Today’s post is going to be one of those “do as I say, not as I do” sort of posts.

You see, I messed up, and I’ve been wasting a lot of advertising.

I was messing around my back office over at StartXchange and realized I have over 280,000 (yes, that’s two hundred and eighty thousand) banner credits sitting around doing absolutely nothing for me.

Oops! If you can reach through your computer screen and slap me upside the head, I’d appreciate it.

While I’m generally very good at staying on top of this, I clearly got sidetracked amongst the traffic exchange redesigns, splash pages, and banners I’ve been working on, and haven’t assigned credits for awhile.

In traffic exchanges, banner and text links are greatly underutilized as most people focus solely on assigning credits to their URL’s. In text ad exchanges, the majority of people focus on sending solo ads and often forget about the vast array of additional advertising available to them which can include banners, text links, hot links, log-in ads, mini button ads, and more! My point is simple this:

Make use of ALL the advertising available to you!

In most traffic exchanges, you’ll earn banner and text impressions from prize pages, so you don’t have to pay extra for this advertising. In text ad exchanges, take advantage of promo codes that usually give you a ton of free advertising when you join as a new member.

As my good friend, Tony Tezak, has always said, advertising credits don’t work like a bank. They don’t earn any interest just sitting in your account.

If you don’t think it’s worth your time and effort, give those credits a monetary value. What if your banner and text ad credits brought just one new subscriber onto your list each day? That’s 30 subscribers per month. If, on an average list, one subscriber is equal to $1 per month, then that’s at least $30 per month you’re throwing away simply by not using the advertising you have available to you. It’s actually a lot more than that considering someone who joins your list one month could be a regular buyer each month after that.

When you point all your banner and text ads to a lead capture page to build your list, those credits become very, very valuable!

There are some instances where you may want to save credits. For example, you may want to save some credits if you’re preparing to promote a new launch or if you’re releasing your own site or product and you want a big surge of visitors all at once to get the word out quickly. You may also wish to store some credits so you always have some on hand just in case you get busy and don’t have the time to earn additional credits some days. This can help you have a more consistent flow of traffic rather than a huge surge one day and nothing the next.

If you’re not storing credits for some specific reason, then make sure to assign and use all those credits. They can’t help you just sitting in your account. Yes, it can sometimes be a pain to try and assign all your credits and set up all your different types of advertising if you belong to a lot of different sites, but remember this:

If it’s a pain, then your competition isn’t doing it! Take advantage!

Out with a splash,
Derek

Today I was looking through my Aweber reports at some statistics and thought many of you might like to know where I promote and the places that are producing the best results for me. Many of my subscribers are new and may be wondering where good places to promote are, so I thought this list might help.

However, always keep in mind that you should always track YOUR OWN results at the places you promote. If you promote lead capture splash pages (which you should be), then you can easily track your results at each place you promote by simply making duplicates of the page and changing the tracking code in the form you place on the page.

For example, if you use Aweber as your autoresponder, your form code will have a line in it that looks something like the following:

<*input type="hidden" name="meta_adtracking" value="studentinsomnia"*>

It won’t have the *’s in it, but I just put those so you could see the code in this blog post.

My tracking code in this case is “studentinsomnia”. I track my pages by using an identifier that first denotes which splash page I’m promoting. In this case, it’s a splash page called “student”. Then the last part of the identifier denotes where I’m promoting it. In this case, “insomnia” to tell me it’s being promoted at List Insomnia. If I want to promote the page somewhere else, I simply make a duplicate of it, and change the adtracking code to something else. For example, I might change it to “studentviralads” to denote I’m promoting it in Viral Ad Store.

There’s actually lots of different ways to track things, so it’s all about finding something you’re comfortable with that tells you the information you want to know.

Depending on what you promote, your results could be totally different from mine. An advertising site that works great for me might not work great for you. There’s a lot of different factors that can come into play, so it’s vitally important for you to track your own results so you know what’s working and what’s not working in your own campaigns.

Use this post simply as a reference for places you might like to try and/or experiment with to see if they work for you. I will be creating a permanent link on my blog that I will update from time to time as my top 10 sites change. Ultimately over time, I’m looking for consistent advertising sites I can count on regularly, rather than those that are just hit or miss.

