DerrickVanDyke.com

If you promote products as an affiliate and you’re not experiencing the success that you want and deserve, then I can almost guarantee you’re making one or more of these critical mistakes…

Critical Mistake #1: Not Building a List

The biggest mistake that affiliates make is sending prospects directly to a merchant’s website. If you do that, you’ll miss out on the chance to build your own list, and that list is the basis of your long-term profits.

Think about this…

If you spend time and money to drive traffic to a merchant’s website, fewer than 5% will buy. So what happens to the 95% who don’t buy? If you aren’t capturing your visitor’s email addresses, you’re throwing money right down the drain.

Why drive traffic to a merchant’s website and hope for a sale, when you can get them on your list first and have more control over the conversion process?

If you get people to join your list first, that gives you a chance to build rapport with your subscribers and they’ll be much more likely to buy the products that you recommend.

The long-term profit potential of your business will rely on repeat sales from the same customers. If you have a list of subscribers who trust you and believe the products you recommend will truly help them succeed, then you can sell multiple products to the same people and maximize your income.

Can you see why it’s so important to capture leads? That ends up being the most critical skill in affiliate marketing, and many people neglect it entirely.

If you want to be a successful affiliate marketer, you simply have to capture leads and build a responsive list of raving fans and repeat buyers.

Critical Mistake #2: Focusing on Short Term Profits

Most of the “How to make money products” focus short-term profits. Because that’s what the market wants! It’s like illegal drugs: if there were no demand, the supply would dry up and go away.

The problem is that once the techniques stop working, your income stops and you have to scramble to find the next shortcut.

When AdSense was hot, I bought some software that created hundreds of pages that were picked up by Google and I was making $50 to $100 every day from one site. So I thought I was going to be rich practically overnight! All I had to do was make hundreds of these sites and watch my income skyrocket…

Shortly after, Google “slapped” the whole industry and I watched my income dry up overnight. Thankfully, that wasn’t my only source of income. Short cuts don’t give you the consistency or confidence you need.

What you really need is a business that produces consistent income that grows over time and is impervious to Google or any other factors.

Critical Mistake #3: Choosing the Wrong Niche

You’ve probably heard the saying, “Do what you love and the money will follow.” Well I say, “Follow the money and then you’ll have the time and freedom to do what you love.”

You don’t want to waste your time promoting products that won’t make you any money. So you need to select a market in which there is already money being made.

Many new marketers think you need to find untapped niche markets to be successful. But markets with high demand and no competition are rare. You might be able to make a little money in a niche market where there is little competition. But you can’t build a business in a market with low demand.

You want a passionate market of people who will do anything for a solution to their problem. And you want a competitive market where a lot of money is already being spent.

There will always be room in a market of cash-in-hand buyers. All you need is a small slice of the pie.

Critical Mistake #4: Promoting Too Many Niches

When I talk about niches, I mean categories and subcategories within the same market. For example, let’s look at the “Make Money” niche.

There are many ways to make money like Forex Trading, playing poker, and betting on horses. So “Internet Marketing” is actually a niche market and “Generating Traffic” is sub-niche of that market, and “pay-per-click advertising” is a sub-sub-niche of that market.

That may be confusing, but stay with me…

If you promote a Google AdWords product to your list one day and then a Twitter product the next day, your readers will just get confused. Instead you should survey your subscribers, find out which traffic generation technique that their most interested in learning about, and then get those people onto a sub-list.

Then you can provide them with the content they really want and will be more likely to buy the niche product you recommend.

Critical Mistake #5: Promoting the Wrong Products

The products you promote to your list will reflect on your character and your marketing ethics…and will eventually affect your income. If you promote the latest, greatest product launch just because everyone else is, or you promote products that you haven’t purchased and evaluated, you risk losing the respect of your subscribers. You may a sale, but you won’t sell anything else to a person who bought the junk you recommended.

If you don’t truly believe that the product you’re promoting will help your subscribers succeed, then you shouldn’t recommend it.

I know that’s difficult to accept, but it’s true. When you believe in the product you’re promoting, it’s be so much easier to sell and you’ll make much more money in the process.

Critical Mistake #6: Promoting Too Many Products

Have you ever been to a web page or blog where there are dozens of flashy banners and affiliate links? It’s scary, I know. That type of “shotgun” approach is another huge mistake that most affiliates make.

