Autoresponder Power and Benefits

Keys of Success as Affiliate Marketer

Autoresponder Success via automated Systems

To have big volume for your business you must create Automated Systems and the right tool for them is the Autoresponder.

I will explain step by step why.

Let’s see what we know up till now and get a little more details:

  • Even though creating your own products is the most effective route to profits, it is possible to make a lot of money on-line without creating your product, you simply sell others products as an affiliate
  • Choosing  a product from Clickbank you can get the highest commission vs. any other marketplace
  • Under which conditions you can choose a product to sell from Clickbank:
    • Initial $/ Sale:You look for commission in the range of 50% – 70%. (This is the average amount that an affiliate earns for each sale of this product. OTO purchases are also considered initial sales. Vendors may offer products with different prices and commissions, so the amount you earn per sale may not match this number. This number takes into account
      • refunds
      • chargebacks, and
      • sales tax.)
    • Avg Rebill Total: It is only shown if the vendor offers recurring billing products – membership. (This number shows the average amount an affiliate makes on all of the rebilled sales. This number doesn’t include the initial sale amount)
    • Avg $/ Sale: For OTO, this number is the same as Initial $/sale. (If the vendor offers recurring billing products, it equals the average total of the initial sale plus all rebills, divided by the number of initial sales. Since it is just an average; this amount is not guaranteed)
    • Avg % Sale: This number shows the average commission rate earned for all sales of a vendor’s products (vendors can offer different commission rates for different types of products, this number may not exactly match the commission rate you earn on any given sale so the number represent:
      • the product
      • OTO purchases
      • rebills is any and
      • upsell purchases)
    • Avg% RebillThis number is  shown if the vendor offers recurring billing products. (It shows the average commission rate earned only on rebills)
    • Gravity: you look for a higher gravity then 50 (this represents a number calculated by CB that takes into account the number of different affiliates who earned a commission by promoting this product over the past 3 month, it really is a performance statistics. The gravity number – the higher the better. However, high gravity can also indicate that there is a lot of competition in promoting this product )

    Example:

Clickbank DP Affiliate
When I look at a product the most important parameter for me is: Gravity.
In the above example you can identify each parameter, this is a membership because has rebill. I consider this a good product for me, I am an affiliate for it, you can click on image.

Very important point: Noticed that the commission is not my first requirement, as a high commission isn’t an advantage if gravity is poor.  So gravity cams first.

Methods to sell a product.

Well, now we have a product from Clickbank. What we do with it depends on our purpose.

We want:

  • Just to sell a product here and there, or
  • To build a business which will last in time and produce recurring income

You will be surprise to find out that we have 3 methods to sell this product:

  • The wrong way: you just send traffic to the sale page of the merchant/vendor’s site (his sale Page), this is wrong because you personally don’t build a list for yourself. The money are on the list, some people will unsubscribe, this is OK, but the majority will stay with you if you treat your list well, and you will continue to do business with them offering other products in future
  • The lazy way: buy $7 script, don’t install, and use it only to advertise the script attaching your PayPal ID to it, you have to buy as FTC let as advertise only products we own, use and know very well: $7 Dollar Script (installing the script, and using to sell any product is falling in the next method)
  • The right way:
    • Buy a domain for each product you advertise, create squeeze page with an opt-in form – this is just for you to collect emails and names, send people who sign in to the sale page of the vendor
    • Buy a domain and use use $7 script to sell products, you have to install the script, in this case all the elements you need are created automatically by the script with less work from you

If you sale your own product the process is longer and some point I’ll get to it as well, but now I don’t want to spread too thin, I stay on Affiliate Marketing.

The role of autoresponders.

To have a paid product you must use the power of an autoresponder.

Let’s see what an auroresponder can do for us:

  • let us create a list for each product we sell
  • let us create the code of an opt-in form, which we will put in our squeeze page
  • collect leads
  • handle unsubscribe process on our behalf
  • present people with subscription offers
  • deliver the product
  • deliver bonus(es)
  • send follow-up emails to your list
  • the follow-up and broadcast emails can be created in advance and programed to be delivered when we decided
  • send out newsletters
  • send out e-course emails automatically
  • protect us for spaming, using the confirm mechanism which I recommend to be ON

And all of those are done with an automated system via auroresponder. This really means that for each product you have work to do from the beginning, but in future your involvement is less time consuming and the product is delivered in autopilot.

