This message is about the second incident from yesterday which caused some errors during the order process (only 5-8 buyers were affected by this, though…).

Basically, it all started well. I sent out an email for my buddy Dirk Wagner's latest "Crazy Deal" and it was for a script which can link your keywords to Clickbank products or to your own product offers. They appear like those Kontera ads when you hover with your mouse over them (a popup with a product title and a link to the actual offer).

It seems that many of my subscribers liked the offer because there were quite a lot of sales for it. That was the positive aspect. The negative one was that I noticed that the number of sales in my stats for Dirk's deal was different from the number of Paypal notifications I received. Something must have gone wrong, I thought. It had never happened before that there was such a difference between the stats and the actual Paypal receipts.

So I called Dirk on the phone in order to verify the stats and we noticed that there were names in my list which didn't appear in my Paypal sales stats. Since everything can be tracked individually, we even could find out the names of the ones who did a "freeload". I won't go into the details here but people who know the script from the inside out (maybe because they are using it themselves), know how to access the product on someone else's server as well because of the whole setup.

In order to close this loophole, I suggested Dirk should rename some of the files for the download pages. And this worked. After he did this, no further "freeloaders" were caught trying to trick the script.

This caused a temporary failure on some regular orders as well. Because of the renamed files, something went wrong with another associated file. And since that other file was written in CGI, we didn't know how to fix it immediately. So basically during half an hour or so, some people made orders and couldn't access their download. We are really sorry about this but we had to take measures against the product thieves. They all should have gotten their product by now as we tried to get back to these buyers as quickly as possible.

Next time, the URLs will be secured in advance to close the loophole even before it comes up. And with that said, I hope, you'll understand everything from the seller's point of view as well and that this doesn't stop you from taking me up on my next offers. I'm trying to give back here so you can learn from my mistakes. As soon as you're selling your own products, you will understand this.

Tags: adsense, clickbank

Yesterday was an absolute nightmare for me… I promoted a Clickbank script (and a different one - more on that in another blog post) and the delivery process was not really error-free.

All I wanted was to give my subscribers a great product at a very affordable price ( at $7 - most similar scripts cost more than $40).

Here's what happened when I sent out my offer:

1.) People clicked the URL and were sent to the product owner's site using my affiliate URL

2.) A lot of my subscribers ordered the product and I got the full 100% commissions - paid to my Paypal account

3.) The button in Paypal "Return to merchant" didn't send them to the download page but to a page with an error message.

4.) The buyers which I had sent over to the site, opened tickets on my helpdesk or sent me direct emails asking for the download link

5.) I couldn't service them because it was not my product - it was a 100% commission offer using the $7 script

6.) I contacted the product owner and got an email back several hours later

7.) So basically I had to wait until the product owner read his emails and then I had to forward him the support requests I got…

There were several problems for me. I sent out the message with the offer quite early. It was at around 1 PM of my time which was about 6 AM EST. Most people are still sleeping at a time like this.

I got several tickets where the buyers wanted to get their item A.S.A.P (several people also wrote it like this in their emails). I couldn't send them the download link because of the reasons which you can read below in the explanation about $7 sales. It was a bad situation to be in because the product wasn't mine and it wasn't even located on my own server. I had to wait for the product owner to react…

Several hours later, I got to know why the first series of sales bombed and produced error messages. It was because the seller was using a MODIFIED version of the $7 script - he wanted more automation. This modification caused the errors (I had promoted several other $7 offers in the past and these errors had never happened before).

He used the auto return IPN feature and activated it in the script. This caused a conflict with the settings in my own Paypal account because I ALSO had auto return enabled for sales of my own products. It seems that the script took MY Paypal auto return settings instead of his. Now I am not a PHP programmer so I didn't understand it until he told me about his modification.

Basically, I had to switch off the automatic delivery of my own products to make the $7 script of this seller work. Until I got to know this and could take measures, several dozens of orders had already gone through the system. These buyers had to be contacted by email, one by one. I hope, you have received your product in the meantime if you were affected by the error yourself.

It can be quite difficult for inexperienced buyers to understand the whole process behind it. That's why I wrote this article in the first place…

What does the $7 Dollar script do?

Basically, the script works like this: The order button is linked to a PHP page and this order page gets the product details and owner details from a different PHP file. It uses a standard Paypal email address (which can be written into a settings.php file) to transfer the money and the product details to the site owner's Paypal account.

When someone else promotes the product owner's site, the standard Paypal email address of the owner gets replaced by the affiliate's Paypal email address and thus the affiliate gets the full order price paid to HIS Paypal account - it's a 100% commission item in this case.