But it’s not their fault…they’ve been fed the wrong information by “me-too” marketers who don’t know what the heck their talking about. And it’s not their fault either. They just regurgitate information that they were fed by someone else!

Let’s set the record straight…More is not better! And the sooner you realize that, the sooner your income will start to grow.

Focus on one product at a time. Learn everything about it and develop unique marketing materials to promote it. Create a free report, set up a squeeze page, and add multiple followups to your autoresponder. Once you have consistent sales, then you can repeat the process with another product.

Critical Mistake #7: Only Promoting Front End Products

The most expensive cost of any business is the acquisition of a customer. And even if you’re promoting as an affiliate, it still costs you time and money to get people to buy.

If you just focus on front-end sales, you’re missing out on the life-time value of your customers. You need to focus on converting front-end customers into life-long buyers and make more money on the back end. And if your market doesn’t have a back end, then you’re in the wrong market.

You also want to make sure that your front-end product has massive value, because customers are more likely to buy additional products in the same niche if they had a pleasant experience with the initial sale.

Critical Mistake #8: Trying to “Sell” Your Prospects

Have you ever been in a store and you know exactly what you want, but you can’t find anyone to sell it to you? It’s very frustrating. On the other hand, it’s annoying when you walk into a store just to browse and you’re hounded by relentless salespeople!

The only time I like to be sold is when I’ve already made the decision to buy. I’m sure you feel the same way. You want to make an informed decision and not be rushed into a purchase.

Your job as an affiliate is to be a trusted advisor because people buy from people they trust. And if you only promote high-quality products that over deliver, then your subscribers will look forward to your next promotion.

That doesn’t mean you have to wait weeks to promote anything to your subscribers. In fact, you should promote your front-end product right away. It does mean that you should give first and sell second.

Give your subscribers valuable content to that’s good enough to sell. And don’t ask for anything in return. Then give them a special offer that they’d have a hard time turning down. You’ll be amazed at the results!

Critical Mistake #9: Believing in the Easy Button

I’ve always been told that the word “work” is a “four letter word” when it comes to writing sales copy, and that it should be avoided at all cost. The reason is because most people truly want to believe that there is an “easy button” somewhere that they can just push and money will come flying out of there computer.

Does this sound familiar? “Make money online without a website or a product working just 15 minutes a day in your pajamas!”

The sooner you acknowledge that the “easy button” doesn’t exist the faster your business will grow. Once you accept that you have to build a real business to make money online, you’ll see more success that 95% of all affiliates.

As long as you believe or even think that there might be an easy button out there somewhere, you won’t invest in yourself and you won’t have the drive or determination to build a real online business.

I don’t mean to scare you, but it will take some work. But compared with starting an offline business or getting a college degree, this is easy and you can get started with just $100 or less!

Critical Mistake #10: Not Believing in Yourself

Have you ever tried to explain what you’re trying to do online to a friend? Did your friend think you were crazy and tell you not to quit your day job?

That’s the same reaction I got when I first started and I know it’s not easy to stay motivated and committed when people are telling you that you’ll never make any money at this and you’re wasting your time.

Here’s the cold hard truth…

If you don’t believe in what you do, then no one else will believe you either. And if you don’t believe in the products you promote, then no one will buy from you.

If you’ve tried and failed, you can’t put the blame on anyone else. You and you alone are responsible for your success and your failures.

Stop looking for excuses and accept your results. Learn from your mistakes and move on. Make the decision to succeed and keep taking action until you reach your goal.

If you believe in yourself and what you’re trying to accomplish, you’ll open a new door that leads to an abundance of wealth.

I hope this article inspires you to make some big changes in your marketing that will help you prosper in 2010!

All the best,

Derrick VanDyke

Click here to see the three powerful strategies I use to make over a million dollars online.

If you’ve been around Internet marketing for any length of time, you should already understand how Internet marketing works: you either earn a commission by promoting other people’s products or you sell your own products and pay affiliates a percentage of your sales to promote you.

In this article, I want to show you the most common methods of making money online and discuss their pros and cons. Then I’m going to give you a step-by-step blueprint designed specifically for people who are just getting started online and want to build a business that generates consistent, reliable income.

The three main methods that everyone talks about are:

1. Affiliate Marketing: Drive traffic to other people’s sites and earn a commission if you make a sale. Commissions are usually paid once or twice a month through PayPal or ClickBank.
2. Product Creation: Develop your own product and sell it online. In most cases, people start out creating digital products such as an ebook, software, or a membership site.
3. Resell Rights: Purchase rights to products that have already been created. These packages usually come with a salesletter, graphics, and a download page.

