Customer Acquisition using Customer Reciprocation

What is a NNN.com

2009-04-15T17:59:00.001-07:00

OK to followup on my last 2 posts on CCC.com and LLL.com domain names.

You can define NNN.com as:
any 3 numbers as the domain name.
eg:
000.com
010.com
123.com

all these 3 character domains are "supposedly" valuable as they are easy to remember and often make a 3 character acronym.

What is a LLL.com

2009-04-15T17:56:00.000-07:00

You may be asking:

"Define LLL.com"

the L in LLL stands for letter so any alphabetic character allowed in a Domain name. For example
abc.com
zzz.com

Not to be confused with CCC.com which allows numbers and other characted like "-" hyphens.

What is a CCC.com

2009-04-15T17:53:00.000-07:00

You may be asking:

"Define CCC.com"

the C in CCC stands for character so any legal character allowed in a Domain name. For example
abc.com
a3x.com
123.com

but not #q+.com

Money Magnet epidemic sweeps blogosphere

2008-03-07T22:05:00.000-08:00

A monetization widget called a Money Magnet is rapidly appearing on Blog world wide. It earns the publisher $5 to $50 depending on its value. Always 50% with commission payed instantly through Paypal.

It updates every 3 minutes showing your earning, the total sales across all money magnets and shows the last person that made a sale.

Get yours by clicking on my magnet above

Review of online video advertising options

2007-10-15T07:43:00.000-07:00

This video ad sharing service just posted a great article highlighting the different types of advertising options available for use on online video.

In summary they outline the impact on the :
1) video advertisers,
2) consumer that watches the video content,
3) publishers or webmasters that host the video,
4) producers or authots of the video content.

based on the available types of video advertising including:

1) Pre-roll video advertising.
2) Post-roll video advertising.
3) In-Video Advertising.
4) Overlay video advertising
5) Product placement in online video advertising.
6) Adjacent video advertising.

Also covered is the fact that "online video advertising revenue is expected to grow five fold over by 2011 to $4.3 Billion."

Funny viral eBook boosts traffic

2007-10-01T22:35:00.000-07:00

If you haven’t come across a version of this hilarious eBook yet, then you’re probably one of the early birds. I recommend you get in quick and distribute a branded PDF version with your own embedded affiliate link.

The digital book title “How my Granny earned 5 times more affiliate commission than me”, is only three pages long, cutting through the clutter and getting straight to the point.

The squeeze page accompanying the eBook is not to be underestimated. It is not only funny it is the winning formula encouraging the reader to grab a free copy of the book without even having to provide an email address.

To check out the book visit http://www.EasyAffiliateSales.com

This eBook alone had boosted SpinningTornado's traffic to new levels and will perhaps be the first in a series of hilarious viral eBooks to come our of this corner of the web.

Promotional Video putting YouTube traffic to shame

2007-09-11T08:26:00.000-07:00

Watch 30 second of videos to win a Sony Playstation 3

2007-09-11T06:34:00.000-07:00

LeadsByVideo is giving away monthly prizes to it's video viewers. The videos are only 30 seconds long each, and every time you watch 3 videos you get an entry into the draw.

Last months prize was a Sony PlayStation 3.

LBV un-officially launched just hours ago

2007-08-02T20:16:00.000-07:00

LeadsByVideo.com (LBV) un-officially launched just hours ago with full functionality.

If you sell or promote something online, and you're after quality not quantity traffic then you should get it quick.

Since not many know about it yet, you're in the ideal position to get exposure fast and repeatedly until others start adding their videos to the playlist.

LBV helps businesses profit by delivering the highest quality leads available anywhere online.

The unique service is free and uses video infomercials instead of limited text link ads to educate prospects about the businesses' products. This results in increased sales with minimal customer enquiry.

So guys, no time to waste. Visit http://www.LeadsByVideo.com and start using the system to your advantage.

Leads By Video pre-launch press release

2007-05-10T23:57:00.000-07:00

SpinningTornado's founders Tom Zorde and Mike Lever are launching a new service called LeadsByVideo. Check out the press release below and visit the site.

LeadsByVideo.com (LBV) is a soon to be launched advertising service with a twist that's sure to
please anyone thinking about advertising through video.

Viewers watch the promotional videos
of others in return for getting their own aired and even professionally produced.

LBV is designed from the ground up to maximize rapid lead acquisition. The videos are thirty seconds long and range from short infomercials to branded advertising.

At the end of each video the viewer decides whether to click through to the advertiser's website, flag a video for later follow up or watch the next video.

Advertisers will be able to monitor the number of views and leads generated for each of their videos. With multiple videos, advertisers can get greater exposure or split-test. Tom Zorde explains further:

"Advertisers can create two similar videos, perhaps with different audio, or offers. They can then test which converts viewers to leads more effectively. Effective video marketing has been, up to now, virtually out of reach for many smaller business owners."

"These business owners have been experimenting using free video sites such as YouTube with limited success . This is because these sites attract viewers primarily seeking entertainment. LBV is different as it's designed to attract viewers that will watch commercial video."

LBV is currently seeking advertisers interested in getting their videos into the system for free airtime at launch.

Visit the web site www.LeadsByVideo.com to register your interest and to stay informed of the launch date.

USING VIDEO MARKETING FOR GUARANTEED RESULTS

2007-04-11T05:25:00.000-07:00

So you've tried putting you infomercial on Youtube, and maybe you got some views, but if you're like the thousands of others you've come to realise that the viewers on these sites are after one thing only, and that's entertainment.

