“This post comes from the old AffiliateTeachings Blog. This is such a valuable post, I have decided to repost it here. If you are reading this, chances are good this is the first time you are reading this article. Enjoy!”

In this article I would like to discuss the elements which you can use to increase the opt in rate of you lead capture page.

It’s very easy to increase your opt in rate by just implementing a few of the elements discussed in this article.

There are 5 elements which you can incorporate into your page, lets quickly have a look at them.

1. Personalization elements (personalization elements need to be incorporated everywhere)

• Pictures of you or any human
• Text conveying personal touch

2. Social Proof Elements

• Testimonials from current subscribers
• Pictures featuring websites advertising your website

3. Media Elements

• Video (video featuring you explaining what you have to offer)
• Audio (again, explaining what you have to offer)
• Product screenshots (Include graphics of your product, this can be in the form of 3D boxes etc.)

4. Safety Elements

• Can Spam Act Compliant Statement (You need to state that you will never spam or sell the visitors information)
• Privacy Policy
• Anti Spam Policy

5. Attention Elements

• Catchy Headline that draws the visitor’s attention to what you have to offer (include your major benefit in your headline)
• Bullet Points (Bullet points summarizing what they are going to receive once they opt in.)
• Italic Statements (It’s important to put important facts/benefits in italics)
• The Fold (Keep everything including opt in box above the fold of the page. The fold being the visible part of your webpage once a user loads up your page in their browser)

The 5 elements above are crucial to incorporate on your opt in page otherwise you risk losing several opt ins.

You need to fuse them all together to get the perfect opt in page.

Regards,
Reinhardt

Bum marketing is a term coined by Travis Sago a few years ago. It basically involves driving traffic via articles to affiliate offers and ultimately cashing in.

The problem with the original approach is that many newcomers where told to market Clickbank.com products.

If you don’t know, Clickbank is a digital product marketplace. You know…ebooks, software, membership sites and everything else "digital".

The original Clickbank approach seems to be producing less than desirable results when used with article marketing.

Don’t get me wrong, Clickbank is still a GREAT marketplace to find fantastic affiliate offers, but you’ll have to drive a ton of article traffic in order make buck.

Some stats:

1. The top converting offers on Clickbank in every marketplace has already been covered heavily on article directories.
2. The average good converting Clickbank sales page converts at 1%. (1 sale per 100 unique visitors)
3. If we go deep niche, we’ll end up with less competition on the article directories and SE’s, but we’ll sit with a 0.5% conversion (1 sale per 200 visitors) due to crappier sales pages.
4. It takes about 3-4 article views for 1 click-through on your Bio box link.

With all that taken into account it means that on average you’ll need about 600 article VIEWS to make one affiliate sale.
On average you will need about 5 - 10 articles to get that sale.

It’s pretty hard work.

Now what about physical products?

I have been marketing physical products from various networks, including CPA networks, for a long time. 
The conversion rates on these products are WAY higher.

On average the conversion rates on most of these products are 1:40 (2.5%). That’s almost 3 sales per 100 clicks.
Your odds of making good money has just improved dramatically.

This means that with 10 articles (equaling 600 views avg) you will, on average, be able to make six sales!

Why not give physical products or even CPA products a try?
You’ll be glad you did.

If you really want to make crazy money from physical affiliate products, then do yourself a big favor and check out the Gallo Affiliate Sales System (it’s a must have for any affiliate)

Regards
Reinhardt

This is one of the most talked about topics in the different marketing spaces all around the globe.

December 1st 2009 marks the day the FTC officially starts hunting to lay down a "can of whoop ass" on every online marketer who breaks their new revised guidelines.

In the next couple of days there are going to be some changes here at AffiliateTeachings.com with regards to disclosures in various sales documents (from the perspective of a merchant).

In this article I’m going elaborate on the FTC guidelines for affiliate marketers.

Now I’m going to make the following very clear before I start:

I am not a lawyer and you should not take this advice without consulting a licensed lawyer in your area. I’m not a legal advisor and in no way should my advice be taken as sound legal advice. I’m simply providing my opinion on the matter.

What the FTC wants from YOU (as an affiliate):

1. Everything you say about the product must be based on your own personal experience.
(There can be no opinions from an outside party.)

2. You must disclose how you obtained the product and how you came to review it -

• Did you buy the product?
• Did you get it for free?
• Are you getting paid to review it?

3. You must disclose your relationship with the company and product.

Here is an example:

"Product XYZ has been given to me by COMPANY X. The following review will be one based on my own experience. COMPANY X have a compensation program for existing customers. I will be compensated for any sales generated through this recommendation. This is an honest review and you have the opportunity to decide for yourself whether this is right for you. The results achieved in this review is unique to me and not typical. I cannot guarantee that you will achieve the same results."

