The big lie

Unfortunately, you’ve been led to believe affiliate marketing is easy. And it is – sort of. It’s far easier that developing, selling and supporting your own product. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy.

The bad news…

To top it off you’ve been given false information. You’ve been told to find quality products. Next to look for easy keywords to target. Then buy some keyword ads that send traffic to the product. And finally get a fat check for all the sales. But it doesn’t work.

Don’t bother with keywords

This method worked a couple years ago. But the competition has shot the price of keywords through the roof. So, throw it all away.

A brand new formula

There is a light at the end of the tunnel. Follow this method and win again…

• Do CPA marketing instead of product promotion
• Instead of researching keywords, research demographics
• Use image ads

Get into CPA marketing

CPA stands for Cost Per Action. It’s far superior to product promotion. Because your visitor doesn’t have to buy anything. Your commission is generated when they complete an “action”. Like completing a survey. And getting them to do this is so much easier.

Do demographics research

You’re not even going to use keywords (explained below.) So spend your time doing demographics research. First you select your CPA offer. Then go to a site like Quantcast.com. And research what kinds of people will be interested.

Do image ad marketing

So you know what your promoting and you know who will be interested. Display networks allow you to target demographics with your ads. And use images as your ads. No keywords required. The biggest advantage is price. Display networks charge a fraction for image ad clicks vs. keyword ads.

In closing

This is powerful method to make money online. Because getting started in CPA is free. Image ads are cheap. You can use demographics to target your ideal prospect. And getting them to take an action is much easier than making a sale.

Info marketing 101

First, understand that this is the simplest kind of business there is. You take information and turn it into a digital product – like and ebook. And then sell it to people who want to learn the info in it. Sounds simple enough, right?

How do you make it work?

We’ve established that it’s a simple concept. But to make it a successful business you’ve got to provide information people want. So the key is to figure out what people want. How do figure that out?

One easy way to figure it out is with a simple search. Just go to Yahoo! answers or ask.com and see what kinds of questions people are asking. You want to find something a lot of people are asking about. That people are having trouble solving. Then just give them the answer in your ebook.

An encouraging word

Don’t worry! Info product creation is easy… Put it this way: An ebook is just a series of articles. So instead of sitting down to write the whole thing. Just try to write one or two articles a day. And when you have a collection, expand and embellish them and voila! You’ve got an ebook.

OK, what’s so hot about digital products? Well, that bring me to the tile of this article Here are the seven reasons

1. Simplicity and ease

Once it’s built it runs pretty much on it’s own. And your customers need very little support. So it’s nearly a 100% hands-free business. You’re building a completely automated business.

You have no physical inventory. You never have to deal with shipping. Your business is 100% digital.

2. Product combos

When you have a created a few information products. You can just combine them into a more expensive product. It’s a simple matter to merge a few ebooks into one. And your new product will be able to carry a much higher sticker price. There’s greater perceived value in a single big course. As opposed to a bunch of little ones.

3. Private label right

When you own the product, you can sell resell rights to it. This is a very popular topic right now, because people just don’t want to invest the time and money into making their own. And the best part is you can charge double, even triple your selling price for resell rights!

4. Leverage

Leverage means doing something once and reaping multiple rewards. Take parts of your info product and turn it into a email training series. And build your list with it. A list is it’s own reward!

5. More leverage

You can also take parts of your ebook and turn it into smaller eBooks. These reports can then become lead generators for your ebook. They can be free or low prices. And you’re creating targeted leads for your main product all along. Taking this technique to the max, you can let your affiliate give the reports away for you. Which brings us to…

6. Affiliates

This is one of the biggest reasons of all. When you own your own products. Other people can become your affiliates. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a bunch of other people doing your marketing for you? You’ve got to have your own products to have affiliates.

7. Joint Ventures

OK, this is by far the biggest reason why. Setting up joint ventures is the fastest way to gain success. Period. And this is probably the number one reason to create your own product. Because if you don’t have you own product, you’ve got nothing to JV.

Summary

If you’re not convinced to start selling information products, then you’ve probably been sleeping. With your own info product you can write your own ticket. Because it’s your business and you control it. So, don’t waste any more time:

• Go to answers.yahoo.com
• See what people are asking about
• Start providing information

Information product development really is that simple. And in short time you’ll have the foundation for your own info product.

