ClickBank VP Dush Ramachandran

Broomfield, Colo. – (August 6, 2009) – Dush Ramachandran, vice president of sales, marketing  and business development for ClickBank, a major online retail outlet, will share advice and industry insight on microniche marketing at Affiliate Summit East Aug. 9-11 in New York City.

ClickBank is widely considered to be an international leader in affiliate marketing with more than 100,000 active affiliate marketers working with the company to market its products and drive sales to a level of more than 26,000 transactions per day.

Ramachandran’s presentation is titled “Microniches – the Way to Mega Profits.” It will be available to only platinum and gold pass holders at Affiliate Summit East, which is now sold out with more than 2,000 affiliate marketers registered to attend.

“Using real-life case studies, I’ll demonstrate how affiliate marketers can promote products in a wide variety of small and focused niches, where there is little competition and marketing and advertising costs are inexpensive,” Ramachandran said.

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ClickBank also will unveil its newly designed trade show booth at Affiliate Summit East. The booth features a sleek new look, two oversized flat screen monitors, Astroturf flooring and an electronic ticker that displays ClickBank client payouts in real-time.

Ramachandran serves on the advisory board of Affiliate Summit and Affilicon, the international counterpart to Affiliate Summit, and helps plan content for both organizations’ affiliate marketing conferences. The conferences are widely considered a key source for affiliate marketing thought leadership and industry expertise.

Ramachandran joined ClickBank in 2005. He is responsible for ClickBank’s sales and marketing activities and alliances with affiliate and vendor organizations worldwide. Ramachandran has held executive leadership positions with domestic and international firms such as Requisite Technology, Conceptual Technologies, Computervision Corp., Prime Computer, Inc. and Datapoint Corp. He holds a bachelor’s degree in physics from St. Joseph’s College, Bangalore University, and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management.

Have you ever gone to the market or the grocery store early on weekend mornings, just after the fresh produce has been unpacked and stacked? Have you noticed just how full and red the tomatoes look? How crisp the lettuce leaves are? Just how desirable everything smells?

Your marketing plans are very similar. The fresher they are, the more likely they are to succeed. You probably built your site, wrote some articles, or developed your product a few years ago, based on the information you had at that time. The traffic started to build and sales came in steadily, but things have started to slow down now. You may be wondering if there’s something wrong with the way sales are being tracked. If you’re an affiliate, you may wonder why your traffic isn’t converting as well as it used to. The answer may lie in the freshness (or lack thereof) of your marketing mix.

The target market you aimed at when you first built your site or developed your product may have changed, and your message to them may need to change as well. The keywords that you used in your search advertising campaigns when you first started were probably converting well at that time, but may have become a bit stale by now. Consider re-investing in some research to determine which search terms in your space are converting well. You need to keep your marketing message and methods fresh to keep pace with the changing environment around us.

Even two years ago, widespread use of social media tools like Twitter to promote websites or products was virtually unknown. Today, however, it is a vital weapon in the arsenal of the savvy Internet marketer. So, for example, a marketing mix that does not include social media needs to be updated to take advantage of its popularity and reach.

Even products that were hot sellers six or nine months ago are not as hot today. When gasoline prices hit record prices last summer, the number of products that dealt with increasing fuel economy in cars skyrocketed, and their sales numbers rose to match the demand for them. Since gas prices have declined, so too has the popularity of these types of products. Today, with a global economic downturn well underway, the products that are doing well are those that enable people to weather this rough economic climate.

Constantly test and re-evaluate your product and your marketing strategy for freshness, and update any part of your mix that is becoming stale. You wouldn’t want your products or your promotions to suffer the same fate as last week’s produce, would you?

Whether you’re a ClickBank affiliate or vendor, it can be very easy to become stagnant in your marketing activities. Once you’ve found a particular niche or method of advertising that works for you, it can be very difficult to change your methods. Why would you want to fix something that isn’t broken, especially when any change could potentially lower your profits?

The important thing to keep in mind is that digital products, like any other market, fluctuate based on seasonality and trends in the outside world. Even highly successful products that pertain to a wide audience experience these sales fluctuations, so you need to take these changes into account if you’re going to maximize your profits.

