I could kick myself. About 10 days ago a reader emailed to ask me whether I taught or consulted on the topic of product launches… and after telling him that I did not, I could not for the life of me think of a good book or course to suggest – knowing that the only worthwhile course (Jeff Walker’s Product Launch Formula) is available only every so often.

Well, it turns out that Jeff’s course opened up again the other day — while I was out camping and offline, sorry!!! — but it looks like there is still opportunity to get in.

Product Launch Formula Version 3.0 includes:

1. A Coaching Program plus Live PLF Coaching Calls.

2. Jeff’s full “Launching Your List” program to be delivered at the same time as the Product Launch Formula Video Training Modules.

3. Jeff’s “Product Creation Course”.

4. If you’re one of the first 500 to register you will be invited to attend the Product Launch Live Workshop. If you can’t attend the Live Workshop or you do not register in time to secure a spot, you will be eligible for online access to the recorded videos from the event.

The program starts this coming Saturday, July 3rd. Each new module will be released at approximately 8 to 10 day intervals, based on the needs of the overall class.

There is a full 30 day money back guarantee.

Now is the time if you want to get Jeff Walker’s product launch expertise on your side.

Are you a Clickbank merchant? Are your sales of digital information products or software dismal? Perhaps you haven’t seen even one affiliate sale of your Clickbank product? Then listen up…

As a Super Affiliate I’ve visited a TON of Clickbank merchant sites over the years and of those that I review, only about 10% are worth promoting… and some of those I have to run direct to the order page.

Here are 15 things that you can do to get affiliates to promote your site and sell more of your products on Clickbank.

1. First impressions are all important and if your site sports jagged home-made graphics, colors that look like baby spit up, or each testimonial sports a different colored background – the whole site looks cheesy. As does completely centered text, whole bolded paragrahs and an array of mis-matched fonts. Amateurish site design doesn’t instill visitor confidence, so hire a professional web designer or buy a beautiful, professionally designed template.
2. I personally don’t give a second look to Clickbank merchants that offer multiple products on the same page. As a Super Affiliate, I want to be able to write a product review about your stellar book about dog training and have my visitors see only that book when they arrive on your site, not a plethora of other products unrelated to their interests. Keep it simple. While you can certainly have a site that shows all of your products, have a single page or domain for each product that does not link out to your other products.
3. Do a spell check. When “How To Save Money ny using Less Electricity” shows up in the title bar of your homepage, folks can immediately assume that insufficient care and attention was probably given to the rest of the page (and your product) and may click elsewhere.
4. Remember that your vistors may still be on dial-up connections, so don’t overdo the graphic images and make them wait for the page to load. Resize large images approporiately, instead of trying to cram an extremely large image, eg. 1600 pixels wide, into a width tag of 160.
5. Give your affiliates a graphic image of the product they want to sell. Make sure that image also resides near the top of your product page so customers immediately see the connection between the product discussed on the affiliate’s product review page and your landing page. Too, make sure that graphic image looks great. If you don’t know how to create an ebook cover or software box graphic, consult with Killer Covers.
6. SELL your product. Take a day, or a week even, to write sales copy that sells. Too many merchants seem to assume that since they took the trouble to write a book or put together software, people should just buy it because it exists. Sorry, selling doesn’t work that way. Basic copywriting answers the question “What’s in it for me?” and speaks to benefits before features. Take a look at the sales copy that I wrote for the Super Affiliate Handbook. I’m NOT a copywriter, yet that salescopy was featured in a copywriting course, because it fulfills 12 critical elements that good sales copy covers.
7. Put real, believable testimonials on your product pages. When you get a great testimonial, ask your customers for their permission to include it on your homepage and ask them for a mug shot. Real pictures of real people alongside real testimonials will help you sell 10 times more of your products. And don’t write your own testimonial – make it part of the story you tell.
8. Use only ONE payment processor on the Clickbank affiliate page. Putting PayPal and PayDotCom links alongside your Clickbank links is a sure way to get ignored by your Clickbank affiliates. Clickbank accepts Paypal and if you feel the need to offer the PayDotCom option, offer that on your main site, not your Clickbank affiliate pages.
9. Take the Google Adsense OFF your salespage. UGH. While you may benefit a few cents per click off your page when someone clicks those links, no affiliate in their right mind is going to promote a product that has links off the page for which they do not get paid.
10. Be discreet with your affiliate sign up links. Putting “Become an Affiliate and make 50% on each sale that you make of this high converting e-Manual!” on your homepage distracts your customers and detracts from your product sales. Keep your affiliate sign up to a simple “Webmasters” or “Affiliates” link.
11. If the material is time-sensitive, i.e. the information is related to a field that changes rapidly such as technolgy, be sure to state when latest revision was released. In 2008. no one is going to buy a product about the ‘latest energy-savings gadgets’ that was written in 2005, or 2007 for that matter. Speak to and about events in the current year.
12. Cut the hype. Your product will save your customers “millions?”. Give me a break.
13. Make your sales link obvious. “Click here to purchase” surrounded by red and green in a sea of pink, yellow, red and more green isn’t particularly obvious. Well, nothing other than obviously ugly.
14. Make sure your affiliate signup link works. This should be a no-brainer, but the number of merchants that have an “Affiliates” link that goes nowhere is quite astounding and trust me, even if they know that you are a Clickbank merchant, they’re probably not going to hunt and peck through the Clickbank marketplace to find your product if the link to your affiliate signup page doesn’t work. They’ll just assume that other parts of the sales process are equally bad and go on to greener pastures.
15. Last but not least, make sure your product shows up in the Clickbank Marketplace and offers at least a 50% commission for affiliate sales. If I want to promote an energy-savings product and search for ‘energy’ at Clickbank, I’m much more inclined to promote Convert Your Car To Burn Water + Gasoline = Double Your Mileage! which offers $44.33 and shows a gravity of 980.15 than a product called “Alternative Energy Resources” which pays 25.0% and has a gravity of only 3.22%. Give your affiliates some incentive to promote your product.

