Before we start searching for keywords, we prefer to have a goal in mind and that means that we want to already have the product or service we are going to promote selected. We have been down the path of general market research to uncover a niche (pronounced neesh) and in our opinion it takes way too long and is way too complicated.

Instead we prefer to find a product or service that is already selling or at least starting to sell and then we figure out who is buying it and what words they are using to buy it. Once we know that, then we can figure out how to make a better offer. This does not mean we actually build a competing product (which is a possibility down the road) but instead we figure out a unique selling position (USP) that makes our offer better then the rest so people buy through us. But before we get into that, we need to find a product.

Finding the Right Affiliate Product

There are different ways this can be done and just today we were asked by a friend of ours, Sheena Brown, how do you find good products to sell. We asked her why and she mentioned that she came across a really cool gaming product, called the Razer gaming keyboard, that has an affiliate program and she was considering selling it.

Our response to her was… “that’s the first step.. look for products that you yourself would buy.”

This is extremely important because this shows through in your marketing efforts. People tend to be able to smell cow dung from a mile away and you may be able to fool a few people some of the time but you cant fool all the people all the time, so if you try promoting a product that you yourself would have no interest in buying, this often will show in your message.

OK, thats great if you already know a product you want to promote but what if you don’t… where would you find these type of products or services?

In our opinion the easiest place to start is with the main affiliate networks such as ClickBank, Commission Junction, Link Share and so on. These networks take a lot of the hard work out of the process because they act as the middle man between the sellers and affiliates. They manage the tracking, finances and all that good stuff and make it very easy to search through and find products to sell.

List of Top Affiliate Networks…

• ClickBank
• Commission Junction
• LinkShare
• Regnow
• Shareasale
• Performics

The other option is, if you know the product you want to sell then you can see what stores have affiliate programs available. To do that simply type in the keyword or product name and include “Affiliate Program” in the search such as…

razer keyboard “affiliate program”

Click Here to Enlarge

Or, if you know the site that sells the product and you cant see if they have an affilaite program, simply search using the google site filter such as…

site:www.thedomain.com affiliate

Click Here to Enlarge

This however does not really solve the problem of helping you find the right product to choose and the reason is, if you don’t already have something in mind then where in the world do you even start?

So, we need to back up a little… and for those of you that already think you know what you want to promote, don’t worry about it. We will get back to you momentarily.

So Where to Start?

If you are just starting out and do not already have a certain market you are involved in, this can actually be a stressful time for you. We can get so riled up over this that we actually give ourselves anxiety. Some of us just grab the first thing that crosses or path or we see some guru promoting and decide that is where to start, only to fail because the competition is so fierce. Others over analyze each product to the point where no product could ever satisfy them.

The best place to be here is in the middle, you want to look for products that are being promoted… but not by every person under the sun and you also need to understand that there is no perfect product out there but you want a product that is not a piece of junk.

The very best place to start for anyone just beginning is with ClickBank. Yes, we know you have probably heard this before and maybe even tried to promote ClickBank products before, but trust us… if you do it right, ClickBank can be a goldmine. The reason we like ClickBank the best for starting out is once you are registered, you can then promote absolutely any product in their database. Unlike other programs, where you still have to apply for certain products and unless you already have a presence online, your chances of getting approved are pretty small.

The downside to ClickBank is it is 100% digital products (ebooks, software, videos and so on) and there is a lot of crap products in there. On the bright side however, there are also many solid products also.

Finding The Right Product

If you do not already have a ClickBank account, sign up for one now at ClickBank, the process is extremely easy.

Once you have signed up, to find products simply go to the ClickBank marketplace at http://www.clickbank.com/marketplace.htm

Once there, the first step is to pick a market that you have somewhat of an interest in or perhaps you already have a site on. Don’t get too hung up on this however, if you really are not interested in anything or have no real care in the world as to what market to start in then just pick a the first category to start with and work your way down.

It is nice to start with a market you are knowledgeable with but this is also a cause for analysis paralysis because we try to find the perfect fit. Over analysis is the enemy.. remember that!