But why?

There’s no real mystery. Audio breaks the silence of the web. It adds a human touch to your site. It also makes your site feel more real. Audio literally breathes life into your website. And this aliveness creates more interaction with your visitors.

Some more benefits

Adding audio increases your profits in two ways. First, you’ll make more sales. And you’ll spend less getting those customers. You won’t have to hire someone to write your sales letter. Just record some audio and add it to your site. An authentic message from you will do more than the best ad copy.

You’ll get more subscribers, too. The reason this works so well is because people need to be told what to do. Just add a short audio message saying: Enter your email address in the form. Just this one simple thing will boost opt-ins up to 315%!

Some ways to use audio

A welcome message on your homepage. A warm welcome can be the deciding factor. Your welcome message could make them stay when they would normally leave.

Lead them by the had. Just like in the opt-in example. Use an audio message to lead your visitors through a process. That includes filling in your order form!

Get testimonials for your services and products. A written testimonial is good. But an audio testimonial is better. You can just make up written one and people know that. Using audio makes it much more believable. And will definitely increase your results.

Here’s a bonus tip

What about creating an entire product using audio? Audio is faster to produce than anything else. Plus people love audio products. Think about how popular podcast are. And you can get someone to transcribe them for very little money. Then you’ve got an eBook, too – but it was easy to create!

Is it hard to add audio?

It’s actually really easy. There are quite a few audio streaming software programs out there. You don’t actually have to do anything yourself. The program records and then converts the recording and generates an audio button. You just copy and paste into your website. So don’t let this stop you.

Summary

Let’s take another look at the benefits. Putting streaming audio on your site will boost all your results. You’ll get more sales. You will also increase your subscriber opt-ins. And don’t forget that you can easily create sales pages and products in a flash. No many people are doing this. But audio is a really big time and money saver. Get started right now and realize instant results.

Video marketing

The power of video is undeniable. Video online is everywhere because people love it. About the only thing that keeps people’s attention anymore is video. So using it in your affiliate promotions is a no-brainer!

Examples of how to use video for affiliate marketing:

• Record your testimonial
• Walk-throughs
• Do an ordering video
• Do a preview video

Do a testimonial video

This is probably the easiest of all. Simply turn on your recorder and talk. It doesn’t have to be professional or polished. Listening to your honest endorsement makes your viewers feel comfortable buying. And the mess-ups or mistakes just make the video more real. You can literally just press record and talk. If you don’t want to be in front of the camera use one of the other methods.

Record a walk-through

This technique works slightly more subconsciously. You’re taking the role of teacher and showing how to use the product. And while they watch you use it, they think, “I should buy that.” As long as the product is good, the tutorial makes them want it. So, obviously, pick a good product to demo.

Ordering

This one is killer! Do a screen capture of the ordering process. There is nothing more motivating than watching someone buy something live. First of all it’s what’s called “social proof”. Once they see you doing it, they feel more secure. It also build your viewers trust. Your advice is easier to trust if they can see you’re doing what you tell them to do. And finally, it creates envy. People want what they see you getting. You can add some extra punch to this by ending with: You’re gonna have to place your own order if you want to see the members area.

Record a preview of the members area

This is a great way to build value. You do a tour of the members area. And show them everything they get by ordering. It also reduces the reservations of skeptics. It’s much easier to trust they’re getting something if they actually seen it.

Anyone can do it!

No special skills are required. Anyone can create stunning videos with some easy-to-use software. Really, the software does all the work. So please don’t let technical worries slow you down. Just focus on the benefits:

• More sales You’ll earn more affiliate commissions when you add video. People like video, so start using it.
• Reduce refunds You’ll lose less of the commission your earn. Now they know what they get before they purchase. So they’ll be less likely to refund.
• Beat your competition! Adding video is so simple. But only a very small percentage do it. This puts you out in front of the rest.

Take your affiliate promotions to a higher level and getting started with this now. It’s your profit that’s affected by not taking action.

OK, but how?

Here are the three components of list building:

• Your Landing Page
• The Incentive
• Your Confirmation Page

Your Opt-in Page – The squeeze page is the first thing your visitor is going to see. This page is the one that asks them for their email. This page needs to look professional. It’s also got to be free from distractions. And have a clear call to action.

