Written by: Beau Blackwell, Client Knowledge Guru

We’re back with another great episode of Affiliate Marketing Today for your listening pleasure! In this episode, Dush and I interview Mark McRae, a successful ClickBank vendor in the foreign exchange niche.

Mark recently had an extraordinarily successful launch of his new product, Forex Master Method, and he shares with us some great tips on planning and executing a successful launch, selling higher-priced “premium” products, working with physical products, and delivering a fantastic customer experience that keeps customers coming back for more. Mark even gives tips for affiliates on how to successfully promote these kinds of products and earn big profits!

Whether you’re a vendor or an affiliate, Mark’s advice is useful for anyone who wants to take their Internet marketing game to a higher level and stand out from the competition.

Click here to listen!

ClickBank is excited to announce and invite you to the first ever ClickBank Exchange! The ClickBank Exchange is an Internet marketing conference that will take place on August 19th-20th at the Crowne Plaza Times Square in New York, NY. Our event will be action packed, with two days of high level educational content and networking opportunities.

An amazing collection of speakers and panelists has been assembled to teach you the strategies and shortcuts to building your digital empire. We’ve gathered a mix of industry leaders and under-the-radar marketing “ninjas” to share the specific tricks, as well as the business philosophies, that have helped them dominate the Internet marketing industry. Here are some of the many topics we’ll be covering at the Exchange:

• Keynote panel: How to build your Internet marketing empire
• The latest SEO tips & tricks from the CEO of SEOMoz
• The secrets of killer copywriting that really converts
• How to drive massive amounts of free, qualified traffic through Facebook
• How to be a marketing rockstar and get raving fans
• And much more!

In this day and a half of inside information guests will get real time cash creation secrets from the top Internet marketing millionaires that ClickBank has assembled. The speaker line-up includes:

• Gary Vaynerchuk
• Yanik Silver
• Joe Polish
• Chris Farrell
• Rand Fishkin
• Ryan Lee
• Marc Ostrofsky
• Jeff Siegel
• Mike Hill
• Joe Sugarman

And the list doesn’t end there! Discover the full lineup here.

ClickBank Exchange attendees are sure to learn more money-making techniques at this event than at any other event this year.

Click here for more information and to register today!

Written by: Guest Author, Nikki Young

The majority of people that start down the enticing road of Internet marketing give up soon after their first promotion. An extraordinary amount of effort for little profit sees many retire from the game almost immediately. Both affiliate marketing and online product marketing may first appear as easy ways to make money, but people soon realize that the web is not an easily tapped goldmine. Internet marketing requires commitment and hard work and can quickly become overwhelming.

The marketing processes involved span way beyond creating a web page or writing an eBook. As a vendor there are a broad range of marketing methods that can be followed, with few of them ever resulting in success. And as an affiliate, even the seemingly basic sifting through of products you might potentially choose to promote, presents a challenging task. From building a list of potential customers that trust your word, to launching a new product to market, being diligent enough to understand the multiple disciplines of online marketing is the downfall of many. However, for those with the staying power, Internet marketing is a great way to establish a lucrative online business.

For those of you just getting started with Internet marketing you will no doubt hear the following phrase many more times, and if you’ve been Internet marketing for some time you are about to hear it again: testing is critical! Internet marketers say this all the time because there are so many different marketing mediums available to be utilized in the marketing process, that it can be quite tempting to flitter back and forth trying out each one in part. Once a person doesn’t experience instant success with one, they tend to quickly switch to a new strategy, and then to another, and so on. The problem with doing this is that it means not fully realizing the potential of each marketing method. By constantly switching between strategies you aren’t giving one particular strategy a chance to flourish. Therefore it is vitally important that you test, test, and test some more with each process, strategy and theory, so you can rule out what doesn’t work and rule in what does.

By doing this you will be able to select the most valuable parts of each strategy and start to build a bulletproof strategy of your own. It is important to recognize early on is that there is no “one size fits all” in Internet marketing, and that the same strategies don’t work for every niche, or even necessarily in the same niche. What works for you might not work for someone else, and vice versa. So decipher what works for you through a continual process of trial and error. Develop a system of your own. It will take some time but will be well worth it in the end. And who knows, one day you might be able to sell your system online as a top-selling product!

