Things aren’t always what they seem.

Two men are walking in a forest when they come across a deep hole in the ground. “Wow, that must be really deep”, says one man after throwing in a pebble and listening for the sound. “Lets throw in one of those large rocks and see how deep it goes.” The men throw in a football-sized boulder and wait anxiously for the sound… Nothing! “There is a railway sleeper over there in the bushes”, said the other man. “Help me throw it in, it’s definitely going to make a sound”. The two men heave the railway sleeper into the hole and watch it disappear in the darkness…again, Nothing! Suddenly a goat appears from the forest. It runs full speed between the men, leaps into the air and falls into the hole”. Just as the men exchange looks of utter bewilderment, a farmer comes running out from the trees yelling “Hey, have you guys seen a goat around here?” “Sure did”, replied the men. “It was the craziest thing. It ran right past us and leaped into that hole”. “Nah, can’t have been my goat”, said the farmer. “My goat was tied to a railway sleeper”.

The moral of the story is, “Don’t believe what you perceive”. Many successful businesses will guard their customer acquisition secrets by trying to convince you they’ve got to where they are by good honest hard work. Others will distract you by trying to sell you their unique system, packaged and guaranteed to generate you overnight success.

So what are your competitors really doing? Listen closely, I am about to reveal to you, the top 7 schemes they’re using to boost their sales and baffle their industry peers like yourself, making you wonder what the heck you’re doing wrong.

#1) Perception Management. Online businesses in particular are excellent perception managers. You’ve seen them before, professional looking web site with images of sexy sales people ready to take your order. Often however, they’re one-man operations run from the spare bedroom. No insurance, enforced customer privacy, or quality merchant processes. But on the surface, it’s intimidating to competitors and assuring to new customers.

#2) Strategic alliances. Most businesses do not make it on their own. Joint Ventures, and behind the scene business deals are often the true reason for rapid customer acquisition. Alliances are generally only revealed if customer acquisition can be further enhanced through brand alliance.

#3) Puppet Masters. Many businesses are in fact just small branches owned and controlled by a larger third party. They can afford to run without profit while lucratively appearing cost-effective. The business often exists not for profit, but as a strategic tactic to ensure the parent company has a finger in that market segment pie.

#4) Leveraging. Most of today’s technology would not be here without yesterday’s inventions. Imagine your home if plastic was not invented. Business is the same. Competitors will invest their time and money on safe, fast and cost-effective outcomes. Innovating new ways from scratch is risky. Leveraging existing customer acquisition services is favorable. For example, by creating incentives for your customers to recommend you to their network of contacts, is a viral marketing technique that leverages the customers you already have.

#5) Super-leveraging. You cannot use leveraging alone, as your competitor will have the same advantages you have. So unless you have the funds to buy out the customer acquisition service before your competitor discovers it, you need be creative and innovate smart methods before them. These are your intellectual property and competitive advantage, so guard them well. For example a merchant with an affiliate program would super-leverage it using a “customer acquisition exchange” service. This delivers a new sales channel (customer reciprocation) that can be competitively used in many creative ways to boost business.

#6) Intelligence and surveillance. Not only do successful business super-leverage known services for customer acquisition, they also super-leverage as a strategic intelligence move. For instance, online merchants will use Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising services like Google and Overture not to bring customers directly but to learn about their competitors and how much they pay for customer acquisition. Remember, they’re in the game to win and the more they know about their opponent the easier it is to manipulate them.

#7) Precision systems. A market leader will use targeted and measurable strategies. Every element is monitored and adjustable. Through trial and error, your competitor will tweak the customer experience for profit and growth. It is a systematic approach to customer acquisition that successful organizations like McDonalds use to thwart their competition.

So there you have it, just a few of the secret happenings that go on behind the scenes at your competitors business. Look out for more information about how to decipher your competitor’s business model to take the lead.

Michael Lever is a co-founder and CEO of SpinningTornado.com, an independent company offering unbiased tools and services to help affiliate and network marketers build profitable online businesses.
http://www.SpinningTornado.com
Partnering affiliates the world over.

Then we visit each and every website listed and join the
programs becuse they are free! to join. We put all sorts of
banners and text ads on our links page and expect to see a
check in our mail box the next morning.

Well, I am here going to reveal a very different way of
promoting affiliate programs. Let us revise the process
one-by-one.

Step 1: Search for affiliate programs with your favorite
search engine. Look for only those affiliate programs whcich
have products which interests you. For example if you are
interested in “radio controlled airplanes” then look for such
products first. Don’t start with promoting “herbal shampoos”
or “yoga cd’s” just because they pay 40% commissions.

Since you already know a little about rc planes it wiil be
much easier for you to promote various aspects of the
product.

