One of the most lucrative and profitable endeavors you can take on is creating your own product.

Create a product that helps people in some way and then sell it. But don’t try to “go it alone.”

Use an army of affiliates to promote your product! Even better–set up joint venture partners (i.e., the “big guys” in the industry) and pay them handsomely.

How?

There are a multitude of ways. ClickBank used to be the 800 pound gorilla on the affiliate scene. If you sell information products specific to internet marketers, the Warrior Forum is the place to do it, and there’s a pretty nifty affiliate program there, too, called “Warrior Plus,” and there’s PayDotCom.

In my opinion, these aren’t optimal options. I’ve also used membership plugins and scripts that allow you to “roll your own” affiliate program. Not great, either.

Rapid Action Profits is great. Probably the best of the “roll your own” affiliate scripts (and so much more), but it’s a pain in the ass to set up, it doesn’t pay instant commissions, and it’s pricey. Plus, one of its main benefits is a plethora of add-ons, but that’s its downfall, too: It’s very hard to determine which one(s) to buy and how to integrate it all.

(Maybe I’m stupid. But I think many of you may have a problem setting it up, too. I could be wrong.)

But what I have discovered is the best thing yet. Does it have shortcomings? Of course. But it’s the best I’ve used yet. It’s called Digiresults and it rocks. Here’s what’s good about it (and I’ll add the “bad” at the end).

First off, it pays out commissions instantly. That is to say, you and your affiliates get their respective splits right away. It works with PayPal (so it’s super easy to use and set up–in fact, there’s littel set up at all–another plus).

Refunds are handled the same way: If a customer requests a refund, your commission and your affiliate’s commission are immediately reversed and the customer gets all of his money back with no issues about who does the refunding.

It’s super simple to set up a product. You literally fill out a few fields on a single form and you’re done. You can set any commission percentage you want. You can even set up two “identical” products with the only difference being the commission paid. Use this to pay your trusted JV partners a higher percentage.

You get a “buy” button that you simply paste into your webpage (or WordPress post/page). Again, it’s super simple.

The best part, in my opinion: You can set up multiple products. In ClickBank, you either have to set up multiple accounts (technically, each product has to be part of its own account–or one product per account) or use a script that is not super-simple to set up and has its limitations in order to sell multiple products on one ClickBank account.

Plus, set up for Digiresults is free. To set up a product in ClickBank, it costs $50.

Give Digiresults a try. I think you’ll like it.

You hardly need to be told that selling products on line as an affiliate is just about the fastest, easiest way for the little guy or gal to get rich fast. What's more there is a mind-boggling range of products to sell, from a simple e-book to seats on a plane.

And, with giant retailers, such as Amazon, attributing 40% of their $billions of sales to affiliates, there are obviously millions being made from affiliate marketing.

So how come only about 5% of people are making serious money on line?

That's because knowing WHERE the gold is isn't the same as knowing HOW to get at it.

All of which means all those lovely affiliate commissions are cascading into the pockets of a relatively small band of elite super affiliates, who are really laughing all the way to the bank.

And two guys who regularly figure in the top ten lists of super affiliates, by outselling most of their rivals, are Jeremy Gislason and Simon Hodgkinson. Between them, they regularly generate hundreds of thousands of affiliate commissions every year.

Time and again they pick up bonuses and even cash prizes to gold plate their massive haul of affiliate commissions. And here's the good news …

They are just releasing a brand new product, allowing you to pick their brains and copy their methods – and it won't cost you a single dime. It's called Web Profit Plans.

And – just because it's free – it hasn't stopped them from going hog wild on this, because they've distilled all the wisdom and experience painfully acquired the hard way, through painful trial and error, and are now handing you exactly what you need to copy their success.

What's more – once you have their secrets – the sky really will be the limit for you!

That's because, as a successful affiliate,  you can laugh off the usual limitations of product creation and customer service – because they're all done for you. So you can invest the time saved sourcing the very best, most lucrative products to sell. And here's where the WPP program hits a home run, because it gives you a simple seven step process to ensure you only get involved with the products most likely to be the easiest and most profitable sellers.

And maybe seven really is a lucky number, because – once you know how to evaluate the very best, most profitable products to sell, Jeremy and Simon are going to hand you your personal treasure map to locate seven gold mines that house the very best selling products for you to promote.