4. You must state a disclaimer that your results are not typical

The FTC requires you to either give typical results (which requires a lot of financial investment to do deep research) or simply tell the reader that the results are not typical and that no promises are made for results.

Be safe
Reinhardt

Affiliate marketing is all about making money. The best of the best use certain tools and services to help them save time and money so they can spend more time on planning marketing campaigns. This should be the way that you approach your affiliate marketing efforts as well.

I have compiled a list of the 25 must-have free tools that is guaranteed to make your life easier by cutting overall costs.

These tools are ones that I use or have used personally.

Website Builder:
Wordpress.org

It wasn’t  a very difficult decision to put Wordpress in this list.
While there are free HTML website editors just as powerful as Dreamweaver, not one of them can stand toe-to-toe with Wordpress. Wordpress is a free self-hosted CMS system that allows you do to set a fully featured awesome looking website with just a few clicks of the button. Wordpress is THE highest recommended tool for an affiliate marketer. If you don’t have or use it, start today.

Blogging:
Qumana.com

I despise working on my Wordpress posts using the online control, simply because sometimes I can run into errors. Qumana is my personal favorite desktop blogging tool. Qumana has a lot of features, some of them include media embedding, pinging, multi account posting, offline post editing, spell checking and tag support.

Video Tools:
Stupeflix.com

Stupeflix is a web service that turns your pictures, videos, and text into professional videos. It’s perfect for folks who are not very tech savvy on the video creation side of things. This is perfect for promoting your affiliate offers.

Links Validity Checker:
Expired.ws

We all run into them. Invalid or old links. Sometimes we create web pages or embed affiliate links that expire. In many cases you will find pages ranked high in the search engines for specific keywords, but the page is not generating you revenue due to broken links! Expired.ws gives you the opportunity to scout for such broken links.

Backlink Checker:
Backlinkwatch.com

There are many backlink checkers, but not all of them allow you to see the exact referring url and the anchor text used on the websites. Backlinkwatch allows you to check how many backlinks your website/webpage has, but also reports back the anchor text of those links. It’s a pretty nifty online tool.

Browser:
Firefox

Internet Explorer is the DEVIL! Ok that’s a bit harsh, but on a serious note, if you are not using Firefox then you are really missing out. Not only is Firefox a overall better and faster browser, it also comes with thousands of optional addons. You simply cannot me a affiliate marketer without Firefox.

Ftp:
Fireftp

This is one reason why I highly recommend that you use Firefox as your browser.
This awesome ftp Firefox plugin allows you to do all the major ftp tasks offered by high end ftp software. The best part is that it’s FREE. This tool is also very easily accessible since everything runs inside your Firefox browser display. Oh…and you can ftp to multiple accounts as well.

MindMapping:
Free Mind

If it wasn’t for mind mapping, I would have lost track of a lot of affiliate marketing campaigns. If there is one thing you truly have to adopt during your planning phases, it’s mind mapping. Mind mapping allows you to create a visual representation of your plans which ultimately leads to easier execution. This is a must have.

ScreenCapture:
Jing

This is one really nifty online service. How would you like to take easy screenshots or video record your screen all for free? Jing is a online service provided by Techsmith, the giants behind Camtasia and Snagit (the ultra expensive desktop versions of Jing).

Photo & Image editor:
GIMP.org

Many affiliate marketers wish to create their own graphics since for most it’s not worth paying money for. GIMP is a very powerful free software which many regard as the $0 Photoshop. As with many powerful softwares, you’ll have to learn how to use it.

PDF Printer:
PDF995.com

Ever wanted to create your own PDF ebooks, but didn’t know how?
Pdf995 is a lifesaver. It’s a printer driver that easily installs onto your system.
You simply create your entire document in Word and then print the document using the PDF995 driver and bang, you got yourself a pdf ebook!

Stats:
Google Analytics

If you don’t know what people are doing when they arrive on your website, then you are marketing blindfolded. Google Analytics is a very robust free analytics option which is clean enough so newbies can use and understand it. Analytics allows you to track where your visitors are coming from and also what they are doing when they arrive on your website. This is one stats tool you can make sure to check on a daily basis.

Keyword Research:
Google Keyword Tool

Any good affiliate marketer worth their salt will tell you that market research data is vital for success. Google’s free keyword tool is probably the best keyword tool on the web because well…you get the data from GOOGLE. When starting a new search engine optimization or Adwords campaign, this would be on the top of your priority list!

Pinging:
Pingler.com

There are many ping websites, but this one is definitely the best one.
I discovered Pingler last year and have used it ever since. Pingler uses 91 ping services, making this the most aggressive pinger around.

Competitive Intelligence:
Quantcast.com

Quantcast is a seriously cool competitive analyses tool. If you need to see in-depth details (geographic, demographic, lifestyles) about a specific website, then Quantcast is the solution.

