A little background.
Some time ago I signed to be on Joe Vitale's email list by downloading a free ebook. I can't recall what it was at the time but I have been receiving emails almost everyday and most of them, not all, have been aimed at trying to get me to buy something. He has quite a list of digital products that he has produced himself or in collaboration with others as well as many others that he is promoting as an affiliate. I would tell my wife about some of these and she would ask why I stay on the list if all that is happening is that I am being marketed to and likely will never buy anything anyway?
I was on that list for a reason, now I know what at least one of those reasons were.
The ClickBank Secret Code .
I bought it, downloaded everything and listened to the CB Secret Code audio. There is a ton of extra supporting material (AKA: "free stuff") that goes with this including ebooks and other audio and video products that are pertinent, not just fluff.
Tying George Brown's Google Sniper and the CB Secret Code together has given me two pieces of the online affiliate marketing puzzle that appear to be the largest pieces. George's technical approach and Joe's mental and metaphysical approach compliment each other very nicely. Joe has spurred me on to consider possible methods of building my own list rather than just relying on sniper style pages, or perhaps more accurately, not relying solely on sniper methods.
I must admit, even though I had all the technical stuff mostly in place regarding finding keywords, getting a site ready to go and all of the research involved in getting to that point, I was stuck on the creation process of the actual copy. I was having a major case of writer's block. Were to start, how to start, what to say....
Joe clears up a lot of what needs to be considered. The largest audio section and one rather large ebook cover specifically writing the copy as what he refers to as "hypnotic writing". I won't get into it but everything that he talks about makes sense and, with the supporting material, makes it a pretty straight forward process. He has some nice checklists and suggestions and, with all of his emails that I've received, some very appropriate examples of his own very successful work.
So off I go to really make some progress on my own.
Have a look for yourself at The ClickBank Secret Code.
Jeff.
Friday, July 29, 2011
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Perfection Paralysis (a variant of Paralysis by Analysis)
This is a classic fault of mine... getting bogged down in trying to make a project perfect in the planning process and never getting started due to the many details that need to fall into place in order for it to be "perfect".
Here I am doing work toward putting everything I need together in order to set up my very first full webpage aimed at marketing some product from Clickbank. I just cannot seem to get everything that I want in order to make the first page perfect... then it hit me, "I don't need perfection, I only need a first page... who cares if it isn't perfect?".
I am testing out the waters in the new to me field and I need to start somewhere.
I recall some of my early forays into the world of stock trading. In many of those cases I would put hundred's or thousand's of dollars on the line to test out a theory and be willing to literally give away some of those hundred's in the interest of proving or disproving an idea or just to gain some experience with a particular trade style.
Then, fast forward to now... I waffle on investing $10 in a domain name that may or may not be the one that I end up using as page one. I already know that I will end up with many pages, some will be profitable, some may not.
BTW, this paralysis is why there has been no posts very recently, nothing worth noting. I should have some progress to talk about over the course of the weekend.
Jeff.
Here I am doing work toward putting everything I need together in order to set up my very first full webpage aimed at marketing some product from Clickbank. I just cannot seem to get everything that I want in order to make the first page perfect... then it hit me, "I don't need perfection, I only need a first page... who cares if it isn't perfect?".
I am testing out the waters in the new to me field and I need to start somewhere.
I recall some of my early forays into the world of stock trading. In many of those cases I would put hundred's or thousand's of dollars on the line to test out a theory and be willing to literally give away some of those hundred's in the interest of proving or disproving an idea or just to gain some experience with a particular trade style.
Then, fast forward to now... I waffle on investing $10 in a domain name that may or may not be the one that I end up using as page one. I already know that I will end up with many pages, some will be profitable, some may not.
BTW, this paralysis is why there has been no posts very recently, nothing worth noting. I should have some progress to talk about over the course of the weekend.
Jeff.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Promotional Product Number One, "Vision Without Glasses"
While trading stocks one of the first rules that I learned was from Warren Buffet. For those who don't know of him he is currently listed as the third wealthiest person in the world and is the primary shareholder of Berkshire Hathaway. While it's not a direct quote he basically says that you should invest in what you know. It's worked very well for him over the years.