While these are all great ways to make money online, the question is, which one is best for people who are just starting out?

Affiliate Marketing – The Easiest Way to Make Money?

On the surface, affiliate marketing seems to be the ultimate business for people who are just getting started and want to make a few bucks online.

You’ve probably seen claims like these before:

• You don’t need to create your own product
• You don’t need to build a website
• You don’t need to build a list
• You don’t need to take orders
• You don’t need to handle customer support

“All you have to do is DRIVE TRAFFIC to your affiliate link and the sales will start rolling in…”

Unfortunately, traffic generation is where most people fall short. They get discouraged and eventually give up.

Generating traffic is not as easy as most of the ‘Gurus’ claim…

1. Advertising costs have gone up and Google has made it harder for affiliates to get traffic without paying a premium price.
2. SEO tactics that worked yesterday may not work tomorrow because the search engines can and will de-index your pages without warning.
3. Web 2.0 is the latest rage, but it takes WAY too long!
4. Traffic exchanges? Safe Lists? Surfing for hits? Guaranteed traffic? Don’t make me laugh… They’re all about as worthless as FFA links.

It seems that every time a new traffic strategy comes along, everybody jumps on the bandwagon and it eventually stops working.

And even if you do eventually figure out how to generate consistent traffic, there’s another problem with affiliate marketing…

It’s not a stable source of income because you’re dependent on forces beyond your control.

The fact is, if you leave the sales process up to someone else, your success will always be dependent upon what that merchant does or does not do.

Product owners can change their affiliate links without warning, sell out to a competitor, or even drop their affiliate programs and refuse to pay their affiliates.

I once promoted a membership site (I won’t mention the name) that paid monthly recurring income. I built up over $1000 in recurring commissions and never got paid a single dime for my efforts!

She said the database was corrupted and there was no way to figure out who she owed. So she just shut down the site and kept all the money.

There was nothing I could do about it. Even if I hired a lawyer, there was no way to prove how much I earned.

And then there are the ClickBank merchants who leave commission leaks all over their site. They make it too easy for people to steal your commissions.

There are ways to prevent commission theft. But the merchants don’t care because after all, they just want the buyer leads.

And if you’re sending traffic to a merchant’s website and not building a list, you’re not creating any leverage in your business.

Product Creation – How hard could it be?

Since affiliate marketing has so many flaws, creating your own products would seem to be the solution…

You have more control over the sales process,  high profit margins (especially on digital products), and you can get affiliates to promote you.

The problem is, the process can be frustrating – especially if you don’t know what you’re doing. Choosing a market, writing the content, designing the website, and then hoping that it will sell…that’s a lot of work with no guarantee of a return on your investment.

And let’s face it, most people either can’t or don’t want to write a 60-page ebook. I’ve done it and it’s a lot of work!

Of course, you can hire a ghostwriter. But good writers are expensive and you would still have to get someone to compile the book for you, write your sales letter, and design your website. The whole process could take months and if you’re a newbie, it may never get done…

Creating your own product is a great idea if you’re already making money online. But when you’re just getting started you can’t take the risk of going through all the work, effort and expense when you don’t even know if your product will sell.

Resell Rights – The Ultimate Shortcut?

So, if developing your own product isn’t the answer and affiliate marketing alone is unpredictable…then resell rights must be the best solution. Right?

You’re still in control over the sales process. You have high profit margins on digital products. You can still get affiliates to promote you. And you can skip the whole product creation process!

Well even though this business model seems like the perfect fit for newbies, it also has it’s flaws…

I’m not going to get into all the different flavors of resell rights in this report. But I will say that there are basically three ways to buy a resell rights license.

1. You can buy a package of products that everyone else is selling.
2. You can buy rights to a product that is limited to a certain number.
3. You can buy exclusive rights to a product that no one else will be selling.

You’ve probably seen those packages or membership sites full of resell rights products that you can buy for pennies on the dollar. Most of them are pure junk. But you can find quite a few diamonds in the rough that are worth selling.

The problem is…everyone else and there dog is selling them too (especially in the IM market).

If you buy exclusive rights – even limited rights – you’ll have less competition. But it can be expensive (up to $1,000). And just like creating your own product, you have no guarantee it will sell. Again, not the best choice for newbies…

So what’s the best method for newbies?

