Launching my first product, how to make it big time?

[Harneet Bhalla]

Hi All,

I am almost on the way of launching my first premium eBook in the market. And I want it to generate sales big time?

Can anyone please tell me how to attract more people to promote it for me? Or any other way I should proceed?


I have decided to keep the eBook price to $30 and giving 50% commission to affiliates i.e. $15

Thanks in Advance.

[Jay Garces Jr]

The key to making big time sales is having tons of affiliate and jv partners...

and the key(s) to getting tons of affiliate and jv partners is building relationships and having a high quality product. :)

Where do you plan on launching? If on Clickbank, you may not get the results you might want (or expect); especially if you aren't well known.

JV Zoo and W+ may be better platforms for a first-time launch. If you're willing to give 100% on the front-end product and 50% (or more) on the back-end, then you can increase your chances of success - especially if you have a kick-butt product. You won't make a lot of money up front this way; but you'll be building your credibility and reputation. And if your product sells well - your affiliates will remember you :)

[Felix Leech]

Yeah I was going to say offer 75%, especially if you sell on Clickbank - it's kind of become the standard there now. Remember higher commission leads to more affiliates, more sales and ultimately more profit, even if the payout per sale is lower.

Anyway good luck Harneet,

Felix

[Susan Martin]

Sorry, newbie here, what do you mean by 100% on the front end and 50% on the back end?

[Shane Boyd]

Hey Harneet,

I noticed that your launch date has come and gone. Would you mind filling us in the details? Was it a HUGE success, moderate success or mediocre success? Keep in mind...even if you sold only ONE book, it was a success. I was just curious because I have a launch happening soon as well.

All the best,

Cheers!

Shane

[Felix Leech]

Sorry, newbie here, what do you mean by 100% on the front end and 50% on the back end?

Hi Susan,

I believe it means you get 100% of the money the customer pays when they buy the initial product through your link, then 50% for each upgrade / related product they buy. Hope this helps.

Best,

Felix

[Rob Toth]

If this is your first product, your focus should be on sales not profits.

What you want is (1) exposure/branding (2) leads (3) ***BUYERS (4) affiliates .

I'd increase the price, do a split pay on it $39.95 but then they exit it's $19.95 x 2 and pay 100% commissions to affiliates.

I'd include an upsell and give affiliates 80% on that too.

And then I'd award bonus commissions for affiliates who meet X sales (ie: milestone based bonuses).

In the process.... (this being my first product), I'd establish a very valuable name for myself and my (upcoming) product lines, I'd gain a lot of subscribers. More importantly, I'd gain a buyers database and Affiliate partners for future easy and very profitable launches.

Keep in mind that with affiliate leaks, word of mouth etc you'd still turn a bit of a profit. Though I'd use that money to then start running some cold paid-ads to my offer so I can start improving my cold traffic conversions which is the ONLY truely dependable and scalable way to build a business. JVs and affiliates are terrific but offer no consistency/predictability.

On a sidenote, 50% comm is very low for a digital product and $15 is hard to entice any B-rank affiliates, let alone the A-rank guys.

All you'd get is C and D rank affiliates (in terms of experience and distribution ability).

[Rob Toth]

100% front end / 50% backend means you'd need a front-end product (meaning, your book) but followed by an upsell for those bought your book (that's the 'back-end").

That model is likely the simplest funnel and a great baseline to start from.

Trying to sell just one product (front end) is often a lost cause.

Adding on an upsell makes it a degree more attractive for affiliates and gives you an additional opportunity to buy paid ads and not lose your shirt on it.

[Steven Wade]

Milestone-based bonuses are really neat -- thanks for the idea. Also never thought of the cold paid-ads angle.

I do disagree on there being no predictability -- that's like anything else. After the big one I'd assume most vendors that are successful on their first launch get lazy fat off the success and tone down their affiliate attraction/marketing efforts and therefore the number of new affiliates every month drops, creating that seeming inconsistency.

[Drew Stegman]

Hey Harneet,

First post here, but I've been internet marketing for a couple of years and I have a basic level of experience...

If you want your product to be successful, you must be actively building an army of affiliates. Affiliates aren't going to come crawling after your product unless you give them a reason to promote. This is especially true with the big fish, since they typically only promote what will make them a lot of money.

It will be very, very, difficult to create a successful product on Clickbank unless you have an active army of affiliates promoting or your own untapped traffic sources that you're using to make sales yourself.

But if you're looking to build a huge army of affiliates...

You have to give them a REASON to promote.

There are already thousands of products in the Clickbank marketplace, so what's gonna separate yours from the rest? It all boils down to a few basic principles...

(a) Provide tools for your affiliates - This makes their life much easier and it makes your product seem much more attractive to them. When all affiliates have to do is visit your affiliate page and use some of the tools there, they'll be much more likely to promote. Coffee Shop Millionaire is a very successful product on Clickbank and they have a full blown affiliate center you can check out at affiliates.coffeeshopmillionaire.com as an example. If you have a WordPress blog, you can install a free plugin called 'WordPress Affiliate Resources Page' to create your own affiliate center (search for it on Google).

Provide banner ads, email swipes, solo ads, PPC ads, blog articles, and anything else you think would make your affiliates lives easier.

(b) High Average Sale - You mentioned above that you're offering 50% commission. This would not necessarily be a bad thing if you were selling your product for more, but considering that Clickbank takes 7.5% of the sale + $1 it really boils down to less than that, which will turn a lot of affiliates off in the beginning.

