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CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION – WHAT IS CLICKBANK AND WHAT CAN IT DO FOR YOU?

1. CREATING A DIGITAL BOOK
1.2 Choosing A Topic
1.3 Planning Your Book
1.4 Hiring A Ghostwriter
1.5 Setting A Price
1.6 Creating Recurring Sales

2. SELLING ON CLICKBANK
2.1 Creating Your Marketplace Description
2.2 The Pitch Page
2.3 The Thank You Page
2.4 Getting More Out Of Affiliates

3. BECOMING A CLICKBANK AFFILIATE
3.1 Who Can Benefit From ClickBank’s Affiliate Products?
3.2 Picking The Right ClickBank Products To Promote
3.3 Promoting Your Affiliate Product

CONCLUSION

INTRODUCTION – WHAT IS CLICKBANK AND WHAT CAN IT DO FOR YOU?

The Internet has opened up business in all sorts of ways.

It costs nothing to start a website.

Anyone can write a blog.

Putting ads on your pages takes minutes and requires no selling, no effort and almost no work at all.

And the revenues can be fantastic.

Millions of people have joined the Internet business revolution and have either swapped their day job for days of writing articles, or are enjoying some useful extra money with a hobby they love.

But earning on the Internet isn’t limited to ad clicks and free content.

Some of the most popular goods bought and sold online are digital information goods.

These are items that you can’t find in stores and which can only downloaded from the Internet. They might include software but usually they’re ebooks and newsletters.

The advantage for the buyer is that he doesn’t even have to leave his house and drive down to the bookstore to buy them. Nor does he have to wait for an online store to process his order, stick the package in the mail and for the mail carrier to deliver before he can receive his purchase.

With a digital information product, a customer can buy what he wants from his living room and receive it immediately.

That’s a huge benefit. And for the creators of the products, building them is simple, marketing them is easy and once your system is up and running, you can sit back and leave the money to come in all by itself.

That’s really the biggest benefit of information products like these. They can create a passive revenue stream that continues to generate income even while you’re sleeping, watching television, soaking up rays on the beach… or working on your next great idea.

You won’t have to find a retailer, fill your garage with wholesale goods or lay out on expensive production costs in the hope that the sales will recoup your investment.

With digital information products, you just have to create the goods, upload them and take the money when people want to download them.

And the really good news is that you don’t even have to create an information product of your own to benefit from this opportunity.

It’s also possible to take a share of the sales price of other people’s information products by promoting them on your websites.

That’s very simple to do and it can still generate large amounts of passive income without any of the work involved in producing a product yourself.

Whether you choose to sell your own information products though, or promote others’ for a cut of the sales price, there’s one service that’s just invaluable.

ClickBank.com is the place to find digital information products to buy, sell… and to promote.

The site lists thousands of items in a range of different categories, and lets any publisher submit their own products.

For publishers, it means that you already have one good sales outlet for your products.

But it also means that you have access to thousands of affiliate sellers who can’t wait to promote your product for you.

In this report, I’m going to explain how to get the most out of ClickBank.

I’ll start by talking about creating your own information products. That’s where most of the money is and it’s really not as hard as it sounds!

If I can do it, anyone can do it!

I’ll explain how to pick a topic for an ebook, plan your chapters… and hire a ghostwriter if you don’t want to do it yourself. Then it’s almost just a matter of and setting a price and sitting back to enjoy the income.

I say “almost” because while ClickBank is a very powerful marketing tool you have to know how to make the most of it.

Having explained how to create the sorts of products you can sell through the site, I’ll discuss some of the most important marketing strategies you’ll need to employ to generate sales and pick up affiliates.

And finally, I’ll talk about how you can make money selling other people’s products that you can find on ClickBank.

This is how most of ClickBank’s users make their money and there’s no reason why couldn’t join in that bonanza too.

Whether you want to be a producer or a seller, ClickBank is a hugely valuable tool for every online marketer. It’s certainly something you should know about — and use.

Let’s start by creating an ebook…

1. CREATING A DIGITAL BOOK

Many people dream of becoming writers. They love the idea of spending all day turning the stories into their heads into books that people will pay to read.

Very few people ever manage it.

ClickBank won’t help you to do that either.

It won’t turn you into a Nobel prize-winning novelist.

But it can turn you into a writer who gets well-paid for producing manuals that bring real benefits to readers.

In fact, you can expect to make more money for each sale than any top-selling writer ever receives.

That’s one of the amazing things about information products sold online.

Write a book about earning from videography, for example, find a publisher and get it into bookstores, and you might make a buck or two from the $24.95 cover price.

Write the same book and put it on ClickBank and you can charge $50 and receive over 90 percent of the sales price.

It’s a huge difference, and it’s having a real effect on anyone considering turning what they know into a product that can help others.

And it’s the help the book brings to others that’s the point. Selling ebooks is never about the product. It’s about what the product can do for the people who buy it.

That’s why anyone can be an author.

Everyone has access to some specialized knowledge that other people want to know… and would pay to know.

If you’re a doctor, you’ve got plenty of knowledge about staying healthy that other people would love to enjoy too.

If you’re a top-selling insurance agent, you’ve got all sorts of sales strategies that business owners would love to hear about.

If you collect model railways, every other model railway enthusiast would want to know where you buy your trains and how you keep them running.

If you have information that other people want to know and everyone has information like this then you can create a book that can pick up sales on ClickBank.

1.2 Choosing A Topic

ClickBank offers publishers a broad range of categories.

Traditional publishing is a difficult business. Publishers have to pay an advance to their writers. They have to pay the printers, the graphic designers, the editors and the transportation costs involved in getting the books to the stores.

And then they have to find ways to persuade the stores to put their books in places where buyers are likely to see them.

Most books don’t make those costs back. Publishers hope to fund them by producing the odd blockbuster that covers the expenses of all the loss leaders.

That means that publishers are very choosy about the books that they agree to take on. They want to be sure that each book will generate enough sales to cover their expenses, and they want to keep their list of loss-making publications to a minimum.

The result is that publishers tend to focus on a few topics that they’re reasonably confident will make money.

ClickBank works in a very different way.

It makes no difference to ClickBank whether it’s offering a hundred books or a million. It doesn’t matter whether those books are explaining the secret to working the money markets or teaching people how to knit a sweater their grandchildren will love.

It doesn’t even matter to ClickBank if those books never sell a copy, and if no book it offers ever receives more than three downloads each.

That’s because it doesn’t cost ClickBank a penny to offer products on its site. It doesn’t have to shell out for printing costs or any other up-front fees.

All it has to do is offer a list of products that affiliates might want to sell and give those affiliates a way of getting paid for them.

That hardly costs a thing and it means that Clickbank has no reason to say no to any book because it doesn’t think the topic will sell.

In theory then, you could write a book on any subject you can think of, place it on ClickBank and earn from it.

In practice though, what you’ll find is that there are far more books on ClickBank that promise to make you rich than there are books that promise to keep you nice and warm in a hand-knitted sweater.

There’s a very good reason for that. If you’re asking someone to fork out $25 for a book, they’ll expect to be informed and entertained. If you’re asking them to fork out $50 for a book, they’ll expect their money back…

That’s a much easier expectation to meet if the book explains how to make a fortune selling lemonade from your garage, or how to work two hours a day outsourcing everything you do to a team of beavers in Burkina Faso.

It’s not too hard to justify charging $50 or more for products like these.

A book like this is certainly one option and anyone can write it. All you have to do is think about how what you know could help someone else earn some money.

So if you coached a junior soccer team, you could write a book explaining how to set up a business selling sports equipment.

All you’d have to do is describe what you know about the companies you deal with every week. If you love cooking, you could write a book explaining how to sell recipes, market cakes or become a personal chef. And if you’re an insurance agent, a financial analyst or a Realtor, you shouldn’t have any problem at all coming up with a book idea that promises to make people money.

But that doesn’t mean you should. Books like these are a crowded market. You have to be able to persuade people that you really can deliver the results your book promises and you have to persuade them that it’s worth $50 or whatever you’re planning to charge for it.

The Web is full of books that promise to make people rich, so you’ll need an excellent landing page to stand out, build trust and generate sales. They’re not for everyone. An alternative option then is just to create a book that teaches people to do something that you know… and other people would like to know. That could be a book about soccer coaching techniques.

It could be a book about cooking Creole food. And it could be a book about home decoration, knitting or absolutely anything else. You might not be able to charge $50 for books like these but with the right marketing, you might sell more copies at a lower price and generate more profits overall. Most importantly, if they’re topics you enjoy, they should be more fun to write… which would make them more fun to read too.

When you come to choose a topic to write then, you can either opt for a business-style book which will require hard marketing and tricky sales writing or you can go for something less commercial but more fun and could even be equally profitable. That’s a choice that only you can make.

