1. Get Specific

Set realistic but specific goals. What do you want to achieve this year? For some it may be doubling your 2011 sales, and for others it may be breaking into a new niche. Whatever your goals are, make sure they’re specific and achievable. For example, if you’re just starting out, you may want to commit to making $200 a month as an affiliate promoting products in the Health and Fitness niche (and what better time to get started than new years resolution season?). This is a specific and achievable goal, and you’re less likely to get discouraged if you’re able to reach your goals along the way. It’s a good idea to write your ideas down and share them with others to help hold yourself accountable.

2. Be a Quitter

Unless you’re superhuman, there’s a limit to what you can do on your own. If you want to get serious about growing your business in 2012, you’ve got to identify the work you can quit doing. You might be the very best in the industry at website building, backlinking, graphic design and copywriting, but that doesn’t mean your time is best spent doing ALL of these things. What can be outsourced? Truth is, it’s probably a lot more than you think. Sometimes a good third party can get the job done, and free up your time for more important things like business strategy that will ultimately make your business more successful in the long run.

The new year is also a good time to take a long hard look at your business and identify something that isn’t working for you or producing desirable returns. Not all products are going to be super sellers and not all promotions are going to crush it. It may be helpful to use the 80/20 Rule as a guide. Chances are there’s something like 20% of your efforts that are producing 80% of your results. Take a look at that portion of your efforts that are not producing results, and vow to quit what isn’t working and refocus that energy toward something that is.

3. Make a Name for Yourself

Over the past couple of years I’ve been amazed at the number of Internet marketers content to work in the shadows making a living promoting in one trendy niche to another, without really taking the time to develop a long term lasting business. This kind of existence can be exhausting, and in a way that constant struggle defeats the purpose of what’s so attractive about Internet marketing in the first place – the lifestyle. Now I’m not saying forget the short term trendy businesses, ClickBank is in the business of long tail digital goods after all, but consider building something more sustainable. Develop your personal brand. For every person in the industry who has made a name for themselves there are thousands working in the shadows. Stand for something, become something, set yourself apart. Be the expert and the money will follow.

4. Forget Your Passion

I’ve met countless Internet marketers this year whose search for a passion to which they can dedicate their life’s work has literally paralyzed their productivity. In 2012 I say produce first, passion second. Pick something, do something, and learn from that. In this continually changing, constantly evolving industry, no one stays in the same niche forever, and it’s common for passions to evolve and businesses to evolve over time. Master something, then move on to the next thing. Just start, do, create, produce and learn. Don’t let your search for doing what you love and loving what you do result in doing nothing at all. You might just find your passion along the way.

5. Connect

Make a list of people you want to meet next year. Think of people you can learn from and who can directly or indirectly help your business and cultivate these relationships. Come up with a plan to connect with each and every person on your list. Industry events are a great way to meet people. Email, phone, social media, or even old fashioned letters work too. Before you ask for help, offer to help them first. Then offer again. And again. Studies of reciprocity in social psychology and human behavior tell us that people feel compelled to respond to positive action or favors, with favors in return. These days, joint venture relationships are closely correlated with the success of businesses. So do a lot of favors for a lot of people, form relationships and JVs, and know that it will come back to benefit you in the end.

6. Risk It

One of my favorite things about this industry is that the opportunities are endless. There so many different ways to promote and sell products and it seems like there are new tactics popping up every day. So next year, try something new, push your limits, don’t be afraid to fail. Even investing time in a new area of your existing business, say, split testing, can be a little scary. Because time is money, and we all want to be spending time on the things that generate the highest returns. Spending money can also be risky, but what better thing to invest in than yourself? In 2012, don’t be afraid to take more risks to reap more rewards.

7. Rekindle the Fire

Just like relationships benefit from newness and creativity to stay exciting, so can your business. You work hard all year and it’s easy to get caught in a rut, making it feel like Groundhog Day and putting you on the fast track to burn-out. Take a vacation, work from somewhere else, pick up a new hobby or read a fiction book. Do something out of the ordinary that can give you a fresh perspective on your business and on life. All of these are ways to enhance creativity and get you looking at your business in a new light. You’ll be glad you did.

Whether you aspire to world domination, niche domination, six figures a year or a hundred bucks a month, implementing just a few small changes in your business or approach to business could make make all of the difference for you next year. What do you want to achieve in 2012?

Take a look at these related posts:

1. The Ultimate Internet Marketing Shortcut
2. Making it Happen in 2012
3. ClickBank Exchange 2011 Recap: A Look Into the Future of Internet Marketing

Guest Author, Marie Forleo

Do you ever feel like you kinda suck at your business?

Despite the amount of money you make, or the amount of time you’ve been in the game, I think it’s fair to say that we all feel like failures, from time to time.

At a recent conference, I had the pleasure of hearing Russell Simmons, Ted Turner and Bill Clinton speak about business and life, and was intrigued by what I heard.

My favorite line from Russell was (I’m paraphrasing), “Many of my biggest business endeavors were failures before they became a success.  Some failed for as long as six years before they hit.  Everyone around me thought I was crazy.  You just have to stay at it.”

Interesting, right?  Loads of business “failures” coming from an entrepreneur with a multi-passionate net worth of an estimated $340 million.

At that same conference, I also had the pleasure of some ridiculously good close up magic from the incomparable David Blaine. I didn’t know that much about him before meeting him, but let me tell you, this guy’s talent is off the chain.

While I was holding playing cards in my hands he managed to make them jump, tear, flip and completely transform.   Talk about jaw-dropping. After hanging out with him, I became mildly obsessed and went online to watch everything I could about his other high-profile feats.

Turns out, David gave an amazing TED talk about his many attempts to break the world’s record for holding his breath underwater.

He pulled some pretty crazy and outrageous stunts to get there.  And, a lot of his failed attempts were very public.  Like to the tune of millions and millions of people around the world watching him fail to before he finally succeeded with a mind-blowing time of 17 minutes and 4.4 seconds.

