A couple of weeks ago I sent an email out to my mailing list.  I had been out of touch for almost a month due to personal reasons.  When I got back to my desk and my computer, there was a slew of emails about new product launches in my inbox.  Having been away for a month, I decided to sift through them and find the single one that I thought was most worth recommending to my readers.

I was actually quite surprised myself with the item I came up with to send as my top recommendation for the month.  It was not an overly-promoted product, and it was not what you would call one of the major product launches by any means.

But, I always recommend products that I am personally using (or in this case I was planning to use it soon) in my own business.  That is the only way that I know with 100% certainty that I can feel good about my recommendations.

The product was called PDF Popup Pro, and it is a simple little tool that I thought was just genius in what it could do for you!  I saw the potential for the product right away as a way to make ANY PDF that you distribute into a viral list-building machine.  It does this by allowing you to add an optin pop-up window that will open as soon as your reader opens the PDF.

But, my readers didn’t seem to “get it.”  At least, I am assuming that since only one person actually decided to start using it in his business.

Well, I have now actually USED PDF Popup Pro for the first time myself, and I wanted to show you just how easy it is and how much value it has added to a simple little product I created.

This product took me about an hour to create, and with PDF Popup Pro I suspect that it will become a major listbuilding item for me.

Here is ALL I did to quickly make my own custom product:

• First, I searched my hard drive for a suitable item that I had Private Label Rights to.  I found 50 PNG images of 3-dimensional dollar signs.  These had come from a graphics membership site that I am a member of.  They did not come with a sales letter, or cover graphic, but the graphics themselves are quite nice quality.  I chose to use these as my product because they would not take a lot of work for me to edit, and I have not seen these graphics around anywhere yet.  Since I haven’t seen them around, that tells me that they are a good candidate to make a product out of.

• Next, I created a box cover and very simple optin page for the item.  I decided to enter this item into a Giveaway event, so I did not even need a big sales page for it.  Here is what the Opt-in page and box cover look like.  That’s it!  That’s all the design work I had to do for this.  It is a very simple design, and I can guarantee that you have never seen that box cover before (because I just made it).  So, when I enter this item into the Giveaway, it will be a FRESH, NEW item that no one has come across before.

• Finally, I just put the PNG images into a zip file, along with a simple, one-page PDF explaining the customer’s Master Resell Rights.

That’s it - it was a one hour product!  Fresh, never seen before, and I am certain that it will get a lot of downloads when the Giveaway event opens tomorrow.

While it is great to create a product in an hour, this is the part that I am really excited about, and the part I want to make sure you understand…

Before finalizing my PDF file, I used PDF Popup Pro on it.  What this did was make it so that as soon as someone opens that tiny little PDF file explaining their Master Resell Rights,  they get an opt-in box saying:

“If you would like to receive a few other design related gifts, please enter your name and email address into the fields below”

and of course below that there is an optin form so they can join my mailing list.

Oh, and by the way…

In the rights file itself, I specifically tell the customer that if they are going to sell or give away the collection, they just have to include the PDF with it.

So do you see what has happened here?

First, I’ll give the product away (via the Giveaway event itself).  Then, the people who download it will start giving it away (or selling it).  Remember it is a fresh new product so they will very likely start making it available to other people right away.  Finally, whenever ANYONE who receives it opens the Rights PDF, they will get a pop-up window saying that if they join MY list they will receive other freebies.

It is the easiest viral marketing campaign I have ever done!

PDF Popup Pro took me all of about 3 minutes to use, and it turned a simple little product into a viral listbuilding machine!  It is that awesome!

Click here to see PDF Popup Pro

If you want to see how the PDF file that I altered with PDF Popup Pro works, you can grab 3-D Dollar Signs Graphics Collection here to check it out. (Click the link at the top of the page).  Unzip the file and open the document titled Rights_ReadMe.pdf.

You’ll get the 3-D Dollar Signs too, of course.

Okay, let’s take a quick look back at where we are.  On day one you went out and found a private label rights product that you are interested in working with.  You edited it, gave it a new title, and put some affiliate links in.  You also included a license file to pass on master resale rights to your customers.

On day two you got set up at Aweber, and created a mailing list there that you use to manage your subscribers.  You also created the HTML code that you would use on your optin page to gather your subscribers’ data.

Yesterday you made your optin page.  You used my Optin Page Creator software, which hopefully made it easy to create your page in minutes.

Today we’re going to take everything you made and put it all online!

After today’s lesson you will have a hosting account and you will know how to FTP to a server (that’s how you put files onto a website).

I have also created a special coupon to give you $50 off (the most allowed by the company) at one of the most reliable shared hosting companies that I use myself.  With this coupon you could get started with hosting for about $10, or you can sign up for a year’s worth of hosting at only $5.78 per month.  It’s a pretty sweet deal.  It also includes your domain name registration by the way, which would normally cost you about nine dollars.

Okay, let’s get started…

Step 1: Pick Your Domain Name

The domain name registration company that I like to use is namecheap.com.  A few years ago everyone was recommending Godaddy.com, but recently they started to have tighter controls over your domain names.  For example, if someone makes a spam complaint against you (which can happen even if you’re not a spammer), Godaddy may shut down your access to your domain name.

