How many of you reading this right now were around before product launches became accepted as a standard marketing tactic?

Not too long ago, an Internet marketer created a really good product worth talking about. Then he approached a selected few of his trusted friends to help him promote as an affiliate.

It caught on, people talked about it, and some of the better ones truly changed people’s lives.

They did not care about making $1,000,000 in 7 seconds, or whatever.

A slow and steady increase in sales actually helped them cope. They cared about support and giving customized, personal assistance to each customer. They cared about their product.

Fast forward a little ..

You’re now in the product launch era.

It started somewhere around 2005 with Jeff Walker’s classic “Product Launch Formula” mega-launch. It was an awesome product. It changed everything, and everyone.

Then Mike Filsaime did it. John Reese did it. Michael Cheney did it. All the guys that licked scraps out of these guys’ bowls did it to. It was rinsed and repeated.

The problem with truly great ideas is that they are always duplicated and mass produced till they become.. well..  lame.

Today everything is about the process of launching a product, and almost nothing about the product itself. It’s like the Henry Ford version of Internet marketing.

Mass production and sales. Structured, rigid “assembly lines” that churn out a new product every few months.

Customer individuality is replaced by a one-size for all mentality.

Out source the creation of the product. Hire a ghost-writer. 

OTOs. Conversion. Back-end sales. Forced continuity. Limited quantity. Limited time.

Now anyone can launch a product, regardless of age, authority or any real passion for the subject matter. In my earlier post I commented about the big problem with information products, which only serves to compound the problem of product launch “overkill”.

However, I have to admit that product launches work like magic. Or at least they used to.

I raised over $65,000 in 7 days in 2007 with my partners Melvin Ng and Vince Tan, which bought us air tickets to US and a whole lot more. In 2009 when we launched Rahsia ClickBank, I made more than RM200,000 in 30 days with Zamri Nanyan.

Product launches work.

But I strongly believe that they work much, much better when the product that is being “launched” is worth being talked about in the first place.

You can take a pile of shit, wrap it up, invite a few big names to hype it up as “magic shit”, and you can make some quick cash. It’s been done before. It’s still being done.

But it’s not what I like to do.

The problem is, I find more and more Internet marketers in love with the process – inviting JV partners, creating an affiliate contest, sending out hyped-up “affiliate leaderboard” emails, etc.

When they want to recruit you, they tell you how much money you are going to make, who are the top dog hungry to promote for them, and what great Apple products you can win. They tell you how well their product is converting, and how deliriously happy their customers are.

Most of these guys are lying through their teeth.

Affiliates hardly take the time to read or review a product before recommending it to their lists. All they want to do is get on the Top 10 list so they can brag about it till the end of days.

That’s why after a while, I gave up on most product launches. I only participate in launches by people I know and have grown to trust.

After reading Seth Godin’s Purple Cow (as lame as some people may think it is), I’ve come to a conclusion:

Product launches will soon be part of the “noise” that everyone ignores. In order for me to stand out and survive, I need to focus on creating products that are better than everyone else’s offer. It may mean I will have to spend an incredible amount of time researching and designing products, but in the end it will be worth it.

Well, that’s MY conclusion anyway. What do you think of product launches?

Does it really help you, as a customer, to get caught up in the hype and high-pressure sales tactics in product launches?