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Info marketing explained

This is by far the simplest business you can start. You create a product that provides information. And other people buy this product to get the info. It couldn’t get much simpler.

How does it work?

You’ve got the basic concept – exchange info for money. But to make it a successful business you’ve got to provide information people want. So step one is to discover what kind of info people want. How can you find out what people want?

One very simple method is to do a little research. Head over to ask.com or Yahoo! answers and see what kinds of questions people are asking. You want to find something a lot of people are asking about. That people are having trouble solving. And solve the problem for them by writing an info product on it.

Think about this:

Don’t worry! Info product creation is easy… Think about this: An info product is just a bunch of articles strung together. Don’t try to write a whole ebook. Just write some articles for your blog. And when you’ve got a few finished, refine and expand on them and voila! You’ve got an ebook.

Why info products? Well, that bring me to the tile of this article Here are the seven reasons

1. Simplicity

As soon as you have the pieces in place, it’s virtually maintenance free. Custom support is all but non-existent. So it’s nearly a 100% hands-free business. It’s like having an automated cash machine.

There’s no inventory. You don’t have to ship anything. It’s all delivered online.

2. Repurposing

When you have a created a few information products. You can combine them together to create new high ticket products. It’s nothing to combine the content from several ebooks. Then you can sell it for a lot more. There’s greater perceived value in a single big course. Versus multiple smaller ones.

3. Private label right

Since it’s your product, you can offer other people the resale rights. Recently, resell rights have become extremely popular, because people just don’t want to invest the time and money into making their own. And the best part is you get to charge two to three time as much for these rights.

4. Leverage

Leverage means doing something once and reaping multiple rewards. Break it apart and create a multi-part email series with it. And build your list with it. A list is it’s own reward!

5. More leverage

Utilize your content in as many ways as you can – like creating a few reports from parts of the ebook. These reports can then become lead generators for your ebook. They can be free or low prices. Either way, you win because you’re feeding your funnel. Taking this technique to the max, you can let your affiliate give the reports away for you. Which brings us to…

6. An affiliate army

This one is huge. When you own your own products. You can get other people to promote it for you. How would you like to have an army of affiliates selling your products? Well, you *need* your own product to get affiliates.

7. Joint Ventures

OK, this is by far the biggest reason why. Joint ventures are the biggest short cut to success known to man. And this is probably the number one reason to create your own product. Without your own products, you can’t do JVs.

Summary

If you don’t want to sell digital products by now, then you’ve probably been sleeping. You’ll become the ruler of your own fate. Because you’re the boss! So, don’t waste any more time:

• Visit an “answers” site
• Find out what people need to know
• Write about the answers

Information product development really is that simple. And in short time you’ll have the foundation for your own info product.

Why does it work?

It’s not hard to figure out. The web is mostly silent. It makes your site more “human”. And makes people feel they’re dealing with a real person. In short, it makes your site come alive. Which fascinates greater interaction from your visitors.

Some more benefits

There are actually two profit boosts from using audio. You will close more sales. And second you’ll save money on the sales letter. You won’t have to hire someone to write your sales letter. Simply record an audio message yourself. An authentic message from you will do more than the best ad copy.

And you will increase your subscriber opt-in rate. The reason this works so well is because people need to be told what to do. Just add a short audio message saying: Put your email and name into the form and submit. That alone can increase opt-in rates up to 310%!

How to use website audio

Add a welcome to my site message on your main page. Most websites are cold and in-human. Your welcome message could make them stay when they would normally leave.

Step-by-step instructions. Just like in the opt-in example. You just explain what to do first, then next, etc. That includes filling in your order form!

Product testimonials are great. A written testimonial is good. But what’s even better are audio testimonials. You can just make up written one and people know that. Using audio makes it much more believable. And will definitely increase your results.

Here’s a bonus tip

Something you may not have thought of is using audio for the product itself. Audio is faster to produce than anything else. Plus people love audio products. The great thing about audio products is people can take them with them on the go. Plus you can get them transcribed cheap. Then you’ve got an eBook, too – but it was easy to create!