Despite all the public disappointment, criticism and embarrassment, Blaine stuck to it.  He kept changing his strategy and eventually, achieved his goal.  He continues to be one of the most legendary illusionists and endurance artists of our time.

Then there’s my friend and fellow marketer, Frank Kern.

Turns out Frank, too, had some pretty seismic stumbles in business (he got sued by the Feds and was nearly bankrupt) before becoming one of the most highly respected, highest paid and most sought after online marketing consultants in our industry.

Side note: one of my favorite nuggets from a recent seminar was Frank’s response to a question on how to write a sales letter:  “You sit down and f*#cing do it.”  Gotta love that kind of simplicity.

So what’s the point here?

Anyone who accomplishes great things in business and life is bound to “fail” along the way.

Feeling like a failure is a natural part of becoming a success. It’s actually a good thing and means you’re taking action and putting yourself out there.  Which is way more than most critics and naysayers have the cajones to do.

I’ll be the first to admit I feel like a failure.  Often.  I’ve burned through a lot of cash, time and energy hiring programmers, virtual assistants and designers for projects that never saw the light of day.  Of course, I learned something from each experience, but at the same time, they could accurately be considered “failures” too.

Here’s the bottom line.

Feeling like a failure is normal.  It simply means you’re human like the rest of us.  The good new is that you’re actually in the game rather than sitting on the sidelines.

Legendary success in any field requires a ton of stick-to-it-ness.

When you know you’re meant to birth an idea into existence, take it from Russell, David, Frank and yours truly:  feeling like a failure often means you’re moments away from your biggest success.

About the Author

Marie Forleo is a marketing and lifestyle expert who teaches entrepreneurs to live Rich, Happy & Hot.  If you enjoyed this article, join more than 40,000 others who get her weekly business training videos at www.marieforleo.com (It’s Free!).

Take a look at these related posts:

1. Ten Habits of Highly Successful Publishers
2. Takin’ Care of Business

The number one question that any potential affiliate will always ask themselves before promoting your offer is “Will this thing make me money?” In other words, will this offer convert to my list (or my web-traffic)? But beyond creating a stronger product and a more compelling sales message, how can vendors improve their program and encourage affiliates to…

1. Promote their product, and
2. Promote any other products they may release in the future?

Fact is, these days it’s not enough just to put up some banners and swipe emails and leave it at that. To build a loyal group of affiliates who are motivated to promote what you have, you need to go that extra mile.

Here are 7 ideas to get you started…

1. Offer Personalized/Custom Landing Pages

No matter what your product, different traffic sources will give you varying conversion rates. This is simply because different people are looking for different benefits from your product. So if you can somehow customize your landing pages to target different groups of people you can create a much more targeted message… and convert more sales.

For example, the flagship product at SaleHoo.com is membership to a directory of wholesale suppliers. Affiliates have the ability to send traffic to landing pages that are customized based around product type, because prospects tend to be interested in finding suppliers for a certain type of product, rather than products in general. Customization can be as simple as different headlines, or even going as far as using alternate pictures and content.

Another way you might consider customizing your landing pages, is to create unique pages for individual affiliates. Now, obviously you won’t be able to do this for every affiliate, but when they have a proven track record this is something you should certainly consider to help them convert more sales.  You might even offer a special bonus or discount just for their leads.

2. Periodic Bonuses/Competitions

Another way to keep affiliates motivated is to offer incentives for top performance. This strategy is used regularly in major product launches, but there is no reason you can’t adapt it to a product that you already have on the market. The idea is simple: Just let your affiliates know that whoever sends the most leads/makes the most sales between now and a certain date will win prizes.

Don’t be afraid to get creative with your prizes, but keep in mind that most larger affiliates will be more motivated by the cash than anything else. You might choose to run these contests monthly, or even based around events such as Halloween, Christmas, or a birthday sale. (If you’re in the dating niche Valentine’s day would be a good one to use).

3. Offer Multiple Products

This one might be obvious, but it’s worth repeating. Simply put, the more products you offer, the more chances affiliates have to find something that will fit with their list/market. Plus, you’ll find that once you have one good product under your belt (that converts), affiliates will be more receptive to promoting other products that you come out with in the future. In short, it’s about giving them what they want.

A good example of this is Affilorama.com which has four main products available for affiliates to promote in their affiliate program. Each caters to slightly different segments of the market, and has a different price point (all the way from FREE membership, up to a $497 course).

4. Offer Recurring Commissions

Carrying on from #3 (above) some affiliates prefer recurring products (while some would much rather promote only a front-end offer).  But by having at least one recurring offer (for example a membership site or monthly magazine) you cater to those affiliates who are looking for this type of offer. And what if your only product is a recurring one? Consider jacking up the commission to entice those affiliates who want all the cash on the front-end until you can come up with another offer for them specifically.

5. Offer Specific Guidance to New Affiliates

Not everyone who promotes your offer is going to be an experienced affiliate. Especially as your product becomes more well-known in the marketplace, you will find more and more ‘newbies’ are interested in promoting your stuff. New affiliates are good for business because they provide new potential streams of income. However, their inexperience can mean that quite often, they do not know where to start. So what can you do about this? Well, if you consider your affiliates as an important and indispensible part of your business, then why not help them out by offering your guidance and advice for free? In reality, many of these smaller affiliates may never even make a sale of your product. But some of them will, and others will eventually grow to be top promoters in the future.

To see an example of how we do this at SaleHoo (using an email newsletter) – go here and sign up as an affiliate.

6.  Test Test Test

You’ve seen it here on the ClickBank blog before, and I’m sure you’ll see it again. Testing is one of the most important tools in any marketers arsenal. Even if you have a great product today – and you don’t think there is any way to improve conversions… you should still be testing new ideas. The truth is, people change. And markets change. Promises that worked ten years ago (or even one year ago) do not necessarily work today. You can keep on top of what works in your market by keeping an eye on the competition, but if you really want to know for sure, you need to be testing new ideas for yourself.

