If you're an affiliate marketer then you understand the fact that the more products you have to promote, the better commission cheques you're going to receive at the end of every month.

If you're used to promoting one or two programs at a time, it's time for you to explore a new option which will allows you to increase your profits more than you ever thought possible.

The world of internet commerce has created more opportunities for affiliate marketers than any other program ever has - the opportunity to have an entire online storefront, full of products you can make commissions off of, all based in whatever niche you choose!

Plus, there are so many tools to automate the whole process of setting up e-commerce stores. Below, you'll find me recommending one of them which I have personally tested. This one is so easy to use that even beginners can set up online stores in an instant.

Building Your Own eCommerce Online Store

Having your own online store is actually much simpler than most people think. A way to build an affiliate ecommerce store is by using datafeeds. Datafeeds make it possible to display products from one or more merchants in the same web site.

Datafeeds are similar to RSS feeds used by blogs - an ecommerce store set up by a traditional offline business will place descriptions, pictures, and prices of their products into these feeds, and then affiliate marketers can incorporate these feeds into their own store and make a commission off of each individual product sold.

You can either build your own online store (which eats up a lot of your time, believe me - I've been doing it manually for quite a while now…), or you can utilize the services of an ecommerce solutions company like Datafeedr who will walk you through all the steps and support you as you get your online presence built.

Using a tool like Datafeedr takes out all the hassles of having to manipulate the original raw Datafeed yourself. To be honest, I hate doing that because it's so easy to mess things up. And that's true even if you're having quite some experience already since most of us are still using MS Excel to clean the datafeed from superfluous rows and entries.

Which affiliate networks are supported?

Currently, they have: CJ.com, Shareasale.com and Linkshare.com (the "big 3") plus Clickbank, Netshops and Bridalux.

I recommend using the services of an ecommerce solutions company when building your online store, simply because they already have put in the ground work to provide the datafeeds in a usable way.

Datafeeds are the lifeblood of an online store, as they can be used to automatically add new products for you to promote on your site. Adding products manually to your online store is certainly possible, but it is a very time consuming process.

Datafeeds take all the guesswork out of adding new products to your site, making it easier for you to make better profits with a wider selection to offer your visitors. With Datafeedr, you can automate the whole process and even have the products drip feed into your online store.

How is this online tool being used?

You can use Datafeedr on simple Wordpress blogs by installing their proprietary plugin which gives you access to their system. Everything can be set up very quickly and there are millions of different products that you can choose from for your online store. They are ready to help you get your web site up and running in no time!

The only requirements are that you need to be accepted into the individual network as a publisher and you also need to be accepted by the merchant who is providing the details for his products in order to show their products on your site. But there are several merchants with datafeeds available which have "auto accept" for affiliate signups activated (I know this from personal experience on Shareasale) so it's not difficult to find merchants you can promote.

Not all the merchants from the networks have been made available, yet, (there are over a thousand) but they're working on it. For now, they've been focusing on the ones with the best EPC (earnings per click).

Watch the video at their site (it's what made me understand everything in a way that I wanted to sign up straight away because I know how many hours it will save me setting up niche affiliate stores) and see how easy it is to set up your own affiliate data feed stores.

Ah, and by the way, you're not limited to a specific number of stores you can set up. Set up as many as you want…!

Tags: adsense, affiliate, affiliates, clickbank

Since there are lots of people getting into affiliate marketing every day, it is no wonder that the competition is getting fierce. The challenge is to try and beat the tactics other affiliates are using and think of smart ways on how to achieve this. Affiliate Video Brander is a tool that allows affiliates to act smarter than others. More on that later in this article.

Let's first talk about why using online video presentations work so well with regards to selling products on the Internet…

What better way could there be to wow your prospects and customers than to record and publish top notch, full motion and streaming screen-capture videos? For you as a seller, it's a great feeling to be able to offer a product that gets subscribers and customers excited in great anticipation to buy your product right on the spot.

This is Camtasia in action. It is a proven fact that giving your customers something they can actually see can explode your online sales instantly.

You do not need to have training and a lot of education to be able to know how this system can improve your sales or sales for programs that you're an affiliate of. Anyone can create stunning videos as there are hundreds of multimedia tutorials and step-by-step presentations available online.

