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Promoting Clickbank Products With YouTube – Part 2 – Video Reviews Tutorial

by Scotty on December 27, 2012 · 0 comments

Clickbank and Youtube Make MoneyOkay, so a couple of weeks ago I wrote a post about promoting Clickbank products with YouTube and I promised it would be the first in a series.  That post actually became pretty popular (especially for a new blog such as this) so I definitely wanted to jump in a little deeper and share another method that I am currently using to make money online.

I recently heard a statistic that 60% of Internet traffic after 6 pm is video.  I’m not sure if this is 100% accurate but I do know that YouTube is the second largest search engine behind Google.  While it is getting harder and harder to rank affiliate websites in Google, I find it to be surprisingly easy to get decent amounts of targeted traffic from YouTube.  In fact, I was telling someone just last night that it seems like YouTube is like Google five or six years ago.  So without anymore fluff, I am going jump right into another one of my YouTube/Clickbank methods.

Step One – Pick Your Clickbank Product

The first thing I do is go to the Clickbank marketplace and pick a product that is not overly competitive but still sells.  I am usually looking for a product with a gravity of between 15 and 40.  Alternatively, you could go to CB Analytics and sort by gravity.  After you get to around page 10, you will get past some of the crap and start to find some hidden gems.

I also don’t really care too much about the payout.  Obviously, a higher payout is better but I’ve made good money with products that have a $10 payout as well.

Step Two – Keyword Research

The next thing to do is go to the Google Keyword Tool and hunt for keywords related to the Clickbank product.  This is where you have to get a little creative.  Obviously, high search volume in the Google Keyword Tool equates to high search volume in YouTube.  I’m usually looking for keyword phrases that get over 10,000 exact monthly searches but have under 2,000 results in the YouTube search.  Of course, these aren’t hard and fast numbers and can definitely be adjusted if you find a winning product.   I normally start out by trying to keep at least that 5:1 ratio in place, so if I find a keyword in Google Keyword Tool with 75,000 exact searches and that term only has 5000 results in YouTube, I’ll jump all over it.

Step Three – Contact the Clickbank Publisher

Next, I will contact the Clickbank Publisher and ask for a review copy of the product.  Generally, you can find an email address or contact form somewhere on the sales page or on the affiliates page.  Make sure you tell them that you are an experienced Internet marketer and that you would like to test out their product with some high quality SEO traffic sources you have.  Let them know that you plan to do an in-dept, honest review of their product and need a review copy in order to get started.  I have found that a well-crafted, personalized email to the product creator will do the job most of the time.

Pro Tip:  Include your full name and a phone number at the bottom of your email.  Rarely will the product creator ever contact you but it will make you sound more professional and not like some clown trying to get a free copy of their product.

If you don’t’ get a response from the Clickbank publisher you have two choices.  You can either contact other publishers in the same niche or you can do a less in-depth, surface level review based upon the info presented on the sales page.

Personally, I always like to get a review copy of the product before I promote it.  I’ve always felt that an honest review is much more compelling and ethically, I don’t like to promote a product I haven’t fully vetted.

Step Four – Create a Screen Capture Video

The software I use for my screen capture video is Camtasia Studio and have found it to be the absolute best piece of software on the market for this application.  The initial price is a little high but this software has literally made me tens of thousands of dollars over the last couple of years.

I find that I get the best results from doing a five to ten minute video showing the inside of the product.  This video is just me talking in a casual voice showing an inside look at the product and everything they get if they purchase.

Pro Tip:  At the end of the video make sure you have some kind of call to action for more information.  I often accomplish this with a static image telling them to click the link below the video to find out more.

Additional Pro Tip:  I always save the video as KeywordTryingToRankFor.mp4.  There has been some speculation that this increases your rankings inside of the YouTube search engine.  Although anecdotal, I can’t see how it could hurt.

Step Five – Upload Your Video To YouTube With Proper Title, Description, and Tags

This step is by far the most crucial when it comes to rankings in the YouTube search engine (and it is often the one where I see the most people screw up on).

I like to include the keyword twice in the title, once at the beginning and once at the end.  For example:

Lose Belly Fat – A Proven Method To Lose Belly Fat Fast

Next up is your description.  You want your link at the very start of the description with your keyword in the link.  For example:

–>  http://www.YourWebsite.com/YourKeyword

Use an index.php file in the “YourKeyword” directory as I showed you in my last Clickbank post.

After your link, start your text description with your keyword and write a decent video description and make sure you include your keyword at least one other time while still keeping a moderate keyword density.

