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4 Quick Tips for Convincing Partners to Promote You

One of the skills that can make you the most money online is networking, which is nothing more than building relationships with other successful marketers so that you both profit.

Networking successfully with jv partners can really boost your Internet Marketing business. The most successful marketers do so smartly; they use each other as leverage to get where they are today. Follow their lead and you'll see why.

Here are a few quick tips to help you get started.

Quick Tip #1: Develop a USP for Your Request

Most people in business have heard the advice that you're supposed to have a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) for your customers, but a USP also helps when you are seeking joint venture partners. The most sought-after JV partners receive requests on a daily basis. You'll want to strategize to stand out from all these others who are vying for their attention.

The best way to accomplish this is to think about how your offer is different from the other offers out there. What are you going to offer to that person's customers that no one has before? Make sure that you have truly thought this out before making contact.

Quick Tip #2: Pay Attention to the Marketer

Many marketers just focus on sending many JV requests out hoping that someone, anyone, will say yes.  The problem is that the most seasoned marketers can spot this a mile away. If you're asking someone to promote to their list, you'll get better results if you do some research on the marketer you are sending that request to. Whatever you do, don't send a group mailing or a form letter to the JV partners that you're really hoping to “wow”. It's a  turnoff.

Take a look at the websites they run and opt in for their newsletter. What kinds of offers do they normally promote? Knowing this key fact is important so you can determine if your offer may be something that would interest their target market. If not, save their contact info for another date.

Quick Tip #3: Compose the Proper Request

Now that you made the decision who to send your JV requests to, it is time to craft and compose what you are going to say in your request.

Make sure you get to the point. More often than not these marketers are extremely busy and time is money. Eliminate fluff and flowery language. Be cordial, but stick to the task at hand. You will also want to make sure to read and reread your email before sending. Even if you have had dealings with this particular marketer before, keep your letter at a professional tone.

Quick Tip #4: Plan Ahead

If you're looking for JV partners for a launch, the timing can make things a bit more difficult.

More than likely you have spent a lot of time preparing your offer and getting it ready to go. It can be very stressful to attempt to get those last minute details together in time for your launch. Inquiring about potential JV partners should not be one of the last minute details. 

Be sure to respect the schedules of your potential partners. Many of them plan their promotions out months in advance. So, giving them advanced notice will help you get a much better response. If your product is close to being ready but not yet completed, you still may want to put out JV requests. They may request that you contact them again at a later date, but at least you have made the first connection with them.

Bear in mind that you might be faced with rejection even if you do everything "right." Sometimes marketers are too busy, don't promote others' products very often, or have another reason why they can't promote you. Don’t let this discourage you; keep searching and you'll find the right JV partner to assist you on your journey to internet marketing success.

Why I Love Affiliate Marketing - Part 5

NOTE:  The following is a guest post from one of my favorite internet marketing mentors, Jimmy D. Brown of "Affiliatenaire".

The word "overhead" is not a favorite among those who run businesses of any kind.  Nobody likes the expenses of operating a business.  And nobody really talks about them much when it comes to promoting all of the "money-making" products and services online.

But, don't kid yourself, there's a lot of overhead.

That brings me to the fifth reason why I love affiliate marketing...

  ** You don't need a big budget to make it work **

Do you have any idea how much money is spent running an internet business? There are monthly fees for...

• Autoresponders
• Hosting
• Management
• Advertising
• Scripts
• Much more

There are regular fees for...

• Licensing
• Outsourcing
• Support
• Customer Service
• Maintenance
• Development
• Recruting
• Much more

 

It's not uncommon to spend tens of thousands (even hundreds of thousands) of dollars in operational costs -- which is fine if you've been in business a while and are making the bucks. However, if you're a newcomer, it can be taxing on your budget!

     SIDEBAR:  I paid one girl over $30,000 last year
     just to oversee one small part of my business.
     No one talks much about it, but there ARE a lot
     of expenses involved before you get to the
     "bottom line" of profit.

BUT, with affiliate marketing, you don't need a big  budget to make it work! You can simply use a variety of free and low-cost marketing methods to generate clicks to your affiliate link.

That's why I love affiliate marketing.

You don't need a big budget to make it work.

Jimmy D. Brown is the author of "Affiliatenaire", which teaches you how to create big-time affiliate commission checks in only 1-3 hours each week.  Visit Affiliatenaire to discover how you can get cash in the bank without a website, experience, or even an idea!

