by Harvey Segal
Viral marketing is probably the number one method for generating
traffic and sales - IF it is set up properly.
Take the case of a viral ebook - which means a book that can
be passed from one person to another bringing benefits (profits)
for each party in turn.
How is this achieved ?
The basic concept is that the book contains links to affiliate
products. When a reader of the book makes a purchase from a link
then the affiliate receives the commission.
The creator of such a book will allow some of the links to be
'rebranded' which means a person (who we will refer to as the
rebrander) can replace them with his own affiliate codes thus
collecting commission. This is the obvious incentive for him to
pass the book around and begin the viral progression.
If we want to maximize the benefits for everyone and create
the perfect viral ebook we need to have THREE key factors in place.
1) Wide Distribution
There are many permutations in the ways that you can offer an
ebook. It can be free or paid, and for either option you can charge
for rebranding or offer it free; plus you can have part customization
or full customization. On top of that, for a paid book you can
offer resale rights and even the right to grant resale rights.
Let's keep it simple. What we want is the widest possible distribution
so that we get the most commission from the affiliate links.
So we will have a FREE book and FREE rebranding rights.
2) Quality Affiliate Links
It goes without saying that your book should contain good content
on a topic of interest.
But will readers click on those affiliate links ?
The answer is 'NO' if you copy the poor example of many authors,
for instance:
- have you ever opened an ebook and been faced with a barrage
of affiliate links?
- or seen affiliate products which have nothing to do with the
theme of the book? For example in a book about hypnotism you get
a link to a web hosting company.
So what is the best way?
The secret is to have highly relevant links and weave them naturally
into the content in a low key style without appearing to push
for a sale. So when you discuss a particular topic and want to
show where more detail can be found, or how a particular problem
can be solved, that's where you can mention the affiliate product
as a source of further information. If you want to see really
good examples of how to do this read the free book at the end
of this article.
See - that last sentence was an ACTUAL working example of how
to weave in a link.
3) Maximum Return For Both Parties
You need to get the rebranding balance right.
If you give away an ebook and allow all the affiliate links
to be rebranded that is a great deal for the rebrander - but what
do you get out of it ? No affiliate commission, just subscribers
maybe for your mailing list if you have a sign-up form in the
book.
Conversely if you hand out only a few affiliate links for rebranding
then that provides little incentive for the rebrander to distribute
the book.
Ideally what you want is the maximum motivation for your rebrander
which would be
* to allow free rebranding * to allow ALL the links to be rebranded
but in a way that you can still benefit.
Can that be possible ?
Fortunately it is, using any of 3 different methods
* if the links in the book are for your own products
* If the links are for products for which you have resale rights
* If the links are for 2-tier affiliate programs so that you
collect the 2nd tier commission when a rebrander, who has signed
up under you, makes a sale
And so, if you use these techniques you can begin a viral marketing
campaign which will continue to generate traffic and sales with
little on-going effort on your part.
EXCEPT for two issues we need to resolve
1) What happens if everyone rebrands the book and only makes
purchases from their own copy?
Well, I have found that in practise only a minority (say 10%)
will take the time to rebrand a book which means that the majority
(90%) will be reading your book and purchasing from YOUR links.
So there's no problem here.
2) Suppose you plan to produce a viral book. It's about a popular
topic - so it's bound to have a wide circulation - but you can't
find any of the three types of suitable links to put in the book,
i.e. links to a product of your own, to products with resale rights
or for 2-tier affiliate programs.
Is there a solution?
There is and you can find out the answer in my book "101 SuperTips"
- it's actually tip 100.
As you might expect this book is free, with valuable information
linking to highly relevant products, and you can rebrand it, again
for free.
By all the rules above it's a candidate, I hope you agree, for
'the perfect viral ebook' and a profitable source of revenue for
you.
=======================================================
Harvey is the author of several viral ebooks including 101 SuperTips,
a collection of unique Internet Marketing tips, which you can
collect at http://www.supertips.com/101/
As a further example of viral marketing you can reproduce this
article and change the URL to point to your own rebranded version.
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