Does affiliate marketing present a huge opportunity to make money online?

Let us consider the advantages of affiliate marketing for a moment;

– You don’t need to create your own products

— You don’t need to fulfil the buyer’s order

— You don’t need to provide support to the buyer or answer complaints

— unlimited earnings potential

— You don’t need any special skills

–anyone can do it

This list of advantages certainly presents a compelling case for the affiliate marketing opportunity but why is it that so many newbies fail to make more than a handful of sales and quickly give up on their affiliate marketing dream?

The number one reason why newbie affiliate marketers fail is they focus their time and energy on driving traffic directly to the affiliate products sales page and they miss the most crucial step in the process.

You must remember that most people don’t buy a product the first time they read the sales page, in fact research shows that on average it takes 7 contacts before the sale is made. This means that unless you have a system in place to capture the contact details of your prospects you are leaving the majority of the money on the table.

The solution is relatively simple; you have already generated the targeted traffic so all you have to do now is present a page offering an incentive in exchange for the prospect’s email address (a quality, free report works well).

You are now able to approach your prospect again and again with the offer and you can vary the offer to highlight different benefits of the product.

If you are wise you will develop your relationship with your email list by sending regular messages containing quality content and occasional free gifts and offer them other related products to help solve their problems, this way you are actually providing a service not just trying to make a quick sale.

Think of your email list as a list of ‘customers for life’ because, properly nurtured, that is exactly what they are.

If you want to fully realize the affiliate marketing opportunity you must shift your mindset and focus on building long term relationships that earn you the right to present offers and make affiliate commissions on an ongoing basis.

Take a long term view with your affiliate marketing, dedicate your efforts to building a list of happy subscribers who look forward to receiving your emails and the money will naturally follow.

One of the most popular affiliate marketing questions I receive is;

“How do I cloak my affiliate links?”

I have created two short videos to explain;

Link Cloaking Video 1

Link Cloaking Video  2

I hope you have found this article helpful, if you have any more affiliate marketing questions drop me a line at;

stuart@stuart-turnbull.com

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As I explained in my previous post I have recently started article marketing, I have created a short video to share my methods and show you the results of one of my article submissions;

Click this link to watch my video  article marketing

As you can see, article marketing is very powerful stuff (I am already seeing new subscribers and sales from this one article!) however, it is vital that you create and submit your articles in the right way, otherwise you will be wasting your time and money without the prospect of reaping the rewards for your efforts.

Click here to learn how to launch your own article marketing campaign the right way.

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Let me explain;

A couple of weeks ago I decided it was about time I dipped my toe into the world of article marketing. If you are not sure how this works it is a simple idea.

I write around 700 words on a subject related to my niche, at the end of my article I include a link to one of my sites. I then submit my article to as many online article directories as I can. My article is then freely available to webmasters and ezine publishers to republish as content for their readers and on their websites.

The benefit to me is backlinks to my sites resulting in targeted traffic and improved search engine rankings.

Anyway, I signed up to Ezine Articles (one of the biggest directories) and I set to work. I wrote a Twitter article which linked to my Twitmasterclass site, I wrote an article about pro-blogging that linked to my Blogging for Profit product – I’m sure you get the idea.

To drive traffic to my eBay niche product – Prints Make Profits I merged a series of short eBay business tips articles that I wrote in 2008 into one large article.

The day after submitting this article I received an email from Ezine Articles explaining that they were unable to accept my article for publication because it was the same as an existing article in their directory.

I naturally queried this and they emailed me a link to the existing article.

A mixture of shock and disbelief  followed by anger came over me as I read the article – it was word for word identical to one of my short eBay articles. I followed the link to the author’s other articles and was amazed to discover four other eBay articles each one an exact copy of one of my short, eBay, article series!

I used Aweber’s subscriber search facility and sure enough the ‘author’ of the stolen articles was indeed one of my own subscribers!