(Note for Affiliates: If you want to check if a vendor is actively testing, have a quick peek at the source code of their landing page(s). If there is some code there for GWO, Optimizely, or some other testing software then it’s a good sign that the vendor is actively tweaking and refining their offer.)

7. Having a Dedicated Affiliate Manager

As your business grows, and the number of affiliates promoting your product expands, the more demands running your Affiliate program will make on your time. Using ClickBank is a huge help, but eventually you’ll still be swamped by requests, offers, and obligations. Making it hard to focus on the rest of your business.

If you want to keep growing (and still want to take good care of your affiliates) then you should seriously consider hiring an affiliate manager. They will be able to take care of all those tasks that gobble up all your time – like handling email requests, sorting out landing pages, and sorting through JV offers… while leaving you free to work on the most important parts of the business – like creating high converting offers.

About the Author: Haden de Boer is the Affiliate Manager over at SaleHoo.com. Please feel free to check out the SaleHoo Affiliate Program and their newest offer SaleHoo Stores.

Take a look at these related posts:

1. Seven Easy Ways To Instantly Power Up Your Copy
2. Finding Affiliates to Promote Your Product
3. Announcing the Addition of New Languages and Currencies!

As a direct response copywriter, marketing strategist, and mentor, I find a lot of marketers get frustrated and intimidated when they begin writing copy for their business. Maybe you feel that way sometimes too.

The good news is–even if you are brand new to marketing, there are simple steps you can take to instantly improve the power and effectiveness of your copy.

So let’s get to it…

#1: Create Compelling Headlines The Easy Way

Your headline has to blend benefits and curiosity. And it has to pack a punch, because you only have 7-8 seconds to grab your prospect’s attention.

The whole purpose of your headline is actually quite simple—it’s to get you to read the next line. So before you run screaming into the night over headlines, remember all you really need to do is entice your prospect to read the next line.

For example, if you wanted to write a headline brimming with both benefit and curiosity for an acne product, you might start with “7 Ways To Rid Yourself Of Acne In Time For The Prom.” Or if your product worked super fast and this were true, you could say “How To Clear Up Your Acne In 7-Days Or Less.”

If that were an accurate depiction of your product, and you were a prospect with acne, a headline like this would certainly grab your attention and pull you into the copy.

Of course the headline needs to be relevant to the truth of your product. You don’t just make things up to create a headline. So how do you get started?

There is something in copywriting we call “swiping” and it’s not unethical in any way if you do it correctly. It’s not plagiarizing—it’s borrowing concepts that are proven to work as headlines, and adjusting them to make them your own.

For example, the acne headline above could be changed to “How To Lose 5 Pounds In 7-Days Or Less”—you’re taking the basic premise of a compelling headline and “tweaking” it to fit your product.

You might be wondering where you find proven headlines you can use as inspiration—and there’s a very rich resource at your fingertips: Magazines.

Every time you are standing in line at the grocery store, you are surrounded with proven and tested headlines on all the major magazines. While you might be embarrassed to be seen buying it, The National Enquirer has some of the best headline writers around. Other fantastic resources are Oprah, Prevention, Men’s Health—the list goes on and on. A fast way to have a treasure chest of headline ideas is simply to go to magazines.com and start rummaging around.

Bookstores like Barnes & Noble are another valuable resource, as are book titles and chapter titles at Amazon.com. Just dial up the volume on your marketing brain, and keep your eyes open. There are ideas all around you for compelling headlines.

#2: Reduce Hype & Increase Credibility By Slashing Exclamation Points!

I challenge you to go through your copy today and do this one thing: Remove most of the exclamation points.

People often think, “OK, I’m going to make a lot of energy in this! I’m very excited! I’m going to talk like this all the way through my sales material to make my point! And the way I’m going to do it is I’m going to put lots and lots and lots of exclamation points!!!”

Seriously, do you actually talk this way? No, not really.

So be ruthless about taking them out—slash and burn your way through your copy. Don’t worry that you’re going to take the energy away. Too many exclamation points ramp up the hype and hard sell, which ultimately increases skepticism in the mind of your prospect.

Save these tiny emphasis points for when they really count—for those times when you have an especially important or energized statement you want to emphasize.

Even if it feels weird to do it, go through your materials, take them out, and reread your copy. I promise you will soon see and feel the amazing difference of this one simple strategy.

#3: Avoid Dangerous Questions

Another often overused “small but mighty” element of punctuation is the innocent looking question mark. It is very common for people who are just starting out to ask a lot of questions in their copy as their “conversational” element. They mistakenly think they are getting right into the mind of their prospect.

But what you end up with is something like this…

“Do you feel like this? Has this ever happened? Are you spiritual enough? Do you want this one or do you want that one? Do you want more money? Do you want less anxiety? Do you want me to quit asking you questions?

It is question after question after question. And quite frankly, it’s irritating.

There are several reasons not to ask numerous questions unless you are extremely skillful in writing copy, and you know your target audience like the back of your hand.

For one thing you cannot afford the wrong answer. If you’re saying “Do you ever feel like this?” And they say “NO!” you’re all done right there. If you needed “Yes” and they said “No”—they are already gone.

It can also feel like you’re the guest of honor at a painful inquisition. Your reader starts feeling nervous or anxious—“I have to answer this; I have to answer that; I might get it wrong and I hate being wrong.”

I call them dangerous questions because you can’t afford the wrong answer. So if you already have copy riddled with question marks and you’ve been quizzing people up one side and down the other—here’s the solution. Turn the questions into powerful statements.

For example, instead of saying, “Do you have lots of painful headaches?” You can turn it into a powerful statement like this: “If you are sick and tired of painful headaches, here is the solution.” You turn the question into a powerful statement.