Lets for example just pick a random market… we will start with the the first category “Business to Business” and the first subcategory “Education”. Keep the settings with “Sortby” at Popularity and the “results per page” to 20.

Click Here to Enlarge

Now ClickBank will list for you in order of popularity, the most popular products in their database but they also give you some other fantastic information. What we personally like to do is scroll down the page and look at the titles but we also look at the “$sale” number that ClickBank provides. This is the estimated revenue you can expect to make per sale from that product after refunds, chargebacks and clickbank fees are taken into account.

This number is very important because you want to make sure that the product you are promoting makes at the very least $15 per sale. This is the absolute lowest we will go and the reason is, we want to spend our energy where the money is, so why spend time researching and promoting something that makes you $5 compared to the same effort that can make you $25.

So we scroll down the list and a few products stick out to us right away. The first is the “Instant Forex Profit System“, this pays out over $40 per sale, which is excellent.

The next number we look at is the “%refd”, this tells me the amount of sales that are made by affiliates. In my opinion the higher the number the better here because if no affilaites were making any of the sales there would be a cause for concern. This particular product as over 90% of the sales coming from affiliates.. which is a good thing.

Now we look at the gravity. This is basically a representation of the amont of affiliates promoting this product. Now it is not a direct 1 to 1 relationship, clickbank takes things like time since last sale and more into account for the calculation but personally we like it when this number is not too high because it tells us there are not a lot of competitors to fight against. There is no magic number here because there are so many variables that you have to take into account. For example, if the product is brand new then this number would be very low… personally we like between 10 and 50 but we have promoted products lower then that and higher then that.. but that is the average we look for.

So for this product the $sale is good, the %ref is good and the gravity is not too high… this is looking like a potentially good product. Now is the time to check out the sales page itself. To do that, click on the “create hoplink” in the directory.

Next, enter your ClickBank ID and click create. Now copy the URL they provide and paste it into your browser. This is important because you want to see exactly how the page appears to the end user and you also want to test the links on the page. The first things we look for are…

1. A nice clear headline: We want people to get their attention grabbed right away and be sure that it is compelling.
2. Clean design and nice graphics: Is the page professional looking or like a mid 90s college student page.
3. Social proof (testimonials, screenshots): Prove to me the solution works.
4. Up to date (no old copyright date or 3 year old screen shots): You will be amazed how many people click off a site just because of an outdated copyright date.
5. Clear call to action: Do they do a good job of showing the visitor how to buy the product.

Once we have looked at these elements we then will click on the buy now link to ensure that our affiliate ID is correctly used. Simply click on the “Buy Now” and then scroll down to the bottom of the page and make sure you see [affiliate = YourAffiliateID]

One thing to watch for as well is an opt in form. These can be very beneficial to you but make sure you opt in and see what the message is they send you. Some people can be real scumbags and will actually put a different affiliate link in the email message so when you click on it, it overwrites your cookie with theirs and you lose the sale. Make sure they link directly to the page and your affiliate ID still shows up on the bottom of the order form.

IMPORTANT THOUGHT –> Should you buy the product before you promote it? In our opinion, Yes, but not yet. Until we are sure this is the right product and the keywords look good, there is no sense in buying it. This is not a mandatory step for everything you promote but it is wise, as you can then do videos about the product and really explain in details the advantages to the end user. You can also contact the vendor after all your research is done and ask for a review copy… most will be more then happy to oblige if they see you are serious.

We personally feel that too much time is spent on over analyzing products. If the initial data looks good and the sales page looks good then chances are you can make a couple bucks from that product.

What about non ClickBank products? … how do we decide if we should move forward with those?

Not all, in fact very few, affiliate programs give you details like ClickBank does. The biggest thing we look at for non Clickbank products is the % commission we can make. If we cant make $15 per sale at the bare minimum, then we don’t bother. Also, we check out the sales page, the same as we do with ClickBank. So with the initial example of the Razer keyboard, we would look at the commission rate and the price of the product. If we could make at least $15 per sale, then we would consider looking more into it. If not, then we move on.