The process is like having your customers seated next to you while looking at your desktop, as you show them the things they need to see and hear. All this is done in a step by step manner.

For those of you who don't not know it, yet - what does Camtasia do…?

1. It can record your desktop activity - not only the actions which are taken but also the sound, the explanations which you are speaking into a microphone while recording.

2. In the next step, Camtasia can easily convert your videos into web pages (using flash). Once the videos have been converted from formats like AVI or MPG to Flash, you can have your customers visit the web page which you have produced.

Videos are easier to understand because of the visual aspects. This is unlike reading texts which is not always as comprehensible as seeing and hearing a complete process on your PC.

3. Upload your web pages to your server using FTP. Publish these videos on blogs, within RSS feeds or podcasts. You may want to use your Camtasia videos to reach potential customers. This can be done by uploading your master pieces to video directories like YouTube or Google Video. By doing this, you are actively making use of Web 2.0 techniques.

Video sites and Web 2.0 are all the rage these days and if you are uploading them to places where they can easily be found, you're setting yourself up for free advertising and you can finally get your message across without having to invest thousands of dollars in PPC costs.

There are other things you can do using Camtasia. You can…

- Create stunning multimedia presentations which e.g. show how a certain piece of software works or how certain promotion techniques are being used which are described in the latest ebook you want to promote as an affiliate. This also has the tendency to reduce skepticism among hard-to-please customers.

- Reduce refunds and other customer issues by visually demonstrating how to use your product and how to do it properly. Complaints will be minimized because all the facts can be seen in the visual presentations.

- Promote affiliate products and services using these visual presentations. This is an effective way of pre-selling and redirecting your viewers straight to your affiliate website after they have finished watching the video. Make the most of the presentation by adding your site to the end of the video and make them go there directly if they want more information.

This can easily be put into action using a tool called Affiliate Video Brander. In order to use this tool, you don't even have to create your own videos. All you need to do is use the videos which the merchant has available on his site and you download them to your PC (with the merchant's permission). Videos have proven to increase conversions by a very high percentage.

You simply use Affiliate Video Brander to create a new web page which has a link to the merchant's website included (usually above and below the video). This link is YOUR affiliate link. Moreover, when the video ends, the viewer will be automatically redirected to the merchant's site using your affiliate link. Here's how the interface looks like:

These are just some of the things you can do with Camtasia and Affiliate Video Brander which can be very helpful in promoting your chosen affiliate program. If you're an affiliate and you're not yet using Affiliate Video Brander, you'll be leaving a lot of money on the table since videos can increase your conversions from visitors to buyers by at least 400%!

Tags: adsense, affiliate, affiliate marketing, affiliate program, affiliates, ebook, web 2.0

This is something I struggled with and it's something that a lot of newbies are still struggling with…

When you first come online, you struggle to find that one thing… that one idea to pursue.

BUT! And this is a big "but"… Once you hang around for a while, it seems like ideas and opportunities are everywhere. It simply can become completely overwhelming. And then it gets difficult to decide what to do and what not to do.

Once you do decide on the things you are going to do, you then have to organize your time in such a way to get things done. But how do you decide what you want to do first?

Setting priorities

Priority is one approach to whittling down to what you want to do. What is most important? Better yet, what is going to make you the most money? Or money the fastest?

Once you have figured that out, create a time line to accomplish things. It can simply be on a piece of paper that you tape to your wall next to your computer so you see it everyday.

Then this is the hard part. Do it!

One thing at a time… you can do some stuff simultaneously, but don't do too much. The main thing is to see things to the finish line. It's better to do one thing well and complete it then do a bunch of things poorly and never finish anything completely.

Being focused

Sometimes it will be difficult to stay focused. Not everything you are going to be doing will be fun… Try not to think of the tasks at hand. Don't think about how difficult what you're doing is. Concentrate on the results you are going to get.

Focus on what the benefits of your actions will be. If it's a big project that's going to take a while, you might have to make a note of the "benefits" and tape it to the bottom of your computer's monitor.

A mental or written benefit that you can imagine clearly in your mind.

