How To Write And Sell An Information Product Through Paypal

If you’re interested in internet marketing, then there is something that you should know and that is this…affiliate marketing is “grunt work”.

When I say grunt work, I mean it. Affiliates are the work horses that drive traffic on the web and in light of all of the Google algorithm updates as of late, that job has become increasingly harder.

Think about it. As a product affiliate, you have to do all of the following things:

1) Get A Domain And Hositng – You have to launch your own website, which means footing the bill for a domain and hosting for any niche you are looking to get in to.
2) Set Up Your Web Scripts – You have to install your own content management system, tracking and autoresponder coding for harvesting email addresses.
3) Build Lists And Relationships – This requires what I consider to be the majority fo the grunt work because you have to generate content to draw them in and you have to guard your relationship with your list from spammy product owners looking to get to them.

So I think we’re in agreement when I say, affiliate marketing is hard work.

What About Having Affiliates Work For You?

Now, there is nothing wrong with affiliate marketing. I have done a ton of it in the past and I still do. Its kind of addicting really.

However, for the majority of internet marketers and when I say the majority, I mean it the majority, affiliate marketing will bring “nickle and dime” earnings at best.

The trick to “kicking it up to the next level” comes in two phases. The first is creating your own product. The second is successfully recruiting affiliates to promote your product as a joint venture.

Create That Product

This can be done in a handful of steps to get you up and running. First and foremost, I highly recommend getting a unique and descriptive domain name and some solid hosting dedicated to this product. For that I recommend that you click [ this link ]. If you do, TheBitBot.Com + Bluehost.Com will give you a free domain name with your hosting package.

Once you have your hosting package, install WordPress and add the following pages to your site:

• A Home Page – This is where your sales letter is going to be. Your sales letter will contain everything you need to sell your product to visitors that land on the page. This includes but is not limited to: sales copy, graphics, images, optin forms (if its a squeeze page), testimonials, and a big “BUY NOW” button.
• An About Us Page – This is where you will spill the beans about who you are and what your mission with your site is. This page is pretty important as people do tend to read these occasionally.
• A Contact Us Page – This is important if potential buyers are interested in your product, but are still to timid to click the buy button. Interaction with potential buyers is a great way to put them at ease and build trust.
• A Privacy Policy – This is pretty standard and there are some great sites that will generate a solid one for you. Simply Google the term “privacy page generator” or something similar and you will quickly find a website that will generate one for you that is well written (but nobody ever reads these things).
• A Download Page – Thi is where Paypal comes in. If you have a Paypal account, login and go to “Merchant Services” and then “Create Payment Buttons For Your Website”. Simply follow the step by step instructions as spelled out by the Paypal button generator. When you get to step three, you will see a checkbox with the words “Take customers to this URL when they finish checkout”. This is where you will place the URL for your download page for your product. Yeah. Its THAT simple.

It is very important to note that you do NOT want search engines like Google indexing and serving your download page in search results, so you will have to add the robots: noindex nofollow tag to it. This can easily be don with the [ NO INDEX NO FOLLOW ] plugin for WordPress. Simply install it and open up your download page for editing. Check the “noindex, nofollow” check box(es) and update your page. Now, Google won’t be serving your product to people who haven’t paid for it.

Get Affiliates To Promote It

Getting affiliates to promote your product is what will make the difference between ramping up your earnings or just putting along. There are several things you can do to “encourage” this process. Here are some of them:

• Join A Joint Venture Management Service – When I say a JV management service, I am referring to something like ClickBank or Commission Junction. These are great because there are already tons of affiliates that hang out at these places. I know I have done my fair share of browsing the pages of Clickbank looking for affiliate products to sell. This is a great place to get found.
• Launch Your Own Affiliate Manager – There are several affiliate management wares and scripts out there that you can use to manage the links and traffic of affiliates that sign up to promote your program. A solid affiliate management script and understanding how to manage an affilate program is a great way to avoid all of the “processing fees” that JV managers charge. They can really shave your bottom line down. Personally, I recommend doing both and seeing which one works better for you.
• Create An Affiliates Tools Page- This is easily one of the most important things to have in place if you own your own product. An affiliate tools page should have on it the following items:
  • An Intro Video – This is where you communicate with your potential affiilates and reassure them about the quality of your product. Additionally, it is where you point out to them that you are a reputable product owner and that you pay your affiliates ON TIME, EVERY TIME.
  • Banners Of All Shapes And Sizes – Many affiliates like to grab a banner and run and throw it into their advertising mix just to see if it will convert or not. They may use it as contextual advertising in a blog post or email newsletter, or maybe even a popup or popunder on their site. Who knows. They get creative.
  • An Autoresponder Series Or Short Promotional Emails – Many affiliates are list builders and many will blast an email to their list if they think that your product is worth its salt. If you have a nice, well-written email that they can blast to their list after simply inserting their affiliate link, then that just makes it more tempting for them. An autoresponder series is even better because this will put you on their list multiple times in a row increasing the chances of making the sale for you both. Think about it. Just whatever you do, please don’t sensationalize the sales copy in the emails. All that does is destroy your credibility with customers and affiliates.
  • Blog Posts And Reviews – Bloggers will not hesitate to grab a well written blog post and/or product review and publish it on their site, especially if they have a case of “writers block” that day. LOL! It happens. But again, avoid spammy sales or review copy at all costs. All this does is destroy your credibility and makes you look silly. Honesty is the best policy. Show the benefits of your product and encourage readers to buy it and you will do well.

You Really Should Be Creating Your Own Products

Seriously. You really should be creating your own products. If you are an affiliate marketer, that’s great. You don’t have to stop being one. You can continue to be an affiliate marketer and a product owner at the same time.

Do yourself a favor. Come up with a product/project and start developing it today. Work on it for one hour per day and them come talk to me in a month. Make this a priority.

The really cool thing about being a product owner and an affiliate of products and services at the same time is the fact that you understand the challenges that both face on what has become an increasingly volatile search engine marketing landscape.

By doing both together (affiliate and product marketing) you will be putting yourself in a position to learn and adjust faster to changing marketing conditions.

Mark Thomas

Mark is the Administrator of TheBitBot.Com News Articles For Ezines and Chief Editor of the TBB SEO Newsletter. Writes. Scripts. Hacks. Cracks. Re-Writes. Mods. Practices SEO of ALL shades. Has Some “VERY SMART” Friends Boldly Experiments. Publishes. Moderates. Trains. Explains. Pursues Three Important Careers Simultaneously. If you are interested in submitting a guest post with us then simply [ click here ] and sign up for a free account. Then simply submit your guest post there.