Trying multiple marketing methods and only putting limited input into each will only bring frustration. Instead, focus all your energy on one or two marketing approaches. Master them and make sure you have exhausted their capabilities before moving on or adding a new approach to your armory. Don’t keep dipping your fingers in and out of a bucketful of ideas hoping that one will suddenly come to fruition.

Think long-term not short-term. Invest wisely in the short term in order to make money in the long term. And by this I mean investing in the help of some educational programs/books and the advice and help of mentor(s) to help you learn faster and get to your destination of success quicker. If you can master one or two approaches, you will be well on your way toward a successful business. If you learn only parts of a number of different strategies you will remain a “jack of all trades but master of none.”

Internet marketing can take its toll on you psychologically, especially when you have tried out a variety of marketing methods, invested financially and put in a lot of time and effort for little or no reward. But this psychological battle presents a critical stage in your development and success. This is the very point at which many who made it past the first promotion and into further learning stages give up. A knack for perseverance is so very important in Internet marketing and indeed in starting any business. Don’t give up at the third hurdle. Stick by your guns and persevere with strategies that feel comfortable and complement your strengths and ability.

Four Solid Bits of Advice to Help You Succeed in Internet Marketing

Advice #1: Find a Mentor
Whether in business, self-development or Internet marketing, growth can be rapidly moved forward by finding a mentor. Mentoring helps you develop at a faster rate, helping you learn faster, develop skills more adeptly and avoid making the same mistakes over and over again. A mentor, like a good teacher, will help you understand exactly what you need to learn, how to learn it and the best time for you to execute the knowledge.

I seek mentors in my life because I know it’s the fastest way to learn. Not only has mentoring helped me to get to where I am today in Internet marketing, but it also continues to be very important to me in other areas of my life. By having a mentor for each important aspect of my self-development, I learn faster and succeed faster. Since starting out on my own journey as an Internet marketer I myself have become a mentor to others. It has truly been a pleasure watching those I have helped grow from online newbie to successful online entrepreneur.

Advice #2: Don’t Work on too Many Projects at Once by Yourself
A huge mistake beginners make is thinking they need to do everything alone. Focus your energy on the most vital areas of your business; the areas that encourage growth and will help you reach your goals faster. If you work on too many projects at once you will find your progress is slow and hindered by many barriers. You can’t be an expert in every discipline, so outsource work where you can. Set aside a budget for delegating work to third parties that prevent you from paying attention to more important areas of your business. Taking on more and more work yourself will see you bogged down unnecessarily in tasks that will significantly slow your progress. Outsourcing will also allow you to have more valuable time away from your computer.

Advice #3: Utilize Free Resources
When a person first decides to get involved with Internet marketing, he or she will be exposed to numerous different online money making products. These products appear as very attractive prospects, and it isn’t uncommon for people to get excited and buy into multiple products in a short space of time. The truth is, almost every marketing method you will read about is potentially a profitable one, but mastering one takes considerable time. Don’t splash out on multiple expensive products. Instead, choose one or two referred to you by your mentor(s). Learn them and utilize them to their full potential before moving onto another area.

In addition to this, make use of as much free information as you can. There is a huge amount of great reference material online that can be found in books, eBooks, video and on blogs. It is often difficult to sift through conflicting information and ideas online, but again, ask your mentor and trusted associates for help in directing you toward informative blogs, forums and other reliable free resources.

Advice #4 Maintain Persistence
You never know when the breakthrough will come, it could be next week, it might even be tomorrow, or it could take six more months. If things are getting on top of you then take a step back from your business and re-think your strategy. Ask yourself, “Am I focusing my energy, time and investment on areas conducive to leading me to my goal?” “Are there things I am avoiding, ignoring or only doing half heartedly that could better position me for success?”

Your success in business is dependent on your mental attitude, your strategy and your devotion to learning and developing yourself on a daily basis. Commit to your goal of becoming a successful Internet marketer and be persistent in your endeavours. Take these words of advice into consideration and go for it. I hope that they help you to become successful in your online venture.

About the Author
Nikki Young has been active in Internet Marketing for 4 years. During this time she has built up a successful online business, which includes the selling of her cookbook series within ClickBank. www.paleocookbook.com.

One great strength shared by successful ClickBank vendors is their ability to network. Vendors need to be able to entice lots of affiliates to promote their products to thousands of people in order to build a large list of customers.