"Leads By Video" is a new service in it early pre-launch phase. Get on board now to ensure you claim your place on the video playlist.

Leads by Video is a unique way for merchants and website owners to market using infomercials, adverts, special offers, demonstrations and biomercials. In comparison to other video sites like Yahoo Video and YouTube it is a specialised system designed to bring you pre-qualified leads.

People who visit you website only do so after willingly watching your video clip and responding positively by voting.

To find out more visit www.LeadsByVideo.com

How to get traffic to my site: A subjective review of exchanges

2007-03-05T22:05:00.000-08:00

Anyone who owns a website will have heard by now that you can monetize your efforts by displaying advertisements or promoting affiliated products.

What most are realising however, is that it is not their efforts that they are monetizing. It is the traffic they attract, by the effort excerpted in building, maintaining and promoting the website that generates an income.

Let’s look at some common and not-so-common techniques for driving traffic to your site and explore what really works.

Traffic Exchange:

Webmasters send traffic in return for others sending them traffic. This has limited effect as the traffic is generally not targeted at a specific customer base.

Link Exchange:

Also known as “reciprocal linking”, this technique is powerful if the links are prominently placed on the websites of others. Search engines like Google and Yahoo are taking less notice of links that are never accessed by humans. They know which of their toolbar members access through the link.

Surf for traffic:

This technique is often used by webmasters on a shoestring budget. They surf to build up credit that will be converted into others surfing their site. The problem is most of the members are not intending to visit your website for any other reason than to build up credits. This technique is also plagued by auto-surf programs that click on banners or links 24 hours a day building up credits for someone. So a lot of your visitors are not even human

“Get Paid” Service:

Here people get paid to check out your offer, click on your banner or link in an email or something similar. Again the visitor has no interest in staying at your site or actually reading what you have to offer. They are there because they got paid to be there.

“Customer Acquisition Exchange”

The previously discussed methods do drive traffic, which is good if you wish to boost your statistics but bad if you wish to make money as they rarely drive customers, leads, or clicks on your ads.

A proven and effective technique for monetizing you efforts is “customer reciprocation”. Although this delivers very little traffic to your site it delivers you a purchase ready customer that is guaranteed to shop. Most webmasters shop online, perhaps purchasing a dozen times a year from all sorts of merchant sites. Using a customer acquisition exchange, you can receive a paying customer to any of your affiliated merchants (through your affiliate link paying you commission) for each and every purchase you make online.

This is super targeted traffic, as the visitor has already decided to purchase at the merchant you are promoting before they access through your affiliate link.

Customer Reciprocation is an effective way to make money, you’re simply leveraging what you already do (shop online).

ANNOUNCING BRAND NEW TECHNOLOGY FOR AFFILIATES.

2007-01-11T21:14:00.000-08:00

We hope you had a wonderful break and trust that much of your Christmas shopping was subsidized by SpinningTornado reciprocal customers.

We'd like to welcome you to the first issue of 2007 in which we reveal some brand new technology to bolster and enhance the affiliate resources already available to you. I encourage you to explore the new niche ebook (customized to include your affiliate link) that is designed to spread virally. In addition, check out the unique presale flyover that converts at a whopping 53%.

________________________________________________________

ANNOUNCING BRAND NEW TECHNOLOGY FOR AFFILIATES.

There are countless generic tools arriving on the market every day to increase conversions and drive traffic. We will leave it up to you to choose which of these will assist you, but remember to use SpinningTornado's customer reciprocation service should you choose to purchase any of them.

Our aim is to provide you with valuable resources that are specific to promoting SpinningTornado. There are now several types of promotional means at your disposal, but brand new are the following which give you the competitive edge:

The Pre Sale Flyover Tool
-----------------------------------

Simply copy and paste the code provided (inserting your affiliate link) into your webpages. A non-intrusive form will fly over your webpages enticing visitors to submit their affiliate links for free.

To date, 53% of people who submit a link join the SpinningTornado community and earn you recurring commission when they subscribe.

Customizable Viral Ebook
-----------------------------------

This niche ebook is designed to be spread virally through it's humourous nature and free distribution rights. You download it in PDF format already customized to include your embedded affiliate link.

You can then seed the viral activity by giving it away for free or as a bonus, as well as selling it on eBay.

To get access to these latest resources simply go to:

http://www.spinningtornado.com/content/affiliate_resources.php

Have you ever purchased something online?

2006-11-30T01:45:00.000-08:00

G'day

Have you ever purchased something online?

Yes.

Then unless you're a SpinningTornado member, You've missed out on MONEY that is RIGHTFULLY YOURS.

Welcome to SpinningTornado we make sure whenever YOU become someones customer, someone will become YOUR CUSTOMER in return.

You've probably learnt by now, that finding quality traffic that'll convert to customers is NOT an easy task. In fact, IT'S HARD.

But customer acquisition for affiliates can now be EASY.

Join SpinningTornado and tell us where you want US to deliver YOUR paying customers.

Then, go about your SHOPPING AS NORMAL.

Buy WHAT you want from WHERE you want, WHEN you want.

For every purchase you make we'll deliver you a reciprocal customer.

It really couldn't be simpler.

To join our community for free just go to www.spinningtornado.com

See you soon.