#4: The…Dot…Dot…Dot…

A handy little tool for smoothing out your copy is the ellipsis; the dot-dot-dot can bridge the gap in your copy and keep your reader moving forward.

Unfortunately, the ellipsis is often overused, creating a choppy “stop and go” rhythm to your copy. You don’t want that to happen, because your goal is a smooth flow to the sale.

The correct use of an ellipsis is as a little “cliffhanger” to the next concept in your copy, or as a connector. Used correctly, the ellipsis increases the conversational tone of your copy.

Here are some effective connectors where your ellipsis shines…

In other words…
Let me explain…
Here’s what this is about…
Here’s what to do next…

#5: Talk Your Copy

Talk to one and you talk to all. So act like you’re talking to one person. If you have to put a picture of your Aunt Martha next to your computer because you’re writing about a solution for arthritis and Aunt Martha has painful, swollen knuckles–you talk directly to Aunt Martha.

And when you do that, you talk to all the rest of the Aunt Martha’s out there too. You do not talk to a crowd. When you write “we all,” “they all,” “everybody” and “everything” you’re talking to the masses. And there is no personal connection when you do that.

It’s “you and me baby”–I’m talking to you and you’re talking to me. That is exactly how you write it.

Be real. Be authentic. Be transparent.

But if you have trouble getting from Point A to Point B with a conversational tone, here is a very powerful tip for you.

Talk your copy. Speak it, record it, “talk it” to someone else. Pretend you’re going to tell your mom about this fantastic widget you have that gets people on track or motivated or gets rid of their headaches–whatever it might be. Say it exactly like you would chat with a friend or family member about the product. Share why you’re excited about it, and what it is going to do for them.

A lot of times people get very self-conscious in their copy, which kills the conversation. It’s almost like you’re standing over to the side watching yourself write this epic sales letter and feel pressured to make it very meaningful from the get-go.

Forget all that. Just say it straight out, write the darn thing, and don’t self edit. You can always fix it later. Let it go, talk it, write it and then fix it. It’s always easier to tone down your copy and bring the energy level down if you’re too hypey, have too many exclamation points or “shouting”. It’s a whole lot harder to try and breathe life into dull copy. So just go for the gusto and then fix it later.

#6: Tell Em’ What To Do & How To Do it—Nicely Of Course

Always remember you need to spell out what you want your prospect to do. This is your “call to action”. Quite simply, it is called “direct response marketing” because we want them to respond with a specific action.

Keep in mind this is not an exercise in creative writing. You are SELLING. You want them to DO something.

But keep things simple—both for you and your prospect. Too many choices clutter people’s minds. And confused minds do not buy.

So don’t say “We have it in pink, purple, yellow, white, and green—and we have platinum, silver, gold, bronze levels, and then there’s the freebie…and you can pay in one payment, 3 payments, 6 payments, or on lay-away!”

It’s too many things for them to think about, and people don’t like to make the wrong decision. So if they are confused, they simply won’t make any decision at all.

Be very concise about what you have for them and give them a clear path to the sale or action. If you have more than one option to choose from, number them—list them sequentially. This isn’t the time to get creative or leave anything to doubt. This is all about an organized offer, laid out as literally as 1-2-3.

Use formatting to set your offer components apart. For example, you can use bold font for each number, bullet points, and spacing between elements.

You want a smooth flow to the sale or lead generation. Whatever your goal is, you want to clear away any obstacles and make it very easy for your prospect to successfully take action.

#7: Find Your Voice–Read All Your Copy Out Loud

I do this for every single element of copy I write. And you should too.

Here’s why. If you cannot successfully read your own copy aloud without stumbling over the words, feeling confused about what you just said, or even falling asleep at the wheel—something is wrong with your copy.

As you read it to yourself, or even better to a willing participant, you will definitely find the rough spots, points of confusion, and even typos. Keep a pen in hand as you go, mark the copy as you find the problem areas, and keep going. Then go back and smooth things out.

I even print out everything I write (yes, I recycle!), literally holding the pages in hand to read aloud. Keep in mind your prospect may do this too—and you want to see what THEY see.

Not only will you find the weak spots in your copy—you will also have a complete visual of how the copy flows. If there is too much dense copy on a page, you can break it up with bullet points, subheads, and more “white space” making it easier to read and comprehend.

Creating compelling copy is an art, and there is so much more we could discuss.
But even with these seven simple strategies, you can instantly power up your copy and effectiveness. If you already outsource your copy, this will also help you gain more clarity about the necessary foundation you want for all of your marketing.

About the Author

Tina Lorenz is called the “Queen of Copy” and “Millionaire Maker” because of her multi-million dollar online launches. Watch her free marketing videos at www.authentic-copy.com

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3. 7 Critical Elements of Sizzling Salesletter Copy: Part 2

Everyone always wants to start the New Year off with a bang. Imagine I offered you a crisp, fresh, $100 bill for every $50 bucks you gave me every single day in 2011. We’d be instant friends (or at least solid acquaintances).

Not to mention you’d give me every $50 you could get your hands on.

Unfortunately, skyrocketing your conversion rate takes serious work, not to mention some dang good copy. Keep reading and we’ll walk through 3 simple (but not necessarily easy) steps that’ll breathe new life into your copy and boost the sales you’re getting now.

1. Be Picky About Your Prospects

There are around like 266,224,500 Internet browsers in the US alone (Internet World Stats) who spent $156 BILLION online in 2009. Logic dictates that if you grab just a small piece of that massive pie, you’re doing pretty good.

So you pull out the figurative 12-gauge and start blasting away…

Wrong answer.

It’s time to break out your laser… and hit them with a guided missile.

You see, when you know exactly who you want to hit, it’s a million times easier to find that guy and give him exactly what he’s looking for. The reason you want to do this? He’ll pay cash.

The problem is, finding your ideal prospect takes a whole lot of brain-breaking work.