Why I Love Affiliate Marketing - Part 4

NOTE:  The following is a guest post from one of my favorite internet marketing mentors, Jimmy D. Brown of "Affiliatenaire".

I'm sure by now you are well aware that there are those who have reported HUGE amounts of money being made with their online businesses.  What you may not be aware of is the amount of work involved in generating those "sales" (not always net profit, mind you ... this isn't "spendable" income in a lot of cases.)

That brings me to the fourth reason why I love affiliate marketing...

  ** You don't need to manage an entire business **

While it can be quite lucrative, running an entire business with employees, inventory, partners, vendors, and other associates can be a time-sucking, frustrating ordeal.

Imagine...

• Processing refunds
• Putting out fires when partners SPAM
• Managing day-to-day operations
• Overseeing projects you've outsourced
• Recruting new affiliates
• Training everyone to help you
• Paying taxes
• Taking care of the paper trail
• Doing all of the "stuff" that business owners do.

Didn't you want to start an internet business to make more time for important things in life?

Why not make a lot of money WITHOUT making a lot of extra work for yourself?!

It can be a lot of extra work and stress. BUT, with affiliate marketing, you don't need to manage an entire business! You are simply responsible for promoting your affiliate link... someone else handles all the rest.

That's why I love affiliate marketing.

You don't need to manage an entire business.

Jimmy D. Brown is the author of "Affiliatenaire", which teaches you how to create big-time affiliate commission checks in only 1-3 hours each week.  Visit Affiliatenaire to discover how you can get cash in the bank without a website, experience, or even an idea!

Why I Love Affiliate Marketing - Part 3

NOTE:  The following is a guest post from one of my favorite internet marketing mentors, Jimmy D. Brown of "Affiliatenaire".

Some people have the ability to persuade others and talk them into just about anything.  Especially when it comes to influencing their buying decisions.  They know how to push the right hot buttons, say things the right way and generally get consumers into an emotional frenzy to the point they are ready to click an order button.

There are two key words in that paragraph that really need to stand out in your mind:  "some people".

Not everyone has this ability.  In fact, only a few do.

That brings me to the third reason why I love affiliate marketing...

 ** You don't need to write a world class salesletter**

Have you ever tried to write a salesletter? There's a reason why professional copywriters charge up to $10,000 (and sometimes even more) for a SINGLE salesletter. It takes a lot of experience and skill to write a top-gun salesletter, which is why most people have a hard time convincing people to buy if they do create their own products and website.

They simply don't have the right salesletter in place to make it all work. Without good copy, it really doesn't matter how spectacular the offer is, you're simply not going to get many sales.

     SIDEBAR:  The average conversion rate of site visitors
     who become buyers is reportedly less than 2%.  That
     means 98 out of every 100 do NOT buy.  That's why
     sales are so incredibly bad for a poor site ... you
     *might* get 2 sales out of every 300-400 visitors.

BUT, with affiliate marketing, you don't need to write a salesletter! You simply direct people to someone else's high-octane salesletter for THEM to convert your leads into commissionable sales.

That's why I love affiliate marketing.

You don't need to write a world class salesletter.

Jimmy D. Brown is the author of "Affiliatenaire", which teaches you how to create big-time affiliate commission checks in only 1-3 hours each week.  Visit Affiliatenaire to discover how you can get cash in the bank without a website, experience, or even an idea!

Why I Love Affiliate Marketing - Part 2

NOTE:  The following is a guest post from one of my favorite internet marketing mentors, Jimmy D. Brown of "Affiliatenaire".

Pop quiz time.  What does "HTML" stand for?  Don't know that one?  How about this - what does "FTP" stand for? OK, one more chance.  Do you know how to work with either?

That brings me to the second reason why I love affiliate marketing...

      ** You don't need to build a website **

What scares people more than creating a product is building a website!  

• What in the world is HTML?  Or FTP?
• How much does the software cost?  And hosting?
• How do I upload files?
• Why isn't it formatted correctly?
• Why don't my graphics look like the ones the pros have?

If you are a complete beginner, it can be very difficult (even using templates) to get an attractive website in place. And hiring a professional to do it fo ryou is out of the budget for most people.

But, with affiliate marketing, you don't need to build a website.  You simply send visitors to someone else's
professionally designed site through your affiliate link.