Namecheap does not do that, so I have been in the process of moving all of my domains from Godaddy over to Namecheap.

If you are only registering one domain name right now, you actually do not need to buy it at Namecheap, but let’s head over there anyway to search and see if your name is available.  I just want you to get used to their website, because there will come a time when you need another domain name so you may as well get familiar with a good registrar.

Click here to go to Namecheap

Right on the top left side of the page, you’ll see a field where you can enter a domain name and then click search.  You’re going to keep doing this until you find a domain that you like that is available.

Here are a few things to keep in mind as you search for your domain:

1.    Keep it short and memorable.
2.    Try not to use any dashes.
3.    Use “.com” if at all possible.
4.    Try to use all letters and no numbers.

Once you have found a domain name that is available, don’t bother registering it at Namecheap.  You get one free domain registration at the web host that I’m recommending, so let’s head over there now.

Step 2: Setting Up Your Hosting Account

The web host that I recommend you start off with is Dreamhost.  Dreamhost got a bad rap a couple of years ago because they were having some downtime issues due to denial of service attacks.  A denial of service attack is a malicious action that a hacker can take against any server or hosting company.

I have had an account with Dreamhost since 2001.  Since the denial of service attacks were dealt with, I have found them to be fine and reliable.  The fact is, any shared hosting company is going to have downtime issues.  There is no way around that.

There are two main reasons why I recommend that you use Dreamhost as your first hosting company.

• Reason one: they use a proprietary control panel that is much easier to understand and maneuver through then the normal cPanel, which most hosting companies use.  For example, let’s say you want to install a blog on your website.  At Dreamhost doing this is literally the matter of clicking a single button.  Very easy!

• Reason two: Last year Dreamhost introduced what they call “private servers.”  This is not something you would need right now, but it is a nice feature to have if any of your websites get to a point where they’re getting a lot of use and traffic.  Basically what it allows you to do is take over as much of a server as you choose to in order to make room for all of your traffic.  If you have your site at a shared host that does not offer this service, then when you start getting a lot of traffic you may need to move to a new hosting company entirely.  Moving a website to a new server can be a big headache and a something that you want to try to avoid.

So click here to visit Dreamhost.  Use the discount code “michaelbadger” when you sign up and you will get $50 off any plan you sign up for.

Now, here is where I have to apologize.  You see, since I started my hosting with Dreamhost back in 2001 it has been a long time since I did an initial set up with them.  From what I remember, they take you through it step by step and you will get everything done correctly - but I can’t give you a step-by-step screen shot view like I am doing with everything else.

If you do need help with any of the steps while you are getting your account set up, feel free to leave a comment below and I will do my best to answer it quickly.

While you are going through the setup you will come to a screen where they will ask you if you want to register a new domain name.  On that screen enter in the domain name that you found was available over at Namecheap and they will register it for you for free.

Once you have finished the setup at Dreamhost, they will e-mail you your FTP username and password.  You will need those in order to upload your files under your domain name.

Step 3: Uploading Your Optin Page and Product to Your Server

FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol.  This is what you use to move files from your computer to your server, or from your server back to your computer.

Dreamhost does have a built-in FTP program.  But their program is really not that intuitive, so we are going to use an easier option…

FileZilla is a very easy to use, and better yet free, FTP program.

You can download FileZilla here.

Go ahead and download FileZilla, and install it on your computer.  Open up FileZilla and you’ll see a screen that looks like this:

At the top of the screen where it says ”Host,” enter your domain name.  Leave off the “http://” part of the URL.  Simply enter www.YourDomainName.com.

For username and password, enter the information that Dreamhost e-mailed to you.

Now click “quickconnect.”

You will see a bunch of text scroll through in the top window, and then you will see a folder icon appear in the middle right window.

Now, the way that FileZilla is set up, what you see on the left side of your screen is your local hard drive and what you see on the right side of your screen is your server.  So all we are going to do is copy the files from the left side of your screen to the right side of your screen.
So, on the left side of your screen click on “desktop,” and you will see all the files and folders that are on your desktop appear in the window below.  On the right side of the screen, open up the blank folder that you see there, then click on the folder that matches your domain name.

Back over on the left side of your screen, in the lower portion, find index.html that we saved yesterday.  Double-click the file.  This will automatically move the file from your local hard drive onto your server.

After that is complete, find YourItemName.zip in the left lower screen as well.  Double-click that and it will be uploaded to your server as well.

If all has been done properly, you should now be able to go to http://www.YourDomainName.com and you will see your optin page.

Also if you go to http://YourDomainName.com/YourItemName.zip a download should start.  That is the URL that you will send people to in order to download your item.

See that wasn’t so bad was it?

You are now all set up with your own server, and you have your optin page uploaded, and your product is ready to be delivered to your customer.

We still have one final step to complete before you are ready to enter your item into the Giveaway though…

Step 4: Setting Up Your Autoresponder Series

After your customer has subscribed to your list, you need to send at least one e-mail message telling them how they can download their free product.