Some people think they can simply launch a product on ClickBank and sit back and watch money fly out of their computer. That may have happened to a few people, however, it is more realistic to expect that you’ll have to build strategic alliances to increase the reach of the product or service you want to sell. This is where networking comes in.

Here are my top tips for networking and building a strong foundation before a launch:

1. Know your product or service. To start, you should write down a one-line sentence describing your product that would be easily understandable by any person you meet. For example, “A coaching programme for people who want to start a business.”

It’s also important to project product sales so you can work toward that goal. Many people write down a figure that represents the amount they want to earn in a tax year – $50,000, $100,000, $250,000 – and the number of paying customers they need to obtain to reach that figure. For instance if your product is $50 you’ll need 1,000 customers to hit your target of $50,000 in a year (plus there will be expenses on that figure to account for).

2. Build your credibility online. Find five websites in the same niche as yours. Slowly get more involved with those sites, become a regular reader and commenter and offer to write a guest post for their site. This will generate a link back to your site and help build your credibility online.

3. Determine social network targets. I’ve set a target for myself to achieve 10,000 connections on the three major social sites:

* 10,000 Twitter Followers
* 10,000 Facebook Likes
* 10,000 YouTube Friends

Your figure could be lower but it’s something to aim for before you launch your product or service. As a rule, if you plan to promote your product through social networking channels, you’ll need to get your social figures high since most people are so distracted online that only a small percentage will read and click on your links.

4. Email the experts. Make sure you have an email process in place to do so. You’ll need a plan for writing to the well-known bloggers and site owners. Keep these emails to a few lines, show enthusiasm and be as helpful as possible. You’ll be amazed by what help, advice and opportunities you might get back from the “Internet celebs.”

5. Attend industry events. Determine which relevant events are taking place over the next 12 months and make a point of going to five events. Spreading these dates out will ensure that you have a constant flow of emails to and from new contacts and opportunities from a variety of sources. Additionally, the contacts you make in “real life” can be more powerful than online.

Networking is a continual process and is a huge part of business. Scheduling networking time into your calendar is just as important as scheduling time for product or service creation, if not more!

About the Author

David Edwards is the founder of www.asittingduck.com and is currently the SEO Director at Webfactore Ltd.

Recently we’ve received a few client questions about issues affecting our industry, such as the FTC’s recent case against Ivy Capital and other “work from home” business opportunities. Specifically, some of you wanted to know how these issues might affect ClickBank vendors, and what we’re doing to address them.

First, please know that ClickBank appreciates the hard work and skill that our vendors put into developing quality products and effective sales messaging that appeals to customers. We want to do everything we can to support your efforts and ensure your products convert as well as possible, while also protecting you from the possibility of getting on the wrong side of the FTC.

We wanted to share some of the most important guidelines to keep in mind when creating your Pitch Page, upsells and other sales material. To ensure that ClickBank vendors stay in good standing with the FTC, we will apply these guidelines when approving new products and working with existing vendors.

• Most importantly, please do not significantly alter your Pitch Page after approval. We recognize that some changes are necessary for testing, but if you need to make significant changes to your page (such as earnings claims or images, sales messaging or video content), please notify our Product Approval team so we can ensure the new page is also in compliance.
• For Internet Marketing products: Per the new FTC information, sales material shouldn’t create the impression that customers can easily earn money without putting in much work, and should give specific ideas of how they’ll earn the money (e.g., content marketing, video marketing, social media, etc). Sales pages should also not overstate how much can realistically be made, or imply that earnings are guaranteed.
• The FTC also strongly discourages false urgency/scarcity messaging (for example, “Only 3 copies left!”) when there is no actual scarcity. Closing the doors to new customers after a specified amount of time and reopening later is fine.
• Any Pitch Page references to ClickBank sales stats need to be verifiable by ClickBank, and need to have been earned by the methods being promoted. For example, selling an affiliate training product using sales snapshots from a vendor-only account is not allowed.
• For vendors using video Pitch Pages, if a Buy Now button appears during the course of the video, the price must appear as well. We also request that vendors provide transcripts of video sales letters when submitting a product for approval.
• For upsells, the initial product purchased must be valuable and usable on its own, without requiring the purchase of the upsell offers. Customers must also be able to immediately access their original purchase upon completion of their order, before being presented with upsell offers. An access link may be placed on the first upsell offer page, but the link must be very clear and conspicuous (i.e., not hidden or in a small font). We highly recommend that vendors use ClickBank’s official upsell flows to present upsell offers to customers.
• Please submit product approval requests at least several days before your launch, so that ClickBank has time to thoroughly review the offer and request changes if necessary. This is especially the case for products with video sales letters, since making changes to these can take time. We may not be able to accommodate last-minute requests.
• To prevent customer complaints, vendors should not close refund request tickets or switch tickets from Refund to Tech Support more than once, and the latter should only be used when actually trying to help the customer and save the sale.

