Are you looking for new and inexpensive ways to advertise your business? Have you considered a blog?

My affiliate marketing plan is a plan for promoting other peoples products.  Once you have achieved a level of success with others products, it is time to publish and promote your own. 

While many of the things that you do to promote your own product are the same as for an affiliate product, there are some major differences.

The most effective way to promote your own product, in my opinion, is to run your own affiliate program.  Your affiliate program supplies you with an army of salespeople for your product.  Your job is to give them the tools that they need to sell it.

So, what do you need to do?

1. Create a product, and a brandable free report that will promote it. 
2. Create your own affiliate program for the product, using Clickbank or an affiliate marketing program such as JVManager. 
3. Create promotional products for your affiliates:  emails, free reports, and articles that they can publish on their site.  Create all of the things that you would want if you were the affiliate to make your sales VERY easy.
4.  Submit your viral free reports to giveaway sites to get noticed by and recruit affiliates.  Let them know that the free report is brandable.
5. Promote your affiliate program, don’t expect others to do it for you.
6. Send a personal email containing a free copy of your product to the webmasters of sites in your market for their evaluation.  Let them know about all of the promotional materials that you have for their use. 

One of the reasons that I purchased JVManager for my own business is that it automates my affiliate program and the delivery of all of my promotional products for my affiliates as well as my customers.  It allows me to contact all affiliates, offer them special promotions for their customers using coupons, etc.  If my affiliates don’t have their own autoresponder, I can even use my own and JVManager will pass their affiliate codes into the emails automatically.

In the short term, using Clickbank would probably be easier; but for my long term success, control of my own affiliate program is essential because I plan to offer more than one product and I want to be able to promote all my products to my affiliates.  On Clickbank, I don’t have the ability to do that unless they have also signed up with me as an affiliate (In which case I need JVManager anyway.) 

I think that another effective way to get started would be to use Clickbank to recruit affiliates, then entice them to sign up for my affiliate program by offering great promotional materials.  This might give you the best of both worlds, but you would have to front the $50 account set up with Clickbank for each product. 

I am still relatively new with JVManager, but  I feel very strongly that this is a phenomenal program.  The power and control that it gives me for my business is enormous.  I am promoting products in several niches right now, and this program makes the set up and delivery of my products incredibly easy.

I first started using JVManager2 through a hosted account that I receive as a benefit of membership to Unselfish Marketer.  (Plus, I get lots of tools and resale rights products for my business as well.  If you want to begin inexpensively with JVManager2, then check them out.)

I was so enthralled with the JVManager2 that I bought the resale rights to JVManager1 when they were released on July 4.  I am honoring the license in not selling JVManager for less than $97, but I want to make it easy for you to purchase this program, so I am offering an easy payment plan of $24.25 per month for 4 months.  Within the 4 months you should be well on your way to success if you apply the power of this program.  Check it out at:  http://ez-marketer/recommends/jvm  

To your success,

Diane Watkins

Using your e-book, e-report or e-course as a give away can make you more money down the line.  When you use your own product as an incentive for signing up for you newsletter list, you have gained a subscriber who will have read and found value in your work.  You can now market future products to him through the newsletter.

However, there are additional ways to make money through giving away this e-book.  When you create the ebook, be sure to include your links to your sales pages and any affiliate products that would be needed by your reader in the process of putting your e-book to use. 

For example:  if you are writing an e-book on baking, you could include your affiliate link to quality baking products, tools, other cookbooks, and such along with good content on how to use them. 

My experience is that when you give this properly book away, nothing will happen immediately except that you will get sign ups for your newsletter when you give the book away.  However, if your content is good, your book will get passed around.  People will read the content and check out your affiliate links.  Eventually, the sales will begin to trickle in.

So how can you make this work for you?  Follow these simple steps to put your viral marketing ebook to work for you.

1. Create a quality e-book.  Be sure to research appropriate affiliate links and include these links in your e-book.  Don’t forget to include information about you and your site.
2. Create a cover graphic for your e-book.  This is not essential, but it definitely helps you to “sell” your e-book.
3. Create a squeeze page to take email information before giving away the e-book.  You should sell this e-book just like it was for profit.  People need to be convinced to give you their information.  Convince them that they are getting a quality product.
4. Advertise your e-book on your site, driving traffic to the squeeze page first.
5. Research e-book directories that will allow you to post your e-book for free.  There are many sites on the internet that keep a directory of “freebies”. 
6. Your e-book has now taken on a viral life of its own and you will begin to see increased traffic to your site and sales pages.  However, don’t stop here.
7. Create an email marketing campaign to market to the new list you are building.

A properly formatted e-book or other give away product  has unlimited viral potential. 

The viral potential of your giveaway is only the tip of the iceberg.  Consider another situation.  Suppose you publish a product and give your affiliates 100% of the profits.  How motivated do you think they will be to sell it?  You make nothing on the sale, or do you?  You can profit by the upsell, or even more important, you collect your customers email information and gain access to your affiliates most valuable possession - their customer list.  More on this later.

Forum marketing is a very powerful marketing technique when used properly.  When used improperly, it can turn off potential buyers and waste your efforts.

Forums are places for the free and open exchange of ideas and information.  You are encouraged to use the forum in such a manner.  Help people, post good helpful information.  In this way you will become known as an expert, people will like you, and be more inclined to buy from you. 

Be very careful to keep your posts helpful and positive.  Never flame or criticize.  If you are negative, you will not be recognized as an expert, rather you will be known as a jerk.  While the Rich Jerk may get away with it, for most of us it is not a profitable reputation.

Now, how does forum marketing benefit you?  First, when you are recognized as an expert, the buying barriers will begin to come down.  Second, you will make good use of your signature line.  After your signature you are usually allowed to include a link to your site.  Through this link your readers will find you and your products. 

Be careful to research and follow the rules of the forum with regards to posting and using your sig file.  There has been a lot of abuse of these rules recently and many forums have established strict rules.  Failure to follow these rules can get you banned from the forum and turn off a lot of  potential customers. 

You must respect the purpose of the forum in the free exchange of information and ideas.  Forums are not meant to be an advertising vehicle for your product, no matter how good it is.  By responding to questions and offering good advice and helpful information, your reputation will grow and you will make more sales because of it.