Of course you will probably want to set up at least a few autoresponder e-mail messages because this is your opportunity to start building a relationship with a new customer.

Log back into your Aweber account.

Click on messages>> follow up.  Then click the green button that says “add message.”  That will take you to this screen:

For your follow-up message, and for any message that you ever send using Aweber, I recommend that you send a text message not an HTML message.  This is because some people’s e-mail clients are not set up to receive HTML messages properly, and an HTML message may be more likely to get caught in a spam filter.

For this first follow-up message, you will probably want to make it short and sweet.

For the subject you can use something like:

“{!firstname}, here’s your copy of YourProductName”

Using {!firstname} will insert your customer’s first name.  You can see a list of all personalized fields available at Aweber by opening the drop-down menu “personalization fields.”

Then in the message itself, simply make sure to include the URL to your zip file somewhere in the body of your message.  The URL looks something like: http://YourDomainName.com/YourItemName.zip.

This is how we will deliver the product to your customer.

With this and with any Aweber message, when you are finished composing it make sure to click on the link for “check SpamAssassin score.”  Doing this will analyze your message to see how likely it is that it will get caught in your customer’s spam filter.  It will tell you exactly what you need to change in your message to make sure that the e-mail gets through.

Once you save this message, it will be sent to your customer right after they confirm that they want to get mail from you.  I would recommend that you write three to seven more follow-up messages.  Have them sent approximately 3 days apart from one another.  In your follow-up messages, try to give your customer as much knowledge and value as you can.  This is not the time to be trying to push products on your customer.  This is the time to build your reputation and relationship instead.

The only other thing you’re going to need in order to enter your gift into giveaway is an image of the gift itself.

I will address that in my next post.

But if you’re using a PLR product that already came with an image you are allowed to use, then you’re pretty much all set and can enter your item into the giveaway.

As always, please make sure to let me know if you have any questions by posting them in the comments.

If you’ve been following along with the posts in this series, then you now have a giveaway product and you are all set up at Aweber to have your list hosted.

If you have just found us on this page and want to start back at the beginning of the series it is only two posts back at Listbuilding Giveaway Setup Selecting and Creating Your Product

Today we are going to build the page that you will use for people to opt in to your list and download your free product.
And guess what…

This is going to be a lot easier than you probably think it will.  There are a lot of different ways to build an optin page, and the results can be vastly different.  You could go out and hire a web designer to do it for you, or you could learn some html and use something like Frontpage or Dreamweaver for the task.

But, our goal here is to get you up and ready as quickly and as economically as we can. 

The fact is, you really don’t need to have a beautifully designed page for this anyway.  What is more important is that you create a compelling offer so that your prospects will sign up to your list.  You see, because we are doing this for a free giveaway event, when people come to your optin page they will ALREADY be planning on joining your list.  All you really need to do is provide them with a way to do that!

After we are done with all of the basic setup, if there is interest I may do some more advanced posts on better page design.  Let me know in the comments if that is something you’d like to see on this blog.

I looked around for the easiest piece of software I could find that I could share with you.  I found a great, very easy to use software product, and I am giving it to you for free.  It is called Optin Page Creator, and you can literally have your page done 10 minutes from now using this software.

What’s better, I am also giving you Master Resell Rights to Optin Page Creator, so you could even use it as your free Giveaway product if you like.

Download the software here

Go ahead and download the software, unzip it, and get it installed.  Open it up, and then click “Start Wizard.”  That will take you to a page that looks like this:

On this page all you’re going to do is select the layout of your optin page.  Select whichever option you like and click next.

The next screen you see will look like this:

On this page you are going to enter the following:

1. Title –

Enter the title of your page.  This is the information that will be displayed in the bar at the top of your visitor’s browser window.  It should be the title of your item, plain and simple.

2. Meta tags -

These are the key words that someone might use if they were searching for your product.  Don’t get too caught up with these.  Since we are doing this for a free giveaway, your meta tags are basically irrelevant anyway.  You already know how people will be finding your page, and it is not from a search engine.

If you DO want to include meta keywords, please use the following format:

<meta name=”KEYWORDS” content=”enter your keywords here“>

3. Headline -

This should be the most compelling benefit that your prospects will get if they choose to download your free product.  I don’t want to get too deep into a copy writing lesson here.  But for the headline, the introduction, and the bullet points to follow, just understand that people buy BENEFITS not features.  In other words, if you are giving away a product about weight loss, don’t spend too much time talking about how the product actually works.  Instead, talk about how, as a result of using your product, the customer will have more energy, be happier, and have a more fulfilling life.

You can format the text using the options over on the right side of the page.

4. Introduction -

This should be a brief paragraph or two explaining what your product is all about.  Again, just remember that you need to focus on benefits not features and your introduction will be fine.

Click “Next” and you will be taken to the following screen:

All you have to do here is select the formatting for your text at the top of this page.  Then you enter 3 to 6 bullet points for your page.  These should each demonstrate some of the features and benefits of your product.  Let them know why they need to download your product now.

