Oct 27, 2008

Affiliate Program and Webmaster Resources

Affiliate Program and Webmaster Resources:

Internet Traffic Tools

Alexa

Search Enging World

Search Engine Matrix

Overture Search Suggestion Tool

Webmonkey Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Watch

Webmaster World

Google Webmaster Tools

Ranks NL Webmaster Tools

Website Analyzer

Cerebus Webmaster Resources

Webmasterstop

AddFreeStats Traffic Counter


Affiliate Program Networks

Associate Programs: A comprehensive, searchable directory of affiliate programs, forum and newsletter. Highly recommended.

Associate and Affiliate Program: Find profitable affiliate and associate program.

Which Affiliate.com

Web Affiliate Programs

Affiliate Guide

Affiliate Match

Internet Affiliate Programs

Affiliate Programs Search

Affiliate Programs Guide

Affiliate Scheme

EarnFind Affiliate Directory


Search Engines & Directories

Google

Yahoo

Altavista

Lycos

Excite

Hotbot

Alltheweb

Open Directory Project

Northern Light

Looksmart

Microsoft Network

AOL Search

LifeStyle.co.uk

Webmaster Website Resources

AddFreeStats Traffic Counter - FREE counter.

Cyberwurx Website Hosting - We've been using these guys since the beginning. Mention us and you'll get a really good deal.

Macromedia Dreamweaver - The best website editing software around. Free demo available.

Matts Script Archive - Free scripts for your website

The CGI Resource Index - another great resource for free and commercial scripts.

Plain Language Websites

Editor Software

Plain Language Network

Whitesmoke English Writing Software

Editor Software Affiliate Websites

Write a Business Plan

Business Letter Writing

Technical Writing

Writing Cover Letters

Business Resume Writing

How to write an Essay

Oct 23, 2008

Writing Effective Sales Copy

Introduction to Writing Effective Sales Copy

Sales copy is the single most important component that allows a website to “sell” online. Without “sales", there would be no transactions online and there would be no such things as affiliate programs, and for that matter, Internet marketers. Luckily, there are several techniques that you can use to become good at writing sales copy and that will help you become a self-sufficient copywriter.

A highly profitable affiliate/merchant is usually one with very good sales copy. Whether they have written the content themselves or outsourced it to a professional, the fact of the matter is good sales copy will distinguish your website from that of an amateur. If you can master this art you will be able to convert at a very high rate and will be able to make money within ANY industry.

Benefits & Components of Effective Copy

Before we jump into how to write good sales copy, we will give you an overview of some of the benefits that good sales copy can bring to your website.

(1) Increase the amount of sales and your overall conversion ratio
(2) Allows you to connect with a customer on an emotional level.
(3) Can increase the number of products you sell at the same time (up-selling)
(4) Earn the respect from your visitor and will allow you to create long-term relationships with them
(5) When you make a sale, you are essentially creating a list of “buyers”…the ultimate list to have

The Essential Components of Great Sales Copy

There are certain “catch phrases” and items that you can use within your sales copy to increase conversions. We have created a list of 30 of the most essential components of sales copy that you can add to your page to increase conversions. You obviously will not want to use all of these (especially if you have a review page or a short copy squeeze page), but using some of these points within your copy will work to your advantage.

(1) Telling a story
(2) Originality of the information
(3) Customer service/support
(4) The “complete” resource
(5) Based on your real-life experience
(6) Very popular (appeals to the followers – if others like it I will too)
(7) Can be accessed within minutes (instant access)
(8) Easy to understand/use
(9) Straight forward/includes instructions
(10) Can only buy online
(11) Regularly updated
(12) Secret/underground information
(14) Save by buying today
(15) Break down the costs ($/per day)
(16) New information (not rehashed or recycled)
(17) Offer a sneak peak
(18) Tell them who endorses the product (i.e. testimonials)
(19) Navigation of the book (table of contents screenshot)
(20) Accuracy of information
(21) Proven (look at the results)
(22) Can be used as a reference guide over and over again
(23) Offer free bonuses
(24) Limited time offer / limited number of copies
(25) No risk, full guarantee
(26) How the book will pay for itself over and over again
(27) Release date (in new -> just released)
(28) Credibility of the author/company
(29) Describe the benefits in a list
(30) Exclusivity

All of these components will obviously add to your sales pitch. Unless your sales copy is several thousand words, we suggest that you do not attempt to use all of these within one page. However, using some of these within your sales text will increase the power of your sales copy and will result in better conversions (and make your page a more entertaining read).

Headlines

When someone comes to your web page, you typically have 5-10 seconds to grab their attention. The easiest way to compel someone to stay on you website is through a “catchy” headline. An effective headline can increase the length a visitor stays...which is very important if you want them to read your content!

Here are some ways you can begin a headline:

-“How to…
-“Discover…
-“Imagine…
-“Attention:
-“Learn…
-“Warning…
-“Stop…
-"Who/What/Where/When/Why...? (any question)

Be unique with your selling proposition and tell your website visitors right away how your product/service will benefit them. A headline should be the most powerful phrase on the entire page. A headline is also a perfect opportunity to include the most relevant keywords within the text. This relevance will further increase the visitors interest in your page.

Note: It has also been proven to increase the length of stay drastically if you put your headline in quotation marks.

Action Phrases

In order for people to perform an action on your website, whether it be ordering, going to a merchant web page, visiting an outbound link, or opting into your mailing list, you need to make it very clear to your visitors HOW to take the appropriate action. You can have the best sales copy in the world, but if your visitors are left confused as what “action” they are supposed to take, you are going lose a lot of potential customers.

Terms that entice people to take action are called “call-to-action” phrases. These are very effective and below we have provided a list of some of the top performing “call-to-action” phrases:

Join Today…
Order Now…
Order Today…
Don’t Wait…
Buy Now…
Sign-up Today…
Subscribe Now…
Become a Member…
Learn More…
Find Out…
Get Your…
Take Action…

Adding “call-to-action” phrases has been proven on many platforms to increase conversions greatly (ads, opt-ins, sign-up pages, etc), and your web page is not different. If you want someone to “take action”, you need to tell them to do so or they may not do it.

Conclusion

Whether you are creating a review style page, a testimonial page, writing an article, or you have your own product you are selling, writing quality sales copy should be a priority. You will be wasting a lot of money if you do not spend sufficient time on writing good sales copy.

In essence, an affiliate marketer is someone who is highly capable of selling things online. There really is not a whole lot of difference between someone who is selling things online and one who is selling offline. The concepts are the same and if you can become effective at writing quality, and emotionally riveting sales copy, you are headed towards a lucrative career in online marketing.


Customer Purchase Lifecycle

The Customer Purchasing Lifecycle

Before you decide on selling anything online, you need to first determine whom your customer is, what they purchase, and why they are purchasing online.

One of the most common mistakes we see people make is promoting to a customer (or audience) before they fully understand who their audience is. It is very easy to waste money promoting what you "think" people want, rather than what they are actually looking for.

Before we go any further, we need to understand the steps someone takes between the time they learn of a product or service, to the time that they actually make a purchase. It is a known fact that it typically takes a person 7 times (this could be website visits, email newsletter, etc.) before they make a purchase online. We are going to show you how to catch people later in their buying cycle so you can increase your chances of someone buying from your website.

Purchasing Phases

Research Phase -> Decision Phase -> Purchasing Phase

(1) Research Phase

People love learn before they buy, they’re hungry for information about the product/service that they may decide to purchase. Although some purchasing decisions are more spontaneous than others, people learn about a product before they purchase it, and this “learning” is done using many mediums. These could include television, online, magazine, friend referral, from a celebrity, a roadside billboard, etc.

