A Real Success Story
You’ll probably remember that around 16 weeks ago, John “PlanetSMS” Thornhill launched his own personal coaching program, the number of places was strictly limited and the price tag was into hundreds of dollars. I know from some feedback I’ve received that a lot of you were unsure about joining up as you didn’t know quite what to expect.
Well, with around 2 weeks left to go, John’s students are coming to the end of the course and they are starting to produce their own quality products.
I don’t know this through (thru for the Americans amongst us!) some “insider information”, I know this because I got an email a couple of weeks ago from one of John’s students who is also a member of my mailing list and an avid newsletter reader - Omar Martin. Omar asked if I’d be interested in helping him out with his very first product launch, without hesitation I agreed.
Now I don’t need to give you any type of hard sell here, why not?
Because Omar is one of the nicest guys you will find online!
Not only is he a great person, he also has vast experience when it comes to sales. With over 8 years of offline sales experience, working as a sales trainer and manager, Omar decided to try his hand at internet marketing. He didn’t really know where to start so he took the plunge and joined John’s coaching program.
With John’s help, Omar has brought all of his offline knowledge together and used it to create his very own product - “High Performance Sale Secrets“.
Not only does Omar provide you with a brilliant written guide to capturing the sale, he also provides you with “real” videos - not camtasia screen recordings but “real” videos with Omar showing you on his white-board exactly what you need to do to make sure you turn a visitor into a buyer.
That’s all I need to say about the product, I’m not bluffing when I say that the quality provided really does sell itself, I love it when something like this comes along, it makes me realize that there are still genuine people out there, willing to share their knowledge for practically nothing…
Yeah, I said practically nothing!
What would you expect to pay for a product that provides you with a huge written guide, and loads of video guides thrown in for good measure? You are probably thinking it’s going to be one of those “special” offers where the $197 price has been lowered to $97 for A LIMITED TIME ONLY” (yeah, right!)
Sorry to disappoint, but Omar is delivering incredible value by selling it all, the videos, the guide, the bonuses for only $37! So what are you waiting for?
http://elpassoblog.com/recs/omars_sales_secrets.php
As I said right at the start of the email, Omar really is one of the “good guys” and I had no reservations about helping him out with his very first product launch. So please, if you do have a spare 5 minutes do head on over and take a look at what Omar is offering.
It’s a great example of how any newbie can break into the world of Internet marketing, a real success story if you’ll excuse the cheesy pun 
http://elpassoblog.com/recs/omars_sales_secrets.php
| Posted In: My Offers | Comment |
An Interview With Me (Free eBook)
Hello and welcome to something strange…it’s another Friday blog posting!
Today I don’t have a newsletter for you, but I do have something just as good. A few weeks ago I was interviewed by Graham Cox as part of his “Auction Aces” series of eBooks.
I won’t spoil it for you but we discussed everything from List Building to Attending Seminars. I don’t want to sound like I’m blowing my own trumpet but I do think it’s a very good read, and to be honest, there’s a lot more content in there than you’d find in one of my newsletters - My newsletters are usually 2 pages in MS Word, this interview is 14 pages in length.
The eBook is free, but best of all it comes with resale rights and is totally re-brandable! That means you can brand the links within the eBook to earn you commissions for my Boomerang List Builder software, and my D9 Hosting service.
Click here to download the brandable version - I don’t even need you to opt-in
Click here to download the normal (non-brandable) version
Let me know what you think of the interview!
| Posted In: Free E-Books | 5 Comments |
“People Are Stealing My Commissions” - No They Are Not!
“People Are Stealing My Commissions” - No They Are Not!
This particular subject has been widely misreported and misconstrued for as long as I can remember now. It’s a regular question on forums and in emails:
“What script/software should I use to stop people stealing my commissions”
“My clickbank ID appears in the browser address bar, I’m losing commissions!”
Let me first put the world to rights on one point before I continue. What do you think would happen if you replaced my affiliate ID in the URL below with your own and then refreshed the page?
http://www.bartrickstoolkit.com/index.htm?hop=elpasso
You would probably be thinking that I would lose the commission, because you’ve just got rid of my affiliate ID (elpasso) and changed it to your own, so if all goes to plan, you should get the commission and not me.
Well, don’t take my word for it. Let’s try it now, follow the steps below to see who gets the sale.
1. Click here to go to a sales page via my affiliate link. (Opens in a new window)
2. Click on the “Order Now” button at the bottom of the page
3. On the checkout page, scroll to the bottom of the page and you will see the following:
You can see that the affiliate for that sale would be “elpasso” - which would be me.
