Using Videos for Affiliate Marketing Promotions
May 29, 2008
When videos started to grow popular on the Internet in the past couple of years, the Internet Marketing landscape started to change.
Affiliate Marketing was not exempted, either.
The most classic mistake people tend to make in affiliate marketing is not capturing the opt-in leads first before sending their visitors to the merchant’s website.
So what smart marketers often do is that they would have their own Squeeze Page for the visitors to opt into their list, before sending them to the website they are an affiliate for.
This is so the affiliate marketer can build his own opt-in list and do his follow-ups later.
A few but exceptionally smarter marketers, on the other hand, take this to the next level.
THEY IMPLEMENT VIDEO MARKETING, TOO. zerit
You probably notice most top Internet Marketing experts are now using videos on their Squeeze Pages. And smarter affiliates are also doing the same for their own, for one obvious reason:
VIDEOS CAN SKYROCKET YOUR TRAFFIC AND SALES CONVERSIONS!
Unfortunately, the problem with video marketing is that to begin with, you have to know how to make your own videos.
And even if you could do your own videos, what if you learn that the affiliate program doesn’t convert well for you after all?
Affiliate Power Videos remove all these barriers.
http://www.affiliatespowervideos.com
At Affiliate Power Videos, you get 10 unique, high converting Video Squeeze Pages, and 5 new ones every month.
So all you have to do is:
Step 1: join any or all of the listed affiliate programs (free)
Step 2: Upload the video and squeeze pages to your web host
Step 3: Start driving in traffic, build your opt-in list and rake in affiliate sales!
You might be thinking that this is going to be a costly monthly membership – maybe $97, $197 or even $297 a month.
You’re going to be in for a pleasant surprise — this one’s on the house (read: zero cost)!
Here it is again:
http://www.affiliatespowervideos.com Inglourious Basterds release
Sign up for your free Silver membership access now and don’t delay – because I know you could very well have your own string of affiliate video businesses up and running by tonight, with or without any techical experience on your part!
Adios,
Jeffrey Levesque
The Affiliate Mechanic
Choosing the Right Affiliate Program
May 25, 2008
You can’t expect a great gastronomic experience if you’re in the wrong restaurant, right? In the same light, you can’t expect a rewarding affiliate marketing experience if you’re enrolled under the wrong program.
It’s one of the primary rules of the game: always choose the right – if not the best – affiliate program out there.
Of course, that’s easier said than done.
With tens of thousands of affiliate programs in existence today, scrutinizing each and every one of them can be quite a chore.
Warning Signs Of A Disaster Waiting To Happen
Nonetheless, there are clear cut signs of a bad affiliate program. Let’s take a look at them:
- Offering a product that is of inferior quality. This product may fill a need somewhere, but because of its poor quality, refund requests will pour in. You may be able to refer some sales, but the refunds will take away your commissions. Worse, you might lose credibility amongst your prospects for leading them to a bad product.
- Offering a product that is difficult to sell. This is self-explanatory. You won’t be able to realize your commissions if the product you’re tasked to pre-sell is a “hard sell.”
- The affiliate program has a history of failing to pay its affiliates. Nothing is more frustrating than working for something, but being deprived of the rewards for some reason or another.
- The affiliate program has a dubious history in its dealing with its clients and partners.
- The affiliate program is struggling when it comes to its finances.
- The affiliate program is being operated by a person or persons who are quite hesitant to introduce themselves.
If these signs are present, do take heed.
Remember, there are a lot of other choices out there… options which will prove to be better for your interests.
Characteristics Of The Right Affiliate Program
So, we already know what to avoid.
Now it’s time to discuss what to look for in an affiliate program.
- A hot-selling product. Personally, this is my number one concern. I will not be able to earn as an affiliate if I cannot pre-sell any products, right? Hence, I always look for programs offering products that have a proven value in a particular market, or at the very least, products which offer a lot of promise.
- Gratuitous commission scheme. This is secondary only to the factor above. The minimum commission rate for me is 50%. Anything lower may take more consideration. This shouldn’t be a problem though, as most affiliate programs offer 50% commission per sale these days.
- A program that is well known for its credibility. Who would want to associate themselves with flash-in-the-pan, fly-by-night establishments, right? You want to be a winner? Stick with a winner! You will need to rely on recommendations and your own exercise of due diligence to find such an affiliate program.