And you'll save much heartache – and a king's ransom – by getting the heads up about three fatal mistakes that could well be hemorrhaging cash from under your nose, right now – if you're already selling stuff as an affiliate.

But they'll soon be a distant nightmare – once you know how to fix them fast.

When you go through this program it's immediately apparent all the hard-won experience at the affiliate marketing coal face is being handed to you on a plate.

For example, there's a really smart way, yet oh-so-simple technique of unearthing those elusive products that no one else is promoting. This is truly El Dorado, because you can zoom in there and scoop up the rich profits leaving your bewildered competitors empty-handed and choking in your dust.

And what really separates the men from the boys in affiliate marketing is the vital art of getting your prospective buyer all fired up and eager to buy the product even before you send them to the vendors site. And here Jeremy and Simon give you four different ingenious ways to do this, in the most effective way possible.

And you've probably heard "The money is in the list". And here's one of Jeremy's and Simon's open secrets of success, because it's well known they enjoy the fruits of owning some of the largest, most responsive lists around. And they are about to tell you how to do it.

So they reveal what they have found to be the four key parts of a successful squeeze page. Miss any one of these and you'll be leaving a pile of cash on the table. But get all four working together and your squeeze pages will be sucking in prospects like a Shop Vac on steroids.

And – because you can never have too large or too targeted a list – you also get six little known techniques to unleash a torrent of red-hot prospects, eager to join your list and enjoy what you have for them.

And they even reveal a total of three amazing techniques to make your product owners want to give you extra commission, as well as actually promote your affiliate link themselves! Hard to believe, right now, I know, but I guarantee you'll enjoy a couple of "ah, ha" moments when you discover how blindingly obvious, stunningly simple and highly effective these stealth techniques are.

And it's not just mastering how to handle your product vendors that makes this program so effective. Because you also get four mega-powerful persuasion techniques that will empower you to tickle your prospect's sweet spot, exploding the conversions to both your opt-in lists and your pre-sales pages. What's more, you also get the absolute #1 most powerful tactic of all to make any offer you make completely irresistible.

And you even get the inside track on how to avoid one of the biggest problems facing affiliate marketers: losing the sale because it isn't made via your affiliate link. So you'll be spellbound, as you discover just how simple it is to create a 'buying loop' that acts like a powerful electromagnet, when your prospect is ready to buy. That way you get every precious cent owing to you.

And, here's something I've saved until almost last because it's (almost) the very best part of this.

Did you know it's possible to continue to enjoy the same sort of commission arrangements as Hollywood movie stars? Well it's true! Because, much of their wealth piles up long after they've left the studio and moved on to another project. So Jeremy and Simon will show you exactly how to enjoy fat commission checks rolling in automatically, months – and even years – after you've made the actual sale!

And that's truly the Holy Grail of marketing – autopilot income whilst you relax and enjoy yourself. So just imagine your life, a few exciting months down the line, when you can fully exploit Jeremy and Simon's battle-hardened techniques.

Because you'll be up to speed with picking the very best, effort-free highest paying programs – many on a regular repeat basis – you'll have finally broken the link between the hours you work and the money you make.

Finally, you'll have plenty of spare cash and the leisure time to take your loved ones on that vacation of a lifetime. Almost before you know it you'll be able to really relax and savor the experience of doing what you've wanted to do for years … give your boss the pink slip and step up to join the elite super-rich affiliates.

Once the free launch period is over, the regular price for this program will be $27, which is a very fair price for the keys to The Kingdom Of Super Affiliate Status. Yet – if you hit this link right away  you might still be able to snag the entire package for ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

Here’s a quick tip: Use search.twitter.com to find products that people have been searching for AND for which you have a review site.

Alternatively, if you don’t have a site but you find a lot of results for a particular product category, create one!

You’ve heard it before, and you practice it nearly every day. It’s called the “Golden Rule.” Do unto others. Treat others how you like to be treated.

It’s a simple philosophy. Nearly every religion is based on the Golden Rule. In fact, all major religions share that value.

In business, you’re out to crush your competitor. Or at least take his business. You want the customers’ money. There is no room for empathy, or is there?

Can you really care about your customer or your competitor? Well, if you want to be successful in business, you’d better learn how.