Many people won’t divulge this type of information to their lists. They want to keep their top sites secret. To be honest, I don’t have any “secret sites”. Most of my advertising is focused on free advertising sites, the largest portion of which are traffic exchanges and text ad exchanges. There aren’t secret sites out there that people are using to rake in huge downlines under the radar to the rest of us.

It’s all about CONSISTENT ACTION. It’s about advertising daily. It’s about surfing traffic exchanges daily. It’s about posting to text ad exchanges daily. It’s about being willing to post that one extra ad that your competition isn’t willing to post. It’s about being there and getting your site out in front of people every single day no matter what. It’s about staying in front of people. It’s about staying focused on doing just ONE THING, promoting and building YOUR list, and then funneling people into your other programs on the backend.

That’s where the results come from.

As you take a look at the following list, keep in mind the following points:

• What do I promote? I promote splash pages directing people to sign up for this blog, so I can teach them all about splash page advertising and how they can use splash pages to bring referrals into their own businesses on a daily basis.
• These are the advertising sites that have produced the best for me over about the last month or so.
• Use the following list only as a guide to find places you might like to test with your own promotions. It’s not gospel, and these may or may not be the same sites that work for you. I try new sites all the time, test my results, keep the ones that work for me, and get rid of the ones that don’t.

So without further ado, here is my current list of top performing advertising sites for bringing new signups into my blog.

Out with a splash,
Derek

Last time I introduced you to the idea of pre-selling prospects to get better conversions by enticing them to take immediate action. Today I’ll take a closer look at this process and explain some things you want to keep in mind to make this as effective as possible.

Click here to open the page I’ll be referring to so you can follow along.

The first thing you need to do is figure out what your goal is. What is it you want your visitors to do after they sign up from your lead capture page? Do you just want them to confirm their email? Do you want them to sign up for a program? Do you want them to buy a product? Your goal will determine how you want to approach them with your pre-sell page.

For Clickbank Pirate, my goal is to get my visitor into the actual Clickbank Pirate system as soon as possible after they join my list from my own lead capture page. If you don’t recall what my lead capture page looked like, you can review it by clicking here. I want them in theClickbank Pirate system so they can start receiving the system follow-ups directly from the program. To do this, they need to fill out a form on one of the Clickbank Pirate lead capture pages.

Since I already have their attention, now is the best time to get them directly into Clickbank Pirate’s follow up system. Plus directly after people take one action is the best opportunity to get them to take another action. This is why things like upsells work so well. However, rather than sending them directly to a Clickbank Pirate lead capture page, I use this opportunity to tell them why they need to watch the video and sign up. What can it do for them? This is your chance to give your prospect additional information they may not realize by just watching a quick video. It’s an additional opportunity to add more value to your offer in the prospect’s mind.

Here’s how I do it with my pre-sell page.

At the very top of the page you want something that grabs attention immediately. Words like “stop”, “hold on”, “just a second”, “not so fast”, etc. work well because they make people stop to see if they did something wrong or if they need to take another step to complete the process. In my example I chose to use, “Whoa! Hold Your Horses!” It’s one of my favorites.

The next step is to use a subheadline that creates curiosity about what you’re going to reveal to your visitors. Use something that makes them want to read more. Another tip is to keep it personal and conversational like you’re talking to a good friend. Don’t be afraid to use language like “what I’m about to show you is super cool.”

Take a minute to read through the page and I’ll point out some of the more important aspects, and what I’m trying to accomplish with each part of the page.

The first paragraph is intended to build credibility and trust with my visitor by showing them I’ve been in the same situation they are, e.g. spending lots of money on things that don’t work or that were just the same information packaged in a different way.

The middle section of the page is designed to show people that there is no golden nugget or secret success button out there that can be pushed and bring you instant success. The truth is this stuff takes work, but it’s not rocket science. People spend too much time and money looking for something where they can just push a button, go to bed, and wake up a millionaire. So they jump from program to program, failing time and time again because they’re not willing to focus, take action, and do the things they need to do to succeed. No one can really help you until you’re willing to help yourself. This helps put in the visitor’s mind that looking somewhere else isn’t the answer.

After that, I point out why people fail and how Clickbank Pirate is going to help my prospect by saving them time and money by eliminating all but one of the steps I outlined earlier on the page. I also make it more personal and relate to the visitor by pointing out that driving traffic is something they already know how to do since they got here by surfing traffic exchanges. This helps them feel more comfortable that they CAN do it and they CAN succeed.