What influences changes in market activity?

Many different factors contribute to the market being in a constant state of change. Some of these factors aren’t surprising, such as the state of the economy or seasonal changes. However, some things are less obvious, such as the current sports season, school semesters and breaks, and holidays. It’s important to ensure your marketing campaigns are taking these factors into account so you can get the most out of your efforts.

What can you do to maximize on current trends?

So, what can you do to capitalize on an ever-changing market? First, I would suggest taking time on a regular basis to research current events. What is going on in the world to influence sales trends or cause higher levels of interest in certain subjects?

Here are some specific examples of events that affect sales, and the types of products that are influenced by these factors.

State of the Economy: We are in a recession. Consumers are spending their money more carefully, so they look for products that offer a high return on their investment, or that save them money. Some products that sell well in a recession include alternative energy solutions, foreclosure guides, guides to making money at home, and even e-books on manifest reality.

The New Year: New Year’s resolutions are extremely popular every year, and lead to a big increase in sales for health-related products such as diet programs and fitness guides. The spike in sales is temporary, but significant.

Valentines Day: Romantic guides become very popular in the US market every February.

Sports Seasons: Some product types, such as fitness products or sports betting guides, tend to sell better during a particular sports season.

School Semesters: Products that may help you capitalize on the seasonality of the educational system include computer maintenance software, study guides, guides to teaching abroad, and guides for school applications.

Holiday Season: During the holiday season, customers are slightly less inclined to buy digital products, as they save to purchase physical goods as gifts for their loved ones. However, products that address pressing needs tend to be less affected by this trend. There are also products that deal directly with the holiday, such as recipe e-books and gift idea guides, which sell well during the holiday season.

There are billions of potential customers, all of whom are unique and who are affected by cultural and seasonal trends in different ways. By staying aware of these trends, and being proactive about changing your marketing methods to stay in tune with these changes, you can maximize your efforts and be more profitable than ever.

Do you know the most important marketing strategy in your business?

In a world filled with marketing experts extolling the virtues of duplicating proven practices, I have a bit of a contrarian view. That’s because relying too much on copying others can actually work against you in your quest for long-term success.

Whether you are marketing your own products or services or promoting other people’s products as an affiliate, positioning is key in determining your long-term success.

By developing an intimate understanding of positioning and applying it to your writing for your own marketing materials and to those of your clients, you’ll build stronger and more persuasive campaigns.

What is Positioning?

Positioning is the process of placing your firm or product above your competition in the prospects’ mind in a way that pulls prospects to you.

Marketing pioneers Jack Trout and Al Ries wrote the definitive work on the concept, entitled: “Positioning: The Battle For Your Mind.” Even though this book was written several years ago, it is still vital in business today.

In every business or product category there are thousands of competitors fighting for the same market. The goal of positioning is to be the top choice to do business with and buy from.

Positioning is not about competing, but differentiating. To be specific, the goal is to differentiate yourself (or the product you are promoting) to the degree that you become the only viable choice in the customer’s mind.

Many companies try to outperform their competitiors by offering discounts and lowering their prices. Positioning, on the other hand, eliminates the need for price-based promotions and focuses on creating a consumer mentality where you are considered the most desirable option, no matter what the cost.

Pretty powerful stuff!

Of course, understanding what positioning is does nothing in and of itself. You need to learn and apply the tools of positioning in order to gain any benefit at all. It’s the application of these strategies that will put you in the favorable position of being that top-of-mind choice within your target market.

Vive la Difference?

Loosely translated from French, the phrase “Vive la Difference” simply means “celebrate the difference.” The first step towards the effective use of positioning within your marketing is to define how you are different from your competition.

Without differentiation, there can be no hope of achieving a strong positioning edge. As I often say in my work: don’t duplicate, differentiate. Be different so that you gain, and maintain, a top position in the mind of your market.

It’s quite common to receive marketing advice telling you to research your competition, but without care, this can be a deadly practice. It’s all well and good to know what your competitors are doing; after all, no business exists within a vacuum. You should absolutely keep tabs on and know what your competition is doing.

What you must avoid, however, is the trap of assuming that in order to be successful you should be replicating what the leaders are doing.

