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 Selling Stuff That Ain't Yours.......
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Yes, that's exactly what we're talking about here. You'll see loads of this type of marketing around the net - the basic idea is this: Mr. Author has a good product which Miss Buyer buys. Mr Author then allows Miss Buyer to sell his product through her own site, portal, blog, email list or any way she can reach her customers. If Miss Buyer gets a sale, Mr Author lets her keep a percentage of the selling price, and takes the remainder. Miss Buyer is happy, as she hasn't had to develop the initial product (or marketing), and Mr. Author is happy because his product is gaining wider exposure, while bringing in a slice of income for no extra effort. You may be wondering why Mr. Author doesn't sell his product without relying on Miss Buyer For a simple response, remember the Virgin's Damascus Moment - Yes, there are thousands of Internet Marketers out there, but there are BILLIONS of potential customers! Mr. A knows this, and lets Miss Buyer (and Mrs Collector., Professor Purchaser, Ms. Client, and the rest) do the rest of his "grunt work" to propagate his product. So Mr. Author is making a fair bit of cash as his work goes around the world, and Miss Buyer and the rest (the affiliates) are making a bit too, and that's that, then? Hell, No! Can you guess what's plastered all over every copy that Miss Buyer and any other affiliates sell? If you said "Advertising for Mr Author," you're getting the idea. If you said "Mr Author's own url," or "Mr Author's own affiliate links," then you know exactly what we're talking about here. Yes, it's advertising again - getting your name out there and making sure people know you're there. No matter how many people buy from Miss B., if they want more of the same, the address they're going to is that of Mr A. And what did it cost him? A commission on a sale that someone else worked to advertise! So, big money to be made on producing the original product, but equally, if you have the rights to put your own links on a product, you can do the same. Obviously, this comes at a price....
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Have I The Right....?
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Many products are sold (or given away) with some form of resale rights. These vary widely, and are offered for the purpose of getting those all-important links out there. Some products are given away, along with the rights to pass the product along for free, because it is a PDF document full of links the originator wants to advertise. At the same time, there are products which allow the buyer to sell them without "kicking back" any profit to the original author. Although these are perceived to be of greater value, the principal is the same as the giveaways mentioned above. At the top of the tree are those products sold as "Master Resell Rights". With these rights, you can sell on the products with YOUR OWN LINKS - so that any time the customer follows a link, you should be making money from it. Did I say "top of the tree"? Oh no, there are Private label rights, there are unlimited affiliate earning schemes, there are so many options. SO MANY options, but do the maths - the more of the product you own, the more of the profit is yours. So.... get in as near the top as you can, preferably by marketing your own product full of your links through your own advertising, but no matter if you've written the best guide to adsense yet (no, I haven't, but it's coming!), or if you're giving away a keyword search program or even a list of links... Follow the Golden Rule: DON'T GET INVOLVED IN SELLING SHITE!!! Here comes another of the Virgin's guiding ideas - if you find it useful, so will others - they'll learn to trust your recommendation. If you didn't find it useful, why should your customer? And why would he trust you again? Anyone can make a sale, a good salesman can sell anything, but nobody can get repeat custom when they've ripped off a customer. NEVER try to sell a product that is going to damage your reputation. You want your customers to come back again and again, and they'll only do that if they're happy with the service.
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Copyright (c) 2007 Gerry Lennon
gerry@marketingvirgin.org |