For the most part, less is more with all of your copy.  You want to give them exactly what they need to hear in order to decide to download your product, and nothing else.  You don’t want to lose people by trying to convey too much information.  Remember that you are giving them something for free that they have already decided they are interested in.  This should be an easy sell!

Click “Next” and you will be taken to the following screen:

On this screen you are going to enter the code that you made over at Aweber yesterday.  Go ahead and open up the text file that we saved called optincode.txt.  Copy the code that we put into this file, and paste it into the box in Optin Page Creator.

Click “Next” and you will be taken to the following screen:

Here, select “Place code in your clipboard to paste in your HTML editor” and click finish.  Open up Notepad again and paste your code into a file.  It will look something like this:

In Notepad, select File>>Save As.  Save the file on your desktop and call it “index.html.”  When you save it, make sure that you select Save as Type>>>All Files.

Double-click the file, and it should open in your preferred browser, so you can take a look at it.

That’s it!  You probably thought it was going to take a lot longer to set up your optin page, didn’t you?

So, now we have your product, your list host set up, and your optin page ready to go.  In the next lesson we are going to put it all on the web by getting you a hosting account and then you’ll be all set to enter your free product into the Auto Pilot Cash Streams Listbuilding Event!

Now that you have selected your private label rights product, and hopefully made it your own unique product by altering it, adding affiliate links and giving it a new title, let’s talk about one of the most important aspects of any Internet business: Where you will host your list.

The choice of where you’re going to host your list is one of the most important choices that you need to make at the very beginning of setting up your business.  The reason why it is so important to make the right choice right at the beginning is because once you start building your list in a certain place it can be very difficult to move it someplace else.

Now, there are some free options for hosting your list but I highly recommend that you stay away from those.  The free options may seem fine to you at first glance, but once you realize that every message you send to your list gets put in their spam folder, you start to understand that you’re only shooting yourself in the foot by taking the time to build a list and then storing it using one of the free hosts.

There is absolutely no value in a list that never sees your messages.

Most of us get caught at the very beginning NOT building our list using the proper host.  I made that mistake myself.  I though, why the heck do I need to pay someone else to host my list when I can just store it on my own computer?  The result is that you end up wasting a lot of time and money building a list that is useless to you.

Don’t make the same mistake that I did!

When I first started building my own list I had my prospects’ name and e-mail address sent to my email address and I just stored them in my own Excel spreadsheet.  Whenever I wanted to send a message to them I would simply copy everyone’s e-mail address into the bcc field of my Yahoo account and send out the message.  This can work while you have a list of under a hundred people but once you start having any size list at all, you very quickly reach the daily sending limits for any e-mail provider (like Yahoo or Gmail).

Before you decide to go with that option as a temporary measure just to try things out, here is a word of caution:   When you are ready to move your list over to a real host, you are going to have to ask your list members to opt in to that new list.  Chances are that you will end up with a very small opt in rates and you will lose the majority of the people that you worked so hard to get in the first place.

When I realized that holding the list on my hard drive was not going to work, my next plan of attack was to start hosting my list in my own database on my server.  This worked a little bit better because I could now send e-mail out as much as I needed to.  But after about a month I found that pretty much any e-mail I sent was landing in people’s spam folders.  My server got black-listed by the ISPs because a few people forgot that they had opted into my list and so they made spam complaints against me.

Here’s a sad fact…

Whether you intentionally send out spam message or not you’re going to be accused of being a spammer by at least some people.  People will forget that they opted into your list and they won’t recognize your name and so they will assume that your message is spam.

After just a couple of people have made this complaint your IP address will get blacklisted by the ISPs and then your messages will land in most people’s spam folders.

What good is sending a message if no one ever sees it?

So to make a long story short please don’t bother going through all of the steps that I had to go through.  When you’re getting started with your Internet business understand that there are two essential monthly expenditures that you’re going to have to make.  One of those is for your list host (the other is your hosting account).  Neither expense is very much money.  Do yourself a favor and don’t go for the free options on those.

When you choose a reputable host you will be assured that your e-mails actually get through to your customers.  A reputable host has built relationships with the ISPs to make sure that YOUR messages will actually get delivered.  THAT is the real value that a good list host provides - the confidence of knowing that your messages will get delivered to your customers.

The list host that I use and that I have found to be very reliable for different size lists and in different markets is called Aweber.  Actually, Aweber is probably what most Internet marketers would recommend that you use.

Here’s where you can find Aweber

For the rest of this post I’m going to give you instructions for how to set up a list using the Aweber system.  If you would like to use a different host you are of course welcome to do so but you will need to figure out how to get things set up on your own.  Since I don’t use their systems myself, I can’t help you out with them.

Okay let’s get started.  Sign up for your Aweber account and then login to your account.

Step 1: Create your List

Right after you log in, you will see a screen that looks something like this.

Click “add new” over in the upper left corner.  Then click “Create List.”  Scroll down on this page until you see this part of the screen.

Your “list name” right now is something like “default…” with a number after it.  Change the list name to something that makes sense for a list name that goes with your product.   For example, if you are giving away an ebook about Traffic Techniques, you might call your list “traffictechs.” Also add a short description.  Make sure that the description fits with what your product is all about.  Click the save button.