The standard link for the product owner goes like this:

http://www.productownerurl.com/?e=paypalemail@productowner.com

When the affiliate wants to send him customers, the affiliate uses a link in the following format:

http://www.productownerurl.com/?e=paypalemail@affiliate.com

A lot of people are not familiar with the principles of the $7 script (this concept was invented by Jonathan Leger). Therefore a little explanation of the concept and idea behind it: The seller sells his product (e.g. an ebook or a script) very cheaply so he can get a lot of sales. He's offering affiliates 100% on this item in order to build a list of customers (and sometimes in order to show a one time offer on which he makes more money, too - like the resell rights to the item purchased).

This way, both profit: The product owner because he can then promote other products to these buyers in the future and the affiliate (me in this case) because he's getting paid the full purchase price. Because of this reason, buyers were seeing MY details in yesterday's purchase receipts, not the product owner's.

It's still his product and his product support, though. Therefore, I can't take over the full support from him. The product owner's goal is to build a list and if I would be sending my customers the link to the download, it would forfeit the whole sale principle and idea behind it.

Again: It's a 100% commission item - meaning he stays the owner of the product and I am not getting access to his webserver or something like that. I am getting the full purchase price for it, yes. But it's automated by the $7 script. If it weren't for this script, several items a lot of successful sellers have been selling in the past would have been sold at a much higher price!!

I have learned my lesson, though. If I am promoting such an item in the future, I will make sure that the product owner is actually awake and can help my customers if something goes wrong with their purchase. Buyers should also take into consideration that selling online is not always without mistakes. Sometimes, a return URL can have a spelling error in there and the URL can't be found because of this. Or a file has been uploaded to a wrong folder on a server. These things can happen.

We product sellers are only human and humans are making mistakes. Not always but mistakes CAN happen. If you ever encounter something like this, you can be sure that I will be doing my best to help you as quickly as possible. Using my helpdesk will be the quickest way to get a response from me and it's the safest way to contact me because emails get lost and with all those spam filters in place, it's simply getting unreliable.

If you're not getting an answer immediately, you also have to take into consideration the time difference (a difference of at least 7 hours between Germany and the US). So here in Germany it could be 7 hours later than where you live - I mean, you certainly will understand that I need some sleep as well, right…?

Please leave your comments on this, I am interested in hearing what you think about this… Could I have done something different to avoid this (apart from sending out the message at a different time)? Did I react correctly? Have you had similar experiences in the past… ? Let me know.

Tags: adsense, affiliate, affiliates, clickbank, ebook

You'll probably agree with this statement: One of the best ways to earn a residual income on the Internet is by creating a membership site where people have to pay a monthly fee in order to get access to the content or service provided.

For many people, the setup of such a membership site has simply been too complicated or too expensive to get you started. Scripts like the Butterfly Marketing Script seem to be very expensive (around $500 for the digital version of the package) or intimidating to set up for some of us.

And even a membership script like Amember can easily cost close to $150.

You probably still want to create a membership site but you don't know where to get started… Well, there is an alternative that provides all you need and is relatively easy to set up compared to other scripts out there: It's Wordpress!

Yes, there's a possibility that you can create a membership site simply by using Wordpress as your membership platform. And it makes perfect sense because apart from a blogging platform, Wordpress also is a CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM.

The URL I am about to show you offers you access to all the details on how to set up a membership site for monthly profits (just like I have with my Niche Content Websites membership site) plus you also get to see how to put everything into practice in the form of videos.

This is what you will be getting with this package:

- Videos (How to run a membership site using Wordpress)

- A Membership Script (Membership Millionaire)

- A Manual (Awesome Membership Riches)

- A report (How to create small niche membership sites
for instant Paypal cash)

Get everything here:

http://tinyurl.com/2jwslo

To Your Success,

Detlev Reimer

(P.S. : This is a message which I sent via email to my list but since the offer was so much appreciated, I'd guess that you'd like to read about it, too, if you're a regular reader of my blog)

Tags: adsense, butterfly marketing, membership script, membership sites, websites

Niche marketing at its' best helps to solve real problems that real people have to live with every day. If you can come up with a product or service to promote in a niche market that will help people solve their problems then you will easily be able to build a money making niche website. Apart from that, you also can quickly build a long list of potential subscribers and customers.

The things that people view as "problems" are opportunities for you… everything from bad breath to a bad golf swing to a chronic disease are problems where people are looking for help to get it solved.