Here’s a cheatsheet to help you figure out who your perfect prospect is. Break out a pen and paper and start writing:

1. Define who your prospect isn’t. E.g. If you’re selling info products on menopause, teenage boys definitely aren’t interested. Same goes for WoW strategy guides and 73 year old grandmothers.
2. Pump your past buyers for demographic information. Setup a free survey somewhere like Zoomerang or Wufoo and ask your list for key information like age, sex, income and why they bought your product.
3. Picture the guy who is really hurting. You want people who are at the end of their proverbial rope, and serious about buying. The guy who is 80 lbs overweight sees the Fat Burning Furnace and thinks “I honestly/desperately/definitely need that.” The guy who is 5 lbs overweight thinks “I kinda want that.”
4. Find the “hidden meaning” in other promotions. Check out sites that have exploded in your niche. Pick through their benefits and pull out what button they’re truly hitting. E.g. “Perfect for someone who doesn’t care about what is actually going on in the world” which translates to “you know what’s going on in the world” and means feeling included and “in-the-know” is important for this prospect.

These four pieces will start getting you inside your prospect’s head. Perfect for adding serious sales volume…

Step 2. Paint Your Prospect’s Picture

Now that you’ve got a rough skeleton of who your prospect is, it’s time to make him (or her) come to life. Your goal is to be able to close your eyes and see your prospect sitting in front of you, AMEX in hand, begging to hit the “buy” button.

To do that you need four categories:
1. Demographic Info
2. Current State
3. Beliefs
4. Desires

Here’s what those might look like for a weight loss prospect:

1. Demographic Info – 37 years old, married, household income of < $60,000, white male.
2. Current State – Knees hurt, feels tired all the time, hates his reflection, is afraid of the beach.
3. Beliefs – Diets don’t work, deep-down there is something wrong with him, exercise is confusing, people don’t like him because he’s fat.
4. Desires – To be skinny with 6 pack abs, to like himself, to have women find him attractive.
The “desires” are the element that just about everyone gets right, but knowing your prospect’s current state and beliefs will put you miles ahead of your competition. With those pieces you make your copy “click” inside your prospect’s head.

Step 3. Make Him An Offer He Can’t Refuse

Now that you know exactly who your prospect is and what he wants, you need to make him an offer that hits every one of his buttons.

To do that you’ve got to pull him back to every tantalizing taste of heaven you’ve given him reading your copy. In other words, you don’t want him to simply see what he could be, you want him to feel it.

For the guy who wants to lose weight that means:
• A chance to walk along the crowded beach and not even remember days when you hated having your shirt off.
• Look in the mirror and be impressed.
• Feel like Brad Pitt when you walk in the room.
• Want to try washing clothes on your stomach – just to see if it works…

Don’t forget, this is the piece that every word of your copy was built up to. This is the climax. Don’t skimp on it. Please don’t rush it.

Now, once you’ve established what all the major benefits are going to smell, taste and feel like… ask for the order.

If you’ve got a guarantee, this is the perfect time for it. Then ask for the order again.

Note:Don’t chicken out or beat around the bush – he wants what you’ve got – tell him how to get it!

Next, start counting the dollars.

The Wrap Up

Most people want to skip the piece of understanding who their prospect is. Wrong answer. The better you know your prospect, the easier it is to sit down and sell to him. Not to mention, by putting serious effort into figuring out who you’re selling to, you’ll be able to make the perfect offer. It’ll be more like giving than selling.

With these 3 steps you can make a New Year’s resolution that will make you money. Keep testing, tweaking. I hope these tips help your copy convert as much as they help my clients and me!

About the Author

Lance Johnson is a sales page Copywriter for Online Support Solutions. To learn more about Lance Johnson or to request a critique of your sales page, email him at lance@onlinesupportsolutions.com.

Take a look at these related posts:

1. The Secrets of Writing Sales Copy That Converts
2. 7 Critical Elements of Sizzling Salesletter Copy: Part 1
3. New Analytics in Depth – Exploring Sales Funnel Metrics: Part 1

Check out this video by Internet marketing veteran Brad Callen. Brad has made millions in Internet marketing over the years, and in this video he walks you through several ways to get FREE search engine traffic to your website. In this video Brad discusses powerful link building strategies including both manual and automated options. Don’t miss this!

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3. Affiliate Strategies: A Powerful Technique to Test New Products- Part 1

Whether you’re an affiliate or a vendor, the number one thing you are constantly striving for is better conversions. You split test everything from the subject lines of your emails to the color of the order button on your pitch page in hopes of bumping up that conversion rate even just half of a point. Why are we all obsessed with conversions? Why do we spend hours poring over our iContact or AWeber statistics and why do we dedicate a huge chunk of our time to constant testing? It’s simple: higher conversions = a higher ROI = more money in your pocket. Not to mention, higher conversions means that affiliates are more likely to promote your product.
To help you in your constant quest for that ever elusive peak conversion rate, this article will show you three sneaky tips that you can implement this week to double your conversion rate.

(Please note: These tactics are not Google-friendly. If Google is a significant traffic source for you, these tips will probably not work for you.)

1) Use the Presale/Follow-up One-Two Punch.

Did you know that 80-85% of people who click the ‘BUY’ button and arrive on the payment form actually end up abandoning it? Some people say the percentage is even higher than that! This could be for many different reasons – from second thoughts to simple issues like “I’m too lazy to go find my credit card now” or “my wife/husband is calling me for dinner” or a random technical issue on the side of the credit card processor. The only thing we need to do in each of these cases is ask the customer to try one more time.

So, instead of sending your prospects directly to the payment form, use a “squeeze page” to collect the customer’s name and email address before you send them to the order form (see example below). You may have heard that adding this extra step in the order process will reduce your conversions. However, I have performed numerous split tests and adding the squeeze page to the order process has never had a negative impact on my conversions.