These are the most basic tips for selling more as a Clickbank merchant.

Get into Clickbank and check out your competition. Take a good look at why they are at top of their category page and have such a high gravity. Then, do your best to not only emulate their tactics, but do an even better job.

• ClickBank Publisher SuperTips (CPS) with bonus book Mini-Encyclopedia
• ClickBank Affiliate SuperTips (CAS) with bonus book Affiliate Marketing Success Road Map
• Stop Those ClickBank Refunds (STCR) with bonus book Mailing List Profits
• 33 Days to Online Profits
• Ten-week ad at the ClickBank Success Forum
• Ebooks on which you can collect 70 (seventy) % affiliate commission .

Harvey Segal is the world’s top ClickBank expert, as well as a participant in ClickBank’s European Advisory Board meetings in 2007 and 2008

Thinking about starting your own affiliate program to promote your products online?

Good for you!

Having your own affiliate program is the best possible way to ramp up site traffic and increase product sales without breaking your marketing budget, as affiliates are paid on a pay-for-performance basis.

But before you rush into affiliate marketing as a merchant, the first things you’ll have to consider is how you want to manage your affiliate program… i.e. use software, a service.. a network?

Listed below are some of the affiliate program management applications and services — and in an effort to save you time, I’ve mentioned only a few of the solutions available — those used by most of my affiliated merchants.

There are basically 4 different types of affiliate management solutions. They are:

1. Custom Software – You can have proprietary software written and hosted on your own server. However, unless your company has very specific needs not served by other solutions, this can be a very costly endeavor. I highly recommend that you look at a number of third party solutions before resorting to this option.
2. Affiliate Network – Affiliate networks are the most expensive, yet feature-rich affiliate management solutions. Some networks charge either a flat monthly fee or a percentage of sales to handle all your affiliate sales transactions and in handle commission payment processing. The biggest benefit to joining most affiliate networks is that thousands of affiliates will be introduced to your offer as soon as your offer is made available on the network. Some networks are trade-specific, such as Credit Soup, which promotes only offers from credit card companies and financial institutions.
3. Remotely-Hosted and Third-Party Software – You can buy an existing script for placement on your own server, or lease a solution that resides on the leasing company’s server.
4. Shopping Cart Integrated – Some shopping carts, like 1ShoppingCart have affiliate program management solutions built right into them.

Understanding the different types of solutions, here are a few more things you’ll want to factor into your decision.

Do You Sell a Digital Product?

If you sell a digital product, like an ebook or software, you should definitely consider Clickbank, which acts as a third party payment processor, (say THAT 3 times fast) and has a built-in affiliate program/network. It is the company I’ve used since 2003 to process sales of my Super Affiliate Handbook. Jim Edwards and I also use their services for Affiliate Business Blueprint sales.

Checks arrive like clockwork every two weeks.