Next I leave them with a question to get them thinking about how Clickbank Pirate can help them succeed and get them past their struggles.

Finally I end with a strong call to action to get them to click and watch the Clickbank Pirate video and a quick reminder about confirming their email address.

When done right pre-selling can help put your prospects in the right mindset to take an immediate desired action.

Try it and let me know how it works for you. Just reading about it won’t help you. Taking action and doing it will. You can tweak and adjust your system once it is up and running, but nothing can happen if you just sit on the sidelines. And if you need help, don’t be afraid to ask.

The TE Monster is up to no good again. You’ll find out why in a second.

If you’ve been following me for any length of time, you’ll know I stress the importance of standing out from the crowd when it comes to promoting with splash pages in traffic exchanges, list builders, safelists, etc.

One way to quickly stand out from the crowd is to simply create and use your own splash page. It still amazes me how many people still promote with standard affiliate pages in the traffic exchanges, despite the constant stressing of the importance of using splash pages by myself and other industry leaders such as Jon Olson and Tony Tezak. The truth is, the people getting results are using splash pages.

However, as more people learn about and start using splash pages, it will become even more important to find ways to stand out from the crowd. This is even more important in the traffic exchanges than it is with something like advertising via Google Adwords or something like that because when people are surfing they often see the same sites over and over again. They grow immune to seeing the same claims about making money and getting rich overnight.

If you’re using Google Adwords, people come to you because they did a search for your keywords. Think of it like having your own offline store. Let’s say a grocery store. When people get hungry, they come to you because food is what they’re looking for. Traffic exchanges are more like TV infomercials. People are flipping through the channels and they suddenly come across your ad. Most likely they’re not looking for what you’re offering. It’s up to you to stand out from the crowd, grab their attention, get them to stop flipping through the channels, and then convince them what you have is something they need. And this is precisely why being different and standing out is SO IMPORTANT in traffic exchanges.

So how do you stand out from the crowd? It’s simple really. Be different. Be creative. Have fun! Just because you’re running a business doesn’t mean you can’t have a little fun. Talk to people like you would talk to your friends. Be funny. Be a little goofy or silly. Don’t be afraid to try something out of the ordinary.

To see what I mean, take a look at a splash page I created recently to promote my splash page design business, Splashbuilders.

Click here to view the splash page.

It’s nothing groundbreaking. The graphics aren’t going to totally knock you to the floor. But it’s unique. It’s different. It gets a smile, and possibly a laugh. And best of all, it gets a lot of clicks.

Have fun out there! Having an online business should be a fun and amazing experience!

Out with a splash,
Derek

It’s time to start having a little fun.

If you’ve been following my recent training posts, you know I’ve been walking you through how to set up a complete splash page advertising system using Clickbank Pirate as an example. So far we’ve looked at creating a splash page and how to use it to build your own list while still promoting Clickbank Pirate at the same time. This isn’t ground breaking stuff, but now we’re about to get into the fun stuff. Over my next few posts, I’ll show you where most people leave a lot of sales and signups on the table and how you can keep from doing so.

Let’s start by taking a look at a typical marketer promoting Clickbank Pirate. We’ll call this marketer Splash Page Bob. What does Splash Page Bob do? Just like the large majority of people, Splash Page Bob logs into his Clickbank Pirate member’s area, grabs the pre-made splash pages found there, and goes out and promotes directly with these in traffic exchanges, list builders, safelists, etc. That’s fine and Splash Page Bob will probably get some signups that way, but what Splash Page Bob doesn’t realize is that he’s shooting himself in the foot if that’s as far as he goes with his splash page advertising.

First of all, if you promote in this way, you’re not building YOUR list. You’re simply building the list of the person who owns the program. This isn’t quite so bad with Clickbank Pirate as it normally would be since Soren and Cindy, the owner’s of Clickbank Pirate, promote for you with your own affiliate links, but it still limits you because you can’t offer your own additional products and services, and you can’t build a relationship with anyone because you don’t have control of the list.

Secondly, by not creating and using your own splash pages, you limit your ability to target specific audiences and also to emphasize specific points of the program that the member’s area splash pages may or may not do a good job of explaining. With the method I’m going to show you, you can actually pre-sell your prospects and improve your conversions by providing prospects with additional information when they’re most ready to receive it, e.g directly after signing up on your splash page.