Is it hard to add audio?

It’s not hard at all. You can find a lot of programs that create audio buttons for you. You don’t actually have to do anything yourself. The program records and then converts the recording and generates an audio button. You just copy and paste into your website. You don’t need to even consider this part.

Summing it up

Here’s a recap of the benefits. Using website audio will increase your conversion rates. No doubt your sales will go up. You will also increase your subscriber opt-ins. And don’t forget that you can easily create sales pages and products in a flash. You’ll be one of the few you use these strategies. But you’ll save a lot of time and money. Don’t be lazy! Add some audio today.

Affiliate videos

No one would deny the power and popularity of video. Video online is everywhere because people love it. About the only thing that keeps people’s attention anymore is video. So you can put this to great advantage in your affiliate marketing.

Here are a few ideas for creating affiliate videos:

• Testimonials
• Walk-throughs
• Ordering
• Do a preview video

Testimonials

This is probably the easiest of all. Simply turn on your recorder and talk. Don’t worry about quality. Listening to your honest endorsement makes your viewers feel comfortable buying. And honestly, if you mess up it just makes it seem more authentic. You really can just click record and start talking. And if you don’t want to show your face, use one of the next ideas.

Do a video walk-through

This is a great way to promote something without selling it. Make this more like a tutorial helping them use the product. And in the process you’re actually selling the product. If the product is useful, watching the tutorial makes them want to buy it. So just make sure you’re demoing a good product.

Do an ordering video

This could be the most powerful method of all. Record a video of yourself actually buying the product. Nothing inspires your viewers to buy like watching you do it. First of all it’s what’s called “social proof”. In general people are more likely to something they’ve seen other people do. This also makes your viewers trust you. People believe you’re giving them good advice if you take that advice yourself. And let’s not forget about good old fashioned envy. People want what they see you getting. You can add some extra punch to this by ending with: In order to get to see the inside, you gotta buy the product.

Do a preview video

This is a great way to build value. In this case you record a screen share of the inside of the product. You show them the entire contents of what they get. This one also helps to remove the skepticism. Once they’ve seen the back-end, they know it’s real.

Anyone can do it!

No special skills are required. Anyone can create stunning videos with some easy-to-use software. The software really does all the work So there’s no need to even think about the technical side. Just focus on the benefits:

• More sales You’ll earn more affiliate commissions when you add video. People love video, so please use them.
• Reduce refunds You’ll also have less of your commissions taken back. Your customers will know what they’re getting into ahead of time. So less of them will ask for refunds.
• Beat your competition! Adding video is so simple. But only a very small percentage do it. That puts you ahead of the pack.

Get started right now and take your affiliate marketing to the next level. The bottom line is that if you’re not using video, you’re losing money.

So, how do you build a list?

Here are the three components of list building:

• Your Landing Page
• The Bribe
• The Opt-in Success Page

Your Opt-in Page – The squeeze page is the first thing your visitor is going to see. It’s the page where you ask them for their email address. So, obviously it has to be well designed. It’s also got to be free from distractions. And have a clear call to action.

Failure to include a great “call to action” will result in failure. Your call to action tells the visitor what to do. And if you don’t include it, they won’t opt in. The funny thing is that people just don’t know what to do unless you tell them.

If you want to add some extra juice to your opt-in page add a compelling video to the page. Adding video will help keep your visitors attention. It also allows you to tell them what to do several times. And after the video, you can make it just say “fill in the form now”.

If you don’t know how to make video, don’t worry. You can hire freelancers to do this for you for a few hundred dollars. There are also list building systems that give you squeeze page templates.

The Incentive – The next thing you need is an incentive to subscribe to your list. People need a good reason to part with their email address. Most people are very protective of their email address. So make your “bribe” a good one!

The key to a good bribe is that is has value. Then it becomes something people want to get from you. And something from which they can derive a benefit. It could be:

• An eBook
• Some useful software
• Training videos
• An email training series

It all boils down to content. And make it both helpful and informative. It goes without saying it must be free. If you make it good enough, they will give you their email in exchange.