Avoiding the pitfalls of Customer Reciprocation

2006-11-16T21:16:00.000-08:00

One of the easiest ways for affiliate newbies to acquire customers is through the process of Customer Reciprocation as it is a guaranteed way for them to experience the thrill of receiving an affiliate cheque. Even a small success breeds further successes which can encourage and hopefully inspire them to plunge deeper into the lucrative world of affiliate marketing.

So this newsletter is focused squarely on avoiding the pitfalls of Customer Reciprocation for newbies and experienced marketers alike.

It relates to a little old program known as Google Adsense which rewards people for placing ads or links on their web pages. It's extremely enticing to newbie affiliate marketers as it offers a chance to monetize their web site by receiving a minuscule sum of money each time a visitor clicks on an ad or link on their site. These sites are often set up as directories (with categories listed as keywords for Search Engine Marketing) and serve no useful purpose apart from earning a few measly cents and being relatively easy to set up.

The smart experienced affiliate marketers do a similar but much better job by investing much more time and effort to create a content rich site and often multiple sites in various niches so as not to put all their eggs in one basket. Sometimes these diverse sites even link to each other driving more traffic to their "mini content" network.

But I digress.

Because newbies are in such a hurry to make money they often take shortcuts and fail as a result.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in their approach to Customer Reciprocation. Instead of entering their correct affiliate link for the merchant they wish to promote, they often enter their directory page or just as bad their own web site (even if it is content rich). What they fail to realise is that nobody wants to buy from a directory page irrespective of how many affiliate links are on that page or where they point to. Nor do they wish to purchase through a personal web site unless what that personal web site sells is unavailable from any other web site.

Another equally common pitfall even after entering your correct affiliate links for the merchants you promote is so silly it's ridiculous. Can you guess it?

You want customers right? Customer Reciprocation will provide them whenever you shop once you've got merchants to promote. What could be simpler?

Many people leave money on the table simply by forgetting to tell us what their desired purchase intention is before shopping.

Remembering the following basic 3 step process for customer acquisition will profit you many times over:

1. You store your list of affiliate links at SpinningTornado.com. SpinningTornado will spider each affiliate link and determine which merchant sites you are promoting.

When shoppers indicate they want to purchase from a merchant you promote, they will be directed (via email) to that merchant through your affiliate link, earning you commission. They are happy to do this because in return for purchasing what they had already intended to purchase, someone will become their customer earning them commission.

2. Whenever you want to purchase anything from anywhere online, use SpinningTornado. You will be directed (via email) through a fellow community member's affiliate link to purchase through.

3. Enter your receipt details (via a separate link in the previous email) and in return someone will become your customer by shopping through your affiliate link.

So now that you know the pitfalls of Customer Reciprocation you can easily avoid them and start acquiring customers the easy way.

SpinningTornado gets loud

2006-11-09T21:40:00.000-08:00

Today Michael Lever took to the microphone and says it plain and simple

G'day

Have you ever purchased something online?

Yes.

Then unless you're a SpinningTornado member, You've missed out on MONEY that is RIGHTFULLY YOURS.

Welcome to SpinningTornado, we make sure whenever YOU become someones customer, someone will become YOUR CUSTOMER in return.

You've probably learnt by now, that finding quality traffic that'll convert to customers is NOT an easy task. In fact, IT'S HARD.

But customer acquisition for affiliates can now be EASY.
Join SpinningTornado and tell us where you want US to deliver YOUR paying customers.
Then, go about your SHOPPING AS NORMAL. Buy WHAT you want from WHERE you want, WHEN you want.

For every purchase you make we'll deliver you a reciprocal customer. It really couldn't be simpler.
To join our community for free go to:

http://www.spinningtornado.com

Then log in to you portfolio where you can manage and monitor your customer acquisition.

Whenever you want to buy ANYTHING from ANYWHERE online just tell us which site you want to shop at so we can find you a genuine customer in return.

To benefit, you just need to tell us what affiliate links your reciprocal customers should access through.

Your free membership allows you to enter as many affiliate links as you like.

The more you enter the quicker we can find customers for you.

To allow us to search for these customers ensure you upgrade to subscription membership.

Remember:

only subscribers are eligible to receive customers.

With SpinningTornado, you'll never shop again without money coming your way.

A great way to make some quick Click Bank cash

2006-11-06T18:46:00.000-08:00

SpinningTornado have made it really easy for affiliates to get customers

Tell A Friend how to do it

Oh and if you want to earn residual income sign up for free and become a
VIP affiliate. You'll earn whenever your referral renews their subscription.

____________________________________

THE SPINNINGTORNADO VIP AFFILIATE OFFER

2006-10-26T21:17:00.000-07:00

Greetings,

In this issue we re-launch our Affiliate Program and make you a fantastic complimentary offer. Additionally, for those of you who are short on time and want to make a quick dollar, we introduce our ClickBank enhanced Tell-A-Friend facility.

________________________________________________________

THE SPINNINGTORNADO VIP AFFILIATE OFFER

Big grins are sweeping across the faces of our subscribers from the recent changes to SpinningTornado.

The introduction of the new membership model where only Subscribers are entitled to receive paying customers, means customers that were previously allocated to Standard members are now being distributed to Subscribers. The 12 month Subscription is an affiliates dream as it entitles the member to unlimited reciprocal customers for 12 long months. These are real customers purchasing through your affiliate links to earn you commission. They're not unpredictable leads, visitors or click-throughs.

