The merchant would handle the product development, fulfillment, payment processing and customer support. All you have to do is just send visitors to their website.

However, with so many affiliate programs out there, choosing a great program can be a challenge.

So here are five elements to look for when choosing an affiliate program:

1. Conversion rate

The first and most important element in an affiliate program is the conversion rate. You need to know how successful is the merchant’s sales page in converting visitors to customers.

This metric is critical especially if you’re advertising the affiliate product. You must be able to calculate whether you’ll be profitable with your advertising campaign.

2. Commission

Affiliate commissions can range from 5% to 100%. But the best programs offer recurring monthly commissions.

Instead of just getting commission for a single sale, you can earn monthly passive income from a program with recurring commissions.

3. Promotional tools

A good program should provide lots of tools and more importantly, the merchant should have tested the tools before offering them to their affiliates.

You don’t want to waste time and money with unproven and untested tools.

4. Tracking

Some programs only track sales for up to a month. If your referral buys after 30 days, you won’t get credit for the sale.

So, look for programs that offer extended tracking, e.g. 1 to 5 years. Be sure to read their tracking policy before you sign up.

5. Minimum payment

Many programs have a minimum payment policy. For instance, you may have to earn at least $50 in commissions before you get paid.

I prefer programs that don’t have any minimum payment policy. Nowadays, with Paypal, a merchant can pay their affiliates every month instantly and easily without incurring any expensive bank charges.

And that’s it. Five elements to look for when choosing an affiliate program.

By the way, we have just launched our own Startup Rebel Affiliate Program. If you want to earn monthly recurring commissions from our flagship product, the Startup Rebel Alliance, do check it out here.

It’s called Broken Link Checker.

This plugin checks for broken links and missing images on your Wordpress blog. And it will notify you through your blog’s dashboard if any are found.

Here’s a list of Broken Link Checker’s features:

• Checks your posts (and pages) in the background.
• Detects links that don’t work and missing images.
• Notifies you on the Dashboard if any are found.
• Makes broken links display differently in posts (optional).
• Link checking intervals can be configured, the default is set to 72 hours.
• New/modified posts are checked ASAP.
• You can unlink or edit broken links in the *Manage -> Broken Links* tab.

Click here to download for free.

Mistake #1: Completely task or project-based outsourcing.

In other words, hiring someone to complete a specific task or project when the need arises. Instead, they should be focusing on gathering long-term valuable members of their team.

I’m thinking that this goes to the question before, I see people who are constantly going to the freelance sites, and trying to find a new person, or trying to find the cheapest person, even though they are looking for quality, they’re still looking for the cheapest person.

Each time they need it, they are looking for someone new, and it’s so much easier if you find someone good and keep them busy. And, it’s not just that you keep that new person.

It means that your business can continue to run smoothly, because the people who work for me… I don’t have to talk with them all the time.

Mistake #2: Looking for the cheapest price.

You might find a great deal, but as a general rule, you often do get what you pay for.

Plus, it goes back to that you are task-oriented, because you are constantly looking for new people, and trying to find the best deal. It’s too much work to do it that way.

Mistake #3: Not giving clear instructions.

The more information you can give your contractor about a task, the better. Every time you give instructions, keep a copy for your files, so that you can use it over and over again.

I know people don’t want to give those instructions, because they think it takes a lot of time, but if you keep it, then you can use it again when you need it, and then you already have it on hand, and it’s amazing how people will say, “I hired someone, and they did a terrible job.”

And, a lot of the time, it’s the way they gave the instructions. If you don’t give enough information, either that person has to interpret what needs to be done, or they may misunderstand, and it’s just your own fault.

Mistake #4: Not checking work.

I talked about overseeing everything. Outsourcing doesn’t relieve you of all your obligations.

You need to check work to make sure that your business is being presented properly, and so that you can give constructive feedback to your contractors, because that’s how you grow, and things get better.

They’re not going to be perfect, right out of the gate, so they need that feedback.

Mistake #5: Not evaluating their actual delegation.

Sometimes, checking the work is checking the quality of their work, but also sometimes people outsource for months and months without truly evaluating — even if people are doing a great job — what they are actually doing, is it actually effective?

You can’t get away from customer service.  That has to be done.  So, you outsource that, and it goes.

But, if you’re outsourcing things like specific marketing tasks, say its article marketing or something like that, you need to regularly evaluate if your plan is working. If it’s not, you might need to change your strategy or just scrap that part altogether.

I’m talking about contributing informative and helpful content in forums. And in your posts, you can include a link to your website in your signature.

Occasionally, you can link to a post on your blog that’s relevant to the discussion.

But here’s the problem with using forums to generate traffic… you have to keep posting to get traffic.