In EVERY business transaction, all parties involved must benefit by virtually the same measure. I buy your product for $27 because I perceive it to give me at least that much in value. Otherwise, I’d be better off not buying it.

Same goes for you. You trade a book you’ve written for $27 because you value the transaction (and much more importantly the relationship) at least worth the financial gain.

So, the Golden Rule does apply to business. What? What about your competition? You want all of his customers right? Not really. We all provide slightly different goods and services. We have our own assets that vary slightly from our rivals. If all of his customers (for example, buyers of bread) came to you instead, you’d have a problem. Perhaps you make flatbreads but he makes french breads.

But you’re enterprising! You’d figure out a way to make french bread. But what about other doughy goods? Wheat, rye, buttertop, 7-grain, etc.

You cannot be everything to everybody. Soon, you’d be failing miserably in many different product categories, and your core competency might fail too! Then, your customers leave. Perhaps the market dries up. All your competitors are gone, you’re making horrible products — consumers might just decide that bread isn’t worth the hassle any more.

See?

The Golden Rule will serve you well in all of your endeavors: Business, online and offline; relationships; chance interactions.

Basically, the idea is this: Put yourself in your counterpart’s shoes (could be a customer, a rival, or a lover). If the feeling you get isn’t a good one, PASS. If the feeling isn’t bad, ask yourself a follow-up: How can both of us mutually benefit? In other words:

WIN-WIN

You should seek win-win in every interaction you have. Otherwise, it’s a short-term victory at the expense of a long-term success.

To read more about how the Golden Rule applies to business, read Wired to Care. It’s simply a fantastic book about companies who “get it” and how they apply it to all they do.

Beginning in the year 2002, blogs changed the online marketing world, quite possibly forever. While most people at that time started with various blogging systems, eventually most of them shifted to WordPress. WordPress has become so much more since then: A powerful website Content Management System that emerged from the need for a better blogging system.

If you read any popular blogging tips online, WordPress is often positioned as a tool that well, creates a blog. But an increasing number of marketers are finding that you can also use it as the most important tool upon which you can grow a profitable business empire. The most powerful function of WordPress itself lies in its ability to manage large amounts of text, audio and video content. After a dozen pages it becomes difficult to manage a static HTML site. Although you can use template-driven software as well like SBI or DreamWeaver, nothing beats the ease of WordPress.

Using premium blogging tools (many of them free), you can easily create a static website, an article directory, a WordPress-based membership site, a complete e-commerce site, an auction site, a portfolio site and so much more. As a matter of fact, you can also just about use it for anything.

Besides that, Search Engine Optimization is another important element. By default, WordPress is pretty good at optimizing and creating SEO-friendly content. However you can also get more serious and utilize simple WordPress plugins to further increase your SEO rankings and get better Yahoo, Google, or Bing rankings.

However, the best thing about WordPress is its flexibility. You can easily switch between WordPress themes, and improve its functions by using plugins and even some custom programming. PLUS, it’s free.

If you aren’t using WordPress yet, you should seriously consider doing so. The learning curve has reduced substantially in the past 3 years. At the moment it’s so easy to use even a six-year old kid can figure it out. To power your online business, go ahead and use WordPress!

To discover more about WordPress, I strongly recommend that you signup for this training:

WordPress Wizard

As a member you’ll get tons of step-by-step video tutorials on how to use WordPress, web 2.0 technology, search engine optimization (SEO), making money from Google AdSense and affiliate marketing, and so much more. Get more information here:

WordPress Wizard

Name of the Product: Sales Army Secrets by Jimmy D. Brown

Where you can Buy it: http://internet-marketing-muscle.com/go/sales-army-secrets/

Product Description: This course illustrates how to increase site traffic and income by creating affiliate programs.

This is a complete course including audio and transcripts as well as a bunch of great bonuses to help you either get an affiliate program up and running or greatly improve your current program. Jimmy shares some of his best ideas and techniques that have helped him attract affiliates and keep them motivated and promoting his products.

In a step-by-step process, Jimmy shares how you can get an affiliate program set up within a matter of hours, what tools you should provide your affiliates, and what you can do on an ongoing basis to support your affiliates and get them selling for you each and every month.