It’s super cheap to set up with Clickbank too. There’s a one-time $50 setup charge, and then a $1.00 fee and 7.5% applied to every order processed. Order fees are split between you and the affiliate who referred the sale.

Best of all, Clickbank has thousands of affiliates in their network who are always looking for digital products to promote…Nothing but nothing sells like information on the ‘net, and Clickbank affiliates know that well!

Sure, Clickbank’s affiliate program has its limitations, not least of which is the inability to contact the affiliates who promote your product. (There are some easy workarounds to that problem, however.)

Nevertheless, it is a ‘best bet’ for getting an affiliate program started quickly, easily and inexpensively.

Do You Sell Hard Goods or a Service?

Merchants who sell hard goods and services have many affiliate program management solution options… and I do mean many.

Do you want to have your program introduced to tens of thousands of affiliates… today? Then consider partnering with Commission Junction, the largest affiliate network.

Although CJ is a costly solution – it will cost thousands to gain access, and an annual maintenance fee of 250 (or more) dollars – having so many affiliates available to promote your product from the outset, may offset the initial and ongoing costs of having CJ administer your program.

Clickbank is another – much cheaper – option, and they now permit the sale of hard goods.If you like the idea of having thousands of affiliates on your ‘doorstep’ by joining an affiliate network, but think CJ’s prices are a too steep, you might want to consider:

• Performics
• Linkshare
• Shareasale
• Pepperjam

Alternatives to the big (and smaller) affiliate networks can be found through…

Remotely-Hosted and Local Third-Party Solutions

If you’d want to save money and don’t mind finding your own affiliates then a Third-Party affiliate management program solution may be right for you.

1. My Affiliate Program is a very popular robust and completely customizable third-party hosted Affiliate Tracking and Management solution offered by Kolimbo (Kowabunga Technologies).They brand themselves as the ‘The Original Affiliate Tracking & Management Solution Provider, Since 1997′ and claim to ‘power over 500,000 affiliates, and 2000 private networks, and continues to hold its place as the #1 private affiliate software and management solution on the market today.’Indeed, many of the most successful companies with which I do business use the ‘My Affiliate Program’ to power their affiliate programs.
2. Ultimate Affiliate by Groundbreak is a script that allows you to run a fully featured affiliate program from your own website with no monthly fees, while promising easy setup and free updates to their software. Many of the merchants whose products I promote use Ultimate Affiliate. As an affiliate, I appreciate Ultimate Affiliate’s simple, easy-to-use statistics interface.

Last, but certainly not least are affiliate management program solutions which are built right into your shopping cart.

Once you’ve decided to start your own affiliate program, I recommend that you also pick up a copy of the Super Affiliate Handbook to learn how affiliates think and like to work.

Although it is the industry’s standard training manual for new affiliates, it is also very popular with affiliate managers and owner/merchants who want to make the most out of their affiliate programs.

If you’re subscribed to a bunch of IM newsletters, your inbox is regularly stuffed FULL of promos for BIG DOG mega launches.

They JV with their BIG DOG buddies who all have humungous lists to which they sell, sell and sell some more… making millions. They don’t care about burning out their lists because they’re continually getting fresh leads from their buddies.

That works for the BIG DOGS, but how do regular people with a tiny subscriber lists (and no big dog friends) launch a new product and make big coin — WITHOUT burning out their already small lists?

Well, I just watched a case study video about John Gallagher, a guy that went from being on Food Stamps to making a six-figure income in a non- internet marketing niche.

His niche?

Herbs!

What’s especially heartening about John’s story is that his product launch model BUILDS relationships with his subscribers (i.e. no burnout) and his paydays keep getting bigger and bigger.

And John’s is just one of some great non-guru case studies in the video. How about a list to 312 people that generates way more than five figures?

If you want to build your business using a non-hype, relationship-building formula – take some time this weekend to watch the “Food stamps to six figures” video… there’s nothing to buy.

Go watch the video now.

OK, I don’t really mean that you should forget affiliate marketing forever and always. That would be bad.

I do however think you should consider yet another way to make money online that doesn’t require creating your own product – reselling.

Reselling consists of buying the resale rights to a product, then selling – or reselling – that product as a merchant. One of the biggest advantages to reselling is that as a reseller, you earn 100% of each sale you make.

For example, if you have a site about health, and were dealing with the topic of rheumatoid arthritis, you might want to promote the very popular book by Margie Garrison called “I Cured My Arthritis You Can Too!“. It sells through Clickbank for $29.97 and pays a 50% commission which means you’ll earn $13.33 after Clickbank takes its share.

