Gordon Burgett’s Newsletter
for writers, speakers, publishers, and product developers
#10 / August,
2009
In this
issue:
Feature
Articles
Purpose of
the Newsletter
About
Gordon
Featured Articles
YOU SIMPLY HAVE TO KNOW ABOUT
AFFILIATING…
It’s true. You
simply have to know about the affiliation process if you want to build a
booming empire or even just earn a few thousand bucks a year more…
Why? Two
reasons: (1) to make money from others’ affiliation links and/or (2) to have
them make money for you by selling your products once your system is solid and
flourishing.
First, let
me explain why I think this can be a real good deal, then I’ll give you a free
password to poke around my own affiliation’s innards…
Here are
the basics:
(1)
Somebody else has a finished, ready-to-sell product that you think others in
your orb should have,
(2) Rather
than being reticent about suggesting the product, you feel that you’d be doing
those you contact a sincere favor,
(2) That
somebody will give you a healthy commission (to me that would be 35% or more)
for each item you sell,
(3) They
will handle the selling transaction, packing, shipping, and the rare returns or
defects,
(4)
Optional but very useful, they will provide selling copy, artwork, and other promotional
material in digital format to use as/if you wish,
(5) Again
optional but very useful, they will provide squeeze page and/or landing page
copy that you can use or modify, and
(6) All
transactions are transparent, what they owe you is current and verifiable at
their affiliate website at any time, and they reliably pay on schedule
There is a
presumption here, that you have some sort of contact list through which you can
tell others about their product. You may have a six-digit e-list, a thousand
like souls on an address list, or even 100 who trust you and won’t be offended
if you kindly suggest something they might benefit from.
What I’ve
just described is the heart of an affiliation program as I see it operating in
our information dissemination world. For you, it could be a huge moneymaker or
a solid secondary income font. What I like best about it is that you needn’t
stock products, handle the order, clear the credit cards, or do much of
anything other than tell those you know about something they may need, then act
as a sort of broker (okay, a salesperson) that will lead them to the digital
order form. No sweat, no-grease, no lifting—and if you’re talking to your list
anyway (like through a monthly newsletter), not much time spent either.
As I said,
I have my own affiliation a program that I really like. I’ll let you explore it
in a few moments.
To make
this easier to envision, let’s use a real product of mine so you can see how it
might work for you. Let’s use the “Test Your Niche Book First!” audio CDs that
I told you about in my July mid-month e-mail.
While I offered that program to you for $19 (see the date extension in the next
newsletter item), its everyday cost is $38. It’s a two-CD packet in a plastic
holder composed of one CD with a 42-minute audio explanation of the niche
testing process and another CD, all text, with the script of the audio section
and three testing tools you can download, modify, and use.
To draw a
comparison, let’s say you order that packet from me (or off my order form). To do that you
must push the shopping cart order button and enter your name, address, and
other ordering info, including credit card data. All of that ordering information
is being entered into my One Shopping
Cart (1SC) account. It is almost simultaneously processed by PayPal, and the amount you just paid is
deposited in my account. Since you also indicated how you wanted that sent
(media mail or priority) and about $3 or $5 was included for shipping, I then
quickly package the program, label it, and send it to you.
What’s different in an affiliation? There, you will recommend “Test
Your Niche Book First!” to somebody else and send that person to sign up for
the packet. Why would you do that? To tell them about good information and a
process they probably know little or nothing about. But also because doing good
pays well! You get a commission for sending them, in this case, to my order
form.
But how do
I know you sent that person to buy my product? (You probably don’t even know if
you recommended it to a long list of followers!)
That’s
where the affiliation business comes in. And where it’s a hidden blessing for
you.
Before you
recommend the product, you register in the provider’s affiliation program. Then
you have access to the special link codes of every product that he or she
offers, all paying you a commission from the amount the buyer pays the seller. If
you send them to buy this packet for $38, the special code link tell the
software that it was you who sent them and it will take them to my order form
to buy what you recommended. (They never see the special link code.) The
commission magic is that you have just earned, in this case, 40% of that $38,
or $15.20. And a cookie in the link code I gave immediately adds that money to
your income due account. (Commissions vary. We pay 40% for any product that
must be shipped, like books or audio CDs, and 50% for all instant digital
downloads.)