The product also includes a great interview with Jimmy’s own affiliate manager – Nicole Dean – who answers questions on how to find a great affiliate manager, why you need one in the first place and what to look for if you are thinking of hiring someone to take care of your affiliate center.

Who This Product is Intended For:

Anyone that wants to:

• Start an affiliate program
• Improve an existing affiliate program
• Hire an affiliate manager
• Become an affiliate manager
• Learn more about affiliate marketing

Uses: This course teaches the reader how to build, market and run a profitable affiliate program.

Pros: Sales Army Secrets gives step-by-step instructions- complete with examples -to creating, implementing and improving an affiliate program.  Additionally, it explains why, as well as how, to hire an affiliate manger.  It also shares ideas to help your affiliates make more money while increasing your income, too.

Cons: I don’t really have any criticism of the product. It’s just too bad Jimmy is not sharing his affiliate manager.

Personal Opinion:

I like how “step-by-step” this product is. While it is great for a beginner who doesn’t have an affiliate program in place yet, it also contains plenty of advanced ideas and strategies that helped improve my current affiliate program. After going through the audio and transcript for the first time, I came up with 2 pages of ideas and changes that I am currently working on implementing.

I also have a better understanding of the role an affiliate manager plays in the process.

I highly recommend this course to anyone considering an infoproduct business online.
http://internet-marketing-muscle.com/go/sales-army-secrets/

A Is For Affiliate

Affiliates are an important part of the Internet marketing world.  If you don’t already know by now, they not only help drive traffic if you have your own products, but becoming an affiliate can be one of the easiest ways to get started making money by promoting other people’s products.

What is it?

An affiliate is an individual who sends traffic to a product creator’s website. They are given a special website URL, called an affiliate link, which tracks how much traffic they send to the product website. They receive a commission for each sale that is made for their affiliate link.

There are many types of affiliate programs available. As an affiliate you can find programs for physical products, digital information products and even for services and membership sites. Affiliate programs are listed in affiliate networks like Clickbank, Commission Junction and Paydotcom, among many others.

What are three keys to being a successful affiliate?

Affiliate marketing is one of the most profitable ways to make money online. You don’t have to worry about creating a product, paying for graphics, developing a sales letter or following up with buyers. You’re only in charge of driving traffic. Here are three keys to being a successful affiliate.

1. Product.

Choosing the right product to promote as an affiliate is your first key step.  You have a wide range of products to choose from as an affiliate, but that doesn’t mean that all of them will make you money. Before you put your time and energy into creating a marketing campaign for affiliate program, you should do some niche research. Is the niche popular?  Is there a lot of competition in the niche or will you be able to establish yourself pretty quickly? How does the sales page for the product look? Would you buy from the site? Carefully evaluating the niche and the product will help you find a product that will actually sell.

2. Prospects.

Building YOUR own list of potential customers is an often overlooked part of affiliate marketing.  Yet it is of paramount significance. Product creators will build lists from the people who buy from their sales letter. As an affiliate, you should be building a list as well. Before you direct your visitor to the sales page for the product, you should offer them something free in exchange for opting into your list. You can create a short report on the niche and give it away on a squeeze page before forwarding the visitor on to the sales page. By building a list, you can create a long term relationship with the visitor and offer them additional value and product offers.

3. Promotion.

Setting up your own blog is one of the best ways to promote affiliate programs due to the variety of ways you can use a blog. Smart affiliates know that their long term income comes from sales of multiple products in the same niche. One of the best ways to sell multiple products is to start a niche blog. Your blog can link to several different affiliate products so you have many opportunities to make money.

Can you give me an example?

After doing some research, you discover that solar energy is a hot (pardon the pun) topic. You start a blog on do it yourself solar energy. On the blog, you can write articles related to solar energy and link to the several solar energy products available on Clickbank. You can also give away a 5 Tips to Smart Solar Energy report on your blog to build your list.

In Part 1 of this series, we talked about the pre-headline, or as I like to call it, the “Ladies and Gentlement, can I Have Your Attention, Please” component of an effective sales page.

Remember, the idea of any landing page, especially a sales page, is to get browsers (i.e., visitors) to take an action. In the case of a sales page, this action would be to buy the product or service you are promoting on your sales page. If you have a landing page, aka a “squeeze page,” you are seeking to turn browsers into list subscribers.

