Viral marketing is probably the number one method for
generating traffic and sales - IF it is set up properly.
Take the case of viral e-books - which means e-books that
can be passed from one person to another bringing benefits
(profits) for each party in turn.
How is this achieved?
The basic concept is that the e-books contain links to
affiliate products. When a reader of the e-books makes a
purchase from a link then the affiliate receives the
commission.
The creators of such e-books will allow some of the links to
be 'rebranded' which means a person (who we will refer to
as the rebrander) can replace them with his own affiliate
codes thus collecting commission. This is the obvious
incentive for him to pass the e-books around and begin the
viral progression.
If we want to maximize the benefits for everyone and create
the perfect viral e-books we need to have THREE key factors
in place.
1) Wide Distribution
There are many permutations in the ways that you can offer
your e-books. They can be free or paid, and for either option you
can charge for rebranding or offer it free; plus you can
have part customization or full customization. On top of
that, for paid e-books you can offer resale rights and even
the right to grant resale rights.
Let's keep it simple.
What we want is the widest possible distribution so that we
get the most commission from the affiliate links embedded in the e-books.
So we will create FREE e-books with FREE rebranding rights.
2) Quality Affiliate Links
It goes without saying that your e-books should contain good
content on topics of strong interest.
But will readers click on your affiliate links?
The answer is 'NO' if you copy the poor example of many
authors, for instance:
• have you ever opened an e-book and been faced with a
barrage of affiliate links?
• or seen affiliate products which have nothing to do with
the theme of the e-book? For example, in e-books about
hypnotism you get links to a web hosting company...
So what is the best way?
The secret is to have highly relevant links and weave them
naturally into the content in a low-key style without
appearing to push for a sale. So when you discuss a
particular topic and want to show where more detail can be
found, or how a particular problem can be solved, that's
where you can mention the affiliate product as a source of
further information. If you want to see really good
examples of how to do this read the free e-book at the end of
this article.
See - that last sentence was an ACTUAL working example of
how to weave in a link! ;)
3) Maximum Return For Both Parties
You need to get the rebranding balance right.
If you give away e-books and allow all the affiliate links
to be rebranded that is a great deal for the rebrander -
but what do you get out of it ? No affiliate commission,
just subscribers maybe for your mailing list if you have a
sign-up form in the book.
Conversely if you hand out only a few affiliate links for
rebranding then that provides little incentive for the
rebrander to distribute the book.
Ideally what you want is the maximum motivation for your
rebrander which would be...
* to allow free rebranding * to allow ALL the links to be
rebranded...
but in a way that you can still benefit.
Can that be possible?
Fortunately it is, using any of 3 different methods:
• If the links in the e-books are for your own products;
• If the links are for products for which you have resale rights; or
• If the links are for 2-tier affiliate programs so that
you collect the 2nd tier commission when a rebrander, who
has signed up under you, makes a sale!
And so, if you use these techniques you can begin a viral
marketing campaign which will continue to generate traffic
and sales with little on-going effort on your part.
EXCEPT for two issues we need to resolve
1) What happens if everyone rebrands the e-books and only
make purchases from their own copies?
Well, I have found that in practice only a minority (say
10%) will take the time to rebrand e-books, which means that
the majority (90%) will be reading your e-books and purchasing
from YOUR links.
So there's no problem here.
2) Suppose you plan to produce viral e-books. They're about
popular topics - so they're bound to have a wide circulation -
but you can't find any of the three types of suitable links
to put in your e-books, i.e. links to a product of your own, to
products with resale rights or for 2-tier affiliate
programs.
Is there a solution?
There sure is - and you can find out the answer in my e-book "101
SuperTips" - it's actually tip 100.
As you might expect, this e-book is free, with valuable
information linking to highly relevant products, and you
can rebrand it, again for free.
By all the rules above it's a candidate, I hope you agree,
for 'the perfect viral e-book' and a profitable source of
revenue for you!