Here’s the answer you’ve been waiting for…All THREE!

What you may not realize is this: you’re not limited to just creating products, selling resell rights, or promoting other people’s products.

Internet marketing is not linear…it’s a progression. When you’re first starting out, you need a plan that will generate quick cash. But over time your ultimate goal should be to develop a REAL business that brings in a nice monthly income.

Now we’ve already determined that promoting affiliate programs from scratch is not the answer. It takes too long to generate free traffic and buying traffic is risky when you don’t know what you’re doing.

You want to make quick cash that you can inject it back into your business and make it grow. So here’s the plan…

1. Start out selling low-cost resell rights products ($7 – $27). If you can get private label rights, that’s even better because you can modify the content and add your own affiliate links.
2. Pay affiliates 100% commission to promote for you. This will be the leverage you need to get other people to send you traffic and build your list.
3. Build a list of buyers and sell them high-quality affiliate products. Concentrate on just a few good products that you truly believe will help your subscribers succeed.
4. Re-invest your cash into exclusive rights or create your own product. You can command higher prices for exclusive rights to quality products. Creating your own product is optional. But it will brand you as an expert in your field and gain the respect of your customers.

Obviously, there are many variations of this business model. For instance, you can add an opt-in box (popover, inline, etc.). You could use a squeeze page. You could add an up-sell, a down-sell, or a one-time offer…

But the main objectives remain the same: Give away your front-end profits and other people to build your list while you make money on the back end.

And once you set it in motion, it keeps churning out cash like clockwork. And you can go on to build another one.

I hope you enjoyed this article and take action on what you’ve learned.

Best regards,
Derrick Van Dyke

The #1 most important tool that is critical to your success, is a squeeze page with a unique, compelling offer for your prospects. Your primary objective as an Internet marketer is to get people onto a list so you can build a relationship and sell more products.

If you just send your prospects to an affiliate page – then the person who’s selling the product ends up getting all those leads – and gets to sell other products to them – and they’re lost to you forever.  So what you want to do is create your own list so that you can continuously make money – day after day, month after month.

The entire purpose of your squeeze page is to promote your free report or audio or video – and to collect the visitor’s name and email address.  It’s called a squeeze page because the visitor can only take one course of action – to provide their information.

Competition can be a major problem whether you run an online or offline business – but doing business online has gotten increasingly more complicated – especially in the Internet marketing niche. Here are three tips to make your lead magnet stand out from the crowd and get more optins.

Tip #1: Be Unique

A few years ago, offering someone a free report for signing up at your squeeze page was brand new and worked like gangbusters.  Then everybody jumped on the bandwagon and as it became a regular “offer” it started losing its effectiveness.  Then audio files were hot.  These days it’s videos.  Who knows what it will be tomorrow?

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t offer free e-books, audio files or videos – they’re still effective methods for encouraging people to sign up for your newsletter or other offer.  What I am telling you is that whatever your offer is, you need to position it so that it’s different from the rest of your competitors.  Otherwise, you’re going to look like everyone else, and your prospects are going to pass you right by.

Tip #2: Offer REAL Value

Building an opt-in email list is one of the best ways to make money online. But you need to offer good incentives to your prospects to encourage them to subscribe to your list.  You need to give away high-quality content such as software, online videos, access to exclusive services and other freebies that are perceived as helpful and valuable to your prospects.

Tip #3: Use a Simple Design

My best-converting squeeze pages are super basic with no graphics. You just need a headline, a few bullet points and a call to action. Don’t over complicate things with too many graphics or long copy. If you split-test your pages, you’ll find that short copy with a great offer will win every time.

I hope you take this advice to heart and start building a list that will make you money for years to come. Any time you need cash, just take a few minutes to craft an email and then click the “Send” button. You’ll be amazed at how quickly you can have money in your bank almost on demand!

Five years ago, you’d have to pay $500, $1,000 or more to get Private Label Rights to a product. It just wasn’t that common for people to sell rights to their content. Today, the Internet is flooded with low-quality PLR and the good stuff is hard to find. But there are a few diamonds in the rough…

Below you will find three tips for buying and selling private label rights plus a few good resources for finding quality PLR products.

Tip 1: Buy Quality Content

If you’re going to stamp your name on it, you need to work with quality content that you would stake your reputation on. Hint: if a marketer is selling 10 PLR packages for $27, it’s not worth the investment. You’ll just end up with a bunch of crap that you’d be ashamed to sell.