To accompany these changes, we're re-launching our affiliate program with an outstanding offer that's sure to blow you away.

We invite you to take advantage of a complimentary VIP affiliate membership and profit as SpinningTornado accelerates to the next level.

Not only have we doubled your commission to $20 per referred Subscription sale, we are paying $20 every time any of your referrals renew their membership FOREVER.

To date, 93% of all subscribers renew their subscription, and why wouldn't they? It's a small price to pay for unlimited reciprocal customers.

We have made it so simple. There is no excuse for not grabbing your slice of the profit pie.

Our raft of high converting easy-to-use tools are at your disposal.

Come on board now and profit from the Customer Reciprocation revolution.

http://www.spinningtornado.com/content/affil.php
________________________________________________________

WANTED LAZY AFFILIATES: MAKE A QUICK DOLLAR WITH CLICKBANK

It can't get any easier. Simply go to:

http://www.spinningtornado.com/taf.php

As an affiliate - are you leaving money on the table?

2006-08-18T22:58:00.000-07:00

Did you know that there are affiliate marketers with "No Website", "No email
List", doing "No Advertising" and making money from referring customers to
online merchants?

Impossible you say?

What if I told you that they do nothing but go about their business as usual?

If you're ready to look in the mirror and discover a little bit more about
yourself, I will tell you (absolutely free in this article) exactly how
thousands of "new breed" affiliates have woken up to the obvious and are
making additional profits using a simple no risk strategy.

Are you sitting down? This obvious strategy will blow you over. You won't
believe why no-one thought of it sooner.

Firstly, the smart affiliates that are leveraging this strategy recognize
themselves not just as promoters or sellers of products, but as customers.

To most of us, the thought of earning money dominates and clouds the idea
of spending it. We want to make money not spend it, at least initially!

Subconsciously, however, we relate to the old proverb "you must spend money
to make money". So before we know it, we're helping other people make money
by becoming their customers. Merchants and their affiliates profit from selling
us their niche products. Promising us the best SEO software, guaranteed website
traffic and copywriting ebooks, we scramble for our credit cards in the hope
of finally enjoying a slice of the trillion dollar pie we call consumer online
spending.

Does this sound like you?

Yes? Then it's time for a personal paradigm shift.

Thinking of oneself as a customer as well as an affiliate is the key to this simple but effective strategy. In fact it was this realization that spawned the creation of "Customer Reciprocation".
Customer Reciprocation is the process where affiliates shop through each
other's affiliate links resulting in mutual win-win outcomes. This is the
risk-free customer acquisition method of choice for the next generation affiliate
marketer. It is risk free because you only purchase what you would normally
purchase, when you would normally purchase it and from the merchant you would
normally purchase it from.

By tracking the affiliates who earn commission from your normal day-today
online shopping, a customer reciprocation facilitator (known as a Customer
Acquisition Exchange) awards your affiliated merchant a customer (earning
you commission) in return for every online purchase you make. In effect,
you'll be earning commission that you would not otherwise have earned. You
can view this income as a subsidy or rebate on the purchase that you would
have made anyway.

If you were entitled to a rebate on any purchase you made in the offline
world, would you not take advantage of it? Of course you would, that is why
tax claims, frequent flyer points, reward cards, coupons, cash rebates and
haggling are all so popular. As an online affiliate marketer you can take
advantage of Customer Reciprocation and earn one customer whenever you become
a customer.

It's all about leverage. Just as reputable link exchanges help related websites
increase traffic through reciprocal linking, Customer Acquisition Exchanges
help affiliates increase their commissionable sales through customer reciprocation.

It makes sense and requires little additional effort. It is simply a change
in mindset.

The sooner you recognise that you are not just an online promoter but
also an online spender, the sooner you can leverage that fact and take advantage
of the previously missed commission payments left on the table.

Do a search or ask around. Find a Customer Acquisition Exchange that suits
you. You will never again shop online without claiming your right to a reciprocal
customer.

New breed of affiliate marketer emerges

2006-05-20T00:44:00.000-07:00

Partnerships and leverage are amongst the priorities of the next generation of commission based internet marketers.

The lure of earning fast cash by directing internet traffic has well and truly killed the dreams of many affiliate marketers. This has become the unfortunate side-effect as merchants are demanding CPA price structures while seach engines are demanding webmasters to invest more time and content.

Add to this the increased difficulty of communicating effectively through email (due to free email accounts propensity to bounce and spam filters on even ISP based mail accounts) and one can easily see that even legitimite email can often go unread.

And then there is the problem of poor traffic quality, generated primarily by people being paid minute amounts to click on websites and read email. This incentivised traffic is totally useless except for the opportunistic traffic sellers who profit from the margin between paying the incentives and charging for the resulting statistics.

The effect of these internet trends has spawned new opportunities encouraging affiliate marketers to partner for mutual win-win outcomes. The pioneers call it Customer Reciprocation. "I'll shop through your affiliate link if you shop through mine".

There is no artificially generated statistics here, just real customers achieving real benefits.

Merchants are praising this process as affiliates are required to purchase to receive their reciprocal customer. With a matching partner, affiliates can shop at their favorite online merchant earning their partner commission effectively subsidizing the partner's purchase.

Online merchants with affiliate programs are gaining additional customers whenever their affiliates shop anywhere online. The merchants products become more attractive due to the commission the affiliate's partner will receive when shopping at that merchant. Affiliates benefit from the subsidized shopping (in the form of their commission) that may even cover the total cost of the product they purchased.