     SIDEBAR:  Just in case you're interested, HTML stands
     for "hypertext markup language" and is the coding
     used to build webpages.  FTP stands for "file transfer
     protocol" and is the process used for moving files
     from your computer to a website, or vice versa.

Really, in a manner of looking at it, you get to take advantage of the time and money invested by someone else to develop the site.  Think about it:  when you promote an affiliate link, it reflects firstly upon YOU.  You are the one who is advertising the link, recommending the product, sending people who have interacted with YOU to the website.

The professional site of someone else really represents you as the promoter, in the eye of those who have clicked through your link.

You get the benefits without the bother.

That's why I love affiliate marketing.

You don't need to build a website.

Jimmy D. Brown is the author of "Affiliatenaire", which teaches you how to create big-time affiliate commission checks in only 1-3 hours each week.  Visit Affiliatenaire to discover how you can get cash in the bank without a website, experience, or even an idea!

.........................

Why I Love Affiliate Marketing - Part 1

NOTE:  The following is a guest post from one of my favorite internet marketing mentors, Jimmy D. Brown of "Affiliatenaire".

Do you find yourself "starting" to create your own product to sell online, but never "finishing" it? 

One of the things I love about affiliate marketing is --

    ** You don't need to create your own products **

Many people find the idea of creating their own products to be an overwhelming and even paralyzing task.

• I don't have any good ideas!
• I'm not a writer!
• There's too much competition!
• I don't know how to set everything up!
• I can't figure out where to start!
• It's too hard!

These are just a few of the valid reasons many people give when it comes to not creating their own products to sell. I'm sure with a few minutes of brainstorming, we could come up with a list of many more.

With affiliate marketing, you don't need your own products. You simply promote someone else's already proven successful offer for a commission.

And, truth be told, even if you ARE a writer and you DO have lots of ideas and you CAN figure it all out...

  ** Nobody wants to create new products all the time **

As good as you may be, you don't know everything!  Why try to create a product on every topic imaginable in your  market when you can earn just as much money by simply promoting someone else's really good offer as one of your profit streams?

That's why I love affiliate marketing.

You don't need to create your own products.

Jimmy D. Brown is the author of "Affiliatenaire", which teaches you how to create big-time affiliate commission checks in only 1-3 hours each week.  Visit Affiliatenaire to discover how you can get cash in the bank without a website, experience, or even an idea! 

Finding Affiliate Partners

You can always position your product in third party marketplaces like ClickBank and PayDotCom. They’re the most well-known markets for selling your products, but you also want to secure joint ventures directly with marketers who promote your niche topic, not wait for them to find your item on ClickBank.

Start by listing as many sites as you can where there’s strong interest in your niche topic.  That includes discussion forums, chat groups, membership sites, and Google groups. Don’t forget the social networking sites like Squidoo, Facebook and MySpace just to name a few very popular sites.

Listen to the social conversation going on. Ask a relevant questions and pay attention to the answers. Do you get comments and ideas or recommendations for an information product and website with more details?

From that information, go to the suggested sites. These are potential affiliate partners. Even if you don’t see any affiliate products on their sites, contact them and propose an affiliation.  It may be that the site owner is so focused on his or her niche that product affiliation wasn’t even considered.

Or they may not know how this can work to their advantage for new business. You never know until you ask.     When you discover another start-up site related to your niche, propose an affiliate JV opportunity. 

They may not have much traffic in the beginning, but you’ll grow with them. You can also propose a shared email campaign - agree to recommend their site to your list if they do the same for you with their list.

Now, here’s one source that new marketers tend to avoid: highly successful sites. As soon as you see the big site with powerful affiliate partners, don’t think there’s no room for you.  An established site has a large following and repeat visitors and the owner is always looking for ways to provide value and insight to his or her community. You can offer a special bonus or discount for the site owner. 

Identify the top 5 most influential people in your niche and study their websites.  Look at their products and promotion methods. After a thorough analysis, contact their centers of influence and propose your product as an affiliate.

Send your product for a review. Most new Internet marketers avoid the big guys thinking that people so well established in the niche wouldn’t bother with a newcomer.  You might be surprised at the result of simply asking.

Some of the biggest names in Internet marketing are great people who believe strongly in the “pay it forward” philosophy. Don’t hype yourself, tell it straight and ask for an opportunity. When you get the open door, you need to present your best quality product with excellent customer service so they feel comfortable sending their traffic to your site.

