Imagine you had a list of 800,000 people (like Willie Crawford does), how would you decide what products to promote?

In this article Willie Crawford shares with us 14 criteria how he decides which products to promote and why those criteria matter. This will help you

• if you’re looking for joint venture partners for your own products,
• or if you’re trying to decide which affiliate products to will promote.

Willie Crawford is one of the world’s leading Internet marketing authorities, and an in-demand joint venture broker.

Most of his mentoring is done in a group setting on the member-only discussion forum at:

http://TheInternetMarkeingInnerCircle.com

How I Choose Which Products To Promote.

Once it became known that my subscriber database was approaching 800,000 (across numerous niches – some fairly obscure), I started getting dozens of joint venture proposals every day. These “JV proposals” are generally just requests to become an affiliate for their product, or to help with an impending product launch.

Most of the proposals I get are in the internet marketing niche, while less than 1/4th of my database is in that niche. If a product isn’t a perfect match for a niche, I don’t consider offering it to that niche. Experience has taught me that offering inappropriate products is one of the quickest ways to lose your list!

I thought that it might be useful to share some of how I decide which products to promote and why those criteria matter. This should prove useful to both product owners looking for joint venture partners, and to those also trying to decide which products they will promote.

Here are some of the questions that I consciously ask myself:

1) What does it do, and is this something that my subscribers both need and already want? If they want it but I don’t feel that they need it, then offering it to them may cause an ethical dilemma. I don’t compromise my ethics! If they don’t want it, and aren’t already looking for it, then making sales can also be an uphill climb.

If it’s too difficult to explain what it does, then the sales process will have to be protracted. If it’s just “the next shiny thing,” then telling my subscribers about it is probably more of a distraction than a service.

2) Does it really work if my customers will just use it? A skilled copywriter can make burnt toast soaked in hemlock sound appealing! What value does the product actually add to the stream of life?

3) Do I know the product owner and feel that they are reputable and someone I want to trust with customers whom I care about and nurture? I work very hard at building a relationship with my customers and trying to actually help those willing to be helped. I won’t do anything to un-do years of hard work.

4) Has the product owner ever promoted one of my products and how much effort did they put into it. Many people have been trained to point out that they are a subscriber or customer in a joint venture proposal. My question then becomes did you become a subscriber, or buy my $5 product, just so that you could stick that in your joint venture proposal. Did you register as an affiliate, and then promote no harder than making one blog post… which barely generated 10 clicks?

5) Are they a member of The Internet Marketing Inner Circle, my membership site, where they are both exposed to the culture of my online operations, and I get to interact with them… and get a feel for them and their business acumen and standards?

This my mastermind where we discuss many complex issues related to marketing, and running an internet business. If you are a member, then you will have been exposed to many important concepts necessary for success, and that puts you ahead of many of your competitors.

6) Does this compete directly with one of my own products or projects, or one of my clients’ products or projects? As a business owner, it’s generally foolish to sell a direct competitor’s product instead of my own… though not always. I also feel an obligation to promote my clients products before promoting those of someone that I don’t have a relationship with.

7) Is it appropriately priced for the value that it delivers? After testing/using/studying the product, do I honestly feel that it’s worth the price being charged? Will it deliver many time that much value to my customers who actually use the product?

8 ) How good is their customer service? How do they provide customer service? Will my customers who have problems be able to easily reach someone? Do they have a helpdesk so that there is an easy way around email deliverability issues? Do they have an easy to find phone number and mailing address? Is it clear WHO owns the business?

9) When is it being released, and how will the release or launch be handled? Is there sufficient lead time to sequence it into my calendar without interfering with one of my own or one of my clients’ projects? Will the tools that I prefer to use have time to work, or am I forced to only mail for a 2-3 day period after which the product is no long available? How much hype will surround the launch, and what long-term impact will this have on my customers?

10) Will there be long-term demand for this product, or will the market forget that it even exists in a week? Can I use tools that will deliver a steady stream of orders over the long-term, or is this a product that there might be alot of short-term demand for but that customers will likely set aside in favor of “the next shiny object” next week?

11) One year from now, will my customers be happy that I introduced them to this product? Is this something that is easy enough to use, and that they can easily sequence into their business processes/systems in a way that they will still be benefiting from the product a year from now?