Affiliate Marketers are turning to Customer Reciprocation matching services to assist them in finding customers who have affiliations with merchants that they want to shop at.

Free search engine marketing.

2006-05-12T22:31:00.000-07:00

AFFILIATES ARE SPINNING OUT OVER FREE SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING.

Traffic services like Google Adwords and Yahoo Search Marketing (Overture) can expose your URL to millions of people. Unfortunately the high costs and CPC pricing structure often makes SEM unfeasible for affiliate marketers. Once you apply your conversion rate (say 1 sale per 1000 visitors) multiplied by your sales commission (say $50) your budget per visitor just to break even ($0.05 in this case) does not leave much room for profit if you have to pay for that visitor.

Fortunately, as an affiliate marketer you can still leverage SEM to make commissionable sales.

SpinningTornado is literally spinning out of control.

SpinningTornado is currently charging ahead with its promotional campaign to grow their community of affiliates, mlm members, online shoppers and merchants. The SEM based campaign is planned to increase exponentially over the coming months.

Mike Lever, CEO and Co-Founder of SpinningTornado explains:

"We're now investing considerable capital on SEM campaigns targeted at keywords directly related to the products promoted by the SpinningTornado community members. As a member you benefit from this free advertising because the campaigns entice shoppers to purchase through your referral URL using SpinningTornado's Customer Acquisition Exchange."

The campaigns have been extremely successful to date. To drive even more customers your way, we are going to increase our budget and scope to encompass an even broader market.

People ask me, how do I take full advantage of this free advertising?

It's very simple really. Just make sure you enter all your referral URLs into your SpinningTornado portfolio. The more you enter the greater chance you have of receiving customers. After all, the Customer Acquisition Exchange can only find customers for the merchants that you tell us about. Secondly, and just as important, make sure the next time you purchase something online you remember to purchase from that merchant using the SpinningTornado service.

There are no limitations. You are free to shop ANYWHERE online at ANY of your favourite merchant sites. As an unbiased community, we differ from conventional shopping sites in that we never attempt to manipulate your purchasing preferences or try to sell you third party products."

So what are you waiting for? Participate in the SpinningTornado community and take advantage of our free SEM advertising on your behalf.

_______________________________________________________

A question of trust

2006-03-23T04:25:00.000-08:00

WHY APATHY IS THE SINGLE BIGGEST COMMUNITY KILLER.

Ever heard the expression "No news is good news"? Ever attended an Annual
General Meeting (AGM)?

If you have, can you guess what a news report and an AGM have in common?
They both attract much bigger audiences when shrouded with controversy,
dissatisfaction, or disaster.

The same is true for community organisations and websites.

When things are running smoothly, you don't hear much from members - a sure
sign of apathy. The irony is that for communities to really thrive, there
needs to be active involvement from a broad number of members.

Yet for many organisations, these community voices are only heard as a mark
of mistrust or disguised as constructive criticism. The apathy only awakes
from it's slumber when something out of the ordinary happens.

Community websites are notorious for these types of behaviours due to the
distractive nature of the internet. It pulls you this way then that such is
the rapidity of change online.

What we get out of community organisations is directly proportional to our
level of contribution from within.

Utilise tools and resources, after all, they're there for your benefit, and
provide positive feedback to your community if your experiences are good.

Don't spread your sense of community involvement too widely. Bookmark and
focus on just a couple and avoid the apathy trap that comes from too much
change.

________________________________________________________

TRUST ISSUES WE'VE ENCOUNTERED WITH OUR OWN MEMBERS.

Trust us (pardon the pun) when we say there wouldn't be a business on earth,
online or offline, that doesn't experience trust issues from time to time.

We're no exception to the rule. In fact, we're more critically aware of this
factor than most. This is because our system relies heavily on trust and
2-way trust at that. This means providing safeguards that allow us to detect
both abuses of trust by our members as well as ensuring that member's trust
in our system is not misplaced.

We've detected, however, a few opportunistic members attempting to exploit
the trust placed in them by the system. They achieve this by creating
purchase intentions then not following through with their intended purchase
after receiving a confirmed customer. That's pretty poor form in our book
and creates problems for other members (possible exchange partners) and
ourselves as it makes the system look fallible.

Perhaps those short sighted members would do well to realise that the only
real way to succeed at internet marketing (or any other pursuit for that
matter) is by establishing trust and credibility through honest endeavour.

We've also had a couple of members who have questioned our integrity,
claiming that they never received commission from the merchant our system
directed their reciprocal customer to. There are 2 safeguards we can think
of that can verify our reciprocal customer claim.

First one is to check that the merchant link you supplied us with is in fact
correct (and cannot be redirected through a different browser).

Secondly, that you have received commission from that merchant previously
from using that exact same link. If not, then you may need to re-examine the
issue of trust with that particular merchant.

Remember the old computer adage that garbage in equals garbage out.
Our system only verifies that the referral URL you first entered is an
actual link - not that it necessarily goes to the intended destination! (so
please enter carefully)

Remember, also, that we don't control what merchants do at their end.
If you don't have 100% trust in your affiliated merchant, don't enter them
in the system!

We only want our members to experience positive outcomes and if you follow
the above suggestions, issues of trust (2-way) should be kept to a minimum.

________________________________________________________

A SURE-FIRE SOLUTION TO OVERCOME EVEN THE MOST CYNICAL AMONGST US.