People naturally gravitate online to complete their research, as it is the “information highway”. You can find information on virtually anything through a simple search in Google, thus why the majority of the research is done on the net.

(2) Decision Phase

Some people have already made up their mind as to what product they are going to buy, and they want it now. While others go through a decision phase where they research a number of products/services and decide which one best suits them.

Someone’s decision can be easily persuaded by reviews and personalized opinions of others. This is where a good Internet marketer can intercept an individual, showcase certain products that are similar, and deliver a convincing review to promote a decision.

(3) Purchasing/Action Phase.

The final phase is the one that is profitable to us as Internet marketers. No commissions will be paid unless there is an action that takes place! Whether this is a click, a lead, or a sale, a visitor needs to become a customer to fulfill the lifecycle.

During the purchasing phase, it is very difficult to detour someone from their purchasing decision. They have done their research, made the decision, and now are fully prepared to buy. In an ideal world, you would be able to target all the people within this phase, but often times the research and searching is complete at this point. An example of a search term that would target people within this phrase would be “purchase product_name, order product_name, buy product_name”.

The Misconception of an Advertiser

If you are trying to sell golf clubs online and deliver traffic coming from general keywords like “golf” or even a keyword phrase like “golf clubs”, chances are you will not have a high conversion rate. The reason that “golf clubs” won’t convert is because you’re picking up this visitor too early in the purchasing life cycle. At this point, they are typically looking for information about golf clubs. They are not looking to buy, and will usually perform several more searches before they do decide to make a purchasing decision..

Let’s drill down a little further and catch someone a little further along in the purchasing lifecycle. We now know that “golf” & “golf clubs” won’t convert very high. After visiting a few forums, you can easily discover that people are searching for irons, putters, drivers, wedges, or specialize clubs. So, chances are that the keyword “golf clubs” (although seemingly targeted) is actually way too broad.

If you start promoting here, it will take a lot more work to actually sell than if you were to dig a little deeper into the purchasing lifecycle. Drivers, wedges, irons, and putters are still too broad and people want to learn about brand names, types, loft, and reviews before they make a purchase. Ideally, you would hyper-target someone who types in Taylor Made r5 Driver, or someone who is searching for a 56 degree Cleveland Gap Wedge. People that are searching these terms are SERIOUS buyers and are on the edge of the transition between a researcher and a customer.

It is much more work to walk someone through all the stages of the life-cycle, and typically requires several follow-ups.

Take Advantage of Company Advertising & Branding

When you see an ad in the newspaper, on the radio, on TV, or in a magazine, you should see this as an opportunity to take full advantage of these customers online. People often times learn about different products/services offline before they migrate online to do research and quite often, make a purchase online.

People who see advertising offline are also likely to be much further along in the purchasing lifecycle. This is because they have become knowledgeable of the brand, know what the company has to offer, and if the advertisement was effective, may be ready to purchase.

Another effective method of using company advertising is to use infomercial's to your advantage. Infomercial's do a great job of selling and by the time someone is done watching the show, they have made the decision whether they want to buy or not. Traditionally, people would make a purchase over the phone as it was the only method of ordering. However, many now use the Internet to order infomercial products. This is a great opportunity for you to offer people searching the product keywords either the product, or a related product that will work just as good if not better.

To take advantage of company advertising, you have to use product-type keywords. This could include company names or the actual product names. People will be more likely to buy if they are already familiar with a brand and have seen an advertisement prior to visiting your site.

Product-Related Keywords

Many advertisers don’t take advantage of product related keywords. When we say “product-related” we are referring to search terms that include the product name or the company name of the product that is being searched. For example, if someone was searching the term “Wealthy Affiliate Review”, this would be a product-related keyword for Wealthy Affiliate, as would “wealthy affiliate”, “wealthy affiliate program”, etc.

People who search product-related keywords are typically very far along in the purchasing lifecycle because they are already knowledgeable in the subject area and they have already been exposed to some form of branding or advertisement.

We will use the Wealthy Affiliate example again. Someone who is searching the term “wealthy affiliate” has probably already done a significant amount of research. They may have started by searching the term “affiliate marketing” and found a website promoting Wealthy Affiliate. They then did some additional research and analysis on Internet marketing related schools to decide which program would be best suited for them. Finally, they search the program they are interested in joining, Wealthy Affiliate.

As you can see, people who are searching product-related keywords are usually on the verge of becoming a customer. If you can deliver the information that they are looking to find (the program is excellent; the program is good, however check out this better alternative), then you will likely convert this visitor into a customer.

What is Your Purchasing Lifecycle?

Take a look at the last purchase that you made online. Where did you start and where did you end up? Did you purchase the same day that you started looking, and why or why not? Were you exposed to positive or negative advertising about a product? Did you see the product/service in a magazine or on TV before you saw it online? Was the price an issue for you, why or why not? What was the last phase in the analysis process before you actually purchased the product?

There are many things that you can learn from taking a look at how you purchase something online. You probably follow many of the steps that your visitors take when purchasing. You will find that you research things slightly differently from others may do, however the last few steps in the process before you make the purchasing will probably reflect that of all customers – you want to feel good about making the purchase.

Conclusion

Understanding why people buy and the different steps they take before they purchase will allow you to understand how to effectively promote a product. This will also allow you to gain a better understanding of how to find keywords that target someone who is further along in the purchasing lifecycle.

Highly profitable marketers make loads of money because they understand the mindset of a customer. They know not only how to turn their traffic to qualified customers, they understand how to take a visitor and walk them through the steps of the lifecycle (usually through a mail-out). Learn how to master the customer purchasing lifecycle and you will be able to apply these tactics to make any industry/market profitable



Customer Service

The Importance of Customer Service

Customer service is a part of business. Good customer service is something that successful businesses comprehend. They take it into consideration and incorporate it into every aspect of their business. Although affiliates may not think customer service is an important aspect to their business, it is actually very important. By creating relationships with your customers/purchasers you can set-up the potential for return sales or future promotional offers that your customers will feel comfortable taking part in.

Merchants are exposed to customer relations on a day-to-day basis as their customers contact them with questions, concerns, and or suggestions. There is usually some form of contact after the product is purchased, where the merchant may offer some future support or promotional offers. Both affiliates and merchants can take advantage of this contact to drive their business and we are going to discuss how this works within this tutorial.

Who is a Customer?

First of all, you need to be able to create a customer before you can learn how to treat one. Through this process of turning a visitor into a customer, customer service is required. Customer service begins from the moments an interaction between a customer and you takes place (or between your website and a customer). A customer relationship can either begin prior to someone actually becoming a paying customer, or after they have already made a purchase.

Treating a Customer like Your "Last" One

A good approach you can take when treating your customer is to treat the customer as though they are your last one. By taking this approach, you will approach the customer with a much greater understand, and a lot of the time you will be a lot more helpful. If someone comes up to you and says, “I am unhappy with your product or service!”, the easiest thing to do is take it personally and fire back. Don’t do this.

Instead, develop an understanding why the person is unhappy, and work with them to resolve the problem. Often times this will create a solid relationship with you and the customer and it will show that you are not here to just make money, you really care about others. This will go a long way for you in business. Another important thing to consider when dealing with unhappy people, you will learn exactly why they are unhappy and likely be able to improve your offering. This will further increase your business.