So when selecting the affiliate prgram keep in mind the
following sequence

a) Product which you know about or are interested in.

b) Qulaity of the product. To know the quality of the product it is advisavle to buy the product yourself first.

c) The organisation associated with the product. Look for the promotional material they are giving to affiliates. This shows the confidence of the manufacturer in their own product.

d) Commission structure. Some webmasters provide 2 tier commission structure. Some have a threshhold amout before the affiliates get paid. Here is a nice place to sart with. This is a list which contains 50 affiliate Programs That Pay AT LEAST 50% commissions.

Visit http://www.myfriendlyebooks.com/Aff/a1.htm

Step 2: Design a simple landing page to “presell” the product
before sending the visitors to actual sales page. Now this step
is extremely imporant. Why do you to presell the product ?. This
is because this is internet. No one knows you here or has seen
you personally.

Normally when someone buys from the internet he is going to look
for similar 4-5 products before he gets to the final decision.
Here if he comes to your affiliate landing page it becomes
much easier for him to compare the product you want to promote
with similar 4-5 products in the category.

The landing page you have designed can have testimonials, which
you can borrow from the sales page. It can also contain your
own experience about the product. You can use before/after
situations for describing the benefits of the product. You can use
photographs of yourself using the product successfully. This
adds instant credibility to the product you want to promote.

Step 3: When the visitors reach your landing page you must have
a system to capture their names and email addresses. Because
as I said earlier there are many people who look for similar
4-5 products before buying. By capturing email addresse you can
“follow up” your subscribers later on using newsletters or
product features using email autoresponders.

The best way to capture email addresses is to provide a
free gift related to the product. This free gift can be
an eBook written by you or many webmasters already have an
ebook written for the affiliates. So again this is a very
important point, join only those programs where you will find
a decent promitional material already prepared for the
affiliates.

That’s it friends. I hope these words were helpful. I wish
you good lick in your affiliate promotional journey

Copyright 2005 Shrinivas Vaidya

Shrinivas Vaidya is the webmaster of http://myfriendlyebooks.com

To help you start with right affiliate progrmas I have assembled
a list of 50 affiliate programs that pay AT LEAST 50% commissions.
You can access the listing for free at the following url: http://www.myfriendlyebooks.com/Aff/a1.htm

The publishing industry, I hope, does not intend to forever
banish the printed word to the dustbin of history. Books in
print have their own special qualities and merits, and the world
would be diminished by their disappearance.

Having said that, let’s look at what makes ebooks so important
and so unique. Ebooks have certain abilities and qualities that
other mediums do not possess.

For example, ebooks are fairly easy to produce, and their
production cost is inexpensive. Just think about it: you don’t
need a publisher, an agent, a printing press, offset film, ink,
paper, or even a distributor. You just need a great concept, the
ability to write it or to hire a writer, and the right software.

Additionally, ebooks are easily and rapidly distributed online.
They are also easily updated; they do not require a second print
run. All you need is to go into your original creation and
modify the text or graphics. Because of this flexibility, ebooks
can change and grow as fast as you can type.

Ebooks are also immediately obtainable. You don’t have to go to
a bookstore or search through endless titles at an online
bookstore. All you have to do is download it from a website, and
presto! It’s on your computer, ready to be read.

Ebooks are interactive. This is one of the most unique and
specific qualities that ebooks offer. You can add surveys that
need to be filled out, order forms for customers to purchase
your products or goods, sound and video that draw your reader
into the virtual world of your ebook, even direct links to
relevant sites that will expand your ebook outward. The
potential is virtually limitless.

Ebooks have a particular kind of permanence that other mediums
do not possess. Television shows and radio shows air once, and
then may rerun a few times. Ebooks remain on your computer for
as long as your choose, and they can be read and reread whenever
you choose to. They can even be printed out and stored on the
shelves of your traditional home library.

Another wonderful quality is that ebooks have no barriers in
terms of publishing. You don’t need to go through the endless
process of submitting your manuscript over and over again, and
then once you land an agent, having the agent submit your
manuscript over and over again. Nor do you have to shell out
thousands of dollars for printing a self-published book. All
ebooks require is a writer and appropriate software. Figure out
your market, write your book, post it on your website, and with
the right business savvy, your audience will come to you.

Finally, you have creative control over your ebook. You don?t
have to compromise with an editor or the publishing trends of
the time. You don’t have to haggle with a designer or wait for
copyedited galleys to arrive by snail mail. You are in complete
control of the design and the text.

How to Use ebooks for Marketing and Promotion

There are innumerable ways to use ebooks to promote your
business and drive quality traffic to your website. Once posted
on your site, you can turn them into a daily course, which
brings your customer back to read the next chapter. You can use
them as a free gift for making a purchase or for filling out a
survey. Put your ebook on a disc, and you will have an
innovative brochure. Blow your competition away by inserting the
disc into your sales packages.

The most effective marketing products are those that are unique.
Copyright your ebook, and immediately, you have a powerful tool
that you, and you alone, can offer to the public. People will
have to visit your site to acquire your ebook, which increases
the flow of quality traffic and the potential of sales and
affiliate contacts.