How does one turn even the most skeptical critic into an ardent fan or
supporter? Can it even be done? The answer is a most unequivocal yes!

The solution lies not in defending oneself or the product or service being
offered. Quite the opposite in fact! Conspire with them by enlisting their
help in improving your offering and addressing their concerns.

Value their opinion highly and never dismiss their point of view no matter
how much you disagree or how unfair it may seem. This is a perfect excuse to
elicit their feedback and get them involved in a meaningful way.

Even by doing this you may still not entirely satisfy them but you will have
gone a long way to establishing or restoring trust. If they don't exactly
endorse your offering, you will almost certainly have averted any negative
exposure through this personal engagement.

APPLYING CREATIVE ACCOUNTING TO WEBSITE MARKETING.

2006-03-02T00:51:00.000-08:00

APPLYING CREATIVE ACCOUNTING TO WEBSITE MARKETING.

Ever bought a business only to find that the real figures didn't quite stack up to the rosy picture painted? Result being an inflated price paid for some creative accounting employed by the vendor.
Listen, it happens all the time so you're no orphan there.

The key is to learn from the experience and move on. If you look around closely you'll notice people's creative licence or liberties abound everywhere.

Thinly veiled lies they are not as they usually have elements of truth behind them that are simply embellished or exaggerated.

What they are, however, are creatively designed perceptions that cater for anticipated desires. The flippant amongst us would describe it as marketing - simply a means to an end.

Not an easy talent to develop, that's why the top advertising executives get paid a king's ransom. But a good start is to recognise that behind all good marketing is a created perception.

A blatant example in our industry are the countless "pie in the sky" promises designed to fulfill most people's dreams. Before you say you'd never fall for any of those scam sites (and maybe with a good accountant not overpay for a business either), I should remind you that the seeds for creative perception are often planted sublimely.

How do many websites grow so quickly? The answer depends on many variables but at the core of the expansion process is most definately the created perception that the site is bigger or more successful than it really is. This one factor alone pre-empts further growth and success until one day the perception and reality merge into one.

Watch for "impressions created" whenever you next view any form of advertising - it's these that determine our choices rather than verifiable facts! Master these perception techniques and be master of your own destiny.

Spinning Tornado's Customer Acquisition Exchange site has been updated

2006-02-03T06:12:00.000-08:00

The site has been refreshed with loads of new content explaining the benefits of customer reciprocation and why the community members are so thrilled with the customer acquisition exchange service.

You can submit your affiliate link for free. (this is your referral url issued to you by your merchant when you joined their affiliate program)

The faq has also been updated with tons of new content

check out http://www.spinningtornado.com/content/faq.php

See you there

Spinning Tornado's Customer Acquisition Exchange site has been updated

2006-02-03T06:04:00.000-08:00

If you are a work at home mum seeking to earn a passive income from doing business online, or you are simply a webmaster wanting to increase your online commissions from your affiliate programs you should check out http://www.spinningtornado.com.

The site has been refreshed with loads of new content explaining the benefits of customer reciprocation and why the community members are so thrilled with the customer acquisition exchange service.

You can submit your affiliate link for free. (this is your referral url issued to you by your merchant when you joined their affiliate program)

The faq has also been updated with tons of new content

check out http://www.spinningtornado.com/content/faq.php

See you there

affiliate blogspot.com site video

2006-01-17T18:25:00.000-08:00

To checkout the latest customer reciprocation video detailing how an affiliate can use customer reciprocation to get guaranteed paying customers to their associated merchant (through their affiliat elink ofcourse) simply go to:

customer reciprocatio for affiliate marketers, merchants and MLM members

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7417824264248953795&q=affiliate+program

7 crucial Customer Reciprocation strategies to super-charge affiliate

2006-01-02T20:51:00.000-08:00

You've probably heard the Internet gurus mention Customer Reciprocation
as a powerful way to profit from the purchase intentions of other affiliates.
What many of them fail to mention is the strategies they themselves use to
make Customer Reciprocation work in their favour.

It's like comparing the novice share investor who buys and sells shares
with a stock market guru who uses gearing, derivatives, futures, and hedging
to manage their stocks.

In this article I will explain the strategies these 'super-affiliates' use
in simple easy to understand language. By adopting them, you too will have the upper
hand and the affiliate game will become somewhat fairer.

If you are not familiar fully with Customer Reciprocation, it is basically
the process of someone becoming your customer when you become theirs. It
generally applies to affiliate marketers as they can purchase through each
other's referral URLs, but can also be used by online merchants.

Lets level the playing field and get you set to super-charge your affiliate
profits.

#1) Let someone else do the mundane work for you.
Register your purchase intention with a Customer Acquisition Exchange before
you shop at your preferred merchant store. This is by far the easiest way
to find an affiliate of that merchant willing to purchase from you. It is
an extremely cost effective way to find paying customers. Think of them like
Internet dating services without the imperfections of dishonest body measurements
and cliched interests.

#2) Direct the traffic.
Prioritise your referral URLs to direct reciprocal customers/exchange partners
to merchants that pay you higher commissions. As there are probably hundreds
of affiliates that you can purchase your intended products through, it makes sense
to reciprocate with one that has a purchase intention with a merchant that
pays you better. Be careful, however, not to eliminate high demand merchants,
as you may miss out on sales.

