Seven Simple Things You Should Do Before Buying an Info Product
(Written by guest contributor Dan Nickerson)
Does it seem like everyone online is making $10,000 per month except for you?
If you’re like me, you see info products getting released daily by some new “guru” who claims to be making a fortune with their unique money-making system. And even though you don’t recognize their name or face, you swear you’ve seen their yacht, car, and boat on a website before. That website was probably iStockphoto.com.
Unfortunately, a good percentage of new online marketers get pulled in by the sales copy on these kinds of pages and order right away. That’s a mistake, because even though the offer may be legit, you should always do a little due diligence before purchasing from anyone you’ve never heard of before.
I want to show you seven simple things I do for due diligence before I buy online.
1. Google It
No surprise here. Enter the promoter or product name in Google and see what comes up. Use quotes to refine your search. Try adding the following words one at a time to your search keywords: scam, refund, problem, rip-off.
Look at the search results. Is anyone running AdWords with affiliate links for the product? That’s an indicator that others believe in it enough to spend money on promotion. Oftentimes when you Google it, you might find the product cheaper somewhere else or discover it’s just a rehashed version of a product you already own.
2. Do a Whois Search
I use DomainTools.com to find out who the owner is, how the long the domain has been active, how long it’s been registered, and if it’s a private registration. If the domain registration is private, that’s a red flag. Basically, if they are hiding their contact info, there’s a reason for it. You can also see if they own a lot of domains, and if they’ve registered for more than one year. Even though we don’t always register our domains years in advance, when you find someone who does, it adds a little trust.
3. Check the Traffic
I have a Firefox Plugin called SearchStatus. It runs in my status bar. On every site that loads in my browser, I can see the Alexa ranking and PageRank of the site. So I can instantly see how much traffic a site is getting and get an idea of Google’s trust factor of the page. Obviously when someone launches a new site, these indicators may not be a factor yet, but you can also check the sites of those giving product testimonials to see if they get enough traffic to justify their claims.
4. Go to the Warrior Forum
If you’re not a member of the Warrior Forum, you should be. Whenever a new product comes, out I can pretty much guarantee that someone on the forum is going to mention it, and a discussion will ensue. So always do a search on the Warrior Forum to see if people are talking about the promoter or the product. You should also add “warrior” to your Google search keywords in Step #1.
5. What’s the Payment Platform?
Is it on ClickBank? PayPal? Or does it use some overseas merchant account? Is the page secure? If it’s ClickBank, you could do some quick research to see if the product is growing or declining in popularity, has a lot of affiliates promoting it, and even what the refund rate is. Check out CBGraph.com for refund rates. From a refund perspective, you’re usually safe buying products through ClickBank and PayPal, but I’d be wary about products only available via a shopping cart interface you’ve never seen, or one that isn’t secure.
6. Do You Already Own It?
I know this sounds crazy, but we get a lot of people who buy our products multiple times. They either forget they bought it or love it so much they wanted to give us extra money. I hope for the latter, but I’m pretty sure they just forgot they bought it. So next time you go to buy something, check to see if you already bought it. Trust me, it happens to all of us.
7. Do You Need to Buy It?
This next tip goes along with #6. Whenever you buy a product or download a bonus report, enter it in an Excel spreadsheet. Just create some fields for URL, Product Name, Promoter, Cost, and enter a short description. You can use this to make sure you don’t already own it, see if you own something similar you haven’t digested yet, and keep track of your spending. It might even help you come tax time.
These are just a few ideas that can save you time, money, and headaches when buying info products.