Conversely, if someone contacts you to let you know that they are happy with your service / website / product etc, this is another opportune time to build a relationship. Many times when someone says “Thank You” it is easy to simply accept their nice words and not reply to them. We believe that everyone who contacts you deserves a response, so write back regardless of whether the person is asking for something, or simply saying hello. It’s amazing how much your business can grow by interacting with your customers and offering support on all levels. You can use a “Thank You” email as a platform to offer further support, or to simply touch base. People like to deal with REAL people, and in the online "world", personalization and human interaction is frequently overlooked

Dealing with Scammers

There is a fine line between a customer just out to get the best for themselves, and one who really does not like your product. Any business owner will tell you that for every business trying to “scam” people, there are 5 people trying to scam the business! Although Internet marketing has been around for years, so have individuals who have successfully scammed hundreds of businesses.

You have to go no further than Clickbank to see how much consumer fraudulence goes on. People take advantage of the fact that they can get a refund on any product that they purchase from Clickbank. Some people just buy a product, read it or use it, with full intentions to refund the product before the purchase. This is very frustrating as a merchant and will result in a 5% refund rate regardless of how good your product is.

So what can we do about this?

We can work on a long term relationship after someone purchases. We can make them feel guilty about requesting a refund by going above and beyond the level of support that is required. Follow-up with your purchasers after they have bought your product, and offer them a bonus just because you though it would be a nice gesture. This will go a long way, and reduce the number of “scamming” individuals from refunding. Believe it or not, some of these people do have a conscience.

We also have to take into account that some people will simply just not use your product / service the way that it is meant to be used, thus it may not work for them. These individuals are prime examples of the type that request a refund. So, follow up with your customers, offer them help, bonus material to make things easier for them. If you aren’t selling your own product, you can still work with people who purchase through your affiliate link. For example, at Clickbank you can get the email addresses of people who purchased, you can always send them a free guide, or a Bonus, or even offer them support for the product that they purchased. This will build a positive relationship and significantly lower the chance of a refund.

So what about people who contact you to “complain” and make “demands”? DO NOT FIGHT FIRE WITH FIRE. Although someone may be very disruptive and condescending towards you, be the better person and do not stoop down to this level. You probably have heard the saying “kill them with kindness”. This truly does work and unhappy customers are likely to recommend you to others if you treat them with respect at all times, regardless of their candor.

This leads into creating long term relationships that will benefit your business for many years. Offer exceptional customer service and you can build a solid foundation of long-term, faithful customers.

Creating Long Term Relationships

After someone purchases, they become a customer. All good companies know that is takes a heck of a lot less work to sell something to an existing customer, than to create a new customer. In fact, some analysts have indicated that within some industries, a sale from a new customer can cost up to ten times more to acquire a sale from an existing one.

Now that you understand how valuable an existing customer is, you need to understand where customer service plays an important role. Take someone who purchases your product, and treat them like gold. This could include:

  • sending out a bonus after purchasing
  • sending out a follow-up survey
  • offering additional support

By making connection with your customer after a purchase, you are opening your doors to new opportunities. If you are an affiliate, you can offer to send people you purchase a “valuable bonus” upon purchasing from your site, and then you will be able to create this long term relationship.

If you are a merchant, grab the customer information upon them purchasing, and send off a bonus that will be useful. If you are selling a digital product, send a follow-up asking them if they have any questions or need any further assistance.

By offering the highest level of customer service, you are instantly opening the potential for future promotion opportunities to your customers. If they are happy purchasing from you once, why wouldn’t they do it again? Chances are they would.


Question Your Customers

Ask your customers if they have any questions. If you have the opportunity to interact with them personally, you credibility will increase exponentially, and they will much more likely purchase from you now and in the future.

If you have a product, you can also get great feedback from your customers by asking them if they have any suggestions as to how you could create a more superior product. People are very willing to share their thoughts on products and services, and by asking for suggestions you may obtain some insight into how to grow your company and obtain brand new business ideas.

Unless you have done prior research, you may not know exactly what the customer wants. If you open yourself to suggestions, you will get right to the “root’ of what your customer is looking for.

Conclusion

Customers are your friends. Without customers, your business would not exist. You need to manage all of your customer relations very carefully. Ask for feedback, give credit for feedback, and be very quick to answer any questions. If you offer a level of service that exceeds what they are used to, you have just created yourself a long term customer.

Avoid altercations at any expense. Not all consumers are worth your time and effort and interactions that premise on negativity will in no way be positive for your company. Kill conflict with kindness, and if they are just looking for a battle, accept defeat and thank them for their time.

Treat your customers like GOLD, and you are much more likely to accumulate some.


Product Development

Introduction to Product Development

If you have mastered the affiliate side of things and comprehend what drives affiliates to achieve sales, it may be time for you to become a merchant and create your own product to be sold online. Although there have been successful merchants who have never been “affiliates”, if you have a working knowledge of how an affiliate likes to be treated and the resources they need, you will find it much easier to build an army of them. If you are new to Internet Marketing, you should not begin by creating your own product.

Choosing a Product to Sell

This is the first step when starting any business, whether it is affiliate marketing, or you are becoming a merchant and developing your own product. One of the best ways to find a product to create or sell is to research online. It is best to find a niche that is “untapped” and receives high volume traffic. This is not always the easiest things and often times niches are found by accident. Because of this, we always suggest that you have pen and paper handy at all times so you can record any niches that you find.

One of the greatest examples of a product development success on Clickbank were the “Data Entry” products (although these were huge scams). There were large volumes of traffic search keywords like "data entry" and someone thought it would be a great idea to take advantage of this traffic and build a product around it. Before data entry products got shut down, they were bringing in $1000's day from people looking for a type-at-home job. Although we do not suggest or condone building an unethical product, this is the type of situation where someone walks into a niche and with some create marketing builds a product that is an instant success on Clickbank.

The following are some criteria that you can use to determine whether a product will be a “winner” before creating it:

  1. It Solves a Problem – Your product solves an everyday problem that has not been addressed before (or there is a limited number of products available to affiliates). OR it solves the problem in a unique way and is less expensive than traditional resolutions.
  2. It Makes Sense – People need to understand why your product is useful, and if you cannot deliver the benefits in an easy-to-understand manner, the product may not make sense.
  3. Innovative – Your product is delivering something that is completely unique and is a brand new concept. There is absolutely nothing like it on the market.
  4. It’s Simple – A product that solves just one problem is often times the easiest type of product to explain. A more complex one may be difficult to explain and understand, thus resulting in lower conversions. This comes down to finding a niche or a sub-niche – a sub component of a larger industry.
  5. Appeal Factor – If your product looks good and is eye catching, your sales will be much greater. You may want to outsource some components of your product development to make it more appealing, such as the web design, e-book cover and the sales copy.
  6. Widespread Market – The larger the market for your product, the greater the business opportunity. Although this is the case, there are some very competitive industries that are inundated with products, but there are still many industries available that are widespread and have not been addressed.
  7. Year Round Market – The bigger the window of opportunity, the more room there is for earnings. It is best to take advantage of a market that is profitable year round rather than something that is limited to a short seasonal cycle.
  8. It Can Be Delivered Easily – Your product should be accessible via the Internet and preferably downloadable.
  9. The Quality of Your Product – If your product does not leave the person feeling that it was a created with quality in mind, you are likely to be succumb to a large refund rates. Build products of QUALITY!

Product Development

If you are not a subject matter expert in a niche, it does not necessarily mean that you cannot create a product within it. There are many freelance writers available at your fingertips that are willing to write articles and, if requested, digital e-books and tools. This can simplify the process of creating a product.