All this accomplishes is the creation of a series of copycats that remind the consumer who the leader is, and reinforces the message that they should buy from the leader. When you engage in such practices, you’re effectively paying for the advertising edge of your competition.

In other words, copy what others do and you’ll only remind people of them and not you.

The only way to avoid becoming a victim of copycat syndrome is to develop your core identity based on how you are different from your competition, and create a unique identity on which to hang your promotional hat.

Anything else is bound to come across as less than genuine in the minds of your target market and certainly won’t help you rise above the crowd.

Determining Your Positioning

Determining your positioning can seem like a daunting task, especially in a highly competitive market. Fortunately, it often isn’t as difficult as it initially seems.

For one thing, most businesses don’t spend much time at all developing their competitive edge through positioning. This means that as someone aware of positioning, it’s usually fairly easy to spot an opportunity.

For another, even if a strong, marketing savvy competitor exists, as a copywriter or marketer you likely already have the creativity you need to make the breakthrough you are looking for.

Before you begin brainstorming ways to help your audience come to a favorable impression, it’s important to note that differentiation need not be drastic. This is where your research skills and any experience you have within the industry is priceless.

In some cases there may be no difference at all other than the fact that no one else in the industry is actually stating it. For example, several years ago there was a car campaign that used the statement that seven out of 10 drivers who test-drove their car, bought one.

What the campaign didn’t say is that the statistic was true for everyone else in the industry, too. It was just that no one else had used this little-known fact before in their promotional efforts.

The best part is, it would be impossible for anyone else to successfully come in after the fact and not sound like a “me too” copycat. If they do they will only remind your market of you.

This brings about another factor that is essential to positioning. In order to gain the most traction from your efforts, you must be first. Or, at least, be perceived to be the first in some way, shape or form.

The difference you choose to exploit needs to work towards the building of a perception of originality. Granted, differentiation is only the beginning. Being different than or superior to the competition is one thing, but to consistently maintain that position is another story altogether. But that is a story for another day.

Until next time, practice unveiling the differences that can set you apart from the competition to develop a strong foundation and create top-of-mind-awareness. As a result, you will have a stronger marketing edge in your copywriting efforts.

Michel Fortin is a marketer, copywriter, and author of many books and courses. For more information about Michel, including how to get your hands on several free ebooks, visit his blog at http://www.michelfortin.com.

One of the best ways to meet and interact with other like-minded entrepreneurs is through the Web site Meetup.com. No matter where you are in the world, you can create or join a group in your city and start meeting and working with other ClickBank publishers and affiliates. Starting your own Meetup group costs as little as $12/month, which could pay for itself if you make just one extra sale a month through ClickBank. Joining an existing group is free!

Some of the ways a ClickBank Meetup group could benefit you include:

• Finding new products or niches to promote as an affiliate
• Getting feedback on your ClickBank product prior to release, or getting advice on improving an existing product
• Brainstorming ideas for new products
• Meeting people who can teach you new skills or assist you in areas that aren’t your strength (for example, if you’re a great copywriter but don’t know anything about Web design, you might meet someone with the opposite skill set who would love to work with you on a new product)
• Discussing the latest and greatest techniques for promoting products inexpensively

These are just some of the many ways that working directly with other people can help you grow or strengthen your online business. If you’re interested in starting an affiliate marketing Meetup group in your area, click here to get started. Since you have to choose from a list of pre-defined topics for your group, we suggest “Entrepreneur,” “Network Marketing,” or “Internet Professionals.”

If you organize or are a member of a Meetup group that discusses ClickBank, fill out the form below and give us a link to your group on Meetup. We’ll list existing groups so that other people in your area can join up and grow the network of ClickBank publishers and affiliates helping each other succeed!

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This is part one of a five-part, five-day series about how publishers can attract more affiliates.

As many successful Internet marketers already know, ClickBank’s extensive affiliate network can be a powerful force for taking your product’s sales from mediocre to massive. Unlike most advertising and promotional efforts, ClickBank only pays out commissions to affiliates on your behalf for completed sales. This makes our affiliate program much more cost-effective than other traditional methods of product promotion. For example, when you place a paid advertisement in a search engine, you have to pay for the cost of the ad even if the clicks you get generate little or no sales. With our affiliate program, you are only paying for marketing costs when you’re actually making money.