1.3 Planning Your Book

Once you’ve decided on a topic and just about any topic can work the next stage is to decide what you want your ebook to say.

This is actually the most important part of preparing a document and the hardest. Once you’ve got this behind you, the writing will be relatively easy.

Fortunately, there is a way to make the planning easy. You can cheat. Buy two or three books through ClickBank on a topic similar to yours.

You should own them anyway to see what your competitors are doing. Head down to your local Borders, order a giant cappuccino and load up on other books on the topic. Then take a look at the tables of contents in each of those books.

Those are the books’ layouts. Pay attention to the topics each volume covers and how the subjects are organized. Decide which subjects you have to include. There will probably quite a few of those maybe chapters describing the background of your topic or basic steps that everyone needs to know.

Then list the original content that only your book will contain. That should give you all of your chapter headings. You can then fill in the details by sketching sub-headings for each of those chapters too. This sounds like a lot of work, but in practice it isn’t. It’s very simple and shouldn’t take you too long to do at all.

In fact, the degree to which you struggle over the preparation of the book’s layout is a pretty good sign of how good the book will be. If the ideas flow quickly, then that’s a solid indication that you’ve thought about the topic and know it well enough to write about it easily.

If you struggle with the layout, you could well find yourself struggling with the writing too… and maybe even never finishing it.

Planning your book shouldn’t be difficult at all, especially if you take your lead from other books on the topic. But there’s another way shortcut you can take: you can hire someone else to do it for you.

1.4 Hiring A Ghostwriter

Elance is stuffed with writers who can create your information products for you. The biggest advantage of creating and selling digital products is that once the system is up and running, it’s effort-free. With your ebook on ClickBank and affiliates pushing sales for you, you’ll be able to kick back and cash the checks. But you’ll first have to write the ebook and that’s where most of the effort lies.

If you like writing and you’re good at it you can do it yourself. You can set yourself an hour a day, churn out a couple of pages in that time and keep going until your product is done. (The longer the book, the better online, quantity counts but 70 pages of rock-solid information can be enough to generate sales.) Or you can hire a writer and ask a professional to do it for you.

Elance is a good place to look and the writers at ConstantConversions.com could help you too. Be sure to check the reviews and don’t be tempted to go for the lowest bid.

You often get what you pay for when it comes to writing services, so make sure that you choose a writer who’s written on your topic, writes clearly and can deliver on time.

It’s also a good idea to give the writer your layout rather than rely on your hired hand to produce all the concepts for you.

You might not be doing the writing but the ideas should be yours that’s what the public will be paying for.

Finally and most importantly is : calculate how many sales you’ll need to make before you’ve earned back the cost of the ebook.

A good, professional writer can cost several thousand dollars depending on the size of the book, and will probably be your biggest expense. You want to be certain that you’ll get that money back.

1.5 Setting A Price

One of the most important factors in any commercial business is getting the price point of the products right.

With ClickBank for better or worse much of that power is out of your hands. But not all of it, and the power that’s left to you is very important.

It’s very easy to get the pricing wrong, find that you’re not making any sales and dismiss the whole system. That would be a big mistake. The trap is that ClickBank sets limits for the amount you can charge. The lowest you can sell a standard product for is $3 and the highest is usually $50.

When you submit your product for approval, ClickBank will tell you the maximum amount that you can charge.

The temptation then is to charge that amount. That’s not always a good idea. We’ve already seen that some products can be sold at higher prices than others. Just because ClickBank lets you sell your guide to homestyle knitting for $50 doesn’t mean that that’s the price that will maximize your revenues.

You might well find that a much lower price will give you many more sales and many times more profits. This is where a little research comes in handy. Create separate landing pages with different price points and spend a few weeks marketing each one of them.

The text and the sales message will be exactly the same. The only difference between the pages will be the price of the product. (You could use a tool like URLSplit.com to make the marketing easier. This lets you enter a number of different URLs and receive one link in return. When users click that link they’ll be taken to one of those URLs at random.).

You could either sell the book right from that page or announce that the book will be released shortly and take email addresses from people who are interested. Over a short space of time, you should be able to see which of the sales points generates the most revenues overall.

1.6 Creating Recurring Sales

I’ve mentioned that the main advantage of ClickBank’s system is that once your product has been created and affiliates busy promoting it, you can kick back and enjoy the income.

Your affiliates though will be busy. They’ll have to keep bringing in new buyers. Someone who’s bought your ebook once is unlikely to come back and order a second copy. Create a product that has a subscription model however, and you can enjoy repeat sales from every buyer.

Instead of selling one product to one buyer and never seeing them again you’ll be able to continue selling products to people you know are interested in your content.

It’s a fantastic way to generate continuous revenue and get more out of each sale, but it does require a little thought. The first thing you have to consider is that ClickBank has lower maximum prices for rebilling. The top rate for standard products is $50; for subscriptions, it’s $30.

While that can still be a sizable amount of money it’s more than the price of most books in stores you might want to think about creating smaller products rather than complete 100-page ebooks when you’re earning much less for them.

Newsletters can be good solutions, as can a series of short reports on a range of topics in your field.

Remember though, whatever you provide has to offer real value! Buyers will be quick to cancel their subscriptions if they don’t feel they’re getting their money’s worth.

Each time you send them a product, you have to persuade them that their subscription fee was worth paying and is worth paying in the future. That’s only going to happen if your newsletter or reports actually provide information that your readers can use and appreciate.

While offering products like these can be a great way to give yourself a steady revenue stream, they do mean a lot more work. You won’t be able to just upload your product and relax. You’ll have to keep working month after month to deliver the products that your customers expect regularly.

It’s a commitment and you’ll have to know exactly how to keep it. Again, if you’re happy doing the writing yourself, this should be an easy, profitable and enjoyable job. And if you want to outsource the pen-work, all you’ll have to do is pass on the ideas each month to a ghostwriter and make sure that each product is good before it goes out.

Creating your own product to sell through ClickBank isn’t difficult. It requires a little bit of effort and a fair amount of thought but it can be a lot of fun too. The next step though is to market it…

2. SELLING ON CLICKBANK

ClickBank makes very few direct sales itself. It’s not a retailer; it’s a wholesaler.

The sort of people who click through the site looking for products tend not to be end-users. They tend to be other website publishers looking for affiliate products to sell. That makes ClickBank a very powerful tool, and it’s what lies at the heart of the company’s success and the success of the publishers and the product creators who use it.

In the next chapter I’ll explain how you can make the most of ClickBank as an affiliate but first, let’s see how you can make the most of the affiliates on the site when you’re selling your own product.

2.1 Creating Your Marketplace Description

Marketplace descriptions don’t always make the most exciting reading, but why shouldn’t they?

What makes ClickBank so powerful is that it’s just so easy to use. Affiliates who want to promote a product only have to sign up, search the marketplace then paste what ClickBank calls a “hoplink” onto their Web page.

A hoplink is just a fancy name for an affiliate link. (ClickBank calls it a “hoplink” because once users click on it, they “hop” to the seller’s site leaving a trace that allows ClickBank to credit the affiliate and send them a check.)

One difference that marks out hoplinks though is that they take a very simple form. Every hoplink looks like this: http://AFFILIATEID.PUBLISHERID.hop.ClickBank.net/ That’s very simple.

Less simple is creating the text that will persuade someone to paste your hoplink onto their Web page.

You’ll need to complete a number of different fields and do it very carefully.

The first field you might want to complete is your Hoplink Target URL. You’ll only need this if you’re planning to sell more than one product through ClickBank.

Because you only have one publisher ID, to sell multiple products, you’ll need to create one landing page then filter users to the products of their choice. The affiliate will be credited wherever the user goes.

That’s simple enough. But you’ll then need to enter your product’s Marketplace Title. That’s not so easy. Remember, the idea of your Marketplace Title and Description isn’t just to persuade a buyer that your product has value. It’s to persuade a reseller that your product will sell.

Your Marketplace text doesn’t leave you much room to do your selling. For the title, you really only have two options. You can either use the same title that you used for your product or you can use a different title geared to resellers rather than end-users.

In general, if the title of your product is strong and has a good sales appeal (something like “How To Earn $3,647 A Week Printing Postcards”) then use the same title in the Marketplace.

If the title is more informative than lucrative (something like “Knitting For Beginners And Enthusiasts”) then you might want to create a title that’s a little punchier for affiliates.

Just choose something that suggests that the product will be valuable for the person promoting it. Something like “Knitting A Guide To Low-Cost, Home-Made Luxury”

The only way to know for sure which title works best though is to come up with several and test each of them over a set period of time.

Compare the results from each to see which gives you the best results for your market.