Step Six (optional) – Promote Your Video Through 3rd Party Services

While this section is optional, it can still be quite useful.  It has been suggested that YouTube gives more preference in its search results to videos that have more views, comments, and likes so you may want to purchase some video packages from Fiverr.

You can also take this strategy to the next level by trying to get your video ranked in Google.  By now, most people know that Google is often showing YouTube videos on the first page of the search results for many keywords.

Again, Fiverr is you horse for this as well.  Go ahead and purchase a social bookmarking package from Fiverr throwing a few hundred social bookmarks at your video.    Other proven methods for ranking your video in the Google SERPS is to purchase some Web 2.0 links, .EDU links, or some TubeMogul submissions on Fiverr.

As I mentioned before, this step is completely optional and I have banked thousands of dollars without this extra step, just by submitting some decent quality Camtasia videos.  Often times, I will wait to go through the additional labor of this step until after I see that the video is bringing in income.

Final Thoughts

Once you have a system down, you will see that you can create and submit dozens a videos per week.  After you have some income coming in, try outsourcing various aspects of the process through Fiverr gigs, virtual assistants, or oDesk.

This method works but may take a few weeks before you start seeing any sales from the videos you submit.  During this time, it’s easy to get discourage and want to give up.  Avoid this temptation.  Once these videos start ranking, they can produce sales for years.

If you have any questions, leave me a comment below and I will answer as soon as possible.

How Much Money Do You Need To Make Online To Survive, Thrive, and Prosper?

by Scotty on December 15, 2012 · 2 comments

Have you given serious thought to how much money you need to make online in order to feel comfortable making the leap from cubicle dweller to full-time entrepreneur?  Read on, that number may not be as big as you actually think.

Is It How Much You Make Or How Much You Spend?

how much money do you need to quit your jobWhen it comes to quitting your job in order to focus on making money online, how much money do you need to make to get by, feel secure, or feel as though you are prospering?  For many, this magic number is usually what it takes to replace what they are making at their current job…and this number can be dauntingly big.

For me, I would need to be making nearly $6,000 a month in order to replace what I am currently making at my job, even more if I took into account insurance, retirement, and unemployment benefits.  If I were to include all of these perks, we’d be talking about more like $8,000 a month.

If I needed to get to that place (eight grand a month!) before quitting my job, working in the evening and on the weekends to build my online business, chances are I would probably never get there.  Unless one hits a serious streak of luck, that’s borderline impossible to do without putting in some serious time.  And as you know from reading my blog, I’m not just looking to trade my current stressful job for another one just like it.

So, how do you do it?  How do you get to the place where you are making enough money on the Internet where you can quit your job so you can really pursue your passions and build a legitimate online business?  It’s really quite simple…I don’t need to give you Scotty’s eight step plan to quitting your job and making money on the Internet.  It really just boils down to two things…

#1.  Get Out Of Debt Fast!

Debt is dumb and is a stronghold that will keep you from ever reaching financial freedom.  Pay off as much of your debt that you can and don’t accrue anymore if at all possible.

Does that sound harsh?  Borderline impossible?   If you are looking towards or already involved in Internet marketing, you are well ahead of the curve.  Have you ever listened to the people on the Dave Ramsey Show?  They wipe out their debt by simply buckling down and making hard choices (beans and rice anybody?).  Most of them don’t know anything about generating extra income online.  As an Internet marketer (or blogger or ecommerce website owner or whatever else you are), you essentially have the ability to generate an extra paycheck every month by .  This makes paying off debt happen that much faster.

http://www.daveramsey.com/radio/home/

Once you are out of debt, don’t accrue anymore.  There would be absolutely no way I could be planning to quit my job in the next six months if I was sitting on a bunch of credit card debt and car payments.  If you are of the mentality of needing to keep up with the Jones, always buying stuff you don’t need with money you don’t have, you will never have the financial independence you need to be your own boss.

Once your debt is paid off, you really don’t have to make much every month to make ends meet.

#2. Start Saving Today!

If your debt is paid off, you need to start saving a significant part of your income (both online and offline).  Having a nice chunk of change sitting in the savings account will allow you to sleep so much better at night when your monthly income is not guaranteed.  This number is different for different people and for different financial situations.  For me, I believe I will feel comfortable with between $30,000 and $40,000 in the bank.  To you, this may sound like too much (is that even possible?) or not enough, but like I said, it’s different for everybody.