Once someone has signed up at my unique lead capture splash page that builds MY list, I have several options to get them into the Clickbank Pirate system so that Soren and Cindy can follow up with them for me. The first option is to have my capture page redirect directly to one of the Clickbank Pirate capture pages after the form is filled out and submitted. This is what most people do if they create and use their own capture page.

A second, better option would be to create a “thank you for subscribing” page and send them to that page and then either include a link on that page to the Clickbank Pirate capture page or include the link in an email they receive after confirming or both. This is often a commonly used method and more effective than the first one I mentioned because it reminds people to confirm their email address and gives people a link to the Clickbank Pirate splash page right away.

Some people prefer not to put a link on the thank you page because they don’t want to give people the information until they confirm their email address. I disagree with this approach for a couple of reasons.

First, I find I get a much more responsive list if I don’t “force” people to confirm. The people who are truly interested in what you are offering and who want to learn more will confirm without you “forcing” them to. I want people who WANT to be on my list, not people who just want to snag a bonus or free tidbit and unsubscribe. Therefore I provide what I’m offering right away and don’t worry about making someone confirm to get the info.

Secondly, in my experience requiring confirmation before allowing someone to view what you’re offering can be a huge momentum killer. Many people who are surfing or viewing ads don’t want to stop and go check their account right away for an email confirmation. They’ll do that later when they’re done surfing. However, right after they fill out your form is when they are most interested in what you have to offer. You have their attention, and that’s the best time to present them with your offer. People can easily lose interest in the time it takes to check and confirm their email, so make sure you present them with your offer right away and use confirmation as a way to follow up and remind them a second time.

In my next post, I’ll show you how to take the idea of a “thank you page” one step further to help pre-sell and convince your visitor to take your desired action right away.

Out with a splash,
Derek

In the last training post, I took a closer look at one of the splash pages I’ve been using to promote Clickbank Pirate. I broke it down into its parts and explained the purpose and importance of each one. There’s no such thing as the “perfect splash page” so today it’s only fair to discuss a few ways this page could be improved. Even professional splash page designers don’t hit a homerun every time.

Here’s the link to the splash page again so you can follow along: Click here to view the splash page

Before I get started I’d like to say a special thanks to Greg at Hits-A-Million for taking the time to leave a comment and offer his thoughts on part 2 of this training series found here. Greg runs a great traffic exchange, and if you have a minute you should check it out here: Hits-A-Million

When I took a closer look at the splash page, I instantly noticed at least 3 ways the page could be improved. Whenever you change something on a splash page it is important to track all of your results because what actually works isn’t always what you think will work best. There’s been many times where I thought I was improving a page, but actually ended up making it convert worse. You won’t know this unless you track all of your pages.

Let’s discuss the 3 ways I think the page could be improved.

1.) Adding traffic exchange specific targeting

By this, I mean adding a line or two that says something like, “Hey _________ user” where the blank would be filled in with the name of the traffic exchange where the page is being promoted. So if the page is being promoted in Traffic Splash, it would read, “Hey Traffic Splash user”. This could be added in the header, headline, or anywhere near the top of the page where it can grab the viewer’s attention.

A Quick Splash Page Reporter Tip
For even better results, try adding a short audio file to the page to accomplish the same thing.

2.) Adding branding elements to the page

It’s critically important online to properly brand you and your business. There are many ways to do this. For example, Tony Tezak of Tezak Traffic Power does this very effectively by putting his name and photo on every splash page he promotes. Tim Linden of Startxchange fame does this effectively by placing videos of himself on the capture pages he uses to get subscribers to his blog which I highly recommend you follow on a regular basis. It can be found here: Tim Linden’s Traffic Exchange Blog

Offline companies spend millions of dollars a year branding themselves. Why? Because it works. Why should having an online business be any different? Branding gives you familiarity. It gives you credibility. It connects you to people on a more personal level. People identify your pages with you, and when they see you and what you are promoting over and over again, they start to think, “Hey, this guy must be having success with what he’s doing. I see him everywhere. I hear people talking about him. Maybe I should try to duplicate him or find out what exactly he’s promoting and how he’s doing it.”

