The promise

Unfortunately, you’ve been led to believe affiliate marketing is easy. And it is – sort of. There’s no doubt it’s easier than starting your own business. But “easier” doesn’t mean “easy”.

Here’s the ugly truth

The worst part is that the information you’ve received is all wrong. You’ve been told to find quality products. Next do some keyword research. Then buy some keyword ads that send traffic to the product. And just enjoy the commissions. But, it’s all wrong.

Forget keywords

There was a time when this worked. But it’s just too competitive to use keywords now. It’s time for a paradigm shift.

The NEW game

There is a solution to this problem. Here’s a new method that works!

• Start using CPA marketing
• Do demographics research
• Market on display networks

Get into CPA marketing

CPA means Cost Per Action. It’s much better than promoting a product. Because you don’t have to get people to spend money. Your commission is generated when they complete an “action”. Such as filling in a form. And it’s much easier to get them to do that.

Utilize demographics data

Don’t waste time researching keywords (see below). Invest your research time into demographics. Once you’ve picked the CPA offer to promote. Then hop over to Quantcast.com. And research what kinds of people will be interested.

Use image ads

So far, you’ve got your CPA offer and your target demographics. You can advertise directly to them on display networks. And use images as your ads. And you don’t need to know or buy a single keyword. The biggest advantage is price. Image ad clicks are much cheaper.

In closing

This is powerful method to make money online. Because getting started in CPA is free. You can buy image ad clicks for a fraction of keyword ad clicks. You can laser target with demographics. And getting them to take an action is much easier than making a sale.

What is info marketing?

This is by far the simplest business you can start. 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. Pretty simple, wouldn’t you say?

How do you make it work?

You’ve got the basic concept – exchange info for money. In order to be successful there has to be value in the info you’re selling. So you’ll need to find out what info is valuable. How can you find out what people want?

One very simple method is to do a little research. Head over to ask.com or Yahoo! answers and see what kinds of questions people are asking. Your goal is to find a common problem. For things that are causing people discomfort. Then just give them the answer in your ebook.

Think about this:

Don’t worry! Info product creation is easy… Consider this: An ebook is nothing more than a collection of articles. So instead of sitting down to write the whole thing. Just write some articles for your blog. And once you have bunch of good ones, expand and embellish them and voila! You’ve got an ebook.

OK, what’s so hot about digital products? Interestingly enough, we’re back to the name 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. Which means there nothing for you to actually *do*. It really is like and automatic money machine.

You have no physical inventory. There’s nothing to ship. Your business is 100% digital.

2. Repurposing

When you have a created a few information products. You can just combine them into a more expensive product. It’s nothing to combine the content from several ebooks. And you’ll be able to charge much more for this “new” product. Your customers will gladly pay more for a single bigger ebook. Instead of several small ebooks.

3. Resellers

You can grant other people resell rights to your own products. This is a very popular topic right now, because most people simply don’t have the time, money and effort it takes to create their own products. Plus, you’re selling the same product . . . but for 3 times the price for the rights!

4. Leverage

It’s your content, so you can use it in as many different ways as you want. Break it apart and create a multi-part email series with it. And build an email list that you can sell other products to.

5. More leverage

Utilize your content in as many ways as you can – like creating a few reports from parts of the ebook. Then you can use the reports as the front-end of your product funnel. You can give them away or even charge a small amount for them. Either way, you win because you’re feeding your funnel. And if you’re really clever, you’ll let your affiliate use these reports as marketing tools. Affiliate, you say? Yes!

6. An army of affiliates

This is a real power strategy. If you’ve got products you own. You can get other people to promote it for you. Imagine having 100′s or 1000′s of other people promoting your products. Well, you *need* your own product to get affiliates.

7. Joint Ventures

Last, but definitely not least… 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. Without your own products, you can’t do JVs.

In closing

If you don’t want to sell digital products by now, 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:

• Head over to Yahoo! answers
• See what people are asking about
• Write about the answers

Don’t make info product creation any more complicated than that. And in no time you’ll have an info product ready to go.

Why does it work?

It’s not hard to figure out. Audio breaks the silence of the web. Audio adds a human quality to your site. It also makes your site feel more real. Basically, audio brings your site to life. And people like to interact with things that are alive!