Tip 2: Buy Exclusive Content

You don’t want to sell the same product that hundreds of other marketers are selling. Look for exclusive content that is limited to 100 people or less.

Tip 3: Make Your Product Unique!

Stand out from the crowd by creating your own unique version of the product. Here are a few tips:

1. Edit the content: change the name, font size, font color, headings, header, footer, etc. and make sure the spelling and grammar are up to your standards.
2. Change the graphics: if you’re handy with PhotoShop or Gimp, you can modify the PSD files to create new graphics. Or you can simply get new graphics. You don’t even need a complete graphics package! You could just get an ecover and use a simple border for your web page.
3. Re-write the sales letter: if you’re not the greatest copywriter in the world, don’t sweat it. Just change the headline, stress the benefits in bullet points, and make sure you have a good guarantee and a strong call to action.

Where to Find Quality PLR

I belong to several membership sites where I purchase and resell information products in the IM (Internet Marketing) niche. I also buy exclusive content at the Warrior Forum and I keep an eye out for great deals in the emails that I receive every day. Below you’ll find my top resources for finding quality resell rights.

Resell Rights Express

This is where I add the top 10 products that I purchase each month. Not all come with PLR. But you will find quality products here.

The Warrior Special Offers Forum

You can find great deals in the Warrior Special Offers Forum that you won’t find anywhere else. Most of the content is in the IM niche. But I have seen PLR content in other niches too.

Special Report Club

I’ve been a member of this site for years and they always come out with great content. They’ve recently added complete PLR reseller packages with graphics, affiliate tools, and more.

InfoGoRound

They have a huge library of PLR articles you can use however you want, which includes assembling them into killer products. What really sets Infogoround apart, though, is their packages.

NicheOlogy

Paul Evans has made a reputation for himself by offering excellent material, and this monthly membership site is no exception. The material is great, and you’ll get fresh stuff every single month.

So there you have it…

I’ve given you three hot tips on buying and selling PLR and I’ve given you five excellent resources for finding exclusive, quality content. Isn’t it time you get your first product online?

All the best,

Derrick VanDyke

P.S. I will personally answer the first 20 questions about this article. Just leave a comment below…Make ‘em good!

REPRINT RIGHTS: You have permission to use the above article without omission and including this resource box. You have the right to insert your affiliate link for any of my products.

The first step to creating a successful, Internet marketing business is building a credible and professional looking website. Your website is the jump-off point of all your marketing efforts – it’s your virtual place of business.

Remember that old saying in the Real Estate business that the number one thing that creates a successful business is “Location, Location, Location?”  Well, the same thing applies to your online business.

So just like any brick and mortar business, it’s important that your virtual office is easy-to-find, attractive to your customers and welcoming.

Location is just as important for virtual real estate as it is with a brick and mortar business.

Since we’re talking about your “virtual real estate” – you want to make sure that your  website is user-friendly, attracts your prospects and motivates them to click on the links to the products and services you are promoting – and of course, make a purchase.  Your Website should be as classy and professional-looking as possible…without being too flashy or high-tech for visitors.

But before you can build a website, you need to have three things – a domain name (the URL or “address” that someone types into their browser when searching for your Website), a place to house or host your Website, and an HTML editor to create your web pages.  Let’s start with the domain name.

Choosing the Right Domain Name

When choosing a domain name, there are basically two options:

1. You could choose a name that relates to the specific industry that you’ll be selling to. For example if you’re going to be selling affiliate products to horse lovers, then you’ll want to try and find a name that relates to that.  However, it’s gotten more difficult these days to find these types of domain names.

2. Choose a domain name that is easy to remember and generic.  And still a third option is to choose your own name or the name of your business – this probably the easiest and probably the best of the three choices. You can register a dot-com domain name for around $10 per year (and it’s tax deductible).  There are several good companies that will register your domain name – NameCheap.com is the company that I use and recommend.

Finding the Best Hosting Company

Next you’ll need to choose a hosting company – this is where your virtual real estate will be located. Try a good basic company like HostGator – they guarantee your site will be up at least 99% of the time, and their fees are about $7 a month.

Whatever you do, DO NOT choose one of the “free” hosting sites.  Not only will it look nonprofessional (most of the time they put advertisements all over your Website) but they’re also not the most reliable – and entrepreneurs have often found out too late that their Website is often “down” or unavailable – and you’re losing money every time someone can’t get to your site.