In the company branding section you can enter information if you would like to but it is not necessary.  For now we will skip this.

In the “reply address” area enter an e-mail address and your name.  If you don’t want to use your name you can enter the name of your product instead.  However when you are building a list part of what you are doing is developing a relationship with your customers so it is probably to your advantage to use your real name here.  You want them to know who you are and what YOU are all about.  In the long run, your reputation is what is important here.  You want them to feel like they know and respect you.  However you don’t have to use the same e-mail address that you use for personal stuff.  I would recommend that you set up a special e-mail account for your list messages at Gmail.

Check the box that says from/reply.  If you would like Aweber to notify you whenever someone subscribes to your list check “notifications” as well.  Click the save button.

Okay your list is set up.  Now let’s move on to…

Step 2: Create the code to use on your opt in page

Scroll back up to the top of the page and click on “Web Forms” (it is a subset of the tab list settings).  This takes you to a page that looks like this:

As you see there is a warning asking you to customize your verification message.  For now we are just going to use the standard Aweber message, so you can disregard that warning.  Since we are doing this for an Internet marketing list building event, the people joining your list are probably familiar with Aweber already and will be used to the standard message.

So go ahead and click the green button that says create web form.  On the page you are taken to scroll down to where it says “form details,” which looks like this:

All you have to do on this page is enter a description of your form (this can be anything, it is just for your own records) and then click Next.  We are going to leave everything else with the default Aweber settings because the purpose of my blog series here is to get you set up and running as quickly and easily as we can.  The default settings are fine so we’ll just use them.

The next screen that you come to looks like this:

Click the little green plus sign next to the name field.  This will add the name field to your form.  By default it shows up underneath the e-mail field so you might want to drag the e-mail field underneath the name field.  Personally when I see a web form I automatically think I should enter my name and then my e-mail address.  But it’s really up to you how you want to do this.

Scroll down and click save.  On the next page that you come to part way down the page there is a link for “get HTML.”  Go ahead and click that.  This pulls up the window that looks like this:

Put your cursor in the top window, select everything and copy it.

Open up notepad by going to your start menu>>click on all programs>>click on accessories>>and click on notepad.

Paste the code into this text file.  Click save and save it as optincode.txt.  You can just save it on your desktop for now.  We will come back to this after we create your opt in page.

OK, I know that today’s lesson may not have been a lot of fun for some of you if you don’t like technical kind of stuff.  But, you now have a list set up at a reputable list host, which puts you ahead of most Internet marketers out there.  I’m going to end today’s lesson here because getting this set up correctly is very important and I want to give you a chance to get it done.

Ask me questions in the comments if you need to.  I’m happy to help as always.

Tomorrow we’ll get your optin page set up.  It’ll be A LOT easier to do than you think

Now that we are working a Team Build for Auto Pilot Cash Streams, I want to make sure you have all the information necessary so you can most benefit from this listbuilding event!

This is the first post in our series about how to get set up with your own product and optin page for a Giveaway event.

Just in case you still don’t get how a Giveaway works, you basically enter a free product for people to download if they want it.  In order to download it, they have to first visit your optin page and give you their name and email address.  People come to the event to get all the free products.  You benefit by being able to add these people to your list.

I am always about empowering my members to be able to significantly build their businesses.  So, I won’t make the optin page or build the product for you - but I WILL give you the steps and tools you need so you can do it on your own.

This first post is about selecting and creating your product…

Step 1: Get Your Product

This step should actually be very easy.  All you are going to do is search online for a while for some decent Private Label Rights material that you can work with. Private Label Rights means that you can put your name on it, call it your own, and resell it or give it away as you see fit.  Just make sure to check the rights that the person you buy it from is offering, but usually you can do just about anything with the PLR material that you acquire.

If you need a good source for PLR products, one membership site that I have used in the past successfully is PLRWholesaler.  They have a free option and an upgraded option as well.  Gabor Olah owns it and he offers great customer service as well.

The only thing to note when you are acquiring PLR to work with is that most of the time you DO get what you pay for.  If something can be found for free, then chances are that a lot of other people may be using the same material that you are.  It might be worth your time to actually join on a paid level. But, if this is your first time working with PLR, you can also look at this first time as a learning process on how to get set up.  In that case, I would say you should not upgrade at a PLR membership site yet.  First, follow my process and see if you even like working with PLR.

I also just did a little search on my hard drive to see what PLR materials I could offer you.  Here is a download with some free PLR for you (65MB download).  And, here is another set.  You may find something you want to work with in those.

The other thing to consider when choosing your PLR and what your giveaway product will be, is who your market is.  For a free giveaway event like this one, they will be:

1 - Interested in Giveaway Events
2 - Interested in ways to Build a List
3 - Interested in Learning How They Can Make Money Online
4 - Interested in Free Stuff

It is always best to just keep your target audience in mind as you are selecting your products.  Try to think from their point of view and figure out what would be a compelling offer to them.

Step 2: Alterations to your PLR Material

Once you get the PLR material – you want to make at least a few modifications to the it.  You will probably receive it as a Word document, so it is easy to make changes.