According to my tests, the ideal pre-sale form must contain the following:
• A request for the customer’s email address, first name and last name. You can (and should) automatically pass this information to the ClickBank order form so that the customer does not have to enter them again.
• Trust Guard seal (or similar type of seal) saying that your business is verified and legitimate.
• Progress bar at the top of the form showing where the customer is at in the order process and what they can expect next.
• A few testimonials, if you are allowed to use them.
• A product image (package) so customers can visualize what they are buying.

According to my split test results, I am able to capture about 85% of my leads this way! This means that for every 1000 customers who click my ‘BUY’ button but do not purchase, I am able to capture the names and email addresses of 850 of them!

These are the hottest leads any vendor can get because all of these people not only Clicked “BUY,” but also cared enough to fill in their details with a clear intention to buy!

All you need to do now is follow up with this list by sending them an email and offering them an incentive to try their order one more time. The incentive could be in the form of a bonus, a price discount or a free give-away. According to my results, 25-30% of them will actually try again and buy it, so you can easily increase your conversions by 30% by implementing this tactic!

2) Use a Video Sales Letter

Using a video sales letter as your main sales pitch, or using it in conjunction with a text sales letter that goes under the video, can easily boost your conversions up to 34% according to my split test results. Video sales letters are easy to create once you know the proven formula and follow it carefully. I believe video sales letters work for several reasons.

First, with text-only sales letters, you’re only able to stimulate one of your customer’s five senses: sight. And in our time-crunched, attention-deficit society, most customers will not take the time to read your sales copy long enough to become truly engaged in your pitch.

With video sales letters, however, you can stimulate a second sense: hearing. Not only can your customers read your pitch, but they can also listen to you say it! Now you can use tone, humor and inflections in your voice to emphasize certain points – all of which help keep the customer’s attention! Moreover, giving customers the ability to hear you can help you gain their trust and give them the sense that they “know” you.

Also, video is still a novelty in marketing since 90% of vendors are still using old school long-form sales letters. Customers are used to those long scrolling pages and they tend to get “sales letter blindness.” Instead of reading your 14-page masterpiece about how you got rich overnight by finding a super trick that no one else has yet discovered, they simply scroll down to see the price and leave your page forever without giving you a chance to build the value first.

With a video sales letter YOU control the selling funnel. You don’t allow customers to fast-forward the video (the equivalent of scrolling to the bottom of your sales page) so they either have to leave or listen to it fully to realize the full potential benefits of your product.
Yes, some customers will be irritated by the lack of controls on the video or they may get bored watching it and leave your page before the video is over. However, don’t worry about losing them because those people were never serious about buying from you anyway. The people who are actually interested enough to watch your video to the end are the ones you care about. They are fully engaged, ready to buy your product, and a large percentage of them WILL convert!

Video sales letters tend to work great in Internet marketing, weight loss, and other smaller niches.

3) Using Exit Chat and Exit Splash

I guess everyone has seen these annoying exit splash pop-ups that appear on many sites. Despite its annoying effect, it really does work and it’s a great way to capture leads! If the prospective customer is not convinced enough to buy your product right then, he may still be interested in getting a freebie that you can offer him on a squeeze page that appears after the exit splash.

According to my tests, using what I call the “video fake-out trick” on the squeeze page can further increase conversions. The “video fake-out trick” involves using a flash player that looks clickable because it contains an image of a play button. If the prospect clicks it, a pop-up appears saying something like “You are really going to love this video. Simply enter your email address in the opt-in form below for instant access.” Don’t play the video BEFORE the customer opts in because most of them won’t find enough time to watch the entire video and will leave before you’re able to capture their information.
I’ve also found that using an exit chat that appears to be a live operator is another great way to boost conversions. Program the “live” chat robotic operator to offer customers a $10 discount and watch your conversions increase 35-40%!
Like you, I am constantly testing and searching for ways to increase my conversion rates. These are some my best tips and I hope they work as well for you as they have for me!

About the Author

Mike Sole has been a successful ClickBank vendor since 2007. You can learn more about Mike and his split-tests by visiting his blog at http://whatsworkingnowreport.com/.

Take a look at these related posts:

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3. New Analytics in Depth – Exploring Sales Funnel Metrics: Part 2

Harnessing Mobile Trends

It’s virtually impossible to ignore the buzz around mobile platforms these days and these mobile trends are particularly relevant to marketers. As customers demand their content be delivered in new ways, it creates new opportunities for vendors and affiliates.

As you look at mobile as a new channel to consider for your business, a few facts stand out as outlined in an article from eMarketer:

• Almost everyone is mobile as evidenced by mobile penetration in the US weighing in at nearly 80%.
• Device and platform enhancements lead to new usage methods, creating more opportunities for marketers to reach their customers.
• Smartphones are on the rise. Half of mobile users are expected to have smartphones by the end of 2011.
• Mobile Internet adoption and usage is increasing. As a result, voice is becoming less relevant, and data is proving to be more important than ever.
• Mobile is changing the way we communicate. Social networks are quickly becoming the primary way mobile users exchange information.
• Mobile content is growing, and will continue to grow. With an increase in demand for mobile content as well as an increase in the amount of mobile content available, the need to pay for that content either through user fees or advertising is also growing. This content includes apps, games, news, digital products and much more.

So, what do these trends mean for you and your business? For vendors, these mobile trends present new ways to reach customers of existing products, as well as creating new opportunities altogether. One way to take advantage of a new opportunity is to create an app complementary to your product or niche. For affiliates, the growth of mobile applications means new ways to promote products through mobile advertising, and the chance to reach an entirely new customer base.

The App “Situation”

Last month, MTV reality star Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino launched his own app designed to provide the user information, entertainment and location tracking to help them find the gyms, tanning salons and laundry facilities that are so essential to his life and image. Additionally, his app offers games, tips and the ability for users and fans to text with Sorrentino directly.