We hope this list helps make our guidelines clear. If you have questions about any of these items, please feel free to contact us and we’ll be happy to discuss them with you.

We also want to reinforce that our mission is to make you successful, while at the same time ensuring our industry is on a strong foundation that will last long into the future. Thank you for your valuable work, and we look forward to continuing our partnership with you!

ClickBank is proud to announce that we’ve introduced several new features designed to help our vendors and affiliates take advantage of the rapid growth of mobile commerce. These features will improve the mobile customer’s shopping experience when accessing ClickBank vendor Pitch Pages and the ClickBank order form, as well as giving affiliates an entirely new way to promote products to mobile customers.

Hop Traffic Management

This feature allows vendors to specify a mobile-optimized version of their HopLink Target URL (commonly referred to as the Pitch Page) and Thank You Page. ClickBank’s Hop referral tracking system will determine whether a Hop is occurring on a computer or a mobile device, and will route the customer to the appropriate version of the HopLink Target URL accordingly. This will improve the shopper’s experience and should result in higher conversions among mobile customers.

Mobile Order Form

If a customer reaches the ClickBank Order Form on a mobile device, we will now display a version of the order form that is visually optimized for smartphones and other mobile devices. Since users will no longer have to scroll or zoom in to view the order form, this should also result in improved conversions.

HopCode 2D Barcode Encoded HopLinks

We have introduced a new kind of HopLink that affiliates can use to promote products. When you click the Promote button in the Marketplace, enter your affiliate nickname and click Create, you’ll now see a barcode to the right of your HopLinks.

This barcode, which we call a HopCode, is encoded with your affiliate information just like a HopLink! When a mobile device user scans this HopCode with a QR code reader on their phone, they will be directed to the vendor’s HopLink Target URL, and you will earn the normal commission if a sale occurs.

This feature opens open many opportunities for new places to promote ClickBank products.

For more information about any of our mobile features, please visit our Help Center article.

Today ClickBank is announcing an exciting new feature now available to all vendors, to help both vendors and their affiliates get more out of every sale. Over the past year, ClickBank made the PitchPlus feature (formerly one-click upsell) available to a select group of vendors, and their success with this feature was impressive. Vendors who participated in this pilot program have sold more than $40 million worth of upsell, cross-sell or downsell offers to date. These are all purchases above and beyond the initial sale!

There are now two different versions of the PitchPlus feature that you can take advantage of and incorporate into your sales process.

PitchPlus Basic

With Pitch Plus Basic, the beginning of the order process works like any other ClickBank purchase; a customer visits your Pitch Page, clicks the payment link, then enters their payment information on the ClickBank order form and completes their purchase.

In a non-PitchPlus purchase, the customer is then taken to a confirmation page where they see their order details and can access the product. In a basic PitchPlus purchase, however, the customer is instead taken from the Order Form to an additional Pitch Page of your choice! The customer is given the opportunity to accept or decline the additional offer, and are then taken to a ClickBank Confirmation Page, which contains links to the individual Thank You pages of the items purchased. If they accept the additional offer, they’re able to purchase it immediately without having to re-enter payment details.

PitchPlus Advanced

Vendors must be approved for the PitchPlus Advanced feature, but once approved they can create PitchPlus flows with up to three additional offers. Like PitchPlus Basic, the order process begins like any other ClickBank purchase. After the customer enters their payment information on the ClickBank order form and completes their purchase, the vendor can display up to three additional offers to the customer within the same purchase cycle.

Within each step of the PitchPlus flow, you can decide what action to take if the customer agrees to the offer or declines the offer. Once the customer completes the flow, they are taken to a ClickBank Confirmation Page, which contains links to the individual Thank You pages of the items purchased. ClickBank automatically displays the correct combination of purchased items.

