I first gave internet marketing a bash a few years ago, but I fell into the trap that thousands of other would be Internet Marketers fell into.

Information Overload -> Lack of direction -> burnout -> gave up.

I had other things going on in my life as well that wasn’t really helping matters, but this isn’t a time to go over old ground, I’m back, I’m motivated and damn it I’m gonna crack this SOB this time around.

No more excuses, no more putting walls/barriers up in front of me, I’m going to get this going properly this time, get myself and my family out of the godforesaken poverty we find ourselves in and provide us with the life that we all deserve.

But this time I’m not alone… I have a “silent partner” who’s gonna be getting involved in internet marketing as well.  He’s a newbie when it comes to the ins and outs of it all but I’ll get him up to speed quick enough.  So he too can leave his 9-5 dungeon behind and join me in finacial freedom as well

My first post will be short and sweet, but I will update this blog everyday showing my progress and how successful my endeavours are, and hopefully you will be able to do the same yourself.

No one and I mean NO ONE needs to work a mundane 9-5 anymore.   The systems and mechanics of what I am about to do can be done by anyone, school leavers or those of you close to retirement, it’s all possible…you just have to DO it instead of thinking you can do it.

The overall equation is very simple

Build a website -> Choose a product -> Send traffic -> Make sales

There is obviously sub-categories and more depth to it all, but that’s the general idea of it all.

So, with a combination of excitement and this time DIRECTION inside me, let’s get this thing sorted.

I’m sure while I write this, not many people are reading.  I would draw comparison to the lonley DJ who’s playing his songs and talking into the mic at 3am thinking “Is anyone actually listening to this?”

The difference being that I’m hopeful that my blog will draw more and more people and inspire them with the idea of leaving their 9-5 and do Internet Marketing instead.

So who am I you ask?

Well I’m happily married and we both have a lovely wee boy.  I used to work in the IT sector, I started out in 1998 as a hardware technician, ended up as an IT consultant in 2007-2008 when the economy collapsed in on itself.

During my career, I was made redundant no less than 3 times in 5 jobs.  Each time was at the worst possible point imaginable.  First time I had just bought a car, the second time (more serious), my wife and I had just that week bought our house and taken out a mortgage.  The third time I was made redundant was 3 weeks before my wife was due to give birth to our beautiful baby boy.

I’ve suffered  (and to a certain degree, still suffer) from bad depression and anxiety.  The tablets I take to control my mood make me lethargic, sleepy, kill my attention span…all the things you really don’t need to be dealing with when trying to get an online business off the ground.

But, in the last few months, I’ve had some seriously good luck (or fate possibly).  I’ve met some really good people online in the world of Internet Marketing, I won’t embaress them by naming them, but they know who they are, and they have become part of my life as I have became part of theirs.  Most people always laughed at the idea of having a “friend” that you’ve never personally met, yet are able to know them better than some people you have known face to face, what makes them tick and other stuff.

I do class them as true friends, for both the friendship of sharing during our skype conversations, or simple texts passed back and forth on msn or facebook.

If you read my post from yesterday, you will know that I’ve given this Internet Marketing a shot before, I’m not new to the mechanics of how it works.  I just think I was too “zoned out” of life to be any good at it when I first attempted it a few years back.

But I feel a new sense of enthusiasm, knowledge and understanding of not only HOW it works, but also that I feel I can now follow through and actually DO something.

Paul Irvine is on the way back up!

I know of some online (including some of my friends) that are making amounts of money that most of you will believe to be total fabrication because you’ve been conditioned from birth to present day to believe that you need to work for “the man”, have a fear or unsettling discomfort around the idea of working for your own.

It is my plan to not only change your mind from this way of thinking, but to show you that in a relatively short period of time, you can make money online to the extent you won’t know what to do with it all.

I realise that I could be setting myself up for a big fall here, those of you that know me well will already know that I don’t commit to things lightly.  Even moreso the fact I’m blogging every step of this journey as Paul Irvine and not some kind of “alter ego” is an even stronger indicator that I WILL follow through on this, I WILL get my family out of the financial hell hole we’re in just now and get to the point where we’re financially viable again.

It is my full intention to share this journey with you all so that you can learn what it is that I do to accomplish this, and hopefully learn some other stuff on the way there

Is Paul Irvine successful just now?

No I’m not, not financially anyway.  But as I write this sitting at my family restaurant the Clippies Fayre, I know without a doubt that this is the beginning of the end of my nightmare.

Then…there is that minute percentage of people (including myself) that do a bit more digging around.  And it doesn’t take long before you uncover an effective “underground” network of websites that are solely dedicated to this craft.

Underground might seem like a rather strong word, but it really is.  You could browse the web, your usual websites looking for videos, information, friends…whatever, and never realise that this thing called Internet Marketing actually exists.