There’s a limit to what you can do with your Marketplace Title. Your Marketplace Description is much less limited… but it’s still pretty restrictive.

ClickBank gives you just 255 characters to make your pitch. That’s not much at all, but remember the goal isn’t to sell your product. It’s to persuade an affiliate to look at your pitch page.

It’s the pitch page that will show whether or not your product looks tempting enough to deliver sales. That means you don’t have to do too much in your Marketplace description to generate those clicks… especially when you look at the competition.

Many of the sellers on ClickBank have beautifully-written, perfectly-designed pitch pages. They’re well-planned and created by a professional copywriter with the goal of generating sales.

The Marketplace descriptions however often look like they were thrown together by someone with a big temper and a long shopping list. You don’t have much space, so you want to get your point across quickly and persuasively.

One way to do that is with the equivalent of bullets. This description, for example, does a neat job using numbers to mark out sales points:

• Note how the very first point describes the amount of money the affiliate can earn. That’s the most important thing he wants to know and this description has put it right at the front in a way that’s very easy to spot.
• The second point suggests the product sells well so the affiliate will actually see those commissions.
• And the third point adds a nice little detail that helps the product to stand out and appear both unique and valuable.

It’s a very easy model to copy and one that I think can be very effective.

It’s certainly a lot better than filling the space with a series of single words that tell the affiliate little and are more likely to put him off.

There’s one more difficult decision you’ll have to make on the Marketplace form. You’ll need to decide how much of a commission to give to the affiliates. By default, the rate is set at 25 percent but you can change it if you want.

There’s no right answer to the amount you should give away just as there’s no one answer to the amount you should charge for the product.

Too much depends on what your competitors are doing so look at what other products in your field are offering and pitch somewhere in the middle.

2.2 The Pitch Page

RecipeSecrets.net uses images, headlines and even a sample table of contents to tempt buyers.

One of the most remarkable things about ClickBank is that the most important part of the process of earning with the site doesn’t happen on the site at all.

Whether you make sacks of cash or feel lucky to generate a sale once a month will depend largely on the quality of your product and the persuasive power of your pitch page.

The pitch page is your sales letter. It’s where you place all of the sales points that will guide the reader from interest through desire to purchase.

How exactly to write a pitch page that achieves that goal is a subject for a whole other report.

There are a number of different approaches but just about all of them start with a hard-hitting headline, make the reader understand that they have a problem, position the product as the solution, include testimonials and end with a call to action. Sales letters like these sound complex but they’re actually fairly simple to put together.

There’s a formula that works and once you understand it, it’s very straightforward to follow and very effective too.

You can either learn how to do it yourself, or you can pay a copywriter a few hundred bucks to do it for you. This is not a place to look for shortcuts though. Your pitch page is the most important link in the chain from Internet publisher to your affiliate and from user to buyer.

They all meet here and it’s the quality of the sales information on that page that will determine whether or not you make sales.

Ideally, you should create a few pitch pages perhaps with different headlines and test them to see which works best before you submit it to ClickBank.

2.3 The Thank You Page

ClickBank requires that producers have two Web pages before they can start selling through the site.

You’ll need the pitch page but you’ll also need a “Thank You page.” That’s not just because it’s polite to thank your customers although that’s certainly a nice thing to do. It’s because once you’ve made the sale, you’ll want to supply the buyer with a little information.

In fact, ClickBank requires that you supply the following information:

• A thank you message;
• Your email address for questions and technical support;
• A reminder that the charge will appear on the customer’s credit card as “ClickBank” or CLKBANK*COM;
• A rebilling schedule for subscription-based projects;
• And an exit link so that customers can leave the page easily.

While I’m not sure that ClickBank should be demanding all of these things, they are all good ideas. Sellers should be implementing them whether they are a requirement or not. But I’d go one little step further.

The exit link is an opportunity. You don’t want customers to just click away from you. You want them to click somewhere that will do you good.

You could send customers to your blog, where they can learn more information that will help them get the most out of your product and give you more money by clicking on ads.

You could send them to a site that offers more of your own products and generate more direct sales. Or you could use a hoplink to send them to a related product on Clickbank.

After all, you know the customer is someone who buys information products so maybe they’ll buy more, giving you a welcome commission.

The Thank You page is a necessity but that doesn’t mean you can’t make the most of it too.

2.4 Getting More Out Of Affiliates

Building up a long list of affiliates ready to promote your site is a vital part of your success with ClickBank.

A good product will be critical in persuading publishers to promote your goods. A persuasive pitch page will be vital at generating sales and at showing that you can generate sales.

And a carefully-written Marketplace description with a competitive and generous commission will be important too if you want to stand out and show affiliates what you can do.

All of those elements will help you to build up a sales team who will do your marketing for you. But you can also encourage affiliates to sign up by using ClickBank’s Join My Affiliate Program (JMAP). This simply involves adding a link to your page that invites publishers to sign up at ClickBank and take your hoplink.

The link looks like this:

<a href="http://PUBLISHER.jmap.clickbank.net" target=jmap>TEXT</a>

A linked invitation like that might help to give you a few more affiliates, depending on how hard you market your site outside ClickBank.

But you want to do more than just recruit affiliates. You want to help them generate sales for you.

Clickbank won’t give you the email addresses of the publishers who have agreed to promote your products but what you could do is create a page full of advice for affiliates who have signed up or are thinking of doing so.

Instead of just putting a link at the bottom of the page marked “Affiliates” and sending interested publishers to ClickBank, create a pitch page for your affiliate sales. It wouldn’t have to be long, but it should contain a number of points.

• First, it should describe the benefits of becoming your affiliate. That means putting an emphasis on the size of your commissions, your high conversion rate and your negligible refund requests. Numbers can say a lot here so don’t be afraid to say exactly what percentage of people who read your pitch page actually end up buying. That will let potential affiliates see what promoting your product can actually bring them.
• Then you can go on to give the affiliates tips to boost their clickthrough rates and their sales figures.
• Explain what your customers are interested in and list the unique sales points that the affiliates could emphasize as they promote your product.
• Really explain how good your product is.
• Remember, while you’re pitching the page to potential affiliates, there’s a good chance that it will be read by potential customers too.
• By being seen discussing the quality of the product behind the scenes of your business, you create the impression that everyone really does agree that it’s a fantastic deal.
• Finally, invite the affiliates to sign up at ClickBank and start earning right away.

Do you see how a page like that would be so much more effective than simply adding a link to the bottom of the page?

Creating a product requires a little work. It means choosing a topic that has a market, writing a book or building a program, then creating a Web page to turn users into buyers.

It’s not very difficult but I can understand if not everyone wants to do it at least not initially.

Becoming an affiliate can be much easier. I’ll explain how to use ClickBank to do that in the next chapter.

3. BECOMING A CLICKBANK AFFILIATE

I’m always saying that a well-balanced online business should have multiple revenue streams.

It should have targeted ads (which AdSense does best) so that you can earn money when users click away.

It should have ads that pay for every thousand impressions so that the business owner can get money for every user who visits. And the site should have affiliate ads because these can bring the highest amounts of money for each sale.

ClickBank is one of the best places to find affiliate products to promote on your website.

3.1 Who Can Benefit From ClickBank’s Affiliate Products?

I could say that absolutely anyone can benefit from ClickBank’s affiliate products. It would, after all, be true.

ClickBank contains such a huge range of different types of products that it’s never very difficult to find something that matches the topic of any site.

But in fact, some sites can get more out of ClickBank’s affiliate products than others. Sites that have a good relationship with loyal users are likely to generate far more affiliate sales than the sort of sites that bring users in once and hope to earn a little money when they move on.

If a user doesn’t like the content on a Web page, he won’t mind leaving through an ad link.

But he will mind taking the publisher’s advice to buy a product that costs $50.

Affiliate products sell best when the publisher actively recommends them. Users are most likely to act on those recommendations when they trust the publisher. Blogs, for example, can be great sites for promoting affiliate products like those available from ClickBank provided, that is, you choose the right products.

3.2 Picking The Right ClickBank Products To Promote

When you’re looking to create your own product, you have to consider whether there would be a market for it and how much you’d enjoy producing it.

What you won’t have to consider is the quality of the product. Because you’re in charge of production, you can be confident that what you produce will be good.

That isn’t the case when you’re looking for a product to promote, but quality is going to be crucial.

Ideally, you should buy the product yourself before you promote it so that you can see it and use it. That will make sure that it really is good and it will also mean that you can talk about your own experiences when you come to promote it on your website.

That’s always going to be the critical part of successfully promoting affiliate products.

But you still want to make sure that when you do come to talk up a product, you’re praising an ebook or a newsletter that your users won’t just love but will pick up sales.

