How to Sell ANY Product

How to Sell ANY Product

by Harvey Segal SuperTips.com


2.1 The Product
First we need to state that this must be your 'own' product.
In other words you must not be an affiliate (you will see why later).
However that does not mean to say that you personally have to create a
product.
If you don't have a product of your own you can acquire the 'resale rights' to a
product − which allows you to sell it as if it was your own.
Bonus Tip 1 − resale rights
If I started in online marketing again I would not bother with creating my
own products, I would focus on the very lucrative world of resale rights.
To illustrate this there's a perfect example in Chapter 4 where I have
produced a package of products with resale rights and the even more
profitable 'private label' rights.
If you want to learn how you can profit from resale rights visit my site
Resale Rights Guide.
Products with resale rights are typically ebooks or software − in other
words 'digital' goods. When it comes to selling such items the ideal place is
ClickBank who handle the whole selling process for you.
You will find all you need to know at my site The ClickBank Guide.
As mentioned, throughout this chapter you will see how I use the strategy in
this book to sell an actual product. So we'll start with my choice of product.
Chapter 2: How to Sell ANY Product

Case Study − product selection
One of the most useful of marketing tools is the ad
tracker − you'll see why if you visit my site The Ad
Tracking Guide.
The particular tracker which I use and recommend
is AdTrackz.
I have now purchased the resale rights for
AdTrackz and will show you how I sell it in the
case study sections.
To choose your product you could look for a profitable niche then search for
associated products with resale rights.
Bonus Tip 2 − finding a niche
One way to look for a profitable niche is to study the questions people are
asking at the forums. You will already have seen examples of 3 sites which
I have created using this technique
− The ClickBank Guide
− The Ad Tracking Guide
− Resale Rights Guide
I've written a free ebook which explains how to use this idea (and also how
to profit from forum postings) − Forum SuperTips
2.2 Search Engines ?
There's no doubt that a high ranking on the first page of a search engine like
Google beats nearly every other form of traffic generation.
After all, potential customers are actively searching on keywords that are
relevant to the site.
The problem is in attaining and maintaining a high ranking.
Here's what I mean.
Chapter 2: How to Sell ANY Product

Why I have said Goodbye to the Search Engines
The whole area of search engine optimization is imprecise and ever
changing.
As a result there has been a plethora of tools developed to assist with the
task and one theory after another about what is needed to reach a high rank.
Do you really want to spend man−months collecting thousands of
backward links then find that they are probably worthless because the
anchor text does not contain a suitable keyword, or the site does not have
sufficient page rank, or whatever the latest algorithm is ?
Do you want to buy expensive cloaking tools and run the risk of
penalization ?
Do you want to compete with others who are using such cloaking tools ?
Do you want to discover that a major Google change has caused your site
to slip out of the rankings ?
Do you want to be bothered about whether a domain has a static or
dynamic IP address or have to use different hosts to make a network of
minisites ?
Now some say that you don't need fancy tricks − just provide good relevant
content.
My answer ?
Nonsense.
Take my site The ClickBank Guide.
If you wanted to find the most relevant content for a search on the keyword
'ClickBank' don't you think that would be at the top ?
Well Google used to agree with you.
It was ranked number 2, with only ClickBank.com itself at number one.
Today it is ranked ... wait for it ... number 426.
It is beaten out of sight by sites which have nothing to do with ClickBank
but happen to mention that keyword once.
I asked a search engine expert about this and he suggested that it might be
due to keyword density, in other words too many mentions of the word
ClickBank.
Chapter 2: How to Sell ANY Product

Well that has to be the case − the site is after all a 'complete guide to
ClickBank'
His advice − try replacing the word ClickBank occasionally e.g. use 'CB'.
No way.
My site stays, it's the search engines who are leaving.
I don't want to build an online business on such shaky foundations.
I want to use fundamental pillars of Internet marketing which will always
remain steadfast.
You will see them in this strategy.
2.3 First − the best way to presell your product
Here's an article I wrote back in 1998 − and it's still true.
Chapter 2: How to Sell ANY Product

Win customers by giving away FREE information
What is the best way to attract visitors to your site ?
Everyone agrees on this point − it is by providing Free Information.
Let's see how to do this and why it works so well.
Suppose you are a supplier of video recorders. Hopefully you will be the
owner of a professional sounding domain name, such as VCRworld.com
You write an informative article entitled "How to Choose a Video
Recorder" which explains
* the key features of video recorders
* a guide to prices
* handy tips for using video recorders
* useful accessories
* potential problems
* future developments
Put this article on your web site or have it available by Email (on an
autoresponder if you expect a big response).
While your competitors are all posting similar ads which say
"Buy, buy, buy our cheap video recorders"
or sending unsolicited bulk Email to thousands, you will be posting short
ads which say
Our Free Guide
"How to Choose a Video Recorder"
explains the key features to look for,
prices and handy tips.
Visit www.VCRworld.com
And whenever you contribute to any group where there are potential
customers you include your signature:
"How to Choose a Video Recorder"
FREE guide
www.VCRworld.com
Your visitors will be impressed by the quality of free information you are
providing and your well chosen domain name: they will regard you as an
authority on the subject.
They will be easily influenced to buy from your site while your
competitors' unoriginal ads are consigned to the Email waste bin.
Chapter 2: How to Sell ANY Product

