As you probably know, LeadsLeap has just moved to a more powerful server.

And the reason to move the server now is because of the tool we’re launching today - LeadsLeap SlideSense

It’s a powerful advertising tool. You should have seen it in action by now.

Yes, it’s the little animation that bounce up from the bottom of this page.

What Can SlideSense Do?

If you run a blog or website, and you want to get people to opt-in to your list or simply look at your new offer, what do you do?

A typical trick is to setup a popup window. But as you know, popup is losing its effectiveness. More and more people are closing popups the moment they see it.

The solution? SlideSense.

You can use SlideSense for opt-in purpose or simply as a text ad. Here’s the demo:

Text-ad SlideSense | Opt-in SlideSense

Honestly, I didn’t come out with this idea. I first saw this animation on other people’s blog and I thought it was a great idea. So I got my programmer to design a similar one, adding some improvements here and there, and make it available to you.

(I later realized that similar tool is available for sale at USD67. Anyway, you don’t have to spend a dime. It’s free for LeadsLeap members! In fact, our version is much better in terms of browser compatibility, especially for internet explorer.)

Developing this tool was not easy. It took us 4 months to perfect every little detail. In fact, I threw away the first prototype because it was built on a specific js framework (for the non-techie, it means certain websites may have problem using this animation).

What you are seeing and using now is the second build. It was a complete rewrite of the first version.

I’m telling you all these because I hope that you can appreciate this tool.

Something To Brag About SlideSense

1) It’s easy to set up

Absolutely no script to install. If you can set up Google Adsense, you can set up SlideSense.

2) It’s highly customizable

Almost every component of SlideSense can be customized, from the image, text link , font, opt-in settings and even the animation speed.

You can use it on as many websites as you like, including your own Blogger blog!

How To Add SlideSense To Your Website?

To setup your own SlideSense is very easy.

1) Fill in the setup form here and generate the code.

2) Copy and paste the generated code into any page on your site or blog. For blog, you should put it in the template so that it appears on every page.

That’s all!

Remember to send us a feedback after you’ve played with it!

Today’s discussion is on using Adwords for affiliate marketing. It is my reply to the question from our member, HuiTzy.

I found her question pretty informative and it will relate to many of our members. I’m going to show her question in orange color and my comment or reply in black, so you can follow my train of thought as you go along.

Ready? Let’s start……

Firstly a very quick thanks for all the services you are providing i.e. your blog, product and free coaching.

I am currently setting up Adwords Campaign to drive traffic to affiliate products. My goal now is to “test” which of them are profitable and worth my time to further invest.

Here are my steps,
1. select several related niches eg: how to stop procrastination, how to increase productivity, how to focus. (I am doing this so that when I am going to advance level I can cross promote my list.)

The idea of related niche is good, but if you are a beginner, you may be thinking too big. If I were you, I’ll diversify as much as possible and test different niches from different industries.

Your selection of products to promote should be based on how well they are selling, regardless of whether they are in related niche. A good practice is to go to Clickbank.com > Marketplace and check the gravity rating. For example, if you search for products related to procrastination, most of the gravity ratings are less than 5. You can treat gravity ratings as a measure of how well a product is selling. Popular products usually have a gravity of more than 100. 5 is really way to low.

Instead of thinking of related niches, my advice is to fight a guerilla war, diversity and attack only products that sell well. Don’t think of going to any advance level. Take this chance to brush up your advertising and marketing skills.

2. select two affiliate products or more that I think will sell for each of the niches.

If you are doing a review page, you can promote 2 to 3 similar products at the same time. If you are advertising the products individually, you should treat each product as independent entity and select base on how well they are selling.

For your info, for each product that you test, you are likely to spend up to $100 before you can tell if the product is profitable. If you test 2 products in 5 niches, that’s 10 products in total and it can cost you $1000 to test. If you are mentally and financially unprepared, you chance of giving up prematurely is extremely high.

3. set up adwords campaign for each of the products.
4. track them so that i can know which keyword(s) and product(s) is/are profitable.
5. focus on those profitable products and scale up the sale.