To really succeed as a ClickBank publisher, you need to get as many affiliates promoting your product as possible. In this five-part series, I’ll show you some of the best techniques for becoming an affiliate magnet!

Tip 1: Take Advantage of the ClickBank Marketplace

ClickBank provides all new publishers the option of being listed within our ClickBank Marketplace: http://www.clickbank.com/marketplace

The question is, with the ClickBank Marketplace containing over 15,000 products, what can you do to obtain the most exposure and make your product attractive to affiliates?

The first thing that most new publishers don’t realize is that the majority of the Marketplace audience is comprised of affiliates, not consumers. So rather than have your Marketplace title and description tailored to consumers, you should use it to describe what makes your product appealing to affiliates.

Do you have a high commission percentage, a high payout or a Web site containing useful affiliate tools to help them promote your product? Be sure to list features like these in your Marketplace description so that affiliates can quickly see why they should promote your product.

To edit your Marketplace title/description, you’ll need to log in to your ClickBank account, click the “Account Settings” tab, the “My Site” link, and the “Edit” link under the “Marketplace Information” section, then modify your Marketplace description as needed.

Be sure to click “Save Changes” when finished!

Check back tomorrow for the second tip on becoming an affiliate magnet – creating an affiliate tools page.

Part Two: How to Get Started With Twitter

Step 1: Choose a Name (Twitter ID) and Update Your Avatar and Profile
You should decide whether you want to brand yourself, your persona, or your company’s brand on Twitter. Your decision should be based on who you intend to communicate with on Twitter. You may choose to have a Twitter account for your own name, where you communicate with fellow marketers, and have a separate account for your product brand that you use to communicate with your customers.

It’s important to edit your profile with useful information, such as your blog address and a short blurb about yourself explaining how you can help your target audience. Add a picture to your profile immediately. Using the default Twitter avatar can make you seem like a spammer. When you have an avatar that displays your smiling face, it becomes much more inviting to engage in conversation with you.

Step 2: Begin to Tweet
You can start off by mentioning that you are trying to figure this ‘Twitter thing’ out and then share a bit about yourself. Follow that up with some resourceful tips that would pique the interest of your target audience. It’s a great practice to ask questions in your tweets as well. The feedback you get from your followers will expose you to new ideas and tools you’d never have found on your own.

Step 3: Start Following People
When you follow someone on Twitter, all of their tweets will appear in your timeline.  You will see the discussions they are engaged in, as well as who they are communicating with. You should follow people who share similar interests with you. After all, you need something in common to talk about.

Use the Twitter search tool to find like-minded people to follow. Visit http://search.twitter.com and type in your area of interest. Let’s say that your niche is gardening. Once you type ‘gardening’ into the search box, a list of everyone that has been tweeting about gardening recently will appear. Within that list you’ll find potential customers, as well as other experts in the gardening niche.

In addition to following these individuals, I recommend that you click on their avatar and check out their profile. If they have a link to a blog or Web site, check it out to learn more about them. Then I recommend that you send them a tweet mentioning that you checked out their blog and really enjoyed their recent post, or something along those lines.

You can direct a tweet at someone in one of two ways. You can either direct message them, in which case they will be the only person that views your tweet. Alternatively, you can use the @ symbol and make your tweet public. For example, let’s say the Twitter ID of the person you are sending the message to is ‘gardenguru.’ Your tweet would look something like this: @gardenguru I’m looking forward to learning more about you. Your recent blog post was outstanding!

This tweet would be made public for everyone to see, and because you started off your tweet with the @gardenguru your tweet will appear in the replies section of @gardenguru’s Twitter page. The benefit of making your tweet public, rather than a direct message, is that everyone will see that you are indeed on Twitter to network and aren’t just a self-promoter.

Step 4: Engage in Conversation
When someone posts a question, comment, or statement in a tweet and you have an opinion, share it with them. If ‘gardenguru’ is looking for the best fertilizer to use for his watermelons, you should respond by tweeting: @gardenguru I’ve been growing watermelons for years and found brand x to be the best.

