How To Produce The PERFECT Viral Ebook
Viral marketing is probably the number one method forgenerating traffic and sales - IF it is set up properly.
Take the case of a viral ebook - which means a book thatcan be passed from one person to another bringingbenefits (profits) for each party in turn.
How is this achieved?
The basic concept is that the book contains links toaffiliate products. When a reader of the book makes apurchase from a link then the affiliate receives thecommission.
The creator of such a book will allow some of the linksto be 'rebranded' which means a person (who we willrefer to as the rebrander) can replace them with his ownaffiliate codes thus collecting commission. This is theobvious incentive for him to pass the book around andbegin the viral progression.
If we want to maximize the benefits for everyone andcreate the perfect viral ebook we need to have THREEkey factors in place.
1) Wide Distribution
There are many permutations in the ways that you canoffer an ebook. It can be free or paid, and for eitheroption you can charge for rebranding or offer it free;plus you can have part customization or fullcustomization. On top of that, for a paid book you canoffer resale rights and even the right to grant resalerights.
Let's keep it simple.
What we want is the widest possible distribution so thatwe get the most commission from the affiliate links.
So we will have a FREE book and FREE rebranding rights.
2) Quality Affiliate Links
It goes without saying that your book should containgood content on a topic of interest.
But will readers click on those affiliate links ?
The answer is 'NO' if you copy the poor example of manyauthors, for instance:
- have you ever opened an ebook and been faced with abarrage of affiliate links?
- or seen affiliate products which have nothing to dowith the theme of the book ? For example in a book abouthypnotism you get a link to a web hosting company.
So what is the best way?
The secret is to have highly relevant links and weavethem naturally into the content in a low key stylewithout appearing to push for a sale. So when youdiscuss a particular topic and want to show where moredetail can be found, or how a particular problem can besolved, that's where you can mention the affiliateproduct as a source of further information. If you wantto see really good examples of how to do this read thefree book at the end of this article.
See - that last sentence was an ACTUAL working exampleof how to weave in a link.
3) Maximum Return For Both Parties
You need to get the rebranding balance right.
If you give away an ebook and allow all the affiliatelinks to be rebranded that is a great deal for therebrander - but what do you get out of it? No affiliatecommission, just subscribers maybe for your mailing listif you have a sign-up form in the book.
Conversely if you hand out only a few affiliate linksfor rebranding then that provides little incentive forthe rebrander to distribute the book.
Ideally what you want is the maximum motivation for yourrebrander 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 book are for your own products
* If the links are for products for which you haveresale rights
* If the links are for 2-tier affiliate programs so thatyou 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 aviral marketing campaign which will continue to generatetraffic and sales with little on-going effort on yourpart.
EXCEPT for two issues we need to resolve
1) What happens if everyone rebrands the book and onlymakes purchases from their own copy?
Well, I have found that in practise only a minority (say10%) will take the time to rebrand a book which meansthat the majority (90%) will be reading your book andpurchasing from YOUR links.
So only 10% will be 'lost' to you . . . or are they?
2) Suppose you plan to produce a viral book. It's abouta popular topic - so it's bound to have a widecirculation - but you can't find any of the three typesof suitable links to put in the book, i.e. links to aproduct of your own, to products with resale rights orfor 2-tier affiliate programs.
Is there a solution?
Yes - there are answers to both problems in my book "101SuperTips" - they are actually tips 100 and 101.
As you might expect this book is free, with valuableinformation linking to highly relevant products, and youcan rebrand it, again for free.
By all the rules above it's a candidate, I hope youagree, for 'the perfect viral ebook' and a profitablesource of revenue for you.
Harvey is the author of several viral ebooks including101 SuperTips, a collection of unique Internet Marketingtips, which you can collect athttp://www.supertips.com/101/
As a further example of viral marketing you canreproduce this article and change the URL to point toyour own rebranded version.