After all, you could be promoting the best product of all on Clickbank but if the pitch page is weaker than a wet paper bag, you’re going to struggle to make sales. (That doesn’t mean you won’t make sales though.

It just means that you’ll have to do the marketing before the user reaches the pitch page, which is more work than you might want to do.) And you want to be sure that it’s going to earn you money too.

While the size of the commission and the actual amount that that commission is worth will only be some of the factors helping you to choose a product, they are going to be important.

At least some of that information you can pick up in the Marketplace when searching for products to promote. The figures in green don’t always mean go… but they might.

At the bottom of each marketplace description is a bunch of green figures. They look very difficult to decipher but what they really mean is this:

Sale is the average amount you can expect to earn from each sale, taking into account refunds and chargebacks etc.

Future $ only refers to subscription-based products and tells you how much you can expect to continue earning after your first sale.

Total $ also only refers to subscription-based products and tells you how much you can expect to make overall. %Earned/Sale is the size of the commission.

Referred tells you how reliant the seller is on affiliates. Gravity reveals how popular the seller is with Clickbank’s publishers.

Most of that information is valuable but it doesn’t tell you everything you need to know. It also tells you things that look interesting but which actually give you more information than you really want to know.

Some of what’s missing you can calculate fairly easily. None of the figures, for example, tells you how often buyers ask for refunds a sure sign that the product is disappointing.

But if you can see that there’s a big difference between the percentage of the sale price and the $/Sale figure, that could be a sign that lots of buyers are sending back the product and complaining.

Recommending a product like that wouldn’t do your reputation any good at all. Nor do the %Referred and gravity figures tell you a great deal either although they both look interesting.

A site that sells a great deal through affiliates might just suggest that the seller prefers to use affiliates for his marketing rather than do the work himself. It doesn’t tell you anything about the quality of the product or its value.

And while Gravity is supposed to represent popularity, products that appeal to a general audience are always going to have more potential affiliates than a niche product. But a niche product is likely to generate more conversions within its smaller market… and that’s the vital figure that’s missing.

Knowing that you can make $24.95 on average for each affiliate sale is nice, but if you have to spend $50 to send hundreds of users through your affiliate link before you generate one sale, then that’s not good business.

What you really want to know is the conversion rate and that’s not a figure that Clickbank supplies in the Marketplace details.

The only way you can find out for yourself how many of the users you send to the seller’s pitch page actually earn you revenue is to pick a product that looks good, which has a persuasive pitch page, market it as best you can… and keep a record of the results.

You can do that in your stats or what Clickbank calls “Analytics.”

Again, there’s a whole bunch of information here, but the really interesting figures are the “hops per order” and the “$ per hop.” Those tell you your conversion rate and, even more importantly, the amount you earn on average for each user you send to the seller’s landing page.

ClickBank offers lots of affiliate stats. These are probably the most important. That means that you can keep track of the amount you’re paying for your users on your own site’s stats and compare that figure with the amount you’re receiving when you pass them on to the affiliate seller.

If you find that you’re earning less than you’re paying, you need to take either a close look at your marketing or at the products you’re promoting. There is one more piece of information that those figures in green won’t tell you… the quality of the product. As I’ll explain in the next section, the most important part of generating affiliate sales is to recommend the products.

You can only do that if they’re genuinely good. The numbers are important and should influence your decision, but more important is always going to be the product itself.

3.3 Promoting Your Affiliate Product

The conversion rate is one figure you’ll want to keep track of when you’re promoting affiliate products.

Another is the clickthrough rate the percentage of people who click from your site onto the hoplink that takes them to the seller’s pitch page.

Both of those figures can be influenced by the way you promote the product you’ve chosen on Clickbank.

Marketing a product well on your site will both generate clicks on the affiliate link and increase the chances that the user will buy it even if the pitch page isn’t particularly strong.

The simplest way to market an affiliate product is just to place a link or even a series of links in a sidebar. But don’t expect many people to click on them let alone buy the products.

You’ll always be much better off recommending the products you’re promoting in your content and doing it repeatedly.

One good strategy then might be to pick three or four Clickbank affiliate products that are relevant to your field, implement the strategies the book contains and write a review of each of the products. (You don’t have to be absolutely gushing in your praise of the product, just generally positive.

Finding a few negative points too can make your recommendation look more honest and more trustworthy.)

Place that review in your sidebar where people can find it easily. Then every so often, mention that product in passing when writing one of your blog posts and include a link not to the product but to the review.

The review itself will include the affiliate link to the pitch page and prime the user for the sale. The user will be curious enough to click the link to read the review and the review will be encouraging enough to drive sales.

4. CONCLUSION

There are lots of different ways to make money online. You don’t have to pick and choose the best. You can make use of all of them or at least as many of them as you can squeeze sensibly into your website and which you enjoy doing.

One of the best ways is to use information products. You can create one and allow other publishers to sell it as affiliates. Or you can become an affiliate yourself and promote other people’s information products in return for a share of the sale price.

With the right products marketed in the right way, this can be one of the most profitable methods of bringing money into an online business. And ClickBank a service that brings together producers and affiliates, and pays the affiliates for their sales makes that very easy to do.

In this short report, I’ve just tried to give a brief introduction to how ClickBank can help an online entrepreneur make money.

I started by explaining how to create your own digital information product.

That’s much easier than many people think. Because everyone is an expert on something whether it’s buying stocks, training a dog, or decorating a child’s room anyone can create a product that other people want to buy.

I discussed how to create it, how to outsource it if you don’t want to create it yourself and how to set a price for it on ClickBank so that you’ll generate the most profits.

I then explained how you can use ClickBank to build a team of affiliates who can’t wait to sell your product for you.

The most important way to do that on ClickBank is by writing a tempting Marketplace description. That’s possible to do even in the limited 255-character space that ClickBank provides.

And finally, I discussed generating revenue as a ClickBank affiliate. This is the easiest way to make money with the site, and while it does involve the most effort overall you’ll have to keep marketing and watching the stats while a producer can just sit back and relax once his product has been completed it is a great way to get started.

I explained how to choose the right product to promote and which figures to follow when you make your selection and when you’re marketing.

There’s a lot more that could be said about ClickBank, but the best way to learn about the site is to register, choose a product you like and start promoting it. It won’t just be an education it will be one that pays you too. Get started with Clickbank now.

5. About the Author

Joel Comm is an Internet entrepreneur who has been building successful web sites since 1995. Dedicated to providing a family-friendly Internet experience, Joel’s flagship site, WorldVillage.com, continues to be a popular family-safe portal.

Joel is the co-creator of Yahoo! Games and author of the New York Times Bestseller, The AdSense Code.

Joel makes frequent appearances at Internet marketing conferences and seminar, conducting workshops and training others in the latest ways to make money on the Internet.

He is the host of the world’s first Internet marketing reality show, The Next Internet Millionaire. Joel’s sites include:

JoelComm.com – Joel’s Blog
AskJoelComm.com – Question submission page
AdSenseChat.com – Google AdSense Member Forums
DealofDay.com – a popular bargain-hunting community
FamilyFirst.com – Family-friendly sites reviews More Resources by Joel Comm
Learn the secrets of making money online in The Secret Classroom

6. DISCLAIMER AND TERMS OF USE AGREEMENT

The author and publisher of this eBook and the accompanying materials have used their best efforts in preparing this eBook. The author and publisher make no representation or warranties with respect to the accuracy, applicability, fitness, or completeness of the contents of this eBook. The information contained in this eBook is strictly for educational purposes. Therefore, if you wish to apply ideas contained in this eBook, you are taking full responsibility for your actions.