Once again, don’t worry if you don’t know how to create the freebie. Here again, you can hire freelancers to create this for you. You just pick the topic and they create the training. For example, you could have them write a 5-part email course. Each email will cost between $20 and $25. So, a great premium will cost you around $100 – $150.

Or again, you can find complete list building packages for sale online that include an email series. Two critical aspects of using a follow up series. The first thing is that it delivers value to your subscribers. And it’s nice if it earns you some money, too. The easiest way to do this is to market affiliate products in the emails. This is such a simple solution because you don’t have to create the product. And it enables you to generate cash right away from your new list.

The Thank You Page – Finally, you need to consider your opt-in confirmation page. After subscribing to your list, your visitor is redirected to this page. A great thing to do here is provide some immediate value. That way, they feel glad that they gave you their email address. And it helps you establish the relationship. It also makes them more likely to open your emails.

You can use a “done for you” email marketing system. You can also put the whole thing together on your own. And do your own writing for this content. Or pay a freelancer to write the content for you.

Final thoughts

It doesn’t matter if you do all of this yourself. Or if you hire people to do this for you. Or if sign up for a “complete package” solution. The key is to start building your list. Because as soon as you’ve got your own list . . . You can basically write your own meal ticket.

If you want to make more money as an affiliate, you must presell.

Before we begin, we need to first define what preselling is. Preselling is both an art and a science. The goal is to get your reader prepped to make a purchase. Then when they’re ready, refer them to the product website so they can buy it. And if it’s done properly, the process is completely sub-conscious.

In a nutshell, you provide value. Then send them to the sales page. In just a minute, I’ll explain exactly how to presell. But before we do, you need to know why it’s so important. Here are a few benefits of preselling:

• Preselling creates trust – Readers who trust you are more likely to click your links. And the more traffic you can send to the sale page, the more commissions you’ll earn.
• It takes your reader out of defense mode – When you’re preselling vs. pitching, you’re reader doesn’t feel the need to be guarded. This means they are more open to what you’re saying. So your message gets across.
• It preps them to buy – Now they trust you and feel open to your message. So they become more receptive to other messages. Like the info on product sales page you’ve linked to. Being open to a sales message is what it means being in a buying mood.
• Your commissions go up – They arrive at the product website prepped to buy. With a feeling of trust and openness. The only possible result is more sales!
• It boosts customer loyalty – People like to make their own buying decisions. Versus being pitched or convinced. And this makes them feel better about the product they purchased.
• It boosts your profits – Happy customers ask for refunds much less often. Which means you keep more of your affiliate commissions.

Clearly preselling makes sense. You earn more commissions. And increase your customer satisfaction. It’s a win-win-win!

How does it work?

OK, now you understand why it’s so important. So, hopefully you’ve decided to start preselling. You’re ready to learn how to do it properly. Remember, there are two components – art and science.

Mastering the art

Effective preselling requires gaining your readers trust in order for them to let down their guard. Honestly, the only way to do this is to provide real value in you content. Now, providing enough info to be useful, but still making them want more – that’s the art of it. That is, they have to be wanting more when you refer them to the product sales page for the product you’re trying to sell. And since they’re more open, they are more likely to make a purchase.

Part 2 – the Science

There are also several key elements that need to be included.

First of all, it’s important HOW you present your information. You’ve got to map out your strategy before you start writing. In the end, you want to sell a specific product. There are two ways to accomplish this with great content. The first method is to provide enough info to get them started, but not enough to finish. The second way is to provide all the information and let your reader discover how hard it is to actually implement it. Whichever method, you send them to a product website that solves the problem you just created.

Next, you have to use “convert linking” methods. You have directly to the home page of the product. This increases your clicks. But, without your affiliate link, how do you get credit? There’s a trick to make this work… You use an image tag to cookie your reader before they leave your site.