- Change 1:

The most important change you want to make is the title.  You want to change it to something different than the title you bought it under.  This is in case other people in the same Giveaway event are offering the same material.  If you at least change the title, it will seem unique and people will be more likely to get your version.

- Change 2:

Read through the material, and add anything else that you think you can contribute.

Absolutely add Affiliate Links in to the product.  This is important, so that you can make cash on the backend with your free giveaway product.

Whatever your ebook is about, go and find some affiliate products that you can naturally recommend from within the ebook.  You can easily find just about anything you will need over at the Clickbank Marketplace.  Just sign up as an affiliate at Clickbank and you can promote any of the items you find in the marketplace.

Next, make a little txt file with the rights to your ebook.  You are going to offer your reader “Master Resell Rights” to your ebook.  This means that they can sell or give away your ebook, but they CANNOT make any modifications to it.  So, whoever they give your ebook to, if any of the affiliate links are clicked, they will still get attributed to YOU and you can make a sale.  This is what is known as “viral marketing” – and it is a very powerful technique to earn cash and build lists on the internet.

In the txt file, you can simply add something that looks like this (feel free to copy and paste this exactly into the file).

[YES] Can be sold
[YES] Can be given away
[YES] Can be packaged
[YES] Can be offered as a bonus to a paid product
[YES] Can be added to a paid membership site
[YES] Can be added to a free membership site
[YES] Can be offered through auction sites
[YES] Can sell resale rights
[YES] Can sell master resale rights
[NO] Can sell Private Label Rights
[NO] Can put your name on it to sell it as your own product
[NO] Can rename the product

Save the file on your hard drive and call it license.txt:

Step 3: Convert Your Document into a PDF File

OK, once you have changed the title, and made any alterations to the actual document that you want to make, including adding relevant affiliate links, its time to turn your word document into a PDF document.

The reason you are doing this is so that your readers will not be able to alter the text of your ebook.

To convert your Word document into a PDF document, use whatever PDF converter you normally use.

Or, if you don’t have one, I am happy to give you a copy of eWriterPro that you can use for the task.

If you are using eWriterPro, after installing it, here are the steps you will follow to turn your ebook into a PDF:

1. Open eWriterPro and click on “Ebooks” and then “New.”
2. Copy and Paste your entire Word document into the eWriterPro document window.
3. To add links into your document, click on “Insert” and then highlight the area that you want to be clickable.  Then, click the “Hyperlink” button at the top of the window.  In the “link to” field, put your affiliate link.
4. Once your document looks good, click on File>>>Save As and save the document somewhere on your computer.  This is the file you will come back to if you ever need to make changes later on.
5. Finally, click on the PDF button at the top, and click OK – you don’t need to require a password to open the file.  Save it on your hard drive and you are done.  You have your PDF document.

So, now you have your ebook as a PDF file, and you have your little txt file as well.  Put them BOTH into a single folder.  Then, right-click on the folder and click “Send To >>> Compressed Folder.”  This will make your item into a zip file and then you are done.

Just give the item a name and the item you will be giving away is YourItemName.zip.
OK, all set?  If you’ve followed all of these steps, then you now have a product all ready for the Giveaway.

Your product is peppered with your affiliate links in it, and you have given away rights to pass your product along – so hopefully you can make some extra money by giving it away.

So, congratulations!  You now have your product.

I think this is a good time to end today’s lesson.  Besides, I’m getting a little bleary eyed myself anyway.

Please submit comments if you have any questions so far.  They will help me know if we need to explore your product creation further or if we can move on!

Next post is about getting setup at a reliable list host.

Seeing the responses to yesterday’s post about Auto Pilot Cash Streams Giveaway Event, it is clear that there are a lot of you who want to join this event as a real contributor but are not sure that you can get through all the technical aspects of getting set up to participate.

So, here is what I am going to do:

Over the next few days, I will make a series of posts all geared to make sure you get up and running in time to have your free giveaway item appear in the event.  I will hold your hand, and help you take each step to getting set up.  Wherever possible, I will give you the items you need to make this as easy as we can make it for you.

If you do not yet know how to do things like find a Private Label Rights item, or set up an optin page, I HIGHLY recommend that you join this event and follow these steps with me.

The reason I think you need to do this is not just because you can profit from the event AND start building your own list.

It is also this…

By the time we are done, you will have taken some MAJOR first steps towards setting up your online business.  You will:

• Have a domain name.
• Have a hosting account and at least one page of a website.
• Have your own unique product to promote in ANY giveaway event.
• Be set up with an Autoresponder Account to keep in touch with your list.
• And if the Giveaway goes well, you will already have a list of people to promote to.

In short, if you can focus on this for the next two weeks, you will be ahead of 95% of Internet marketers – most of whom have not even started building their list yet.

So, are you with me?

OK, let’s get started.  For the first lesson, we will talk about Selecting your Private Label Rights Product.

Yesterday, I told you about the Auto Pilot Cash Streams Giveaway Event.

What I didn’t realize at the time was how powerful this event can actually be to generate ongoing income for you for a long time!