EVERY EFFORT HAS BEEN MADE TO ACCURATELY REPRESENT THIS PRODUCT AND IT’S POTENTIAL. EVEN THOUGH THIS INDUSTRY IS ONE OF THE FEW WHERE ONE CAN WRITE THEIR OWN CHECK IN TERMS OF EARNINGS, THERE IS NO GUARANTEE THAT YOU WILL EARN ANY MONEY USING THE TECHNIQUES AND IDEAS IN THESE MATERIALS. EXAMPLES IN THESE MATERIALS ARE NOT TO BE INTERPRETED AS A PROMISE OR GUARANTEE OF EARNINGS. EARNING POTENTIAL IS ENTIRELY DEPENDENT ON THE PERSON USING OUR PRODUCT, IDEAS AND TECHNIQUES. WE DO NOT PURPORT THIS AS A “GET RICH SCHEME.” ANY CLAIMS MADE OF ACTUAL EARNINGS OR EXAMPLES OF ACTUAL RESULTS CAN BE VERIFIED UPON REQUEST. YOUR LEVEL OF SUCCESS IN ATTAINING THE RESULTS CLAIMED IN OUR MATERIALS DEPENDS ON THE TIME YOU DEVOTE TO THE PROGRAM, IDEAS AND TECHNIQUES MENTIONED, YOUR FINANCES, KNOWLEDGE AND VARIOUS SKILLS. SINCE THESE FACTORS DIFFER ACCORDING TO INDIVIDUALS, WE CANNOT GUARANTEE YOUR SUCCESS OR INCOME LEVEL. NOR ARE WE RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY OF YOUR ACTIONS. MATERIALS IN OUR PRODUCT AND OUR WEBSITE MAY CONTAIN INFORMATION THAT INCLUDES OR IS BASED UPON FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS WITHIN THE MEANING OF THE SECURITIES LITIGATION REFORM ACT OF 1995. FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS GIVE OUR EXPECTATIONS OR FORECASTS OF FUTURE EVENTS. YOU CAN IDENTIFY THESE STATEMENTS BY THE FACT THAT THEY DO NOT RELATE STRICTLY TO HISTORICAL OR CURRENT FACTS. THEY USE WORDS SUCH AS “ANTICIPATE,” “ESTIMATE,” “EXPECT,” “PROJECT,” “INTEND,” “PLAN,” “BELIEVE,” AND OTHER WORDS AND TERMS OF SIMILAR MEANING IN CONNECTION WITH A DESCRIPTION OF POTENTIAL EARNINGS OR FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE. ANY AND ALL FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS HERE OR ON ANY OF OUR SALES MATERIAL ARE INTENDED TO EXPRESS OUR OPINION OF EARNINGS POTENTIAL. MANY FACTORS WILL BE IMPORTANT IN DETERMINING YOUR ACTUAL RESULTS AND NO GUARANTEES ARE MADE THAT YOU WILL ACHIEVE RESULTS SIMILAR TO OURS OR ANYBODY ELSES, IN FACT NO GUARANTEES ARE MADE THAT YOU WILL ACHIEVE ANY RESULTS FROM OUR IDEAS AND TECHNIQUES IN OUR MATERIAL.

The author and publisher disclaim any warranties (express or implied), merchantability, or fitness for any particular purpose.

The author and publisher shall in no event be held liable to any party for any direct, indirect, punitive, special, incidental or other consequential damages arising directly or indirectly from any use of this material, which is provided “as is”, and without warranties. As always, the advice of a competent legal, tax, accounting or other professional should be sought.

The author and publisher do not warrant the performance, effectiveness or applicability of any sites listed or linked to in this eBook. All links are for information purposes only and are not warranted for content, accuracy or any other implied or explicit purpose.

A. That world exists

The product need not be expensive or elaborate. It can be something simple – a sticker with a happy face, a pen with a logo, or some other intriguing item. This marketing approach is excellent because you can give the product away, charging the recipients only a nominal fee for postage and handling. If you price your shipping fees correctly, you can make thousands of dollars a month.

So how do you let people know about the gifts you have waiting for them?

The best way is by placing classified ads in national magazines, an enormously successful method.

Small classified advertisements in such national publications as Popular Mechanix, and The National Enquirer produce excellent returns on such items, National publications such as these sell millions of copies each week or month.

Even a tiny return from this kind of large readership means thousands of dollars in your pocket.

One advertiser noted his ads have generated returns of seven times the cost of the classified ad. Other advertisers have done even better. To put together your own ad, begin by studying the classified ads in these national publications.

B. Study every issue you can find

Note the ads that show up issue after issue. These marketers have created a money-generating format, and they’re taking full advantage of it.

C. Study the long-running ads

Note that they’re short, but they contain a nugget of appeal that makes you want to send your money immediately.

Now try drafting your own ads. write several versions that you can try in different national publications. The ad should be simple but hard-hitting. You want the reader to respond immediately. Use the words that create an attractive picture of your product for the reader.

D. You don’t have to charge much for your giveaway product

Aim for high sales volumes at low prices, a proven technique in this market. If you come up with an ad that grabs reader’s interest, the money will flow your way.

The technique of advertising giveaway products that people can receive for the cost of postage and handling has proved so successful that there’s even a magazine devoted to showing off the free items that are given away by companies throughout the country.

E. This 32-page bimonthly magazine is called Freebies

It is chock full of these free-for-postage-and-handling items.

For a copy of the magazine, information about listing your product, and a rate card, write to Freebies, 407 State St.,Santa Barbara, CA 93120. (805) 962-9135.

Incoming search terms:

• How to get rich giving something away free
• get richh by giving free stuff
• how do i write small note on giving money to a brother
• how to get rich 2011

Usually it seems that there’s just never enough time in the day to get everything done.

So this is why you have to try to get serious about time management.

In business, Time is Money. When you know how to manage your time, you will gain control rather than busily working here, there, and everywhere without getting much done anywhere.

Effective time management helps you to choose what to work on and when.

Here, we have made few points to lead you into effective time management.

1. Planning First, always start your day by planning

Planning will give you the energy to succeed in every task each day. Generally, it should only take you a maximum of 30 minutes to plan your day.

If you have much time, you can even plan your event according to daily, weekly and monthly due date. Start to make reminder of your plan and appointment both on your computer and your mobile device.

Maximize the use of you email client for planning scheduling and meeting or task reminder, on the other hand, your smartphone would also be your handy assistant so why don’t you maximize the purpose.

2. Important is Important

After planning process, you will see what task should be done first and successful business people always jump on the most important thing first.

Pick the most critical thing that need to be done and focus your energy on them. If you have a time to do other thing, then you will want to do it, but if you don’t, just simply halt them until tomorrow.

Let’s say you have two different meeting at the same time, and both are important. The next question would be “Do you have a good backup resources or a network of friends who can provide assistance?” So if you do, then it will much relieve.

3. Take a Break, Refresh your Mind Take regular breaks.

Many people forget to take breaks when they are working and do not realize they are becoming mentally and physically fatigued.

Taking an hour break will increase your overall productivity even though it may feel like you are loosing time at first. You can start googling, shopping online or reading some funny jokes on the Internet. This two sites, www.jokesgalore.com and www.coolfunnyjokes.com may be a cool references to start.

Another different choice, listen to jazz music on your mp3 and try to perform your mp3 and try to perform seated stretches to refresh your body, it would much healing.

4. Managing Interruptions

Interruption is a natural and necessary part of life, but don’t let it ruined your business process.

This is why you need to cut away as many distractions as possible.

We all suffer from time poverty so you need to learn to take advantage of the time that you do have by limiting distractions to a minimum.

You can simply just say no to your friend’s invitation if it doesn’t fit your schedule or even cutting your schedule over an urgent meeting.

But the most important thing is when you are in the middle of your work, whether you are checking work email or making your business presentation, close the entire unimportant window on your Internet browser to keep you focus.

At last, think again about your current Internet connection. If the speed and reliability can’t afford you into time efficiency, you can lose so much time on your business process.

A. BASIC FACTS ABOUT TRADEMARKS

A TRADEMARK may be a word, symbol, design or combination word and design, a slogan or even a distinctive sound which identifies and distinguishes the goods or services of one party from those of another. Used to identify a service, it can be called a service mark.

In general, throughout this pamphlet the term trademark will refer to both trademarks and service marks. Normally, a trademark for goods appears on the product or on its packaging, while a service mark is usually used in advertising to identify the owner’ s services.

A trademark is different from a copyright or a patent. A copyright gives protection for an artistic or literary work and a patent gives protection for an invention.

Unlike a copyright or patent, trademark rights can last indefinitely if the mark continues to perform a source-indicating function.

The term of the Federal trademark registration is 10 years, with 10 year renewal terms.

However, between the fifth and sixth year after the date of the registration, the registrant must file an affidavit stating the mark is currently in use in commerce. If no affidavit is filed, the registration will be cancelled.

Trademark fights arise from either (1) use of the mark, or (2) a bona fide intention to use a mark, along with the filing of an application to Federally register that mark on the Principal Register. A Federal trademark registration is not required in order for a trademark to be protected, and a trademark may be used without obtaining a registration.

Before a trademark owner may file an application for a Federal registration, the owner must either (1) use the mark on goods which are shipped or sold, or services which are rendered, in commerce regulated by Congress (e.g., interstate commerce or commerce between the U.S. and a foreign country), or (2) have a. bona fide intention to use the mark in such commerce in relation to specific goods or services.

