I want you to get really good content from this blog. Keep checking, there will always be something useful here.

One of the key issues I keep getting asked about is whether it’s better to do launches with JVs or use traffic control and pay-per-click to get steady sales.

Both have their values but I can tell you right off I’m biased towards launches. That’s where I made most of my money. In some ways it’s harder to do; it will test your networking and people skills. But it doesn’t have nearly the same complexity as pay-per-click campaigns and riding the search engines.

The plus side of the “launch” formula is that you make a rash of money all at once. It feels really empowering. On the down side, there is huge chaos at the office while the promotion blast goes out, followed by the stresses and strains of getting the fulfillment right. And of course the JVs all want their cut: typically 50% or more.

The steady pay-per-click traffic approach brings in income all the time, which is good. But that means you have to work the system constantly. It’s getting very hard to master the real skills of pay-per-click, as the big search engines seem determined to make it difficult to succeed. And, of course, it’s not really cheap. In fact you may also end up paying out 50% (or more) of each sale in PPC fees to Google etc.

I’m clear which method I prefer to make money online, as I said, but I’ll try and weigh the pros and cons carefully for you.

Let’s take the PPC approach first.

I consider it quite complex. There is a LOT to learn. You can buy into available courses (not much useful teaching that’s free, I’m afraid). Or – the one which everybody forgets – is use the free Google help pages. Most of what you need to know is up there, though some of it is hard to find, I admit.

But if you want to be serious about the game, any game, you MUST read the rules. How can you play Mah Jong or Texas Hold ‘Em if you don’t know the rules? Duh!

However, right away, there is one of the problems. Google keeps changing the rules! As a business company, they behave shockingly and outrageously and will suddenly change the “rules”, without telling their clients. No other company has the arrogance or stupidity to do that.

Their pretext is that they are looking after the surfers’ interests, first and foremost. That is their main mission purpose, of course. But Google is now taking hard cash from advertizers in AdWords. That changes everything. The AdWords advertizers are now the CUSTOMERS. In any other sphere of business, the guy that pays you for your services is entitled to a contractual agreement which both sides have to abide by. Google just don’t seem to see it that way. The constant and unannounced alterations in their famous algorithm (calculation process) at times seem almost spitefully directed towards hurting their paying customers.

Their excuse is simple enough: they claim to be trying to block the scamming and spamming activities of certain people who appear dedicated to trying to dishonestly game the system and gain an advantage over everybody else. There are plenty of them out there, it’s true. We call them the “black hats”: guys (cowboys in the black hats are always the bad guys, right?)

All very laudable of Google – but the people who are getting hurt are good decent people with a lot of time and money invested in their online businesses. Not everyone is a crook! You can’t go round hanging everybody, just so you take down a few murderers! No sense.

That’s not to say PPC is busted and doesn’t work. I’m just pointing out that you are always working under something of a shadow.

JVs and launches

With JV marketing, on the other hand, you know where you are. You work with pals. We all form a club and help each other along.

But why the drama of a big “launch” event, you ask? Why not just do JV marketing on a drip-drip basis too? Emails could go out every week to different JV lists. That would create a regular flow.

True. But you’re missing one key element that’s important. We call it the “buzz”. If you get a whole bunch of people talking about the same thing at the same time, it starts get to get a fizz all of its own. Excitement. It seems like the “in” thing.

This is critical if you are not a so-called “evergreen” product. There’s no question: there are fashions on the Internet. Some of this is because things go out of date pretty fast. Some if it is because people are fickle; they move on. You need to ride the wave and, in certain cases, create the wave.

So a massive world-wide launch can be very important, create a huge buzz effect, and that results in many times the number of sales.

That’s why we do launches, OK?

The rest is easy and you know the great thing? The JVs are definitely motivated to sell for you. Every sale they get 50%. So they are going to try to move your product, using every tactic known. Typically, a JV will add in lots of his or her own bonuses, as an inducement. JVs even try to outdo each other, adding more and more value. One guy earlier this year was offering lifetime free holidays in his mountain cabin, if you bought via his affiliate link!

This bidding with extra bonuses can mean your product gaining a great deal in perceived value. Hey, that can only help sales :-)

That’s why I personally like the JV system.

The old ways were best (maybe!)

I’ve been talking about a couple of different tactical approaches. But there is one strategical element you must never overlook. Getting a good organic listing position in the search engines. Whether you do JV and launch style or PPC, it does no harm to also have lots of free traffic coming to your sale page, simply because they found you by chance.

It’s not chance, of course. You lie in the road and trip them up as they go by! You engineer for them to find you. We call that search engine optimization (or SEO). Some people get all their traffic that way and the major advantage is it’s all free traffic.

Not easy though.

In fact that’s another topic all by itself. I’ll look at that with you another day.

Popularity: 75% [?]