Although this app is an example taken from pop culture, it also showcases the success of taking a product or image and turning it into an application to increase customer value, all while increasing sales. Within a week of its September release, The Situation app shot to the list of top 10 grossing entertainment apps in Apple’s marketplace. The Situation app costs $4.99 and is compatible with iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.

Apps and Your Business

Adding an app to your product mix can serve a variety of purposes. Looking for additional revenue streams for your business? An app can do that. Do you want to build your brand name across a larger and more diverse user base? An app can do that. Interested in expanding into different channels (i.e., mobile)? An app can do that. Thinking of adding complementary offerings to an existing digital product? An app can do that.

There are countless ways you can use mobile applications for business, and this holds true across virtually every niche. For example, if you have a product in the heath and fitness niche, you may want to consider creating an app with functionalities like gym locating capabilities, workout routines, a nutrition plan, a diet log – really, the opportunities are endless. If you have a travel-related info product, for example, you may want to consider creating a location-based app. If you create or promote gaming products, you may want to consider creating a gaming app for your customer base.

Whether you plan to monetize your app by making it a paid version or through advertising, or if you’d simply like to offer it up for free to increase brand recognition, drive adoption and grow your customer base, it’s something worth considering. With the rapidly growing mobile environment, now is as good a time as any to take a good look at your business and your offerings to decide how to harness mobile trends and use them to your advantage.

Take a look at these related posts:

1. ClickBank Introduces Mobile Commerce Features
2. Mobile Marketing Tips for Internet Marketers [Video]

This is the second post in a two-part series.

How to Find Gaps in Niches, so You Can Create Your Own Clickbank Products

While being an affiliate definitely has its advantages, to take your income to a whole new level you need to start creating your own products.

With all of the freelance websites out there, getting an info product made is the easy part. The bigger challenge is figuring out what exactly to sell to your niche audience. I use the word “exactly” because you want be certain that your product will be a money-maker, even before you produce it.

Fortunately, there are some proven techniques that you can use to gain deep insight into the needs and desires of your niche. Using these techniques will go a long way in ensuring that your info product makes sales from the get-go.

In this section I’ll describe two techniques for discovering niche gaps: what I call The Private Investigator approach, and The Survey Researcher approach.

The Private Investigator Approach

The first technique won’t cost you a dime (unless you put a price on your time, which you should), and involves you putting on your “private investigator” hat. You’ll be going undercover around the Web to uncover clues about your niche’s problems!

Like a real-life private investigator, you’re going to observe people. Only in this case, you’re going to visit websites where your niche audience will tell you what their biggest problems are.

To gain the best insight into your niche’s pain points, you want to go to the places on the Web where people bare their souls. The best place for this is niche online forums. You can also obtain solid clues by looking at “problems” and “how-to” websites. Allow me to explain each.

Niche online forums

In a nutshell, niche online forums are places where people go to discuss very narrow topics. Back when the Internet was young, message boards used to be about everything and anything. Now we (as Internet marketers) have the benefit of forums that focus on niche topics and attract passionate participants.

Niche forums are an awesome place to gain insight into the pain that people are going through because they offer both the anonymity of the Internet, along with the support of being around like-minded people. Especially in health and relationship related niches, people will pour their souls out in online forums. Many of them will do so in hopes that someone with the same experience will provide a solution to their problem.

Here’s one way to find niche forums, and to use them to research your niche’s pain points:

1. Use a service like BoardReader.com to find forums related to your niche (BoardReader allows you to search by keyword, so you can be as specific or as general as you want). It’s important to pick out forums that have an active and passionate membership – otherwise, the intelligence you gather from it might be outdated. You can tell that a forum’s membership is active and passionate by looking at the quantity and recency of posts in the forum.

2. Once you’ve found a handful of active niche forums, do some searches to see what challenges members need help with. You can do this by entering terms like “problem” or “help” in the forum’s search box.

Here’s an example: I’ve been interested in the stay-at-home mom niche for some time, and was doing some forum research through BoardReader. I came across the forum wahm.com/jobs, which is an employment forum for stay-at-home moms. When I typed the word “problem” into the forum’s search box, here are some of the thread titles that popped up:

• “Need advice”
• “Emotionally drained”
• “Insecurities”
• “PLEASE HELP ME”

All of these threads were rich with ideas for products that could be targeted at stay-at-home moms. Can you see the desperation in the thread titles?

“Problems” and “How-to” Websites

No doubt you’ve come across these types of websites. They exist to help people solve problems, or to show people how to do something. General “problems” websites include sites like Yahoo! Answers, AllExperts.com, and Wiki Answers. On those sites anyone can post a question related to a problem, and anyone can provide an answer.

As you might imagine, the range of questions and answers on these sites is vast (there’s also quite a bit of spamming that goes on, with marketers posting fake questions, then providing an answer to the question themselves, and linking to a product they’re promoting). Then there are niche-specific problems websites, like DoctorsLounge.com, a site that provides advice from medical professionals.

Needless to say, I recommend the niche-specific problems websites over the general ones. While general sites like Yahoo! Answers are okay for getting a sense of the types of questions a niche is asking, there’s just too much junk on there to use it as a serious niche research tool. Focused sites like DoctorsLounge.com are much better sources of intelligence, however.

“How-to” websites do exactly what you would think – they show you how to do something, whether it is fixing the roof on your house, getting rid of your acne, or potty-training your child. Some great general how-to websites include HowToDoThings.Com, eHow.com, WikiHow.com, VideoJug.com and HowCast.com (with the latter two sites focusing on how-to videos). The great thing about large how-to sites like eHow.com is that they spend a lot of time and money trying to figure out what solutions people are looking for. You can piggy-back on this research by seeing how they answer the questions that your niche is asking.

Here’s an example: I went to eHow.com and typed into the search box “stay-at-home-mom make money.” Dozens of articles came back with titles like “How to Make Money From Your Stay-at-Home Mom Experience.” These articles have been researched by eHow’s freelance writers, and can often provide insight into what your niche audience is looking for.