B. BENEFITS OF REGISTRATION WHILE

Federal registration is not necessary for trademark certain advantages:

1. The filing date of the application is a constructive date of first use of the mark in commerce (this gives registrant nationwide priority as of that date, except as to certain prior users or prior applicants);

2. The right to sue in Federal court for trademark infringement;

3. Recovery of profits, damages and costs in a Federal court infringement action and the possibility of treble damages and attorneys’ fees;

4. Constructive notice of a claim of ownership (which eliminates a good faith defense for a party adopting the trademark subsequent to the registrant’s date of registration);

5. The right to deposit the registration with Customs in order to stop the importation of goods bearing an infringing mark;

6. Prima facie evidence of the validity of the registration, registrant’s ownership of the mark and of registrant’s exclusive right to use the mark in commerce in connection with the goods or services specified in the certificate;

7. The possibility of incontestability, in which case the registration constitutes conclusive evidence of the registrant’s exclusive right, with certain limited exceptions, to use the registered mark in commerce;

8. Limited grounds for attacking a registration once it is five years old;

9. Availability of criminal penalties and treble damages in an action for counterfeiting a registered trademark;

10. A basis for filing trademark applications in foreign countries.

C. NOTICE

ONCE a Federal registration is issued, the registrant may give notice of registration by using the symbol, or the phrase "Registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office" or "Reg. U.S. Pat. & Tm. Off."

Although registration symbols may not be lawfully used prior to registration, many trademark owners use a TM or SM (if the mark identifies a service) symbol to indicate a claim of ownership, even if no Federal trademark application is pending.

D. THE REGISTRATION PROCESS

THE Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) is responsible for the Federal registration of trademarks. When an application is filed, it is reviewed to determine if it meets the requirements for receiving a filing date (see page 4).

If the filing requirements are riot met, the entire mailing, including the fee, is returned to the applicant. If the application meets the filing requirements, it is assigned a serial number, and the applicant is sent a filing receipt.

The first part of the registration process is a determination by the Trademark Examining Attorney as to whether the mark may be registered.

An initial determination of registrability, listing any statutory grounds for refusal as well as any procedural informalities in the application, is issued about three months after filing.

The applicant must respond to any objections raised within six months, or the application will be considered abandoned.

If, after reviewing the applicant’s response, the Examining Attorney makes a final refusal of registration, the applicant may appeal to the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, an administrative tribunal within the PTO.

Once the Examining Attorney approves the mark, the mark will be published in the Trademark Official Gazette, a weekly publication of the PTO.

Any other party then has 30 days to oppose the registration of the mark, or request an extension of time to oppose.

An opposition is similar to a proceeding in the Federal district courts, but is held before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. If no opposition is filed, the application enters the next stage of the registration process.

If the mark published based upon its actual use in commerce, a registration will issue approximately 12 weeks from the date the mark was published.

If, instead, the mark published based upon applicant’s statement of a bona fide intention to use the mark in commerce, a notice of allowance will issue approximately 12 weeks from the date the mark was published.

The applicant then has six months from the date of the notice of allowance to either (1)use the mark in commerce and submit a statement of use, or (2) request a six-month extension of time to file a statement of use (see forms and instructions at back of booklet). The applicant may request additional extensions of time only as noted in the instructions on the back of the form.

E. STATUTORY GROUNDS FOR REFUSAL

THE Examining Attorney will refuse registration if the mark or term applied for:

1. Does not function as a trademark to identify the goods or services as coming from a particular source for example, the matter applied for is merely ornamentation;

2. Is immoral, deceptive or scandalous;

3. May disparage or falsely suggest a connection with persons, institutions, beliefs or national symbols, or bring them into contempt or disrepute;

4. Consists of or simulates the flag or coat of arms or other insignia of the United States, or a State or municipality, or any foreign nation;

5. Is the name, portrait or signature of a particular living individual, unless he has given written consent; or is the name, signature or portrait of a deceased President of the United States during the life of his widow, unless she has given her consent;

6. So resembles a mark already registered in the PTO as to be likely, when used on or in connection with the goods of the applicant, to cause confusion, or to cause mistake, or to deceive;

7. Is merely descriptive or deceptively misdescriptive of the goods or services;

8. Is primarily geographically descriptive or deceptively misdescriptive of the goods or services of the applicant;

9. Is primarily merely a surname.

A mark will not be refused registration on the grounds listed in numbers 7, 8 and 9 if the applicant can show that, through use of the mark in commerce, the mark has become distinctive so that it now identifies to the public the applicant’s goods or services.

Marks which are refused registration on the grounds listed in numbers 1, 7, 8 and 9 may be registrable on the Supplemental Register, which contains terms or designs considered capable of distinguishing the owner’s goods or services, but that do not yet do so.

A term or design cannot be considered for registration on the Supplemental Register unless it is in use in commerce in relation to all the goods or services identified in the application, and an acceptable allegation of use has been submitted.

If a mark is registered on the Supplemental Register, the registrant may bring suit for trademark infringement in the Federal courts, or may use the registration as a basis for filing in some foreign countries.

None of the other benefits of Federal registration listed on page 1 apply. An applicant may file an application on the Principal Register and, if appropriate, amend the application to the Supplemental Register for no additional fee.

F. TRADEMARK SEARCH LIBRARY

A RECORD of all active registrations and pending applications is maintained by the PTO to help determine whether a previously registered mark exists which could prevent the registration of an applicant’s mark. (See ground for refusal No. 6, above.).

The search library is located near Washington, D.C. at Crystal Plaza 2, 2nd Floor, 2011 Jefferson Davis Highway, Arlington, VA 22022, and is open to the public free of charge Monday through Friday, 8:00 am to 5:30 pm.

The PTO cannot advise prospective applicants of the availability of a particular mark prior to the filing of an application.

The applicant may hire a private search company or law firm to perform a search if a search is desired before filing an application and the applicant is unable to visit the search library.

The PTO cannot recommend any such companies, but the applicant may wish to consult listings for "Trademark Search Services" in the telephone directories or contact local bar associations for a list of attorneys specializing in trademark law.

G. WHO MAY FILE AN APPLICATION

THE owners of marks may file and prosecute their own applications for registration, or be represented by an attorney. The Patent and Trademark Office cannot help select an attorney.

H. FILING REQUIREMENTS

AN application consists of (1) a written application form; (2) a drawing of the mark; (3) the required filing fee; and, only if the application is filed based upon prior use of the mark in commerce, (4) three specimens showing actual use of the mark on or in connection with the goods or services. A separate application must be filed for each mark for which registration is requested.

Following is a description of each of these elements of a complete application. The written application form is the first form of four forms at the back of the booklet and is titled "Trademark/Service Mark Application, Principal Register, with Declaration." [The back page of the form is printed upside down so that it may be affixed to the application file at the top and still be easily read.]

I. Written Application Form

THE application must be written in English. The enclosed form may be used for either a trademark or service mark application. Additional forms may be photocopied. The following explanation covers each blank, beginning at the top.

1. Heading
Identify (a) the mark (e.g. “ERGO” or “ERGO and design”) and (b) the class number(s) of the goods or services for which registration is sought. Classification is part of the PTO’s administrative processing.

The International Classification of Goods and Services is used (see inside back cover of this booklet). The class may be left blank if the appropriate class number is not known.

2. Applicant
The application must be filed in the name of the owner of the mark. Specify, if an individual, applicant’s name and citizenship; if a partnership, the names and citizenship of the general partners and the domicile of the partnership; if a corporation or association, the name under which it is incorporated and the state or foreign nation under the laws of which it is organized. Also indicate the applicant’s post office address.

3. Identification of Goods or Services
State briefly the specific goods or services for which the mark is used or intended to be used and for which registration is sought.

Use clear and precise language, for example, "women’s clothing namely, blouses and skirts," or "computer programs for use by accountants," or "retail food store services."

Note that the identification of goods or services should describe the goods the applicant sells or the services the applicant renders, not the medium in which the mark appears, which is often advertising. "Advertising" in this context identifies a service rendered by advertising agencies. For example, a restaurateur would identify his service as "restaurant services," not “menus, signs, etc.” which is the medium through which the mark is communicated.

4. Basis for Application
The applicant must check at least one of four boxes to specify the basis for filing the application.

Usually an application is based upon either (1)prior use of the mark in commerce (the first box), or (2) a bona fide intention to use the mark in commerce {the second box), but not both.

If both the first and second boxes are checked, the Patent and Trademark Office will not accept the application and will return it to the applicant without processing.

The last two boxes pertain to applications filed in the United States pursuant to international agreements, based upon applications or registrations in foreign countries. These bases are asserted relatively infrequently.

For further information about foreign-based applications, the applicant may call the trademark information number listed in this booklet or contact a private attorney.

