120 Days Employed & Settled - Time for the Sideline
Since returning back to work in September 2007 after trying and failing to make it big online and deciding it would be better to be employed and work on the Internet as a side project, 4 months have passed. I’m settled in my job and it’s not difficult to get up for at all. Phew. It’s time to develop the sideline I mentioned.
After analyzing the statistics of a 330 page content site I sold to a friend a few years ago it became clear that over 95% of his search traffic was coming from keywords that I didn’t even target - and believe me I targeted lots of small ones with that particular site - meaning purely on long-tail he was picking up over 6,500 keywords per month and over 1,000 visitors per day. All from 330 articles.
For my next project I will be developing a monster content site on a high-dollar subject combined with my own clickbank product.
I already have the product and have contracted free-lancers for roughly 20 articles per week and now that I’m able to invest in the project with money I’m earning from my job, there’s no reason this site won’t be crammed with over 1,000 articles before the year is out.
That is all for now. Wish me luck.
Clickbank Product #1: First Sale, Copy & Rankings
Well, it’s finally happened - my first of two new products I had in development was approved by Clickbank and received its first official sale yesterday after 40 unique visitors since the product went live last week.
Ahh.. It’s always nice to get that confirmation as it’s easier to relax knowing people actually want your product. ;o)
In regards to sales copy, I decided to contract a copywriter to revise the copy. Regardless of the current conversion (which I couldn’t possibly know at this stage), I’ve seen this guys work and I know for a fact it will be improved upon a lot by his work.
The website has started moving up in the rankings in Google and Yahoo and it’s around 50th place in both engines for the main keyword I’m targeting. Now I just have to work on some link building and promotion and I’m hopeful within 6 months I should be seeing some solid rankings for the main keywords, but it is natural search we’re talking about, and anything could happen.
In related news: Product number 2 should be written within 6 weeks. I think I will use the same copywriter to write the sales copy from scratch given I REALLY don’t want to write more long sales copy myself. It’s a terrible task unless it’s your passion!
Submitted My First of 2 Clickbank Products for Approval
Diam, things move slow when it comes to product creation.
Out-sourcing has it’s advantages, but many drawbacks - let me explain.
The good news is, the first of 2 new products for Clickbank I was making is finished, the sales copy written and submitted to Clickbank for product approval.
The bad news is, my usual copywriter is going through some personal stuff right now and was unable to write my copy. The kind soul that he is, sent me the entire $800 back for the 2 products he was going to write copy for and apologized citing his person reasons for not being able to write the copy.
This means I had to write the sales copy for the first product, and I’ll probably write it for product number 2 once that’s complete.
I’m not a great copy writer, not by a long shot, but I do understand the basic principles. I don’t expect GREAT conversions from my letter.. but it will do for the time being. Money’s tight and I could really use the money the copywriter sent back right now.
That’s all really - hopefully Clickbank will of approved it within 3-5 business days and I can get it listed on the Clickbank Marketplace so affiliate can begin to build a few links for me, causing my website to rise up the natural search rankings. It’s currently on Page 7 of Google and in the top 120 positions in Yahoo from just a few links.
Given the domain is fairly old (which I purchased) and has the full keyword in the domain, it shouldn’t be long before the site’s up there and receiving some traffic.
Then I’ll be able to gauge the conversion rate and report back some results. 
I’m shattered, and in celebration of Paris Hilton getting sent to jail - I’m off to watch The Simple Life that’s just starting on e4 to see how many times I can laugh.
God I’m fucking sad. ..and I’m a cunt.
Clickbank Product No.1 Complete & The Importance of Copywriting
As mentioned previously I’m in the middle of creating 2 products for Clickbank, both in the same niche, but individual products.
The guy I contracted to pen the first product e-mailed me yesterday with the finished guide. It’s damn good, perfect in fact and he over-delivered with 12 pages more than I asked for on the actual guide. I wouldn’t of got this sort of quality from a random writer off Elance - it really paid off this time to use this knowledgeable guy on the subject I came across on a forum where he had wrote a free guide for the members, asking him to re-write one for me for a fee.