Right now, there are thousands of men and women (kids too) quietly making money online from promoting products, services or offers to you, the buying public without you realising it.

Is this a bad thing? No, of course it isn’t bad.  It certainly falls into the category of weird, unusual or scarcely known, but certainly not “bad”.

So what is Internet Marketing, and how does it work?

Well, the basic premise is simple to comprehend for the majority, and it goes a little something like this;

Create a website/blog/some-other-internet-page
THEN
Find a product to promote on it that pays you a commission for each sale
THEN
Send visitors to your website that are interested in your product
Visitor buys the product
THEN
You make money

Nothing complex about the overall mechanics of it.  And you see it everywhere, and I mean EVERYWHERE!

Website adverts (e.g. SKY, LoveFilm.com)- the sites that display those banners get paid when someone signs up after clicking the banner

Text ads – People click those ads, google pays you for that click (yes, seriously)

Self Help Websites – The product being promoted when it sells, makes the website owner money.

These are 3 very basic examples of how you can make money online by doing Internet Marketing.

What I’m going to focus on in this blog (for now anyway) is what is called Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate Marketing is where you find a product to promote that you can make a commision on, promote that product and make some money.

The product you choose to promote can be from a variety of sources, but there is one source that I have made a few hundred dollars on over the last few years that satisfy the following criteria;

• They have been in existence since 1998 (so they’re established)
• They have paid out in excess of $1.86 BILLION in commissions to affiliates
• They have one of the largest selections of products to promote covering all kinds of topics and categories
• They are making thousands of people 10, 100, 1000′s of dollars per day (and that is FACT)

Tomorrow, we will see who this company is, how you can get involved with them and go over the next steps of how you can get into Internet Marketing for yourself!

It’s coming up for 1.14am here in the UK, I’ve had a long but enjoyable family day and was about to skip typing this until tomorrow, then I realised that I had made a vow to myself and anyone who is kind enough to be reading this to do a post every day to give you an overview of Internet Marketing, specifically affiliate marketing.

We touched on this in one of my previous posts, but as a summary affiliate marketing is where you find a product to promote, drive internet visitors to a page on your site with that product, make a sale and make some cash.

I said I would reveal the source of not only what I class as the best digital products available, but a range so vast, you can find a product to suit anyone’s taste and budget.

To recap:

• They have been in existence since 1998 (so they’re established)
• They have paid out in excess of $1.86 BILLION in commissions to affiliates
• They have one of the largest selections of products to promote covering all kinds of topics and categories
• They are making thousands of people 10, 100, 1000′s of dollars per day (and that is FACT)

I am of course talking about ClickBank

What is CLICKBANK?

The CLICKBANK “marketplace” is absolutely overflowing with products fit for anyone.
The beauty of CLICKBANK is that all the products are in downloadable format. Put simply when someone buys from CLICKBANK, they don’t need to wait for it in the mail, pay delivery etc.
The product download link is sent straight to the buyer once payment has cleared, so it’s fast, super convenient and above all else, it’s 100% safe and secure.

What can you buy on CLICKBANK?

From courses to learn Internet Marketing, to a home bakery subscription, to hollistic healing methods…EVERY possible taste and “want” has a product to match a potential buyer.

How can you use CLICKBANK to start making some cash?

Well, I’ll be posting a video in the next few days to give you an overview of what you need to do, but follow these basic rules and you should be setting yourself up for a winning situation:

• Take your time finding a product. Your potential customers aren’t going to disappear overnight. Make sure you pick a product you think would sell well, seems well priced for what it is, has testimonials etc.
• Find a product that you feel passionate about promoting. If you’re a “techie” at heart, then promoting knitting patterns or recipes might be a bad idea
• Use your existing knowledge to your advantage. If you’re a computer technician, promote PC software. If you’re a joiner, promote some DIY video course. If you can relate to the product from a consumer point of view then you’re more than half way there
• Pick a product you will be able to write about. This is a VERY important piece of the puzzle. Writing website content about a product you are enthusiastic about is much easier than writing about something you couldn’t give a monkeys about.

So here are your next steps to do after reading this (I will do a video on these steps if you prefer to wait for that)

1. Visit http://www.clickbank.com
2. Top right of that page, there is a link “Sign Up”, click it
3. Put all your information into the boxes
4. Choose an “Account Nickname” (should be something you can remember, but NOT information directly identifying who you are)
5. Read and agree to the terms & conditions (advisable)
6. Done!

Picking a Product from the CLICKBANK Marketplace

Click the “Marketplace” link at the top of the page, this will present you with all the different categories of programs you can promote.

We will dig more into this later, but have a browse around and see if anything takes your interest.

Until tomorrow,

Paul.

For those not in Scotland, Gala day is a celebration where everyone in the particular town or city puts their differences aside, gets together to celebrate their community.

