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Video: How to Link Directly to a Clickbank Product Order Page

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In this video, I show you how to construct an affiliate link that goes directly to a Clickbank merchant's product order page… along with rationale for why you'd want to do that.

Here is how to construct the basic link:

http://clickbank.net/sell.cgi?YOURAFFILIATEID_MERCHANTID/PRODUCT#/ITEM#

Be sure to watch the video for additional important suggestions.

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Resale Rights: How to Make Money Online Reselling Other People’s Products

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Earn 100% from product sales as a reseller…

You don't have to be an affiliate marketer to sell other people's products online.

You can actually make more money in some cases by buying a resale rights licence to a product and then reselling it to other people. Because you are selling the product directly, you become the product merchant and are entitled to 100% of the profits.

For example, in February 2002, I bought a package that included 9 ebooks about selling at online auctions called the “eBayTM Power Sellers Package” for $29.97. In addition to the ebooks, the package included a sales page for each individual product, a main sales page for reselling the package in its entirety and master resale rights – which meant I could pass the resale rights licence on to my customers.

Rather than sell the books individually, I chose to resell the package in its entirety, so the only thing I had to do was customize my order links, thank you page and download links; and then get the pages up to the server.

Because the eBay affiliate program paid a fee for new users, I included both banner and text messages such as “Sign up for an eBay account Right NOW. It's FREE” that linked to eBay's registration and home pages.

Order processing was done through Clickbank and PayPal, as Clickbank didn't accept PayPal payments at the time.

I set up the Thank You page as a name and email capture page that triggered a ‘Thank you for your order‘ message through my Aweber autoresponder account. Once the client had filled in his or her name and email address, they were taken to the product download page.

In addition to a link to the download page, the Thank You message included another affiliate link to eBay's registration page. A follow-up message was sent 2 days after the customer bought the product with the title “[firstname], Did you receive your products?”. The second message included another link to the download page, a reminder to sign up for eBay and a link to sign up for my newsletter for webmasters.

I promoted the package through both my newsletter and pay-per-click advertising, and not only did I make the $29.97 back with my very first sale, it paid for itself thousands of times over, through both selling the product and making commissions from the affiliate links.

More specifically, in one month, I earned just shy of $12,000.00 in affiliate commissions from eBayTM for new user registrations and other eBayTM fees.

Woohooooo!

The only disadvantages that I've come across as a reseller are that products get stale after awhile and need to be updated or let go; and that as a merchant, you need to be ready to provide customer service to your clients on a timely basis should they require help with downloads or other assistance.

Other than those considerations, reselling is a great way to increase your online earnings when you follow the tips included above.

How to Use the Buying Cycle to Choose PPC Campaign Keywords

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Choose keywords to target customers in each phase of the buying cycle…

Experienced PPC (pay per click) affiliate marketers know that they need to do extensive keyword research to find keywords that target potential customers who are near the end of the buying cycle — or, ready to buy the product they are promoting.

To find out what the ‘buy' keywords are, let's look at a real example of the buying cycle in action.

I wanted to scan my vacation slides from years gone by to digital format so that I could upload them to Flickr and use them on my travel blog. So, I'm interested in learning about tools that convert slides.

Interest Phase

Interest is the first phase of the buying cycle and very generic 1 or 2-word keyword phrases such as ‘slide converter‘ and ‘slide scanners‘ are typically used in this phase.

Google Search Results for Slide Scanner

Based on the natural and paid search results on the first page (as shown in the screenshot above), I found slide converters available through Amazon, Hammacher Schlemmer, eBay and more merchants.

And so began my research…

Research Phase

The second or ‘research' phase of the buying cycle also begins when keyword phrases get longer and more specific. These keywords are also known as ‘long tail' keywords.

Google makes it easy for surfers to move into the research phase by placing related searches at the bottom of the first page of search results. Related searches for ‘slide scanner' searches related to slide converter included:

  • 35mm slide converter
  • hammacher schlemmer slide converter
  • slide converter reviews
  • nikon slide converter

Notice how both brand (Nikon) and merchant (hammacher schlemmer) names show up in these keyword phrases. Merchant and brand names in the related searches may give clues as to popularity of an item and help push a researcher in a specific direction.