If I randomly placed photos on a page with the names Tim Linden, Jon Olson, Tony Tezak, and Robert Puddy (just to name a few) would you be able to match a face with a name? I bet many of you would. Why? These people brand themselves in one way or another and, more often than not, they brand themselves in multiple ways. That’s why you know them. The huge success of Tezak Traffic Power when it first launched was largely due to the fact that Tony had spent many years prior to launch branding himself in traffic exchanges. He became *the* icon of a successful traffic exchange user, and everyone already knew him before he launched. Branding is a long-term strategy that can reap you huge rewards down the road just like it did for Tony.

Another great way to brand is by participating in forums and attending online conferences, but that’s a topic for another post.

3.) Moving the form higher up on the page

On my example page, it may be worthwhile for me to experiment with moving the form up higher on the page so that it appears just below the headline on the right hand side. I may need to change some text on the right side to make the page flow better if I do that, but it’s almost always a good idea to keep forms as high up on the page as possible. In some cases, a form may need to be a little lower to fit into the overall design of the page, but the most important thing to remember is to never make a traffic exchange user have to scroll to find your form.

Adding an arrow to the page leading to my form might also improve the page or adding an arrow pointing from “For me that’s priceless” over to the bullet points on the left might help people connect the two better. People tend to follow arrows, so it’s a good way to lead visitor’s eyes to the important aspects of your page.

Training will continue with my next post where I’ll be discussing how to pre-sell your leads to get higher conversions.

Out with a splash,
Derek

I’m just going to say it. I’m a nincompoop.

You see Jay Hines’ released a nifty piece of software called Quick Tab Change quite a while back and I never really paid much attention to it. I guess my thought process was that initially it didn’t really sound like it would make that much of a difference in my surfing. Or so I thought.

But I thought wrong.

Anyone who uses traffic exchanges as part of their marketing strategy knows how important it is to maximize your time while surfing. Surfing traffic exchanges is considered a *free* method of advertising, but it’s not really free when you consider that your time has a monetary value on it as well. Therefore, it’s of utmost importance to surf efficiently to maximize your return.

One way to surf more efficiently is to use a tabbed browser so you can surf several different traffic exchanges at once. Jay Hines’ software, Quick Tab Change, makes tabbed surfing even more efficient by allowing you to create a “hot key” on your keyboard that allows you to switch tabs much quicker than having to move your mouse and clicking. My personal favorite is to make the left windows key my hot key so I can rest one hand on my keyboard while my other hand uses the mouse to click the surf buttons. This actually allows you to spend more time looking at the websites too because your eyes don’t have to be focused on your mouse pointer going up to switch tabs.

I completely ignored this piece of software when it first came out because I didn’t really think it would make much difference. But after doing some initial tests, you really can surf about 40% more efficient this way. And that can add up to a lot more credits to advertise your websites with.

So do yourself a favor and check out Jay Hines’ Quick Tab Change by clicking here.

You’ll earn more advertising credits for the time you spend surfing. Oh, and your friends won’t call you a nincompoop!

Out with a splash,
Derek

In my last post, I discussed how I’ve been using my own lead capture pages to promote Clickbank Pirate, and the reasons why this has proven more beneficial than promoting the capture pages provided in the member’s area. Today I’ll be breaking down one of my lead capture pages into it’s various components to give you a better idea of why I designed it the way I did. Hopefully, you’ll be able to incorporate some of these ideas into your own pages to improve your own signup and clickthrough rates.

At the end there will be a test, so be prepared.

It may be beneficial to have the lead capture page open on your computer screen so you can follow along as you read this. You can find it by clicking here. I’ll start at the top of the page and work my way down over each element.

The first thing you’ll notice on the page is the header. I typically try for a professional look without getting too flashy or “in your face”. I’ve found this to be the best approach. I want to indicate success without going overboard. Images such as nice cars, houses, money, and people and/or families are typically good to use, but be careful not to over do it or you can give people the feeling of “this is a scam”. If you’ve seen any of the gifting programs while surfing, a lot of these have the tendency to get too outrageous with their headers in my opinion. Although that type of header can attract attention, it can also turn people off.

Clearly you want to match your header to what you are promoting. If you’re promoting a dog product, your header should contain dog images, not images of fancy cars and money. Makes sense, right? Use the header to grab your visitor’s attention quickly so they pause to take a look at what you’re offering. Combine text with graphical elements to create more curiosity.