Outsourcing the Writing

WA Jobs


You have to look no further than WA to get jobs fulfilled. If you are looking for someone to help you out with just about anything, you should check out WA Jobs and post a job on it. Here you will also be able to connect with people who are offering their services. Definitely a great way to outsource some of your work in a cost-effective manner.

Elance.com

Elance, coming from the term freelance, is a 3rd party website that connects people with who need work with people who will carry out the work. Jobs included are web design, article writing, software development, and various other Internet-based tasks. This is a great way to outsource task that you cannot figure out how to do, or do not have the time to do.

Rentacoder.com

Need a coder? You do not have to look much further than RentACoder.com, a website where you can post any job that you have and allow individuals and companies to bid on your project. We suggest that you research the persons past work, or even contact their references prior to handing out a job to ensure quality.

Pricing Your Product

Pricing a product can be one of the toughest and most finicky components of product development. You don’t want to overprice your product, but you don’t want to undervalue your product. Digital products should be kept anywhere from $0-$99. The general consensus is that people can afford products that are within this price range and impulse buys typically occur within this price range.

You also don’t want to keep moving your price around once you have already put in on the market. This will create unhappy customers (and affiliates). You should perform a certain level of research on your industry, what other products are selling for, and the value your consumers will receive from your product. From this you should have a pretty good idea what price your product is worth, and what you can sell it for.

Why do many product prices end in a number 7? This is because research has proven that the number 7 converts higher than the number 9. We have tested both and have noticed that the 7 does convert at a marginally higher rate than the 9, but this does vary on the industry and to what countries you are promoting to. Many marketers have a different view on which converts better, but we suggest that anything ending with 7 is a good start (i.e.: $67).

The last thing you should remember is that you do not want to price your product too low. If you price your product below its actual value, it will take away from the product. If it is worth $97, sell it for $97. If it is a product of quality, people will buy if it is priced correctly. Often times a low price will indicate that the product is of low quality and actually prevent someone from purchasing it.

Which Affiliate Network?

There are hundreds of affiliate networks to choose from and it can be an awkward process deciding which one will work best for you product. We have provided a list of the highest regarded affiliate networks. You should consider the price and features before deciding on an affiliate network. Another important aspect is the number of affiliates using the network.

ClickBank (http://www.clickbank.com)

Price: $49.95 Activation & 7.5% + $1 per sale.
Features: Large Network (100,000 Affiliates), Quick Approval
Info:

ClickBank does have its advantages and disadvantages. Many people choose Clickbank because of the simplicity involved with getting a product approved. For around $50, you can submit your product and have it approved within hours. Your product will also be displayed in a marketplace containing over 10,000 products and over 100,000 affiliates. Clickbank.com is a network that can only be used for digital products. Their percentage-per-sale structure is one of the highest in the industry, and this is a result of their check processing fees and administration. One of the biggest complaints among merchants is the refund policy. ClickBank only requires a return email from the “purchaser” to a certain email address if they want a refund.

RegNow (http://www.regnow.com)

Price: $20 Activation & 6.9% + $1 per sale
Features: Software Affiliate Network
Info:

RegNow.com is one of the software industry’s premier affiliate networks. They have a wide range of analytical tools, robust linking functionality, and a network of affiliates that are knowledgeable promoting software. They also offer functionality where you can offer extended download licenses and CD’s versions of the software to further monetize your traffic.

Commission Junction (http://www.cj.com)

Price: $2250 + 30% of the payout
Features: Advanced Tracking, Large Support Network
Info:

Commission Junction has the largest network of retail and service related products on the Internet. They have a large support system and a very complex (and often times confusing) affiliate and merchant administration systems. If you are a very large company and want to support of a strong, multi million dollar network like CJ.com running your affiliate operations, CJ is a good choice. If you are not willing to spend $1000’s to get your name on an affiliate network, you should consider your other options such as Clickbank.

Linkshare (http://www.linkshare.com)

Price: $5000 + 2-3% of sales
Features: Large Network, Account Management
Info:

Linkshare is very similar to Commission Junction in size and cost. Linkshare contains many different products and services, primarily focusing on the online retailers. Many larger companies use both linkshare.com and cj.com as advertising platforms to increase overall exposure. Unless you are selling goods that value over $1,000,000/year, we suggest that you use an alternative network or create your own independent affiliate program.

In-House

An "in-house" affiliate program will either require a degree of technical expertise on your part, or you will have to pay someone to set-up your affiliate program. There are definitely some advantages to running an affiliate program in-house:

  • one-on-one contact with all of your affiliates
  • can run incentive programs
  • can adjust commissions structures for affiliates easily
  • full control
  • do not run the risk of a third party company dropping your program
  • do not limit your methods of payment

There are definitely some disadvantages running an in-house affiliate program. Here are some of them:

  • have to create a system to pay affiliates
  • administration
  • may have to hire an affiliate manager
  • have to take care of all refund requests
  • responsible for maintaining and securing data

Before deciding on an in-house affiliate program, you need to decide if the time and money investment will outweigh the long term value that an in-house affiliate program will bring your company. We suggest that you choose an in-house program if you want full control of everything from your payment processor, refund management, to affiliate management.

Promoting Your Product

Once you have a product, you need to promote it to see if it converts. It is also a good idea to get it posted on an affiliate network right away so that other people can promote your product.

It is important that you offer generous commissions, as people are more likely to start promoting your product if you are being fair. You are much better off to have 100’s of affiliates promoting your product making you 40% commission, than to promote the product yourself for 100%.

Here are some other locations that you can recruit affiliates:

Forums
Affiliates are always looking for new programs to promote and new industries in which they can enter. Internet marketing related forums are not only a great place to discuss topics related to Internet marketing, they are a place where merchants can let affiliates know about their affiliate program. We highly recommend not spamming forums, however you can offer value to a forum and include a link to your affiliate program in your signature. You could even ask for suggestions regarding your affiliate program.

Affiliate Program Sites
There are several sites that you can submit your affiliate program to receive additional exposure. Many affiliates search through these sites to find programs that they can new product to promote within new industries. Here are some sites that you may want to seek inclusion for:

(1) www.associateprograms.com
(2) www.affiliateguide.com
(3) www.affiliatescout.com
(4) www.affiliateprograms.com
(5) www.affiliateseeking.com

Blogs
Creating a blog about surrounding your affiliate program can also be add additional exposure and will allow you to not only promote your affiliate program, but can be used as a platform that your affiliates and potential customers can use to receive promotion information about your product.

PPC
Pay-Per-Click advertising can also be used to recruit affiliates. Many merchants use PPC channels to obtain new affiliates and it can be a highly effect way of finding quality affiliates. This allows you to be able to target the exact search terms that are specific to your affiliate program. For example, if you had an affiliate program within the "stress" niche, you would want to cover keywords like "stress affiliate" and "stress affiliate program" and then link them to your affiliate sign-up page.

Obtaining new affiliates is an essential component to having a successful product. Affiliates allow you to expand your reach into new audiences and advertising channels that you may not have thought of or would not have had the resources to reach. You should always treat your affiliates with respect as they are a driving force to your business. The better your treat them and the more support you offer your affiliates, the harder they will work for you

Conclusion

Product development should not be your first step to making money online. In order to become successful as a merchant, you need to understand how Internet marketing works and how to attract quality affiliates.

There can be great rewards to having your own product but with these rewards comes much more responsibility than promoting a product as an affiliate.