#3) Maximize return on investment (ROI).
Use a Customer Acquisition Exchange that adopts a Cost Per Acquisition (CPA/PPA)
model. This way you won't pay until you receive your customer/commission.

#4) Move with speed.
Ensure your exchange service allows deferred compensation so you can purchase
what you want at a time that suits you. This is a powerful way to drive customers
to higher paying merchants as you are extending your search period. $400
commission next month is better than $10 commission today.

#5) Work smarter.
Monitor your merchants Customer Reciprocation success rate. Your Customer
Acquisition Exchange will be able to provide you with statistics of which
ones have the highest demand and conversion rate (CVR). Check their payouts
and invest your efforts accordingly.

#6) Do your research.
Some Customer Acquisition Exchanges allows you to monitor the demand and
conversion rate of merchants you are not an affiliate of. Join the top performers
and take advantage of the additional sales.

#7) Create the market.
Encourage other affiliates to use Customer Reciprocation. This will increase
activity resulting in less wait and more sales/commission for you.

I hope you enjoyed reading my article and feel excited about applying the
strategies you've learnt. If you know someone who would also benefit from
learning these, please share the knowledge and send them the link to this
page.

Fighting back with Counter-Hypnotic Internet Marketing

2006-01-02T20:29:00.000-08:00

If I was a fortune-teller and you just walked in my door I would tell you
this:

"I see you still seek the dream of earning money in your sleep. Enough to
give you the time and freedom to do what you want, when you want and without
the restriction of having to choose second-best."

Don't worry, I can't read your mind. I can, however, manipulate how it controls
you without you knowing it.

"No way" you say?

The fact that you're reading this line of text proves I just manipulated
your behavior by provoking your subconscious. I pushed your emotional buttons
and sucked you in to reading more. How many of your subconscious actions
are controlled by someone else? Who knows, it depends on who you are. But
we can all agree that this human ability to manipulate the behavior of others
is the keystone of today's marketing.

You are being manipulated every waking minute of your day.

The advent of the Internet has connected us globally. Add to this, the hundreds
of thousands of merchants who've adopted affiliate programs as a way of consigning
an army of salespeople to actively headhunt new customers in exchange for commission earnings.
So where does it end up? Right here: An all time record number of humans
manipulating other humans. No wonder it's getting harder to sell stuff. From
the second you wake up you're bombarded with attempts to sell you stuff.

People will do anything for money and so they do anything to get your attention.
Taking of their clothes on national TV, proclaiming outrageous benefits,
and acting out 'close to illegal' attention seeking publicity stunts are
not uncommon tactics.

The inherent problem here is that it's no longer a matter of whether there
are enough customers in the market. It is whether you can capture and keep
a customer's attention for a few minutes of their 24-hour day. This is why
the plethora of marketers opt to use hypnotic and manipulative communication
to win your attention.

What if you could bypass all this manipulation?

Imagine if you could shut the door on the screaming, banner-waving crowd
of competitive marketers. Sit your customer down in your office and present
your product with their complete attention?

A new league of customer acquisition techniques that bypass the constant manipulation
is rising from the chaos of today's marketing. One of which I am
personally fond of is 'Customer Reciprocation'.

Customer Reciprocation takes a holistic view of Internet marketing, applying
traditional win-win formulas to the modern way of doing commerce. If you
remove all the hype of today, what you're left with is age-old commerce propositions.
"Do you need something to solve your problem? Then buy this product", and
"I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine".

Customer Reciprocation bypasses the hype because each customer who purchases
from the other only purchase the products that they had already intended
to purchase. A fair and honest way to acquire customers for both affiliate
marketers and merchants. General online shopping portals manipulate customers
to shop at a limited list of merchants by offering discounts, rewards or other
incentives. Customer Reciprocation delivers to you as a customer the freedom
to shop anywhere online while still receiving a discount. The discount is
in the form of a customer to you or your affiliated merchant generating you
income.

Deep down we all like to sell stuff the honest way, and none of us like to be
manipulated. So it is easy to see why Customer Reciprocation is growing in
popularity. It may be a slow-and-steady customer acquisition strategy but
it's one that is guaranteed to reap results for its users.

Affiliate on the roof. Meet the match maker.

2005-12-05T20:31:00.000-08:00

"Match maker.. Match maker.. Make me a match. And pay me commission too!"

This is the tune that thousands of income-seekers are working to while using
a new technology known as 'Customer Reciprocation'.

The work from home revolution is well and truly here. Primarily drawing on
affiliate marketing as the main source of income, business opportunity seekers,
website owners, and the new revolution of work from home mums are competing
aggressively to boost customer acquisition. Unfortunately, list building,
link building, blogging and marketing can seriously eat into the free time
of any goal driven enthusiast.

With these imposing forces, it's no wonder many soon throw in the towel.
The dream of passive income proving to be somewhat harder than the fancy
sales copies purported.

This is where Customer Reciprocation is lighting the path for many lost affiliates.
Customer Reciprocation ensures you receive a customer in return whenever
you purchase online. Every time you purchase something you're some merchant's
customer. In return, using Customer Reciprocation, you can be "Matched" with an affiliate
of that merchant. This results in someone with a purchase intention for a merchant
that you are affiliated with purchasing through you. It's a sensible win-win scenario.

This match making service can be facilitated by a "Customer Acquisition Exchange".

Do a search in your favorite search engine to find one that suits your needs.