Currently I am in step 3 and I am wondering should I directly link my ads to the sale page or to my own landing page? Based on what I heard, it is always good to link to landing page instead of sale page and landing page is also sort of “pre-sell” page. BUT I just want to so called “test” the market and I don’t want to spend too much time in this step. Only when I know I am able to convert well from that particular product or niche, I will then put all my focus in marketing such as building list, pre-sell, provide incentive etc. So I would like to hear what’s your opinion.

You should use a presell page, in most cases.

Think about it, you are going to invest $100 dollar to advertise for a product, and you are saying that you don’t want to spend too much time doing a pre-sell page?

I would like to focus on something that you said, “Only when I know I am able to convert well from that particular product or niche, I will then put all my focus in marketing such as building list, pre-sell, provide incentive etc.”

You see, if you’ve done your research, you should only promote products that convert well. If the product is not converting for you, it simply means that your marketing technique is inferior.

Imagine this, you advertise a product (that’s proven to convert well), but you don’t get any sales. What are you going to do? Change to another product? Or start preparing a pre-sell page?

The market is competitive. Your competitors are doing all kinds of stunts to get sales. Your job is to come into the market, with better tricks hopefully and compete with other marketers. Before you spend money to advertise, you should go to Google, do a search for the keywords that you are targetting, find out what the other advertisers are doing, see how they lure clicks and promote sales. Next you should come out with better tricks (in your opinion) and test if your better tricks work.

Your testing should be a test of your marketing strategy, not a test of whether a product can sell well.

My questions:
1. Are my steps going to work?

Anything is possible. I don’t dare to say your steps will not work. They are just not what I’ll do.

2. Sale page or landing page? All right to be honest, I have no clue about creating a good landing page. How much time it is going to take and in what format a landing page has to be? Seriously I am not keen to provide a “review” because I didn’t buy the product so I don’t want to crank out a false story to cheat my potential customers.

I think you have to get over this mental block. If you want to be a professional affiliate marketer, it’s your job to promote products and make them sell. Imagine if you are engaged to create a TV commercial for a product, are you going to try out the product and be very happy about it before coming out with an ad that sells? Treat it as a profession. There is nothing evil about it.

Of course, if you feel that a product is a scam or has lots of negative feedbacks, you can choose not to promote it. You do not have to force yourself to promote products that you don’t feel comfortable with. You can be ethical and professional at the same time.

3. If your answer is link to landing page. Could you show me some resources to create content for landing page?

Creating a presell page is not difficult. These two recent articles should be suffice to help you.

How To Write An Affiliate Presale Letter
How To Find Testimonials For Your Presell Page

Last week we discussed how to write an affiliate presell page and one reader asked “how to find testimonials for the presell page”. I thought this is an interesting topic and many of you probably have the same question.

So in today’s blog, let’s discuss the different ways to find testimonials for your presell page….

1) Your own testimonial

There is no doubt that the best testimonial is from your personal experience with the product. You can provide your own proof, such as earning or traffic screenshots, to show the prospects that what you’re promoting is indeed a good product that works.

But if you are promoting hundred and one things, or you’ve just started an online opportunity, it’s almost impossible for you to have your own testimonial. In that case, you need to resort to other creative alternatives.

2) Get from the product seller

I briefly discussed this last week. You can either use testimonials from the product sales page or email the product seller for more testimonials.

Given a choice, it’s better not to use the same testimonials as the ones in the product sales page. The reason is obvious - you don’t want your prospects to see that those testimonials are not independent.

Most product sellers will be happy to facilitate you with more testimonials, with photographs if you request. Some sellers even have a dedicated page that lists down all the testimonials they’ve received. You can select those that are not used in the sales page for your presell page.

3) Get from other product users

Google for “ProductName forum” and you are likely to find people discussing about the product you are promoting.

Users of the product are likely to share their experience with the product. Your job is to gather the positive feedbacks and use them as the ‘independent’ testimonials in your presell page.

Some forums even have moderators reviewing the product. If a moderator gives a thumb up for the product, his review is also a good testimonial that you can use.

4) Get from other affiliate marketers

Google for “ProductName review” and you are likely to find other marketers’ presell pages promoting the same product.