If you fail to make a strong close, you’re wasting your efforts. Your call to action tells the visitor what to do. And if you don’t include it, they won’t opt in. The funny thing is that people just don’t know what to do unless you tell them.

You can take your opt-in page to the next level if you add a compelling video to the page. This will grab your visitors attention and keep it. It also allows you to tell them what to do several times. Then at the end of the video you can print “sign up now” on the video.

It’s OK, if you’ve never made a video before. You can hire freelancers to do this for you for a few hundred dollars. There are also list building systems that include video squeeze pages.

The Bribe – The second component is the reason they are opting into your list. You have to give people a compelling reason to give your their email. Most people are very protective of their email address. So make your “bribe” a good one!

You have to provide value in your bribe for it to be good. That means you make it something people would actually want to receive. And something from which they can derive a benefit. For example:

• An eBook
• A piece of software
• A video tutorial
• An email series

You’ve got to create some great content. Something that’s useful and helpful to your visitors. And of course it has to be free. Bottom line is it’s got to be worth more to them than their email address.

Now, if you don’t know how to create the bribe don’t worry. You can just pay someone else to make it for you. Simply tell them what the topic is and they can write the content. For example, you could have them write a 5-part email course. And you can get emails ghost written for about $20 – $25 each. So, you’ll get the whole series written for under $150.

There are also list building products that include the follow up email series. Two things to keep in mind when writing (or buying) and email training series. First, it must provide value to your subscribers. And it’s nice if it earns you some money, too. One very easy way to make some money from your list is with affiliate marketing. Affiliate products are easy because you don’t have to do anything at all. And you can earn some commissions immediately from your emails.

The Opt-in Success Page – Finally, you need to consider your opt-in confirmation page. This is the page your subscriber sees after they opt in. A great thing to do here is provide some immediate value. This helps them feel they’ve made the right decision giving you their email. It also sets the foundation for your relationship with them. It also makes them more likely to open your emails.

You can use a “done for you” email marketing system. You can also put the whole thing together on your own. And write it all yourself. Or pay a freelancer to write the content for you.

In closing

It doesn’t matter if you do all of this yourself. Or hire someone else to do it for you. Or go with a complete package. The key is to start building your list. Because as soon as you’ve got your own list . . . You’re free to make money at the push of a button.

The most important thing you can do to increase your affiliate commissions is to presell properly.

First, what is preselling? Preselling is both an art and a science. And it’s function is to prepare your reader to buy something. Then when they’re ready, refer them to the product website so they can buy it. If you do it well, it’s completely invisible.

In a nutshell, you provide value. And give them a link to the product you’re preselling. In a second we’ll talk about how to do actually it. Before we get into that, you should understand what’s in it for you. Some major benefits of this process:

• It helps your reader trust you – Once you have your readers’ trust, they will click your links more readily. Which obviously means you’ll make more sales.
• It takes your reader out of defense mode – When you’re preselling vs. pitching, you’re reader doesn’t feel the need to be guarded. This means they are more open to what you’re saying. So your content get absorbed.
• It preps them to buy – Your readers are now receiving your message. And in turn, they’re open to other messages, as well. Like the info on product sales page you’ve linked to. Being open to a sales message is what it means being in a buying mood.
• You make more money – Now your reader arrives at the sales page in a buying mood. With a feeling of trust and openness. The only thing that can result is increased sales!
• Your customers are happier – People like to make their own buying decisions. Versus being pitched or convinced. And this makes them feel better about the product they purchased.
• Your profits go up – A satisfied customer doesn’t ask for a refund. Which means you keep more of your affiliate commissions.

Obviously, it’s important to presell. You earn more commissions. And produce happier customers. Everybody wins!

How does it work?

You’ve learned the importance of preselling. And hopefully you’re convinced you need to start doing it. You’re ready to learn how to do it properly. As I mentioned earlier, it’s both an art and a science.

Part 1 – The art of it

Effective preselling requires gaining your readers trust in order for them to let down their guard. And the only method of doing this is to give exceptional value to your readers. Now, providing enough info to be useful, but still making them want more – that’s the art of it. The idea is that they want more and the sales page you send them to gives them more. And because you’ve gained trust, they’re more receptive to the sales message and more likely to buy.

The science component

There’s also a specific formula you need to follow.