Taking the same idea and applying it to internet affiliate marketing I started looking at the ClickBank list of products and selected one that I am familiar with, not so much the product but the material that it is based upon and the problem that it addresses. I did run ClickBank's entire list through a filter in order to not start out with an absolute dog of a product and "Vision Without Glasses" was somewhere in the middle of the list and attracted my attention more for the idea than the stats.
A brief background:
My wife is mildly nearsighted, not extremely so but enough to need glasses for driving. She was growing concerned that her sight might be getting worse so I went looking for some alternatives to just changing her glasses prescription. Not only was it going to cost quite a bit but new glasses don't fix anything, they only correct for the existing problem.... and I would expect that they may just make the problem worse depending upon what it is.
I have also started using reading glasses for reading in the evening or when I am tired and for some fine print or detailed work. I typically have had great eye sight and have not needed glasses so, while this doesn't really bother me I figured that I should be able to forgo having to use glasses altogether... somehow.
In my searches I ran across Dr William Bates and his published book "Perfect Sight Without Glasses" from 1920. It is in the public domain now as the copyright has expired so I had downloaded it while researching eye problems and natural corrections a few years ago. It was a very dry read and some of the theories seemed outdated. As I recall the exercises he proposed were not terribly interesting (although what exercises ever are?) and Kate was not interested in using them... I must admit I only did a little.
Even so I do practice a few of them now to help with eye strain and I find even just that often helps my visual focus.
So taking the "invest in what you know" idea to heart I chose this product, "Vision Without Glasses" to use for my first promotional webpage.
Next up, the statistical research to determine how to target an audience who is receptive to purchase self help for their eyes. Concurrently I will be going over the product to familiarize myself with the material and determine how beneficial it is over attempting to use the dated Bates method. Also worth noting: they have a pretty comprehensive affiliate page for information and suggestions.
Jeff.
Taking the same idea and applying it to internet affiliate marketing I started looking at the ClickBank list of products and selected one that I am familiar with, not so much the product but the material that it is based upon and the problem that it addresses. I did run ClickBank's entire list through a filter in order to not start out with an absolute dog of a product and "Vision Without Glasses" was somewhere in the middle of the list and attracted my attention more for the idea than the stats.
A brief background:
My wife is mildly nearsighted, not extremely so but enough to need glasses for driving. She was growing concerned that her sight might be getting worse so I went looking for some alternatives to just changing her glasses prescription. Not only was it going to cost quite a bit but new glasses don't fix anything, they only correct for the existing problem.... and I would expect that they may just make the problem worse depending upon what it is.
I have also started using reading glasses for reading in the evening or when I am tired and for some fine print or detailed work. I typically have had great eye sight and have not needed glasses so, while this doesn't really bother me I figured that I should be able to forgo having to use glasses altogether... somehow.
In my searches I ran across Dr William Bates and his published book "Perfect Sight Without Glasses" from 1920. It is in the public domain now as the copyright has expired so I had downloaded it while researching eye problems and natural corrections a few years ago. It was a very dry read and some of the theories seemed outdated. As I recall the exercises he proposed were not terribly interesting (although what exercises ever are?) and Kate was not interested in using them... I must admit I only did a little.
Even so I do practice a few of them now to help with eye strain and I find even just that often helps my visual focus.
So taking the "invest in what you know" idea to heart I chose this product, "Vision Without Glasses" to use for my first promotional webpage.
Next up, the statistical research to determine how to target an audience who is receptive to purchase self help for their eyes. Concurrently I will be going over the product to familiarize myself with the material and determine how beneficial it is over attempting to use the dated Bates method. Also worth noting: they have a pretty comprehensive affiliate page for information and suggestions.
Jeff.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Getting Started with Domain Hosting... Bluehost.com
One of the advantages of setting up an affiliate business is being able to get discounts and commissions for products or services purchased after signing up for the respective affiliate program then purchasing through the new affiliate link. This is a great method to test run some products before actually promoting them and not have to pay full price, sort of a perk particularly if the product is going to be used and not just play tested. Upon reading the affiliate fine print there is typically nothing excluding anyone from doing so (I checked just to make certain), which makes it not even a grey area. Had I done this earlier I might have been able to save a few more dollars while getting going but I just plain never thought of it.