You need to get in on this, and you need to get in on it ASAP.  Keep reading to find out why and to find out the tools I am giving you so you can promote the heck out of this one!

Here’s the thing…

Even if you are not planning on contributing an item in order to build your list, you should STILL join this as a contributor and promote it as much as you can.

Why?…

Because, Reed and Guido will promote affiliate products to your referrals on an ongoing basis, using YOUR affiliate link.  This means that you refer people once, and can then sit back and make affiliate commissions over and over again.

Reed and Guido will do the work, YOU get the commissions.

That means…

Ongoing residual income for work you do once – we like the sound of that, don’t we?

And guess what?  In typical Michael Badger fashion, I am going to make it as easy as I can for you to get referrals in this event.

I have created a special Team Build Page that you can use for your promotions. People LOVE team builds.  Just put this on the Traffic Exchanges, and you should get referrals quite easily.

Here is how it works…

Step 1: Join Auto Pilot Cash Streams as a contributor

Step 2: If you plan on contributing a free item to the event, definitely upgrade when you join.  It is the only way you will get the biggest bang for your time on this one.

Step 3: After you have confirmed your signup, click on “settings” and enter your information properly.  Take note of your referral number.  It is right after the link http://www.autopilotcashstreams.com/contributor.php?id=(Your ID number here)

Step 4: Simply use this URL for your promotions:

http://michaelbadger.com/autopilot?r=(Your ID Number)

What will happen when you do this?

• People will sign up on our Team build page that has been branded with your ID number.
• When they do, YOUR Referral number will be stored in the database.
• Anyone who came in through your referral link will be sent your affiliate link for Auto Pilot Cash Streams, and when they join you will make ongoing commissions from Reed and Guido’s promotions.

Got it?  Go do it now!  The event just started yesterday and this is the perfect time for you to get a jump on building your referrals!

As I said, you can benefit big time from this even if you don’t plan on contributing a product to the giveaway.

But, if you want to start getting serious about your online business, why not use this as a kick in the butt to get yourself all set up with a hosting account, autoresponder and products to give away?

Over the next few days, I will hold your hand and give you the exact steps you need to follow in order to get all set up.

We have until August 1st to get you up and running.  By that time, if you choose to actually take action here, you will be way ahead of 95% of other internet marketers, and on your way to having a real home business.

Your first step is to Join as a Contributor and then start promoting our Team Build!

Reed Floren and Guido Nussbaum have a new kind of listbuilding giveaway trick up their sleeves.  This is one trick that is designed to continually put income in your bank account for a long time to come, and I have to say its a pretty smart trick.

Here is how it is going to work:

Once you join the event as a contributor, every person that you refer to the event will be offered backend products every month for as long as they choose to stay on the giveaway list.  And, here’s the cool part - every product they are ever offered will have YOUR affiliate link attached to it!

This means you get Reed and Guido doing the email marketing FOR YOU.  All you have to do is sit back and collect the commission checks.

I’m also offering a special bonus when you join from my link  - see below!

If you have never participated in a listbuilding giveaway event before, this is the perfect one to start with!  It was just announced today, and the actual event doesn’t start until August 1st, so you have plenty of time to get your offer ready to go.  I’m sure you have some Private Label Rights Products or Resell Rights Products on your hard drive that you can join this with!

Here are the steps you must take to ensure success in this and any other listbuilding event!

1. Set up your optin page with your irresistible free offer.
2. After they optin to your list, send them to a salespage with an irresistible One Time Offer on it that relates to your initial giveaway product.  This is how you can make some extra cash  with the event.
3. Set up an autoresponder series (even just 3-4 messages) relating specifically to the product that you gave away.  This is your chance to develop your relationship with your new list members.

The other important thing that you do in any giveaway event is this: Make sure to upgrade to the highest contributor level possible! 

I’m not just saying that to try to make a sale.  If you are going to put in the time and effort to set up the giveaway event, you need to get the most for your efforts.  When you upgrade at AutoPilotCash, you will be guaranteed to have placement in the event on DAY 1 - which is the day when the MOST visitors will be coming to the event.  You NEED to be on the list on DAY 1, and the only way to ensure that is to upgrade.

The AutoPilot Cash Giveaway is positioned to be huge and could easliy get tens of thousands of signups.  You want those folks to join your list?  Just Join Autopilot Cash as a contributor, upgrade, and set up an irresistible offer - and you will be on your way to being a big time list owner.

I’ll make it even easier for you to decide to participate in this by offering you a bonus when you sign up today!

I’ve got this great pack of unique-looking opt-in boxes that you can use on your pages.  you get the html templates, the images themselves AND the PSD files for each one.  You can alter them however you see fit.  Or don’t alter them at all - simply plug in your Autoresponder code and you are ready to go!

Here’s a preview of what the Optin boxes look like.  Pretty snazzy aren’t they?

you get 36 Optin Boxes in this package!

(These samples are smaller than the actual ones you will receive)

To get these special optin boxes, simply follow these steps:

• Join Autopilot Cash as a contributor from the link on this page.
• Send me an email at Michael@TheBadgerDen.com, and forward your Confirmation email from Reed and Guido.
• That’s it - I’ll reply soon with your optin box bonus

OK, go join the Giveaway as a Contributor now.  It’s free, and you’ll be glad you did!

