Google Plus Social Networking Site

google plus 360 280x175 Google Plus Social Networking SiteI got an invitation to Google+. As curious as I am by nature – I started to play with the new Social Networking Site created by Google.

It is still beta, we can join by invitation only but it is fully functional and a great place to hangout.

I share my first impressions, and I tell you up front that I like Google+.
Why?

  1. Privacy concerns were address with maturity, solutions, and from the start
  2. I have a mechanism in place to share my content at a more granular level which is done considering mutual interests
  3. The are some great features which are unique for Google+, in general they are business related, or new trend related (mobile). Any Social Platform has a pattern: create a profile, find friends, add photos, videos, share links, pest and get comments, send private messages. Google+ has all the above and the following unique features… and more will be added:
    1. Hangouts – a video conferencing in which up to 10 users can chat on-line. This is a powerful tool for Businesses which work remote
    2. Sparks – is an integration with  Google’s search engine that pushes content onto the platform and makes finding articles to share easier
    3. The +1 Button – I know you already love the little button – it is a very simple way to mark up content you like. Similar with FB like button, but is more to it – the +1 also adds a score you quickly can see which pieces of content are the most popular
    4. Circles – it looks like but it is not similar with “followers” and “friends” from other platforms. If you do it right it lets us target msg to specific audiences/niches. Through circles Google+ gives you more control over who sees your content… which reduce the noise…
  4. A much cleaner way to share data with others – no distractions on this interface
  5. They design with Mobile in mind – so this is thinking about the future
  6. It is business oriented – specific features as handouts, and its equivalent for mobile – text-based Huddes, the integration…  are good examples
  7. The last on my list but the first as importance – The integration of G+ into every part of Google’s empire ( actually it is now part of a couple of Google’s Applications, but will be extended to all of them)

In this post I tell you my first impression and what I like about Google+,  in future posts I’ll take one feature at a time and get in more details.

For more info look at Mashable’s Google+ guide

In summary: we have had enough mediocre platforms but Google+ is the single one which has the potential to become a perfect Network as the power of integration, the simplicity, the potential of using correctly a more granular level, and the vision of the Internet trends.

Until next time all the best.
Michaela

Popularity: 80% [?]

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Products to Sell Online

How to Choose a Good Product to Sell Online

I hear so many times that 90% of the people who are trying Affiliate marketing fail to be successful. There are many reasons, but today I concentrate on choosing the right Product to sell.

In general there are only 4 reasons people fail:

  • Don’t choose the right product to advertise
  • Don’t have a good list: large enough and responsive
  • Don’t drive enough traffic to the campaign
  • Don’t choose the right model for creating the campaign

I start with choosing the right product to sell, looks trivial, but it is not as there are thousands of products and many market places. Some are very good, some are medium good, and a lot of them are garbage. Especial for beginners is hard to decide what to sell.

You can choose to sell your own product, a somebody else product you know, or you must do some research to find a good product to sell.

The right place to choose a product is ClickBank. It is a huge market place, and the reputation and services of this company are impeccable.

ClickBank will:

  • Automatically bill the customer, pay the seller, and pay the commissions to the affiliates
  • It is acting as a trusted intermediary, maintaining complete security and quality control in every transaction
  • Affiliates can freely link to any seller, and sellers can freely accept new affiliates. The fraud or misrepresentation is eliminated.

I have used Clickbank for over 3 years and I highly recommend CB to everyone who wants to sell information products on line. To open an account as an affiliate is free.

Sign up for your free account with ClickBank

At this point you need an account to start the process of finding the right product for you.

Click on http://www.clickbank.com

This is the screen you will get. Just click on sign up in the top menu CB01111 Products to Sell OnlineIt is a very simple sign up process.
Create a nickname for yourself  (the people will know you by this nickname) and create a password.  Now sign on:

 

CB021 Products to Sell Online

log in to CB

Click on Marketplace button:

CB0121 Products to Sell Online

This is the next screen that you get:

CB04 280x207 Products to Sell Online

Fill in keywords you need. If you choose good key(s) the system will return to you the screens like: 8ps01 Products to Sell OnlineThis example is a good choice as:

  • Initial $/sale is  $40.29 – this is the average amount that you earn as affiliate, for each sale of this product, One Time upsell purchases are part of initial sale
  • Avg %/sale is 54.0% – this is the average commission rate earned for all sales of a vendor’s products, including OTO, rebills, and upsells
  • Avg Rebill Total is $21.46 – this is showing only for recurring billing products, so the number represents the average amount you as affiliate  make on re-billing
  • Avg %/rebill is 54.o% – this one is showing only if the vendor offers recurring billing products, it is average commission rate earned only on re-bills
  • Grav is 573.38 – this is the number which convince me to be an affiliate for this product, gravity performance statistic is a number calculated by Clickbank and represent the number of affiliates who earned a commission by promoting this product over last 12 weeks.  If gravity is high means the product is selling, but also indicate that exists a lot of competition

To make the story short – I like to be an affiliate for this product because it offers recurring billing (it is probably a membership), the gravity is high, and they accept affiliates.

As I decide this, now I have to click on “Promote” button, I have to fill in my Account nickname and a tracking ID which is optional but highly recommended.

2ex01 Products to Sell OnlineAfter I fill in and click Create, I obtain a screen with the information I need to start promoting:

2ex02 280x72 Products to Sell Online What you need from here is the link which is very well encrypted.

I will introduce this link in my promotion campaign.

We have to stop here as the model to choose and how to create the right campaign are a subject which will follow in different lessons.

In summary: our purpose was to find a product, and we have one.

Until next time be well
Michaela

Popularity: 72% [?]

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Autoresponder Power and Benefits

Keys of Success as Affiliate Marketer

FileN021 280x217 Autoresponder Power and Benefits

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:

CBNew01 Autoresponder Power and Benefits
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.

AMeC0111 Autoresponder Power and Benefits

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

9 D01 280x210 List Building ConceptIn 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

 

Popularity: 20% [?]

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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.

0HTML21 280x210 Tools For Affiliate MarketingThey 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

 

Popularity: 15% [?]

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