You have now become a resource for ‘gardenguru’ with one simple tweet! Also, other Twitter users will have viewed your useful tweet, making you more of an expert in their eyes.

One of the best ways to learn how to get the most out of Twitter is to follow people who are using it effectively and learn from the conversations that they are having. After you sign up to Twitter, feel free to follow my tweets by visiting www.Twitter.com/TheFitB and clicking on the follow button. Send me a tweet letting me know that you found out about me through the ClickBank community, and be sure to let me know how I can be of help to you.

In my next blog post, I will share the most effective strategies for promoting ClickBank products using Twitter without being seen as a spammer.  Be on the lookout for “Twitter Turn-ons and Turn-offs” soon!

Scott Tousignant of www.unstoppablefatloss.com harnesses the power of social media to help bring him closer to his goal of reversing the nationwide obesity trend by 2015. Connect with Scott by following him at www.Twitter.com/TheFitB

In my job, I speak to our largest publishers and affiliates pretty much every day. Just the other day after a conversation with one particularly successful publisher, it struck me that there is a common thread that runs through all successful publishers.

While their businesses may be different and the areas of their specialization may be diverse, they all have very similar habits. As I continued my conversations with these publishers, I jotted down the common habits that distinguish these successful people, and here they are for your enjoyment and edification:

1. Stay close to your passion: The most important thing is to create a product about which you are passionate. That passion and commitment to the subject matter will show through, as will the lack of depth and insincerity if you are merely recycling material you may have found elsewhere. Being passionate about your topic will also help tide you over in lean times when sales of your product suffer a dip, as even the most popular products do.

2. Work hard: Contrary to all the hype you hear about making money in your sleep, the most successful publishers will tell you that they work extremely hard at their products. Whether it’s creating updated versions of their products, staying on top of their customer service or putting together material for affiliates, it is serious work. The good news is that you’re working for yourself; you can usually choose the hours you work, spend time with your family and devote time to your hobbies and passions. And the rewards for the hard work are handsome indeed – not just a pat on the back by the boss.

3. Don’t be afraid to pick an obscure topic: Passionate about the migratory patterns of the monarch butterfly? Write an ebook about how to attract them to your garden. Consider yourself an authority on the arcane topic of growing miniature Bonsai trees? Write an ebook on the best how-to tips for cultivating a Bonsai garden. The beauty of the long tail ClickBank model is that no matter how obscure your topic, there are affiliates who would like to promote the product and customers who will gladly pay for it. You don’t have to write another Internet Marketing ebook – unless that’s your passion.

4. Collaborate: An amazing number of our very successful publishers collaborate with one another, offering suggestions and helping each other. Internet marketing is not all cut-throat competition, it would appear, as the successful publishers have proven that it is better to collaborate constructively than to compete destructively. Consider joining a Mastermind group in your specific area of interest or subject matter. There is a lot of good information that is shared at these groups.

5. Price your product right: Top publishers have figured out that a lower price is not necessarily more attractive. In fact, one publisher told me that his product converted much better at a price of $67 than at $37. In the digital product world, with no other cues to the quality of the product, price is often seen as the indicator of value. How do you figure out the optimal price for your product? That brings me to the next habit of successful publishers.

6. Test relentlessly: Another trait common to successful publishers is that they test everything extensively. The price of the product, sales page copy, the colors used on the site, the size and color of buttons, testimonials, audio, video – everything. Seemingly something as trivial as the font used on the page or the color of the ‘Buy Now’ button has a significant effect on conversions.

7. Be generous with your commissions: Successful publishers realize that affiliates make the difference between success and failure for publishers. Since publishers have no fixed costs, and only pay commissions when their products sell, being generous with commissions makes business sense. The most successful publishers seem to offer commission above the 50% mark with a good number of them at the very top end at 75%. See Bob Dunlap’s post on offering generous commissions for more detail.

8. Provide impeccable customer service: Our most successful publishers tell us that they will usually go to any lengths to provide exceptional customer service. And if the customer is unhappy, give them a refund – no questions asked. Affiliates quickly discover publishers that have excellent customer service and line up to promote their products. As it is often the affiliates’ reputation that’s on the line, they tend to guard their reputations,and will shun products if they feel that the publisher doesn’t have satisfied customers.