One of my next steps is to get a web hosting service setup. Somewhere along the way someone mentioned that they use Bluehost.com for all of their hosting needs. There was no commission for passing this tidbit along so I took it as a valid recommendation... not that a commission automatically makes a recommendation suspect but it makes it easier to trust the source without much more thought.
I did consider trying to go with a free hosting service but realized that I was taking my chances with customer care and likely going to have to migrate to a better, paid service anyway. Besides, Bluehost costs $4.95-$6.95 a month and domains are $10 to register for a year. I could find cheaper I suppose but they have a wide selection of services and plugins in their control panel. I'll see how much of an advantage that ends up being down the road as I anticipate setting up quite a few websites so ease of use will end up being a major factor.
I'll get signed up tomorrow once I select my first site name. Hopefully by the weekend I'll manage to get a full website up and running.
Jeff.
One of my next steps is to get a web hosting service setup. Somewhere along the way someone mentioned that they use Bluehost.com for all of their hosting needs. There was no commission for passing this tidbit along so I took it as a valid recommendation... not that a commission automatically makes a recommendation suspect but it makes it easier to trust the source without much more thought.
I did consider trying to go with a free hosting service but realized that I was taking my chances with customer care and likely going to have to migrate to a better, paid service anyway. Besides, Bluehost costs $4.95-$6.95 a month and domains are $10 to register for a year. I could find cheaper I suppose but they have a wide selection of services and plugins in their control panel. I'll see how much of an advantage that ends up being down the road as I anticipate setting up quite a few websites so ease of use will end up being a major factor.
I'll get signed up tomorrow once I select my first site name. Hopefully by the weekend I'll manage to get a full website up and running.
Jeff.
ClickBank and HOPLinks, quick functionality note
My previous post about the Google Sniper 2.0 reminded me how important it is to double check everything before hitting that "Publish" button. I am lucky in that I have always done the same thing with all of my emails over the years, that quick double check has made sure that I did not send the wrong email to the wrong person.
In ClickBank, once a product has been selected there is a green "Promote" button that takes you to the next page in order to create your unique HOP link. Once it is generated there are two versions. One is the simple text link and the second is HTML coded to put the words "Click Here!"... or something... instead of the link text.
Using the Blogger link button in Compose mode lets me put a URL (or the simple text HOP link) behind the text. Inadvertently I put the HTML version in the link and, of course, it wouldn't work. Put the same link into the post using the HTML editor and it worked fine... just change the code to display what I want to show.
Just one of those dumb little things that can make the difference between something working well or not working at all.
Double check everything.
Jeff.
In ClickBank, once a product has been selected there is a green "Promote" button that takes you to the next page in order to create your unique HOP link. Once it is generated there are two versions. One is the simple text link and the second is HTML coded to put the words "Click Here!"... or something... instead of the link text.
Using the Blogger link button in Compose mode lets me put a URL (or the simple text HOP link) behind the text. Inadvertently I put the HTML version in the link and, of course, it wouldn't work. Put the same link into the post using the HTML editor and it worked fine... just change the code to display what I want to show.
Just one of those dumb little things that can make the difference between something working well or not working at all.
Double check everything.
Jeff.
Google Sniper 2.0 - some great material from George Brown
Well, you knew it was going to happen eventually, so I figured it's best to get it over with early in the process... the first semi-promotional blog post.
The product is Google Sniper 2.0 (link included if you want to take a look without reading on)
As much as this is all new to me, for the most part, I have been trying to come up with an easy and cheap way of getting into the affiliate sales arena for a while. I haven't had the right ideas or internet knowledge to just jump in and give it a try, just the intent. Unlike my stock trading forays where I was able to research and backtest ideas, affiliate marketing has been more elusive. Too much information on line makes finding the necessary parts almost impossible and there is no way to go back and see if an idea would have worked. So the whole plan was sort of a wish list in the back of my mind and I just kept my thoughts open to see if anything would happen to catch my attention.