12) Would I buy the product if I fit the profile of “the ideal customer? Knowing the product as well as I do, after thoroughly studying it, would I buy it if I didn’t already own it, IF I were the target customer that it was designed for?

13) If I did a previous promotion for them, did the product owner pay commissions promptly? Running my own business, where I pay numerous professionals for their expertise in a timely fashion, I prefer spending funds recently paid to me over tapping into capital that I’ve already invested/employed in other places.

Late payments combined with a lack of communication WILL result in my refusing to ever do future promotions for a given company or individual. If they mistreat a business partner then they will likely mistreat my customers.

14) Am I really satisfied with all of the answers I gave myself to all of the questions above. Am I being totally honest with MYSELF, and am I… by promoting this product, living up to the standards that I set for myself?

If I can answer yes, to all of the above questions, then I will consider promoting a product. If not, then I should politely decline promoting that product, pointing out why if asked.

Willie Crawford is one of the world’s leading Internet marketing authorities, and an in-demand joint venture broker. Most of his mentoring is done in a group setting on the member-only discussion forum at:

http://TheInternetMarkeingInnerCircle.com

Join that discussion to experience phenomenal business growth!

Copyright 2009 by Willie Crawford

As I mentioned in the previous part of this series, the resource box is the conclusion of the article.

More importantly, it is also the place where the backlink is contained, and for this reason, some people often describe it as the most important part of the article.

Since the one and only goal of the article resource box is getting people to actually click the backlink, it is essentially a call to action.

After the reader has been guided through the bulk of the article, and presold to as much an extent as is possible regarding what your backlink has to offer, he should find a clear course of action in the resource box.

Commonly, a resource box might contain something like: “If you want more information, just visit http://homeofinternetmarketing.com.”

Although that is a call to action, it isn’t a very good one.

Imagine how much better it would be if your resource box was more like: “If you want to learn more, there is this great eBook that’ll make you practically an expert, and it is up for grabs FREE at http://homeofinternetmarketing.com.”

By adding the incentive, the call to action will appeal to the reader all the more. Of course, it doesn’t have to be a free eBook, any incentive would work fine. It could just as easily be discounts, special offers, or even just content that is of interest.

At the end of the day, the important part is that the reader be given some reason, any reason, to click your backlink. The resource box should be the conclusion to your article; it should be the logical next step to continuing through to the backlink.

Following these few pointers should get you both, an article body and an article resource box, that is much more effective than the regular variety your competitors put out there.

Primarily, there are two parts of content in an article.

These are both the article body, and the resource box, and each has their own set of rules.

Knowing how to craft an article properly could let you get audiences interested in the article body, and then spur them on to action in the resource box.

Article Body

The primary point of article marketing is to steer the reader through the article so that they get to the backlink. To do this here are a number of things that the article body must accomplish.

First and foremost, of course, it must create and maintain interest throughout, so that the reader doesn’t stop reading. Apart from that, a good article body can also act as a ‘pre-sell’ of the backlink. In other words, it could make the reader more open to the suggestions that you might make.

It could also add as ‘pre-sell’ to the affiliate product you’ll be promoting on your site (the site the article resource box will lead to).

Bearing all that in mind, here are a few points that you should consider about your article body:

1. Relevancy Of Your Article Content

Seeing as your target traffic is mostly coming from search engines, when they type in a keyword, they probably have something specific in mind.

For long keywords, it is simple to know what they want, such as someone searching for ‘best place in Europe to fish’ is probably looking for just that.

On the other hand, someone typing in ‘Europe fishing’ could be looking for places to fish, information about the fishing industry in Europe, or… well, anything at all. If your niche is something to do with fishing as a hobby rather than the fishing industry, then of course, you’re going to want your article to be about the former.

While it is tough to get your article to be relevant for all the individual keywords that you’re targeting, you should definitely try to give your potential audience exactly what they want.

2. Creating Interest

Of course, if your article is exactly what someone was searching for, then your problem is solved. However, if it isn’t, then it is going to have to create the sort of interest that is going to keep a reader reading from start to finish.

Truth is, there are no hard and fast rules about creating interest, but basically, if you give a reader content that is appealing to them, they’re probably going to stick around.

