COOL SURPRISE –> Got a surprise email this morning from Brad Callen who was pretty happy to see us mention that we like his product Affiliate Elite, and here is what he had to say…

If you cant read it… here is what he said…

“Thanks for mentioning AffiliateElite on your blog, I am anxious to see how you recommend using it. I see that you sponsor the odd contest every now and again too and if you would like to give away one free copy of the Enterprise Edition I can set you up. Let me know and if there is anything else I can do for you.”

First of all.. what a gentleman… thanks Brad, this puts you even higher in our books as one of the top IM gurus out there… we would most certainly LOVE to take you up on this offer and we are sure our readers would be more then happy too win a copy as well

Affiliate Elite is a kick ass piece of software and as you read in our last training post, we use this ourselves.. and will be showing you how in the next lesson. It is not a cheap one though and has a monthly use fee with it so, for one year alone this is a $570 + value… and that is only if you paid for 1 year. So you can see, this is not a cheap prize!

So, here is what we are going to do… On May 31st we are going to have a draw to see who wins… but too be entered to win, this is what you are going to have to do…

>>>MAJOR CONTEST UPDATE…. PLEASE VISIT http://www.johncow.com/cowpetition/ for all the details<<<

This is a 100% WIN/WIN for you all… you can get a chance to win this kick butt program and you will also receive all the details of how we built our blog so you can implement the exact same strategies. Can you moo the word… COOL!!!

Oh and we almost forgot… We had a good talk with Garry (no chance whatsoever of winning) Conn yesterday and it was kind of funny… we thought he was joking that he thought he stood a chance, but the little guy really believes it. He is so cute, it really warms our hearts to see the little guy all excited. Too bad we are going to have to stampede all over him… especially since we have started to grow fond of the little guy.

We also found out that SitePoint has decided to jump on board with this and is going to help out with sponsoring this contest… which we thought was pretty cool.

Here are the official Rules of the Game…

• Starts Monday May 19th
• Sites will be listed on SitePoint on Wednesday June 18th
• Winner of contest will be decided by which site generates the highest sale
• Blogs must be on a brand new domain
• Blogs must be 100% original work
• Blogs must not be a premade or bought and put on a new domain
• Blogs will be listed on SitePoint with full disclosure of who bought them and for how much
• Listing will be 100% handled by sitepoint (for fair third party listing)

We already stated that after we win 100% of the proceeds are going to go to World Vision and we will record the transaction so you can all see for yourselves that we are following through on that promise. Garry is not doing that… he is keeping it all for himself (can you say boo).

We are going to be fully disclosing all the details of this contest… how we decided on a market, how we planned out the blog, researched, built and promoted it. You will see first hand exactly how to do this for yourself. We are actually crazy for doing this as people pay 1000’s of dollars for this type of info… but our readers deserve the best

Disclosure –> We are making it clear right now that there are paid tools that we use that you will need to get if you want to do what we are going to share, so please don’t complain about that. We are not going to use this to pimp tools we do not use… but we are going to show you the tools we do use and most important the why and how we use them

Also, we are not making any guarantees to anyone about the success you will achieve following what we are going to show you… we are just showing you what we are doing. The good thing to know is we DESPISE theory in our teachings and stick to only proven facts… so you are going to learn what we “KNOW” is proven to work.. not what we think “should” work.

>>>MAJOR CONTEST UPDATE…. PLEASE VISIT http://www.johncow.com/cowpetition/ for all the details<<<

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21 Moos » ~ ~ Random Post

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

Lesson 4: Keyword Research - Show me the Money… Words that is

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

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21 Moos » ~ ~ Random Post

Are you making a living doing what you truly love to do?

If not, then make a plan to start living your dream job!

If you don’t know what you want to do, just think about something that you’re passionate about – a hobby, a pastime, a favorite sport. If you could do one thing every day for the rest of your life, what would that thing be? What would make you happy to get out of bed every morning and get paid doing it?