Vendors who wish to take advantage of these advanced multi-step flows must submit an application for access to PitchPlus Advanced to the ClickBank Security Team.  We will review your application, account history and intended use and respond to you directly regarding your request.

Remember, PitchPlus Basic is available to all vendors, while PitchPlus Advanced version is only available to approved vendors.

What Does This Mean for Affiliates?

Affiliates can earn additional money from PitchPlus sales too! Affiliates can receive a commission for each successful upsell purchase, with the commission rate for upsell purchases set by the vendor.

Affiliates can identify vendors in the ClickBank Marketplace who use PitchPlus offers by either looking for the PitchPlus icon ( ) or by choosing Advanced Search and selecting the Upsell checkbox under the Product Type section.  Affiliates can earn more with every promotion by promoting products from vendors who utilize PitchPlus.

Summary

The PitchPlus feature (formerly one-click upsell) is now available to all vendors. And remember, affiliates can benefit from the PitchPlus feature too by promoting products that come with additional offers!

PitchPlus is a great way to:

1) Make more money by offering additional, relevant products during the checkout process

2) Easily sell more products to customers who are already ordering from you

3) Attract more affiliates by offering extra commissions on upsell purchases

For more information on PitchPlus and for help setting up your PitchPlus offer, click here.

Written by: Michael Cecchin & Alex Miller of The Fat Loss Authority

Getting Started

Before you begin building your website or hiring freelancers, you need to decide what your niche or subject matter will be. I would suggest selecting a niche that you are familiar with, enjoy, and that has a definite demand for continuous content.

The worst thing is to be three months into the project and realize the niche puts you to sleep. You need something that is exciting for you!

I decided to choose the mother of all niches, weight loss. I guess it’s fair to say I like a good challenge, but you have to manage your expectations and figure out what is realistic when it comes to achieving your goals, and how much effort and investment you are willing to put in.

Your content should always solve problems and answer questions that users are likely to be searching for in the various search engines. Doing plenty of keyword research is necessary so you can target long tail keywords and avoid hard-to-rank-for terms like “how to lose weight” or “lose weight fast.” As a new affiliate marketer you have to be realistic with what you can achieve. But the long term goal is one of residual revenue and an online property you can eventually sell to reap the benefits of all of your (and/or your outsourcers’) hard work!

For example, a recent article I posted is on how to make your body burn more calories, which is obviously a topic with significant search volume. Once searchers find it, strategically placed affiliate ads will take users to a weight loss or diet supplement website. See how that works? Find a market you can corner that’s not over-saturated with competition and you can start building from there.

Content Needs

The days of content farms are drawing to a close, with even EzineArticles.com losing over 30% of its traffic due to a recent update to Google’s search algorithm.

The path to the future is clear—create an authentic site with quality content and a positive user experience. Otherwise, your organic ranking days could be numbered!

Once you’ve chosen what your website will be about, it’s time to start generating some excellent content. The keys to improving the flow of traffic to your website are quality content and genuine inbound links (link farms are also on the swift decline).

Setting your website up as an authority on a particular topic ranging from auto repairs to weight loss, using unique, quality content that is well-written, will help ensure your content drives the “right” kind of customers to the websites you promote.

The goal is to get people to your site and then on to the vendor’s site, and that requires helpful information that’s related to the vendor’s content. If you’re not a writer, or if you simply don’t have time to create content for an entire website, utilize the services of a freelance writer. These services can be found at sites like Elance, where I’ve found some of the best business partners around. Try to find someone that is already familiar with your niche, who has a basic understanding of search engine optimization and who can freely post quality content onto your site without you having to.

A professional with these skills will be able to provide you with high quality content that’s sure to bring visitors to your website. Without good content that keeps readers coming back, your affiliate links and promotions may not generate any additional income.

When you choose keywords to optimize for, make sure to choose phrases that are relevant to your subject matter and related to your vendor’s subject. You should also make sure to use phrases that would actually be searched for in search engines. For example, instead of ‘how to lose weight with oolong tea,’ which is too wordy, optimize your keyword text to read ‘oolong tea health benefits‘ and create a page title around that phrase.

