Could use some advise on affiliate marketing...

Instead of just selling other people's stuff first through affiliate programs, I dove in head first and bought the reprint rights to an information product. And now I just hope to work my butt and brain to try and make this work. I keep going back and forth on whether I should try and market it myself or be an associate manager and let others sell it for me and offer a very high percentage.

My question is... Could I be setting myself up with real problems, even with a good associate program, by being a beginner and jumping right up to that level? Or is this possibly a good plan since I am not yet a great marketer myself?

When working for others I usually did very well by getting in a little over my head and being forced to succeed. I'm not looking to get rich quick. I just wanted to jump in and force myself to be focused instead of continually researching as many do. This looked like a good product with real potential.

Any feedback is appreciated, even if it's to say I messed up. (In which case I will hide from my kids and husband and have an anxiety attack.) I cannot thank you all enough for all of the wisdom that is so kindly passed on this board.

Christy

Hi Christy,

I'm like you - I like to jump in and get in a little bit over my head too. There's no doubt that it helps to keep you focused!

Christy, could you explain it a little bit further? What kind of product is it that you have the reprint rights for - is it a "real world" product (eg. printed report or book, or videos), an ebook, a CD-ROM, or something else...? Also, is it a product aimed at the small business market, or a different market?

- Dien Rice

Thank you, Dien, for your time and knowledge. This is a printed report that is also provided on cd rom for me so that I may sell as ebook or sell as a printed report. It is geared toward small business, as it is a step-by-step plan with workbook for setting up a site to generate sells that is not the 'offer free information' or 'mini-site' standard ways of thinking.

I'm sure you'll be seing it in my signature line soon. :-)

Thanks, again! (I'm tempted to stay up and see if you reply, but I need to go to bed so I can deal with what should be my biggest priority - 3 boys age 4 and under. :-) )

Christy

Hi Christy,

It sounds like you have a lot of flexibility!

To start making a few sales, you could use eBay.... EBay is probably the simplest way to start, because you don't even need your own web site.

On eBay, I would probably sell it as a printed report (rather than as an ebook or CD-ROM). I think printed reports seem to have the most "perceived value" there, something that people will physically receive in the mail.

The key to selling successfully on eBay is to have a good description, and make sure you list it in the right category! Often a good photo helps too (it depends on the item).

To find the right category, look for products which are similar to yours.... Essentially, find SUCCESSFUL auctions for products similar to yours, and look at what they do. Look at how they described their product, did they include a scan or photo, etc. What you want to do is to follow a proven "model of success", and also list your product in the same category as other successful products which are similar to yours.

You can accept payment through a system such as Paypal.

Once you've started, if you want to continue, you can "automate" it using AuctionWorks . You can set it up to automatically list your auctions every week (if they are always identical), and automatically send winning bidders notices on how to pay. All you'll have to do once you've set it up is to ship the product out once people have paid! It costs $14.95 per month plus about 2% per successful auction to use Auctionworks' service.

I would start by listing on eBay normally and doing everything manually. Once you are making some profits, then you could start using Auctionworks to automate the process as much as possible.

If you want to sell it in a downloadable ("ebook") format, you could do that too. What I would do is create a web site devoted just to your product (a "mini site" as they call 'em nowadays). Then, promote it - through search engines, discussion forums, paid ezine ads, etc.

If you sign up with Clickbank, they have a "built in" affiliate program, which means you can let others sell your product for a percentage of the profits. This is restricted to downloadable products only, however (it can't be used for products which are shipped physically). Then, once you have everything set up, you can contact various people who have ezines, and suggest that they could advertise your product as an affiliate.

While you can use a free web hosted site, I personally think the best way to go is to get your own web site with it's own domain name. It's not very expensive to do nowadays if you shop around.

Setting up the web site, etc., will take time though. I think, to get started making some sales as quickly as possible, I'd probably go the eBay route. You could start making sales within a couple weeks (one week to research other products and write your listing, and one week for your first listing to run on eBay).

Keep good records! What I do is I write down every time I get paid (my "receipts") in one column, and every time I pay for something (my "expenses") in another column. I include the date, the item, and the amount I've been paid or had to pay. By adding up the numbers, and subtracting the "expenses" from the "receipts", I always know if I am in profit or not.

I hope that helps.... Feel free to ask for any further advice. Good luck with it all.... Please let us know how it goes! :)

- Dien Rice

for so much info!! I am a big fan of eBay. It is how how make the income to invest in bigger projects like the purchase of the reprint rights on the report. But I can't say I considered it as an avenue for selling this report. It will be a higher priced item so I'll have to see if any of that type have sold in the past. Boy, I miss the days of one month's history for completed items!

The other ideas I'm pretty aware of but you helped me know that maybe I'm a little more informed and prepared than I thought. So is your opinion that using affiliate sites like clickbank might be better than investing in my own associate program where I provide the tracking and check payment? I guess I could start out with something like clickbank and if it goes well set up my own program when the clickbank fees outway the cost of my own program.

Thank you, Thank you!!!
Christy