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Free
That's a powerful word,
isn't it? Free.
Free is actually one of the most powerful words to
use in a headline.
Everybody likes free,
right? Would you like something for free?
If so, keep reading...
I've got good news today.
Joe Vitale and I just finished our new book, The Ultimate Guide to Creating
Money-Making Ebooks. Joe, who writes faster than any human being
on the planet, has been finished with his part for a while now.
Unfortunately, yours truly is a little slower and I just kept coming up
with more things I wanted to add to it. I wanted it to literally be the
Ultimate guide to creating ebooks that sell.
And you know that since
I'm the guy that's brutally honest about everyone else's products, if I
don't deliver a great book, the 'gurus' will eat me alive.
So, about an hour ago, I
sent the book off to the editor and it will be ready in about two weeks.
You can't buy a copy anywhere online. But you can get a copy for
free.
There's that word again. Free.
Ok, I'll stop teasing you and tell you how you can get a copy of our
new book free... but first I want to tell you what's coming up in this
issue. :)
I get a lot of questions about Clickbank. Some people love Clickbank,
some hate it. You can't argue with the fact that Clickbank is one of
the fastest, easiest and inexpensive ways to get started taking orders
online.
But is Clickbank right
for you? See my review below and decide for yourself.
Ok, I promised to tell
you how you can get a copy of the Ultimate Guide to Creating Ultimate
Ebooks free. And I will. But first I want to tell you about one more
thing. :)
Last week, I mentioned
that I was looking for 10 Ugly Websites to become my partners so we can
turn things around and turn them into money-makers. If you missed the
story, you can read last
week's issue here.
Anyway, I got some
responses but I haven't picked 10 yet. One thing I want to add to what
I said last week. While I did say that it can't be selling an affiliate
site or a site selling a resale rights product I could pick up myself
for $100 or less, I forgot to mention that it needs to be a product
that people order directly from the website. Not something where people
need to call you to be sold over the phone.
I've got a few good
candidates but have room for more. For details on how to sign up, see last
week's issue for details.
How to Get My New Ebook Free
Do you
remember when I wrote to you on September 10th and mentioned I was
going to be speaking that weekend at Joe Vitale's Weekend Copywriting
Workshop? I didn't get a chance to tell you about it last week but it
was awesome.
This wasn't one of those giant events with a couple hundred people
listening to speakers for three days. Ten people paid $5,000 each to
spend the weekend one-on-one with Joe gathered around a conference room
table.
When we walked into the room, in front of each chair was a stack of
books and goodies that was literally two-feet high. And we're talking
really valuable stuff, too.
And for two days Joe proceeded to spell out exactly how he writes copy
in a way that makes it so easy. I don't know about you but when I
write, I struggle with that little voice in my head that tries to edit
while I'm still writing. He makes it nearly impossible for me to write
anything.
Well in the course of a few minutes, Joe showed us how to shut 'Mr.
Editor' up permanently. And of course he taught us a lot more than
that. Some of what he had to say I'd heard before but forgotten. Other
things I was hearing for the first time.
I've been writing and learning copywriting for a while now. I've
studied Gary Halbert, Jay Abraham, Robert Collier, Dan Kennedy, Brian
Keith Voiles, Mike Fortin, Ted Nicholas... all the top writers. But
with Joe, it was like I'd been sitting in the dark and suddenly the
lights came on.
Sunday morning, Craig Perrine from Nitro Marketing started us off on
what was supposed to be a one-hour talk on writing great emails. It
turned into a three-hour marathon session. Craig really shared a lot of
great information.
I should also mention that on Saturday, yours truly talked for 90
minutes on websites. I went over two websites I've done a review and
makeover over at MasterSiteReview.com. Then I critiqued one of the
attendees websites on the spot.
So you missed a great workshop but I can almost hear you saying, "Bill
are you nuts, $5000 for a workshop?" And I say, No. $5,000 is a heck of
a lot of money by anyone's standards.
But look at this another way, it costs $12,000 to get Joe to write a
sales letter. How much is a good sales letter worth to you? Think about
it. How many products would you have to sell to generate $5,000 in
sales. Probably not too many. And a good sales letter can bring in
money for years.