The ideas I’m about to present work for any type of “action page.” That is to say, they work on all pages where your intent is to entice browsers to take your desired action(s).

With all that said, let’s jump to the most important component of any sales page:

The Headline

I call it the “I’ve Got To Find Out More” Headline because that’s what you want your headline to do.  You want to present a 1-2 sentence headline that makes the reader want to find out more about what you are offering.  You want to generate enough interest to that he actually LOOKS FORWARD to reading your sales letter.

You want to build anticipation.

Here’s an example:

“How to Launch Your Own Opt-In Mailing List and Milk It For Everything It’s Worth!”

Again, this headline conveys a lot of information…

• You immediately know the nature of the offer itself — we’re going to be talking about mailing lists
• You immediately know that there is a promise that will show YOU the way to build a mailing list. The “how to” lets you know that you can expect to find out information on “how to” do it.
• You immediately know that you will be shown how to get the maximum profit out of your mailing list — which is something near and dear to all of our hearts.

Now, this headline is very specific, very targeted and it pushes the emotion button — which is exactly what we want here.  You wouldn’t even be at the website if you weren’t interested in mailing lists, so reinforcing the content is a great thing to do because it lets you know that you’re in the right place and you’re going to find what you came looking for.

The main thing you want to do with your headline is to stir up a desire to find out more. Focus in on one quick benefit, possibly even a “summary” benefit, which is what we did in the example.  There will be many benefits later in the sales letter, but the “summary” benefit is “you are going to learn to make a lot of money by starting your own mailing list.”  It is a “mini” presentation of the offer itself.  Use your headline to refer to your offer in some way.

Another way that you might also want to use your headline is to offer some free information.  For example, if your offer is on creating your own information product, then you might use the headline,

“5 Free Sources For The Hottest New Product Ideas That Everyone Is Asking For”

Then, you merely blend these 5 free sources into your sales letter itself.  That way, you are providing quality free information as you weave in your ad copy for your offer.  The word “FREE” in your headline is a powerful tool.

There is no more powerful word than “free.”

Use it wisely and it will be a huge benefit to you.

Next up: Part 3 — Hypnotize, Mesmerize, and Simonize! (Or something to that effect)

Everybody laments poor traffic. But there’s one thing that’s psychologically worse than poor traffic and that is untargeted traffic. Imagine that you finally got some good traffic numbers (perhaps through a Stumble, a Digg, a FaceBook post, or a Tweet) yet you still didn’t sell anything.

I can tell you that I’ve been in both places (no traffic AND a ton of traffic with no sales) and it’s the latter situation that totally sucks!

The key is getting targeted traffic to your sales page. Once you get targeted traffic (ready, willing, and able buyers), you still have to persuade them to buy your products and/or services. That’s what this series is about: Your Sales Page.

It takes special talent to convert “browsers” to “buyers.” Below is a simple 11-step process to help you with the task.

Step1:  The “May I Have Your Attention, Please” Box

The first thing we want to do is get the reader’s attention focused in on a major benefit of your offer.  Have you ever heard someone begin talking on a loud speaker, “Ladies and Gentleman, may I have your attention, please?”  That’s exactly what we hope to accomplish as soon as the visitor arrives at your website.

We want to get their attention.  Now, traditionally, this would be done with a headline.  But, I like to do things a bit differently than everybody else, so this is what I do: Instead of using the headline first, I use what I call the ‘”May I Have Your Attention, Please’ box”. Others may call it the “pre-header.” Whatever you call it, call it effective!

Take a look at an example:

This is really a glorified headline.  It is a headline on steroids.  Because it is highlighted in a box, it grabs much more attention.  And when it grabs your attention what are a few things that leap out at you?

Immediately you see the “3 *Exclusive* Free Bonuses” and the “You Won’t Find Anywhere Else Online!”  Notice the reason you saw those two things so clearly:  The first is highlighted by using a different ink color and the second stands out because it is underlined.  Two easy things to do that really grab the reader’s attention…

…and they take less than 5 seconds to create.

You might also have even subconsciously soaked up the “order today.”  In this “attention” box, you’ll notice several things…

• You become aware that you’ve got some bonuses awaiting you.  If nothing else, you’ll probably be interested in at least seeing what they are – since they are exclusive.
• You’ll become aware that you are about to find something that you can’t find anywhere else.  There is something at THIS website that is unique and different and nobody else has it.
• A subtle seed gets planted that you need to order today.  Before you even get to the offer, you’ve been presented a call to action.