The following words are commonly appended to a generic product keyword phrase by surfers in the research phase:

  • best
  • compare (comparing)
  • guide
  • recommended
  • review
  • top-rated (top rated)

As research continues, specific model numbers get included in the keyword search. I zeroed in on the following models:

When a researcher has finished reading reviews about a variety of different products and has made a decision about which specific product they want to purchase, they move into the Buy phase.

Buy Phase

I came to the conclusion that the Nikon 5000ED slide scanner had the features that I wanted, so it was time to get down to the task of finding a great deal.

Keywords typically appended to the specific model keyword phrase in the buying cycle include:

  • bargain
  • best price(s)
  • buy (buying)
  • cheap
  • compare prices
  • coupon
  • coupon codes
  • deals
  • discount
  • free shipping
  • low cost (low-cost)
  • low price
  • price (prices)
  • purchase
  • save money

Over the years, I've found that Wordtracker gives the best clues as to the exact keyword phrases people use in each phase of the buying cycle. Here is a screenshot of the Wordtracker results for ‘slide scanner'. (Click the pic to see the full size.)

Wordtracker Results for Slide Scanner

So, how can you use knowledge about the buying cycle to improve your PPC campaigns?

Keyword Choice and Your PPC Campaign

As mentioned at the beginning of this article, you want to attract people who are late in the buying cycle – which means adding brand and model number keyword phrases to your Adwords (and other PPC campaigns) – IF possible.

You must confirm that using specific brand or model keyword phrases is permitted in your merchant's affiliate agreement.

For example, RitzCamera.com (a CJ merchant) lists the following recommended keywords:

camera center, digital camera, camera, camcorder, canon camera, nikon cameras, canon digital camera, nikon digital camera, canon lenses, nikon lenses, Nikon, Canon, Kodak, Sony digital camera, photography equipment, pentax, fuji, memory cards, digital SLR, 35mm, tripod, camera flash, telescope, binocular, GPS, elctonics, gifts, camera sale, discount digital camera, digital frame, plasma tv, LCD TV, MP3

So, in addition to the obvious generic search terms for slide scanners, a PPC search affiliate could also get highly targeted traffic with terms like “Nikon 5000 ED review” and “Nikon slide scanner review“.

The benefits?

By using more targeted ‘buy' keyword phrases, you will get less clicks (which means you spend LESS on ppc marketing), and you will make more sales.

Spending less and making more — now doesn't that make keyword research worth the effort?

How to Get More Traffic from Twitter

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Although I don't post to my blogs every day and barely tweet at all, (OK, I went nuts one day and updated almost 30 times, but that was a BIG exception) I'm getting much more traffic from Twitter by using a special service.

Best of all, it's free, only takes 2 minutes to set up and after that there's no extra effort required on your part.

I'm going to let you in on a little secret about how you can get more traffic to your blogs from Twitter – even if, like me, you barely tweet at all.

Best of all, once you've spent a couple minutes to set things up, there's no more effort required on your part.

What's the secret?

Twitterfeed!

What is Twitterfeed and how does it work?

Twitterfeed Twitterfeed takes RSS and Atom feeds and republishes them on your Twitter timeline. You choose how often you want the sytem to check your blog feeds and republish a your post(s) from once every 30 minutes to once every 24 hours. Up to 5 posts at a time can be sent to Twitter. Note also that your posts need to contain a publish date so Twitterfeed will know which posts are new.

You are given the option of posting just the title of the post or the title and truncated description to Twitter. You can also prefix each of your tweets from Twitterfeed with something like ‘My latest post: ‘ or ‘New on YourSiteName: ‘.

I however would suggest that you avoid using the prefix, especially if you have a tendency to write long blog post titles which will get truncated if the prefix is too long.