But think about being able to write your own sales letters, emails,
ezines and so on. Not just words on the page but the kind of words that
get people reaching for their wallets? There is no skill in Internet
marketing that's more valuable than writing good copy.
It's not about designing websites. You can find web designers willing
to work for peanuts. It's definitely not programmers. I can find
programmers online that'll work for less than the guy flipping burgers
at McDonalds. Nope, good writing is the key.
Ok, so what's my point? Well, the workshop is over but video camera's
and digital audio recorders captured the whole weekend. Nitro marketing
is going to release the whole package along with the same copywriting
manual and swipe file we got at the conference for $997. I'm sure
they're planning to throw in quite a few other bonuses as well.
So here's the deal. On Tuesday, October 5th, from 8:00 PM to 9:30 PM,
EST, Joe is going to do a special training event. If you sign up now,
you'll be able to listen in for free. It'll be broadcast over the web,
you won't have to call in. This will NOT be a 90 minute sales pitch for
the new product. Joe will give solid content and I'm sure you'll hear a
five minute pitch for the product at the end of the call.
If you decide you want the package, you'll get it for a heck of a lot
less than the $5,000 the attendees paid and you'll have the luxury of
watching it at home, you won't have to get dressed up like I did. And
if you sign up through me, you'll get something that nobody else will
get...
You'll get a copy of our new book, The Ultimate Guide to Creating
Ultimate Ebooks free. And you'll get it before anyone else has it. Ok,
I can hear you already. If I place a $997 order through your affiliate
link, all you're going to give me is an ebook?
Ok, ok. You like Free. You just want more of it.
How about this? I'll give you a one-hour telephone consultation. I
charge consulting clients $175 an hour for my time. But you can get an
hour free. We can talk about your website, your marketing strategy,
your ezine, your love life... whatever you want, it's your hour. You
can even split it up if you'd like and do two 30 minute-sessions.
And you'll get a copy of the new book from Joe Vitale and myself FREE.
So,
click here to sign up for the free webcast.
And if you're not interested in the Joe's copywriting course and you're
mad now because I made you read 800 words and you didn't get anything
free, I understand.
So, I'll give you one more opportunity to get my book Free.
Click on the link above and sign up for the call. When you do, you'll
be taken to a web page that gives you the details of how to listen in
on October 5th. The first line on that page will say, "First --->
Please Click Here to Print This Page!. Scroll down to the very bottom
of the page and look at the last line on the page. The first two words
of the last line are "For Help". Either copy or write down that entire
line.
Then, shoot me an email with that line in the subject line. In the
email, be sure and give me your name and email address. When I check my
email, the first six emails with the correct line will get a copy of
the ebook.
Free.
So, forgive the departure from the regular format. It's 3:48 AM in
Texas and I'm getting a little punchy. :)
Have a great weekend!
All the best,
Bill Hibbler
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Review: Clickbank:
Online, Secure and Automated For Under $150
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The
Clickbank Marketplace, mentioned earlier in the research
stage, is one of the simplest ways to sell your ebook online. They only
allow
digital products like ebooks, software and audio or video downloads.
Physical
products that must be delivered aren’t allowed. You setup your own
website and
Clickbank handles the payment processing. They also have a built-in
affiliate
network.
Selling on
Clickbank has both good and bad points. They eliminate
many of the hassles of selling online. They collect the money, issue
refunds, pay
your affiliates and send you a check once or twice a month.
It's
fast, easy and inexpensive to get setup. There’s an
initial $49.95 setup fee and Clickbank charges you $1.00 per
transaction plus
7.5% of sales. That’s a little pricey compared to traditional credit
card
merchant accounts, which typically charge 20-35 cents per transaction
and from
2.25% to 5.5% of sales.
Technically
you're selling your product to Clickbank who in
turn resells it to the customer. So, Clickbank is responsible for
collecting
and remitting any sales tax to the appropriate authorities. This saves
you from
applying for a sales tax permit and dealing with the paperwork hassles,
etc.
Many
ebook sellers love Clickbank and are more than willing
to pay a bit more in fees for the convenience of avoiding the
administrative
chores.
So, what are the bad
points? Let’s start with Clickbank’s
built-in affiliate program.