Any post you make or any thread you start will eventually be relegated to the second page and beyond to make way for new threads and posts. And once your posts get relegated, it won’t be seen by the majority of the forum visitors.

So, it’s not a really effective traffic strategy in the long term. Well, here’s one strategy to help you get traffic from forums without writing a single post.

It’s a really simple strategy that has worked offline for decades.

Organize a contest.

Contests are a proven publicity strategy to generate buzz for your business and products.

So, here’s a step-by-step guide on how to organize a contest on forums:

1. Search for forums that share your target market. For instance, if you’re in the dog market, just type “dog+forum” in Google and you should be able to find a few forums for dog owners.

2. Tell the forum owners that you’re willing to sponsor a contest on their forum. You will offer your products and services as prizes. The goal of the contest is to encourage participation in their forum. So, the person who makes the highest number of posts within a specified time (e.g. a month) will be the winner.

3. The forum owners will then post a sticky thread on their forum to announce the contest and the first post on that sticky thread should contain a link to your site. And the sticky thread will stay up on the first page of the forum for the entire duration of the contest.

So, when visitors arrive at the forum, they will instantly see the sticky thread about the contest. And when they read about the contest, they will see your website’s link.

And that’s how you generate traffic from forums without writing a single post.

Simple enough, right? Now, take action!

Let’s say you wrote an ebook that teaches job hunters how to get a job in 30 days. And you wrote a sales letter with the headline:

“How To Get A Job In 30 Days Or Less.”

Now, you may be able to generate some sales with that letter. But here’s a strategy that will boost your sales. It’s so simple that it’s surprising how many experienced marketers overlook it.

It’s called market segmentation.

You see, just because your ebook is a general product that appeals to a general market, doesn’t mean that your sales letter has to be general as well.

When it comes to communicating your sales message, a personalized message will always outperform a general one.

And that’s where market segmentation comes in.

Instead of writing a general sales letter that targets everyone, write multiple letters that target multiple market segments while selling the same product.

How To Segment Your Market

One easy way to segment your market is to study your keywords. If you’re advertising on Google AdWords, look at the keywords being used by your market.

Going back to the job hunting ebook example, some of the keywords that job hunters use could be:

• Sales job
• Secretarial job
• Engineering job

That’s three market segments right there.

Now, you can customize your sales letter for each market segment. So, your new headlines will be:

“How To Get A Sales Job In 30 Days Or Less.”
“How To Get A Secretarial Job In 30 Days Or Less.”
“How To Get An Engineering Job In 30 Days Or Less.”

So, when job hunters use the keywords “sales job” on Google and arrive on your sales letter with the headline, “How To Get A Sales Job In 30 Days Or Less,” they will definitely be more interested in reading the entire sales letter and eventually be more inclined to buy your ebook.

Do you see the simplicity of the strategy?

All you have to do is write a general sales letter. And then, use it as template to customize your sales message for various market segments.

And don’t worry, it only takes 5 seconds to customize each sales letter. Just use the “Find And Replace” function in your web design software and you can create a customized sales letter for several market segments easily and quickly.

With a sales letter customized for a specific market segment, your sales will increase. I guarantee it.

Wall Street had the biggest plunge in history last week.

Banks are going bankrupt.

Hundreds of thousands of people are jobless.

You know what? This is actually great news.

The recession represents the best opportunity for anyone who wants to start or grow their business. Here are three reasons why:

1. Cheap labor.

Now, you can get highly qualified people to help you build your business. Since many of them are out of work, they will be willing to work for you on a freelance basis.

During the good times, it’s virtually impossible to hire them. But now, you can even get MBA graduates, if you know where to look. Hint: LinkedIn.com

2. Cheap advertising

During recessions, many companies cut back on their advertising expenditure. And that means less competition for premium spots in Google Adwords and Yahoo Search Marketing.

And if you’re smart, you can negotiate with high traffic portals that rely on advertising revenues. During the dotcom boom, these websites were charging $30 per thousand views for banner ads.

Then, the bubble burst. And their rates dropped to below $5. So, if you want inexpensive banner ad rates, now is the best time to grab them.

3. Publicity opportunities

Since the ailing economy is the biggest topic in the media right now, use it as a hook to generate free publicity for your business.

Here’s an example:

Let’s say you’re in the crafts market. Write a press release on how people can generate a side income by selling their crafts on eBay.

Then, send it to every crafts and women’s magazine in the country. If your press release gets picked up, it will generate thousands of new visitors to your site.

And that’s it. Three damn good reasons for starting and growing a business in a recession.

Most people don’t know this but many of the most successful companies in the world like HP, Sony, Microsoft and Dell all started during recessions.

