warning

* Once we get the testimonials we need, we're going to push the price up on this to $97 or maybe even $127

I don't understand how this approach works, especially when you are selling to other affiliate marketers. Creating a sense of urgency with these kind of buzz lines overwhelms the message of your product. And as a customer, making a decision with the timer running is just bad for business. But given the persistent nature of the extreme hard sell, someone must fall for it, right?

The problem with giving in to the hard sell is that it doesn't always make good business sense. So before you jump on in because of you're worried about missing out, take a step back and figure out if the product you're buying actually makes sense for your business.

Look for full disclosure
You should know exactly what you are getting before you buy it. Whether you are buying a membership, or an eBook, whatever format the product gets delivered to you should be clearly stated.

You should also check out the FAQ. Most direct response pages have one, and it can be very enlightening to see what the seller views as important questions. Depending on the product, you will often see just a repeat of the same pitch you already read, a broken link, or a handful of questions and answers too general to be useful. If you aren't getting enough information to make a sound decision, that is a tipoff that you need to be wary.

I'll give you an example. There are numerous products on Clickbank for background checks and criminal searches. They all work essentially the same way. The price you pay is for a limited number of searches, and typically only basic ones. In order to use the service fully, you have pay per search, and often there are “premium” searches that cost more. But it doesn't tell you that on the website, so you don't find out until you have purchased the product.

Full disclosure is also related to price but at least with Clickbank products, you get the benefit of price disclosure before you purchase.

Ignore claims of financial success
No software or eBook can deliver you instantaneous financial rewards. People always want to believe it's that easy, but not one system can guarantee that for every individual. Even when you are determined to follow a program step-by-step, you still have to do the work.

The truth about affiliate marketing is that there is an elite group of individuals who make most of the riches, and everyone else divvies up the other minuscule profits. Breaking into that elite crowd is tough, and most affiliate eBooks are built around the notion that it's easy, playing to your greed. So don't be played.

Go to an outside source
Google is amazing, you can find a review of practically any product, any service, and any company. If you have concerns, why not run the product name through Google search and see what comes up. A lot of affiliate products get marketed by more than one seller, and many of them use write-ups to advertise the product with their affiliate commission. As long as you look at these things with a little skepticism, there's no reason you cannot use the information others' offer in making an evaluation.

As often as not, though, you can find someone who has used the product and isn't trying to sell it to you. Usually, the reason they are blogging about it is because they were dissatisfied, but isn't that information you would want, too? Nothing you find on the internet is going to be totally impartial, but that doesn't automatically make it unhelpful.

Know what you need
It's not just enough to spot the hard sell, you also have to have a really concrete concept of what benefit you are going to get from the product. Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and purchase the product to know whether it will truly end up being beneficial to your goals. But don't be afraid to return it if it doesn't deliver what it promises.

Whatever you do, don't take action just because a seller tells you time is running out. That's just folly. Sure, maybe the seller will raise the price, but you have to make decisions that are sound for your business, something that the seller has no way of knowing. Don't jump right in just because the pitch says so. The extra time you take to make a decision can save you a lot of anguish later on.

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