An even better source of market intelligence is paid how-to websites. These are sites that require a person to pay (either by the minute, or a lump sum) to ask an expert a question. Here’s a tip: many of these sites don’t allow you to search for common questions, but you can pay an expert to tell you what are the most common questions that people ask them!

(Bonus tip: Once you’ve figured out the topic of your info product, interview an expert from one of these sites to get the content. Now your product has instant credibility!)

Check out LivePerson.com and JustAnswer.com as two examples of paid how-to sites.

The Survey Researcher Approach

In my opinion, surveys are absolutely the best way to deeply understand your niche’s pain points. If you use a properly-worded questionnaire, and target the right people in your survey, you reduce the risk of failure by 99%. (I know this from personal experience – most of my products have been developed using a survey, and they’ve all been profitable as soon as they were launched.)

In the survey, you’ll be honing in on exactly what people’s needs are – a solution that they’ve been desperately looking for, but haven’t been able to find. What makes a survey so powerful is that you’ll hear directly from your niche audience what they want, and they’ll usually tell you in great detail the challenges they’re facing.

This is extremely powerful information. Not only will your survey data allow you to “get inside the mind” of your niche audience, but you’ll be able to use parts of the survey responses in your ad copy, in your sales page copy, and anywhere else you communicate with prospective customers. So you’ll be able to use the exact language that your audience uses when talking to them! Using the language of your audience is essential in converting prospects into customers.

In a nutshell, here’s what the Survey Researcher technique involves:

a. Choose a niche audience and a problem facing that niche

b. Identify the top keywords related to that problem (5-10 keywords, but up to 50). It’s important that your primary keyword has strong search volume, for two reasons: (1) you’ll be able to get a good number of survey responses quickly, and (2) once you’ve had a product developed (or start promoting affiliate products), you’ll have a ready advertising source.

c. Set up a survey page on a domain (4-6 questions is a good amount to ask. If you ask more than that you’ll turn people off).

d. Set up a pay-per-click advertising campaign on Google (Yahoo also works but Bing generally doesn’t have enough volume).

I can hear what you’re thinking at this point: “I don’t have the money to run a survey through pay-per-click”. Well, I can tell you that I’ve run surveys for less than $100 and gathered enough information to launch a product. The key is to make sure that you go through the “Private Investigator” steps I described above, to make sure that you’ve identified real pain points of your niche audience.

If you have an existing email list, you can also get awesome insight by sending out an email survey to them. Lists are especially great for collecting market intelligence, because they’ve already opted-in, which means you’ve already established a relationship with them.

e. Drive traffic from your PPC campaign to your survey page.

f. Analyze the data once you’ve collected enough survey responses.

g. Build your product based on the responses in the survey.

h. Start advertising your new product using the keywords and traffic sources that resulted in completed questionnaires. The reason for this is obvious: if people who were searching on those keywords were willing to fill out your survey, they are also likely to be customers for your new product. Starting out your advertising this way will allow you to quickly make some profits and give you the money to expand into other promotional tactics.

If you’ve never tried the Survey Research technique for gaining insight into your audience’s needs, you need to get on it right away. There are heaps of people in your niche audience waiting to tell you what’s on their mind!

Wrapping Up

In this article I’ve described why a laser-beam focus on serving the needs of a niche audience is the best way to build a long-term online business. If you’ve been struggling to generate an income online, step away from simply picking products to promote, and look for an audience to serve. Follow the tips in this article to learn the needs, challenges, desires, and pain points of your audience. You’ll be rewarded with their enduring loyalty – and their dollars!

About the Author

Moe Muise, M.A., is a Clickbank vendor and affiliate. He blogs at www.KeywordsBlogger.com. Moe has 10 years experience in niche research, and has been perfecting his online research techniques for the past four years. To download your copy of Moe’s FREE 60-page, step-by-step niche research report, visit his blog at www.KeywordsBlogger.com.

Take a look at these related posts:

1. Proven Techniques for Finding a Profitable Niche: Part 1
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When I was a kid, my brother and I used to look forward to report cards coming out each quarter. If we did well, my parents would recognize and reward us for our efforts. We would get dressed up, go out to a fancy restaurant, and spend a leisurely 2-3 hour dinner as a family. Even today, I still have great memories of those reward dinners. While they weren’t the reason I worked hard in school, they sure were a nice bonus, and I appreciated the recognition of my efforts.

Being recognized and rewarded for loyalty, hard work, and success is a universal desire that manifests itself in several different forms throughout our society. Whether it’s a family celebration, a frequent flyer program, a punch card for your favorite coffee shop, or an invitation to join an elite club, we all like to feel valued by the people with whom we associate most. It is in that spirit that ClickBank’s business development department created the Premier and Apex programs.

We started the ClickBank Premier program in 2008 as a way to recognize our top vendors and reward them for their loyalty, ingenuity, and hard work. The program was so successful that we extended the idea to ClickBank affiliates and started the Apex program in 2009. We also increased the number of benefits awarded, and we’re in the process of dedicating more resources to each program.

The programs have also delivered huge benefits to us, as we’ve been able to build closer relationships with our top clients and work with them to make sure ClickBank remains the best solution for selling and promoting digital goods. In fact, we’ve got some exciting new features and enhancements coming out this year that are a direct result of our communications with Premier and Apex clients!

As with status levels in frequent flyer programs, members of the Premier and Apex programs must requalify each year. Every fall, we look at our sales for the previous 12 months and invite the top 100 vendors and the top 100 affiliates to participate in the programs. Current members who did not requalify are notified of this fact, while new qualifiers are invited to join.

If you’re reading this post and you’re not a current member of either program, I hope this inspires you grow your business with us and achieve Premier or Apex status. ClickBank will reward you for your loyalty, your hard work, and your ultimate success!

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