A good way to find out what people consider a problem is to visit different online forums. People talk about anything and everything online. They discuss subjects that they wouldn't talk about with their best friends for the simple reason that they can stay anonymous. They look for solutions online for the very same reason.

By visiting forums and taking note of what people are most concerned about, you can search the Internet for products and services that will help them solve those problems. Gather information about the topic.

Write or have something written for you e.g. articles about the niche topic. You can find a topic and build a content-rich website for your niche that helps with the problem you have identified and that will serve the needs of people.

Solving other people's problems and giving them info that will make them e.g. happier, healthier or richer will be the key to your online success within any niche.

An additional way to use forums is to post questions which will produce many responses. You can then use these responses in your ebook on the topic. The fact is that many people will buy an ebook that is filled with information they could easily gather for themselves, pre-supposed they'd have the knowledge about Internet technologies and doing proper reasearch.

Most people simply don't know how to find what they are looking for. They will also purchase ebooks that will tell them what other people with the same problem think about or what they are doing about their common problem even if it cannot be completely solved.

The only thing that's still left for you to do is to put your product up in front of them…!

Tags: adsense, ebook

I heard about this guy, Paul Potts, yesterday when I followed the links in one of Mark Hendrick's (of 12 Days to Christmas fame) emails.

It's a great story from the UK TV show "Britain's Got Talent". The audience expected nothing special from this cell phone salesman, Paul Potts, until he brings them to their feet with an amazing performance of an extremely difficult opera song - Puccini’s “Nessun Dorma”.

It's unbelievable but within two minutes he shows more emotion than all the contestants combined. Usually, I'm not a big opera fan but even I had to watch this video a number of times and it brought tears to my eyes in the same way it happened to Mark. I just couldn't help it…

Here is Mark's email:

————————

Hi Detlev,

I was on a phone call with David Perdew a little while
ago and told him about a video of a guy who put a smile
on my face and tears of joy in my eyes.

Repeatedly.

(I've watch this video about ten times now, and it
happens every time

Granted, this guy is not in the same artistic league
as Luciano Pavarotti (you may have heard that he died
recently) — as an aside, in one of my earlier careers
I worked with Pavarotti, but that's another story for
another time.

But I tell you what, I've listened to this young man
sing in this video and got more from his rendition
than ANY other I've heard.

(and I don't really like this kind of music much)

He doesn't look great, he's kind of awkward, and lacks
self-confidence (can anybody ever relate to that?).

This amateur gets before the crowd and 'hits a grand-slam
home run in the bottom of the ninth' and wins the ball
game in my opinion.

As you will see, there are a panel of judges listening.
One of which is notorious for his negative comments,
but not this time — and rightly so.

Here's the link, there is one video on this page and
at the bottom is another link to the followup video (watch
both for the full story, the first one gets me
everytime

Here's the reason I'm sharing this with you:

It's a real-life example of dreams coming true with hope
and hard work and persistence paying off…and when his
preparation met his opportunity, sparks fly!

I love it!

Paul Pott's first appearance:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=9oxTy7KIAaA&mode=related&search==

They bring him back:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=rDB9zwlXrB8&mode=related&search==

The show finale (wow):

http://youtube.com/watch?v=9hIq_GGi1n4&mode=related&search==

AND…

He makes a news story on the TODAY show in America too:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=QBycEUZ0HIA

And here is his MySpace page:

http://www.myspace.com/officialpaulpottsmusic

Here’s a link to the English translation of the lyrics,
but you don’t need to read the words to understand the
emotion of the singer (just watch the video few times):

http://home.earthlink.net/~markdlew/comm/turandot.htm

Feel free to pass this email along to your friends, they
could use a lift, I know they will appreciate you thinking
of them too.

As always, my best to you –

Mark Hendricks

——————————————

If that didn't touch your heart then I don't know what will. As I said, I'm not into opera but I love hearing great voices and melodies and Puccini’s “Nessun Dorma” certainly has to be one of the greatest songs within that genre. It's so full of emotions.

As I said in my email already: This just proves the fact that EVERYTHING is possible ("Whatever the mind can conceive and believe… it can achieve." - Napoleon Hill, Think & Grow Rich) and that making a dream come true is not as far out of reach as you might think… It's a true story about how hard work and persistence can pay off. This is true not only for the music business but for anything you do, especially in an online business.

Have a great weekend and I hope, I have shared something with you that will "make your day" and inspire you in the same way it made my own birthday even more special. So thank you, Mark, for giving me that wonderful birthday present - it was really appreciated (even though it was not intentional)!!

Detlev

P.S.: Feel free to post your comments on this post by clicking the "comments" link at the top of this post!

Tags: adsense