Next step: I promptly sent the guide off to my copywriter so he can sift through, pull out the benefits and work out the best angle to attack the sales copy.
I’m a total fan of copywriting even though I don’t write sales copy myself. I appreciate the high level of skill involved and the difference great copy makes to the bottom line.
If you have the money, paying a copywriter who knows his stuff is totally worth it, it could be the difference from earning $200/week to $2,000 - from a losing Adwords campaign to a winning one with affiliates able to promote your product at a profit (which I see as the main goal).. and all without changing your product one bit. It’s amazing, and I find it funny how small changes and re-wording phrases on your sales copy can have a big impact on conversion.
Whenever the subject of copywriting comes up I always point people to this video by Michel Fortin, copywriting celebrity you might say…
Further reading:
UK Clickbank Vendors & Affiliates: Clear Your Cheques In 5 Days
This super time-saving tip is strictly for vendors and affiliates of Clickbank within the United Kingdom.
Waiting 30 days for your cheque’s from Clickbank to clear at your bank is a real pain as I’ve discussed already on my blog, especially as it costs £10 for the privalidge or more depending on what their currency exchange rates are.
I’ve found an alterantive method and it’s called AuctionChex - it was primarily created for Ebayers to cash overseas cheques but they also allow any USD cheques to be cleared using them.
There’s a few methods of using AuctionChex and they are:
1. You send the USD cheque to them by post, and they send you a cheque back from them for the ammount in British Pounds, which you can then cash at your bank with the usual 3-5 day clearance time.
2. You send the USD cheque to them by post by Thursday, and they deposit the amount in British Pounds in to your bank account which you receive the following Tuesday.
I use option 2 as it’s easier, with the only fee being the one they skim off on currency rates. Generally it costs more to use AuctionChex and you can cheque the currency rates on their website, but you’re getting the money in 5 days instead of 30 which is great for cashflow and they do offer reasonable rates. You can use the calculator on there site to workout how much it will cost you to use them for each cheque.
Today it’s reporting you can exchange $500 for £232 UK pounds. XE.com the authority on currency exchange is reporting $500 at £254, meaning it would cost £22 to use AuctionChex for $500 - just £5-£10 over the amount the bank would charge and you get the funds 25 days before. Bargain I say.
I suggest you head off to the AuctionChex website to find out more about them. I can totally vouch for their authenticity as I have used them for 3 cheques so far.. I just wanted to be sure everything worked tip-top before recommending them.
Creating 2 Clickbank Products With $4,052
I decided I should really blog a lot more so I’m going to detail everything that I get involved with from now on, so here’s how I’m in the middle of creating 2 new products for Clickbank.
How I Researched for Product Ideas
The most important part! Firstly I checked what was selling well on the Clickbank Marketplace in one particular niche with as little competition as possible, knowing I can improve upon the current best sellers. Things I looked for: Poor sales copy, poor offers, lacking in general quality or actual ‘proof’ of their claims etc.
I was also looking for products that could exist forever and never get old. I don’t go for the flash in the pan type of products that rake in a lot in a short space of time and then the bubble bursts… I’m looking for long-term income with these products.
The Hunt for Great Domains
Then I went on the hunt for some great keyword domains I could snatch up for as little as possible for each product. When you put your products in the Clickbank Marketplace back-links will pour in from review sites and affiliates etc therfore if your domain is favouring a specific medium-searched for keyword, I believe you’re guaranteed to rank for it sooner or later.. especially if it’s one of the top 3 TLD’s, ie .com / .net / .org. This will ensure you’re at least getting some organic, free traffic so you may not have to blow a ton of money on Adwords testing conversions (visitors to sales ratio).
I managed to find one two keyword domain (example: greenfrogs.com) that was searched for 270 times per day according to Wordtracker. The best thing was the domain was already ranking for the keyword in about 15th position - awesome. I managed to purchase it from the current owner for $600 which I thought was a bit of a bargain.