Analyzing Data

Testing & Analyzing Your Campaigns

You have performed some lengthy research, set-up a campaign, and are now receiving clicks to the website you are promoting. The next step of this process is to implement some sort of testing and/or analytics that will help you evaluate your campaigns performance and refine your campaign to achieve maximum profitability.

As Internet marketers, we should try to clean or rinse our campaigns of components (keywords, web pages) that are under performing and just costing us money. It has been said that 20% of an advertisers keywords bring in most of the sales, while the other 80% of the keywords are under performing. If this is not 100% accurate, it is very close to the truth.

There are several different aspects to a successful campaign, and there are many things that you can “refine” to increase your campaigns overall performance and profitability. Are your keywords performing? What about your ads, are they achieving a high enough CTR? Is your web page converting, if not, is it because your merchant conversions are low? Is your squeeze page working? Is your sales copy effective?

There is no scientific approach to refining your campaign. However, there are some things that you can do to obtain campaign analytics which will guide you when deciding which changes you should make.

How Effective is Your Webpage?

Test: Web page Effectiveness by Tracking Merchant Page CTR

In this test we are going to use My-Linker in combination with your Google Adwords account to determine how effective your webpage is at getting visitors to click-through your affiliate links.

My-Linker (www.my-linker.com) is a program that is exclusive to Wealthy Affiliate members and allows you to analyze your merchant page conversions. My Linker counts merchant page conversions when your website visitors click on your affiliate links. You can set up specific campaigns within My-Linker which enable you to create specific links for your site and track how effective your web page is at persuading your visitors to visit the merchant sales page. The higher the merchant page click-through, the better job your page is doing obtaining the visitors interest enough to send them to affiliate sites.

For more details, please visit:

www.my-linker.com

You will be able to log into my-linker using your Wealthy Affiliate login username and password. Instructions on how to properly use My-Linker can be found upon logging into the application.

By adding My-Linker links to your web pages you will be able to determine exactly which keywords are generating merchant page click-throughs. This is a very important aspect to a successful campaign, because if your keywords are under performing, they either need to be deleted, or you will need to make your web pages more relevant to these keywords to improve the click-throughs.

Note: Make sure that you include your Google Conversion Tracking ID or else My-Linker will work with Google Adwords. My-Linker will report exactly which keywords are prompting your visitors to click through to merchant pages, and this is very useful data that you can use to determine if a keyword is wasting your money

Which Keywords are Earning You Money?

Test: Sale Conversions using Google Sale Conversion Tracking data

Many programs online allow you to append your Google conversion tracking code to their URL so that you can track sales. An example of this is Beating Adwords affiliate program (http://www.beatingadwords.com/affiliates.php). The conversion code is dynamically passed to the order page, so that when someone purchases the product a conversion is tabulated within your Google account under the exact keyword that generated the conversion.

You can also email merchants and ask them to put your conversion code on their order confirmation page. Typically the merchant will only do this for their high volume affiliates, but it is definitely worth a shot regardless of how much traffic you send to a merchant page.

Google Sales conversion tracking allows you to track your sales right down to the keyword level. If you have conversion tracking in place for sales conversions, you will find that 10-20% of your keywords bring in most of your sales. You can quickly weed out under performing keywords or make the appropriate changes to your webpages to make it more relevant and convert better.

Note: If you are using My-Linker to track your merchant page click through rates, you will not be able to determine the difference between sales and leads on the campaign summary page. To determine exactly which keywords are generating sales, leads, or both, you need to create a report in the “Reporting” section of your Adwords account. Under the “Advanced Settings” choose to add Sales Count and Leads Count. This will split up the conversion data and show you exactly which conversions were sales, and which were leads.

As you can see above, creating a custom report will help you determine which "Conversions" came from leads through My-Linker, and which were actual sales.

Split Test to Tweak Your Ads

Test: Tweaking Ad performance using A/B Split Tests

Split testing ads is very easy to do within your Google Adwords account. What you want to do is create TWO ads within an ad group that have different ad text, but has the same destination and display URL’s.

When split testing ad groups, you will want to make sure that your Campaign settings have Ad Optimization turned off.

This will allow each of your ads to run 50% of the time, because if this setting is on, Google will serve your highest performing ad most of the time. For testing purposes, we want a true 50/50 split test to take place so we can determine which ad is performing better. Once you can determine that an ad is performing better (getting a better CTR) you’ll want to scrap the “loser” and replace it with a new ad. At this point a new split test will occur. We suggest that you continually split test ads until you achieve maximum CTR for the keywords within the ad group.

Note: You should use different ad writing techniques for each ad. A couple things you may want to test are the use of the exact keywords (from the ad group) within the ad, using a questions, a call-to-action, and the use of the "scam" word.

Testing 2 Different Landing Pages - Which one Converts Better?

Test: Effectiveness of a Website using A/B Landing Page Split Test Using Clickbank Tracking ID's

There are two reasons you would want to split test landing pages: to test sales conversions and to test merchant page click-throughs. Both of these tests will give you an idea on how effective your landing pages are performing and will indicate which landing page styles are the highest performing ones.

To test conversions you will need to set-up TWO different Clickbank tracking ID's. You will create one landing page using the one Clickbank tracking ID , and one landing page using the other Clickbank tracking ID. You will then want to create and ad group and two ads with the exact same ad text, but different destination URL’s. You will also want to have your ads served equally (“Rotate”) so that each page receives an equal amount of traffic.

This is the format of a Clickbank tracking ID:

http://yourid.merchant.hop.clickbank.net/?tid=tracking

Here is an example of a Beating Adwords affiliate link for the affiliate "wacase" using the tracking ID of "FIRST":

http://wacase.beatadword.hop.clickbank.net/?tid=FIRST

You can change the "tid" to whatever you like, and this string will show up within your Clickbank transactions if you make a sale through this link.

By having two Clickbank tracking ID's, you will be able to determine which page is converting into sales at a higher rate. Without having access to conversion tracking through a merchant, this is the most effective way to determine which landing page is converting better for you.

Based on your results, you can perform several different tests and make different modifications to your landing pages to increase your overall conversions. By focusing on landing page conversions, you will be able to increase your overall campaign profitability.

Lead Generation Effectiveness through Opt-In Forms

Test: Opt-in Traffic Quality From Various Sources

There are many different search engines and search networks available to us as advertisers.

Let's be clear on something. Traffic from one source is not the same as another. Even traffic from Google and Yahoo is totally and utterly different. Google may convert sales better for one industry, while yahoo will convert better for another. The same goes for generating opt-ins and this split test will help you determine which traffic sources are the best to use.

To implement this test, you will want to create multiple web pages, and include your opt-in forms on these pages. You will want to make sure that you label your forms differently so that you can tell which leads are coming form which opt-in form (and consequently, which page). You can actually label different forms through Aweber, and then query to see the results.

Your setup may look like this:

Google Traffic goes to: www.yourpage.com/googletraffic.html
Yahoo Traffic goes to: www.yourpage.com/yahootraffic.html
MSN Traffic goes to: www.yourpage.com/msntraffic.html
Miva Traffic toes to: www.yourpage.com/mivatraffic.html

On each of the above pages, you will have an opt-in form that adds users to a single mailing list, but each form will have it's own unique ID. This will allow you to determine how many subscriptions to your list were generated from each traffic source.