- A program that has an excellent post-sales service. In affiliate marketing, refund requests are your enemies. You may be led to believe that you have bagged a sale, but if a refund is requested later on, you won’t get any commission. A program that has excellent post-sales support will be able to minimize such requests, and consequently, will be able to protect your interests.
Commission Rate Vs. Salability
A lot of potential affiliates are in a state of quandary when it comes to the choice of joining an affiliate program that offers a high commission rate per sale for a slow-selling product and a lower commission rate for a high- selling product.
The answer, of course, is to choose the latter.
A product may be selling for $100, and the program offers you 80% commission, or $80 per sale. But if that product is not sellable, you’ll never be able to see some earnings.
Another product may be selling for $50, and the program offers you 50% commission, or $25 per sale. The product is a proven seller. You will earn more with this system than the previous one.
In choosing an affiliate program to join, always choose one which has highly sellable products because you’ll never be wrong with such.
How Many Affiliate Programs Can You Join?
Since affiliate programs are regarded as supplementary earning opportunities, you are not bound by exclusivity.
You are not limited to just one affiliate program.
You can join as many as you like. There is absolutely no limit as to how many affiliate programs you enroll with.
But here’s the deal….
Yes, you can join hundreds of affiliate programs, if you wish, but will you be able to concentrate on all of them? Each campaign for a particular offering of a particular program requires your time and effort. Will you be able to handle hundreds of demands just as easily?
There is no bar as to how many affiliate programs you can join.
The only restriction is one of efficiency. You’ll be more productive if you concentrate on two or three programs throughout your affiliate marketing career.
Selling The Merchant’s Products
May 18, 2008
Actually, “selling” is not the correct term for the affiliate’s job. The affiliate is tasked to “pre-sell.” Pre-selling is very much different from actual selling.
Actual selling requires you to garner leads, convert them into sales, process payments, deliver orders, entertain refund requests, provide post-sales support and technical services, and the like. As an affiliate, you are not bound to these responsibilities.
Pre-selling only demands that you refer people to the affiliate merchant’s sales page. The affiliate merchant would then take care of the rest.
So, What Is Pre-Selling In A Nutshell?
If we are to define pre-selling, we can say that it is the process of conditioning your prospects’ minds to buy something and leading them to the mechanism that will convince them to make a purchase.
From the definition above, you’d know that an affiliate’s task is NOT to convince the prospects to buy. No, no, no. The affiliate’s job is merely to lead people to the affiliate merchant’s sales page. Better yet, the affiliate can also condition the prospects’ minds to make a purchase so that the sales page will have an easier time converting them into sales.
I’m going to break down pre-selling into three important components:
- Finding prospects
- Gaining prospects
- Conditioning prospects
All the secrets of affiliate marketing success will revolve around those three components, so I pray that you memorize them, dear friend.
Again, for emphasis….
Your job as an affiliate is to PRE-SELL the affiliate merchant’s products. If you’re able to master the components of pre-selling, then I am fully confident that you will make it big in this field.
Cool! Where Can I Find Affiliate Programs?
There are thousands upon thousands of affiliate programs on the World Wide Web. Each niche, no matter how big or small, has merchants that are employing affiliate systems to increase their direct sales. With information at your finger tips courtesy of this thing we call the Internet, finding these affiliate programs is easy.
It’s finding the niche or the market that you want to focus on that might provide a little challenge.
What Do You Mean By Finding A Market?
There are many fields that you can concentrate on.
You like dogs? Maybe you can consider the broader subject of pets, or a more specific breed like Chihuahua. Better yet, concentrate on a more particular branch, like dog health or dog care.
Your choice of market will depend on a variety of factors:
- How well do you know the said market? Passion will bring you a lot of benefits, so you might as well choose a market that you are passionate about from the very beginning.
- How interested are you in the said market? Knowledge is an ongoing commitment. You have to update yourself CONSTANTLY so as not to get left behind with the latest trends and tactics in your particular industry. Might as well choose a market that you are interested in to make the constant search for knowledge more enjoyable and fulfilling.