I’m sure you can imagine how betrayed, cheated and mad I felt, I’d read about plagiarism of online content but it is one of those things you don’t really think about until you are the victim.

What should I do? My head was in a spin – how would I convince Ezine Articles to remove the stolen content from their directory? What if they thought I was the thief?

I needed advice so I turned to my mentor – John Thornhill, John has always been there when I’ve needed guidance or a helping hand.

John advised me to send a “cease and desist” notice by email demanding that they remove the articles within 48 hours or face legal action for breach of my copyright. (Here is a link if you ever need to put a letter like this together yourself http://www.rightsforartists.com/examcease.html)

I followed John’s advice and a few hours later I received a one line reply from the thief;

“The articles have been deleted.”

Not a word of explanation, excuse or apology!!

I spend many, many hours creating content for my blog, my newsletter and my products and it astounds me that anyone would have the nerve to copy and paste my work into an article, put their name on it as author and publish it online.

I’d really like to hear your views on this, particularly if you can offer any advice on protecting ourselves from these ‘cyber thieves’, please click the ‘comments’ link at the bottom of this post and let me know how you feel.

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Leveraging the power of a big marketer’s list is a great way for the little guy to grow his business rapidly.

Traditionally this means promoting the big marketer’s product to my small list and then hoping he is prepared to reciprocate by promoting my product to his big list.

This strategy works but the traffic surge lasts for a few days only and then drops off.

Here is the same idea with a twist;

I promote the big marketer’s product to my list but instead of banking my 50% commission I email the marketer and suggest he keep it.

Sounds crazy, I know, but bear with me on this!

In return I ask him to add my product to his autoresponder follow up sequence.

As an additional sweetener I also set up an exclusive discount for his subscribers only and I write the email copy.

Here is a copy of the email I sent recently when I last used this technique;

“Hi ******

I hope you are enjoying the Spring sunshine!

I’m delighted to note that ********* continues to make sales for me. Congratulations on a great product!

Seeing the follow up message begin to bear fruit got me thinking and I’d like to make a proposition to you, ******;

(I was always taught ‘if you don’t ask, you don’t get!!’)

Would you consider popping my product ********* into your autoresponder follow up sequence? I have taken the liberty of creating a special discount page for your subscribers which you can check out here;

http://***************subscriberspecial.html

I have also written the email copy (attached)

As an extra little sweetener I will pay you the commission I have earned to date from ********* of ($******)

You can get your affiliate link here;

http://************************special.php

Thanks ********* “

There are a few, very powerful, psychological factors working in my favor here;

• Because I have helped the big marketer by promoting his product, he will be naturally inclined to look favorably upon my request.

• I have already taken the time to create his exclusive discount page which I show him by including a link in my message. He can see that I have gone to a certain amount of trouble to make this happen. The difference between suggesting “I WILL DO ……………….., IF you agree to………………” and actually doing it FIRST is huge.

• I have written the promotional copy (again, I have already done it and I attach it to the email)  this satisfies the big marketers natural desire to minimize his workload! (it also means that MY message goes out to his lists).

The net result is a very nice win, win, win;

• The big marketer pockets several hundred dollars he would otherwise have paid out to me in commission.

• He earns 50% commission on every sale of my product to his list.

• He enjoys the appreciation of his subscribers for negotiating an exclusive discount off my product.

• He gets all of this without having to do any work!

• The big marketer’s subscribers win by getting a great discount off a quality product.

• I win because my promo email is now in the big marketer’s autoresponder sequence and is seen by all of his EXISTING subscribers and all of his SUBSEQUENT subscribers.

Is this worth the several hundred dollars commission I have given up?

To answer this question it is essential to know how much each of YOUR subscribers is worth.

If I capture just 1 new subscriber per day (very conservative as the big marketers I target typically add 50 to 100 new subscribers DAILY!) I add 365 new subscribers per year, using the benchmark valuation of $1 per month per subscriber this exercise adds $2,340.00 to my income in year one and $6,660.00 in year two!