The next trick is to hyperlink specific words and phrases inside the content of the article you’re providing. People are used to clicking on hyperlinked words to get information they’re looking for. And if the words you hyperlink relate, your reader will naturally click them for more information.

Using this system, you’re virtually guaranteed to increase your affiliate business success.

Now for the bad news…

This process is not easy – at all! Let’s look at the skills required to pull it off: Good content. First and foremost, you have to be able to write a great article that provides valuable information. To do that you have to have enough information to be valuable and be able to present it in a useful way. Writing to presell. First, you have to give good information. But, you also need to know how to present the information in a way that give value to the reader. And still leave them wanting more. Or make the information so overwhelming they realize they can’t do it on their own.

Choosing your products. After that you have to figure out which products you want to promote. If you can manage to get the article written well. All your efforts are wasted if you send your reader to the wrong sales letter.

Techy stuff. To be most effective you have to use the “covert cookie” method. This is actually pretty simple – just embed a 1 pixel X 1 pixel image and set your affiliate link as the “source” of the image. (Just don’t mess it up. Otherwise, you won’t get credit for your sales.)

Wrapping it up:

Now you know what it takes to be a Presell Pro. Preselling properly will boost your affiliate profits up to 500%! The important thing is to use these techniques for everything you promote as an affiliate. Take action now. Make the extra effort required to propel your affiliate business to the next level.

How, then do you get traffic to your site?

Here’s a short list of great, free traffic generating methods:

• Web 2.0 Methods
• Article Websites
• Video Sites

Let’s talk about each of these.

Web 2.0 Methods

The term “Web 2.0″ is associated with websites that facilitate interactive information sharing and collaboration in a social media setting. These are great sites to work with because they allow you to participate in this content creation. And because of the highly interactive and popular nature of these sites, Google and other search engines “index” their content regularly. The benefit of this to you is that your content is now considered as part of these sites. By placing links to your websites in this content you’ve created, you get traffic from the site and search engine ranking for the keywords you choose. This is the hidden benefit of using Web 2.0 sites. There are many more web 2.0 traffic tactics we don’t have time to get into here, but this will get you started.

Articles Sites

The natural next topic is article marketing. Article sites are in essence web 2.0 websites. Article directories are sites where users (including you) can upload articles they have written. And because they are also considered authority sites by the search engines you get all the benefits of other web 2.0 sites just by putting your articles on them. And in addition to this, other users can take your article and place it on their own website. And along with your article, they have to include your author information and a link back to you – so you get more free traffic and SEO benefits. Here are a couple article marketing traffic tips:

• Figure out what keywords you want to go after
• Write specifically to target these keywords
• Be sure to link to your site on the keywords you’ve chosen. Do this inside the article itself and in your author’s bio.

Video

The last of this group is video marketing. Here to we’re really looking at a web 2.0 sub-category. And it carries all the same benefits of article marketing. And in addition to this, because Google and the others love video so much, you can get listed for highly competitive keywords much more easily.

Here are just a few video marketing tips:

• Get a YouTube account
• Make your profile uncluttered by turning off all the modules
• Add tags to your profile
• Include a link to your main site in your profile
• Add at least one video to your profile
• Include your keywords in the title, description and tags

In closing…

This is a great overview to get your started generating massive traffic to your site.

Number 1 – Discover Niches with Fanatics

The number 1 thing you have to do is find fanatics if you want a profitable membership website. Simply put, a fanatic is someone who’s willing to spend time and more importantly money on a topic they are interested in. OK, so we know what a fanatic is, but how do we find them?