"What I'm doing will":

1. Bring me lots of traffic.

2. Help me pay the bills.

3. Allow me to quit my day job.

4. Impress that woman or man you have your eye on…

5. It will set the stage for bigger and better things.

6. It will impress your friends or colleagues.

7. It will get your wife off your back.

8. It will simply pay for my hosting every month.

9. It will bring me closer to retiring…

10. It will buy me that car I've always wanted.

What motivates you?

You know what I'm getting at. What do you want the most? We are motivated by specific things in our lives… Love, Money, Power…

That is the benefit for what you are doing. So the next time you are doing that task that is driving you up the wall… close your eyes for a minute and visualize.

Then it's just a matter of setting specific, daily goals to complete things. And disciplining yourself to reach those goals.

Being disciplined

Just like with my Revenue Blueprint ebook and then setting up my complete system. It has been tough. I was very busy. But I tried and wrote at least 3-5 pages per day no matter what was going on… You know what? I didn't always feel like doing it! But I was disciplined and did it anyway, because I had a clear, mental picture of the resulting benefits…

Your job is not finished after you have created your product, though. Then the real work starts. You have to think about how to set up your offer (e.g. OTO's, USP, Bonuses), which payment processors/scripts to use, you'll need graphics for your salesletter and you need to write the salesletter itself. You have to think about pricing, about getting JV partners and other traffic sources.

Accomplishing goals is satisfying!

But it's worth it! You can't imagine what satisfaction it is to see that you've finally accomplished something and that you've put up a new & helpful product. And that's why I personally love to be a product creator. It can't be compared to being an affiliate for other people's products. Because then you are only selling other people's ideas and strategies and not your own.

Affiliate marketing is good for newbies, though. It helps you to learn the ropes of this Internet marketing business. But ultimately, your goal should be to develop your own products and become UNIQUE in the marketplace.

It's more rewarding and pays a lot more than being an affiliate even though super affiliates like Ewen Chia would probably deny this. His absolute breakthrough came along when he started creating his OWN products (Secret Affiliate Weapon, Affiliate of the Month, Autopilot Profits), though.

So there's not that much Ewen could deny…

Tags: adsense, affiliate, affiliate marketing, affiliates, ebook, internet marketing, internet marketing business, traffic

I've been asked why I haven't sent out anything about Russell Brunson's latest "IM-Myth" report. Well, there are several factors. I really think that Russell has done a clever promotion stunt by getting others to promote his report. Of course, marketers are getting the $1 per download and the $0.50 on the second tier.

That's nothing new…

But what are they losing out on? If you have read the report, you will know that it is all about integrating offline marketing into your marketing mix. And he has found a Mr. X who has taught him all of the "secrets" about doing offline promotions - and he's recorded it. This recording and probably some additional PDFs will be sold as a new product on Oct. 9th and be called "The 12 Month Internet Millionaire".

So basically, here's what happened: Potential affiliates have sent thousands and thousands of leads to Russell's list. Instead of having to pay a lot of affiliates and JV partners 50-60% of the commissions for his upcoming product, he can now send his new subscribers a direct email and get 100% of the sale. In other words, most likely by the end of the month, he will have made much more money from his own sales than what he will have to pay in lead commissions.

I do not doubt the effectivity of these offline techniques - that's not the point. The point is that the report is not rebrandable. Meaning, marketers are sending their leads for $1 a pop when they could have made more in commissions on the sales of the product itself. I don't know what the price will be but I guess, it's going to be at least $197.

Moreover, personally I have not gone online to do offline promotions. Since I am located in Europe, it would be kind of difficult to organize offline promotions in the US, anyway. It's simply of no use to me - I don't have the right kind of connections to be able to make use of it. The other point is that it could be too expensive for Internet marketers who haven't had their "breakthrough", yet.

Offline campaigns can cost a lot of money and you can't be certain that you will be making your money back or even make a profit. Even for experienced marketers this doesn't always work. If you have some spare money left that you can spend on a lot of testing then go ahead and do it. In this case, you should also be buying Russell's product. Of course, I don't want to stop you from doing that. I know that Russell's products are top notch.

Offline marketing is just not my kind of thing…

Tags: adsense, affiliate, affiliates

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