I'm really in love with this idea. I think this would have to be one of the greatest ways to make an affiliate income ever. People have sniffed around the idea before and have come close to this, but this, I believe is the best system to an automated affiliate income there is to date.
Here's the idea.We've all been taught to create free viral ebooks to either promote our products or affiliate products and submit them to free ebook directories. This was sound advice, but I've found an even better way to make this work.
Create your own free ebook directory full of your own free viral ebooks!Think Clickbank.com but with free ebooks on all subjects that you own, promoting affiliate programs 24/7.
People go to this site, download the free book they want, they pass it around, and there ya go, automated affiliate income.
But how do you go about creating these free ebooks so they produce the best sales possible? I've found by creating an FAQ list (frequently asked question) on a certain subject and then converting it into PDF, my affiliate sales have soared.
I'm not trying to heavily sell them in the book, they are getting very useful free information and I then point them to a paid resource to get more information if they want to.
I also ask them to pass the book around as much as they like.This FAQ list is quite big and detailed. Your free books only need to be 5 or so pages long.
Here is an article I wrote on creating a viral ebook. It really doesn't have much to do with the business idea in general, but will give you an idea of what I'm talking about at least...
****This is just a very quick overview, but if you want more information on creating Ebooks, I suggest you visit 2 sites.
My favourite site is Terry Dean's exclusive member site atThe next product solely focuses on creating your own Ebook in less then 7 days and that is written by Jim Edwards. You can find it at http://www.7dayebook.com. It's a one off fee for $27 and it comes in Ebook format ironically enough.
Now, back to my explanation:Whether you like it or not, having your own product gives you more flexibility in your online advertising AND believe it or not, compiling an Ebook is no more then a weeks work part time if done correctly and IF you do it this way the profits will come in for life.
I have checks coming in still from work I did 2 years ago, thanks to the power of residual income affiliate programs and viral marketing Ebooks.
Ok, lets get down to the nitty gritty. What is a viral marketing Ebook and why should you create one?
A viral marketing Ebook is a book which sole purpose is to be spread around the Internet quickly, by any means possible. It's not meant to make you money on the front end. You want other people selling it and giving it away to as many people as possible.
Why?Because the inside of that book is full of affiliate links to other peoples products and every time someone gives away your book or sells it, (depending on how you want to do it) more people will be seeing your affiliate links, and this is costing you what? NOTHING? Exactly!
The best examples I could give you of this process would be by Yanik Silver. He created 2 marketing books that spread over the Internet like wildfire. He gave everyone who purchased the book for $19 or $17 (depending on the book) the rights to sell it or give it away to their customers.
Needless to say, thousands of people starting selling it and promoting it all over the Internet. To this day, he is still earning good money from that book, plus he became one of the most well known Internet Marketers to date.
So how do you go about creating your own viral marketing Ebook?1) Come up with a product idea based on your affiliate program you've already chosen and are already promoting.
Coming up with ideas isn't hard. For example, and I know I use this example a lot, BUT, If you are going to be promoting a sports betting affiliate program, why not create a book on becoming a successful punter. Then throughout the book, you can recommend your favorite sports betting affiliate program.
101 insider secrets to sports betting How to bet with other peoples moneyA good way to come up with ideas is to look at what others are already selling and mimic that. You dont need to recreate the wheel here, so PLEASE don't make things harder then they have to be.
2) Get the tools you need to succeedI register all my domain names with http://www.namecheap.com for under $9 a domain name, which to me is pretty darn cheap. You want a fairly short domain name that describes the content of your book fairly well.
Here's an example for you people promoting sport betting affiliate programs.http://www.sportsbettingaffiliates.com http://www.sportsoddbetting.com http://www.101waystobeattheodds.com http://www.betforfree.com
etc....Let me say first, you get what you pay for. This has never been more true then with webhosting. YOU NEED a good reliable webhosting company with 24/7 technical support. If your site goes down and you can't contact anyone to help you get it back up, you will lose sales and a lot of them.
I recommed you use
http://www.thirdspherehosting.com for the simple fact they offer all you need, plus a lot more for a reasonable price.
You will need this so you can contact your prospects that don't purchase straight away. This is where you will give away your free course or someway to entice them to give you their email address so you can contact them periodically.