Make sure that you keep your ebook current. Update it frequently
as the market and trends change. Add new advice and techniques
to show your prospects how your goods or services can enrich
their lives. By constantly keeping abreast of new trends and
techniques, you can continue to see profits from your ebook for
years after your original creation.

Another phenomenal advantage of ebooks is that you can test
their marketing potential without putting out hardly any cash at
all. You can even produce an ebook one copy at a time, each time
you receive an order, eliminating the need for storage and
inventory. By this method, you can gauge the saleablity of your
ebook, and make adjustments as necessary until the orders start
pouring in. Ebooks allow you to learn about your market and
customer habits and motivation over a period of time, without
risking your precious financial resources. They also provide you
with an invaluable way to gather marketing information, which
you can use in many different facets of your business.

Use your ebook to discover what the specific goals and problems
are in your specific industry. Then figure out how to solve
these problems, and publish an ebook with this invaluable
information. This will increase the value of your business,
upgrade your reputation, and get you known as an expert in your
field.

You can extend the value of single ebook by breaking the book
down into chapters for a serial course, into special reports
available on your website, or into audio or visual tapes. Ebooks
can be broken down into several different promotional materials
by excepting some of the articles and using them to promote your
product. You can include a catalog in your ebook to promote all
the products or services you sell. You can include a thank-you
note for reading your book and an invitation to download a trial
version of your product. Or you can include a form for your
audience to contact you for further information or with
questions, thereby building your business relationships and your
mailing list.

Using ebooks in this manner helps to cut the cost of
individually producing separate promotional materials. You can
use a single ebook to entice new prospects and to sell new
products to your current customers.

No other medium has this kind of flexibility and ability for
expansion. Think of your ebook like a spider spinning a
beautiful and intricate web. Now go and create that web, and see
how many customers and prospects you can catch!

Why E-Commerce?

E-commerce can be a massive business booster. If you sell
reasonably small, easy-to-ship products (or services that
don’t need shipping), it can expand your market from your
local neighbourhood to the whole world! You will also find
that you get more repeat business, since people can easily
re-order from you without having to call you again, and you
might find that you can afford to sell lower-value things in
your web store than you could in real life, thanks to the
reduced overheads.

Setting Up E-Commerce.

If you’ve already got a website, setting up e-commerce can
be surprisingly easy. The only real requirements are that
you get some e-commerce software (it’s not that expensive,
and some like OScommerce are even FRE’E), and that your web
hosting will support whatever programming language the
software is written in.

If you think that sounds a bit too technical, just take a
look through the help section of your hosting company’s
website — you should find something there that explains
your specific situation. You never know: some hosts already
have everything set up for you, and all you have to do is
press a button!

Consistent Design.

It is important for the e-commerce section of your site to
appear to be integrated into the rest of it. You should
have clear links to your store on each page of your
website, and the design of the store itself should be
consistent with what has gone before. If your store looks
out of place, it shouldn’t be too expensive to get whoever
designed your website to quickly adapt that design as an
e-commerce template.

A Matter of Inventory.

Once you’ve got your ’shop’ up and running, the next
step is to configure it. This mostly involves telling it
what you plan to sell, i.e. entering descriptions and
prices for the items, as well as uploading pictures. Take
some time with the pictures, and make them large and easy
to see on the screen. The descriptions should list every
feature and benefit each product has, and you might wish to
set the prices 10% or so below your normal levels, as an
‘online discount’.

It is important, though, that once you put your items on
your e-commerce website you do not allow them to go out of
stock. There are few things more frustrating for a customer
than seeing something they want to bu’y and not being allowed
to bu’y it — or, worse, paying for something only to be told
that it’ll take weeks to arrive. Think like a customer,
don’t forget about your website, and keep things running
smoothly.

Delivery.

Depending on what you sell, your delivery methods can vary.
We could be talking about a package in the mail, or perhaps
just a follow-up email. Whatever you’re doing, though,
make sure you do it quickly. Customers will get very
nervous waiting, and won’t appreciate it. Keep your
customers updated at all times on how things are going –
never leave them hanging.

Inputs and Outputs.

Once you get these things down, though, e-commerce is
simple enough that it can mostly be left to run itself.
It’s like a system of inputs and outputs that multiplies
everything put in: you spend an hour or two telling it what
you’ve got, and out of the other end come orders and money.
You’ll find that almost all e-commerce stores easily pay
for any time you put into them as soon as you make one or
two sales.

Don’t Forget to Advertise It.

You won’t usually need any separate campaign for your
e-commerce operation, but it’s well worth mentioning its
existence on your marketing materials. A few simple words
before your web address on anything you hand out can work
wonders: ‘visit www.yourwebsite.com’ becomes ‘learn more
and order online at www.yourwebsite.com’. You’ll find that
many customers will be more eager to check out what you’re
selling when they can do it as easily as typing in a web
address.

Eric White - Owner of

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