And because they could survive during the bad times, it’s no surprise that they grew by leaps and bounds during the good times.

So, just ignore the media because they are in the business of sensationalizing stories. They have to in order to sell advertising.

This is your chance to build a business that lasts. Strike while the iron is hot!

Step One: You write a report in Microsoft Word. The report can be anywhere from 3 to 70 pages and will contain links to your website.

Step Two: You convert it into a PDF file using Adobe Acrobat software. A PDF file is a universal file that can be opened by PCs as well as Macs.

Step Three: You give it away to your website visitors and newsletter subscribers.

If your readers find the information valuable, they will pass it to their friends and colleagues. Then, their friends and colleagues will pass it to their own circle of friends and colleagues.

In short, your report becomes “viral.” In time, your report may be read by thousands of people and effectively driving free traffic to your site.

Now, what if you want to increase the distribution of your viral report? What would be a simple way to do that?

Well, here’s a simple strategy that could boost your report’s distribution by at least 400%:

I call it the Gang Up Strategy.

Here’s how it works:

Step One: Approach four experts in your market to contribute content to your report.

The key for this strategy to work is that each expert must have their own mailing list that is similar in size to yours. So, if you have 1000 subscribers, look for experts that have a mailing list with around 1000 subscribers.

You can try approaching experts with bigger mailing list but they may feel that it’s unfair to them. There’s no harm in trying, of course. Just don’t be disappointed if they decline your invitation.

Step Two: Compile the content and create the PDF report.

Once you have all the content from the four experts and yourself, compile them and create your viral report. You can host the report on your site or let each expert host it on theirs.

Step Three: Each expert gives the report away to their subscribers.

Once the report is ready for download, each expert will send an email to their respective list to announce the report. I suggest that you write the announcement email to save the experts’ time.

If each expert has an average of 1000 subscribers, your report will be read by an estimated 5000 people. That’s 400% more than having your report distributed to just your own list of 1000 subscribers.

This strategy works because everyone wins.

You and the four experts will gain more exposure from the wider distribution of the report. And your subscribers will get valuable content from five different experts instead of just one.

Easy enough, right? So, take action now!

But the problem is most people dread writing. I know I do.

You have no idea how much effort is required just to write a 30-page ebook like the Startup Rebel Adsense Blueprint. (If you’re wondering what is the Adsense Blueprint, click here to find out.)

So, in this article, I’m going to discuss the six ways you can write ebooks quickly and easily.

1. Record your seminar

Here’s a neat way to get paid to write your ebook: Organize and conduct a seminar.

It can be a live seminar or a teleseminar. Your clients will pay a fee to attend the seminar and then, you record the entire seminar in video or audio format.

Then, send the files to a transcriptionist. In a week or so, you’ll have the first draft of your ebook ready. All you need to do now is to edit and proofread it.

2. Record your interview

If you don’t like public speaking, another way is to get someone to interview you. Record the entire interview and get it transcribed.

3. Edit and sell public domain books

There are many published books with lapsed copyright. The work belongs to the public now, hence the term “public domain.”

And that means you can edit and sell the books without having to pay royalty to the original writer.

4. Hire a ghostwriter

If you don’t have any expertise on the topic that your market wants, you can hire a ghostwriter. A ghostwriter is someone who will research the topic and write the ebook for you. You’ll own the rights to the ebook forever and get credit for the work.

There’s nothing unethical about this. Many celebrities use ghostwriters to write their memoirs or biography. So, this is an option that you should consider if you don’t have any marketable expertise.

5. Interview experts

Another way to leverage other people’s expertise is to interview experts. Many experts will agree to an interview if the benefits are attractive to them.

You can offer them publicity and exposure for their products and services in return for their time. So, be sure to craft an irresistible offer before you approach experts for interviews.

6. Acquire resell rights or private label rights

You can also obtain the resell rights or private label rights to ebooks. Resell rights allow you can sell the ebook and keep all the profits but you can’t edit or claim ownership of the work.

On the other hand, private label rights allow you to edit and sell the ebook with your name on it.

To look for resell rights or private label rights ebooks, just do a search on Google.

And there you have it. Six quick and easy ways to write your ebook.

Since how-to ebooks are extremely lucrative, the market is also extremely competitive. So, you need a competitive edge before you start writing and selling your ebook or you’ll get whacked by your competitors with bigger marketing budgets.

If you want to learn how to compete for traffic with businesses that have bigger marketing budgets and larger affiliate base, do check out the Startup Rebel Competitive Magic course.

Even with a small budget, you can succeed in any highly crowded market using the strategies in the course.

It’s how-to ebooks.