You will also want to make sure that you check the ‘Include item link' box, otherwise Twitterfeed will send the tweet without a link back to your post. You have choices as to which service Twitterfeed will use to shorten the link including;

  • TinyUrl
  • TweetBurner
  • SnipURL
  • bit.ly
  • is.gd
  • URLshot

Tweets don't have to come just from your blog feed.

For example, I set up a Twitter feed that tweets whenever I post a new article to the article directory here on NetProfitsToday, as the ArticleLive content management system that I use supplies feed URLs for each category and sub-category.

Open a Twitterfeed Account

To get started, go to Twitterfeed.com. You will have to supply your Twitter username and password so the system can post your blog updates to your twitter account.

Twitterfeed supports OpenID, a service that eliminates the need for multiple usernames across different websites. You probably already have an OpenID if you use services such as Flickr, Yahoo! or WordPress.com.

So… check out Twitterfeed and enjoy the extra traffic! 🙂

How to Promote Your Offline Business using LinkedIn

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This post was written and contributed by guest blogger, Jim Lillig, President & Chief Revenue Strategist at Synergy Intermedia LLC. Although it deals specifically with realtors, think about how you can apply these strategies to almost any offline business.

Social marketing sites are proliferating at an accelerated rate today, but do you have any idea how to use these types of sites if you're a real estate professional trying to get the word out about your business?

Social networking sites can be an invaluable way to attract buyers and sellers if you know how to use them effectively. Looking at how they operate will give you clues on several ways agents and brokers can use social networks to uncover contacts that have com

Let's take a good look at how to use LinkedIn.com, a social network that is almost completely dominated by business professionals.

LinkedIn.com offers a terrific opportunity for both commercial and residential agents and brokers to find new clients. The main benefit to being on LinkedIn is aiding in people finding you when they type in your name.

Agents and brokers give out a lot of cards and send direct mail pieces to potential clients. Your name is your business, so it only makes sense to ensure search engine users can find you when they search on your name. LinkedIn results usually come back as one of the top results in searches. For example, my blog, www.jimlillig.com and the many articles I have authored since going online in 1997 do not come up first when you type in my name “Jim Lillig”. The first listing is my LinkedIn profile.

So, let's get you started with LinkedIn. You need to set up an account. Be sure to fill out your entire profile using many local keyword references pertaining to the areas you sell in and the markets you service, such as residential and/or commercial. Thus, using search engine friendly text for the Your Professional Headline input area, such as “Cook County Illinois Commercial Real Estate Broker” or possibly “New York Queens Residential Real Estate Agent”.

Now you need to fill in the Primary Industry as Real Estate. Doing this also helps with being found within LinkedIn when someone does a search for real estate.

Next you will complete the Professional Experience and Goals section. This is another area you can also pack in keywords that will aid in getting you searched. Ensure that you use all the city names and regional names you are able to work in and if possible list the postal/zip codes as well. Thus if you are a real estate agent in Chicago, you might write “I am a Chicago residential real estate agent serving the Chicago real estate market (60602,60630, 60601, etc…)”. In this section you use sentences, the next section is more or less for just keywords.

The next area to fill in is the ‘What specialties do you have in your industries of expertise?' section. This is the spot where your keywords will really make a difference in searches coming from other LinkedIn members as well as external searches in engines like Google and Yahoo. It will pay off big time if you know what keywords are working well for your area in terms of real estate. If you are not sure, use the Google External Keywords Tool to research the best terms.

LINKEDIN TIP: Search Google for keywords you want potential clients to find you for, and see which listings are at the top of the organic (left hand side) results. Right click on the web page it takes you to, and click on the View Source of the page. Examine the meta tags for “keywords” and “description” in addition to “title”. You will intersperse those same words and phrases in your LinkedIn profile. Using the Keyword Tool to cross check them will make doubly sure that these are the best terms to place in your LinkedIn profile.