- What is the outlook for the said market? Naturally, you wouldn’t want to focus on a dying market where the products you are trying to pre-sell have saturated the digital shelves. You want a HUNGRY market, one which will be able to sustain profitability for a long, long time to come. This brings us to the basics of economic success
- How big is the demand in the said market? This is the first component of economic success: that demand should be high.
- What is the size of the competition in the said market? This is the second component of economic success: that supply should be low.
Low Supply + High Demand = Profitable Market
This is the ONE FORMULA you should remember when choosing a market. It’s the basic rule of economic success. It’s the secret of many high profit businesses throughout the ages.
You see, high yielding enterprises are not born overnight, and neither are they born out of whim.
They are products of meticulous study and consistent hard work.
And it all begins from selecting the perfect market for their ventures.
There are many online tools that you can use to determine the variables at play with the formula above.
To determine demand, simply go to www.nichebot.com . Type in a subject you have in mind. You will then be taken to a page where a number of keywords and key phrases are suggested, together with the number of times they have been searched for in the search engines.
You will want to choose subjects with high numbers of searches.
My personal determinant is at least 1,000,000 searches per month. This will assure me that there are a substantial number of people very much interested in the said subject.
Now, finding a sub-topic that commands many searches is not enough. You need to determine how many websites are catering to them, since you’ll be operating on the Internet.
Run a search of the sub-topic at www.google.com . Look at the number of web pages that appear, as indicated on the top area of the results page.
If the subject commands 1,000,000 searches per month and there are 2,000,000 websites catering to them, then the supply outweighs the demand and the chances of succeeding as an affiliate in such a field will be slimmer.
But if the subject commands 1,000,000 searches per month and there are only 2,000 websites catering to them, then you have for yourself a goldmine!
This is how you find a fertile market on the World Wide Web.
Great! When Can I Start? sinequan ??????? ????? ???? ???? ??? ??????
You can start as soon as possible! You can even start right now, while reading these pages.
As they say, experience is the best teacher, and what better way to learn than to immediately apply what you have read.
Your First Steps In Affiliate Marketing
May 11, 2008
Contrary to popular belief, affiliate marketing success does not start with the application of a particular strategy.
No.
Affiliate marketing success starts with the right attitude.
A nice analogy would be a boxer who is scheduled for a prize fight. He can learn all the tricks of the trade with his trainer. He can train for hours upon hours on end to build his stamina and endurance. He can eat the right diet to build his power.
But if he does not possess the right mentality – the mentality to WIN – then his chances of victory will be slim.
His confidence inside the squared circle will be shattered. His punches may connect, but his self-doubt will lessen their impact. His moves will be tentative. And when push comes to shove, he won’t have enough to muster his second wind.
The boxer will lose the fight… because he never believed he could win.
The same goes for an affiliate marketer.
If an affiliate does not possess the right mentality, he will never achieve success in this field.
And what is this mentality?
I call it the mindset to succeed. It’s quite simple really.
Ever wanted something so bad that you spent many countless nights thinking about it? You may have even told yourself the line, “someday, it will be mine.”
After a few weeks, months, or even years… do you remember how that particular thing you’ve always wanted came into your possession? It was a dream come true. You willed it to happen. This is the power of positive thinking.
And this is what I want you to realize…
It all begins by wanting it!
You have to WANT to become successful. You must desire it so badly and will it to happen. Consciously and subconsciously, you will be able to take every step necessary to make your dream come true. This is positive thinking at work.
Of course, it’s not enough to merely want something to happen, you have to do things to make it happen. I’m telling you right now, this is the easy part. Once you have the will to win, everything else will follow suit. The spirit is already there. You are already willing to try everything that is needed to succeed.
All you really need is knowledge on the best tactics to implement.
Keep an eye out for my next post! Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith movie I Heart Huckabees trailer
Is Affiliate Marketing a Viable Business Model for Successful Businesses?
May 11, 2008
Some of the most popular “how to” courses, bootcamps and seminars are built around affiliate marketing as a business model for success. If you do a search on the Internet, you’ll find literally thousands of E-books, Homestudy courses, and affiliate marketing products for sale.
But can you really build a business around selling other people’s products?
Yes. And no.
The truth of the matter is, there is a specific formula that can lead to success if you decide to base your business around selling affiliate products.
But if you do it wrong, you may never make more than enough to cover your Internet connection and telephone costs each month.