You will want to drive traffic to the pages from different search engines, and determine the overall CPL (cost-per-lead) of each search engine. The calculation to determine this will look like this:

Traffic Source Opt-ins / Traffic Source Cost = Cost-Per-Conversion

The lower your CPL is, the more effective the traffic source is for generating a lead. You may find out that within your particular industry that alternate search engines will be more cost-effective than Google or Yahoo, but this is something that you need to TEST. Yahoo and Google typically yield the highest volumes of quality traffic so these will likely be the starting traffic sources that you use for your test.

Conclusion

These are some great techniques that you should consider implementing when trying to refine your campaigns and optimize your campaigns for cost efficiency. By performing just a few of these tests, you will be able to determine which landing pages work and why, how well you pages are converting into merchant click-throughs, and through trial and error you will be able to create much more efficient campaigns.

We suggest that you adopt testing into your day-to-day activities. You will not only benefit from it in the short-term, but you will be continually maximizing your profitability and save yourself thousands of dollars in the long term. We have wasted tens of thousands of dollars over the years on keywords and landing pages that simply do not produce, and if you can limit these through testing you can keep this money in your pocket.



Quality Email Marketing Info = $

Email Marketing - Delivering Quality Info

The biggest mistake people make when corresponding with their mailing list subscribers is forgetting about the actual quality of the content that is provided. You have to remember that there are people on the other end of all your emails, and if you are not there to help them and build a relationship with them, you are not going to be able to effectively monetize your mailing list.

In this tutorial we are going to outline how to over-deliver to your list. By this we mean, give them more than they are actually expecting. This is a sure fire way to build a long term relationship with your subscribers and when you do present offers to your list they will be much more likely to take action and follow your recommendations.

Remember, a single mailing list can earn you $10,000’s every single month. Email Marketing is not going anywhere and if you do not already have lead generation strategies in place, you should definitely consider them going forward.

If you are not sure about what Email Marketing is, or how to get started with it, we suggest that you read over the following tutorial before continuing with this one:


Building Opt-in Mailing Lists

9 Techniques to Writing Interesting Email

People do not want to be bored with your content. It is very important that you write your emails from the heart and in a manner that is not boring. People do not want to get an email that sounds like it was spit out of a robots mouth each week, so add a personal touch to your emails. Here are some ideas of things you can communicate with your list to achieve great results:

  1. Holiday Celebrations
    Many people like to celebrate holidays, and even more people spend money during these holiday periods. What about sending your dieting list a New Years Celebration regarding a resolution about losing weight. How about reminding your dating list that you are thinking of them on Valentine’s day? Keep the line of communication open and take advantage of every holiday as possible. Emotional connections are easiest during these times of the year.

  2. Industry News / Insight
    You can obtain industry news quite easily by doing a simple search within Google News or picking up the latest magazine or newspaper that would contain industry-related information. If you can continually deliver current information to your list, they will be inclined to open up your emails regularly, thus improving your chances of more conversions.

  3. Related Industry Info
    People that are interested in one thing are probably interested in many similar things. People who are interested in dog training dogs are likely interested in dog supplies. People who are interested in dieting may also be interested in quitting smoking. People interested in dating may also be interested in looking better. There are many connections that you can make between different industries and this gives you the ability to cross-promote to your lists. Do not limit your options!

  4. Expert Interviews
    Lining up Interviews with industry experts can be a great way to increase your credibility with your list. People love to learn information from experts. Other than the time it takes to line up an interview, the work on your part is very little. Many experts like to get their name out to as many people as possible and would be more than happy to do text, audio, or video interview for you.

  5. Personal Testimonials/Review
    Ready to recommend a product/service to your list? Give them some value and a reason to take a further look into what you are offering. There is nothing better than giving a candid review of a product, create a short little review page that outlines what you liked and did not like, or even put up a video review for your list to take a look at. The personal approach will be well received by your subscribers and they will be much more inclined to buy from you if you are honest and not overly “salesy”.

  6. Reach Out by Asking a Question
    Remember, often times people will see you as an imaginary figure and do not see that there is a real person behind the email. If you open a line of communication with your lists, it will give them the opportunity to contact you and will give you the opportunity to open up the dialogue with your potential customers. This will benefit you in many ways. If someone contacts you they are interested and are usually the easiest people to convert into paying customers. You will also gain valuable insight into the things that your consumers are looking for and you can in turn use this information as part of your marketing campaigns.

  7. Tips & Techniques
    People love to receive free tips & techniques, especially if they contain good information. If you prepare a “Top 10” list of industry tips, your list will be very responsive. How about delivering the Top 10 ways to create, improve, enhance, start, stop, remove, prevent, choose, select, run, reduce, make ___________.” This should give you ample ideas to get up and running with a Top 10 list.

  8. Guides
    Whip together a free guide or course and your list will love you! Looking for some information on what you could write on, just look through some of the article engines like ezinearticles.com or squidoo.com, take a few articles and put them together, re-write the content, and package it in a PDF. This is a great way to offer bonuses to your customers as well.

  9. Competition Hack
    Most people that would sign-up to your list have industry intelligence. By this we mean that they have an understanding of other products and chances are they have tried some of the other ones before. When a product has a lot of hype, it will be on people’s minds when they are contemplating buying yours. If you can give them reasons to buy yours instead with a real (and fair) comparison, you are likely to earn yourself a customer. Worst case scenario is that you earn a commission from the other product if they offer an affiliate program

How Often to Contact Your List

People tend to either contact their list too often or not enough. The timeframe that you allow between your emails is important not only to list retention, but to the actual conversion of your lists. You learned in the last section that it is very important to include quality info, but timely delivery of this info is also a key to your success.

We suggest that you contact your list no more than once per week unless you have a big launch or something that is very time-sensitive to tell your list about (like a special offer, sale, or membership closure). If you "hit" your list too often with promo emails you are going to get a huge unsubscribe rate!

Be the EXPERT!

In one word: CREDIBILITY. If you can not portray some sense of credibility to your mailing list from the aspect of an expert, or someone who has dedicated the time and effort to research something, you are not going to have nearly the same impact and reap the financial rewards that come with good subscriber relationship.

You need to make sure you come across as knowing what you are talking about. You can do this by offering insider info and spending time doing research before you orchestrate your broadcast/follow-up emails.

Create a concrete connection between you and the industry you are promoting. For example, “I have made $100,000 online in the last month” or if you have no results to display, “I have been a member of Wealthy Affiliate for the last 6 months and have built my first site, campaign and earned my first money with their help”. Both of these offer a high level of credibility.

One more thing that you should always remember is that there are likely people on your subscriber list that are very savvy within the industry. If you are not current or if you release inaccurate information they will be all over you and you will no longer be CREDIBLE. It is important to stay up-to-date on trends, and more importantly, let your list know about these trends before they find out for themselves through another resource.

Conclusion

If you are going to build a list, make sure that you are doing it for the right reasons. You are wasting your time if you are not providing people with quality information that is relevant to what they are looking for. Having a responsive mailing list can be more powerful than any other marketing campaign that you ever create. Do not think that this is just a small component of your online business, because a whole business could be created around a single, responsive mailing list.



Building Opt-in Mailing Lists

Introduction to Email Marketing


Are You Ready to Multiply Your Conversions?
Today you are going to learn about autoresponders and why you should use them on your website. Top Internet Marketers from around the world use autoresponders on many of their websites to collect their visitors names and email addresses. Having the ability to send an e-mail to subscribers of your mailing list is a very power marketing strategy that can increase your sales.