Now, Quitting Your Job Is Not That Hard

See, I told you, it’s really only two steps that can be boiled down to this:

  1. Spend less than you make
  2. Save a chunk of what you make

Once you have significantly reduced your debt and have a nice saving built up, you will probably feel pretty good about quitting your job with far less than your current monthly income coming in.  My goal is to have $1,000 a month coming in passively from my online efforts before I quit my job.  This is a far cry from the six grand I’m making now.  The reason I can feel confident making this bold move is because I have a good sized savings built up and little debt besides my mortgage.

Now It’s Your Turn

So how much money would you need to have coming in before you could even think about quitting your job?  Would you have to have all of your debt paid off?  What size savings account would make you feel “comfortable?”  Comment and let us know.

Five Reasons You Should Quit Your Job

by Scotty on December 8, 2012 · 3 comments

As I’ve written before, I’m currently running full steam ahead toward quitting my job in the next 6 months.  While I’ve yet to let my current employer in on my plans (more on that in a later post), I have talked it over with my parents, my family, and quite a few friends.  Also, my wife and I have made a definitive financial plan, and have taken some other concrete steps such as letting our daycare provider know that she won’t have a job next year.  Finally, my wife, who is a teacher and normally does not work in the summer, will be taking on a summer school principal position and I will be working from home.

I said all of that to say, “This Thing Is Definitely Gonna Happen, People!”  The pieces are already in motion and I would be lying if I said I didn’t get more excited with each passing day.

Should I Quit My Day JobI know there are many out there who would love to do what I’m doing but just can’t bring themselves to take the leap for fear of the unknown.  That’s why I wanted to put together a list of the top 5 things you should really start thinking about if you’ve ever dreamed of leaving the boring ol’ 9-5 behind and striking out on your own to create passive income streams from the Internet, or anywhere else for that matter.

1)    You Are Bored With Your Current Job/Lifestyle/Place In Life

Bored At WorkIf you are reading this blog post there is probably a 99% chance that you are not content with what you are doing now.  You may be at the place where you absolutely hate your job or you may just be thinking that there has to be more you could be doing with those 50+ hours a week of time you are trading for a paycheck.  If this is you, you NEED to put in motion the plans to quit your job today!  Trust me, it’s not going to magically get better.  You have to make a change in order to get what you desire.

2)    You Want To Build Something That Has Equity

When you go to work every day, you are simply trading your time for money.  There’s nothing more to it.  If you are any good at your job, you are probably improving processes, building systems, and ultimately making your company more money.  But when you decide to leave (for whatever reason), you don’t receive anything from them other than maybe a goodbye card and a gift certificate to Applebees.  You have no equity in your job.

But if you put that same time and effort into building your own business, whether it’s making money on the Internet or starting a lawn care service, you are building something with equity.  That means that down the road, if you decide that you don’t want to continue working on/in that business, you have something of real value that you can sell to someone else.  This for me is the real clincher.

3)    You Want True Job Security

I currently work in a pretty stable industry but the thought never completely leaves my mind that I could be fired or laid off at any time.  That’s a pretty scary feeling, to know that your future is in the hands of someone else.  If you really want to hold the power over your own life, you simply can’t rely on your employer to provide financial stability for you.  You have to be the master of your own destiny and go out and create it on your own.

4)    You Want To Be Rich! (or at least financially secure)

Let’s face it, unless you are a doctor or lawyer, pretty much no one gets rich working for someone else.  Think about it for minute, who do you know who is actually rich?  Now, are those people working for themselves or are they working for someone else?  Chances are pretty high they are not working for someone else.

3% Pay RaiseDon’t blame me.  This is just the way a free market society works.  You are given a set salary to perform specific tasks for your company.  If you do those tasks well, you get to keep your job (and your salary).  If you do them exceptionally well, you may get a 3-5% raise next year.  Sounds like it’s rigged, doesn’t it?  You bust your butt for a 3% pay raise and positive review that goes in your personnel file?  It doesn’t sound fair, but as I said, that’s the way the system works.

Now let’s say you bust your butt working on your own projects.   You’re incredibly passionate about what you’re working on so it really doesn’t even seem like work at all.  You might fail a few times but eventually you’re going to have a big win.  And it’s not too farfetched to think that could probably make a lot of money when you do have that win.

5)    You Want To Be In Control Of Your Time

How much time do you spend doing actual “work” at your job?  (Hint: If you’re reading this blog from your desk at work, you’re not working.)  I would bet it’s less than 15-20 hours of actual work each week and you probably still get all of your work done.  But you still have to be at the office, clocked in for those 40 hours every week, right?  Could you think of a more productive way to spend those 20-25 hours a week rather than just burning them up so you could collect your paycheck?  If this is you, it’s probably time to quit your job!