Making the Most from ClickBank

ClickBank is definitely a leading connection between product developers and affiliate marketers. It’s also a place that buyer can go directly to purchase information products. Plus ClickBank has a positive reputation for its ease of use.

With all that going for it, just upload your information products and you’re good to go, right?  Not exactly. You might make a few sales, but if you want to make ClickBank a centerpiece of your marketing, then you have to do more than just upload, post a link and wait.

Set up targeted minisite.  Create catchy sales copy to accompany it. You can also add a video demonstration or an audio that expands on the product.  Offer a “bribe” or freebie when the viewer clicks that Buy Now button.

If you have strong testimonials, add them on the sales page or with video clips that are scattered inside the sales copy.  Post product reviews. Write short reviews or ask a colleague to review your product.

If you’re looking for reviewers, offer the product free to a limited number of potential reviewers. This is a popular technique on marketing forums to get testimonials. You can also get reviews from people who are significant contributors to forums in your niche. Then get those reviews posted on as many sites, forums and discussion boards as possible.

Trade mailing lists. Contact sites with comparable niche interests and tell them about your ClickBank product.  Offer an affiliate sales opportunity. You can also agree to trade mailings - your offer to their lists, and then a few weeks later send their offer to your list.

Since any sale makes an affiliate commission for the seller, everyone wins. If you find that your product doesn’t get picked up by affiliates, reduce your cut and increase the profit for affiliate sales. Information marketing is about volume, so remember that 40% of 1,000 sales is worth more than 60% of 100 sales.

Keep it fresh.  Like produce, eBooks have a certain shelf life. Even if the information is still good, add a new twist or update at least twice annually. Unless you’ve written a true classic, then you’ll begin to see a downturn in sales.

That’s the time to tweak it. You can make a slight title change or a major change. Just give the buyer a reason to find this interesting. If you’re doing a tweak, contact your best affiliate sellers to let them know that there’s new information or updates worth sending to the their list again.

3 Killer Affiliate Marketing Tactics

Affiliate marketing has got to be one of the greatest business models the world has ever seen. Basically it allows someone with no products of their own without any customer service hassles to make a good living online by funneling traffic to other websites ad collecting a sizable percentage of the sale. It sounds fantastic, and it really is for some, but sadly for many it just doesn't produce the sort of income that would be necessary for them in order to do it full-time comfortably. The great thing is that by learning a few really good and clever techniques it is easy to have a great increase in the amount of money that you make for pretty much the same effort as before. Remember always work smarter but not necessarily harder.

First and foremost remember to always build a list if you are doing affiliate marketing. This is the most important thing in affiliate marketing and so if you haven't started a list already then you really must do so. It is the only way to build long term profits with security in this industry. Now we've cleared that up let's move quickly on to the 3 killer affiliate marketing tactics:

1. Use Video In Order To Increase Conversions

Over the past couple of years video has really taken the Internet by storm and whether you like it or not in order to keep with the times and produce maximum profits it has got to be an integral part of your marketing. The great thing is that it is not that complicated anymore and is also really cheap. The important thing is to have your video follow onto the affiliate program which your promoting after it has finished playing. A great tool which only costs about $30.00 can do this easily and is called CamStudioPro. The investment should pay its self back quickly.

2. Use A Link Cloaking Service

Nowadays, particularly in the Internet Marketing niche but also more and more in outside niches, people are becoming more and more aware of affiliate links and as a result less commissions are being made. Therefore it is a good idea to use a link cloaker service to protect your links. There are some free ones and paid ones out there and so it is a good idea to do a Google search and find a suitable one.

3. Offer Bonuses For Buying

This is a great way to increase conversions. Just create a nice bonus to go with a product and then tell people when they buy to send their receipt to you in order for you to send them their bonus. This is open and up front and since it benefits both parties it works really well.

Making Money on the Backend

Always love to see creative people taking advantage of the promotion and marketing opportunities that the Internet has to offer.  The potential to reach tons of new fans via the web, email, or elsewhere online is mind blowing.

But how do you monetize giving something away for free?

Watch the first couple of minutes of the video below to see how indie filmmaker Francis Stokes is doing it...

This is actually a pretty good movie, by the way.  Reminds me of a lot of musicians I've worked with. :)