Try it, it works!

If you’d like to try this technique to grow your online business this is the product I use to set up my special discount pages and affiliate links on ClickBank, click the banner below to watch video proof of how simple and effective this really is.

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For many years I worked a dull 9-5 office job, I’m sure you can relate to the ‘Monday morning blues’ that I used to suffer (in fact they used to kick in around Sunday afternoon!).

This morning the sun was shining so I took my digital camera when I went for my morning walk, I’ve uploaded a few of my snaps below.

I try to walk first thing every morning, I find that an hours peace and fresh air invigorates my brain and I always return home buzzing with lots of great ideas for my business!

“What has this got to do with internet marketing, Stuart?”

It is internet marketing that allows me to live a lifestyle without the Monday morning blues, there is no daily commute to the city for me, nobody telling me what to do and when to do it, I am free to work when and where I choose.

How did I achieve this happy situation?

I was interviewed recently by Mike Calmot (blog; www.ucanuknow.com) and today I’d like to share the audio recording of our chat.

The audio is 42 minutes long (so you might want to take a break for a cup of coffee half way through!!)  it includes some background information about how I started my online business, there are some useful tips for beginners including some ‘must do’s’ and some ‘don’t do’s’ plus list/relationship building advice.

I hope that listening to my story will give you a little encouragement to build your own online income streams, I sincerely believe that anyone, anywhere can build a successful online business, all you need is the determination to take action and a little guidance.

There is no sales pitch in the audio but if you would like to talk through your own online business plans (free of charge!) then don’t hesitate to email me at;

support@stuartturnbullnewsletter.com

Listen to audio

Download audio (zipfile)

If you are interested I live in a small fishing village on the east coast of Ireland, it is VERY rural (I only got ‘proper’ broadband 12 months ago!!) but after 25 years of city life I love the peace and tranquility (it is also a much healthier environment to raise a family).

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Click HERE to read the story of an Australian couple who literally went from rags to riches in 24 months thanks to their own hard work and eBay!

If you have enjoyed reading this post, pop your details in the boxes and I will send you my regular email newsletter absolutely FREE!

The new book I’ve been working on with Jim Cockrum is now on sale, you can go to www.best20ways.com and pay $27.99 or as a subscriber of mine you can purchase the book for $13.97!

This is an outrageous price for a book that has so many proven ideas for making money. For less than $14.00 you get 20 money making ideas…..that’s less than 70c per idea!!

You can only get this amazing price by using this button;

I cannot maintain such a huge discount indefinitely and will remove this button without notice

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I have been using eBay for the last 5 years, as well as selling surplus household items and unwanted gifts etc. I have also been following the methods described in my eBook ‘Prints Make Profits’ to supplement my income.

During 2009 my internet marketing business took off and I began to spend more and more of my time on this. Consequently my eBay business took a back seat.

At the beginning of 2010 (new year resolution time!) I decided to dedicate one morning per week to my eBay business, this decision was partly due to my desire to further increase my income and partly to a need to ‘declutter’ the wardrobe where I had been storing my stock of prints, mounts (mats) and envelopes!

Since the start of the year I have focused on one particular niche that is very popular with collectors from several different countries and over the years I have learned which items command premium prices.

I have used this experience to build up a stock of similar items from offline sources such as estate sales and live auctions and online sources including eBay and my ‘secret resource’ (I reveal all of my secrets in ‘Prints Make Profits’.)

OK, so what have my results been like?

• Since January 1st I have sold 15 prints grossing   £1467.00
• Less the cost of the prints and mounts/mats             150.00
• Less PayPal fees                                                                51.34
• Less eBay fees                                                                 172.95
• Net profit                                                                     £1092.71  ($1685.54)

I spend around 2 hours per week on photographing, listing, mounting (matting) and packing my prints so I’m looking at a return of approximately £78.00 per hour ($120).

A very respectable return I’m sure you’ll agree.