Building Your Website

These days with simple WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) Website builders, ready-made templates and even the availability of freelance designers, there is no excuse for even the “technologically challenged” not to have a professional Website. In fact, you can pick up an excellent free HTML editor at Kompozer.net.

These three tools are all you need to build a successful, moneymaking website. Why not get started right now?

Here’s a step-by-step system for building a list from scratch and making money online very quickly. This has nothing to do with Google, Twitter, social sites, are article marketing.

It’s a proven system that most ‘Gurus’ don’t want you to know…

Right click here to download the PDF

Click Here to Leave a Comment

I will personally reply to the first 100 people who leave a comment below.

All the best,

Derrick

P.S. I will be holding a new coaching program to teach this system to 30 people. So if you are interested, leave a comment on my blog so I can answer your questions.

People are always asking me how to do specific tasks like using an HTML editor, adding a banner to a blog, or uploading files to a web server – even copy and paste.

There are thousands of free video tutorials on every subject you could imagine.  You just need to search…

Go to Google and enter:  tutorial + keyword

For example:

• tutorial copy and paste
• tutorial html editor
• tutorial banner wordpress sidebar
• tutorial ftp upload files

To narrow your search, use quotes to find pages with an exact phrase like “html tutorial.”

I’ve list 30 sites with free tutorials below:

• http://www.instructables.com
• http://www.tutorialized.com
• http://www.watchdoit.com
• http://www.noupe.com
• HTML clipboard http://www.good-tutorials.com
• http://www.pslover.com
• http://www.tutorialsphere.com
• http://www.tutorialkit.com
• http://www.rnel.net
• http://toxiclab.org
• http://tutorial-index.com
• http://designbump.com
• http://www.designfloat.com
• http://www.photoshoproadmap.com
• http://www.tutorials-expert.com
• http://www.cg-links.com
• http://www.fstutorials.com
• http://tutorialoutpost.com
• http://www.tutorialsgarden.com
• http://psd.tutsplus.com
• http://psdtop.com
• http://graphic-design-links.com
• http://devmarks.com
• http://www.dzone.com
• http://www.1stwebdesigner.com
• http://www.tripwiremagazine.com
• http://www.webdesignbooth.com
• http://www.crazyleafdesign.com
• http://psdlearning.com
• http://www.totaltutorial.com

That should keep you busy for a while! LOL

Derrick

The next time you see a product (information or software) that claims to get you thousands of visitors or make millions of dollars without lifting a finger, ask yourself this question…

If it works so well, why are they selling it?

The answer: because they make more money selling it than actually using it!

And there’s nothing wrong with that. The point is, selling information and software is the fastest way to go from zero to making thousands of dollars every month!

In this article, I’m going to show you how I made my first $5k on line and then how I ramped it up to make $30 – $50 per month selling information products and software.

The basic marketing formula is: Traffic + Conversion = Sales

There are hundreds of ways to get traffic. But only one method allows you to use all of them at once. I’ll talk about that in a minute. But first let’s talk about conversion.

The conversion rate is the percentage of people who visit a web page and take a specific action. That action could be joining your list, purchasing a product from you, or purchasing an affiliate product that you recommend. When you own the list and you sell a product, you have control over the conversion process.

• You can find out what people want and create a freebie to give away in exchange for an email address

• You can follow up, give valuable content, build relationships, and earn the trust of your subscribers

• When it comes time to sell something or promote an affiliate product, your conversion rates will be off the charts

Now let’s talk about traffic…

Everybody says that affiliate marketing is the easiest way to get started online. And that’s true to a point. I mean, how are you going to compete with some guru marketer who spends $20k to have  a product created and gets all his JV buddies to promote it? It’s a lot easier to promote a product like that for a cut of the profits than trying to create one yourself.

But the problem is, how do you get the traffic?

Like I said, there are hundreds of ways to get traffic:

• Pay-Per Click Advertising
• Banner Advertising
• Ezine Advertising
• Social Marketing
• Article Marketing
• Video Marketing
• Blogging
• Press Releases
• Viral Marketing
• Webinars
• Teleseminars

Just to name a few…

But are you an expert at all those methods? I’m certainly not. My advice has always been to pick one method and make it work before you move on to the next. And that’s sound advice. But the problem is…

It takes a long time to learn,  implement and be successful at any one of those methods. And most people give up before they ever make a sale.