This is an example. I created my first free e-course almost three years ago and it was a joy. When I had the course:

  • I divided in 8 lessons, each being a different PDF document
  • I loaded all those PDFs on my server
  • I used aweber as my autopresponder. I created 9th emails, the first 8 emails contained the URL of one lesson from those 8 lessons, the 9th email was just a thank you to my subscribers
  • I scheduled the 9 emails as follow-ups to be sent in odd days from the day somebody sign-in to request the e-course

And I was done. After I had the course, took me around 3-4 hours to create the automated system and test

Affiliate Marketing Process

I present a chart with the entire process. As an affiliate you have to create your own squeeze page, from the sale page down is the work already done by the merchant, but it is important to understand the entire process.

I’ll take each feature from the chart and I’ll explain in details in future posts. At this point I present the flow of events just to start the process of visualizing the autoresponder automated system and use to the logic.

To help I just narrate the entire process:

  1. We create a squeeze page which contains and opt-in form and the promise of a free product, and drive traffic to it, this must be done by affiliate to create a list for him
  2. Some people aren’t interested, they don’t fill in and the process stops
  3. Other people are interested, they fill in the opt-in form and press a process button
  4. To those people the aweber will send a message to confirm the e-mail address
  5. Some people will change their mind and not confirm, for them the process stops here, and they are not part of the list
  6. Other people will confirm the email address, they are part of the list
  7. To them aweber will send the first follow up message and redirect to the merchant sale page
  8. The sale page contains more information about the product, and a PayPal button. This is the place where a potential customer will decide if he really wants the product or not
  9. If he doesn’t buy the product, for him the process stops
  10. If he buys, he is redirected to PayPal, he pays, and he is redirected to download page
  11. In the same time aweber is sending a follow-up message which also contains the Download URL, this is just in case the buyer lost the download page
  12. The download Page contains the URL of the product, the bonus (this is the free product we promise in the squeeze page) and sometime unadvertised bonuses which are a great surprises for customers

In summary, you cannot babysit all your products. You take one product at a time do the work, test and drive traffic. You are done. You take the next product and follow the same path. It is enough to promote 2 affiliate products per month, in a year you have 24 products which you sale. At this point you already have a decent earning, which depends on:

  • how much traffic you send to those products and
  • if you did your research and choose good products to sale

Now you can start thinking about creating your own digital product.  When you combine selling your products which will have affiliate programs, and affiliate products from Clickbank,  you have enough automatic systems in place and you can fire your boss… which it is everybody’s dream.

You will find the PDF format at:

http://michaelacernescu.com/ecourseVer2/post04AutoR.pdf or go to the page: eCoursePDF on this blog.

The software you need to create forms, maintain your list, and use your list (follow-ups, broadcasting email)  is aweber, this is the best aureresponder.

What you need to know is how to choose the right product to sale. This is the topic of the next post.

Until next time be well.
Michey

 

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List Building Concept

The money is on the list.In the previous post I already mention that it is a mistake not to collect leads.

You already heard that “The Money is in the list”.  Why? As it is more harder to find a new buyer then it is to sell to an existing one who already bought from you, knew you, and trusted you.

What is the meaning of this, if you are an Affiliate?  You first present a “squeeze page” on your domain to collect name/email, and only after a person sigh in, you redirect to the author’s “sale page” and the process continue.

I will develop this technique and give you details in 3 different posts:

  • How to create Squeeze Pages
  • The power of Autoresponders
  • The Models

But in this post I present to you the general concepts, reasons, and the benefits of having a list. All this will help you to understand the process when we will go as far as Models.

Why we need an email list:

  • Establishing an on-line presence. If somebody buys from you but you stop having a relationship with that person, he/her forgets about you. And email list you use regularly gives you a way to keep your presents alive in front of prospects and customers
  • Expert Feeling – Credibility. The information you provide paid or free must have a level of value that gives you the trust and status of an expert
  • Relationship and Control. Stay connected with your list and gradually create the trust controlling the “conversation” in a smart and interesting way. You can request feedback, collect info from a survey, find out what is important in the eyes of your prospect and customers. It is also a way to “educate” your list, as some prospects need to see many times a topic until they decide to buy
  • Leverage. The bigger your list is the more leverage you have. Building a list you create an asset that is worth money, because you really invest in your future
  • Instant Traffic. Your list is providing targeting traffic, which is easier to reach comparing with the classic methods and offer more potential for your business
  • Creating Revenue. A list is the most profitable action you can do to build a successful business online
  • You can automate the process of communication with your list. You will be able to create, follow-up, consistently and persuasively

Free Gifts are a key element of building your list, but a free report/eBook/software must be:

  • Related with your main topic you will sell
  • Still good value, it is a big mistake to give garbage as freebies
  • Use “Permission Marketing”, a term introduced by Seth Godin. In nut shell, you give a high value free incentive in exchange for somebody name/email address

Interesting reading:

The second element is to have an opt-in form to collect name/email in many places, mainly in squeeze page, but also Blogs, websites.