You can follow this weeks auctions LIVE at;

www.saturnbull.com/ebayauctions

To check out my most recently completed sales go to;

www.saturnbull.com/ebaycompleted

My keys to success

Starting price;

I’ve tested various different starting prices with identical prints and my conclusions are surprising.

Starting low doesn’t attract more bidders. With vintage collectibles low prices put bidders off, the key is to start high and if the item doesn’t sell, relist with a slightly lower starting price and repeat this process until you find the price point where your item consistently sells – the optimum price for your items.

Images;

It is essential to take several high quality pictures using a good quality digital camera, don’t make the mistake of only uploading one picture to keep your listing fee down. I often upload six or seven images to highlight the points of interest in my prints.

Story;

People love a story so tell them one! Check out my descriptions, instead of just quoting the necessary, factual information such as age, condition, dimensions etc. I also describe where I obtained the item and what steps I had to take to prepare it for sale.

Guarantee;

Perhaps THE most important part of any auction description. Don’t be afraid to offer a very strong guarantee, it will boost your sales and it won’t lead to more refund requests.

I have perfected my techniques following many hundreds of hours of eBay research and testing, this knowledge now provides me with a very lucrative and enjoyable income stream.

I have condensed all of my experience into ‘Prints Make Profits’ my step by step guide to selling vintage prints on eBay so that you can copy my methods and build your own profitable eBay business.

Prints Make Profits sells for $19.95 at www.printsmakeprofits.com To thank you for being a valued subscriber you can get a huge 50% discount here;

I cannot maintain such a huge discount indefinitely and will remove the button without notice.

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I really hate to start 2010 with a negative but you need to understand this……..

“The chances of you building your own successful online business are slim to zero if you spend your time and money on eBooks and internet marketing products”

You see there is so much information about making money online, so many “must try” methods and so many “next big thing” products that it is almost impossible for a beginner (I hate the term ‘newbie’) to negotiate this minefield and build a system that actually makes money.

The positive news is that there is a way for the beginner to build a sustainable online business, it is the way that I started and built my online business and it is the way that all of the successful internet marketers I know started and built their businesses.

They didn’t blindly buy product after product they followed the advice and guidance of people who were already doing what they wanted to do.

In other words they chose and followed a mentor or coach.

Yes, my number one piece of advice to you in 2010 is to get yourself a mentor and a coach.

Choose an internet marketer that you trust, a marketer who clearly has a system in place that works.

I personally would ignore the so called ‘guru’ marketers, these guys are too big to have day to day contact with.

No, go for the mid-level marketer, the guy who is clearly going places but not yet insulated by layers of assistants – someone you can actually build a relationship with.

Your task then is to learn how your marketers business model works.

The true power of the internet is that it levels the playing field for all of us.

In the brick and mortar offline business world there are many barriers to entry – you need special skills, you need premises, staff, you need substantial start-up capital and consequently the cost of failure is very high.

In the online business world all I need is a PC and internet connection and I’m in business, there are no barriers to me duplicating a successful business model and making money and once my business is making regular profits the internet makes it possible to scale it without limit!

“Cost?”

Yes, coaching and mentoring has a cost but because this way of learning is much more likely to succeed this cost is more accurately described as an ‘investment’, an investment in your own future.

Most beginners quickly get caught in a cycle of buying product after product and very rarely do these alone lead to sustainable success, that is why I offered free coaching as a bonus when I promoted Multi Profit Websites back in October. As good a product as it is Multi Profit Websites alone is unlikely to lead to sustainable success – you need to understand how to fit it into an overall strategy.

Think about how much money you spent in 2009 on eBooks and products and how much money you actually made.

Now think about how much you are likely to spend in the next 12 months.

This is a cost not an investment.

If you want to make a fresh start and make 2010 the year that you finally make your online dreams a reality follow the advice of someone who has already trodden the path, stop incurring costs and start making an investment.

Invest in coaching.

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