• Look at magazine racks. This is an often overlooked, yet extremely simple way to find niches that people are interested in. Because it’s becoming harder and harder to keep print periodicals profitable these days, if you see a magazine on the shelves, you know it’s making money. And that means there are lots of people interested in it. If they can make money in a print version, you can probably make money with a membership website.
• You’ve got lots of opportunities every day to see what people are interested in. Just pay attention to what people talk about on the radio, at social gatherings, at the store or restaurants and anywhere in public. People generally talk about things they are interested in. Which means you can start a membership business providing information on it.
• Don’t forget about clubs and organizations. If there are enough people to to build a club, there are certainly enough people to start a membership site on the same topic. Conventions are expensive to hold and attend, so if one if going on that’s another strong indication of a good niche to go into with your membership website.
• Think about the things that you are interested in. If you’re interested in something, it’s highly likely others are, too. Making money is fun and it’s even more fun if you can do it in a niche you’re excited about.
• Google Trends. This is a great way to figure out what people are interested in. Google Trends tells you the most popular current search terms. These topics are the hottest topics because lots and lots of people want information about them. Building a membership business around things people are actively searching for is a great way to ensure your success.

Second – Analyze the “commerciality”

OK, so you’ve got a great idea for your niche membership business with lots of fanatics. But will they actually spend money? An easy way to determine this is to figure out if anyone else is making money in this niche.

Here’s how to determine if you can make money in your chosen niche

• Are there blogs or forums in this niche? Take the name of your niche and search for “niche name blog” & “niche name forum” in Google to see if there is an active group of people talking about and interested in the niche. This lets you know there is a market (a group of people actively interested in the niche.)
• Check Amazon, eBay and Google Shopping to find out if others are making and selling products in your niche. What you’re trying to figure out is if anyone is making money in this niche, and if people are selling products it means they are making money.
• Monitor Google Adwords to determine if people are running the same ads for weeks in a row. If they are, this means they’re making money on these ads – otherwise, they’d stop running them. Which means there is money to be made in your niche.

Last, but not least… How hard will it be to break into this niche?

Once you’ve found a niche and figured out that there is money to be made in, you need to determine if you can break into this niche. How do you gauge the ease of entry?

• Product types. What kind of products are being sold in the niche? You’re looking for a niche that sells info products. The easiest membership website to create and maintain are information membership sites.
• Competition. How many other people are trying to sell to this market? You want to start in a market that’s not completely saturated with competitors.
• Unless the market is just so big that it doesn’t matter how many competitors there are, you want to limit the competition. So evaluate the size vs. the competition.
• How quickly do people in this market make buying decisions and are the ready to buy? Some niches are made up of people who require lots information and have a very long lead time, and some markets are filled with people who will spend lots of money right now.

In Summary

So far, we’ve talked about exactly what it takes to pick a great niche: One with a hungry crowd of fanatics, who are ready to spend money on information about their topic. And you’ve determined your barrier to entry is small enough to give it a go. If you’ve followed along with these steps you’re success in practically guaranteed. The only thing left to cover is exactly how to run your membership business…

But, first…

The first thing you need to do before you start going after any traffic is keyword research. This is because you will building your traffic funnels around specific keywords. This means it’s critical to select your keywords properly.

While doing your keyword research, keep the following in mind:

• Will you be able to rank for these keywords? You’ll have to analyze the competition and see what’s out there for this.
• Are these “buying” keywords? If you don’t do your research you’ll end up with a lot of traffic that doesn’t buy from you. This is not what you’re looking for.
• Will these keywords bring affiliates? Generating your own customers is great – having other people do it for you is even better. So, it’s important to also target affiliates in the keywords you go after.

Although this is an essential step, doing it all by hand can take a very long time. Experts are expensive and don’t guarantee results. The upside is that these two factors keep most everyone from even doing their keyword research. The smartest marketers use website traffic software to automate this and other aspects of their business. This way you get this critical step done fast and done well.

OK, now we can talk about traffic…

Now that you’ve completed your keyword research, you can begin using these keywords to get traffic to your website.

Powerful Traffic Tactics:

• Surveys
• “Traffic Traps”
• Video Websites

Surveys

People love filling in surveys. And if you make it interesting, other people will post your survey on their website. And when they put your survey on their site, they will include a link back to your website. Think about that – you get website traffic for free just for making a survey! Most people think surveys are just for collecting data, but in this case you don’t even care about the answers. Just make the question interesting enough that people will want to share it with their own visitors.