D) Credit card processorJust use http://www.clickbank.com. This step is too easy. They will let you accept all major credit cards and start an affiliate program for a one time setup fee of under $50. They do take a percentage of every sale, but this is so much cheaper then getting your own merchant account.
Just about everyone selling Ebooks online is using Clickbank.You will more then likely want to create your book in PDF format so everyone can read it. Some Ebooks come in EXE format, but mac users can't read that format, so I find it best to use PDF. You can create your book with http://www.createpdf.com for a fairly cheap price.
F) Graphic Design SoftwareIf you are anything like me, your artistic abilities peaked at age 7. So instead of busting my hump to create my Ebook covers and website graphics I use
http://www.1clickcovers.com and http://www.1clickheaders.comFor all my graphics, They are great pieces of software that you can use instead of hiring graphic designers.
I do however recommend one graphic designer by the name of Max Rylski. You can view his work at http://www.maxcovers.com
3) Outline your book chapters into articlesWriting a whole book in one sitting is hard, and trying to write a book without outlining the chapters is nearly impossible. My first book I ever wrote took me over 6 months but now most of my books take me less then a week to finish and that is with a sales letter and website up.
All you have to do is think up 12 to 15 article topics in sequence and write about them. Each page should be around 700 to 1000 words, full of useful information, not information people could get for free.
4) Write your contentLike I said just before, you need original content. There are too many books out there now where people are just regurgitating information others can get for free and this lowers the value of your book, which means less people will pass it around and even less will read it.
If you are really stuck with your writing, I suggest that you do the following. Actually, Terry Dean from
http://www.netbreakthroughs.com taught me this trick.
The best way to get a good amount of original information without writing it yourself is to interview experts in the field. For instance, if you were writing a book about improving your golf handicap, I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard to find some local experts who you could grill in person, over the phone or even via the Internet and you can then put all that information in the book. It's also a good selling point.
Also remember when your writing what the point of this book is. The point of the book is to earn you an on going commission with affiliate programs, so don't feel like you can't throw some affiliate links in, because you can, but make sure it's tactful and in place.
Another good idea would be to put a "Subscribe to my newsletter" section in your book as well, so not only will you make commissions on sales, but also generate leads without doing any extra work.
Make sure you clearly state in the front of the book, that the buyer can sell this book as his own. State that he has Resell Rights to the product and can sell it or give it away if he chooses.
5) Create your sales letterThis is where you will be selling your book from and is critically crucial to your success.
Creating a sales letter takes a lot of work, especially if your new to the whole thing. The best way and the way I use, is to mimic successful sales letters.
I recommend you have a look at the following sales letters selling Ebooks.http://www.turnwordsintotraffic.com http://www.masterinternetmarketing.com http://www.linkingstrategies.com http://www.the-whole-truth.com
http://www.instantinternetprofits.com
Software is great and there a 2 options out there. The first one is
http://www.instantsalesletters.com by Yanik Silver and
http://www.saleslettergenerator.com by Armand Morin. They are just as good as each other.
However, if you want to hire a professional copywriter, your looking at thousands of dollars, plus royalties from your book sales.
Remember that your selling this book with reprint rights, which means when they buy the book they can sell it as well. This is a huge selling point for you. You will also be giving them your Ebook cover, website graphics and sales letter to use to sell your product.
6) Plug in your free 5 day autoresponder seriesThe best way to write your free 5 day course that your prospect get via your pop up window is to take chapters out of your book and put them in as a free teaser.
Remember to emphasize an urgency. You want to make these prospects who don't buy straight away, feel like they are missing out on an opportunity of a life time and considering the low price of the book, if they don't buy, more then likely they weren't really interested or were freebie seekers from the start.
7) Advertise!Depending on your topic, you will want to target different people. However, no matter what topic your selling on, there is one market who will want your book for the sole purpose of selling it, and that's the Internet Marketing group.
Your book could be on Hippo's but all they care about is the fact they can sell it as their own. This is why this type of book always does well.
The key is to target people in your market and then the Internet Marketing crowd. I really am begging you to check out Terry Deans http://www.netbreakthroughs.com as it will give you all the knowledge you need and if you want you can stay for 1 month and still get more then you will ever need, information and personal help wise.