I like to employ reticular activation as often as I can, it seems to pass for good luck and fortuitous timing more oftne than not. If you don't want to read the whole article, which doesn't actually mention the part about RA that I refer anyway, it amounts to noticing things that are on your mind more because you are thinking about them. When you decide to buy a new car and decide on, say a silver VW bug.... all of a sudden you notice just how many there are on the road when they have been there all along, just unnoticed.
As a result of an my seemingly aimless mental wanderings I have noticed a few internet products that claim to be the next best thing to hit the world of making money online, aimed at some sort of affiliate sales. None were actually what they claimed and none appeared to have any real longevity to their system. While I could go on about the inherent downfalls of some of these systems I will save that for some time when I want to actually review those particular products.... but even that attracts negative energy so I will likely not ever go there.
Suffice it to say that once I stumbled upon George Brown's Google Sniper 2.0 I thought I had found a source of real usable information rather than just a lot of hype. So far I have found that I have not been proven wrong.
Since I bought it, a couple of weeks ago, I have managed to watch some of the videos and read through the initial manual. I figured that I would take the time to go through everything once first, get familiar with it then make a plan. My plan changed once I found that the way that he has laid it out is very "step by step" with videos and written documentation. Doing the big picture overview was not really necessary and would just add many hours to my eventually taking concrete action so I am taking in the information and acting on it on the fly. Everything so far just makes sense and is straight forward to implement.
There are a couple of upsells to be aware of (I hate surprises so I mention these here) and one is a one time only offer that seems like a much needed part of the whole... not so much. This was the "over the shoulder" video tutorial which I skipped. George does describe what it is rather than just dangling a carrot and saying that it is a must have, I have to give him credit for being up front and honest about all this stuff. The other is the Sniper X monthly membership. There is a biweekly webinar and regular videos that keep up to date with current innovations... I haven't gone through them all but I opted in for this feature as there was no up front cost. I figured if I only get one tidbit a month that helps with optimizing my sites that results in just one or two sales extra, it pays for itself. Besides, I can always stop the monthly membership if I find it not helpful.
So here I am writing a blog about my internet affiliate marketing action on the fly. My next step will be to figure out my first promotional product (no this one doesn't really count) and apply some of the principles George talks about in setting up my first website.
I won't be giving away all the details here, you'll have to get some of them directly from George, but keep in mind that no matter what there will always be a certain amount of work in order to reap any rewards. Any systems that claim otherwise are just not worth the time or money. If you stop over to George's site he lays out more of what you might expect, and yes, he hype's his product up a bit. But that's marketing.
Jeff.
The product is Google Sniper 2.0 (link included if you want to take a look without reading on)
As much as this is all new to me, for the most part, I have been trying to come up with an easy and cheap way of getting into the affiliate sales arena for a while. I haven't had the right ideas or internet knowledge to just jump in and give it a try, just the intent. Unlike my stock trading forays where I was able to research and backtest ideas, affiliate marketing has been more elusive. Too much information on line makes finding the necessary parts almost impossible and there is no way to go back and see if an idea would have worked. So the whole plan was sort of a wish list in the back of my mind and I just kept my thoughts open to see if anything would happen to catch my attention.
I like to employ reticular activation as often as I can, it seems to pass for good luck and fortuitous timing more oftne than not. If you don't want to read the whole article, which doesn't actually mention the part about RA that I refer anyway, it amounts to noticing things that are on your mind more because you are thinking about them. When you decide to buy a new car and decide on, say a silver VW bug.... all of a sudden you notice just how many there are on the road when they have been there all along, just unnoticed.
As a result of an my seemingly aimless mental wanderings I have noticed a few internet products that claim to be the next best thing to hit the world of making money online, aimed at some sort of affiliate sales. None were actually what they claimed and none appeared to have any real longevity to their system. While I could go on about the inherent downfalls of some of these systems I will save that for some time when I want to actually review those particular products.... but even that attracts negative energy so I will likely not ever go there.
Suffice it to say that once I stumbled upon George Brown's Google Sniper 2.0 I thought I had found a source of real usable information rather than just a lot of hype. So far I have found that I have not been proven wrong.