Here are the benefits

You’ll receive two immediate benefits to your bottom line when you employ the use of audio. You’ll convert more visitors into buyers. And second you’ll save money on the sales letter. Instead of having to pay a professional to write you a great sales letter. Simply record an audio message yourself. Your visitors will respond better to a heart-felt message from you than some fancy copywriting.

And you will increase your subscriber opt-in rate. People need to be told exactly what to do. Just add a short audio message saying: Enter your email address in the form. A simple message like this will increase your opt-in conversions by 305% or more!

How to use website audio

A welcome message on your homepage. Most people abandon a website within just a few seconds. Grabbing their attention like this helps you keep them on your site.

Lead them by the had. Just like in the opt-in example. You just explain what to do first, then next, etc. And take them all the way through buying your product.

Testimonials for your product or service. A written testimonial is good. But audio testimonials are great! You can just make up written one and people know that. Using audio makes it much more believable. And that increases your results.

Here’s a bonus tip

What about creating an entire product using audio? Audio is faster to produce than anything else. And it still has a high perceived value. Think about how popular podcast are. And once you record the audio, you can pay someone to transcribe it for you. This is the easiest way to “write” an eBook!

Is it hard to add audio?

It’s actually really easy. You can find a lot of programs that create audio buttons for you. There’s no knowledge required on your part. The software records the audio, creates the button code, etc. Simply copy the code and paste it in your site. You don’t need to even consider this part.

In closing

Let’s take another look at the benefits. Setting up some web audio will do wonders for 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. You’ll be one of the few you use these strategies. But you’ll save a lot of time and money. Don’t be lazy! Add some audio today.

Marketing with video

The power of video is undeniable. People love watching videos and that’s why they’re everywhere. About the only thing that keeps people’s attention anymore is video. So why wouldn’t you use it in your affiliate business?

Here’s how to use videos for affiliate promotions:

• Testimonials
• Record a walk-through
• Ordering
• Sneak peak

Do a testimonial video

This one is super simple. Just click record on your web cam and start talking. It does not need to be polished or pro. Just seeing another real person endorsing a product helps your viewers decide to buy. And honestly, if you mess up it just makes it seem more authentic. You really can just click record and start talking. If you don’t want to be in front of the camera use one of the other methods.

Record a walk-through

This one is a little more subtle. Basically you’re doing a tutorial on how to use the product. And seeing it being used is a great way to make people want to buy it. As long as the product is good, the tutorial makes them want it. So, obviously, pick a good product to demo.

Record the order process

This one is killer! Record a video of yourself actually buying the product. Watching you make a live purchase will inspire your viewer like nothing else. First of all it’s what’s called “social proof”. People will feel more comfortable buying after seeing you do it. Second, it builds trust. They are much more likely to take your advice to buy when you’ve taken it yourself. And don’t forget about the need to “keep up with the Joneses”. People want what they see you getting. You can add some extra punch to this by ending with: In order to get to see the inside, you gotta buy the product.

Record a preview of the members area

This one is perfect for building up the value of what you’re promoting. What you do is record a tour of the back end. They get to see everything they’ll receive when they order. And it helps soften the skeptics. It’s much easier to trust they’re getting something if they actually seen it.

You can do this!

No special skills are required. Some very easy to use programs make the videos for you. All the work is done by the program. So please don’t let technical worries slow you down. Keep focused on the rewards:

• Make more money Using videos in your affiliate marketing will dramatically increase your sales. Start using videos because people love them.
• Reduce refunds You’ll also have less of your commissions taken back. Now they know what they get before they purchase. So, very few of them will cancel their order.
• Outdo your competitors! This is a really easy thing to do. And almost no one is doing it. That puts you ahead of the pack.

Get started right now and take your affiliate marketing to the next level. It’s your profit that’s affected by not taking action.

OK, but how?

Here are the three components of list building:

• Your Opt-in Page
• Your Bribe
• Your Confirmation Page

Your Landing Page – The landing page is the page that has your opt-in form on it. It’s the page where you ask them for their email address. That’s why it needs to look like a professionally designed page. And it needs to be simple to see how to opt in. And have a clear call to action.

The biggest mistake you can make is not having a clear call to action. This is a definitive message that tells your 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.

If you want to add some extra juice to your opt-in page add a video to it. Adding video will help keep your visitors attention. Plus it give you a chance to tell them to opt in multiple times. And after the video, you can make it just say “fill in the form now”.