If the applicant is using the mark in commerce in relation to all the goods or services listed in the application, check the first box and state each of the following:

• The date the trademark was first used anywhere in the U.S. on the goods, or in connection with the services, specified in the application;

• The date the trademark was first used on the specified goods, or in connection with the specified services, sold or shipped (or rendered) in a type of commerce which may be regulated by Congress;

• The type of commerce in which the goods were sold or shipped or services were rendered [for example, "interstate commerce" or "commerce between the United States and (specify foreign country)"]; and

• How the mark is used on the goods, or in connection with the services [for example, "the mark is used on labels which are affixed to the goods," or "the mark is used in advertisements for the services"].

If the applicant has a bona fide intention to use the mark in commerce in relation to the goods or services specified in the application, check the second box. This would include situations where the mark has not been used at all or where the mark has been used on the specified goods or services only within a single state (intrastate commerce).

5. Execution
The application form must be dated and signed. (See back of form.). The declaration and signature block appear on the back of the form.

The Patent and Trademark Office will not accept an unsigned application and will return it to the applicant without processing.

By signing the form, the applicant is sweating that all the information in the application is believed to be true.

If the applicant is an individual, the individual must execute it; if joint applicants, all must execute; if a partnership, one general partner must execute the application; and if a corporation or association, one officer of the organization must execute the application.

6. Drawing
THE drawing is a representation of the mark as actually used or intended to be used on the goods or services. There are two types; (a) typed drawings and (b) special form drawings.

All drawings must be made upon pure white durable nonshiny paper 8 1/2″ wide by 11″ long. One of the shorter sides of the sheet should be regarded as its top. There must be a margin of at least one inch on the sides and bottom of the paper and at least one inch between the drawing of the mark and the heading.

The drawing is different than the specimens, which are the actual tags or labels (for goods) or advertisements (for services) which evidence use of the mark in commerce.

The drawing is a black and white, or typed, rendition of the mark which is used in printing the mark in the Official Gazette and on the registration certificate. A copy of the drawing is also fried in the paper records of the Trademark Search Library to provide notice of the pending application.

7. Heading
Across the top of the drawing, beginning one inch from the top edge and not exceeding one third of the sheet, list on separate lines:

• Applicant’s name;

• Applicant’s post office address;

• The goods or services specified in the application (or typical items of the goods or services if there are many goods or services listed);

• Only in an application based on use in commerce the date of first use of the mark anywhere in the U.S. and the date of first use of the mark in commerce;

• Only in an application based on a foreign application the filing date of the foreign application.

8. Typed drawing
If the mark is only words, or words and numerals, and the applicant does not wish the registration to be issued for a particular depiction of the words and/or numerals, the mark may be typed in capital letters in the center of the page.

9. Special form drawing
This form must be used if the applicant wishes the registration for the mark to be issued in a particular style, or if the mark contains a design element.

The drawing of the mark must be done in black ink, either with an india ink pen or by a process which will give satisfactory reproduction characteristics.

Every line and letter, including words, must be black. This applies to all lines, including lines used for shading. Half-tones and gray are not acceptable. All lines must be clean, sharp, and solid, and not be fine or crowded.

A photolithographic reproduction, printer’s proof or camera ready copy may be used if otherwise suitable. Photographs are not acceptable. Photocopies are acceptable only if they produce an unusually clear and sharp black and white rendering. The use of white pigment to cover lines is not acceptable.

The preferred size of the drawing of the mark is 2 1/2″ x 2 1/2″, and in no case may it be larger than 4″ x 4″.

The Patent and Trademark Office will not accept an application with a special form drawing depicted larger than 4″ by 4″ and will return the application without processing.

If the amount of detail in the mark precludes clear reduction to the required 4″ x 4″ size, such detail should not be shown in the drawing but should be verbally described in the body of the application.

Where color is a feature of a mark, the color or colors may be designated in the drawing by the linings shown in the following chart:

10. Specimens (Examples of Use)
TRADEMARKS may be placed on the goods; on the container for the goods; on displays associated with the goods; on tags or labels attached to the goods; or, if the nature of the goods makes such placement impractical, then on documents associated with the goods or their sale.

Service marks may appear in advertisements for the services, or in brochures about the services, or on business cards or stationary used in connection with the services.

For an application based on actual use of the mark in commerce, the applicant must furnish three examples of use, as described in the paragraph above, when the application is filed.

The Patent and Trademark Office will not accept an application based on use in commerce without at least one "specimen" and will return it to the applicant without processing.

The three "specimens" may be identical or they may be examples of three different types of uses.

The three specimens should be actual labels, tags, containers, displays, etc. for goods; and actual. advertisements, brochures, store signs or stationary (if the nature of the services is clear from the letterhead or body of the letter), etc. for services.

Specimens may not be larger than 8 1/2″ by 11″ and must be capable of being arranged flat. Three-dimensional or bulky material is not acceptable.

Photographs or other reproductions clearly and legibly showing the mark on the goods, or on displays associated with the goods, may be submitted if the manner of affixing the mark to the goods, or the nature of the goods, is such that specimens as described above cannot be submitted.

11. Filing Fee
THE fee, effective April 17, 1989, is $175 for each class of goods or services for which the application is made. (See International Classification of Goods and Services on inside back cover.)

At least $175 must be submitted for the application to be given a filing date.

All payments should be made in United States specie, treasury notes, national bank notes, post office money orders, or certified checks.

Personal or business checks may be submitted. The Patent and Trademark Office will cancel credit if payment cannot be collected.

Money orders and checks should be made payable to the Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks.

Money sent by mail to the Patent and Trademark Office will be at the risk of the sender; letters containing cash should be registered.

Remittances made from foreign countries must be payable and immediately negotiable in the United States for the full amount of the fee required. Application fees are non-refundable.

J. FURTHER REQUIREMENTS FOR INTENT-TO-USE APPLICANTS

AN applicant who alleges only a bona fide intention to use a mark in commerce must make use of the mark in commerce before a registration will be issued.

After use begins, the applicant must submit, along with specimens evidencing use and a fee of $100 per class of goods or services in the application, either (1) an Amendment to Allege Use or (2) a Statement of Use.

The difference between the two filings is the timing of the filing. Copies of each of these forms appear in the back of this booklet behind the application form. See the instructions and information concerning the filing of these forms on the back of each form.

Also in the back of this booklet is a form entitled “Request for Extension of Time under 37 CFR 2.89 to File a Statement of Use, with Declaration.” This form is intended for use only when. an applicant needs to request an extension of time to file a statement of use. See the instructions and information concerning the use of this form on the back of the form.

K. FOREIGN APPLICANTS

DOMESTIC REPRESENTATIVE
Applicants not living in the United States must designate by a written document the name and address of some person resident in the United States on whom notices of process in-proceedings affecting the mark may be served. This person will also receive all official communications unless the applicant is represented by an attorney in the United States.

L. COMMUNICATIONS WITH THE PTO

THE application and all other communications should be addressed to :

The Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks, Washington, D.C., 20231.

It is preferred that the applicant indicate its telephone number on the application form. Once a serial number is assigned to the application the applicant should refer to this number in all telephone and written communications concerning the application.

M. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

The Federal registration of trademarks is governed by the Trademark Act of 1946, 15 U.S.C. See. 1051 et seq.; the Rules, 37 C.F.R. Part 2; and the Trademark Manual of Examining Procedure.

General Trademark or Patent Information:
(703) 557-INFO

Status Information for Particular Trademark Applications:
(703) 557-5249

General Copyright Information:
(202) 479-0700

N. International schedule of classes of goods and services

Goods

1. Chemicals products used in industry, science, photography, agriculture. horticulture, forestry, artificial and synthetic resins; plastics in the form of powders, liquids or pastes, for industrial use; manures (natural and artificial); fire extinguishing compositions; tempering substances and chemical preparations for soldering; chemical substances for preserving foodstuffs; tanning substances; adhesive substances used in industry.

2. Paints, varnishes. lacquers; preservatives against rust and against deterioration of wood; colouring matters, dyestuffs; mordants; natural resins; metals in foil and powder form for painters and decorators.

3. Bleaching preparations and other substances for laundry use; cleaning, polishing, scouring and abrasive preparations; soaps; perfumery, essential oils, cosmetics, hair lotions; dentifrices.

4. Industrial oils and greases (other than oils and fats and essential oils); lubricants; dust laying and absorbing compositions; fuels (including motor spirit) and illuminants; candles, tapers, night lights and wicks.

5. Pharmaceutical, veterinary, and sanitary substances; infants’ and invalids’ foods; plasters, material for bandaging; material for stopping teeth, dental wax, disinfectants; preparations for killing weeds and destroying vermin.

6. Unwrought and partly wrought common metals and their alloys; anchors, anvils, bells, rolled and cast building materials; rails and other metallic materials for railway tracks; chains (except driving chains for vehicles); cables and wires (nonelectric); locksmiths’ work; metallic pipes and tubes; safes and cash boxes; steel balls; horseshoes; nails and screws; other goods in nonprecious metal not included in other classes; ores.