Clickbank
allows you to pay affiliates from 1% to 75%
commission. Initially, you're limited to a maximum price of $49.95. You
have to
request an increase to sell products over $49.95. No real problems
there.
Theoretically,
there’s a built-in army of Clickbank affiliates
eager to sell your product. The reality is few, if any, of these
affiliates
will even be aware of your product without some major effort on your
part.
Part
of the problem is the way Clickbank’s website is organized.
There’s no search function. Products are divided into categories and
sub-categories many of which are poorly organized. That makes it
difficult for
both affiliates and potential customers to find your ebook .
For each category and
sub-category, products are listed by
sales rank from #1 to #100 with 10 listings per page. If your ebook
isn’t the
top 100, it isn't listed. New products are displayed temporarily in a
‘New Releases’
category but these are often overlooked. While you have the option of
advertising on Clickbank's affiliate login page, I believe most
affiliates ignore
these ads.
Several third-party
vendors have created Clickbank 'Malls'
or search engines offering the ability to search by topic on Clickbank.
These
sites use special scripts so that if a search leads to a purchase, the
site
hosting the "mall" gets the affiliate commission. You can see one of
these sites for yourself here:
http://www.ecommerceconfidential.com/cbsearch/search.php
Another
drawback of using Clickbank is you have no control
over who joins your affiliate program. In fact, a big problem on
Clickbank is
customers taking a commission on their own purchase. With traditional
affiliate
programs, you can control and prevent this (if you choose to).
There's also the
issue of communicating with your
affiliates. To be successful, you need to provide affiliates with
promotional
tools like banners and sales material. You should tell them about new
product
releases, updates, etc. While there are methods to get affiliates to
sign-up
for your program, many will bypass whatever system you implement.
Another drawback to the Clickbank
affiliate program is that
you can't adjust commissions for individual JV partners or
'super-affiliates'.
While you might offer regular affiliates a 50% commission, it's common
practice
to offer big-name marketers and large list owners commissions up to 75%.
These high-commission deals mean
you'll get a large number
of sales plus new customers to offer your back-end products to. While
you could
track these super-affiliates’ sales manually and pay the additional
commissions
yourself, it’s a lot of extra work. And extra work is what most people
are
trying to avoid when choosing Clickbank.
Another drawback to Clickbank is
not being able to automatically
add customers to your mailing list. With each sale, Clickbank emails
you the
customers name, email address, city and state but does not add these
names to any
type of mailing list, a feature most shopping carts offer.
There are third party solutions,
though. You can combine a
product like the Clickbank
Total Protection Script with an autoresponder
service like Aweber
or Autoresponder
Unlimited to get these
customer names in an automated follow-up system.
You
can install the Total Protection Script and
Autoresponder Unlimited yourself or find someone on rentacoder.com to
install
if for you for around $15-20.
For the
budget-minded, using Clickbank with the Total
Protection Script and Autoresponder Unlimited will keep your total
start-up
cost under $150 with no monthly costs other than web hosting.
$49.95
Clickbank Setup Fee
$49.95
Clickbank Total Protection Script
$34.97
Autoresponder Unlimited.
$15.00
Installation
$149.87
Total
This is the
absolute minimum setup, though. Ideally, I'd recommend using the Total
Protection Script with an autoresponder account from Aweber ($19.95
mo.) or 1shoppingcart
($19 mo.) over Autoresponder Unlimited so you'll have a more
full-featured autoresponder with no installation hassles.
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| Tell Me What You Think |
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I would love to hear
what you think of this issue of Ecommerce Confidential.
And of course, if you have any suggestions for upcoming issues that
you'd like to share with me, please send those, too!
Just e-mail me at: bhibbler@ecommerceconfidential.com
Gigtime Media
2B Deerfield Drive
Wimberley, TX USA 78676
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In
This Issue:
- Article: How to Get My New Ebook Free
- Review: Clickbank Marketplace
- Tell Me What You Think
Marketing Dashboard Lets You
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Marketing Dashboard is an exciting new
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When
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Internet Marketing, the Dashboard is a steal.
And furthermore, as simple as it is, you're more likely to actually use
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To
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