Why is there such a huge disparity between the really successful affiliate marketers (those who make several thousand dollars each and every month) and those who are barely eking out a living?
Like with any business, it all boils down to creating solid systems that are scalable and can be duplicated to bring income from as many different sources as possible.
Here are some things to keep in mind when getting started:
Start with one product. Do your research. Find a market with a product that people want and are buying. Set up a system for promoting that product. (Think article writing, white papers, case studies, product reviews, e-books, workbooks, etc.)
Find additional and complimentary products or services that you can sell after you’ve started making a profit with the first one.
Create a squeeze page where you can collect names of people who want to find out more about the affiliate product or niche market.
Drive traffic to your Squeeze Page and offer them valuable information in exchange for their contact information.
Create a way to keep in touch with the people on your list, and continue to promote the additional products to them over time – but make sure that you’re offering good solid information to them as well, to help build your credibility and their loyalty.
Once you’ve got your first affiliate product selling well, it’s time to start cross selling and upselling. This may take you from a few weeks to several months – but like any other business, it’s important that you are willing to spend the time and money necessary to build your affiliate business.
As soon as you’ve got the first product and cross sells operating at a profit, you can expand. For example, you could go into another complimentary niche. Or, I you want something a little more advance (and this one is a trick used by some of the Internet Marketing gurus in many different niches), go into competition with yourself.
That may sound a little crazy – but think of it this way: by competing against yourself – especially if you’re able to grab onto the two of the top five positions – you’re really just giving yourself a bigger piece of the pie!
If you’re the type who gets bored easily, or is always looking for a new challenge, you might want to go into a totally new niche. Find something that doesn’t have anything to do with your first niche.
Whatever you decide to do, just make sure that you’re following the proven formula for success. Build each product or niche until it becomes profitable before moving on to the next one.
After that, you can just “lather, rinse and repeat” to your heart’s content – and you’ll be able to watch your bank balance grow too!
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Arbitrage Conspiracy Launches With A Huge… Fizzle?
May 11, 2008
Well, well, well, I guess even the “big boys” aren’t immune to technical glitches, hey?
The Arbitrage Conspiracy site was supposed to launch yesterday at 3pm Pacific time and when I got to the site, it said that the sales page wouldn’t be available until “EXACTLY” 3pm.
So, since it WAS already 3pm, I waited a couple minutes and refreshed.
Same message.
I continued with some work I was doing and then went back to the page about a half hour later. Refreshed. Same Message.
An hour later, refresh. Then there was a “we’re having technical difficulties, sorry for the delay” message.
You’d think that with all the heavy-hitters involved with this launch that they would’ve had enough resources available to not only have all their ducks in a row, but have the ducks performing like F-18’s in attack formation!
About 3 or so hours after the scheduled launch, they announced that they were going to delay by 21 hours.
Now, you haven’t heard a word out of me concerning the Arbitrage Conspiracy until now and for a good reason.
I had planned on evaluating the package, as I do with any product, before mentioning it.
I’ll admit that I was definitely intrigued by what little information they had released during pre-launch and even though one of my clients had attended their $10,000 one-day workshop, they were sworn to “secrecy” and couldn’t share!
After viewing the video on the site and reading the Arbitrage Conspiracy Report, I was a bit skeptical, but still interested in the product.
My main concern was that in the report, they mentioned that you could get started for as little as $5 a day, but later mentioned multiple campaigns costing $2500+ per day.
If you know anything about Adwords, even if you’re bidding on words that cost a few cents per click, $5 would be gone within an hour or so.
So, I went and signed up as an affiliate anyways, just in case.
Once inside, there was contact information for their affiliate manager and I immediately tried to contact him.
I was hoping to get early access to the product for review. I would have been willing to pay for it, but never heard back.
Why am I telling you this? A couple reasons.
First….
Because they have said that they’re ‘only releasing 500 copies’ of this system and I needed to get in early so that I would have enough time to review the product and tell you what I thought about it.
Unfortunately, I will be teaching a class today at 3pm Pacific and I won’t be “at the ready” to refresh the page and purchase.
So, if you’re reading this before then, you might want to go and download the report and watch the video for yourself.
You can download it here: Arbitrage Conspiracy Report
Second….
I want you to learn a lesson from this.
