Using e-mail campaigns with affiliate programs?

Is it wise when starting out?

[lionshare]

I am new to affiliate marketing and am interested in finding out the best ways to advertise these products. It seems that most affiliates recommend PPC advertising when starting out, which makes sense. However, there are many e-mail marketing companies on the internet that will send out a large amount of e-mails for a relatively cheap price. What are the downfalls of purchasing e-mail campaigns? (with the exception that you can only promote one product per e-mail)

I have around $300.00 per month to spend on advertising and want to use it wisely. Any suggestions?

[LifeinAsia]

Most affiliate programs don't allow their programs to be advertised through e-mail, or at least they require permission ahead of time. Check with the manager for your affiliate program(s) before doing anything.

[gamiziuk]

What are the downfalls of purchasing e-mail campaigns?

Having your affiliate account suspended is the main downfall.

E-Mail Marketing companies = Spammers.

[lionshare]

Thanks for your input. Looks like I'll be staying away from e-mail for now!

[derekwong28]

I would be very wary of recommending PPC for beginners. Very few are successful and the losses could be huge. I would recommend you look at "bum marketing" which is completely free.

[Webwork]

derekwong28 - What you mean isn't "don't do it" but, rather, "proceed with caution, after much readling and investigation about strategy, and with a lot of thought about budgeting and money you an afford to put a risk and what you need in the bank and cash flow and . . . " - right?

Who amongst us hasn't paid for our education . . . err . . I mean burned through a pile of money whilst learning what doesn't work and, hopefully, what does work?

Have I been alone in this plight . . .?

Maybe I should write a book? "Learning by Burning Money"

[edited by: Webwork at 9:52 pm (utc) on Jan. 14, 2007]

[derekwong28]

I actually did recommended someone to start off via PPC. But he does have deep pockets and lots of time to do it. I also highly recommended him to get a mentor which is quite expensive.

I was really thinking in terms of lionshare's situation where he is only willing to spend $300. An experienced person can easily splash that out in less than a day with Adwords without getting anything in return. Something like this did happen to me a few months ago but I was already experienced with Adwords. There are lots of posts by newbies in this and other forums who got disillusioned with IM after having been burnt heavily by PPC.

[lionshare]

Thanks to all for your input. "Bum Marketing" has some good concepts that I haven't thought or heard of before.(Thanks for the suggestion DW28) I think I'll still start a PPC campaign as well since this will ultimately be an integral part of my online advertising - You gotta start somewhere!