The next area is for your Current and Past Positions (Job History). Once again, pack this with keywords as well. For sure use the name of your Agency, such as Century21 or ReMax. For example, when I type in the name of my own company in Google: “Synergy Intermedia”, my site comes up first, but then the following entries are for Naymz (a social network of professionals like LinkedIN) and then my LinkedIn listings. So having your company or agency name appear in this section makes it very visible to search engines as well.

Now that you have filled in your basic information, you will want to upload your contacts from Outlook, Gmail, MSN, Yahoo or whatever email client you use. Once your list is uploaded then you need to invite those contacts to join your network. THIS IS ESSENTIAL, AND THE WHOLE POINT OF THE ARTICLE. Since social networks are just that, a network of social ties, or your social graph.

How to Connect with Influential People on Facebook

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This is the third in a series about social media marketing using Facebook by guest blogger, Alexander Alaric.

It's great to have thousands and thousands of friends, but building a relationship with just one person who is highly influential in your market could be more valuable to you than all the rest of your Facebook friends put together.

To get these folks on board, start by making a list of between 30 to 50 of the top influencers in your market.

Keep in mind that these are busy people and that they have new people contacting them all the time who also want to use their expert power, so you will need to decide how you are going to set yourself apart from the crowd to get their attention and make them want to help you.

The easiest way to connect with these power brokers is to offer to do something for them first because this starts the ball rolling.

In simplest terms, “you scratch my back I'll scratch yours”.

So when you help get the word out about their business or their product or give them a testimonial they will be more inclined to help you after you've done that for them.

Most people I see make the mistake of asking for something before first giving something.

Don't make this mistake because getting them to accept your friend request is all you want to do righ now.  Then you can deepen the connection with further communication and offers to assist them.

You do this because the power of your network can really be more important than the size of your network.  As well the strength of the relationships you have with those people in your network can be far more powerful than the size of your network.

You can open the lines of communication by sending them an e-mail asking about their business, what they're working on, or what you could do to help spread the word about their business.

You can also make a text post on their “wall”. This is something unique to facebook (myspace.com calls it ‘comments') which allows you to post a text message on to their profile that they and anyone who views their profile will see.

There is now also a cool floating bar that hovers at the bottom of your screen when you're logged in to facebook which tells you how many of your friends are currently online and gives you the opportunity to have a live text chat with them. So you can have an instant messenger type conversation with those big influencers when they're online. Using this tool alone could be a great way for you to get your foot in the door with power brokers in your industry.

Do it today. Make your list of influential people in your market and start making friends in high places.

To discover more about Facebook and claim your free social media marketing bonuses click here.

Affiliate Marketing: How to Write a Product Review

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Affiliate marketers' businesses survive, thrive or die based on their ability to write a product review. Read this article and learn how to write profitable product reviews!

product review

How do you choose the products you buy?

Do you simply accept as gospel truth all the good things a merchant says about their own product? Or, do you ask your friends' opinions and look for independent product reviews before opening your wallet?

If you're a savvy consumer (which of course you are), you put more stock in your friends' opinions and independent product reviews.

As affiliate marketers, we become much more successful when we approach our site visitors as friends and take the attitude that they too are savvy consumers.

From that standpoint, an affiliate's real work is to pre-sell our merchant partners' products by writing fair and balanced reviews, also known as endorsement letters.

Sure, writing a review for each product takes time and effort, but it's an activity that sets the super affiliates apart from their less-super counterparts in terms of rewards… read ‘income'.

A product review can be either stand-alone or comparative.

A stand-alone product review focuses on a single product, while a comparative review is an evaluation of similar items that allows readers to choose which product best suits them.

Before you begin to write a product review, you'll need to evaluate the product. (Nothing like stating the obvious, eh?)

I prefer to endorse products that I've actually used. However, buying a product isn't always feasible. If that's the case, affiliate managers will often grant ‘proven' super-affiliates access to products for their review. That's especially true of information products and services that are delivered online, such as internet dating services.

But, what if you're not yet a super affiliate, and can't fathom a basement full of treadmills to review for your exercise site?

Well, do what your customer would do if product reviews didn't exist on the Internet – go to the store and test those treadmills out!