First of all, it’s important HOW you present your information. You need to know where you’re going before you begin. Your goal is to sell the product you’re promoting. How can providing information accomplish this goal? The first method is to provide enough info to get them started, but not enough to finish. The other method is to explain all the details and expose how difficult it is to do what you’re explaining. Either way, the product sales page solves the problem.

You also have to link to the product you’re promoting discretely. Instead you link directly to the product sales page. This increases your clicks. But how are you going to get credit for the sale, if you don’t include your affiliate link? There’s a trick to make this work… You “pre-cookie” your reader before sending them to the sales page.

The next trick is to hyperlink specific words and phrases inside the content of the article you’re providing. It’s habitual to click on words and phrases that are hyperlinked. And when the words are in context like this, it makes perfect sense for your reader to click them.

Using this system, you’re virtually guaranteed to increase your affiliate business success.

OK, here’s the not-so-good news:

It’s extremely difficult to do this correctly. Let’s talk about everything required to put this plan into action: Good content. First and foremost, you have to be able to write a great article that provides valuable information. Which means you need to be both knowledgable on the subject and capable of writing a high-quality article. Writing to presell. Yes, you must providing useful content. But, you also need to know how to present the information in a way that give value to the reader. And still leave them wanting more. The other approach is to reveal a self-evident problem through the information.

Product selection. Next, you’ve got to pick the right product to presell. If you can manage to get the article written well. All your efforts are wasted if you send your reader to the wrong sales letter.

Technical skills. And finally, you need the technical know-how to embed your image tag and make sure you get credit for the sale. This is pretty easy – you just make a 1 pixel X 1 pixel image with no border and make the “source” of the image your affiliate link. (But if you do it wrong, you won’t get paid for the traffic you send.)

In closing:

Now you’re armed with the information needed to effectively presell. Preselling properly will boost your affiliate profits up to 500%! So, start now and develop preselling content for all your affiliate promotions. Don’t wait another minute. Put in the effort to reap the greater rewards.

Let’s talk about how to generate traffic…

Here are a few of the most popular way to get traffic to your site – for free:

• Web 2.0
• Article Websites
• Video Sites

And here’s how to use each method…

Web 2.0 Sites

By web 2.0 we mean any site where the users actually create the content. The exciting thing about Web 2.0 sites is that you get to add your own content and it becomes part of these sites. Because these sites get so much traffic, Google and the other search engines treat these sites with greater importance in their algorithms. The benefit of this to you is that your content is now considered as part of these sites. So, if you place links to your own site inside your content, you get a search engine ranking benefit from those links. That’s the real benefit of adding content to this sites – search engine ranking means ongoing free traffic. How to generate web 2.0 traffic is something we’ve only scratched the surface on. I don’t want to be exhaustive – I want to give you an overview of all the methods…

Articles Sites

Article marketing really builds on the Web 2.0 concept. Article directories fall under the category of web 2.0 sites. Article directories are sites where users (including you) can upload articles they have written. And just like other web 2.0 sites, you get all the SEO benefits from having your content on them. And the hidden benefit here is that your reach grows as other people take your articles and put them on their blogs and sites. And in return for getting to use your content, these other users include links back to your website that gives you further search engine ranking and more free traffic. Here are a couple article marketing traffic tips:

• Do your keyword research
• Tailor the content of your article for the keywords
• Hyperlink these keywords to your website – both in the content of the article and in your author’s info section.

Video Marketing

And finally, we need to talk about getting traffic from videos. Once again, this is really a sub-set of web 2.0. So, just like article marketing, video marketing enables you to add content to authority sites. And in addition to this, because Google and the others love video so much, you can get listed for highly competitive keywords much more easily.

Here’s how to get free traffic using video…

• Sign up for YouTube
• Turn off all the modules in your account profile
• Use the tags in your profile to enter the keywords you want to rank for
• Add a link to your website
• Upload at least 1 video
• Include your keywords in the title, description and tags

Summary:

If you take action on the items listed here you’ll have free traffic in no time.

Step 1 – Find a Fanatical Market

The first step in developing a profitable membership business is to find a market with fanatics in it. Fanatic is defined as someone with an irrational enthusiasm. These are the people you’re looking for because they are so enthusiastic they’re willing to spend money on their topic of fanaticism. OK, so we know what a fanatic is, but how do we find them?