There’s a parade, banners, music, bands…all good stuff and it really does instill a community spirit in everyone there.

Over the years due to the recession and other “distractions”, funding for the Gala has plummeted so this year we were treated to a 20 minute parade, consisting of people, 2 bands, a fire engine and a clown sitting on a full sized couch that was controlled by a joypad (looked quite cool actually).

But before all that happened, I was in the house with my son, he sat happily watching Disney Junior while I tidied the house up (it just seems to get messy by itself, it’s insane).

I went to check my email using my Nokia N97 and to my dismay it locked up.  So switched it off and on again, same problem.  Decided to backup the settings AGAIN and reflashed it.

It seemed to be working fine now, so I got my son ready and we headed out the door.  It was one of those rare times I didn’t have my laptop with me as I knew I wouldn’t have a chance to sit at the Clippies restaurant and get any work done, it would just be far too busy.

It was only after we got there that I went to check my email (again), and post some facebook updates.  My face cracked when I unlocked the phone.  I was greeted by a default screen layout which was fine.  but there were NO apps installed, I had NO contacts/emails/entries available.  I had forgotten to restore my stuff to the phone before leaving the house.

And of course sods law, I had no laptop, no phone cable so I was well and truly stuck for the rest of the afternoon receiving text messages and phonecalls from god knows who, not much fun and a lesson definately learned.

Went home with the wee man for a few hours after the parade had finished to get “out of the way”, went to the park for half and hour then headed home for some rest, I didn’t actually get any but the plan was certainly there to do so.  This just happened to be one of those rare days where my son was full of energy and I was knackered.  Actually what am I saying…he’s ALWAYS full of energy and I’m always knackered

Then later on we headed back to the Clippies Fayre to get some dinner.  For the first time I decided to try the tagliatelle with a cheese and white wine sauce, was delicious.

Then eventually came back to the house as a family, wee man went to his bed for “baw baws” and we sat and watched Michael McIntyres Comedy Roadshow.

And now I’ve just spent the last 25-30 minutes typing this not because I want to bore you to death with my “average day”, but I wanted to show you that I’m just an average guy who’s making a solid go at Internet Marketing.

I do all the usual stuff that most married guys do.  I spend time with my son, I do the housework, pay the bills and all the rest of it.

Perhaps what I’m trying to say is that I’m no member of MENSA, I’m not from a privelaged background or hold a University degree.

If I can just get it through to you that what I’m doing is something that anyone can do if they just BELIEVE that they can do it and actually DO it instead of just thinking they can do it.

It’s now 2am, time to check my email, update facebook and then time for bed.

Night night.

If you’ve read many blogs or “howto’s” when it comes to CLICKBANK, the above title may seem a little strange to you.
Most marketers (and I do mean most) tend to aim for the “me me me” angle, make as much money as they can without bothering to pay attention to the needs and wants of their intended customers.  This seems strange to me because at the end of the day it’s a very simple equation

CUSTOMERS => BUYERS => MONEY – It’s the same with most business models.  But do you know of any businesses on the web or “brick and mortar” types that sell crap to their customers?
I know of a few that do the latter, and the outcome is always the same.

• High level of complaints
• High level of refunds
• No repeat business

Do you really want to start up and run a business based on lies?

If we served rubbish food at our family restaurant, we may get a couple or a family to eat and pay for their meal once, but I bet any money that they would never return for seconds!

So where does this fit into the arena of selling online, especially through CLICKBANK?
Well it’s very simple, each product on CLICKBANK that you choose to promote comes with certain “conditions of sale” that you are tied into.
One of these caveats is that regardless of HOW or WHO you’ve sold to, they are entitled to get a FULL refund of any purchase from CLICKBANK.

So if you make an affiliate commission of say $25 for a product you have sold using dishonest or manipulative means, there’s a high chance that buyer will hit the refund button and BOOM, your $25 commission disappears too.

So what is the lesson I’m trying to teach here?

Sell honestly online, don’t mislead or “trick” your customer into becoming a buyer for the sake of one sale.
Offer them the product that they are wanting to buy, offer them value for money if possible.  Be an honest seller, and you will find your customers coming back to your site to buy your products and services.

Ok, now we’re going to get into some of the “meat” of Internet Marketing…profitable products on CLICKBANK

My videos to accompany this series of Internet Marketing introductory lessons are having to sit on the back burner for the time being, so apologies for that.  You’ll just have to read my text for now

Ok, to the lesson.

CLICKBANK is stuffed full of products to promote, but one of the keys to being a successful CLICKBANK affiliate is learning which ones sell well, and turn a handsome commission.

So our first stop is the CLICKBANK Marketplace which you can find here

Once you’ve hit the marketplace, there are a whole host of different Categories listed to the left.