Because you're only charging $30 for your eBook, offer 75% commission. Then, add some upsells in the backend and maybe even some recurring commissions to increase your average sale and attract more affiliates. You tell me... if a super affiliate has a choice to promote a product with or without upsells and recurring billing, which are they most likely to promote? Not to mention, most super affiliates (the affiliates that will make about 98% of your sales) will only promote a product if they can make a decent amount of money off it and by adding recurring billing/upsells and increasing your commission rate to 75% you're making your product look much more attractive to a lot of affiliates right off the bat.

(c) Product description geared towards affiliates, not customers - This is a HUGE mistake most Clickbank product vendors make. How many customers actually go into the Clickbank marketplace and buy a product directly? Not that many. Now how many affiliates are actively searching for products to promote in the Clickbank marketplace? A LOT more.

You need to gear your product description towards affiliates, explaining why they should promote and how it would benefit them. Provide a link in your product description back to your affiliate tools. Explain to them how you offer high commission rates, your product converts like crazy and how it will make them rich and successful. If you look at the top products on Clickbank, almost all of them have descriptions geared towards affiliates, not customers.

[devesh dave]

Hey there,

you just adviced to use wordpress Affiliate Resources Page but when I tried to find it on wordpress, it is nowhere to be found man,

Can provide some more info about it??

[Martin Sheridan]

If this is your first product, your focus should be on sales not profits.

What you want is (1) exposure/branding (2) leads (3) ***BUYERS (4) affiliates .

I'd increase the price, do a split pay on it $39.95 but then they exit it's $19.95 x 2 and pay 100% commissions to affiliates.

I'd include an upsell and give affiliates 80% on that too.

And then I'd award bonus commissions for affiliates who meet X sales (ie: milestone based bonuses).

In the process.... (this being my first product), I'd establish a very valuable name for myself and my (upcoming) product lines, I'd gain a lot of subscribers. More importantly, I'd gain a buyers database and Affiliate partners for future easy and very profitable launches.

Keep in mind that with affiliate leaks, word of mouth etc you'd still turn a bit of a profit. Though I'd use that money to then start running some cold paid-ads to my offer so I can start improving my cold traffic conversions which is the ONLY truely dependable and scalable way to build a business. JVs and affiliates are terrific but offer no consistency/predictability.

On a sidenote, 50% comm is very low for a digital product and $15 is hard to entice any B-rank affiliates, let alone the A-rank guys.

All you'd get is C and D rank affiliates (in terms of experience and distribution ability).

Hi Rob,

great post on how to attract the different ranking affiliates - common sense, but sometimes these things aren't that obvious to us newbies - thanks again!

I've just finished creating my new product and am wondering if you can give me any advice on how to create an effective funnel. The goal is to roll out for weight-loss season in January.

For example, for an upsell or downsell do I just select an affiliate product such as a weight loss site membership? If I'm selling my front end product for $49, do I choose a product with a lower or higher price for the upsell/downsell?

Appreciate any advice - thanks mate!

[Asif Aziz]

The best way to gain exposure for your product first time round are:

- Gain affiliates. Have great affiliates tools page which makes it easy for the affiliate to promote your product. Join a big Affiliate network like ClickBank or JVZoo.
- Launch your product on WSO (& also WPlus)
- Write a 500-1000 word article on what you learnt during your product creation & how it will solve a problem for folk in your niche.. Approach big blog owners who have popular blogs & ask if they will allow your unique article to be published (don't publish the same article to multiple blogs!)
- Join blog comments & forums which pertain to the niche that your product is also in. Take the role of the helpful expert & offer advice & help to solve common problems in your niche.. (make sure you have your link to your product in the signature section - but do not openly refer to this link during your comments or messages. Only offer free, helpful advice!)

That should get you started. :)

Az

[Mark Tandan]

To be fair I honestly think with your first product launch you should have reasonable expectations. First, you've taken a huge step by creating a product. But to hinge your success merely on it going 'big time' can lead to disappointment. I've seen it happen many times.
A first launch is about introducing your name to the market - to both jvs and customers. And it will build you a list, that you'll be able to promote future product launches to. Often the 'big launch' happens 2, 3 or even more products down the road, because by then you'll have a bigger list yourself and affiliates on board.

Also, I quite agree on 100% commissions to affiliates on the front end if you want to attract them in numbers. The profits can be had on the upsell and later on in the funnel and email marketing.

Be patient, congratulate yourself on getting a product out there, and go out and do it again!

[Felix Leech]

This brings up a good point, how do you offer 100% commissions with Clickbank? Is there an option in the console? What do you folks do?


Cheers & word up to all for some very useful posts

Felix

[vaduva darius]

When I launched my first product I hardly understood what I was doing. And I was having quite some big hopes. But it turned out that I only sold 4 copies over a 3 months time span. I was pretty upset and I am now happy that it was a lame product, because it made me start to slowly understand what I was doing wrong ( everything ).

There is also a difference between what successful means when you launch your first product and what will successful mean later on.

Anyway, these days, there is a lot more info available on how to successfully launch your first product, and if you will follow the steps you will make it.

I understood, over the years, that without already having an affiliate database, your product launch has 99% chances of failing.

Mainly, before creating a product, a vendor must first understand how to sell the product himself ( who is the customer and how will the customers get to your business --> traffic) without the help of jv partners or affiliates.

Create product. Be sure to have a quality product, this way you will have less refunds ( more money ) and also because most of the people will identify you with your product....When creating the product, check the competition.See what you can do better or cover more of your customer's needs.

Next, attract jv partners and affiliates, not by showing them your product but by actually showing them that you are worth their time and money.

By now, the product should already have a body and a soul and voila, a successful launch!

Darius