Instead of going ahead with the launch and having a BUNCH of pissed off customers and/or affiliates because the system wasn’t working properly, they held off.
Sure, people were disappointed when the site wasn’t open and I’m sure that there were a couple people that were mad about it, but disappointed is WAY better than having to deal with refunds and lost commissions.
Now, I don’t know what the problem was exactly, but I do know that they did the right thing.
My point is, don’t ever be afraid to delay a launch if you’re having technical problems.
This doesn’t mean that everything has to be perfect either.
There will always be small issues to deal with during and after a launch, but if it’s something major (and I’m sure it was), don’t shoot yourself in the foot by launching anyways, just to open on time!
And third….
The downside is for affiliates that scheduled promotions according to their launch.
I got emails all afternoon telling me that “It’s Live!” go now before it’s sold out!
But, if you’ve done your job as an affiliate by creating a relationship with your subscribers, it shouldn’t be an issue at all. They’ll understand that it wasn’t your fault and as long as you’ve done your homework and haven’t referred them to a piece of crap product, it will be a no harm, no foul situation.
Understanding the Resources for Your Business Increases Productivity
May 8, 2008
One of the most important considerations of running a successful and profitable online business involves resources. By resources, we are referring to the suite of online resources that you use in your business on a daily basis. Regardless of whether you are an internet marketer or online entrepreneur focusing on another niche, it is vitally important that you document the most common online resources that you use in your business.
There are three main reasons why it is important to know, document, and utilize essentially an electronic Rolodex of online resources.
1) Save time -
The first and largest factor of utilizing an online Rolodex of resources is to save time. How many times have you went to add a script to your website only to have to waste 30 minutes searching for the script? When you cannot find a resource at the appropriate time, you are subjecting yourself and your business to inefficiencies that lead to lost production.
2) Save money - When you know where to find your resources it will keep you from “Googling” to find a resource and from getting hooked on someone’s sales page. About the time that you need a specific resource and cannot find it, the next obvious step is to search Google for that or a similar resource. Just record your resource links to avoid this time wasting and money spending activity!
3) Improved products -
It takes time and money to buy resources. When you’ve purchased something once……don’t waste time looking for alternatives or waste money purchasing competitor’s products. Focus on the resources that you do have – use them daily and become an expert in the application of those resources. Over time, your products will improve due to the consistency of use and of the resources that you use to complete daily tasks!
Overall, it is important to record your online resources for quick and efficient reference. By doing so, you’ll improve business efficiencies leading to saved time and money!
You can download 10 step-by-step “Visual Rolodexes” for free by visiting:
http://www.ResourceCashmaps.com
If you downloaded the Productivity Report the other day, you would have seen that there was a recommended resource listed at the end of it.
It was created by someone that gets hired by Fortune 100 Companies to show them how they can be more productive, so I’m sure he can teach you a thing or two!
His name is Brad Semp and he’s the mastermind behind Resource Cashmaps.
And in case you didn’t download the report or “think” you don’t need it, here’s the link:
http://www.EmailCashmaps.com The Plainsman movie Last Man Standing movie download
I met Brad at JV Alert in Philly during a lunch presentation he did and I was immediately intrigued by what he had to say.
In fact, his presentation took him longer than expected and when his time was up, everyone in the room voted to let him continue, rather than get up and return to the seminar!
When he was finished, I happily handed him my order form to be involved in a $500 private webinar series that he conducted over the summer.
So go and grab your free Resouce Cashmaps The Last Boy Scout hd and, at the very least, visit and bookmark the Email Cashmaps website. You’ll need them eventually!
Have a prosperous day!Ballast
Creating a Productive Workspace
May 6, 2008
If you’re like most people, when you hear the word ‘productivity’, the things that come to mind probably include activities like prioritizing your chores, creating to-do lists, deliberate planning and so on.
These are essential, yes. But here’s one that most people leave out: Creating a productive workspace. Here’s how you can create your own:
~~> Create a cone of silence.
If you’re constantly interrupted by the phone, the door, emails and your child’s questions, you’ll never get anything finished. You need to clear out the distractions and create a “cone of silence” in your workspace.
If you’re doing work at home and there are others living in the house, it’s next to impossible to have a completely distraction-free day. As an alternative, schedule specific times of day where family members and friends aren’t allowed to interrupt you. Explain that it’s no different than if you worked at an office.