Time to Contradict Ourselves –> We would not always not move forward with something if it is less then $15 but we would already have to have a related site set up that we could just write up a promotion for. But for full blown market research, it must be $15 or more per sale made.

Once we have the product or service that we want to move forward with, the secret is now to find out how others are making money with it…. so it is time to start digging for keywords!

That my friends is going to be in the next lesson.

Lesson 1: Keyword Research - What are You Basing it On?

Lesson 2: Keyword Research - the Cart before the cow

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What is your feedback on this lesson…other then the fact that this is freaking long!

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15 Moos » ~ ~ Random Post

Has anyone heard the news? We should all know by now that Microsoft plans on taking XP off of store shelves as of June 30th. (Will it actually happen, who knows? Especially since Microsoft has already pushed back this date before.)

Well it’s not a big shocker that many users are not fans of Vista. Do we remember when XP first came out? It took users quiet sometime before they fully opened up to the idea of XP. (Well maybe for some it wasn’t that hard to convince, especially if they were using the crappiest OS ever, Microsoft ME) Now over the past few years since XP was first released, many of us can safely say that we feel like XP has become a stable and decent OS.

That’s not to say that Microsoft hasn’t been doing everything that they possibly can to get users to embrace Vista.

Watch out faithful Halo gamers! In order for us to play Halo 2 on our PC’s, we have to have Vista, and oh when Microsoft finally decides to put Halo 3 on shelves for our PC’s (When that date is going to be, who knows since it took them forever to get Halo and Halo 2 out for our PC’s) guess what, Halo 3 will also need Vista to run.

Can we say Fun? Not so much.

Really can we all head out to a computer store and pick up a brand new system that has XP on it? No, but what we can do is pick up a copy of XP on the side and downgrade from XP to Vista.

Oh but here’s the kicker that happened to us about a year ago. We pick up a machine that has Vista on it not long after the highly anticipated Vista release. Well guess what, many of the programs we needed to run won’t work properly on Vista, so what do we do? Why we format and reinstall XP. Here’s where it gets funny, we’ve often heard different pieces of information regarding hardware being XP compatible.

Not so much in our situation. All we can say is thank god we had the old system still lying around because there sure were parts that we had to take out and put in the new system.

Backwards Compatible our ass!

What many of the users who love and embrace XP want Microsoft to do, is to hold back before they take it off of the shelves and retire it forever along with 95, 98 and ME. (ME, Ha what a piece of crap that was) What many of these users want is for Microsoft to keep XP on the shelves until at least 2010 when their next version of Windows is set for release.

Oh yay! Another two years and we’ll get another crap OS that we have to wait a few years before it’s considered *stable*. Oh the joys, no wonder the world is heading towards Mac’s.

If your interested in signing the petition, click here

So here’s our question of the day…How do you feel about XP Vs Vista?

P.S. Stay tuned for our next installment of our keyword training. Make sure to sign up for our RSS feed to be notified as soon as our next lesson has been posted.

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23 Moos » ~ ~ Random Post

One of the toughest parts of creating a new blog or some other type of website, is knowing what niche to start in and what angle to take in that niche. We can spend countless hours banging our heads against the wall trying to figure out what market to start in. We actually become perfectionists before we even know what we are doing!

The process that we are going to walk you through is targeted at building a blog or website that focuses on promoting affiliate products. The reason is, it is our feeling this is by far the easiest and fastest way to get started and you do not have to worry about customer service, technical support, shipping, credit card processing or any other of these business headaches. You simply promote the product or service and get paid a share of any sales that happen. Its beautiful!

The challenge with this however is it always comes back to the question… Where do we start?

• Do you research potential markets and then search for affiliate programs that fit?
• Do you find the programs already running and figure out what keywords to use to promote them?
• What type of affiliate programs do you start with?
• …and the list can probably go on and on.

The way we look at it is, why reinvent the wheel?