It’s OK, if you’ve never made a video before. Hiring out-sourced help to do it for you only costs $150 – $250. There are also list building systems that include video squeeze pages.

The Incentive – Next, you’ve got to figure out what your bribe is. People won’t give you their email for nothing. Nobody likes spam, so most people guard their email closely. So make your “bribe” a good one!

The key to a good bribe is that is has value. It has to be something that people actually want. And can benefit from. Here’s some examples:

• A PDF report
• Some useful software
• Training videos
• An email training series

You’ve got to create some great content. And make it both helpful and informative. And of course it has to be free. But to get the email, it’s got to be a good offer.

Once again, don’t worry if you don’t know how to create the freebie. You can just pay someone else to make it for you. You just pick the topic and they create the training. One easy and effective bribe is a 5-part email training series. You can have ghost writers create emails for under $25 an email. So, a great premium will cost you around $100 – $150.

You can also get email list building tools that include the premium. Two critical aspects of using a follow up series. First, it must provide value to your subscribers. It also has to generate revenue for you! Mixing some affiliate products into your email series is a great way to do this. This is such a simple solution because you don’t have to create the product. And make money right away from your list.

The Thank You Page – The “thank you” page is the final piece of the puzzle. This is where your visitor goes after opting into your list. It’s a great idea to give them some valuable information right on the thank you page. That way, they feel glad that they gave you their email address. It also helps to build the relationship. So when they get your email, they’re happy to hear from you.

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

Summary

It makes no difference whether you build your opt-in, bribe and thank you page. Or if you hire people to do this for you. Or if you get a ready-done package. The important thing is that you build your own list starting now. 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.

Before we start, let’s talk about what preselling actually is. Preselling is both an art and a science. It’s a process of taking your reader and getting them ready to buy. Then you send them to the site that sells what you’ve prepared them for. And if it’s done properly, the process is completely sub-conscious.

Basically, you give them some content. And then refer them to the product website. In a second we’ll talk about how to do actually it. But before we do, you need to know why it’s so important. Here are a few benefits of preselling:

• It builds trust – And gaining the trust of your readers helps them want to click your links. And the more clicks you get the more sales you’ll make.
• Preselling is disarming – 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. And your intention is conveyed more easily.
• It creates buying readiness – Your readers are now receiving your message. Being open means, they are open to everything you give them. For example, the sales message on the page you’re linking to. Sending them to the sales page in this state makes them more receptive to the actual pitch.
• You make more money – You’ve prepped them and referred them in the right state of mind. With the guard down and trusting your recommendation. This dramatically boosts your sales rate!
• It increases customer satisfaction – Your referral now feels like they decided to buy. Versus being pitched or convinced. So they are happier with their purchase.
• It boosts your profits – Happy customers ask for refunds much less often. Which means you keep more of your affiliate commissions.

Clearly preselling makes sense. You earn more commissions. And produce happier customers. Everybody wins!

OK, so how do you do it?

Now you know whey preselling is critical. So, hopefully you’ve decided to start preselling. So, it’s time to break down how it works. As I mentioned earlier, it’s both an art and a science.

Part 1 – The art of it

First, you have to gain the trust of your reader, so they let their guard down. This can only be accomplished by providing actual value in the information you’re presenting. But you can’t give them so much that they think they have everything they could need, and that’s what makes it an art. So you send them to the product website with a hunger for more of what the product provides. And since they’re more open, they are more likely to make a purchase.

Part 2 – the Science

There are also several key elements that need to be included.

First of all, it’s important HOW you present your information. You’ve got to map out your strategy before you start writing. In the end, you want to sell a specific product. You use the information to do this in one of two ways. First, you can provide useful but incomplete information. Or you can give them so much information that it feels overwhelming to do what you’re talking about. Either way, the product sales page solves the problem.

Next, you have to use “convert linking” methods. Instead you link directly to the product sales page. When you do this, you’re click-throughs go way up. 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 use an image tag to cookie your reader before they leave your site.

The next trick is to hyperlink specific words and phrases inside the content of the article you’re providing. People are used to clicking on hyperlinked words to get information they’re looking for. And if the words you hyperlink relate, your reader will naturally click them for more information.

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

Now for the bad news…

This process is not easy – at all! Let’s talk about everything required to put this plan into action: Great content. First of all, you actually have to write great articles and give value to your readers. To do that you have to have enough information to be valuable and be able to present it in a useful way. Strategic writing. First, you have to give good information. And you have to make the content accessible in order to provide value. While at the same time making them want more. Or provide so much information that they see how hard it will be to implement.