Posting Frequency

An important factor in building a reputable site for affiliate marketing is posting fresh content to your site often. You want your site to become an authority on a subject, which means you want readers to check in with your website often for new content. By posting content at regular intervals, your readers know when to come for new information. Think of your website like a television show—you want readers to know when to come back for the next episode.

An authoritative website has many pages of content, which you will build up over time. This can’t be done in a few days. Give your website an edge by having a large amount of content ready for posting when your website goes live, and then continue to post high quality content regularly.

Networking

In addition to paying for the services of a freelance writer, you immediately want to begin networking with other bloggers. Bloggers with similar content may be able to act as ‘guest’ writers on your blog and you can do the same for their website.

[NOTE: If anyone is looking to exchange guest posts with us, just send a message via the contact form on our site].

By acting as a guest writer on another blog, it builds your reputation, and your website’s, as an authority on a particular subject. It tells your readers that you’re not just trying to make money, but you actually know what you’re talking about too. And those back links you get by guest posting will also help give your website’s rating a boost.

Inadvertent networking is another great way to boost your ranking in search engines. By creating high quality content that provides helpful information, other bloggers will link to your website as a credible resource, which will also improve your search engine ranking. This is why enjoying your niche is important, since it will make it easier for you to keep pushing out great content and chatting with new people in the industry.

Starting an authoritative website is fairly easy, and with the right tools you can be up and running in no time. Find your niche, stockpile your content for frequent updates, build your website and start linking! It’s easier than you think, and who doesn’t need another avenue to earn income these days?

Good luck!

About the Authors

Michael Cecchin in a successful Internet Marketer, Entrepreneur, and professional J-O-B escapee based in Toronto. Michael owns a number of online properties in the diet and fitness niche and is currently exploring opportunities in other niches. He has been working full-time online for the past 2 years and claims the terrifying memory of cubicle life is what keeps him motivated to continually expand his online business and live the dream.

Alex Miller is an affiliate and SEO superstar, originally from the UK and currently living in Orlando, Florida. Alex started as an affiliate in the Forex and fitness niche while building his SEO credentials. His main projects are now in the SEO niche, helping other business owners improve their site rankings through white hat tricks and tactics unavailable to mortal men.

You can check out their own authority site at The Fat Loss Authority Blog.

ClickBank prides itself on timely payments, and we want to make sure you are well aware of how best to manage your payments. Here are a few details to keep in mind:

Question: What is a Payment Change Deadline?
Answer: A Payment Change Deadline is the time by which all payment changes must be made. Specifically, after a payment period ends, all payment-related changes must be made by the following Tuesday. For example, if the period ends on 4-13-2011, then all changes must be made by 4-19-2011. The payment is then sent a week later, on 4-27-2011.

Question: What changes does this include?
Answer: Everything payment related!

This includes:

• Payee name
• Address
• Payment method
• Payment threshold amount
• Payment frequency
• Banking information change

Question: What if I receive electronic payments from ClickBank?
Answer: If you receive an electronic payment from ClickBank, ANY change to your banking information must be done and confirmed a full week before the payment is sent. Changes made later than this will not take effect until the next payment. To keep our system secure and protect your account, we can make no exceptions to these deadlines.

Question: What if I want to change my payment details the day before my payment is sent?
Answer: Sorry, you can’t change your banking details the day before payment is sent and have the payment be sent using the new information. Any change must be done a week prior to payout.

You can read our full accounting policy here:
https://www.clickbank.com/accounting.html

The portion of the policy that deals specifically with the Payment Change Deadline is here:
https://www.clickbank.com/accounting.html#A5

If you have any questions about this deadline, please email paychecks[at]clickbank.com or open a ticket for support. Happy earning!

Written by: Beau Blackwell, Client Knowledge Guru

We’re back with a new episode of Affiliate Marketing Today. In this episode, I talk with Internet marketing veteran and membership site expert Ryan Lee on how he’s managed to build multiple 7-figure membership-based businesses, and how it’s not nearly as hard as you think to create and maintain a membership site or continuity program.

We also cover important tips like how to get people to sign up for your program in the first place, and how it’s possible to create a very successful business by creating inexpensive membership programs (we’re talking less than $5 per month).

Click here to listen now!

If you’re interested in finding out more about these inexpensive membership sites and how you can easily create them yourself, check out Ryan’s new program Nano Continuity.