One of the things that I find as an Internet marketer is that there is ALWAYS a backlog of information that I need to read. It seems that as soon as I finish one report or 10-page sales letter, there are two more on my back burner that I also need to read.

I think it is important to stay up to date, but I also see that it DOES take away from my actual income-producing efforts.

I found this cool speed reading tool the other day, and I actually think it can be helpful if used the right way. Here’s how it works: You enter in a body of text, and how fast you want to read it, and then click go. The tool will scroll through the words in a single spot on your screen at the speed you entered.

OK, it may sound weird, and it definitely takes some getting used to. But, I think that if you do get used to it it could save you a bunch of time with all that online reading material.

Here’s the link: Speed Reading Tool

The truth is most of the time the stuff we need to read can be skimmed for the main points. It is generally NOT deep intellectual writing. Try inserting the text of your next long ebook into the tool. You will get the main parts much more quickly than if you just read it on your own. If you determine that you need to understand it in greater depth after you run it through the tool, you can always print it out and spend as much time as you like with it.

I also think that challenging your brain to comprehend quicker than you are used to is a good exercise for your overall brain-power anyway!

Yesterday I recommended Rapid Action Profits, and told you how you could get it for a significant discount.

After posting that special, I received quite a few emails from people who were concerned that they would not know what to do with Rapid Action Profits once they purchased it. Well, I am always a proponent for people taking action in their marketing, and if you are someone who has not yet started selling your own products online, Rapid Action Profits is a GREAT way for you to get started.

Now, here’s a fact - if you have a website of your own, then you are significantly more likely to succeed in your online business. If you have multiple websites that are all designed to bring in profits, you increase your chances of success even more. That’s just common sense, wouldn’t you say?

When you have your own websites, all of the “training” and “tips” that you read just make so much more sense, because you can see exactly what you are going to apply the training to. Let’s say you read an ebook filled with great traffic generating tips - if you have your own websites, you can go and apply those tips right away. Your reward: PROFITS!

I honestly do not know of a more powerful and easier to use tool then Rapid Action Profits to set up literally hundreds of websites, all designed to bring you money. The cost to set up the sites is almost insignificant.

And guess what - you don’t even have to create the products yourself!

Let’s take a look at how easy it can be to generate sales with Rapid Action Profits. Here are the steps I took when I launched my first RAP site, Quick Cash Secrets. You can follow this as a model to create your own cash generating sites.

1. First, I spent some time browsing the Warrior Forum to determine what it was that people were interested in buying. At the time, there were some polls in the forum that showed that people were interested in learning how to generate $100 a day online.
2. I then received an email about a new ebook that was being launched that perfectly addressed that specific need. The ebook was called Quick Cash Secrets and it cost $7. The Resale Rights were available for $17. I bought the Resale Rights. If Private Label Rights were available, I would have gotten those rights instead, but they weren’t. In this case, the Resale Rights turned out to be enough.
3. I contacted the author of the product, and asked him if I could use his website copy and images to sell the product. He granted me the right to do that.
4. I then registered the domain name QuickCashSecrets.net and hosted it on my shared hosting account - where I can host an unlimited number of websites for about $7/month.
5. I installed Rapid Action Profits to the domain name, and followed the instructions that came with the script to get my sales page set up. I used the original author’s text, images, and html that he had given me permission for - it was basically a big copy and paste job. The whole process of setting up the script took about an hour.
6. I drove traffic to the website by including links to it on my other sites and soon had over 100 sales of the product, bringing in over $700 for just a couple of hours worth of work.

So, this cost me $17 for the resale rights and $9 for the domain name - total cost out of pocket: $26. I already owned Rapid Action Profits and I already had a hosting account. It took me about 2 hours worth of work total, and it ended up bringing in over $700 in sales. I didn’t have to write the ebook myself or even the sales copy! That’s not too bad in my book.

Now, I realize that you may not have any websites yet to use to promote your new product like I did. That’s why I would recommend that you get the Private Label Rights to the product you are interested in, rather than just the Resale Rights. Once you have the Private Label Rights, you can modify the text and rename the product to be your own, with your name as the author. Buy the domain name appropriate for what you renamed it to be, and you are all set to start driving traffic to your very own product. Talking about how to drive traffic is beyond the scope of this article, but you will do much better promoting your own unique product rather than the same one as other people.

Remember, Rapid Action Profits also gives you the ability to run your own affiliate program for your product, so you don’t have to do all the marketing yourself. Eventually you will have your affiliates doing the marketing work for you.

Once you have set up your first site using Rapid Action Profits, you will see just how easy it is. The next time you see a product with Private Label Rights that you think there is a demand for, you can have your own site set up for the product in just a couple of hours.

Having Rapid Action Profits in my toolbox helps me to implement my ideas almost instantly, and to see a profit from them. Get familiar with RAP, and it will do the same for you too!

Click here for details on how to get RAP for a discount for a limited time!