You will find the PDF format at:

http://michaelacernescu.com/ecourseVer2/post03ListB.pdf or go to the page: eCoursePDF on this blog.

The software you need to create forms, maintain your list, and use your list (follow-ups, broadcasting email)  is an autoresponder.

This is the topic of the next post.

Until next time be well.
Michey

 

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Tools For Affiliate Marketing

Tools We Need For Affiliate Marketing

Digital Products are different from physical products as you don’t need a physical stock, and you transmit them electronically, this is why they are so popular.

Tools HTML EditorThey can be:

  • e-books or reports
  • e-courses
  • videos
  • audios
  • interviews
  • webinars
  • software packages
  • scripts
  • graphics
  • newsletters

The beauty of selling Digital Products is that you don’t need big investments up front, but you definitely need some good tools to work with. Even for the tools, you can get them gradually, and there are free or paid versions, so you have choices.

I give you a minimum list and I specify when a software package is FREE or PAID.

Note: I attach some links to make your life easier, but if you have a substitute with a product you know, trust, and has the same requested parameters, be free to use it.

My links are useful especially for the people who are using that software for the first time. Example: if you go on Google and search “free HTML editors”, you will get a list of minimum 1000 sites to choose from, and it will be hard to decide which one to pick up. The one I recommend, I know and use myself and this can be an important element of trust in your decision.

For Affiliate Marketing we need:

  • A PayPal Account. This software will manage the money coming in and out for you. It is used in USA and internationaly. It is FREE to open an account, but you pay a small fee for the money coming in. They have 4 types of accounts:
    • Personal
    • Premier – this is the type I use
    • Business – it is a Premier account plus multi-user access
    • Student – has some restrictions
  • A WYSIWYG editor, HTML Editor. There are a lot of good HTML Editors, and the majority are FREE , choose from:
    • Nvu FREE, this is my favorite if I need to create and maintain HTML pages
    • KompozerFREE, very easy to use good for novice
  • Buy a domain name, again a lot of choices,
  • Host for your domain, which must have: cPanel, MySQL, Fantastico utility, I use HostGator with a baby croc account It is a reliable Website hosting and I am happy with them, they have excellent support and a useful Newsletter, $9.75 per month
  • FTP software client to transport files from your PC to Host, you can use:
    • FileZila client is FREE and very easy to use
    • Smart FTP client it was free when I started but now is $36.95, one time payment
  • An Autoresponder account to handle your lists, broadcasting messages, follow-ups, web forms and so on.
    • aWeber which has a deliverability over 95%, protect you from spam, this is the one used by all pros, the cost per month vary based on the number of people in your list (the range is $19 for a list of 0-500, and go up to $149 for a list of 10,000-25,000, the price is per month). aWeber is excellence but because has so many features it is not very easy to use, it is a learning curve, but in a long run will save you a great deal of time. They have learning tools – great live webinars, news letters, I learn a lot from them
    • Get Response is $18 per month. The general wisdom is to have both autoresponders, but not from the beginning
  • Software for graphics:
    • GIMP is FREE,
    • Paint Shop Pro
    • Photoshop (expensive),
    • Corel Photo-Paint (paid as well)

Note 1: I encourage you the use the free software with 2 exceptions.

The most important are the host and the autoresponder, for those two I suggest to go with the best possible.

If you need to design a Blog or any other type of site, I recommend 2 choices:

  • WordPress platform, but use your own domain or
  • xSitePro which is an incredibly powerful, full-blown web site development tool, great for all user levels from beginners to advanced web site designers.

You will find the PDF format at:

http://michaelacernescu.com/ecourseVer2/post02Tools.pdf or go to the page:eCoursePDF on this blog.

Next post will be about List Building Concept.