I have done extensive testing on sales with and without this “attention” box.  I’ve found that they  outpull the sales letters that did not have the box almost 2:1.  How else can you DOUBLE your sales in less than 30 seconds of work?

I highly recommend that you use one of these boxes as the FIRST point of contact with the reader when they arrive at your website.  Here are just a few ideas of how you can use this “attention” box…

• Hit them with a powerful and significant benefit.
• Make some attention-grabbing promise.
• Offer some kind of freebie or discount.
• Refer to a deadline.
• Mention your bonuses
• Include a testimonial from a well known “guru” in your field.

Whatever you do, use this section to convey to the reader that there is a reason to stick around.  The web moves at the speed of sound, so you don’t have long.  Make a strong immediate impression and let them know that it will be worth their while to take a closer look.

Next up: The Headline, of course!

I’m going to share with you 10 traffic-building tips in each of 10 posts, for a total of a whopping 100 traffic-building tips in total. Does that sound good? Good. Here goes.

ARTICLE MARKETING

Adding articles to article directories is one of the best ways to build traffic and get your website spidered by the search engines. These two critical things will raise your site up the search engine rankings. Plus, by creatively using your resource box, you get a backlink back to your website.

1. Do your keyword research. You can get your site indexed for “long-tail” keywords very quickly by writing articles with juicy keywords that you want to get ranked for in search engines. I’ve seen results for ranking for keywords I’m targeting by submitting articles to directories in as little as under 1 hour at Google. There is really no faster way of getting ranked for target keywords than article marketing. But do your research! In order to get ranked quickly, you’ll have to choose keywords that people would use in a search query but that do not suffer from high competition.
2. Balance your articles for your readers, but keep the search engines in mind. What this means is that you write for people but you also write for search engines, which are definitely not people. Sprinkle in keywords that the search engines (SEs from now on) like but in a readable and natural way. Remember this, though: ALWAYS write solid content for your visitors’ sake. Content is, has always been, and will always be — KING!
3. Don’t waste time submitting your same article to dozens of obscure article directories. There is a temptation to write one article and submit it to every “Tom, Dick, and Harry” article directories. Don’t do it! Make your article submissions exclusive with sites like eZineArticles, GoArticles, ArticleDashboard, and SearchWarp. These are quality article directories with thousands of visitors every day.
4. Make the best Resource Box possible. This is your one chance to get your reader to act; and by “act” I mean to go to your website, fill out a form, buy something. In other words, to take an action that you want them to take.
5. It’s a numbers game, so submit MANY articles. Getting your site indexed by the SEs for highly desirable long-tail keywords is an arduous process that requires dozens of article submissions. Like I said before, make your articles exclusive to a particular directory. So, you’ll have to write a bunch of articles and submit them to article directories. See what happens. Watch your stats!
6. Re-purpose your content. Does this contradict what I’ve just said? No, not really. I am suggesting here that you not only put your article up on an article directory, but that you also put that article up on your own website. Don’t worry about the SEs counting those two nearly-identical articles as duplicate content. It’s only “duplicate content” if it’s on YOUR site more than once. This way, you will be leveraging work you’ve already done to building a long-tail keyword page on your site at the same time as you wrote an article for a directory that the SEs love!
7. Don’t give it all away. What do I mean by this? In your article, give enough information to entice your reader to visit whatever link you reference in your Resource Box. Get them to take your “Most Wanted Action.” In other words, give your readers “interesting but incomplete” information that forces them to take the next step of signing up for your email marketing list.
8. Become an expert. By writing dozens of articles that thousands of people daily have access to makes you an expert in your field. Capitalize on that fact!
9. Research your competition. Look at the most popular articles in a particular directory in your niche and find out what their keywords are, how they write about the topics, how they construct their Resource Box, etc. You want to find out how successful people are submitting articles so that you can mimic their process and make it your own.
10. Set up your article marketing profile. Put up a picture and some interesting facts about yourself. If somebody finds one of your articles, he may try to find you on the article directory website. No picture = very little credibility.

That’s 1-10 of our traffic building tips. We’ll bring items 11-20 next week.