Now It’s Your Turn

Have your quit your job to strike out on your own?  Are you planning to quit in the near future?  Just starting to toy around with the idea of quitting?  Share your inspiration.  We want to hear from you!

 

Promoting Clickbank Products With YouTube – Part 1 – Buying YouTube Accounts

by Scotty on December 2, 2012 · 5 comments

I have been mulling this series of posts I want to do on promoting Clickbank products with YouTube, knowing they had to be EPIC, but also a little daunted by the amount of time they would consume.  Oh well, no time like the present to jump in.

Buckle up!  If you apply what I’m about to show you in the next couple of posts, you are almost guaranteed to make some passive income.

Promoting Clickbank Products With YouTubeMy Success With Clickbank

Over the past few years, I have made several hundred thousand dollars by promoting my own and other people’s Clickbank products.  One of the most successful methods I have used over the years has been to promote Clickbank products on YouTube.  Even today, I still believe using YouTube with Clickbank is one of the fastest and easiest ways to start making money online, and it is a core element of my current business strategy.

I came across the method of buying established YouTube accounts for their already present traffic a few years ago and am still always on the hunt for new accounts to add to my portfolio.  While this method has become somewhat popular (even Shoemoney touched on it recently), it is still a very effective way to get quality, targeted traffic to your niche site, and there are still plenty of accounts out there if you know how to find them.

Why Buy YouTube Accounts

Still a bit confused on why someone would want to buy an established YouTube account?  Simple, it’s all about the traffic…and it’s some of the easiest traffic you can get.  Take a look at the following search and then take a look at the first couple of results (sorted by view count).

Buy YouTube Account Search

 

Buy YouTube Account Search Result

As you can see from the first few search results, there is some pretty nice volume on these accounts.  Actually taking a look at the other videos in the first account, there are currently 1.7 million views on her videos, all of which are related to the Master Cleanse.  Now imagine if you were to purchase one or more of these accounts and post your affiliate link in the the description to this product…

Clickbank Search Results - Master Cleanse

Do you see where I’m going with this?  A simple email to the account owner, payment via Paypal, a well placed affiliate link, and true passive income.  Trust me, it works, and the ROI is incredible. Plus you can do it over and over again in almost every niche imaginable.

Here’s another quick example…

Go to YouTube, type in “How To Build A…” followed by anything made out of wood (storage shed, coffee table, desk, etc).  Next, go to Clickbank and chose one of the many, high-converting woodworking plans products available.  PROFIT!  It really is that easy.

How To Actually Buy The YouTube Account

Okay, let’s say that you followed my example above and you’ve found some really great YouTube accounts you would like to buy.  How, exactly, do you go about making an offer?  Well, this process isn’t nearly as difficult as you would expect.  Most of the account owners have no idea that their account is of any value to anyone else.  There are many approaches to making contact but I have been pretty successful with sending a private message to the YouTube account owner.

Something like this…

Hey, I came across your YouTube account today and I would be interested in purchasing it from you. I own a website related to your videos and I would like to use your account to see how much traffic I can get to it. If you want to set up a new account and copy your videos over to that one, no problem. I just want the account as it stands now. I can send you $100 for it through Paypal or could even mail you a check if you want. Let me know if you are interested.

Now before you go contacting YouTube account holders, you want to make sure you have identified good candidates.  First, you want to avoid accounts that already have a link to a website in the description, especially at the very beginning.  These accounts have either already been poached by other marketers or are being used by the account owner to direct traffic to his or her own website.

Also, you want to look for semi-dormant accounts.  This means you are looking for accounts that haven’t had a video uploaded in at least a few months maybe even years.   These accounts aren’t being actively used by the account holder to push new content and there is probably not an “emotional tie” to the account.

The best accounts you can find are the ones that have one or two videos with over a million views.  These accounts are worth their weight in gold.

Finally, be ready for rejection.  Most people don’t respond back so be ready for about a 20% success rate.  That means that you will need to contact around five account holders to even get one bite.   But once you do get a bite, it’s often pretty easy.  The account holder usually feels pretty good about being offered a hundred dollar bill out of the blue for something they didn’t realize had any value.

You Scored The Account, Now What?

Now that you’ve got the account, here comes the fun part.  The first thing you need to do is make sure you change the email address and password.  Do this right away after the account details are given to you.

Next comes the most important part, placing your link in the video descriptions.  Since the video has already been ranking well in YouTube’s search engine, you want to change as little as possible.  I have had the best luck with simply putting the link right at the beginning of the video description and then a couple of annotations in the video pushing the viewer to click the link.