You’ve told
your people about this great product, you linked them to my order form with the
special coded link, and I would then send the already created product to them
by the means they stipulated. (Or it can work in reverse once you have an
affiliation program: they send the buyers to you for you to send your products.)
When you
seek affiliation programs, look for those that have all or most of the six
items above.
Few have
(4) and (5). Yet provided copy helps you better explain the product(s) that you
recommend. Sometimes you can pluck what you need from the provider’s website.
Sometimes they will provide a downloadable file that highlights the benefits
and contacts. But squeeze and landing pages are probably the best ways to do
this.
Squeeze and
landing pages focus tightly on the product you are recommending (without other
product distractions). They also help you guide your potential buyer straight
to the very order form you want them to use!
Two
examples. You may just use a squeeze
page, which tells in a few paragraphs or a page about the product’s
benefits and features, then displays an ORDER NOW! button that lets them buy.
In our
case, it sends them to my order button at 1SC. (See a short nine-paragraph
squeeze page here
that explains this in more detail.) In many cases, affiliate directors provide
similar copy. You can extract what you think works from it and either include
that in your original contact copy with your list or you can create another
page on your website that your original copy sends them to.
A landing page is a more extensive
selling script that is usually stored on a domain page. Often the squeeze page
sends the reader to the landing page. In our case, instead of saying ORDER NOW
on the squeeze page, I would change the last squeeze page sentence in our example
to read “Want to find out more? See www.testyournichebookfirst.com.”
You
don’t create the landing page nor must you get the domain, post it, and all the
rest. That’s done by the affiliate director. It’s a long selling file that
sells only the product in question. All you do is direct your client(s) to
it—and it ends up sending them to the order form (but knows the order came from
you because of the special linked code.)
Thus, you
might tell your customer about my product three ways (or more): (1) Just
mention the product in your newsletter or e-mail, and send them [with the
special coded link] to my order form; (2) mention the product and include
squeeze page copy or send them to a squeeze page (and from there to a landing
page or to my order form), or (3) send them directly to the landing page (like www.testyournichebookfirst.com),
which sends them to my order form. Don’t worry about where the coded link goes;
the affiliation website explains which link you use when.
All
roads go to
Where do you find affiliate programs
and products? The
best way is to study all of the producers who serve your particular field, then
ask them if they have an affiliate program—if they don’t already promote that
at their website. If
so, ask them to send you the details. (You can Google this too:
affiliations+topic.) Check their commissions, of course, and how frequently
they pay (every four months is typical). What is the minimum pay level? (Some
are $50; we are $25. If you earn less, we pay that once a year.) Do they
provide promo copy? Can you understand their conditions?
What do you
have to lose? Not much, if you are picky. Buy a product or two. Is it good
stuff? Well produced and closely proofed? Do you fully recommend it? Any
qualms?
How does it work in reverse? How do you get others to buy your
products through an affiliated structure? First you need enough products to be
a player. Maybe five or more would make me comfortable that you aren’t just
going to disappear. Plus you need to set up a solid, reliable structure. I like
One Shopping Cart, but ask about the others that you see being used, and
compare.
Mind you,
you don’t need any structure at all to sell others’ products, or they, yours.
You can just work out a discount or commission scale with any other product
seller (as they can with you), and have them sell on a drop-ship basis: you
place the order, you pay, and they ship directly to your buyer—you hope. That’s
how I’ve sold probably 50% of others’ products for some 25 years. And it almost
always works—though rarely there’s some jerk who simply doesn’t get it. The other
way is to lay in discounted stock (a box of books or whatever) and you do it
all.
But I sure
like affiliations. And, yes, there is a delay getting paid, but I do get paid
and I do a lot less for it.
That’s the
global idea. You want to see the insides
of an affiliation agreement? Then go to this address and register in my
system: https://www.mcssl.com/SYS/?m=102033&c=s
(that’s a small “L” before .com). There are absolutely no strings at all, and I’m
aware that hardly any of you want to sell my products, as good as they are!
Just poke around to see how it works, and then just unregister, I guess, if
you’re uncomfortable. Or tell me and I’ll remove you. The only thing I might
find too nosey is the request for your social security number. Leave it blank
or swap a digit. I could care less. If we do business later and it’s needed, we
can correct it then.) Take all the time you want looking around. It’s pretty
clear about what you can expect in terms of product accessibility, reporting,
and so on. (And if in fact your customers are interested in my topics, just
stay and let’s both make some money!)
