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

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).

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

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.

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

You’ll remember the video I created recently showing how I use eBay to drive traffic to my forex website, here is the link if you missed it:

Building a mailing list without a website uses a similar method to encourage our auction viewers to visit our eBay ‘about me’ page but instead of then directing them to visit an external website we simply include an opt-in box on the ‘about me’ page and offer a relevant free gift as an incentive. (Please note that opt-in boxes are not allowed in auction listings but eBay does tolerate them in classified ads and on ‘about me’ pages.)

After watching the video several subscribers asked me how I insert a clickable link to my ‘about me’ page in my auction description.

The answer is a piece of HTML code;

<a href=”http://members.ebay.co.uk/aboutme/YOUREBAYID/”><span style=”font-size: large;”>Visit my <span style=”color: #00429a;”>M</span><span style=”color: #ff0010;”>E</span> page for your valuable <span style=”color: #ff0010;”>FREE gift, </span><span style=”color: #000000;”>Click HERE </span></span></a>

Simply insert your eBay ID in place of YOUREBAYID and make sure you customise the code with the eBay site you use (mine is .co.uk) it is then just a case of copying and pasting the code into your description.

I know it looks complicated but it is really quite simple when you understand how it works.

Learning how to use basic HTML code is an essential skill for the internet marketer and eBay seller and there is an excellent eBook on the subject written by Dan Thompson. (Dan is a partner in d9 Hosting, my favourite web host.)

‘Basic HTML’ shows you how to put together the code to create the exact effect you are looking for.

Maybe you want to change the size of the font, the background or text colour or perhaps insert an image, with ‘Basic HTML’ you can quickly learn how to achieve all of this and much more.

This 35 page guide is written in an easy to follow, step by step manner without using any techie jargon.

Click to download your copy of  ‘Basic HTML’ with my compliments.

(nothing to pay and no opt-in required!)

You’ll be aware that eBay rules prohibit links to your websites in auction descriptions, well here is a sneaky way around this rule;

eBay allows you to include an email address in your description (to enable auction visitors to obtain further information about the item described) the idea is to include an email address @ your domain.

For example; support@forexexplanation.com (forexexplanation.com is the website you want your auction visitors to visit)

Why not make the domain stand out by changing the size and/or colour of the font?

Like this; support@forexexplanation.com

Another technique I use to drive traffic to my websites is to match the eBay ID to my domain name, in this case I am using the eBay ID ‘forexexplanation’ again some auction visitors will pop the name into their web browser and visit the site.

These methods work, I have built a mailing list of people interested in making money trading forex (a very hot niche on eBay) using these exact techniques and so can you.

Having built your mailing list how do you use it to generate further income?

Look out for my next newsletter where I will share the methods I use to build a profitable relationship with my subscribers.

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

John and Dave explain that they are taking this surprising action “so we can look after our current members and assess the marketplace”

They went on to tell me that IF Multi Profit Websites returns to the marketplace the price will be “significantly more”

It is clear that Multi Profit Websites has been a huge success, and reading between the lines I think John and Dave have realized that they have seriously misjudged the marketplace and the demand for the product and have concluded that they could have sold it successfully at a much higher price.

As far as my own promotion of the product is concerned I filled all of my special bonus coaching slots within 4 days!

Here are a couple of emails from subscribers who wasted no time in securing their bonus coaching places;

“Dear Mr Turnbull,

Great, nay stupendous news! Had to dance round the living room to the hazard of cats, children and furniture! Look forward to beginning work.

Kind Regards,

Anne Smith”

and;

“Hi Stuart,

Thank you for your e-mail confirming the help that I can expect from you in building my first MPW website, from what I’ve seen so far it looks pretty exciting. I’m hoping to have a really good look at it on Sunday/ Monday. Though I’ve been watching and reading up on IM for some months now, this will be my first real step into the unknown. (I’ll understand if you wish to withdraw your offer at this stage Stuart!). By the way, I hope everything is ok at home now and your wife is fully recovered from her stay in hospital.

I look forward to speaking with you again next week.

David Husbands”

OK, so how do I assess this latest development?

I believe that it presents you with a very small window of opportunity, if you have been thinking about investing in your own future in IM by buying Multi Profit Websites you need to spend some time in the next 24 hours carefully considering whether you are going to grasp this opportunity while you can or whether you are going to do nothing and lose the opportunity for ever (certainly at this price).