And how do you review acne medications for your skin care site if you don't have acne? Surely, you must know someone who had acne, or has teenagers who used to have acne. Ask them to tell you what worked for them.

If you can't find out that way, search Google for “consumer reviews” + “acne medications”. Read as many as you can to come up with three to five effective products (that have affiliate programs).

Once you've collected information about the product, it's time to start writing that product review.

The structure for a product review is simple, containing an introduction, overview and summary.

The introduction consists of a few sentences outlining the problem and introduces a possible solution for the reader, without going into detail. The overview describes the product's promise, a description of how the product is used, as well as its effectiveness and value. The summary is almost a repeat of the introduction, and contains a strong recommendation for purchase based on your conclusions.

To simplify the review-writing process, I ask myself the following questions when writing product reviews for my own affiliate sites.

  1. Who is my reader and what is their problem?
  2. What does the product promise?
  3. How well does the product solve the problem? What does it do? How does it work?
  4. Does the product offer good value? (Would I buy this product?)

Let's look at each question in turn.

The first question asks, “Who is my reader and what is their problem?”

If acne is your reader's problem and your site visitors are adults, you probably want to avoid terminology like ‘Zap those zits!' and use more age-appropriate language.

Remember too, that ‘zits' aren't really the problem. The real problem is how your reader feels about having pimples all over their face and how that affects their life.

If you've experienced the problem yourself, say so. Describe your experience, and show understanding and compassion for the reader's plight. Speaking from real experience earns your readers' trust which always improves sales rates.

If you have trouble figuring out how your reader might be affected by his problem, then you can research that online too.

For example, I searched Google for “hate acne” and came across Acne.org, where one young woman lamented:

My sh%tty skin is seriously ruining my social life and my relationships with men. I'm avoiding it all just cuz I don't want to show my face. Its really sad. I also spend a lot of money on make up. I'm not even asking for the most perfect skin (even though it would be nice) but even if I was limited to just a couple zits….and then it would take me under 30 mins to get ready….I would never be home, and I would go back to living the life that I ohh so miss.

That gives you a pretty clear picture of how she feels, right?

Now address those concerns using emotive terms and you'll improve your conversion rates.

Here's an example.

Rather than say, “Product A will cure your acne”, start with a question that appeals to your reader's emotion, such as “Is acne ruining your social life? Scared to leave the house – or even show your face? There IS a solution to your plight.”

That introduction brings us to the next question which is, ‘What does the product promise?'

Does the product cure the problem? Does it work faster, or with less hassle and expense?

You found answers to that question during your product research. In this section, you simply summarize your findings.

Next, answer the third set of questions, “How well does the product solve the problem?”, “what does it do?” and “how does it work?” based on your product research.

Results are the most important information, so it's not necessary to provide nitty gritty details about how you use the product or what it's made of or how it is packaged, etc. unless the merchant does not supply that information on their site, and you consider the information of importance to your reader.

Too, we're all aware that no product is perfect, so don't go overboard and write a completely glowing, one-sided review. To make the product review balanced and fair, detail what you do and don't like about the product. If you want to avoid negative statements when outlining your dislikes, try phrasing the sentence like “although I'd prefer a slightly less greasy formula…” or “although the bottle lacks a pump dispenser…” and finish on a positive note.

Lastly, make a value statement. For example, “While Product A and B both eliminate most acne problems in 30 days, Product A wins our ‘best value' award priced at $20 less per bottle. Or, if you're writing a single product review, you could say something like, “Acme's Acne Product would be great value even at twice the price, but at this price it can't be beat!”

For even better conversions, be sure to include a product graphic on your product review web page, and a testimonial or two from users that you solicit through your site or use with permission from your merchant partner's site.

In summary, tell your visitors what you would say to a friend if you were telling them about a product that you found and liked. That will make writing reviews easier and your friendly appoach will push your conversion rates through the roof!

Did you find this post informative and useful? If so, please share it with others! If you have a comment, question or suggestion, please leave a comment below!

Cheers,
sig-ros

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