That’s it.
You need to know about this ancillary component of empire earning, even if it’s
premature now or you just don’t see it working for you yet. Others see it
differently, of course, and some have built empires well into six digits all
from affiliations! (Or so I’m told by folks I believe. If that’s you, soon, let
me know so I can point the doubters your way!)
WE’RE EXTENDING THE $19 WINDFALL UNTIL
AUGUST 10!
I just wrote about our audio CD program called “Test Your
Niche Book First!” and said it
cost my newsletter subscribers just $19 until August 1. WRONG! It will cost $19
for ten days longer—until August 10! (It goes public the next day at
$38, still a huge bargain when you consider the alternative of not testing the
book before investing the time, effort, and money of simply publishing it without
any sense of its acceptance.)
I was late getting the mid-July newsletter out to you. I’d
planned to have it in your hands on 7/15. So I got justifiable complaints and
requests about the short buying window, thus the extension. More follows…
HOW ABOUT A PERMANENT DISCOUNT ON MY
PRODUCTS?
I was
cycling the other morning—one of those blessed fresh dewy dawns full of the
smell of pine when the cycle seemed to pedal itself—and I found myself asking
why I was penalizing you, my newsletter readers, by doubling my “Test Your
Niche Book First!” price? And how I could make more sense for you (and, alas, a
few less cents for me) of the confusing pricing logic that I see elsewhere.
So I think
what I will do starting now and into the future is to first set the “regular”
public price, and give you a steep discount from it at the outset. Which is
what I did in the product above—from $38 “regular” to $19. But since I’ll
usually offer my new products on about the 15th, I will extend that
steep discount for three weeks, so you also know about it in the usual monthly
text-laden newsletter coming to you on about the first day of the month. (Since
these are products I think you’d really benefit from, this will help you if
price is the determining factor…)
Then I think
I’ll just offer you, for being faithful newsletter subscribers, a permanent discount
of 25% (with a coupon number that you can apply at any time in the
future as long as that product is sold). There is no way to give you a blanket
discount in our shopping cart format, so I will simply give you a link every
other newsletter or so telling you the discounts that are available. In fact, let
me include my six available products on that link right now, and I
will add to it when new products emerge!
Does that
work for you?
Thus I’m
keeping the price at $19 (50% off) on “Test Your Niche Book First!”
until August 10 (a few days longer since I put it on sale a few days late),
after which you will get the usual (as of now) 25% off.
(There’s
another way to do better, sort of—sell my products to your e-list(s) and earn
40-50%. Affiliation
is the magic word, as you know if you just read the first item in this
newsletter.)
“NICHE MARKETING FOR WRITERS”
A while
back I offered a free copy text script of an interview I had with web marketing
expert Fred Gleeck in early 2009 called “Niche Marketing
for Writers.” My subscriber list has far more than doubled since then,
so if you’d benefit from anything it says, please link and enjoy!
Purpose of the Newsletter
Welcome! I’m Gordon Burgett.
The purpose of this free newsletter is to provide useful ideas for the
creation and expansion of your own empire. It is automatically sent to you each
month either because you subscribed to it or because you are one of my valued
clients, prospects, seminar attendees, or product buyers. If you’d rather not
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I will never rent or share your name or e-mail address.)
If you have peers, kin, or friends or you know somebody else who would
benefit from this newsletter, I’d be doubly grateful if you’d tell them about
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enough to sign up will receive three free reports,
plus an archive that links to all of the earlier newsletters.)
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About Gordon
Gordon Burgett specializes in niche
publishing and empire-building from writing, speaking, and product development.
That is the theme of his monthly newsletter, "Create Your Own Highly
Profitable Empire."
He has also given 2000+ paid spoken
presentations nationwide, written 36 published books and 1,700+ freelance
magazine and newspaper articles. Gordon is the owner and director of two
publishing firms. His most recent book is Niche
Publishing: Publishing Profitably Every Time.
Burgett is the Executive Editor of www.VisualTravelTours.com,
leading visual travel podcast production firm in world, and for years has
appeared as a talk show guest on radio and TV shows across
If that's not enough, here's
Gordon's more extensive website bio!
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Gordon@gordonburgett.com / www.gordonburgett.com
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