Next, you’ll want to combine the header with a good headline to double the impact and reel your visitor into your offer that much more. Asking a question in your headline is a good strategy to make it relate more to your visitor by getting them to think about what you’re asking. Using words such as “discover” or “revealed” are also effective. People get curious when they feel like they’re discovering something new or something that’s been hidden.

The strategy I used for the headline on the example page is also one I’m fond of. The idea with this strategy is to create initial interest, but then cut the headline off so people are left wondering, forcing them to read more of the page. On the example page, I want people thinking, “Letting 6-figure Clickbank earners do what? I need to know more.” This makes them continue on to the bullet points below. Writing good headlines takes practice, and it’s important to be able to edit your headline so you can test your conversions and use the headlines that ACTUALLY work best, and not the ones you THINK work best.

On the example page, my focus is on targeting people who want to save time and money building a business with the help of professionals, e.g. top Clickbank earners. Once I’ve grabbed someone’s attention with the header and headline, I want to support my case with bullet points that show people how they are going to save time and money letting top Clickbank earners do a lot of the hard work for them. In other words, they’re going to save time and money because someone else who is already successful promoting Clickbank products is going to build capture pages for them, write their follow-ups, do product research, etc.

The next element on the page is used for targeting purposes. Since I promote this page in traffic exchanges, I use a line that relates to what traffic exchange users are already good at: surfing websites. The particular line is, “All So You Can Focus On Just Surfing And Sending Traffic To One Simple URL!” It provides viewers with a familiarity and comfortability knowing they can keep doing what they’re doing and still succeed without having to learn all the other aspects of selling Clickbank products online. It helps put people in the mindset of, “Hey, I already know how to surf. Maybe I CAN succeed with this!” By simply editing this line I can target other places where I promote. For example, when I promote this page in list mailers, I simply change the line to something like, “All So You Can Focus On Just Posting To List Mailers And Sending Traffic To One Simple URL!”, and it has the same effect.

Once you’ve reeled a visitor into your page, you’ll want to capture their name and email so you can follow-up with them and get them on your list. Building your list and building a relationship with the people on your list is the most important thing you can do to succeed online. You hear that all the time, but do you listen, take action, and do it? Most people don’t, and most people fail. A form to capture your visitor’s name and email doesn’t have to be anything extravagant. It can be simple and plain in nature, but it should appear near the top of the page and be clearly visible. If you want the best results, make sure people don’t have to scroll at all on your capture page in order to find the signup form. Also be sure to include a very specific call to action and tell the visitor exactly what you want them to do, e.g. “Submit Your Name and Email Below To Access This Powerful System Today!”

Did you also notice some of the other subtle effects when viewing the sample capture page? On this particular page, I made the extra effort to emphasize “you” by bolding and underlining. You want your visitor thinking about how your offer can help them. It’s great that you’re successful, but what can you do for them? That’s what they’re interested in. Use italics, underlining, bolding, and highlighting to emphasize the most important aspects of your offer.

If you need your own lead capture splash page, you have a couple of options. First, you can hire a designer. I know a pretty good one with super affordable pricing. You can find him through his website at Splashbuilders.com. Or, if you prefer to try and create your own lead capture splash pages for free, I recommend Justin Ledvina’s AdKreator.

Earlier I mentioned there would be a test at the end of this. Are you ready?

While writing this I noticed several things that are missing or that could be changed on this page to potentially make it even more effective. Do you know what they are?

Leave a comment and let me know what you think they might be. I’ll reveal them in my next post.

Out with a splash,
Derek

Today marks the start of my several part training series where I will reveal how I have been promoting Clickbank Pirate using some clever splash page advertising. I have chosen Clickbank Pirate as my example for this training series, but keep in mind these same tactics could be used to promote virtually anything. It’s the system you want to focus on, not the particular program I’m using as an example.

In the first part of this training, I will be focusing on lead capture and how I go about bringing leads into the system. If you are familiar at all with Clickbank Pirate, you will already know that they provide great lead capture pages right from within the system that you can use to promote the various turn-key packages you get each month as part of your membership. Here are a few examples:

• Free Clickbank Pirate Report
• Clickbank Starter Kit
• Affiliate Elite

I focus primarily on promoting the Clickbank Pirate program itself rather than the individual clickbank products offered within it, but this same technique could be applied for that purpose as well.