Until next time be well.
Michey

 

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Affiliate Marketing Ecourse Introduction

The main reason to have a new version of Affiliate Marketing e-Course is to enhance, update, and expend to new technologies and trends, clarify Google new ranking algorithm (Caffeine), offer you the latest and the best productive tools to succeed.

Choosing to make your own Digital Products to sell will be rewarding.
You can take a great deal of pride in what you offer to the world, and you establish yourself as notoriety on a specific subject, niche.
I am an advocate of creating your own digital products, but it is a learning curve to get to that level, you need proper tools and skills.
This is the reason why a lot of people start with Affiliate Marketingselling others digital products. All of us started that way, and when the time was right we created your own digital products.

I hear you – sell others products? It is legal? It is moral? It is ethic? Sure! So, what is an Affiliate Marketer?

An affiliate marketer is just a “person” who drives traffic to a product.

As an affiliate you can promote:

  • A specific physical or digital product
  • An entire business: promote eBay, Amazon, Zazzle…
  • A website: a membership site, an on-line eStore, a Blog
  • An On-line coaching program or just an e-course for a specific topic
  • An Internet related Service: you sell tickets to NFL, NHL, you sell a vacation package, you create lenses for people, you sell host spaces, you create graphics on request for Digital Products… the sky is the limit
  • And of course you sell your own products if you have any

The affiliate marketer in return receives compensation for his or her effort on behalf of the business, or the author of the product, most commonly in the form of revenue sharing.
Example – If you have a lens or blog in which you promote an Amazon Book, you are the affiliate of Amazon, and you receive a percentage of the selling price for that product.

Affiliate Marketing is a broad subject; you can spend years reading about it.
The purpose of this e-course is to:

  • Narrow down what is important
  • Establish the best practice of selling on-line as an affiliate, showing you good models
  • Show common mistakes and
  • Make you think as a “marketer”, this is crucial, but take time, and a mental effort

Affiliate Marketing Etiquette

  • Honesty for life: Do your best to be honest from the beginning and remain honest after your name is established and you are a celebrity
  • Build your reputation: Be patient and build the trust on you gradually, a reputation is not establish or acquire in an hour, or a day, or a month. It is a matter of time, how long? I honestly don’t know is based on personality, perseverance, and some native talents
  • Manners, Manners, and Manners: Manners count simply because people treat you as you treat them. You have nothing to lose being: polite, caring, sharing, considering
  • Volume vs. Quality. There are instances in which we need volume work but we must be sure that we don’t compromise the quality of our work. I know, it is a hard balance we must do and maintain
  • Don’t hype – period!
  • Follow the Rules of any kind of Resell Rights if you bought the Rights
  • Do Not Spam – period! The Google algorithms are very sophisticated, they will find out and penalize you, you will end up in the Sand Box.

This is a short list but if you want more info you can read my lens:
http://www.squidoo.com/Etiquette-Affiliate-Marketing

Avoid Common Mistakes On AM

Why so many marketers don’t succeed and only a very short percentage do?  This is a legitimate question.

It happens because affiliate marketing is not a walk in the park. It’s certainly easier than creating your own product but, like anything else, there are plenty of pitfalls just waiting around the corner.

This is a short list of pitfalls to avoid:

  • Choosing a Bad Product to Promote. Not all products are created equal. If you decide to pick your product from Clickbank, select very carefully one which is a high-quality product, and highest commission.
  • Picking a Product With Low Conversion. As an affiliate marketer, your goal is to profit. Choose your products carefully:
    • Look at conversion rates
    • Look at gravity and popularity
    • Read the sales page carefully
    • Ask yourself if you feel compelled to buy
    • Did the graphics throw you off?
  • Selling a product to the Salesman of that product Especially if you have a list avoid jumping on the affiliate product bandwagon for major promotions. Instead, wait until the noise dies down slightly; and then release a comprehensive review of the product. This has a much better chance of getting sales for you; and it will also help you to maintain credibility.
  • Picking Products that Offer Small Commissions
    • Choose products that offer a 50% or 75% commission.
    • It is a paradox, but because many top name Internet marketers concentrate on promoting high-ticket items, you can still make a killing with cheap reports. The rising popularity of the $7 report is my proof.
  • Failing to Collect Leads. Always, capture leads. An affiliate must send potential customers to your squeeze page first and then to sale page of the author. With other words, promote affiliate marketing Products creating a Squeeze page in your domain – just to collect leads
  • Write  newsworthy email – not promotional.
  • Ignore Important Figures Many affiliate marketers fail to make the needed calculations in order to run a business and ensure you are in profit. If:
    • You’re paying too much for traffic
    • Your conversion rates are too low
    • You put too much time into projects that don’t have high yields
    • You don’t have automated systems
    • Your numbers won’t add up, the outcome is bad
    • Then you should re-think, and re-tweet your campaign, not give up!