For  this example (and because it is my area of expertise) I am going to pick the Computers/Internet category

Once we go into the category, we will be shown the top products for that category as seen below.

At the time of writing this, the top product in the category is a Registry Cleaner called WiseFixer.

Now I have illustrated below what all the different points mean within the product description (and for those viewing without graphics), we’re sticking with one-off purchases here, we will cover “rebills” later on.

• Initial / Avg $/sale: This is the average amount that you as an affiliate will earn for each individual sale of this particular product.
• Avg %/sale: This number shows the average commission rate you will earn for each sale of the product.
• Grav: This is the most confusing stat inside the CLICKBANK marketplace.  It stands for GRAVITY and is a secretly calculated performance statistic, taking into account the number of different affiliates who earned any sort of commission by promoting this product over the last 12 weeks. The more recent a sale, the higher the numeric value, this number can give you an idea of what products are “hot” at the moment, in terms of being promoted by many affiliates and making a good number of sales. If gravity is too high (200+) you are picking a product for a VERY competitive marketplace (good and bad points, more later)
• Cat: The Marketplace category and sub-category of the site.

Ok that was a lot to take in, just take in as much as you can and come back to my post later, it isn’t going to disappear.

So taking into account the above, here is what we know about WiseFixer Registry Cleaner.

• It has an initial sale price of $39.74
• You earn 75% of this as a commision, so you earn $29.81 per sale
• The Gravity of this product is 44.08 – this shows it is selling and is not really a competitive product to promote (“promoting” it to buyers is a different story)
• It is in the category Computers / Internet and is listed as Software

That wasn’t too painful was it?

Once I get the videos up this will become a lot clearer, but if you have questions then email me, I’ll be glad to help you out!

So let’s recap what we’ve covered today.

• We’ve found out how to browse the CLICKBANK marketplace
• We’ve browsed the different categories available to aid product selection
• We’ve covered what all the different stats below the product mean

Tomorrow, you will discover how you actually go about promoting the product, how to make a sale “your own” to get the commission and some tips on how to do this a lot quicker than normal.

Until then!

1. We’re going to look at the product you have picked on CLICKBANK and how to do the following with it;

• Find out what on earth a “hoplink” is
• Create your “hoplink” to ensure YOU get the commission

By the end of this lesson, you should know the following information;

• Know what a hoplink is
• Know exactly how to create a hoplink

Right, let’s get started.

What is a hyperlink?

If you’re not familar with the term of hyperlink, a hyperlink is the underlined blue text you see on every website that when clicked, takes you to another page or website on the internet.

Example 1 : this is a hyperlink (Clicking it will just reload the page so click it if you feel compelled to do so

Example 2: http://www.google.co.uk (Clicking on this will open Google in a new window)

What is a CLICKBANK Hoplink?

A clickbank hoplink is a special hyperlink that you need to use when promoting a CLICKBANK product.

Using a hoplink ensures that when you get a buyer to purchase a CLICKBANK product from your website only YOU will get the commission for the sale.

Get it wrong, and you make no commission at all.

Creating a hoplink for a CLICKBANK product

Ok, so here are the steps to create the CLICKBANK hoplink for promoting your product.
(I’m going to stick with the WiseFixer product from Day 4 for this example)

Ok so we Login to CLICKBANK with our newly created account from a few days back
(review day 3 if you haven’t done this part yet)

Click “Marketplace” top right of the screen (as below)

Once in the Marketplace, in the categories list, we click “Computers/Internet”
In the list in the middle of the screen, we see the product WiseFixer

To the lower right of this, there is a green button labeled “Promote”, clicking this button will pop a window as shown below

Once the popup window appears, this is where you enter your CLICKBANK nickname as shown below

So, once you’ve entered your nickname, click on the “Create” button to create your CLICKBANK product hoplink, copy this text as I’ve highlighted in the red box below to a safe place (notepad for example)

That’s all for today, you should now have a hoplink for your product saved in a safe place on your computer

Tomorrow, we’re going to take a look at the Affiliate area of your chosen product which will should be stuffed full of marketing material that will supercharge your sales once everything’s in place!

The truth is, I’m having such a damn good time away from it all, I just haven’t had the time nor inclination to do any updates this week.

And I think it’s important to always remember that if you have a good work/life balance, then you can be a lot more relaxed in life, and a lot more productive at work.
When you start bogging yourself down with endless sessions in front of the computer, you will eventually get to the stage where you’ve had enough.

And in Internet Marketing, as soon as you throw in the towel, it’s pretty hard to pick it back up again, at least it was for me.
So I intend to enjoy the last few days we’re spending down in Edington, Somerset before driving the 470 miles back up the road to our home in Scotland.

But believe me, when I do get back to my work, you’re all going to benefit from plenty of articles, videos and how tos in order for you to crack this “Internet Marketing” thing wide open!

Until then, peace!