Although I think the lead capture pages within the system are great, personally I don’t promote them much directly. Let me explain why.

Clickbank Pirate is a very complete system and has only limited drawbacks in my opinion, but one of the biggest is that once a lead signs up for the system, they are out of your control. You can’t follow-up with them in your own way or offer them your own additional promotions, content, etc. This is great if you don’t want to be bothered with building and maintaining your own list, but having your own list is critical to your success online. If at all possible, you always want to make sure everything you do is working to build your list in one way or another.

To work around this problem, I create my own lead capture pages to present to people prior to showing them the Clickbank Pirate lead capture pages. I do this for several reasons which I will list here and then explain in more detail.

• 1.) Helps build MY OWN list and MY OWN business
• 2.) Allows me to pre-sell prospects on the Clickbank Pirate system (I’ll explain more about how I do this in an upcoming lesson)
• 3.) Allows me more targeting options
• 4.) Helps me stand out from the crowd so my promotions get noticed easier
• 5.) Allows me more flexibility in testing and tracking for maximum results

Helps build MY OWN list and MY OWN business
By using my own lead capture pages, I bring prospects onto my own list first. This gives me the opportunity to build a relationship with them and turn them into buyers even if they decide not to join Clickbank Pirate. I do this by offering them additional related content, products, and promotions that can help them become more successful online. I’m also able to funnel them into the splash page side of my business by sending them here to the Splash Page Reporter to read blog posts about Clickbank Pirate like this one. Therefore, even though my lead capture page is promoting Clickbank Pirate, I’m able to funnel prospects into all aspects of my online business all because I brought them onto my own list first.

Allows me to pre-sell prospects
Using my own lead capture pages also allows me to pre-sell prospects before they ever sign up for the free report offered by Clickbank Pirate. Personally, I don’t think the current Clickbank Pirate capture page found here does a real good job of explaining everything this system does for you. I improve my sign up rate by using an intermediary page after my own lead capture page that pre-sells prospects prior to directing them to the free report capture page offered by Clickbank Pirate. I’ll explain more about setting this up in an upcoming blog post.

Allows me more targeting options
Creating my own lead capture pages also allows me very specific targeting options. I can create pages focused on particular aspects of the program in an attempt to target certain individuals. For example, one lead capture splash page might focus on the fact that you don’t need your own website or autoresponder to profit from Clickbank Pirate. With a page like this I might be trying to target “newbies” or “non-techy” people who want something that is simple and easy to use. Another page might focus specifically on saving money for people with limited budgets while another might focus on saving time to target people with disposable income, but who may not have a lot of time on their hands.

I can also target the members of specific programs. For example, if I was promoting in the traffic exchange, Traffic Splash, I might insert a line such as, “Hey Traffic Splash Members”, into my lead capture page to draw more attention to it. In my next blog post, I’ll be discussing the various components of my lead capture page and the purposes they serve.

Helps me stand out from the crowd
If you’ve been online for any length of time, you know how important it is to stand out from the crowd. This is very easy to do when you create your own lead capture splash pages. Just think about it like this. If you have 100 skittles on the ground and 99 of them are red, but there’s one green one, which do you think will stand out? Which one do you think will get noticed right off the bat? My guess is the green one stands out like a sore thumb. Being unique and being creative will always attract more attention from people viewing your pages. Promote a page nobody else is promoting, and you instantly become that green skittle.

Allows more testing and tracking flexibility
Using your own lead capture pages also gives you the ability to test and track pages. It allows you to experiment and find out what truly works and what doesn’t. Doing simple things like changing a headline, changing a color, changing one or two bullet points, or doing a simple tweak to the design can have dramatic impacts on your results. If you have your own lead capture pages, then you can test and track these types of changes until you create the best page possible. This keeps you from just “winging it”. Even though the capture pages offered in the member’s area of Clickbank Pirate are professionally designed, it doesn’t mean they can’t be improved or that you won’t come up with your own idea that works even better.

Now that you understand why I use my own capture pages even when promoting programs that offer their own pages in the member’s area, click here for just one example of a page I’ve created to help me promote Clickbank Pirate.

In my next lesson, I’ll take a closer look at this lead capture page and explain the various elements it’s comprised of.