In short, the article body should provide something of value, whether in terms of advice, general information, or even ‘secrets’. Otherwise, it should at least hint at any other benefits that will be obtained by reading the article.

Taking care of both these aspects as far as the article body is concerned will put you off to a great start. Still, there is one very important rule to the article body…

Important Note: Never conclude the article in its body.

This is the number one mistake article marketers make with their article body. They put a clear end to the article, and as a result of that the resource box stands separated. It goes unnoticed, it goes un-clicked. End of affiliate success dream!But it mustn’t be this way.

You’ll outplay 99% of the article marketers if you take this by heart:

The article proper is only actually done after the resource box, so do not attempt to put in any type of conclusion before that.

We’ll reveal our resource box tips in the next installment.

Welcome back to the affiliate article marketing series. Part 3 is dedicated to making your article successful from the start.

When someone searches for your article and sees it in the listing, the very first thing that they’re going to see is the title of the article, or in other words: The Article Headline.

For this reason, your article headlines are of the utmost importance. Essentially, they’re going to ‘make or break’ your article as far as it getting views is concerned. Unfortunately, once you’ve submitted an article you don’t get to edit or tweak the headline, so you’re going to have to get it as right as possible on the very first try.

Certainly, trying to sum up the entire eBooks that are dedicated to the subject of headlines, and how to write them well, in this small space, would be close to impossible. But, at least you can be pointed in the right direction.

Since the whole purpose of the headline is to attract attention, think of what has grabbed your attention in the past. Certain words may tend to perform better than others, but since you can’t be sure without testing… it probably isn’t the right place to experiment.

Here are some types of article headlines, with examples:

Lists, such as, “Top 5 Ways to Groom a Dog for Competitions”.

Questions, such as, “Do You Want To Learn How To Groom a Dog?”

Commands, such as, “Start to Learn to Groom a Dog, Now!”

Abstract, such as, “Coming Soon: Fluffed Tails and Trimmed Coats”

Remember, all that you need to do is attract attention in your article headline.

It is up to the rest of your article to build interest, and make clicking the backlink more likely.

How to do this will be discussed in the upcoming 2 issues.

See you there…

Admittedly, affiliate article marketing may sound like something complicated, but on a very basic level, it really isn’t.

It’s pretty simple:

1. You want to make money promting other people’s products. For each purchase that happens through your recommendation, you’ll earn a commission.

2. You build a web site that promotes that affiliate product.

3. You distribute articles that bring visitors to your promotional web site.

The one and only aim of that form of article marketing is to get visitors to visit your website through the backlink of a submitted article and then get them to buy an affiliate product you promote.

That’s why I call it ‘affiliate article marketing’.

Of course, in order to successfully do that, it isn’t enough to just submit tons and tons of articles and then hope that people click the backlink.

True, if you went by the quantity over quality approach then you’d probably end up getting a couple of visitors here and there, but it would be more time consuming, and less effective, than going about it the smart way.

Really, the only reason that people tend to flop at affiliate article marketing is simply because they don’t think it through from the get go.

So, in order to avoid going through the same tedious rigmarole, we’re going to look at article marketing from the ground up; from the theory right down to the practice. By doing so, you should end this eBook with a firm grasp of what you need to go out there and do, and how you can do it.

Basic Theory of Affiliate Article Marketing

“What do you think is involved in affiliate article marketing?” If you were to pose that question to a group of beginners who are just starting out, 9 out of 10 will probably say that it just involves submitting articles to article directories.

While that isn’t wrong, it is only part true.

Submitting an article to an article directory would get it on the internet. That part is what’s correct. But, it won’t mean that the article will actually get viewed, and it also won’t mean that people will click the backlink.

Basically, you could end up with 1,000 articles that each get 1 view a day since no one can find the article, and getting a total of maybe only 10 click-throughs.

Which is why, the basic ‘dummies’ theory of affiliate article marketing is this:

1. Position your articles where they can be found

2. Write headlines that gain attention

3. Evoke interest in the article body

4. Call to action in the resource box

5. Get more visitors to visit your article

Chances are, unless you’ve done article marketing before, you probably didn’t understand any of that.

In this 7 part series on affiliate article marketing we’ll a look at them one by one. The next installment will show you how to position your affiliate marketing articles where they can be found not only by random people – but by potential buyers.