7. Machines and machine tools; motors (except for land vehicles); machine couplings and belting (except for land vehicles); large size agricultural implements; incubators.

8. Hand tools and instruments; cutlery, forks, and spoons; side arms.

9. Scientific, nautical, surveying and electrical apparatus and instruments (including wireless), photographic, cinematographic, optical, weighing, measuring, signalling, checking (supervision), life-saying and teaching apparatus and instruments; coin or counterfreed apparatus; talking machines; cash registers; calculating machines; fire extinguishing apparatus.

10. Surgical, medical, dental, and veterinary instruments and apparatus (including artificial limbs, eyes and teeth).

11. Installations for lighting, heating, steam generating, cooking, refrigerating, drying, ventilating, water supply, and sanitary purposes.

12. Vehicles; apparatus for locomotion by land, air or water.

13. Firearms; ammunition and projectiles; explosive substances; fireworks.

14. Precious metals and their alloys and goods in precious metals or coated therewith (except cutlery, forks and spoons); jewelry, precious stones, horological and other chronometric instruments.

15. Musical instruments (other than talking machines and wireless apparatus).

16. Paper and paper articles, cardboard and cardboard articles; printed matter, newspaper and periodicals, books; bookbinding material; photographs; stationery, adhesive materials (stationery); artists’ materials; paint brushes; typewriters and office requisites (other than furniture); instructional and teaching material (other than apparatus); playing cards; printers’ type and cliches (stereotype).

17. Gutta percha, india rubber, balata and substitutes, articles made from these substances and not included in other classes; plastics in the form of sheets, blocks and rods, being for in manufacture; materials for packing, stopping or insulating; asbestos, mica and their products; hose pipes (nonmetallic).

18. Leather and imitations of leather, and articles made from these materials and not included in other classes; skins,hides; trunks and travelling bags; umbrellas, parasols and walking sticks; whips, harness and saddlery.

19. Building materials, natural and artificial stone, cement, lime, mortar, plaster and gravel; pipes of earthenware or cement; roadmaking materials; asphalt, pitch and bitumen; portable buildings; stone monuments; chimney pots.

20. Furniture, mirrors, picture frames; articles (not included in other classes) of wood, cork, reeds, cane, wicker, horn, bone, ivory, whalebone, shell, amber, mother-of-pearl, meerschaum, celluloid, substitutes for all these materials, or of plastics.

21. Small domestic utensils and containers (not of precious metals, or coated therewith); combs and sponges; brushes (other than paint brushes); brushmaking materials; instruments and material for cleaning purposes, steel wool; unworked or semi-worked glass (excluding glass used in building); glassware, porcelain and earthenware, not included in other classes.

22. Ropes, string, nets, tents, awnings, tarpaulins, sails, sacks; padding and stuffing materials (hair, kapok, feathers, seaweed, etc.); raw fibrous textile materials.

23. Yarns, threads.

24. Tissues (piece goods); bed and table covers; textile articles not included in other classes.

25. Clothing, including boots, shoes and slippers.

26. Lace and embroidery, ribands and braid; buttons, press buttons, hooks and eyes, pins and needles; artificial flowers.

27. Carpets, rugs, mats and matting; linoleums and other materials for covering existing floors; wall hangings (nontextile).

28. Games and playthings; gymnastic and sporting articles (except clothing); ornaments and decorations for Christmas trees.

29. Meats, fish, poultry and game; meat extracts; preserved, dried and cooked fruits and vegetables; jellies, jams; eggs, milk and other dairy products; edible oils and fats; preserves, pickles.

30. Coffee, tea, cocoa, sugar, rice, tapioca, sago, coffee substitutes; flour, and preparations made from cereals; bread, biscuits, cakes, pastry and confectionery, ices; honey. treacle; yeast, baking powder; salt, mustard, pepper, vinegar, sauces, spices; ice.

31. Agricultural, horticultural and forestry products and grains not included in other classes; living animals; fresh fruits and vegetables; seeds; live plants and flowers; foodstuffs for animals, malt.

32. Beer, ale and porter; mineral and aerated waters and other nonalcoholic drinks; syrups and other preparations for making beverages.

33. Wines, spirits and liqueurs.

34. Tobacco, raw or manufactured; smokers’ articles; matches. Services

35. Advertising and business.

36. Insurance and financial.

37. Construction and repair.

38. Communication.

39. Transportation and storage.

40. Material treatment.

41. Education and entertainment.

42. Miscellaneous.

For example, to make money with a home based Internet businesses, you can:

• Become an affiliate and get paid for recommending other people’s products
• Sell downloadable electronic products — you don’t have to deal with inventory, storage, or shipping, and every sale is almost 100% profit
• Sell physical products – it’s easy to source products (and you can get drop shipping companies to do all the shipping and handling for you!)
• Sell a service, whether you deliver it locally or via the Internet
• Sell paid subscriptions or memberships if you can provide valuable information that people can’t get anywhere else

Why is it a good idea to start a home business?

Home business opportunities mean you get to work at home, without the hassle of commuting or dealing with office politics. Running your own Internet home business lets you work when you want, and how much you want. It’s a win-win situation!

And in today’s tough economic climate, there are actually a lot of home business opportunities — in fact, according to a recent article in Entrepreneur.com, recessions are notoriously good times to make your home business ideas a reality.

But there are five key points you should consider before you take action and start a home based business:

1. Are you ready? Ask yourself why you want to start a home based business and if you’re prepared to do it.
2. Can you work from home? You need a computer, an Internet connection, and a designated place to work away from distractions around the house.
3. Are you disciplined? It’s vital that you can set aside a few hours each day or week (depending on how fast you want to go) to focus on your business, without procrastinating and being distracted by email, Facebook, and YouTube.
4. Are you committed? If you’ve got what it takes to start a home Internet business, you thrive on learning new things, challenging yourself, achieving goals, and reaping the rewards of your effort.
5. What is the opportunity cost? What will you have to give up in order to spend a few hours a week building your business — and are you willing to do that? It doesn’t have to be much… a couple of hours’ less TV or aimless online surfing will give you all the time you need.

Where do you look for help?

Here at the Internet Marketing Center, I’ve been helping people with home business ideas for over a decade. I’ve helped thousands of people find home based business opportunities that net them steady income, and are also a lot of fun.

What kind of product or service do you want to sell?

So what are you waiting for? Get started today on the road to your own Internet home business.

…..

Download : 
How to Start an Online Business

To a reader in the 19th century, that might well have seemed a fair description of global trading relations at the time rather than of a game of croquet in the Queen of Hearts court. It was only in the course of the 19th century that the beginnings of some order, as we know it today, began to emerge. Industrialization was taking hold in several countries, and it generated an intensified search for foreign markets and sources of supply. Governments in Europe were faced with calls to lower tariff barriers on imported inputs and to negotiate reductions in tariffs protecting foreign markets. But in a nationalistic world of vying states – as it still is today – governments were not about to ease access to their markets in the absence of some quid pro quo.

The way forward was found in the adoption of two instruments of policy – reciprocity and non-discrimination – which set off a wave of trade liberalization. These two ideas enabled countries to surmount their innate distrust of each other and to engage in mutually beneficial and generalized reductions in tariff barriers. Reciprocity – meaning contingent and equivalent concessions – assuaged the fear of governments that they might not be receiving at least as much from others as they were giving themselves, and non-discrimination reassured them that they were enjoying the same treatment as had been won by other competing states. Neither of these ideas was a sudden intellectual invention; they had long been known in human affairs. But their application to trade relations was comparatively new and did much to advance global trade liberalization.

Historians usually identify the signing of the Anglo-French Treaty of 1860 as the landmark that signaled the new era of trade relations. Besides the need for a political gesture of friendship, the immediate cause of the signing of the Treaty was a decision by the French government to follow Britain’s policy of trade liberalization. The French leaders were persuaded at the time by the popular, but mistakenly simplistic and mono-causal, belief that Britain’s superior industrial performance owed much to its free trade policy. However, in undertaking to reduce tariffs on British manufactures, the French government sought some concession from Britain in order to win the support of its export interests in getting the lower tariffs passed through Parliament. Although Britain had already nailed the flag of free trade to its mast – and firmly, but exceptionally, believed that others in their own interest should also reduce their tariffs unilaterally – it accommodated the French political need.2 Further, when other European countries anxiously sought comparable access to the French market, France offered them the same tariff rates that it had set for Britain. The inclusion of such a most-favored-nation (MFN) clause in commercial treaties thereafter became common practice among the European states. It also had the advantage of preventing treaties from being in a constant state of flux with tariff schedules having repeatedly to be renegotiated bilaterally.

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