9. Believe in yourself and your product: Another common trait amongst the top publishers is their passion and near fanatical belief in, and enthusiasm for, their product. That kind of belief and confidence is inspirational and infectious, and comes through in whatever you attempt. People can’t help being moved by it. After all, would you buy something from someone who isn’t completely sold on it himself? Enthusiasm sells.

10. Do not be deterred by failure: Every one of our top publishers will tell you that before they hit upon the product that made them successful, they had a few (or more than a few) that were duds. But they learned from their failures and figured out what not to do. And undeterred, they picked up and went on.

By emulating the habits of the most successful publishers, you too can belong to the growing group of ClickBank success stories.

Posted by: Terra Goeres, Manager, Client Account Management

As many of you are probably doing, I recently called my investment advisor, Paul, to see how my investments were performing. Knowing that the news would not be good, I had prepared a little “survival kit” for myself to get through the rest of the evening: a funny movie, a pizza, a cold beer, and a shot of tequila just to take the edge off after the conversation. So there I stood, teeth gritted, shot in hand, prepared to hear the worst. But just as I was getting ready to tip back the shot glass, I got a surprising answer to my question. “Not as bad as they could be,” said Paul. I set the shot down, wiped the sweat off my brow, and started breathing again. Paul went on to explain that because my portfolio was diversified, I was doing OK. Yes, it had gone down, but it was still performing better than the market.

That got me thinking about our affiliates and the different strategies I’ve seen people use to be successful on ClickBank. The one I’d like to talk about today is the single-niche strategy. Many affiliates choose to focus their marketing efforts on a single area of expertise. This is a great strategy, as long as that niche continues to perform well on a consistent basis. Unfortunately, not all products do. In my experience at ClickBank, I’ve come to recognize 3 types of products: One Hit Wonders, Peaks and Valleys, and Consistent Performers.

One Hit Wonders
These products have a relatively short but highly successful lifespan because they fulfill a current and immediate need. Their sales skyrocket overnight, but when the need diminishes, the product sales diminish with it.

Peaks and Valleys
These products have a long lifespan, but their sales may fluctuate depending on cultural or economic trends or competing products in the ClickBank Marketplace or global marketplace. Anti-spyware is a good example of this type of product. Prior to 2005, anti-spyware programs were our top selling products. What happened in 2005?  Microsoft released their free anti-virus program, Windows Defender, and sales of other anti-spyware programs dropped. Fortunately, the niche has since recovered and is once again performing very well.

Consistent Performers
These products see neither massive spikes nor massive drops in their sales; rather, they are long-term products that consistently perform well. Because they fulfill needs that are never completely met, there is and always will be a demand for these types of products.  Many diet and fitness ebooks, dating advice ebooks, and “how-to” ebooks, such as “how to improve your golf swing”, fall into this category.

As you review your strategy for success, consider diversifying your portfolio and promoting products from more than one of the categories I’ve listed above.  For example, get in on large sales spikes by analyzing the population’s current needs and looking for products in the ClickBank Marketplace that fulfill those needs. These days, you might consider checking out products in the Money and Employment category or the Home and Family category.

Then, balance out your portfolio by also promoting a couple products from the Peaks and Valleys and/or the Consistent Performers categories. One of the great things about ClickBank is that we have products in almost every niche imaginable, so you are sure to find a product that interests you and fits into your marketing strategy. For example, before becoming an Internet marketer, were you in IT or software development? You may be very successful at promoting products in the Computing and Internet category.  Are you an avid golfer or a fan of extreme sports? Check out the Sports and Recreation category. Maybe you love dogs and have been successful at training your own pup.  Check out the Home and Family category and the Pets subcategory. Or perhaps you’re the person who is always playing matchmaker for your friends. Check out the ebooks in the Love and Romance subcategory, under Society and Culture.

As with the stock market, by diversifying your ClickBank portfolio, you can manage to remain consistently successful over time while also catching a big windfall now and then.

By the way, since I could no longer use the “bad news buffer” excuse for taking the tequila shot, I decided that a “celebratory” tequila shot was certainly in order! No sense in wasting perfectly good liquor.