That article was written before the days of ebooks as we know them now and
we can adapt the key idea to use with a free ebook.
What you do is produce an ebook about your product niche which provides
quality information and includes links to your own products.
The secret is to have highly relevant links and weave them naturally into the
content in a low key style without appearing to push for a sale. So when you
discuss a particular topic and want to show where more detail can be found, or
how a particular problem can be solved, that's where you can mention your
product as a source of further information. If you want to see really good
examples of how to do this read my free ebook 101 SuperTips.
See − that last sentence was an ACTUAL working example of how to weave
in a link.
There's no doubt that a free information type ebook is one of the most
powerful methods of product promotion.
Case Study − producing an ebook
In order to promote the ad tracking tool AdTrackz I
wrote an ebook AdTracking SuperTips which is a
guide to choosing, using and profiting from ad
trackers.
It concludes with a recommendation for AdTrackz.
And there's another great advantage in offering your visitor an ebook.
You can capture his contact details and then run a series of follow−up
messages designed to clinch the sale, using an autoresponder tool.
Compare this to a web page where a visitor leaves and you have no further
contact.
So now the issue turns to getting traffic to your ebook first instead of directly
to your site.
2.4 Getting traffic to your ebook (Part 1)
There are hundreds of directories where you can submit a free ebook − you
can find them by running a search on 'free ebook directories' or similar.
Chapter 2: How to Sell ANY Product

These directories exist to supply webmasters and ezine publishers who are
looking for good free content which they can use to give to their visitors or
subscribers as a bonus or an incentive.
But there's an even better form of free content they want which we will see in
section 2.6.
2.5 Getting traffic to your ebook (Part 2)
Remember when I said that it must be your own product not an affiliate
product ?
That's because you can now bring the might of an affiliate force to your
promotions.
You allow affiliates to use their affiliate link to your product inside the ebook.
This is done by 'rebranding' the ebook.
You will find some rebranding tools in the Tools section of the Resale Rights
Guide
Bonus Tip 3 − managing affiliates
How to pay affiliates ?
− If you use ClickBank to handle the sale as recommended earlier they will
automatically handle the affiliate side of the operation.
How to attract affiliates ?
− As a ClickBank vendor your product will appear in the ClickBank
Marketplace where there is a potential audience of 100,000 affiliates.
What rate of commission to pay ?
− Affiliates won't be interested in 20% or 30% commissions. I pay 51% so
I can tell my affiliates that they will earn more than me. You can sign up
here as a SuperTips Affiliate.
But there's one case where I pay 100% !
How can that be ?
You will see soon.
Chapter 2: How to Sell ANY Product

But there's yet another way to get affiliates − and they will be beating a path to
your door − in the next section.
2.6 A massive step beyond
There's something that website owners love more than ebooks − ARTICLES.
The more the merrier.
They use articles on their site and reap the earnings from AdSense ads because
search engines thrive on good content
Articles get MASSIVE distribution.
You can submit them to article directories, article announcement lists and to
ezine publishers. Once again just run a search and you will find endless lists.
So your next step is to produce an article which 'presells' your free ebook.
It's not difficult − the information is already there !
There should be lots of valuable content in your ebook so you can summarize
the key concepts and turn that into an article. You then put a link to your
ebook in the article resource box.
Case Study − writing an article
I used material from my ebook to write an article 23
Ways To Use An Ad Tracker
The resource box for the article says:
Learn all about ad trackers with Harvey's free
ebook Ad Tracking SuperTips
http://www.ad−tracking.com/adbook.html
Note how the article presells the ebook and the ebook presells the product.
To see why this is effective consider the above case. After a potential
customer has read about the 23 ways to use an ad tracker he will realise how
valuable an ad tracker can be but if he gets directed to my recommended
product AdTrackz he will still be wondering
− how do I get an ad tracker to work
Chapter 2: How to Sell ANY Product

− what are the different types of tracker and how do they compare
− why is the author recommending this particular one.
All this information is explained in the ebook so we take the customer one
stage at a time gradually building up his interest and curiosity.
And now if you have been wondering how to attract affiliates here's the simple
step which will have them begging to join your affiliate program.
You allow the article publisher to change the link in the resource box to
point to his rebranded version of the ebook.
Case Study − article rebranding
My article concludes with the line:
Publishers can reproduce this article and change
the URL to point to their own rebranded version
Now, if that will have affiliates beating a path to your door then Chapter 3 will
produce a stampede.
Chapter 2: How to Sell ANY Product