Out with a splash,
Derek

Clickbank Pirate is a new plug and play clickbank system created by well-known internet marketers Soren Jordansen and Cindy Battye. Selling clickbank products online is no different than selling other products and services online. If there’s one point I’d like to stress before continuing with my review of Clickbank Pirate, it’s that the system for making money online NEVER changes. Keep that in mind and it will save you a lot of time and money you might otherwise be spending searching for that “magic money making button”.

Trust me, I’ve looked everywhere for that magic button, and even that “easy” button I’ve seen on tv let me down. But I’m still convinced the Sham-wow is the real deal. The sooner you accept there is no magic button, the sooner you can get down to business and start making money. Although there is no magic button, it is possible to reduce your workload by taking advantage of plug and play systems like Clickbank Pirate that do much of the work for you.

I mentioned previously that the system never changes, and it doesn’t. There’s lots of variations, but the core system is always the same. So what is the system I’m talking about? It goes like this.

• 1.) Find a good product to promote
• 2.) Create squeeze pages to capture leads interested in the product
• 3.) Create content and follow-up emails to create a relationship with those leads and eventually turn them into buyers
• 4.) Drive traffic to those squeeze pages
• 5.) Create upsells, thank you, bonus, and other offers to maximize your profit
• 6.) Test, track, and tweak as needed to ensure maximum results
• 7.) Repeat the process with the next product

What I love about Clickbank Pirate is that it allows you to eliminate 90% of the work because you only need to concentrate on step 4, driving traffic. The rest is done for you by some of the top clickbank earners in the business. They do the product research to find the top converting clickbank products to sell. They create professional, eye-catching lead capture pages and follow-ups to capture the leads and turn those leads into buyers. They create thank you, bonus, and additional product offers for those buyers to provide you with ongoing income, and they test, track, and tweak the system every month to ensure maximum results . In addition, they do it all from their own servers so you don’t have to worry about having your own domain or hosting.

Will they do EVERYTHING for you, and will they do it for you FREE? Of course not. If you only want a free handout, you shouldn’t be here trying to make money online. If, on the other hand, you want to be able to put all your focus on just one aspect of internet marketing (traffic), and let the professionals take care of the rest, then this could be the system for you. It’s perfect for beginners or for seasoned marketers looking to create additional passive income while eliminating a lot of the time consuming, money guzzling work.

Here are some of the advantages and disadvantages of the Clickbank Pirate system.

Advantages
1.) Plug and play system-you can have it up and running and start promoting in just minutes
2.) You don’t have to do any time-consuming product research to find the right products to sell
3.) You don’t need to know how to create lead capture pages
4.) You don’t need to know how to write follow up emails
5.) You don’t need to know how to create thank you, bonus, or other additional offers
6.) You don’t need a website
7.) You don’t need an autoresponder
8.) You don’t need to know how to test and track results
9.) Built in blog feature-you can have your own blog up and running in just seconds
10.) You don’t need your own product to sell
11.) In house training to help you drive traffic to your capture pages
12.) Low cost relative to what you get

Disadvantages
1.) You still need to know how to get traffic to your capture pages (they do offer training in the member’s area)
2.) Once leads have signed up on the capture pages, they enter Clickbank Pirate’s follow-up system and are out of your control, meaning you can’t communicate with them and send them your own follow-ups or additional promotions
3.) You’re limited to using the capture pages they create for you, which reduces your ability to be creative and stand out from the crowd in your marketing efforts

**Special side note**…Find out how I’m able to work around disadvantages number 2 and 3 by clicking here

4.) Initial cost of $67 and recurring cost of $37 per month after that may not be affordable for everyone, even though this cost is extremely low considering everything that’s done for you

The Clickbank Pirate system allows you to eliminate all of the work associated with promoting clickbank products online outside of driving traffic to the capture pages they provide. With hundreds of ways to drive traffic to a website, both free and paid, this aspect of internet marketing can be easily learned. Although the system requires a $37 per month investment, you’d easily be paying that much yourself for just a domain, hosting, and autoresponder account if you tried to do the same thing on your own. Then, you’d still have to do all the product research, capture pages, follow-ups, etc. yourself. For beginners and experienced marketers alike Clickbank Pirate can eliminate much of the workload and help you earn money online with a lot less of the hassle.