The next domain I found for my other product was a three word keyword domain (example: growplantsquick.com) and wasn’t ranking at all, but it was searched for 190 times per day, with a longer tail of that keyword totaling 340 searches/day. This was owned buy a domain company with an asking price of $2,500. I e-mailed them an offer of $400 and they called me back. We finally settled on $1,000 - saving me $1,500 off the original price. Cool, eh?
Finding People to Write The E-Books & Bonuses
I confess, I didn’t know hardly a thing about the actual products I was going to make, but that’s not a problem when you have an account with Elance. You can find all sorts of people to contract and outsource work to. Graphics artists, writers, musicians, video producers etc - the world is really opened up to the type of products you can create once you begin looking at outsourcing. I didn’t actually use elance this time around as I knew I could pluck a knowledgeable person off of a large forum related to the products to write them for me.
I agreed a price which was as follows:
Product no.1 - 60 pages long, 5 bonus guides at 3-5 pages each. $800
Product no.2 - 30 pages long, 3 bonus guides at 3-5 pages each. $600
It really isn’t that expensive to create your own products - I think a lot of people shy away from the idea of creating their own products but I think it’s awesome, and once you know where to go to get your products created it’s a simple process.
Finding Someone to Write The Sales Copy
The copy on your products page is the most important aspect along with your actual offer. In my opinion you should pay what you can afford. It’s worth researching copywriting reading up on the topic to understand just how important it is for the success of your product.
I could of looked on elance, but I knew a copywriter from a previous project (who I found through elance) that could do the job for a nice price.
Total cost for sales copy for the 2 products was $800, plus $200 on completion.
Big copywriting names such as Michel Fortin cost up to $8,000 - but when there’s other great up-coming copywriters looking for work on elance, if you’re on a budget like I was they’re a fantastic choice.
Designing E-covers for the Products
I always design my own graphics for everything I do - I just used some e-cover photoshop actions that I purchased a long while back. I can’t remember where I bought them now but if you want to create your own I just saw this advert on Adwords for an ecover maker that looks like it producers good quality covers - providing you make a great design to go along with them! If you’re not that savvy at design you could head off to elance where you will find some great graphics designers who will be happy to create you one on the cheap.
Total cost so far: $4,000
Costs to be added once the guides are written and it’s time to add them to the Clickbank Marketplace: $52
The first product should be up within a month from now, and the second a month after.
While I wait for the products to be written I’ll be working on the ring tone thing mentioned below. Hope this gave someone some insight or tips!
Goodbye You Muscly Jerk, I Love Ya.
Hey Future Stud!
Looking for the Muscly Jerk’s Guide to Getting Buff to Attract The ladies?
Visit the Official Muscly Jerk Website Now!
(Don’t wait around.. beautiful women are just waiting for you to hunk-up and look sexy)
Continues….
In December 2006 I brought the Rich Jerk angle to another niche, bodybuilding, and The Muscly Jerk was born. I had an interest in bodybuilding and the Jerk angle seemed suitable to take.
This was the first time I really ever created a product before or tried anything a bit quirky, and I scored slight success managing to conquer the number 1 spot in the Google Video top ranked videos, scoring over 3 million views (it’s hard to comprehend just how many people have been exposed to the Muscly Jerk) and a smooth mention on Shoemoney’s blog and even one issue of the Sitepoint tribute, which I can’t find the link to right now!
Talking numbers I probably spent $1,300 on the site, sold around 70 none-affiliate copies at $37 taking in a few thousand dollars.
Not having the cash-flow to actually take The Muscly Jerk further I decided it was a good time to sell and let him go to a new home. I settled on $3,000 to sell to an Australian who’s a year younger than me who get this, flips property and does Internet marketing on the side. Impressive.
In all I made around $4,500-$5,000 with The Muscly Jerk.
He served me well and I hope he’s taken to lofty heights. Best of luck to the new owner, and goodbye you Muscly Jerk.
Don’t forget to buy your copy of the Muscly Jerk’s guide to getting buff.
Learn anything useful from my ramblings? Shout me a cold one and make my day.