Chapter 3: The Ingenious Twist
3.1 The Affiliate Problem
For every 10 affiliates who initially show an interest in distributing your free
book maybe just one will actually do it.
Just 1 out of 10.
Why ?
What's the problem ?
Why don't affiliates rush to rebrand free useful books so they can cash in on
this very effective way to sell a product ?
Well consider what an affiliate needs to do to promote a PAID product.
He simply plugs his affiliate−id into a link, for example in the case of
ClickBank
http://AFFILIATE.VENDOR.hop.clickbank.net
But in order to promote a free book he needs to carry out the following steps
· he downloads a rebranding package.
· he has to read and understand the rebranding instructions.
· he runs the rebranding program.
· he uploads the rebranded book to his web site.
ideally he then needs to set up a web page with some content leading
to the book rather than just providing a direct link to a book.
·
For example take my free book Forum SuperTips. If you were to promote it
using your own separate branded copy at your site you can't expect your
readers to download it just by saying 'heres a good book about how to profit
from forum postings' and give them a download link. Ideally you would want
them to see the very same write−up I have used at my site − just the way an
affiliate link works for a paid product.
Isn't it easier just to give out an affiliate link ?
And that's why you can get hundreds of affiliates but few of them will bother
to rebrand a book.
But there's even more bad news. Many affiliates may not even own a web site.
We've just ruled out a huge army of newbies − beginners taking their first
Chapter 3: The Ingenious Twist

steps in Internet marketing and sensibly starting out on the affiliate route.
If only rebranding was as simple as providing an affiliate link.
Well it can be.
Read on . . .
3.2 The Solution
There are actually two solutions
1) On the fly ebook rebranding.
This means that when a visitor requests an ebook at a site a rebranded version
is instantly generated.
This is only feasible with PDF files not EXE files.
Because of the technical difficulty of rebranding existing complex PDF files
such solutions are currently (September 2005) rare and expensive.
However we have acquired in the Tools section in Chapter 4 a product, Super
Rebrander, which will allow you to create a PDF ebook from an HTML file
and perform on the fly rebranding.
2) The ClickBank 'cookie' solution.
Technically the solution is to get the affiliate cookie on the customer's
computer at the time of download. You don't need to make any change to the
book itself which means that you can use this method for both PDF books and
EXE books.
The only limitation is that you can only allow 'rebranding' of products in your
ClickBank account, which should be sufficient for your purpose.
This solution is described in more detail in the book Viral Marketing
SuperTips
Chapter 3: The Ingenious Twist

Case Study − on the fly rebranding
If you click on this link
http://www.supertips.com/sales.php?offer=AFFILIATE&pid=43
it will download the ebook Ad Tracking SuperTips and any
products purchased from the book, including AdTrackz, will
earn commission for the affiliate.
This uses solution (2).
3.3 Even Better
Apart from leaving your affiliate with no work to do as regards producing a
rebranded book and making it accessible at his site there are two more great
benefits for YOU.
* There is only one version of the book − the one at your site. You don't have
the situation where different rebranded versions are available at different sites.
* Once a rebranded book is produced with the old method it is out of your
control, the rebrander can market it in any way possible. With this method
readers must come to YOUR site to obtain the book and you can obtain their
contact details for list building.
3.4 Conclusion
We have shown a strategy that can be used to sell any product using
fundamental pillars of Internet marketing − techniques which will never
become obsolete.
These include
− preselling with good free information (an ebook)
− using the viral nature of article distribution
− using the power of affiliate marketing
− capturing contact details and applying follow up campaigns
At each step of the way we have introduced a multiplying effect which
increases conversion and traffic by exponential factors.
Specifically
Chapter 3: The Ingenious Twist

− we boost the conversion rate by preselling with a free ebook instead of
sending our visitor directly to a sales page
− we generate more traffic by submitting that ebook to ebook directories
− we also encourage affiliates to distribute the book by rebranding it
− we then simplify the rebranding operation, it becomes just a link, which
boosts the number of affiliates working for us
− we boost conversion rates once more by further preselling, using an article
to pave the way to the ebook
− we generate more traffic by article distribution and the viral effect as
articles get passed around
− we let affiliates rebrand the articles giving them even more incentive to
promote our product
− and we boost conversion rates again by using follow up tactics on all ebook
readers
That rounds up the strategy − I hope you will agree that I have kept my
promise, providing valuable information for free and I have not even asked for
your name !
In the next chapter we supply the tools for you to carry out this strategy.
Whether you decide to use them or not don't forget to read Chapter 5 − it's
unmissable.
Chapter 3: The Ingenious Twist
15
Chapter 4: The Tools You Need
I have created a package of tools (books and software) to carry out the strategy
outlined in Chapter 2.
Bonus Tip 4 − repackaging resale products
Here we have a perfect example of the benefits of acquiring resale rights
and private label rights for products and being able to repackage them
according to a requirement.
In other words instead of presenting you with a huge and outwardly
impressive list of products − 90% of which you don't need − I am able to
provide a concise selection which fit the bill.
(Having said that, the SureFire Wealth Silver Membership will give you
more products than you will know what to do with).
As I've mentioned before if you want to learn how you can profit from
resale rights visit my site Resale Rights Guide.
Note that some of the tools below come with resale rights included.
The tools are grouped according to the main tasks required.
4.1 Product Creation
4.2 Autoresponder Management
4.3 PDF Creation and Rebranding
4.4 General Internet Marketing

Chapter 4: The Tools You Need