We do not want to spend countless hours looking at different markets and then having to try and find appropriate affiliate programs to match up with them. What we recommend is to actually put the “cart” before the “cow”.

START OF COW RANT —> Please understand that there are many different ways you can do market research. We will probably get some anal retentive person in here arguing about this process but the bottom line is…

Show me the Money!

We have tried many different methods and this process is the one that worked the best for us. This is important to know as well because it all comes down to understanding facts and not theories. If all you do is read and research but never put things into practice, then what are you doing thats tangible?

We strongly believe that you need to make your own plans and strategies, but use what you learn from others and work it into your plans and strategies. Every time you screw up, remember what you did and improve on it… and every time you succeed do the same… remember what you did and improve on it. When you have something that works for you, do not let some theory munger come in and say you shouldn’t do that… YES YOU SHOULD!

If it is working for you, then it works! <– END OF COW RANT

Ok, so why the cart before the cow?

In the 1970’s, the Japenanse car manufacturers were the joke of the world. They were tin cans that no one took seriously… but in the 80s this changed and in a HUGE way.

What happened was instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, the Japanese realized they needed to change the focus of their energy and instead of trying to invent things, why not instead take what is already working and simply make it better. It was this mindset change that skyrocketed Japan into becoming an automative giant in the world.

They figured out how to make a better mousetrap and the results were more reliable vehicles that they could make more effeciently and they were even able to charge a premium for it which exploded their profits.

So now let us ask you this.

Do you want to reinvent the wheel and try to uncover new territory or would you rather take what is already working and use that to your advantage?

Both have there pros and cons but the big difference is time commitments and chance of success.

Here is how we see it…

Option #1 –> If you want to break new ground, then great, good luck with that. You are going to need to spend your time finding potential keywords, then figure out what people are looking for with those keywords, then try to find products that people are buying and see if there are affiliate programs available, then hopefully after a while some of your words will be profitable and after a few months you can have a site making some money.

This option can be incredibly profitable, but it takes a lot more work and there is a lot less chance of success.

OR

Option #2 –> Look at what is already making a few people some money, find out what they are doing to make money (spy on them.. bwa hahahaha), easily uncover the keywords that people are actually using to buy the products and then offer a better reason to buy through you (your unique selling position).

This option takes the view point of look at what the customers already are saying they want and give it to them. After all isn’t it easier to give people what they want instead of convincing them they need something new.

OK, I know, I am not covering the whole big picture with these options, but we feel we are covering the main points and it really comes down to how to best spend your time and effort… always focus on ROI. Is what you are doing now giving you the best return on investment.

In tomorrows post we are going to get into finding profitable affiliate products to start this process with. Once we have the product, the rest of the research is VERY easy!

Whats your opinions on options 1 or 2?

If your interested in learning more, then subscribe to our RSS Feed and follow along as we lay out this step by step process with the exact tools and techniques we use.

Previous Lesson: Keyword Research - What Are You Basing it On?

Next Lesson: Keyword research - What for may we ask

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7 Moos » ~ ~ Random Post

We have a question for you and we want you to really think about this.

What are the most important metrics that you use when doing keyword research?

1. Traffic

2. Competition

3. KEI

4. ___________ (Fill in the blank)

There are lots of fantastic tools online today and each one has their good points and bad points… but one thing that 99% of all these tools have in common is they simply give you a calculated guess using their own custom algorithim, that simply tells you how many competitors there are and how much traffic you can expect. Some make up a fancy term [...] Continue Reading…

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8 Moos » ~ ~ Random Post

A few days ago we posted about the new service, called “Skribit” (we think it is pronounced “skribe it” but we could be wrong…. if it is “skrib it”, it sounds like a frog). This service helps provide a way for bloggers to further interact with their readers and find out what it is they want… well sort of.

We promised that we would update you with a more detailed Skribit Review once we had more information and so here it is.

1. Traffic is a Must: This was stated in the comments and is 100% the biggest factor for [...] Continue Reading…

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9 Moos » ~ ~ Random Post