Scott, with a background long on years in affiliate marketing, is also an expert when it comes to marketing, advertising, and promoting online. We teamed up a few years back, (the best move either of us ever made!) and provide several online business resources tailored specifically to help you be successful online, too.

Each and every thing we do - whether planned that way or not - revolves around helping others be as successful as possible online (with offline ideas thrown in for good measure).

With that bit of hoopla and flag waving out of the way, today we’d like to help anyone who’s stuck in what can be a vicious, yet unnecessary, cycle… finding and choosing the right products to promote online.

There are numerous solid affiliate programs out there; some let you have instant access to promote without paying to promote, while other affiliate programs charge you a fee upfront (a membership fee) and often recurring fees each month to be a part of that program.

In reality, is it necessary to always pay those membership fees? Do you pay only because you don’t know where else to look for products to promote? Has the sales letter so sucked you in that your brain takes a short vacation, sidestepping research and heading straight to action (where you pull out your wallet and join without really know what it is you are joining)?

The answers to those questions above most likely are, “No.” “Possibly” and “Yep.”

If so, you will be thrilled to know that a trip around the Marketplace at Clickbank will give you FREE access to 100s of 1000s of products, services, software, and more. Products galore to choose from, almost unlimited, along with varying commission amounts per item. All you need do is select something you want to promote and… advertise it.

Don’t start high-five-ing just yet though. “All you have to do” is a loaded statement, with clarifying information about that statement further down this post…

But let’s stay on track here for the moment…

What is the value of picking something you’re interested in to promote versus just taking whatever someone else throws at you?

The answer is simple. It’s much easier to get behind a product or service that you are interested in. For example, say you sign up for a program that has a Product X. You don’t know anything about Product X, have little or no interest in finding out more about Product X, yet you had to pay in order to become eligible to promote it.

Since you’re not really interested in Product X, you’ll most likely just use any old thing they might provide you with - solo ads, classified ads, ezine ads. You grab them and start spending your hard-earned money trying to tell others about something you have no interest in nor any creative imagination to make others interested in Product X.

Hmmmm….

However, your trip over to the Clickbank Marketplace means 9 times out of 10 you’re going to find the perfect product, something right up your alley no doubt, to spend your advertising dollars on.

The beauty is when you are truly interested in something, it’s much, much easier to write your own ads! People don’t want to keep reading the same ol’ same ol’ ads. And, they want to hear why YOU think this is great.

Did you know that personal reviews of products generate more sales? People like to know upfront what other people think before they buy. So it just makes sense that writing your ezine ads, your solo ads, your classified ads from a completely different angle than the masses means your unique style can be more enticing, more intriguing - and ultimately gain you more click throughs then your fellow affiliates.

This doesn’t mean you have to buy every product you promote. But in addition to finding free products and services TO promote, you’ll most likely uncover reams of information that will come in handy for you personally!

The long and the short is joining a membership site can be a fine thing to do for the right thing - and think “exclusive.” But do keep in mind that there are tons and tons of products out there you can set a budget for and advertise all on your own, without joining anything.

Pick a product or products from the Marketplace at Clickbank, set an advertising budget of X dollars a month (and stick to that amount), run ezine ads with the occasional solo ad (and I do mean occasional solo to start, solo ads are not easy to get right), go back to Clickbank, find something else, do it all over again. Keep your costs in check! Watch how you’re spending your money.

You take control over what you want to try your hand at promoting. You take control of how you spend your advertising dollars. You find products that interest you (after checking out all the variables Clickbank gives you about that product) and…. away you go!

Now if you made it this far, there is a resource available to you that lets you create an entire storefront niche of Clickbank products. This is a membership site. And, remember you don’t need a membership site, every time you want to promote a Clickbank product.

However, if you do not have your own website, and are willing to put in some work to create a unique spot of your own, and you’re willing to follow the Davies’ brothers guide to get that job done, then you really might want to consider this membership. You will create a website presence picking and choosing specific products. You use their program to design your (can be) unique-looking website. You use their information to launch yourself into a real business online. (And for more information, you need to contact them not us!)

Here’s the clincher, that hardly anyone really gives much thought to which is unfortunate. Remember above I wrote, “All you have to do…” and “Away you go!” Do pay attention, because this is important:

CRITICAL POINT: The #1 hardest thing to do online is drive (generate) traffic to anything! Yet it is the one thing most sales pages “gloss over” making you believe it is easy as pie. This is not true. It’s a downright lie really. It is difficult, extremely, without the proper tools. Therefore, I also highly recommend that you read Whole Hog Blogs to discover how you can take these wonderful products, ideas, storefronts, and more and drive endless human and search engine traffic to your new online business… fast, steady, and forever.

If you are new to this whole make-money online thing, this post is our best advice for anyone starting out online by promoting other people’s products.

I’ve been online 10+ years and running My Wizard Ads for 7+ years. Scott has been online for more than 10 years, too.

We have seen a lot, we know a lot, and we really DO give a damn about helping you be happy and successful online!

* * * * * * * * * *

Comments, Questions, Suggestions? We’re open to dialogue so please do comment!

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This entry was posted on Friday, August 15th, 2008 at 3:36 pm and is filed under Other Strategies, Recommendations, Reviews, making money. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.