Smart Online Marketing We Can All Learn From

Recently I downloaded a useful free program called Affiliates Alert from this site.

The program basically keeps an eye on trends with clickbank to tell you the products which are quickly making their way up the sales charts.

When I downloaded this program, it included a free ebook report telling how to apply this program for maximum profit.

The free ebook was enticingly called "How to Make Money With Affiliates Alert"

Good Marketing Angle

The interesting thing about this free ebook is that it wasn't written by the author of the software. A user of the software took the time to write up this information on his own.

He then made the informative ebook available to the software maker to include with the download of the product.

Here's the catch.

Inside the ebook were affiliate links sparingly included in with the useful content.

The links were not obnoxiously thrown in your face. Instead they are included when reference is made to the topic being discussed.

The author of the ebook did it right. Useful content, given free, with subtle references to the product via his affiliate link.

Win / Win Situation

The software site had nothing to lose. They gained by being able to offer this free ebook which helps the users of the software learn how to use it to their advantage.

I don't know if the person writing the ebook approached the author ahead of time or not. Even if he simply took a chance and developed it on his own, it probably took only an hour or so of his time.

I know this made me put on my thinking cap.

If you run across an affiliate product that you could do similar to, it may be worth giving it a shot.

The critical points to keep in mind is that the ebook:

• should be free
• contain useful information which is immediately evident in its value
• have only subtle affiliate links so as not to appear to be too much of a sales job

My Plan

Think outside the box

I can appreciate good marketing which "thinks outside the box" when I see it.

I know I will be on the lookout for a quality product or two that I can apply this technique to myself.

This will be my plan. I will:

• contact the author to express my satisfaction with the product first. This will open a dialog between us.
• explain that I can see several different ways that I could personally use the product to benefit from it.
• extend an offer to give them a free 10 page report with the product. This product will help the end users of it achieve even more satisfaction from it.
• create a quality offering which would be immediately evident in its value to offer to the company.

Even if they did not want affiliate links in the ebook, this could be a very good opportunity to brand your web site. A compromise would be a link to your site for more tips and perhaps a signup for an ecourse related to the product. If the product proves popular, the potential for affiliate sales or newsletter signups could be strong.