Surveys:
SurveyMonkey.com

If you are into building an email opt-in list, which you should be, then SurveyMonkey is a great data mining tool. SurveyMonkey will allow you to capture vital information from your subscribers and the end result will be data which you can use to promote even better offers which they want.

Video distribution:
Tubemogul.com

Tubemogul is my secret tool for fast offer exposure. Not only does TubeMogul assist with the mass distribution of videos, but it also allows you to view statistical data about your videos all inside one intuitive online interface. TubeMogul is also my little backlink building secret tool. With all those videos on all those authority sites, you can just imagine the amount of authority backlinks you can obtain.

Micro blogging:
Twitter.com

I don’t really have to elaborate on Twitter. Twitter is a very well known social media micro blogging service. You simply have to have a Twitter account. Twitter allows for integration with many other 3rd party scripts. You can even update your Twitter account via Wordpress with the use of plugins.

Autoresponder
Infinite Autoresponder

Look, if there is one thing an affiliate can do to increase his/her bottom line ten fold, it’s doing email followup marketing. Many newbies try to limit their expenses in the starting phases of their affiliate marketing career and infinite autoresponder understand this. They are providing a free autoresponder service. I personally will always go for the paid option because I’m very protective over my email list data.

Web 2.0 Icons and Badges:
Web20Badges.com

If you want to spice up your affiliate presell pages, then Web 2.0 badges are definitely the way to go. They give your website that “fresh” look.

Duplicate Content Checker:
Plagium.com

I have been a Copyscape user a long time, but recently moved over to Plagium.
Plagium is just a better service and they don’t charge anything.

Mass Content Bookmarking:
SocialMarker.com

If you want traffic and backlinks then you have to learn how to bookmark your content. SocialMarker helps you to bookmark to a massive amount of bookmarking websites all within their interface. This is definitely a service you should think about using if you haven’t yet done so.

Webinar / Web Conferencing:
http://dimdim.com

This is not necessarily a tool for affiliate marketing, but a tool for anyone who wishes to collaborate and share ideas with other like minded professionals. Do you have a group of people who you’d like to communicate with all in one central location? DimDim’s web conferencing service is free and easy to use.

Online Data Backups:
Mozy.com

I have two external hard drives filled with data. If something has to happen to that data, I will be losing more temper. That’s why I use Mozy for backups. Mozy provides you with up to 2GB with a free account. Their paid plan is also ridiculously cheap and allows for unlimited data backups. Definitely something you can have a look at if you are sensitive about your data.

Text-to-Speech Service:
Yakitome.com

There are times that I’m just not in the mood to sit and read content.
Yakitome allows you to convert any text or even files into mp3 downloadable audio files. It takes a while for the files to get converted, but it’s well worth the wait.

Footer Popups:
Adpoppr.com

I just love these footer popups. Adpoppr allows you to create an email capture footer advertisement that grabs attention of your visitor. Definitely something you can implement and test on your sites.

Regards
Reinhardt Gallowitz

You can now get access to the Affiliate Teachings Link Cloaker in the Tools section.

What’s the catch?

You have to register for FREE on our website. It’s that easy.

The AT Link Cloaker

• Create CLOAKED affiliate links…not just redirects
• Host the merchant sales page on YOUR server
• BYPASS crap sales pages!
• Cookie tag visitors if you are using email capture forms
• RANK your actual affiliate link in the search engines
• javascript cloak certain links for MAXIMUM security and “under the radar” operations.

It’s easy to go on and on. Fact is…the AT link cloaker is the BEST link cloaker PERIOD.
Enjoy!
Reinhardt

It took a big decision and a long time to finally bring some change to AffiliateTeachings.com

You will now see that our premium membership program is closed to all new members.

We are slowly moving from a full monthly membership to a semi-membership program.(More on the “semi” in a future post)

This means that you will be able to get access to more products and tools and you’ll have a choice if you want to pay for it or not. It will also mean that more users can get access to our  premium content!

If you are newbie reading this, then you will see ad blocks on the right hand side pointing to some interesting tutorials. You can now get access to our premium product content on a separate basis.

We realised that there was a massive gap in our training platform. We catered only for newcomers and left the slightly more experienced people out in the cold. A lot of members wanted to get access to some of the premium stuff only and not everything.

In addition to the slow migration that is happening at the moment, AffiliateTeachings will now also become a blog portal.

Instead of just uploading new products and having a static page in the front, you will now be able to read fresh new content on Affiliate Teachings on a daily basis. The posts will vary from tutorials for the absolute newbie to more informative news related articles which the experienced user will find more attractive.

Enjoy!
Reinhardt

P.S - Current premium members still have access to EVERYTHING.

Hello guys

I have a new update for you.

Introducing the GALLO Affiliate System.

The video explains it all 
Read the rest of this entry