But what is there were a way to get traffic from people who are already experts at those methods? And what if didn’t even have to pay anything up front to get that traffic?

How to Set Up Your Automated Income System

1. Create or buy rights to an info product on a hot topic
2. Build a conversion system (squeeze page, sales page, followups)
3. Get other people to sell it and split the profits

That’s how I made my first $5k online and then it jumped to $30,000+ a month when I focused on step #3. In 2008, affiliates sent me over a million visitors that converted to $459, 000 in sales. And I did that with NO JV PARTNERS.

That’s the power of an affiliate program!

I run my entire business from home with the help of two part-time, virtual employees in who live in Canada. I can do this because most of my day-to-day operations are completely automated. I go into all the details about business automation in the Surefire Profit System.

What I want to talk about right now is creating your own basic info product and getting other people to sell it, so you can build a list and sell high-priced affiliate products to your subscribers.

Step #1: Create a Hot-Topic Product

The easiest way to get attention from affiliates is to create a short, focused report on a hot topic. For example, two years ago people were going nuts over JV Giveaways as a list building tactic.

So here’s what I did:

• I signed up for a new JV Giveaway and submitted my gift
• I documented everything I did and took screen shots of the process
• I wrote a 14-page report (including screen shots)
• I bought a graphics package for about $100
• I sold the report for $7, resell rights for $17, and branding rights for $27
• I paid affiliates 100% commission to promote it

That little report did over $10k in sales the first month and it’s still selling today! I also got thousands of new subscribers who bought other products from me and also became my affiliates.

The key to that success was creating a focused report on a hot topic. I didn’t list 50 theoretical tactic for building a list. I documented one proven method for getting hundreds of new subscribers. The 100% commission didn’t hurt either.

A current example is social marketing. Everybody’s crazy about Twitter!

So here’s what I did:

• I created viral software to help people get more followers
• I bought resell rights to some Video Tutorials and set them up as an upsell
• I paid affiliates 100% to promote (customers only)

I set it up so only customers could get commission, so there was more incentive to upgrade. The videos are great, the software is great, people are making money, everybody wins.

Within 30 days, affiliates were (and still are) sending over 3,000 visitors per DAY to that site and I don’t even promoted it anymore. I sent a few initial emails to my list to get the ball rolling and affiliate inertia, the viral marketing affect, took over from there.

Those are just two examples of simple min-sites that got BIG results. I cover several different ways to quickly and easily create or acquire you own hot-topic products in the Surefire Profit System training guide.

Step #2: Build Your Conversion System

When you’re developing your plan, you need to factor in lead generation before anything else. How are you going to capture leads?

If you’re selling a low-cost report, it doesn’t always make sense to use a squeeze page and even if you’re paying 100%, you affiliate may not like it. But you can use an exit popup to offer a free report on a similar topic, with links back to the report you’re selling.

Personally, I like to use a squeeze page with an upsell. But that’s a little more work. One method I’ve used very successfully, is making the squeeze page appear to be a membership signup page. Affiliates give memberships away to their subscribers who have to create an account to download the freebie.

Once you have people on a list, you can follow up with great content, build relationships and increase conversions.

Once you decide how to capture leads, you need to write a sales page…

I’m not going to get into the art of copy writing here. But I do want to talk about your offer. If you follow step #1 and create a product on a HOT topic, you won’t need to do much convincing to get them to buy.

You just need to tell them:

• What you have…
• What they get…
• And how they can get it!

Some of my shortest sales letters of out-pulled long copy because my potential customers were already aware of the benefits. They were already primed to buy from social buzz and the “follow the heard” mentality.

If your product is focused on a specific topic that people are already talking about, you don’t need to list a ton of features and benefits. Just tell ‘em how it works, what it will do for them, and how they can get it.

Step #3: Get People to Promote Your Product

If you have a hot  product and the conversions are high, it will be easy to get affiliates to promote. And some of your best affiliates will be your customers.

I’ve already talked about paying 100% commission as an incentive for people to both buy and promote your product. In fact, many will buy a product just so they can promote it! But you need to make it easy.

You need to include information about your affiliate program in several places:

• On the sales page
• On the download page
• Inside the report
• In followup emails

Keep reminding your prospects and customers that they can make 100% commission without going through the hassle of setting everything up.

