Editor’s Note: This is the fourth in a series of five quick affi­liate tips by guest blog­ger Robert Plank. Videos of each are also pos­ted at the end of this article. Enjoy!
– Michel Fortin

No pro­duct ven­dor likes poten­tial affi­lia­tes to ask for free “review copies.” It reeks of inex­pe­rience and penny-​​pinching. If you want to pro­mote a pro­duct and need to see what it looks like on the inside, just bite the bullet and pay for it like ever­yone else.

As an affi­liate, you have two rela­tionships to work: with your buyers, and with the pro­duct ori­gi­na­tor. When you try to go the cheap route, you burn too many brid­ges early on.

Let’s also remem­ber that whe­ne­ver you pay for something, you’re more likely to take action with it. Just ima­gine you’ve work and saved your entire life for your dream car. Once you buy it, you’re going to actually use it and take extra care of it, right?

Then ima­gine some­body gives you the car outright. You didn’t earn it, you didn’t work for it, and didn’t pay anything for it. You still might che­rish the car but you aren’t going to enjoy it the same way.

The same is true for get­ting “affi­liate review copies” of pro­ducts. If you actually buy the pro­duct, you’ll have more of a drive to pro­mote and make your money back.

There is also no excuse for trying to save money buying from your­self as the affi­liate to get your review copy. Peo­ple have tried to jus­tify them­sel­ves doing this for years, but there’s simply no way to explain it without soun­ding cheap.

Can you really see Michel For­tin, John Reese, or Frank Kern asking for review copies from each other? No way… $20 or even $100 is a drop-​​in-​​the-​​bucket invest­ment for their busi­ness. You want to model those people.

Did you know that Rus­sell Brun­son and Matt Bacak attend each other’s $20,000 workshops, and pay each other for hourly coaching? There is no “kee­ping score” to see who makes more money off the other’s coaching.

If one of them needs an extra boost in their busi­ness, they pay for the tools and it pays off.

Usually I will pay full price for even my clo­sest busi­ness part­ners’ pro­ducts, even though I “could” get it for free — I’d pre­fer to have the tax wri­teoff, stron­ger rela­tionship, and extra moti­va­tion that comes with paying full price.

I don’t always buy the pro­ducts I pro­mote as an affi­liate… but if you want a review copy, pay for it ins­tead of calling in favors. You owe it to your­self, your pro­duct ori­gi­na­tor, and your cus­to­mers to actually invest in your business.