• One simple idea that’s easily forgotten is to scan the magazine racks when you’re out and about. Because it’s becoming harder and harder to keep print periodicals profitable these days, if you see a magazine on the shelves, you know it’s making money. And that means there are lots of people interested in it. That doesn’t mean definitely that it will make a good membership business, but it’s a good starting point.
• Watch and listen for fanatics in your daily life. Pay attention to conversations, social events, TV, restaurants, public places to see what people are talking about. If people are talking about it, they are interested in it. Which means you can start a membership business providing information on it.
• Again, looking in the physical world for clues you can tell there are lots of people interested in something if there are clubs and organizations around the topic. Likewise, if there are enough people to hold a convention, there are definitely enough people to fill your membership website.
• Think about the things that you are interested in. If you’re interested in something, it’s highly likely others are, too. And, as an added bonus, it’s much more fun to build a business around things you’re interested in.
• One simple and easy way to find out what’s hot is Google Trends. Google Trends tells you the most popular current search terms. These topics are the hottest topics because lots and lots of people want information about them. Building a membership business around things people are actively searching for is a great way to ensure your success.

Next – Figure out if there’s money in it

Once you found a potential niche or topic to center your membership site around, you need to figure out if you can actually make any money in it. One way to figure this out is to see if other are making money in it.

OK, how do we figure that out?

• Are there blogs or forums in this niche? Take the name of your niche and search for “niche name blog” & “niche name forum” in Google to see if there is an active group of people talking about and interested in the niche. This means there is a large group of people already assembled for you to market to.
• Search Amazon, Google shopping and eBay to see if people are creating and selling products in the niche. If other people are creating and selling products in this niche, it means there is money to be made.
• Look at Google Adwords for the same ads are running over time. If people are running the same ad over time it means they are making money in the niche. They would not continue to spend money on the ads if there were not making a return from them.

Last, but not least… How hard will it be to break into this niche?

OK, so you found a hot topic and you know other people are making money on it. Will you be able to get involved and do the same? How do you gauge the ease of entry?

• Figure out what kinds of products people are interested in. If it’s mostly physical products, coaching and live seminars, then it will be harder to break into this niche. That’s because it’s much easier to build a membership business around information vs. any other kind of product.
• The last thing you want is a marketing filled with tons of competitors. A few means it’s a profitable niche, but too many means you won’t be able to take a piece of it.
• Compare the size of the market versus the number of competitors. Some competition is a good sign – just make sure the market is big enough for you to join in.
• How quickly do people in this market make buying decisions and are the ready to buy? Some niches are made up of people who require lots information and have a very long lead time, and some markets are filled with people who will spend lots of money right now.

Summing it all up

OK, now that you’ve figured out what niche you’re going to go into. Determined there is money to be made and that the competition is not too strong to break into it. You’re ready to start your membership business. Now that you’ve prepared properly, you’re success is 99% guaranteed. How to actually run your membership website is the only thing left to talk about…

Traffic is useless . . . unless…

The first thing you need to do before you start going after any traffic is keyword research. The reason this is so important is that you are going to be building content and traffic sources for specific keywords. Which means you need to put some thought into the keywords you’re targeting.

Here are the important considerations for your research:

• How competitive are the keywords you’re going after? This involves doing some competitive analysis to determine the ease of entry for each keyword
• Are these “buying” keywords? If you don’t do your research you’ll end up with a lot of traffic that doesn’t buy from you. This is not what you’re looking for.
• What about affiliates? If you want to build a huge business, you’re going to need affiliates to help you. So make sure you are also targeting keywords to attract affiliates.

This is critical to your business, but it takes a lot of time and effort. Experts are expensive and don’t guarantee results. The upside is that these two factors keep most everyone from even doing their keyword research. What I recommend is using website traffic software to save the time of doing it yourself and the money of hiring someone else. This will not only speed it up. It will give you better results, as well.

OK, now we can talk about traffic…

Only after doing your keyword research correctly can you start targeting these keywords to get you traffic.

Here’s a short list of sneaky traffic techniques:

• Most people overlook the power of Surveys!
• “Answer” Sites
• Video Sharing Sites

Surveys

Here’s the thing – people love surveys. It’s human nature. And smart website owners know this, so they will include your survey on their site if you make a good one. It’s a win-win. They get a great perk on their site and you get a link back to yours. The beauty of this is that it generates website visitors for you with no work on your part. Using just this one extra idea will put you ahead of your competition . . . who think surveys are for gathering information! Just make the question interesting enough that people will want to share it with their own visitors.