~~> Clear up the clutter. Your idea of clean is someone else’s idea of clutter. And that’s all right. The idea here isn’t to create a workspace that meets another persons idea of clutter-free. Instead, you should create a workspace that’s organized in a way that you can find things quickly.
If that means using milk crates instead of a filing cabinet, so be it. As long as you can quickly get to the items you want when you need them – and as long as you’re at ease with how your workspace looks – then that’s all that matters.
Personally, I like to have things around me within an arm’s reach. I place small piles on the floor so I can spin around in my chair and grab them.
I once went on a month long trip, attending seminars around the country and came home to find that my wife decided to “tidy things up” for me. It took me a month to get things “back to normal”.
Create a workspace for yourself, not to impress someone else.
~~> Make your workspace “yours”. Jerry Maguire full That means putting up pictures, memorabilia or anything else that makes you feel like this is your space. I’m a big NASCAR fan, so my wife calls my office, “The Race Room”!
If there are other people in the house, simply ask that this space be yours. I joke with my friends that I only own two rooms in my house. The office, which I share with an alligator and the kitchen. The rest belongs to my wife!
If your workspace doesn’t make you feel creative and energetic, then you’ll need to make some changes. It can be as easy as making sure it’s the right color or that you have enough light.
Making small changes like these could mean a world of difference to your productivity!
I’ve created another report that you can download for free, just click the link below.
Enjoy! And have a “productive” weekend!
Introduction to Affiliate Marketing
May 4, 2008
Affiliate marketing presents a fantastic opportunity that boasts of the following things:
- Minimum to zero financial investment to start out with this earning stream;
- A variety of programs to choose from;
- Unlimited number of programs to join;
- Extravagant commission schemes ranging from 20% to 90% of the selling price;
- Get paid as you produce results. You’re not handcuffed by time, you can work at your own pace;
- No limit as to how much you can earn.
Because of these amazing benefits, millions of online users have tried their hands at affiliate marketing.
I will not sugarcoat the facts.
A great number of them fail. The majority of them can’t even earn a single buck from their efforts.
Why?
It’s not because affiliate marketing as a system is flawed.
It’s because tried and tested strategies were not implemented in their campaigns – if ever those who failed were aware of them.
And this is what this eBook is all about.
You’re currently reading the first of two comprehensive volumes that aim to become the ULTIMATE resources for online affiliates all over the world.
In succeeding chapters, you will be introduced to some amazing concepts, that will in turn introduce some magical techniques that, when practiced, will almost always guarantee success for your affiliate marketing campaigns.
This is the knowledge that not many are aware of.
And by simply knowing them, you will have an advantage.
Keep an eye out for my next post!
New Year Resolutions – Friend or Foe?
May 4, 2008
Making a New Year’s resolution has to be the least effective method of goal setting. These are the goals that people make and with the intent of not following through. You’ll discover that it’s a goal or commitment to do something throughout the year. It’s something that’s measurable since you need to accomplish your resolution by the end of the year and you’ll be able to detail the amount of success you’re looking for. You’ll also find that many of these New Year resolutions are abandoned soon after they start them, simply because they’re not reasonable. If you’d truly like to change, you need to make sure that it’s something that you can actually do.
If you do decide to make a resolution you may want to find someone to help keep you motivated and hold you accountable. Most people try to lose some weight. It is very common for some to start the weigh-loss program, but then they shortly lose interest. You’ll need to sit down and think about what it will take for you to make the goal a success. This may mean that you’ll have to gain a partnership with a close friend or you may have to find the self-control to keep focused.
To make one of these resolutions realistic, you’ll need to think small. You’ll also need to come up with some sort or plan using the success of milestones to help push you further. There’s a lot of motivation to be developed concerning this type of goal, but you need to have the self-discipline to stick with it. You can’t allow yourself to give up even if that is all you can think about.
It’s also important that you have support from your family and friends. You’ll find that it’s very important because you’re going to need a pep talk every now and then. Most people find resolutions scary because they know they can do it, but they’re afraid to prove it to themselves.
Don’t let your next New Year’s Resolution to go down hill before you have even started working towards the goal!
Download my free “Setting Your Goals” report and worksheet!
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