Now try and “steal” my commission, I promise I won’t be offended 
Go back to the sales page, change the hop=elpasso in the address bar to hop=yourID and push refresh. Then click the order button and see if the affiliate has been changed.
You’ll notice that it still says “affiliate = elpasso”
Is that enough proof that changing the hop = value doesn’t have any effect on who is awarded the commission?
The hop = value, or variable is passed to the page and can be used by the webmaster to perform his or her own tracking amongst other things, it doesn’t actually set the affiliate cookie. The cookie is set when you click on the link, NOT if you change the hop value and refresh the page.
So with that out of the way, why do we bother to cloak affiliate links?
Well, for me the answer is simple. I don’t cloak my links to stop people from stealing my commissions, I cloak them because they look better! Take a look at the 2 links below and tell me which looks better.
http://elpasso.gizmodrake.hop.clickbank.net
http://elpassoblog.com/recs/bar_tricks.php
For me, that is the sole reason of cloaking links – they look better. It’s all very superficial, and the raw links may have a great personality but in this case, for me, looks are everything!
I was going to end this entry with that, but there’s a bit more info that I’ll share with you, and this is what probably causes quite a lot of your commission loses, but unfortunately there isn’t much you can do to stop it.
The 2 main causes for “stolen” commissions:
1. Having an “affiliates” link on the sales page
If you send a customer to a sales page and the customer can see an “Affiliates” link at the bottom of the page, the customer is likely to click on the link, generate their own affiliate link and buy the product through that link instead of yours – simple but true.
2. Malware/Adware **Play spooky music**
Malware/Adware is not only un-ethical, it’s also a pain in the backside to get rid of if you do become infected!
These applications, once activated on your PC can, and will replace any genuine affiliate cookies they find with their own ID. So for example, if your visitor goes to a site via your affiliate link, the malware/adware will detect that your cookie has been placed, and it will replace it with it’s own cookie – meaning you miss out on the sale.
And that brings to an end my extra little “brain fart” (thanks Pat!) for today.
Just one thing left to show/give you now, and that’s a freebie.
Don’t spend lots of money on fancy affiliate link cloakers – you don’t need them. You can easily make your own links, details can be found here and here.
Or, you can download some free affiliate link cloaking software at the location below – it’s 100% free! (The download contains a number of different items, the item to create the affiliate links is called “Affiliate Diamond”)
http://d9hosting.com/clients/dl.php?type=d&id=6
Feel free to leave any comments or questions.
Regards,
Dan
| Posted In: General Chat | 11 Comments |
How To Create Multimedia CD’s (Tutorial)
Following my last newsletter (eBay Digital Item Restrictions) I got a lot of emails from readers asking me how they could go about creating their own CD’s to sell on eBay. I replied to those emails telling them that it was my plan to create a step by step guide showing just how it’s done.
Well….Someone beat me too it!
Dave Nicholson from Planet Divinity (The design company) has created a product that shows you exactly how the whole process can be done from your own home PC, this includes:
- How to place all of your contents onto CD/DVD
- How to structure your CD/DVD to optimize the simplicity and quality of your product.
- How to make a simple menu system that will link to your CD/DVD products
- How to integrate an auto-responder newsletter subscription form
- How to make your CD/DVD automatically run once inserted
- How to earn even more by adding an upsell to your product
All of the above points are great, but they were all going to be included in my own guide, so what makes Dave’s guide a lot better than mine?
THIS….
1. 5 CD/DVD menu templates for your auto-run disc navigation, complete with PSD source file
2. 5 DVD/CD box templates for your DVD/CD boxes, complete with PSD source file
3. 5 CD case templates for your CD cases, complete with PSD source file
4. 5 CD/DVD label templates for your actual discs, complete with PSD source file
You’ll remember earlier that I mentioned Dave runs the Planet Divinity design firm, so he’s using that to his advantage by providing us with a total of 20 different CD, Menu, Box and label images that we can use to create our CD’s, he also supplies them in PSD format so we can edit them to fit our needs.
So without any further chatter, clear your cookies and then head on over to Dave’s page using the location below:
http://elpassoblog.com/recs/CD_Tutorial.php
Let me know if you have any questions!
Cheers,
Dan
| Posted In: Product Reviews | Comment |
My Take On The eBay Digital Item Restrictions
My Take On The eBay Digital Item Restrictions
So, the end of the world is nigh, from March 31st eBay are to ban you from listing any digital item that is sent to the buyer in the form of a download link.