Picking products. Next, you’ve got to pick the right product to presell. Even if you can pull off writing and great article. All your efforts are wasted if you send your reader to the wrong sales letter.

The technical know-how One of the keys to this system is using “covert cookies” for the tracking. 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. (Just don’t mess it up. Otherwise, you won’t get credit for your sales.)

In closing:

Now you’re armed with the information needed to effectively presell. Preselling properly will boost your affiliate profits up to 500%! It’s absolutely critical to do this every time – and to do it correctly. Take action now. The effort it takes is well worth the benefits…

How, then do you get traffic to your site?

These are the best and fastest ways to get free visitors coming to your site:

• Web 2.0
• Article Websites
• Video Marketing

And here’s how to use each method…

Web 2.0

The term “Web 2.0″ is associated with websites that facilitate interactive information sharing and collaboration in a social media setting. These are great sites to work with because they allow you to participate in this content creation. The other interesting thing about these sites is that all the search engines (including Google) treat them as “authority sites”. And that’s important to you because it means that Google and the other search engines treat links from these sites as more meaningful than links from other sites. And any links in your content that point to your own sites count as a strong “vote” in favor of your sites – lending you credibility in the search engines. The direct traffic from the Web 2.0 sites themselves is only part of the benefit. There are many more web 2.0 traffic tactics we don’t have time to get into here, but this will get you started.

Article Marketing

Article marketing really builds on the Web 2.0 concept. This is because article websites are really web 2.0 site. Article directories are sites where users (including you) can upload articles they have written. Just as with the other web 2.0 sites, having your content included gives you immediate traffic and search engine ranking. And in addition to this, other users can take your article and place it on their own website. And because the terms of the directory say they have to include your “resource box” you get links back from all these other sites, too. If you want to generate traffic from articles follow these steps:

• Figure out what keywords you want to go after
• 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

And finally, we need to talk about getting traffic from videos. Here to we’re really looking at a web 2.0 sub-category. And it carries all the same benefits of article marketing. The extra top secret benefit of video marketing is that it’s much easier to rank for competitive keywords than in any other medium.

OK, so how do you do effective video marketing?

• 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
• Make sure to include in your profile a link to your site
• Upload at least 1 video
• In the title, the description and the tags for each video, include your main keywords

In closing…

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

Step 1 – Find a Fanatical Market

The number 1 thing you have to do is find fanatics if you want a profitable membership website. What’s a fanatic? It’s someone who is so excited about a certain topic that they will spend their time and money on information about it. OK, so we know what a fanatic is, but how do we find them?

• Here’s something you may not have considered – magazines! We’re so internet-based these days, it’s easy to forget about them. 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. If they can make money in a print version, you can probably make money with a membership website.
• 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 something, they probably want to know more about it. And that may also mean they’re willing to pay money to learn more about it.
• Conventions, clubs, and organizations. Once again, if there are enough people interested in a topic to create a club or organization, then there are enough people to build a membership business around it. By the same token, if enough people are interested to hold a convention on a certain topic, you can definitely find enough people to build a membership business around that same topic.
• Think about the things that you are interested in. Chances are that if you like a certain topic or hobby, other people do, too. The icing on the cake here is that you get to build a business doing something you love.
• Google Trends. This is a great way to figure out what people are interested in. Google Trends tells you the most popular current search terms. These are the things people are actively searching for in Google. They’re searching because they want information. Hot topics that people are excited about make great niches for your membership website.

Step 2 – Determine the financial feasibility

OK, so you’ve got a great idea for your niche membership business with lots of fanatics. But will they actually spend money? An easy way to determine this is to figure out if anyone else is making money in this niche.

Here’s how to determine if you can make money in your chosen niche

• 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 tells you there are people who are actively interested in your niche.
• Search Amazon, Google shopping and eBay to see if people are creating and selling products in the niche. It’s a good sign if there are because it tells you people are making money here.
• Monitor Google Adwords to determine if people are running the same ads for weeks in a row. If they are, this means they’re making money on these ads – otherwise, they’d stop running them. Which means there is money to be made in your niche.

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

After figuring out a good niche and determining that other people are making money in it, the last thing to do is decide if you will be able to enter the market. How do you gauge the ease of entry?