I think my role in your deliberations should be to help make your decision a little easier and to that end I have decided to open up 5 more of my special bonus coaching slots!

I certainly won’t be offering dedicated, one to one coaching for free again so now really is the time to take a long, hard look at your online aspirations and decide whether Multi Profit Websites can help you achieve them.

As a further aid to your decision making here is a list of FAQ’s;

Q: Do I have to pay a recurring monthly payment to use MPW?

A: No, MPW is a one off payment, there are no recurring charges.

Q: What about future updates?

A: There are no charges for future updates.

Q: I’ve tried and failed to make money from websites in the past, would MPW help me do this?

A: Absolutely! Anyone with any skill level from complete beginner to experienced marketer can benefit from MPW as it allows you to churn out lots of sites in a short space of time all ready monetized, all you have to do is drive traffic to them and you will make money.

Q: What additional costs are involved?

A: Each website requires a domain name (around $9 per year) and hosting (there is a special hosting deal for all MPW users)

Q: Can I run MPW on sub-domains?

A: Yes!

Q: Are there any limits to the number of pages I can build per site?

A: No!

Q: Will MPW sites achieve search engine rankings?

A: The MPW admin panel enables you to make your site totally unique and include a description and keywords to optimise for the search engines, in this way MPW sites are no different to any other sites.

Remember, Multi Profit Websites work, I have tested the product, created 2 sites and made money.

The concept is simple, if you can bring attractive, feature filled websites and targeted traffic together you will make money, it really is as simple as that and Multi Profit Websites allows ordinary people like you and me with no website building skills whatsoever to achieve this.

The time for talk is over, it is now up to you;

• read (or re-read) my Special Newsletter review
• watch my video; ‘eBay and Multi Profit Websites’
• check out my bonus page with the links to my MPW sites
• make your informed decision.

If you need any help or guidance at all please don’t hesitate to leave a comment on this post, I will respond immediately in view of the time constraints involved.

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

I have spent the last week reviewing Multi Profit Websites the new product from John Thornhill and Dave Nicholson.

Multi Profit Websites (MPW) is a product that enables anyone, and I do mean anyone, to create a unique website targeted to any niche you can think of in a matter of minutes.

As you know I am not at all ‘techy’ minded in fact I have often been described as ‘inept’ when it comes to anything of this nature! However, MPW is so simple to use that you really can create your own unique website with no technical skills whatsoever.

To prove it I used MPW to build ‘The Stuart Turnbull Newsletter‘ site. I bought a domain name (stuartturnbullnewsletter.com) added it to my hosting account, uploaded the MPW files to the domain and then started customizing the site using the admin control panel. No coding knowledge of any kind is required, I am not exaggerating when I tell you that my ten year old daughter could master it!

I spent an initial twenty minutes adding my Adsense, ClickBank, Amazon and eBay affiliate codes and my Aweber list details to the opt-in box. A further twenty minutes has been spent adding a few affiliate banners.

OK, So MPW is easy to use and quick but how can it create sites targeted to any niche?

Simple! It uses RSS feeds to provide fresh, targeted content.

You pick a niche, search Google for blogs/websites in this niche that provide RSS feeds and then insert the RSS feed URL into the MPW admin control panel, the result is niche specific content that updates itself! (just like I have done with my blog RSS feed – click on the ‘latest news’ button above.)

MPW provides an easy, fast, cost effective way to churn out an unlimited number of niche websites each monetized in several different ways, if you then add targeted traffic into the mix you have a business!

“That’s great, Stuart but how do I send targeted traffic to my sites?”

The easy answer is to take your sites to the traffic and this, of course, means eBay.

eBay is still the place where millions of people from all over the globe converge when they want to pick up a bargain.

There are hundreds of thousands of profitable niches on eBay and MPW gives you the opportunity to make money in any/all of them.

I’ve created a video to show you a step by step example of this strategy

Click  here to visit Multi Profit Websites, watch the videos and  if you still have any questions about how you can use Multi Profit Websites in your business then don’t hesitate to comment on this post and I will get straight back to you.

You can grab yourself a ton of ‘eye watering’ bonuses if you invest in Multi Profit Websites through my link Here

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

Check out video 1 and video 2 For the full story.

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