My suggestion – take a few minutes and create a list of things that you enjoy doing. Then, think of some ways you can get paid for it.

For instance, I love beach houses! Everything about them makes me melt – their picturesque settings, the style of architecture used, the owner’s choice of landscaping. When I see beach houses, something about them just makes my soul happy. Plenty of times, I’ve driven down the famous A1A highway here in Florida looking in awe at the variety of beach homes and wondered… “What do the owners do for a living?” and “How did they get the money to be able to afford to live there?”

I’d love to write a book about or, even better, create a website about beach houses. I’d buy up a few catchy domain names for my website, like stunningbeachhomes.com. Then, I’d interview as many beach house owners as possible and learn their stories. Recently, I had the privilege to meet an owner of a Florida beach house and learn his story. He ended up purchasing his oceanfront home in the mid-1970’s. Price tag: $30K - it’s probably worth $500k right now!

I’d love to put this interview, along with all the other interviews I conduct, on my catchy website. I’d upload appealing pictures (to catch and retain my website’s visitors’ attention) and I would include unique details about each story (to create a content-rich website for search engines). I’d promote my site by getting involved in different online forums and blogs that are related to beaches and beachfront property.

And to help monetize the site - I’d post highly targeted ads, like beach vacation offers, books to read while on the beach, and resorts and spas that are geo-targeted based on the location of my site’s viewers. I’d even have links and advertisements on my site to things like camera equipment and rental cars…the list goes on. Once built, I’d create a few dozen micro sites with the beach being my main topic and then monetize it.

Sit down and write out your ideas. Go someplace quiet that inspires you – it could be a local park, your front porch, or in my case, the beach - any other place where you can focus and think without any interruption.

The key is NOT to leave any idea in your head! Write out every idea that you think of. Then, write down some ways you could design a website around those ideas. The more passion you have for your idea, the more inspired you will be to write quality information.

And if you haven’t guessed it by now, my second favorite passion is writing online! Having been involved in blogging for several years, I was blessed and fortunate to be “discovered”
and offered a great paying, full-time position as a blogger with Market Leverage, a CPA affiliate network.

Perhaps sometime soon, I will be fortunate enough to have someone interview me about my beachfront property.

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26 Moos » ~ ~ Random Post

Interested? Of course you are! These Full Conference Passes are priced at a whopping $1,449 and loads of cool people will be attending the Affiliate Summit West 2008 this year. We know for a fact that Mr Gary Lee and Ms Danielle will be there, Hyper Mark from 45n5, ScratchBack Jimbo is going to be the EmCee, some guy called Calacanis (don’t know him, but he always seems to be on other bloggers bad side), Zac Johnson, Joel ‘The next internet millionaire’ Comm, and unfortunately, John Chow will be disturbing the peace in Las Vegas too. Again. These are just a handfull of the people that are coming, here’s the entire list. (extra kudos to those who know everyone on there!)

It just so happens that by pure coincidence, sheer luck, and a little smooth talk, the lovely Amy from AffiliateSummit.com was nice enough to give us a free ticket Too bad for us that we’ll be in sunny Australia when the Summit is happening, so guess what? We’ll be sending one of you on your way to Vegas!

Now here’s another of our homemade random cowpetitions™ for you guys because we know how much you love em! Don’t think it can get any simpler than this;

• Write a small blurb on your blog, telling us why we should give you the Affiliate Summit 2008 pass worth nearly $1,500. Don’t forget to linkback to the awesome affiliates at affiliatesummit.com and your favorite blogging cows! (that’s us, incase you get smart and link to a certain johnbuffalo or johnycow!)

Oh. and you might as well sign up for the RSS feeds if you haven’t already. We’ll announce the winner in about two weeks in the feeds, so you’ll have another month to arrange your travel and stay in Las Vegas.