Making Money After Buying YouTube Accounts

There are two easy ways to make money from YouTube accounts.

1)  The first is the quick and dirty method where your link just re-directs to a Clickbank product.  I recommend doing something like this…

http://www.MySite/MasterCleanse

…rather than putting the long, ugly affiliate link from Clickbank in the video description.  To do this, you simply need to create a directory called MasterCleanse and then create an index.php file in the directory.  Next place the following code in the index.php file.

PHP redirect code

 

 

You can use the same website for all your different products.  For example, if you owned a shed plans account, you would create another directory so your link would look like this.

http://www.MySite/ShedPlans

2)  A smarter approach to making money from your newly purchased YouTube accounts would be to have your link go to a landing page with a opt-in.  Remember, building a list is one of the most important things you can do for your business!  Check out a simple example below.

YouTube link to opt-in form

After the viewer enters his or her name and email address, they are then shot over to the Clickbank product.  Now, even if they don’t buy right out of the gate, you still have many more opportunities to interact with them.  If you have the time, I highly recommend this method over the quick and dirty approach.

Your Turn To Get Started

This is a very simple but scalable method for creating passive income online.  You probably won’t make $10,000 per month off one YouTube account but it very likely that you could make $50-100 per month off each account.  Imagine having 10, 20, or 50 of these accounts.  It doesn’t take a math major to see that you could quickly make a livable wage from this passive income stream.

So, what are you waiting for?  Get out there and takes some action!  And don’t forget to let me know how it works out for you.

-Scotty

Why I’m Quitting My Job To Make Money Online

by Scotty on November 25, 2012 · 0 comments

When I told my wife I was starting this website as both a way to chronicle my success online and as a sort of cathartic release to write about my plans to quit my job in six months focus solely on my online business, she warned me to make sure the latter didn’t turn into me continually moaning and complaining about how much I hate my job.  So, in an effort to keep true to my word, I want to focus on the positive side of things rather than just write about negative side of my current employment situation.

A Job vs. An Income

Have you ever thought about why you go to work each day?  Do you go because you love the commute? Do you love getting up early and rushing out the door before you’ve hardly had a chance to see your kids, your husband, or your wife?  Sure, you may like the people you work with and may even enjoy the type of work you do, but would you keep going if they asked you to do it for free?  Of course you wouldn’t.  You are simply trading your time for their money.

We spend a lot of time talking about job satisfaction and job fulfillment but in the end, the majority of people I know work for the paycheck, plain and simple.  I know I do, and I’ve come to the realization that I simply want to work as little as possible for the most money.  I want to have as much of my personal time to spend with my family, while at the same time having enough money to meet all of our needs and wants.

Now, this is a delicate tradeoff.  I’m a firm believer that if you don’t work, you don’t eat!  I’m definitely not lazy and have always worked hard at whatever I set my hand to.  But on the other hand, it’s real easy to literally work your life away at a J.O.B. and be Just Over Broke! 

When you work 40 hours at your job, you get paid for those 40 hours and no more.  Worse yet, wages are generally set at a level to provide just enough to get by.  Say, you want to make more money and you decide to take a management position (like I did).  Well, you essentially just work more hours for that extra income.  Your effective hourly rate stays the same at best (and in my case, even went down)!

The Silent Money Machine

This is why I absolutely love the concept of making money on the Internet.  Let’s say instead of putting those 40 hours of work in at your job, you put 40 hours into coming up with an idea and building a website around it.  If it’s something people need, you WILL get visitors.  From there, monetization is easy.  The best part is, that website can continue earning money forever, day or night, with little to no additional effort or cost on your part.  It essentially becomes your very own silent money machine.

I have websites that were developed years ago that still make sales, still earn ad revenue, still earn me passive income month after month, year after year.

Now imagine having ten, twenty, fifty, even a hundred of these websites, all earning passive residual income.  By having multiple streams of income, you essentially eliminate the risk associated with owning a single business.  These websites make money while you are on vacation, at the gym, spending time with your family, or working on new ideas!  You are no longer trading your time for someone else’s money.

This is what is so appealing to me.  I can work hard up front, put in the effort, and then have passive income streams flowing in while I’m doing the things I love.  I’ve done it before on a smaller scale but now I plan to scale it up as big as I can make it.  There is no limit here!

Now It’s Your Turn To Weigh In

Seriously, have you ever thought about throwing caution to the wind and going after something 110%?  What is holding you back from taking that leap?

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