Since I bought it, a couple of weeks ago, I have managed to watch some of the videos and read through the initial manual. I figured that I would take the time to go through everything once first, get familiar with it then make a plan. My plan changed once I found that the way that he has laid it out is very "step by step" with videos and written documentation. Doing the big picture overview was not really necessary and would just add many hours to my eventually taking concrete action so I am taking in the information and acting on it on the fly. Everything so far just makes sense and is straight forward to implement.
There are a couple of upsells to be aware of (I hate surprises so I mention these here) and one is a one time only offer that seems like a much needed part of the whole... not so much. This was the "over the shoulder" video tutorial which I skipped. George does describe what it is rather than just dangling a carrot and saying that it is a must have, I have to give him credit for being up front and honest about all this stuff. The other is the Sniper X monthly membership. There is a biweekly webinar and regular videos that keep up to date with current innovations... I haven't gone through them all but I opted in for this feature as there was no up front cost. I figured if I only get one tidbit a month that helps with optimizing my sites that results in just one or two sales extra, it pays for itself. Besides, I can always stop the monthly membership if I find it not helpful.
So here I am writing a blog about my internet affiliate marketing action on the fly. My next step will be to figure out my first promotional product (no this one doesn't really count) and apply some of the principles George talks about in setting up my first website.
I won't be giving away all the details here, you'll have to get some of them directly from George, but keep in mind that no matter what there will always be a certain amount of work in order to reap any rewards. Any systems that claim otherwise are just not worth the time or money. If you stop over to George's site he lays out more of what you might expect, and yes, he hype's his product up a bit. But that's marketing.
Jeff.
Monday, July 11, 2011
ClickBank
Everyone goes on about ClickBank and all the money that can be made through them. I wasn't sure what to expect but I can't say that I was overwhelmed. Everything is primarily information, online or some by mail whether DVD, CD or book formats. While they provide a full 60 day money back guarantee, and I know well that it is honoured, they do not actually guarantee or otherwise screen any of the products... that I can tell. Just like any other large clearinghouse, there is junk mixed in with the good stuff to be sold... buyer beware.
I have bought a few things through ClickBank and the experience was OK. Some, more than half of the products I have received refunds for as they either did not deliver as promised or were just copies of otherwise readily available content (content is the word anymore). The system that I am modelling my enterprise on strongly suggests using ClickBank due to their large commissions, up to 75%. What does not get mentioned is there also possible large refund rates, some over 20%, many in the 10% range. This still puts the potential earnings in a fairly high range compared to some affiliate programs down in the 4% and 5% commission structure where high volume is key.
The idea is to get some decent sized commissions rolling early on in order to see some profits without having to push huge volumes of traffic through a site in order to try to capture those conversions (buyers).
Also, proper pre-selling of the promoted product can make a difference in the buyer who clicks through to possibly purchase the product. If I can understand and like the product and particularly if I have bought it myself and used it then I can at least be sure that anyone heading over to the vendor's purchase page is not going to be anything but pleased with the particular product.
So, Clickbank account is setup... all of my "snapshots" are all still at zero of course. Time to go looking for a product that I know something about and that fits my statistic profile... more on that another time.
Jeff.
I have bought a few things through ClickBank and the experience was OK. Some, more than half of the products I have received refunds for as they either did not deliver as promised or were just copies of otherwise readily available content (content is the word anymore). The system that I am modelling my enterprise on strongly suggests using ClickBank due to their large commissions, up to 75%. What does not get mentioned is there also possible large refund rates, some over 20%, many in the 10% range. This still puts the potential earnings in a fairly high range compared to some affiliate programs down in the 4% and 5% commission structure where high volume is key.
The idea is to get some decent sized commissions rolling early on in order to see some profits without having to push huge volumes of traffic through a site in order to try to capture those conversions (buyers).
Also, proper pre-selling of the promoted product can make a difference in the buyer who clicks through to possibly purchase the product. If I can understand and like the product and particularly if I have bought it myself and used it then I can at least be sure that anyone heading over to the vendor's purchase page is not going to be anything but pleased with the particular product.
So, Clickbank account is setup... all of my "snapshots" are all still at zero of course. Time to go looking for a product that I know something about and that fits my statistic profile... more on that another time.
Jeff.
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