On the other hand, you might want to recommend the book, “Living with Rheumatoid Arthritis” by Peter Batty, which is available through eBookWholesaler (see my review) and has a recommended retail price of $17.00. As an eBookWholesaler member, you can sell that one for $17.00 (or more) through your PayPal account and keep the whole amount of the purchase, minus the PayPal fees.

Moreover, you’ll also have access to a plethora of other titles in the health niche including for example, Dealing with Prostate Cancer, Your Guide To Deep Vein Thrombosis and DEPRESSION A Misunderstood DISEASE. There are exclusive titles in almost every niche topic (that you can comfortably discuss with your mother).

Another source of products with resale rights is Jeremy Burns’ Source Code Goldmine series, Version 6 of which was released today. His packages usually include a mix of ebooks, software and multi-media products. And… unlike some sellers of resale rights packages, Jeremy limits the number of licences sold to 500, all of which are usually snapped up within a few days of the release.

Now, before you rush off to buy a bunch of products with resale rights, there are a number of aspects about reselling that you should also consider, which I’ve detailed in an article entitled “Resale Rights: How to Make Money Online Reselling Other People’s Products“.

The article also details how I made nearly $12,000.00 in one month with a product for which I had resale rights.

Read it and decide whether reselling is a good fit for you.

On March 18th, ClickBank announced its Phase One launch of their Platform Globalization project which allows Clickbank merchants to capture sales from new markets.

The first phase of Platform Globalization includes a currency calculator and the ability to offer products to Spanish-speaking markets. Clickbank has also made it easy for affiliates to identify which merchants in the ClickBank Marketplace are offering Spanish products.

See the graphic below.

My search for Spanish language products produced no results, but considering this initiative was launched slightly more than a week ago, I guess we have to give the merchants time to get up to speed.

The new currency converter provides customers with the ability to see the product price in currencies other than USD.

Clickbank also advises that enhancements to their Platform Globalization project will include French and German language capabilities, and the ability to accept orders in currencies other than USD.

Years ago, I had a merchant account, but eventually dropped it in favor of using only 3rd party payment processors.

Merchant accounts tend to be expensive and time-consuming to set up and administer, so you may want to consider using a 3rd party payment processor if you:

• Don’t qualify for a merchant account;
• Don’t want the hassle of getting and handling your own merchant account;
• Sell just a few products online;
• Live outside the United States;
• Prefer the ease of having a third party handle payment processing.

Many third party payment processors have extra options such as built-in affiliate programs, which will give you a marketing boost through additional exposure and sales.

Another advantage is that you are only charged for transactions you make – unlike merchant accounts which tend to require a big deposit to set up and then charge monthly fees as well.

The only disadvantage that I’ve found with third party payment processors is that transaction fees on each order are just a little higher than with a typical merchant account – however, the time you will save will more than make up for the added cost.

When working with 3rd party payment processors, you’ll want to consider using a ‘front-end’ software utility such as DLGuard that allows you to protect your downloads from theft, and also build up a customer mailing list through your own autoresponder service.

Here is a list of my most recommended third party payment processors, including their setup, transaction and refund fees.

• 2checkout
• ClickBank
• PayPal

2Checkout / 2CO

2Checkout.com, Inc. is the online distribution center for over 300,000 tangible or digital products and services. Established in 1999 and headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, 2CO provides turnkey e-commerce solutions to thousands of business customers around the world. 2CO’s proprietary technology supports back-office functions including financial reporting, tracking, fraud prevention, affiliate tracking, customer service and sales tracking.

2CheckOut Overview

• $49 one time signup fee
• $0.45 per Sale
• 5.5% of Sale Amount
• 30 Day money back guarantee
• No application fees
• No monthly fees
• No statement fees
• No leases
• No SSL certificate to buy
• No fees for ACH deposits to U.S. or participating Canadian bank accounts
• Check Payment or Low Cost Wire to Non U.S. Bank Accounts
• FREE shopping cart
• FREE code for your web site
• FREE on-line tech support

Visit 2Checkout now.

Clickbank

I use Clickbank’s services to sell my Super Affiliate Handbook . The Clickbank ordering system is fast, and only asks customers for their name, card, and email address. ClickBank has over 100,000 affiliates who know how to find customers for your digital products. Leveraging these affiliates can be the secret to multiplying your product sales by a factor of ten or more.