This is a good source for you because they are likely to write a lot of good things about the product.

Some marketers even provide their personal screenshots as proof that the product works. If you find such a presell page, bingo! Borrow their screenshots and quote their testimonials in your presell page.

5) Get video testimonials

Last but not least, search YouTube! Video testimonial is powerful. If you can find someone giving a video testimonial on the product, use it!

How To Make Other People’s Testimonials Look Like Yours, Without Cheating

This article will not be complete without the following discussion.

So far I’ve discussed the different ways to find testimonials for your presell page, and most of them are other people’s testimonials. To increase the conversion rate, you need to make those testimonials look like yours, so as to make the prospects think that you are recommending the product because you’ve benefited from it.

No, you are not going to cheat and claim that those testimonials are yours!

The trick is through the smart use of words.

For example, say if you just manage to find an earning screenshot and 3 other testimonials, you can easily create a presell page with a headline that says “If A 19 Year Old Girl Can Earn $9,285 In One Month Spending Less Than 5 Hours A Week, So Can You. Proof Below……“. Below this headline, show the earning screenshot. Next, say something like “Don’t just believe in me. Check out what my peers are saying about this product….“. List down the 3 testimonials you’ve gathered. Finally, add a link that says something like “Get Your Instant Access To The Same System That We Use”

That’s it. Technically, I never say that I’m the 19 year old girl with the screenshot proof. I also never say that I am making that kind of money. Lastly I didn’t say that I know those people who give the testimonials. But through the smart use of words, I manage to create an impression that I’m that 19 year old girl with that kind of income, having other friends equally benefiting from the product, now highly recommending the product to you.

For those who are advertising as an affiliate, I always advice them to write their own affiliate presale letter instead of advertising the standard sales page prepared by the product owner. There are 3 important reasons why such move is advisable:

1. People believe a 3rd party more than the product owner, even if they don’t know you! Your presale letter is the best tool to deliver your confidence in the product.

2. By not revealing too much about the product in your presale letter, you can increase prospects’ curiosity and they will be more interested to read through the actual sales letter.

3. You have more control over your advertised page. For example, you can build a list, follow up with the prospects and sell them other products. You can also track the click through rate to the sales page and determine if you are advertising to the correct target audience.

The big challenge is, how to write an effective affiliate presale letter?

Below is a simple format that has been working for me……

1) Story telling

A presale letter typically begins with the classic Feel-Felt-Found method which goes something like this… “I understand how you ‘FEEL’…. I was in your position before and I ‘FELT’ the same before…. Now I finally ‘FOUND’ the solution….

That’s only the beginning.

2) Give proof and sell dreams

To make the presale letter more powerful, you have to end the presale letter with 2 things - Proof and Dream.

Proof usually comes in the form of a written or video testimonial, which can easily be copied from the product sales letter.

Painting a dream requires some talent from you. If you are promoting a money making opportunity, post some of your pictures taken from your Europe tour, tell the prospect how your dream has come true.

3) Call to action

Last but not least, if you want to build a list, you will want them to opt-in to your list to get the full report on how you manage to solve the problem. You will only reveal the product that you’re promoting AFTER they’ve opt-in.

If you are not building a list, you can just give them a link to see the solution you’ve found, which is the product you’re promoting.

No Time For Long-Winded Presale Letter? Here’s The Short-Cut

1) Write a powerful headline that stirs curiosity and sells dream. For example, “Discover A Lucrative Alternative To MLM - You Are About To See A Simple Online System That Pulls In Over $21,900 A Month (Proof Below)…”

2) Throw in a few proofs, such as proof of earnings.

3) Throw in a few testimonials (with photographs if possible).

Tips: You can copy the proofs and testimonials from the actual sales letter. If you can get proofs and testimonials from other sources, it’s even better. One trick is to write to the company to ask them for other proofs and testimonials that are not used in the sales page.

4) End with a call to action, such as “Get Your Instant Access Now!”, “Get The Report Now!” and recently, one of my regular advertisers use this - “Click Here For More Testimonials”, which is not a bad idea I thought.