“Traffic Traps”

Sites like Yahoo! Answers allow users to ask and answer each others’ questions. However, you’re interest in these sites is not to ask and answer questions. What you want to do is use these sites to generate traffic and leads for your business. One thing you can do is to visit sites like Craigslist and Yahoo! Answers and manually extract contact info to contact other users. So, if you’re smart, you’ll use website traffic software to do it all for you. This allows you to do the things in your business that can’t be automated and let the software just give you the leads.

Video Websites

Another great resource is video sharing sites like YouTube. YouTube is one of the most highly traffic and search websites on the entire internet! If you’re not taking advantage of this rich source of website traffic, then you are really missing out.

You don’t have to be able to make awesome videos for this to work. It’s really easy to just start with an article or something you’ve already written. Then just do a screen capture of yourself going through it. You can even get software that will automatically do this for you.

Summary

It’s not that hard to get traffic to your websites. It just takes a little time and some ingenuity. Plus, there’s lots of great software out there to help you.

Get started right away:

• Step 1 is researching your keywords
• Set up some viral surveys
• Make sure to use the “answer” sites
• Capitalize on video!

One of the easiest and fastest way to earn a living online is through affiliate marketing. What “affiliate marketing” means is that you just refer visitors to someone else’s website, they do everything else! (make the product, design the sale page, handle the billing and support, etc.), and you get paid 50% or more

The benefits of this are

1. You’re able to start almost instantly without having to develop a product, craft a sales letter, design the website, come up with support tools, or get a merchant account and CRM.
2. You have basically zero investment of your time because they handle the billing, support, maintenance, etc.
3. Your efforts are risk-free, because the product owner has already made sure the product sells. So you know that your traffic will result in sales.

Obviously affiliate marketing makes sense – these benefits make it a clear winner!

There is one major drawback…

You work hard to send the traffic to the product owner’s website, but once you do that you will never see those visitors again. Unfortunately, the majority of those visitors (at least 90%) will not buy on their first visit. And of the 10% or less that do buy, the product owner will be able to sell to them again, but you will not.

How can you avoid this pitfall?

What you need to do is capture the contact info of your visitors before sending them to the product website. By getting their contact info, you can follow up increase your odds of making the sale by sending them back to the product owner’s website multiple times. And if you want to do it like a pro, you’ll give them some great content before sending them to the sales page.

Here’s what these affiliate marketing strategies will do for you:

1. You’ll be building your own list of potential customers that you can market to again and again.
2. You’re generating good will by giving them high-quality content. This way, they are much more likely to make a purchase when you send them to the sales page.

If you want to create an affiliate marketing system like this, you’ll need the following:

1. A Video Squeeze Page (with video)
2. One or more content-rich “warm up” pages
3. At least a 5-Part Email Followup Series

The video squeeze page is where you’ll direct your traffic instead of directly to the product sales page. Your squeeze page adds your visitors to you autoresponder. This is how you start building your list, and at the same time begin sending them useful information. Then it redirects them to your content pages after they subscribe to your email series.

The content pages provide valuable information for your visitors and make them more receptive to the sales message that you’ll link to from inside the content. While they’re reading the content you’ve provided, your email system is already following up with them to send them back to the product website again and again.

All of this together increases your chances of making the sale by up to 500% so it’s well worth the effort of setting it up. After setting it up, you simply send visitors to your squeeze page instead of the sales page. And the rest runs on auto-pilot.

Setting it all up yourself requires some skill, and if you’re not up to it, you can use a service like Affiliate Silver Bullet. With a service like that, you don’t have to do anything. They make the video, build the squeeze page, write the email series, develop the content mini-site, etc. And then just give you a finished package. The major benefit of using a service like this is that you can get started right away, and for a whole lot less than it would cost to do it all yourself. The drawback is that you won’t be the only one using these affiliate tools. But the internet is huge, so this shouldn’t really affect you.

Alternatively, you can use a service like Elance to “outsource” each of these compnents. Whichever way you decided to go, it’s critical to get an affiliate marketing system like this in place, if you’re at all serious about your business.