• Product types. What kind of products are being sold in the niche? You’re looking for a niche that sells info products. Membership websites based on information are the easiest to start and maintain.
• Competition. How many other people are trying to sell to this market? You want to start in a market that’s not completely saturated with competitors.
• 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 ready is the market for marketing messages, and how willing are the fanatics 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.

Putting it all together

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. If you’ve followed along with these steps you’re success in practically guaranteed. The only thing left to cover is exactly how to run your membership business…

But, first…

The first thing you need to do before you start going after any traffic is keyword research. Why? Because you have to target these keywords if you are to have any hope of actually generating traffic for them. Which means you need to put some thought into the keywords you’re targeting.

A couple things to keep in mind when doing keyword research:

• Are the keywords you’re interested in attainable? Take a look at the “strength” of others websites (and how many) are already targeting these keywords.
• Will the keywords you’re targeting bring buyers? Some keywords will bring lots of traffic, but none of them will buy. You want to generate visitors ready to buy.
• Another thing to think about is affiliates. Generating your own customers is great – having other people do it for you is even better. This means that some of your traffic focus should be on getting affiliates to your site.

Although this is an essential step, doing it all by hand can take a very long time. Experts are expensive and don’t guarantee results. And that’s why most people skip this step! What I recommend is using website traffic software to save the time of doing it yourself and the money of hiring someone else. This way you get this critical step done fast and done well.

Only then can you start getting traffic

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

Here are a couple of clever ways to do this…

• Surveys
• “Traffic Traps”
• Video Sharing Sites

Surveys

People love filling in surveys. You can use this fact to provide “sticky” content for other website owners. They benefit by getting free content for their site and you get a link to your site under the survey. Think about that – you get website traffic for free just for making a survey! 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.

“Answer” Sites

Maybe you’ve seen these help sites where people post questions and other people answer them. 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. This allows you to do the things in your business that can’t be automated and let the software just give you the leads.

Video Sharing Sites

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 you’re not taking advantage of this rich source of website traffic, then you are really missing out.

And don’t worry if you don’t have any idea of how to make a video. It’s really easy to just start with an article or something you’ve already written. Then simply record yourself reading the text and you video the screen with a simple screen capture program. You can even get software that will automatically do this for you.

The Bottom Line…

Getting traffic is not that difficult. It just takes a little time and some ingenuity. Plus, there’s lots of great software out there to help you.

Don’t waste any more time:

• Step 1 is researching your keywords
• Set up some viral surveys
• Take advantage of the “help” sites
• And definitely include video sharing sites

First of all, make sure the content on your website is good quality. Why do you want to optimize your site with the search engines? So that your website attracts targeted visitors. Therefore, you need quality content on your site so that visitors will come and possibly buy something from you. Most of the people who will visit your site won’t be reading all of your content on the website, but they will simply go through it or scan it. So if you want to be sure that people read certain information, highlight it or use bullet points to call their attention to it. You can also use an image to bring visitors’ eyes to certain areas. Additionally, don’t apply keyword stuffing on your site, as this will backfire and reduce the value of your site in the eyes of the search engines. Many local websites, like Yelp, are fine with the idea of business owners asking customers or clients to post reviews for them. Because this is allowed and you can benefit from it quite a bit, why not do it? It is important that you remind your customers to do this however you can: e-mail signature, invoice, contact forms, etc. You can say something as simple as “Hi it would be great if you can take out time to review our business on XYZ Local.” You already understand that you won’t be able to control what is written in the reviews themselves but just having them online will help build your business’s credibility and make you look more reliable to new clients. This is one tip that you should try out no matter what because it has a lot of potential and can help you big time with your rankings.

Getting good links from local websites can really help your search engine optimization. A large part of local marketing is becoming known and networking with others in your area. To maximize your effectiveness as a local business, you should really focus your efforts on getting well respected and popular businesses and groups in your community to link to your site. The search engines favor sites with a good number of quality backlinks, and getting links from prestigious local sites is the way to get your site highly ranked for location based keywords. It gives a green signal to the search engines and makes your journey even easier. The backlinks that will do you the most good are those that are high quality, and this is far more important than the number of links you have. One link from the Chamber of Commerce is better than a 100 links from local blogs.

When it comes to links, you are better off concentrating on getting the most valuable ones you can.

All in all, if you use the SEO methods you just learned about, you’ll see success in no time.

Additional Resources:
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