By adding an autoresponder on www.wealthyaffiliate.com, we
increased our sign up rate by over 100%

This purpose of this tutorial is to walk you through the procedure outlining how to get an autoresponder setup on your website. Building mailing list that is relevant to your product is a very powerful asset to your business as you can send out notices, service announcements, tips, techniques, promotions, or anything related to your product. You will also have the ability to cross-promote other products of a similar nature. Mailing lists allow you to have continued contact with your subscribers (potentially for a lifetime), which is a very powerful position to be in.

The term "opt-in" means that someone has elected to join mailing list by choice. This differs from SPAM email because the owners of the email addresses are giving you consent to send them information via email. SPAM email marketing is unethical while opt-in email marketing is ethical as your subscribers have given you permission to send them email. Do not confuse the two. Email marketing is 100% ethical.

Lets Get Started...

First you need to focus on getting setup with an autoresponder. There are many autoresponders available online, however we have found that Aweber is the best service available. This entire course is going to be based on Aweber screen shots, functionality, and tools and we highly recommend using them. Aweber is a paid service and free autoresponder services should be avoided. If you are serious about email marketing, you should have an autoresponder service like Aweber.

1

Visit: www.Aweber.com and click on the "ORDER" button at the top right hand side of the screen and enter your information. Remember, $19.95 per month is very little to spend on such a service. If you are skeptical about using mailing lists, then sign up for one month to prove it to yourself that this really works.


2

Once you have signed up to Aweber you will be sent an e-mail with your login details, and you will be able to log into your Aweber control panel right away. When you enter into your account you may be overwhelmed by what you see, but don't worry! This course is going to walk you through everything that you need to do to start building your e-mail list from your existing website.


Something To Think About...

Everyday we log into many Adwords accounts of WA members, many times simply to look over things to make sure that no BIG mistakes are being made. Also, we help tweak the accounts by making suggestions. To be honest, many members are already making money, but are looking for ways to increase their conversions. Obviously, using tools like My-Linker.com and tweaking your landing page can help optimize your campaigns, but one sure way to increase your business is by building a mailing list. Obviously there are a lot of techniques that can be used to maximize the performance of your email marketing efforts, but the first step is to get signed up to an autoresponder.

We have been testing our mailing list techniques for quite a long time and we have some amazing techniques that can help you achieve over 80% sign up rates to your mailing lists. Check out this small example:

http://program.beatingadwords.com

This squeeze page is converting at an amazing rate of 80%. It means that 80% of people that come to this page can be contacted in the future.

People have Adwords accounts that are generating nearly 500 clicks per day at only 5 cents a click. If a form was added to collect mailing list subscriptions, and achieved a rate of say 50%, 500 clicks per day could turn into 250 mailing list subscriptions. That's 250 people that you can sell your products to. Perhaps you only get 50 clicks a day to your website. You could still get 20-25 people signed up to your list. After one month you could have 750 people who you could send a promotional email to! If you convert at 1%, it means that you could instantly make 7-8 sales from one broadcast email. Here's something else to think about. If you setup a follow-up email that is sent instantly when a user signs up to your mailing list, you are able to promote your product even after they leave your page. A promotional email would be waiting for them in their inbox. If 1% of those people make a purchase that is another 7-8 sales per month.

If you were promoting Beating Adwords at $30 / Sale, you could generate an extra 15 sales / month from your existing website, just by having an autoresponder. That's an extra $450.00 Cash in your pocket on top of the sales that you already get directly from your website. For less than $20 / month you can get an autoresponder. You really can't beat that ROI! Don't forget that you can sell other products to your mailing list at a later date. Your potential to make money grows as your mailing list does.

Signing-up For Your Free Account


In the last step you learned about autoresponders and how they can positively affect website sales and allow you to build a list of long term customers. Hopefully there is no doubt in your mind that adding an auto responder to your existing web page is going to make you more money. To follow along with the remainder of this tutorial you are going to need an Aweber account. If you missed the first part of the course, here is a link to register to Aweber.

www.Aweber.com

Today we're not going to be talking about theory or benefits, we are going to show you how to set up first mailing list. Aweber can be very difficult to navigate due to the size of the system and the large amount of functions that you can carry out within it. Below are the steps that you need to take to setup your first mailing list.

Steps to Setup a Mailing List

1

Log into your Aweber account by visiting http://www.aweber.com/login.htm. Enter your Login Name and Password. Your Aweber control panel will look like the screen shot to the right. You will see a default mailing list that has been created for you. It will look something like this: default285252.

We are going to modify this list so that we can use it to start collecting subscribers. To do this you need to click on the tab along the top that says "List Settings. This will bring up a new window that has the details of the list and a forms to customize it.


2

Upon clicking on the "List Settings" tab, you will be taken to a screen that looks similar to the page on the right. Enter the necessary information for your new mailing list.

You need to enter the list name, description, company name, and website url, however logo url and divider HTML color can be left blank. In the Autoresponder Admin Emails, you nee to have at least one email address that will be associated with all mail that you sent out.

Now that you have your first email list setup, you are almost ready to start collecting emails. We say "almost' because there are a few more steps that you need to take in order to take full advantage of your mailing list. In the next section we are going to set-up a feature that is very important, and can often times determine whether or not your mailing list will make you more sales. Feel free to browse around in your Aweber account, even create some new lists if you want, but please do not modify this list.

Don't Forget To Follow Up

Are you getting excited about implementing your mailing list on your website? You should be because you are adding another marketing technique that works very well and can make you a TON of money in both the long and short run. Your previous lessons have explained the benefits of having an autoresponder on your website, and how to set up your first mailing list. The previous steps haven't taken much time to complete as they are fairy straight forward. Today's lesson is going to take you a little bit of time to complete because it involves writing a follow-up email messaging sequence.

Follow-up messages are very important because many times they allow you to automate your mailing sequences and will make your email marketing campaigns much easier to manage. If someone signs up to your mailing list, they are showing a certain level of interest. If this interest is high enough they and you provide them with value as well as promotions, you are going to be able to monetize your list like crazy. Below are the steps that you need to take to setup your first follow-up message. These messages get sent immediately when someone subscribes to your list.

Follow-Up Messages

1

Log into your aweber account by visiting http://www.aweber.com/login.htm. Enter your Login Name and Password. Your Aweber control panel will look like the screen shot to the right. If you set up your list as described in Lesson 2, you will see your list name this time instead of the default list name.

With your list selected in the top "Select List" box, you need to click on the "Messages" tab.


2

Upon clicking on the "Messages" tab, you will be taken to a screen that looks similar to the page on the right. In the middle of the screen you will see a link that says "Create Message 1". Click on this link.


3

When you click on the "Create Message 1" button you will be taken to the Message manager - Edit screen. This is where you are going to add your follow message text. You will see 2 main boxes, one that says "Plain Text Message" and one that says "HTML Message". It is very important that you copy you sent out your message in both Plain Text and HTML as not all email servers allow HTML.

You will also see a box at the top that allows you to select a template for your message. For the purposes of this lesson, we are not going to use a template, however you can customize the way your messages look by using the pre-built templates.

There is also a drop down box that allows you to "Merge Personalization Fields". This allows you to ad user information to the e-mail that you send. For instance, you may choose to insert the code: {!name}. This will add the name of the subscriber to the e-mail wherever this code is placed..

When you are finished writing your follow-up message, make sure that you add a link to your website, or perhaps even an affiliate link to the e-mail. You need to provide reference back to you site so that your visitors know where to go if they want to make a purchase. It also helps to add text links within the text of your message. This can drastically improve the click-through ratio from your follow-up message to your website. It is also a very good idea to have the box that reads "Click Tracking" checked as Aweber can calculate how many times your links within your website have been clicked on. This is an important piece of data for analyzing the effectiveness of your linking and your mail-outs in general.