Give your affiliates tools and tell them what to do:

• Write solo ads and tell affiliates to send them to their list

• Write articles and tell affiliates to post them on their blog, Squidoo, and MySpace

• Get banners created and tell affiliates to add them to their blog or in HTML emails

• Create brandable reports and tell affiliates to give them away to subscribers

The more you give your affiliates, the more active they will be. Tell them what to do and show them how to do it.

Other ways to find affiliates:

• Get on the mailing lists of list owners and send JV proposals
• Join forums and make friends with list owners
• Link to your affiliate program in your signature for articles and emails
• Socialize on Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace

I cover all this and much, much more in the Surefire Profit System training manuals.

What I’ve given you here today, free of charge, is a step-by-step system for getting your Internet business up and running in the next 30 days.

It doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, simple is better. I’ve already proven that point. You just need a product that focuses on a specific topic that people are already talking about and helps people achieve what they’re already trying to do.

The first time is the hardest. But it gets easier every time. The sooner you make the commitment to created your first Automated Income System, the sooner you can enjoy Internet lifestyle that everybody talks about.

Once you have a system in place, it runs almost completely on autopilot.

• Your affiliates drive traffic
• Your sales page converts traffic into buyers
• Your autoresponder follows up to increase conversions
• Sales are processed and affiliates are paid automatically
• Products are delivered automatically

That’s what I call an “Automated Income System!”

Instead of chasing shiny objects and buying into the latest fad, try building a REAL business based on evergreen marketing methods that have worked for decades.

This is the true path to the Internet lifestyle.

Are you coming?

Derrick Van Dyke
SurefireProfitSystem.com

I just uploaded a 57 minute video tutorial that shows you how to get your own resell rights product online:

http://surefireprofitsystem.com/tutorials/productlaunchassassin

This is 100% free content – no opt in required. Just my way of saying thanks for reading my emails.

Talk soon!

Derrick

P.S. It’s a big file, so wait a few minutes for the video to load. It’s worth it…

http://surefireprofitsystem.com/tutorials/productlaunchassassin

One of the big attractions of affiliate marketing is that somebody else (the product owner) does all of the product creation and customer support work, while you just get paid. That’s a great business model for you. But having your own site makes things easier and more profitable, because it allows you to build a list.

I’m going to show you how to set up a simple squeeze page, with minimal effort. In fact, I’ve boiled it down to a few steps that anyone can follow.

The purpose of a squeeze page is to collect the visitor’s email address. It’s called a “squeeze page” because there is only one course of action they can take on the page-opt in to your list. In other words, you’re squeezing an email address out of visitors who opt in.

The system that I’m about to show you is designed to maximize opt-in conversions and affiliate sales with the least amount of effort.

The Gatekeeper

The gatekeeper is a simple, fast-loading squeeze page that is perfect for direct response advertising. Basically, you use the merchant’s headline and bullet points to create your own squeeze page. When someone subscribes, you redirect him through your affiliate link straight to the affiliate product sales letter. Think about how elegant this is…you get to capture leads and make money, and you don’t have to offer a free item!

Tip: If the merchant has a squeeze page, use the squeeze page bypass trick in my “Covert Affiliate Tactics” report.

Your headline should come from the main benefit of the affiliate product you’re recommending. In almost all cases, you can find that in the main headline on the product sales page. Simply put your own slight angle on that headline and you’ll have the headline for your squeeze page.

Then add a line that says something like, “Get this amazing information within seconds from right now…”

Two small twists that can help conversions:

• Say the offer is available for a limited time only, which adds some urgency to sign up right away, and make the claim true when..
• You offer a “bonus” of “FREE marketing information, tips and resources”…which is your mailing list

When somebody signs up, redirect him straight to the merchant’s product sales page. Have your autoresponder give subscribers links back to merchant’s website, and remind them that they’ll be receiving lots of great information and tips from you.

The system is simple:

1.      Your visitors will enter their name and email address and submit the form to receive the free information. You can also set an affiliate cookie with an image tag (read my “Covert Affiliate Tactics” report).

2.     The new subscriber is added to your list and sent directly to the merchant’s salesletter. If they purchase the product, you get the commission.

3.     They will immediately receive your first email with your welcome letter and a link back to salesletter of the product you are promoting.

This method works best if you’re NOT using verified opt-in because it appears to be the same website if you redirect prospects straight to the merchants sales page. If you’re sending highly targeted traffic to a Gatekeeper squeeze page, you should see high conversion rates both for opt-ins and affiliate sales.

To your success!

Derrick