The summit would be a fantastic place to start networking with the right people in the industry. There will be light years of experience walking around and all you have to do is listen and mingle. Not to mention all the schwag you can grab! The pass also comes with complimentary breakfast and lunch if we’re not mistaking, and for dinner you just make sure you stick around John Chow - the man’s known to pick up the bill after dinner

Since we’re on the subject of affiliate marketing, did you guys know that our second favorite baldy has started the new Elite Retreat? The exclusive once-a-year, two day opportunity to sit down with some of the best brains in the business to see how they can help you improve or add to your current business plans. You’ll get plenty of invaluable 101 time with guys like Shoemoney, Aaron Wall, Guy Kawasaki and Neil Patel, to pick their brains and have them share their massive marketing experience with you.

Jeremy is so confident in the success of the Elite Retreat, this is what he mailed us;”I am also going to offer a BETTER THAN money back guarantee meaning I will refund the full ticket price PLUS all airfare and expenses if someone does not make their money back within 6 months. That is how confident I am in the Elite Retreat!”

Kicking off on the 3d and 4th of April, they’re only taking 35 lucky applicants on to join them in San Francisco for a once in a lifetime experience. So you’d better get in line before the doors are closing.

*for the affiliate summit pass, you’ll have to be over 21 to get in, and a resident of the US, unless you’re planning on flying there for the summit if you’d win the pass.

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30 Moos » ~ ~ Random Post

In the past few weeks we’ve been snooping around in the affiliate marketing realms. Sure, blogging is fun, and we’re making some decent cash while we’re at it, but besides covering our primary needs like food, rent and bills, we’d like to take our online earnings to the next level. So what better way to make a killing online than affiliate marketing? Looking at some well known online marketers, we doubt there’s a more accessible method than affiliate marketing to make money on the Internet. Anyone can set up a site and become an affiliate for one product or the other. You can spend money on advertising it, but you don’t have to. It all boils down to your ability to think out of the box, and grab an opportunity when it arises.

• Shoemoney for example made a killing on the ringtones market (probably still is) and we’ve all seen the $132,994.97 check he received from Google for example.
• The Problogger loves Chitika and this must be one of the affiliate programs of his choice. No wonder really, we’d love anything that made us over $250,000 in such a short time too!
• John Chow doesn’t have a big example payout that we can use, but we all know he recently opened the doors to his TTZMedia affiliate program, so there must be money to be made. Mr Chow doesn’t do anything if it doesn’t make him money.

Because we’ve just got our feet wet in the blogosphere, we haven’t really had time to focus on affiliating as an additional source of income but its definitely something we will start to work on in the next few months - call it our good year’s resolution! We’ll be trying to keep you people involved by a weekly ‘Trial and Error’ post, in which we’ll share our findings about the wonderful world of affiliate marketing. Obviously any tips you might have for us are welcome in the comment section.

The first step we took on this journey was probably the easiest one - Subscribing to affiliate marketers blogs to see what they’re talking about and what we can learn from them. A few of these bloggers are Zac Johnson, Uber Affiliate, the Affiliate Toolbox and Andrew Wee. Obviously there’s tons of blogs out there with excellent affiliate marketing information, but we want to start small and thus concentrate on just a few of these guys. Once we’re comfortable with the basics, we’ll be exposing ourselves to more information.

A good start for those of you who wish to embark on the same journey; even though we still think most eBooks are scams, there’s actually a few out there that will teach you a lot about the online money making industry. We’re always skeptical about eBook sales pages, but there’s one that we actually found extremely useful and very cheap; The “Rich Jerk’s eBook“. Not only is it packed with great tips and tricks, its also written in a down to earth, realistic tone. It doesn’t promise you overnight riches, it even invites you to try the hundreds of other eBooks in the niche - they’re confident that you will end up coming back to use their techniques. For just $10, this eBook is seriously one to buy - or at least, consider buying. With a little work and following directions that The Rich Jerk gives you, it’s nearly impossible NOT to turn this into a profit that’ll make your $10 investment look like peanuts - which it is!

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21 Moos » ~ ~ Random Post