As you can imagine there has been an immense amount of backlash towards eBay from hundreds, if not thousands of eBay sellers and I’ve been lurking around taking in all sides of the coin. I also came across this on my travels which I couldn’t resist posting – full credit to “krazzykats” on the eBay forum who originally posted the image below:
I’m not going to be giving you a rant on the rights and wrongs of the decision, but what I am going to do with you today is to show you how you can continue to sell your eBooks on eBay, and how it could open the door to an endless amount of new income streams and opportunities.
For my first piece of advice, I’m going to do something that I haven’t done before:
I’M DISAGREEING WITH JOHN THORNHILL!
(now imagine some spooky music has just been played)
I’d imagine that 99% of you will know who John is, but for those who don’t – John is the ultimate eBay eBook seller and to work within the new rules, John is advising you to ship the eBooks on a CD – which I agree with. What I don’t agree with is this comment on Johns blog he posted today: (Click here to see what i’m disagreeing with)
“First of all I know the automation side of things disappear, I know you can use fulfillment services but for me personally I wouldn’t do it. I need to be in full control of my eBay business.”
The first thing John mentions is that the automation side of things disappears, but I don’t agree, and here’s why.
It’s now (or will be on March 31st) illegal to send buyers any download link for the product they purchased via email, but it’s not illegal to use your digital delivery scripts to send notification to the buyer once they have paid – all it takes is a quick edit of the email template that gets sent out and you are in business.
How does something like this sound:
“Dear Bob Smith,
Many thanks for purchasing Dan’s Guide On Taming Shrews With Attitude Problems, your CD is currently making it’s way towards the comfy cardboard delivery sleeve and will be waiting for you on your door mat within the next 5 days.
We appreciate that these 5 days will be a tough wait for you. So in the meantime, how would you like to get your hands on 5 free eBooks as a thankyou for your custom:
www.elpassoblog.com/newsletter
We would love to deal with you again, we couldn’t have asked for a nicer customer!
Many Thanks,
Dan The Friendly eBay Seller”
With your CD’s taking around 5 days to arrive, there is a window of opportunity there waiting for you to use to your advantage. The email above is slightly tongue in cheek, but think about it, how many other sellers of physical goods can offer the buyer added bonuses that they can check out BEFORE they get there hands on the item they purchased.
You can use those 5 days to build up a relationship with the buyer, and that’s BEFORE they even receive the eBook they purchased from you, by the time it comes through their door in some cool looking cardboard sleeve they will already be loving your service as you’ve gone the extra mile and delivered something of added value to them that they weren’t expecting – can you imagine the sort of feedback you could receive if you put this into place?
Now more on the lovely cardboard sleeve…
John recommends that you do the burning, packaging and shipping of the CD yourself. Let’s look at the costs involved with that:
1. Jiffy bags/CD wallets to post in
2. Blank CD’s to burn the items on to
3. Machine to print labels on the blank CD’s
4. Ink for the CD labels
5. A label printer for the addresses
6. The price to ship the CD
7. The endless queues at the post office!
The above would give you total control over the shipping process, but how much time would all of that take if you were to do it day to day, and if you had a full time job as well, would you be able to find time for the daily trip to the post office?
Now let’s compare that with my solution -
Use an on-demand CD printing and shipping service!
I’ve used www.swiftcd.com in the past for a number of different projects, you simply upload the “Master” CD to them via their website, and then each time someone purchases your item, you just log onto the website, fill out the delivery form with the buyers name and address, and hey-presto, SwiftCD burn, print and ship your CD to the end user.
Not only will it take a lot less time than doing all of this yourself, I think that the end product would also look a lot more professional. Take a look at an example CD I had shipped by Swift:
I also think that when you look at the cost of shipping and burning the CD’s yourself, SwiftCD could actually work out cheaper – especially if you are in the UK!
For the basic mailing package (which is all you’ll need), the cost of burning the CD and printing your artwork (or just a text label) on the CD is just $3.69, you then have the shipping costs which are currently $0.41 to a US address and $0.90 to a non-US address.
So in total you are looking at less than $5, or £2.50 per CD. When you work out how much it would cost you to do this manually, and the amount of time you would waste queueing at the post office is it really going to be cheaper to do it yourself?
I should also point out that the pricing mentioned above was correct at the time of writing, for an upto date pricing guide check out the links below:
CD Creation: http://www.swiftcd.com/FAQ/Pricing.htm
Shipping Prices: http://www.swiftcd.com/faq/shipping.html
I will also point out that any links in this post are NOT affiliate links, I have no affiliation with SwiftCD other than being a happy customer for a number of years. There are of course other companies out there and you may be able to find better deals if you dig around!
I’d love to hear your comments on what seems to be a very poignant subject to a lot of you.
As always thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it,
Regards,
Dan
| Posted In: eBay Information | 30 Comments |