During the entire course you will find tips on how to avoid the above pitfalls.

FTC New Rules.

It is true that we have to follow new FTC rules which started on 2010; for info in a nut shell, I have a Squidoo lens with good information about the new rules:

http://www.squidoo.com/FTC-new-rules

If you have time you can read a couple of articles from FTC website:

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/menus/resources/enforcement.shtm
http://business.ftc.gov/advertising-and-marketing/online-advertising-and-marketing

What is Viral Marketing

I want to clarify the meaning of a term you will hear frequently “Viral marketing”. The term was first used in a 1996 article called “The Virus of Marketing” and was adopted immediately in Internet Marketing jargon because it is so suggestive.

“Viral marketing” means that the word about your product/business will spread like a virus utilizing social and business connections that you put in place to grow your business.
It is also called “word of mouth advertising”.

Viral marketing functions on the basis of voluntary participation in the process of advertising. Relationships are the key to the success of any viral marketing approach, and can take many forms.

The basis for the connection may be:

  • All kings of communities: your town, your social bookmarking, social networking, blogs, other platforms
  • Family and friends, old fashion but still powerful
  • Business associates: Affiliates, Joint Ventures partners, people you met on conferences, seminars
  • Email lists that are associated with your niche

To put in place a viral marketing you really need:

  • To start with offering real value
  • Create impeccable automated services for your products
  • Offer FREE products, advice, couching
  • Over deliver – it is always a good surprise when you advertise a bonus, and add another 2 unadvertised bonuses, all of them really good value

We need to get in more details and find out:

  1. How to use viral marketing to drive traffic to your site
  2. How to make your product viral
  3. How to avoid viral marketing mistakes
  4. How to use Blogs and Social Media in your viral marketing campaigns

But all those will be the subjects for another post after we already discus the best practices and models. Today I limit myself to the definition.

You will find the PDF format at:

http://michaelacernescu.com/ecourseVer2/post01Introd.pdf or go to the page: eCoursePDF on this blog

Until next time be well.
Michey

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Planning Ahead A Free Affiliate Course


I never work without to plan ahead, and I like to share my plan as a great conversation between my readers and me.

So my plan, in the nut shell, is to re-design the Affiliate course of 2010, and those are the steps I am thinking of:

  • First I want to re-design this Blog, it is an old one and need improvements, this is the right time to do it
  • I want to re-design last year affiliate marketing course, I’ll publish posting here lesson by lesson
  • The main reason to re-design is to making so simple as click by click, (step-by-step is an old cliche which is not working all the time)
  • To make the life easier for all learning types, I’ll create the PDF form of each post and I’ll publish in a specific page of this  blog, so you can print and read at your convenience
  • At the end I’ll  consolidate the lessons in an e-course and an eBook
  • I’ll pay attention to all comments to be sure that I’ll take care of all requests,  questions, and ideas

I encourage you to comment and tell me your needs. It is true that from all the people who try Affiliate Marketing… only 5% succeed… Let’s blow away this myth.

It is nothing hard or convoluted to overcome, but we must:

  • absorb the techniques and take action
  • be consistent with our work
  • never give up

In general gurus who want to sell their products use to say “it is easy, if I can you can as well”… so this is a disservice and people at first negative experience go away.
It is misleding to tell “if I can you can as well” without to tell the details:  how many people they have in their team, how much they invest in their business, how many time they fail until they succeed.

They also show off about their earnings without to tell you their expenses.

So being tired of hype it is easy to give up.  Internet Marketing is not just white and black.  So I want to give you all the nuances between white and black, help you to take conscious decisions, and guide you to your success.

To prove you my good intentions, at this level – posts on my Blog, this is a free course.

When I will consolidate in an e-course and an e-book, one will remain a free digital product and the other one will be a paid product. But for my readers of this blog it will be a free product if you follow along with me the entire course.

I also advise to become a free member of this site, as a lot of staff will be added in time for my list only.

Until next time be well.

Michaela

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