“Help” Websites

Sites like Yahoo! Answers allow users to ask and answer each others’ questions. Once again, the main reason for this site is not the reason you’re interested. The other thing they can be used for is to get traffic to your site, leads for your business and sales! Of course, the process of digging through these sites and pulling out the content info of leads for your business is very time consuming. The good news is that it’s easy to find website traffic software that can do this automatically. Then you just get a daily batch of fresh leads delivered to your inbox.

Video Websites

Another great resource is video sharing sites like YouTube. YouTube is one of the most highly traffic and search websites on the entire internet! If used properly, video sites can get you more website traffic than you know what to do with.

Even if you don’t think you can make a good video. One super easy thing to do is take an article or website you’ve written. Then simply record yourself reading the text and you video the screen with a simple screen capture program. And like anything else, there is software available that will turn articles into videos for you automatically.

In Closing

Figuring out how to get some visitors to your site is not hard at all. Just be a creative and think outside the box a bit. You can even use software to automate most of what we’ve talked about.

So, start right now and:

• Keyword research first is key
• Then create some surveys born to go viral
• Make sure to use the “answer” sites
• And definitely include video sharing sites

One of the easiest and fastest way to generate income online is through affiliate marketing. This is when you refer traffic to someone else’s product sales page, they do all the hard work of developing the product, making the sale, delivering the product and supporting the customer, and you keep 50% or more of the sales

The benefits of this are

1. You can start right now with no up-front costs and no need to make a product, write the sales page, develop the website, develop marketing materials, or do support, billing and maintenance.
2. It’s completely hands-free for you because they handle the billing, support, maintenance, etc.
3. You have nearly zero risk because you already know the product sells, because the product owner has already made sure the product sells. So you know that your traffic will result in sales.

There’s no denying that these benefits make affiliate marketing the best thing going!

The downside is…

Once you send your visitors to the product sales page, they are gone forever. Most of them will not buy on their first visit, which means you’re losing over 90% of the traffic right off the top. And of the 10% or less that do buy, the product owner will be able to sell to them again, but you will not.

Is there are way around this?

What you need to do is capture the contact info of your visitors before sending them to the product website. This way you can follow up with them and keep sending them back to the sales page to increase your chances of making the sale. And if you’re really on top of your game, you’ll then send to a content mini-site in between.

Here’s what these affiliate marketing strategies will do for you:

1. You’ll be building your own list of potential customers that you can market to again and again.
2. By providing great content without a sales pitch, you put them in a buying mood. So when you do send them to the product website, they’re much more likely to buy.

In order to set a system like this up, you will need the following affiliate marketing tools:

1. A Video Squeeze Page (with video)
2. At least a few pages of great content
3. A multi-part email series with at least 5 emails in it

The video squeeze page is where you’ll direct your traffic instead of directly to the product sales page. It captures the name and email of your visitors and puts them into your autoresponder, which then begins sending out the 5-part email series. Then it redirects them to your content pages after they subscribe to your email series.

The content pages provide valuable information for your visitors and make them more receptive to the sales message that you’ll link to from inside the content. And at the same time, the email series begins following up with them to get them back to the sales page, in case they don’t buy on the first visit.

There’s no doubt that it’s worth the effort to put a system like this in place, because doing so will increase your profits by 500% or more. And after you get it all set up, it runs on total auto-pilot. You just refer people to your lead capture page, instead of the product sales page.

One option, if you’re not up to the challenge of setting this all up yourself, is to let someone like Affiliate Silver Bullet do it for you. With a service like that, you don’t have to do anything. They make the video, build the squeeze page, write the email series, develop the content mini-site, etc. And then just give you a finished package. The benefit is that it’s much less expensive then you could do it yourself, and it’s instantly set up. The drawback is that you won’t be the only one using these affiliate tools. But the internet is huge, so this shouldn’t really affect you.

Alternatively, you can use a service like Elance to “outsource” each of these components. Whichever way you decided to go, it’s critical to get an affiliate marketing system like this in place, if you’re at all serious about your business.