People are starving for information. They want an instruction manual on how to do just about everything in life. They want to learn how to:

• get a job
• get a date
• start a business
• dance like professional
• sell on eBay
• play Texas Hold ‘Em
• lose weight

The how-to book market is so lucrative that one book publisher built a million dollar franchise book series. You may have heard of it.

It’s called the “Dummies” books.

There are other similar book series too and most of them are doing quite well. “The Everything” series, “Idiot’s Guide” series and others are all cashing in on the how-to phenomenon.

You could cash in by creating your own ebooks on any or all of the subjects covered in any of those series.

Here’s an effective way to determine whether your ebook idea is marketable. Just visit www.dummies.com and check out their list of titles.

If you can find a Dummies book on the topic of your choice, there’s a market for it.

Specific Information Sells

Ebooks, due to their brevity and are marketed primarily online, can target smaller audiences. You don’t have to write a universal book like “How to use a computer.”

Ebooks can cover more specific topics. In other words, you can create ebooks for different markets on the same subject and sell each one separately.

Say you’ve decided to write an ebook on fishing. You could publish separate ebooks on “How to Catch Freshwater Trout,” “How to Tie Your Own Flies,” or “How to Plan a Successful Deep Sea Fishing Trip.”

Almost anything related to the hobby can become a separate ebook depending on how much detail you include.

Ebook Titles Are Critical

The title of your ebook is extremely important to its sales. The title of your ebook doesn’t have to be incredibly clever.

Just include the words “How to” as part of the title and the rest should tell people exactly what the ebook is about.

For example, which of these three titles is the most effective?

1. “How to have a successful garage sale.”
2. “One weekend away from a cleaner house”
3. “How to sell your old shoes for a profit”

Although titles #2 and #3 are clever, a little punchy and correspond with the ebook content, I would still recommend using title #1.

“How to have a successful garage sale” sums it up pretty well and will catch the eye of an Internet surfer who is interested in putting together a garage sale and needs a how-to manual.

So, how-to ebooks are proven sellers and can be a great way to supplement your online profits.

And the increase in PPC ad costs will definitely affect your bottomline. For instance, if you’re currently paying 20 cents a click and getting a 1% conversion rate for a $50 ebook, you’re making a profit of $30 for every sale.

Now, what happens if the cost per click is driven up to 50 cents?

With a 1% conversion rate, you’re just breaking even on your $50 ebook.

And what happens if the cost per click goes up to $1?

Now, you’re losing $50 for every sale!

So, how do you overcome this inevitable challenge?

Well, here are two proven strategies to overcome rising PPC ad costs:

1. Extend your customer lifetime value

Customer lifetime value (CLV) refers to the total amount of profits you’ll generate from your customer’s expenditure on your products and services in her lifetime. Using the earlier example, if you’re making a profit of $30 from a $50 ebook, your CLV is $30.

So, to overcome rising PPC ad costs, you’ll have to extend your CLV. In other words, you’ll need to generate repeat business by selling additional products and services to your customers.

Here are two ways to extend your CLV:

Tactic #1: Create and sell high ticket information products.

I highly recommend that you create a $97 to $497 information product and promote it via email to your customer list. The fastest way to create a high ticket information product is to conduct a live or teleseminar and record it on video or audio. And when you charge a fee for the seminar, you’re actually getting paid to create your product.

Tactic #2: Sell services.

For example, if you’re selling an ebook on job hunting, you should also sell resume writing or interview coaching services. You don’t necessarily have to be the service provider. You can always set up a joint venture with a service professional and collect a commission for every sale you generate.

2. Share advertising costs with complementary businesses

This is an old strategy used by franchises like McDonald’s. You see, every McDonald’s franchisee has to contribute to an advertising fund. A portion of their sales is automatically deducted for advertising expenses.

The reason is because each franchisee by itself wouldn’t be able to afford to produce television and print advertisements and buy airtime on national television or ad space in national newspapers.

But when they combine their financial resources together, they can afford to create a multi-million dollar advertising campaign. In other words, their leveraging on each other’s resources.

Now, here’s how you can adapt this strategy for your own business:

1. Find and approach one to three complementary businesses to share PPC ad costs.

2. Create a landing page that will promote your business as well as your joint venture partners’ businesses. If the landing page collects visitors’ contact information, each partner has access to the information. The landing page will have to be hosted on a neutral domain to be fair to all parties.

3. Set up PPC ads to send traffic to this landing page. One of the partners will have to be appointed to set up and manage the ad campaign. And that partner should be compensated for her effort. Alternately, you and your partners can outsource the task to a virtual assistant or a professional search marketing firm.

So, with these two strategies, the rising PPC ad costs will not be much of a problem for your business.