4

Click the "Save" button and you will be taken to a page that looks similar to the one on the right. Notice that there is a menu title that says "Spam?". If In this case, our spam reading is very low at 0.2, however if Aweber thinks that your message will be caught by SPAM filters, it will tell you. You can click on the 0.2 for an explanation on why your message is rated this way. You may need to follow the instructions and make changes to your message in order to lower your SPAM rating. If your spam score is below the 3.0 limit, your message will most likely get through to most of your subscribers.

There is one more menu title that you should be aware of. Clicking on the "Test" button will allow you to send yourself a test email so that you can see how it looks when it arrives as an email. We highly suggest testing your message immediately after saving it to check for spelling and grammar errors.

Once you have saved your first follow-up message, your are almost ready to start collecting e-mails. To do this though, you'll need to add some code to your website in order to have the subscription form show up. In the next step, we are going to put everything together and add the sign-up form to your website. This will allow you to start building your list!

Adding the Sign Up Form

Lets get started right away because after this portion of the tutorial you are going to have a fully functional mailing list form on your website and be able to start collecting emails right away. In order to continue today, you are going to need access to the HTML code on your landing page. If you are even just slightly familiar with HTML today shouldn't take you very long as Aweber makes it easy for you.

Creating a Sign Up Form

1

Log into your aweber account by visiting http://www.aweber.com/login.htm. Enter your Login Name and Password. Your Aweber control panel will look like the screen shot to the right. If you set up your list as described in Lesson 2, you will see your list name this time instead of the default list name.

With your list selected in the top "Select List" box, you need to click on the "Leads" tab, and then click "Web Form Generator".


2

Upon clicking on the "Web Form Generator " tab, you will be taken to a screen that looks similar tot he page on the right. In the middle of the screen you will see a link that says "Create new web form ". Click on this link.


3

You will be taken to the "Web Form Generator - Edit" screen. This is where you are going to set up your form for people to enter their names and e-mail addresses.

At the top of the "Edit Web Form" section, you need to enter a name for your form. This name will only be seen by you, so use a name that makes sense to you. The second section is very important. You need to choose the TYPE of form. For this demonstration we are going to create an "In-Line" form (which is embedded within your page content), however you can choose to use pop-ups if you would like. Both work very well.

In the "Headline" section you need to write something to entice your visitors to sign up to your list. There are probably hundreds of different techniques that you can use here, however we are gong to focus on one only. Your headline needs to be relevant to what you are promoting on your site. If you were promoting a product that focuses on making money line, your headline may be: "Sign Up And We'll Tell You a Secret That Will Make You a $500/day Internet Marketer!"

A headline like this also needs to be similar to your follow-up message. If you are going to tell people how to make $500/day working form home, you may want to provide an explanation of your "$500/day strategies" in your follow-up message and then recommend some products that will help the person achieve this.

4

Once you have the heading sorted out, you need to specify what Input Fields you want to use. Place a check in the box next to the field you want to include. We recommend collecting your visitors names, and email addresses, and making both of those fields required to sign up to the mailing list.

The screenshot on the right is an example of how you can set up your form.


5

Save your web form and you will be taken to a screen similar to the one on the right. Click on the Highlighted button "Get HTML". Clicking on this button will bring up a window with the necessary code for your website. We want to grab the "Javascript" version of the code that will look something like this:

We're only one step away from adding this form to our website!


6

Open your landing page HTML code and paste the Javascript from Step 5 on your page. You'll want to make sure that you add the code between the Tags on your page or if you are in Site Rubix, you will need to switch to "HTML" editing mode and add the code. Wherever you put the Javascript code is where the inline form will show up on your web page. The screen shot to the right is an example of what the form may look like.

Now all you need to do is save your web page file, and upload it to your server. You will now be able to start building your mailing list. To fully optimize the effectiveness of an opt-in form, you will need to test the web form in different locations on your page. You can also change this web form so that is a pop-up within Aweber. Now that you have learned the basics of how to create a mailing list and how to add it to your page, you have the necessary info to play around with the setup of the page. We highly suggest that you test in-line forms VS pop-ups to see which works better for your landing page.

The next section of this tutorial is going to outline how to utilize your list to make $1000's

Using Your Mailing List to Make Money

Now we are going talking about broadcast email messages. A broadcast email is also known as an email "blast" and essentially what you are doing is sending a timely email out to your entire list (or a portion of your list) to provide them with news, information, or promotions.

A broadcast email is similar to a follow-up message, but instead of having it sent at a particular time (for instance, as soon as someone signs up to your list), you can send broadcast messages out at anytime you want. After time your mailing list will grow and hopefully you will be able to get thousands of people signed up to your lists. Top marketers have thousands of people on their mailing lists. Marketers who have been building their lists for years can have 100,000's of people on their mailing lists. When you reach this point, the potential is endless because every single broadcast that you send out is going to earn you a significant amount of money!

With 100,000 people only one button click away, it is easy to see how you can turn an email list into a gold mine each and every month. With this being said, you DO NOT want to send out emails that simply sell products. In order to keep your subscribers from "unsubscribing" you need to send out quality content. We have tested many different techniques. We've sent out guides, tutorials, tips, e-books, how to's, and other information in our broadcast emails, just so we can keep our users interested in what we have to say and keep them reading our emails. Every once in a while we send out a pure promotional email that can generate literally thousands of dollars - tens of thousands in some cases!

Today you are going to learn how to send out a broadcast email to your subscribers. Yesterday we added the web form to a website so that visitors can join the mailing list, so in time, your website traffic will turn into a large list of potential customers. When they join your list, you are going to need to know how to send out a broadcast email, and the next steps will show you how to do this.

Sending a Broadcast Email

1

Log into your Aweber account and select the list that you want to create the broadcast for. So far we only have 1 list, so it will be selected by default. Next, mouse-over on the "Messages" Tab and then click "Broadcast Edit".


2

Upon Clicking on the "Create New Broadcast" button you will be taken to the Broadcast Email to Mailing List section. This section is EXACTLY the same as the follow-up screen, so you should already be familiar with this page and how to use it. Write your email in both Plain Text and HTML, and click Save.


3

When you click Save, you will be taken a screen where you will be able to view your SPAM rating. If it is over 3.0, you will need to modify your message to improve upon this. The you will want to test your email. Once you have tested your email, you can click the "Queue Now" button and add your email to the send queue. Once you send your message, you will have approximately 5 minutes to stop the send from going out (unless you specific a time other than the current time). The send queue is very fast, so before you click the "Queue Now" button, make sure your message is properly formatted.

Broadcast Messages are very important as you can turn each email into thousands of dollars, however, you do not want to become SPAMMY, and send out too many emails. It is sometimes a good idea to tell your subscribers up front that they will receive weekly updates and information from you so that they do not consider it spam.

Conclusion


Congratulations!

You've Completed the Wealthy Affiliate tutorial on how to set-up an autoresponder on your website! If you have followed our instruction, you will now be building a mailing list and hopefully be planning for your first broadcast message. We have one more piece of guidance that we want to share with you. Building a mailing list takes time and patience. Unless you have a website that generates thousands of clicks per day, it will take you quite some time in order to get your list into the thousands, and tens of thousands. Just think though, in time, your list will be in the thousands, and you will be able to make a huge lump sum of money from every email you send out!! Very cool!