Clickbank Overview

• Reach millions of customers worldwide.
• Affiliate network with 100,000+ affiliates
• Real-time reporting.
• GREAT customer service.
• On-time payments
• direct deposit into both domestic and international bank accounts – no charge.
• Sell subscriptions, memberships, and digital products that leverage regularly scheduled customer payments with recurring billing.
• Offer installment payments.
• Spanish language products accepted. Currency convertion.
• Set your commission rates from 1% to 75%
• Account activation for publishers (merchants) is $49.95
• Signup for affiliates is FREE

Clickbank Merchant & Affiliate Signup

PayPal

Don’t have a PayPal account yet? You WILL need one as an affiliate, because many merchants pay ONLY with PayPal.

As a merchant, I use PayPal to process purchases through my Watchcraft dropshipping site, WindingWay.com. Paypal offers your clients payment options which include credit cards, bank accounts, buyer credit or account balances, without sharing financial information.

PayPal, founded in 1998, is located in San Jose, California, and was acquired by eBay in 2002 becoming eBay’s official payment processing agent. Paypal reports more than 153 million accounts worldwide. Available in 190 markets and 17 currencies around the world, PayPal enables global ecommerce by making payments possible across different locations, currencies, and languages.

PayPal Overview

Visit PayPal
When deciding whether you should use a third-party processor, you’ll need to compare the benefits of doing so with having your own merchant account.

Time and money investments are factors to consider. If you need to learn how to integrate software, set up secure processing, you might want to consider outsourcing the job through a service like Elance.

Third-party payment processors offer an inexpensive option for new businesses to get off and running.

Get a merchant account that is compatible with your shopping cart…

1ShoppingCart

1ShoppingCart is the best of the bunch, and I don’t say that very often!

Really, set up your shopping cart with 1ShoppingCart and their merchant account providers will be compatible with your cart… unlike the one that you’ll get if you deal directly with your bank.

You won’t have to lease equipment, or get stuck with a contract. (That was the first mistake I made with my merchant account and took a beating when I cancelled it.) 1ShoppingCart offers month-by-month contracts without obligations, so you can cancel without penalty at anytime.

Transaction reports are emailed to you daily and are also available online.

Deposits to your bank account are typically made within 3-5 business days.

Orders may be processed manually as well, by telephone, mail, in person or from fax orders that come to you with your very own online Virtual Terminal.

They use an AVS (Address Verification Service) to prevent fraud.

Account approval is quick, setup is timely and fees are waived for those with existing merchant account… don’t I wish I’d know that before!

24/7 technical support by telephone.

1ShoppingCart Fees

• Less than $29.00 per month
• 2.20% Discount Rate ($10.00 Monthly Minimum)
• $0.25 Authorization Fee Visa/MC
• $10.00 Monthly Statement Fee
• $6.00 Monthly Gateway Fee

Check out 1ShoppingCart today!

Setting up your site to sell your products online? If you don’t accept credit card payments — you’re LOSING sales!

The vast majority of purchases on the Internet are made by credit card, so if you don’t accept credit card payments on your website, you are losing sales.

Besides, it sure beats waiting for a check or money order to arrive in the mail!

Basically, you have two options.

• Get a merchant account, or use a;
• Third-party payment processor.

Setting up with a third-party payment processors is easier, faster and far less expensive than getting your own merchant account.

However, a merchant account might be advisable in the long run, as the fees charged by third-party payment processors are generally higher.

Check out the options now to see what suits your business model best.

Although I am best known as an affiliate marketer, the most lucrative way to do business on the Internet is to sell your own product.

The process is fairly straightforward.

You develop a product, and you keep all the income… unless of course you have your own revenue-sharing affiliate program and sell even MORE of your product.

Information products are both the best-selling products on the ‘Net and enjoy the best profit margins.

They cost virtually nothing to develop and entail no storage or shipping costs.

And before you think ‘I’m not a writer, so that’s not for me’, I know of a few tutorials that can prove that everyone has knowledge that someone else wants and that writing about what you know really isn’t all that difficult.

Those products are:

• Building an eBook Empire
  Ghostwriter to the gurus spills the secrets of how they create and launch an entire niche empire of eBook minisites designed to funnel a steady stream of cash into their account!
• Ready Steady Write – How To Write A Book The Easy Way
  Writing A Book Has Never Been Easier! With Ready Steady Write Learn How To Write A Book Right From The Beginning.