Customer Reciprocation lends itself to any form of referral or associate
income business. Whether you're into multi level marketing MLM, an online
store merchant, an affiliate marketer, an ezine newsletter owner, Webmaster
or Internet entrepreneur, there are real benefits to be derived.

Exchanges that connect people are not uncommon on the Internet. Many successful
businesses base their service models on reciprocation. Just like online dating,
auctions, link exchanges, and affiliate networks, the value of Customer Acquisition
Exchanges reside in the community of loyal and active members. For every
new member that joins, the value to all grows exponentially. This is why
these reciprocation services often grow rapidly with the viral effect of
word-of-mouth spreading quickly.

In summary, there is plenty of hope for anyone wanting to make an income
online. Working from home is certainly achievable, and for those who are
willing to try new customer acquisition vehicles, the rewards can be plenty.

The affiliate marketer's power guide to niche product evaluation.

2005-12-01T17:21:00.000-08:00

If you built and sold the first teleportation device you would make some serious money.

But...

If you built the network that connected the teleportation devices and charge a subscription fee to use it, you're set up for a future of enormous passive income.

This is the view many entrepreneurs are taking in the 21st century. Passive income can only be derived from niche products with a sustainable market.

We love niche products because they inherently don't have many competitors and solve the problems of people who have money to spend. It is no wonder affiliate marketers fall over themselves in a rushed "grab-for-cash" type frenzy whenever a niche product with affiliate income opportunities launches. Unfortunately many are too late and end up scraping the bottom of the barrel for the last few customers.

If we analyze niche products closely we can divide them into 2 distinct categories:

Un-Sustainable and Sustainable.

Unsustainable niche products may or may not make money. If they do make money, they only do so for a short period of time, then they need to be re-invented to become new niche products. Affiliates who get in early stand to profit. But sales usually diminish quickly once new competitors or hot products arrive to saturate the market. Take for example a car or a DVD player, when first released the manufacturer sales margin would have been massive. Only the rich would have been able to afford one. But as competitors enter the market, margins start to reduce drastically and there is no longer much profit to be made. Mobile phone handsets are an example of this. The market is so saturated that the phones are often given away for free.

Sustainable niche products are those products that grow in value the more people know about them. Drawing on the mobile phone example, the telecommunications network would be a sustainable niche. The more people on the network the more valuable the phone becomes to the owners. Affiliates of sustainable niche products stand to profit considerably more using this long-term strategy compared to the possible quick profit from unsustainable niche products.

Sustainable niche products can be sold to each individual in the market. They are inherently viral as every individual who has the product can derive greater value when they convince others to use it. For example a fax machine has greater value when everyone has one. With subscription or disposable services, there is generally no market saturation. You can re-sell the same niche product back to the same customer again and again.

So before you invest your time, effort and money promoting another merchants product, ensure the niche product passes the following checks:

#1) Does the product meet a continuous need of consumers? Can you sell it 10 years from now?

#2) How viral is the product? Will people rave about it or keep it as their secret weapon?

#3) How big is the market that would use this product? Is it likely to shrink in the next 10 years?

#4) Does the product lend itself to a subscription based, limited license, or a disposable user pays model? Can you re-sell it to the same customer again and again?

#5) Do the product benefits grow exponentially for every user that purchases it?

Here are some examples of sustainable (past-niche) products:

#1) Internet Telephony

#2) Online Auction

#3) Online Dating Service

#4) Customer Acquisition Exchange

#5) P2P file sharing services

If you're an affiliate marketer looking to derive sustainable passive income, make sure you market the right kinds of product.

How to get purchase-ready customers to find you without advertising.

2005-11-24T04:32:00.000-08:00

When you advertise what are you really trying to do?

Firstly you have to get noticed amongst a sea of other advertisers.

Then after gaining their attention you have to convince them to trust you and take the appropriate action to become a customer. If it all sounds a little tedious or too much like hard work there is an alternative that might just free up a little of that precious commodity "your time".

What if instead of advertising to find customers you could somehow get customers to find you?

And what if this methodology cost you nothing except two minutes of your time? You'd be more than a little interested I bet!

I'm sure most of you are aware of submission tools, after all, they abound everywhere on the Internet.

Submitting your URL to search engines and directories is a no brainer and easier that ever to do with the variety of automatic and bulk submission tools at your disposal.

But although it's better than not submitting at all, this strategy is hardly likely to launch your website traffic into orbit. Think of the amount of visitors you need to make just one sale for whatever it is you're offering or promoting.

There's a brand new submission tool that is revolutionizing the way customers are found on the Internet. Actually, it's more of a submission service than a tool. Put simply, this service will find customers for any referral or website URLs that are submitted into it's ever expanding database. The more URLs entered the better, as customers will be found quicker for the submitter of those URLs.

This advertising alternative is called a "Customer Acquisition Exchange" and uses a process known as "Customer Reciprocation" to match submitted URLs with the buying habits or purchase intentions of others.

It goes much further than other submission services that seek to have the submitted URLs merely spidered by the search engines to gain pagerank for themselves. They generally store the submitted URLs in directories so large they may as well be archived. Or, they achieve such little exposure that they might as well be hidden. Even the search engines themselves will only take notice of the submissions when fresh content is added on a regular basis, and where does it leave your URL when everybody else is doing the same thing?

Unlike search engines and directories that receive predominantly website URLs, a Customer Acquisition Exchange" receives referral URLs and website URLs in equal measure as long as the submitted URL promotes something.

Most submission tools leave the submitted URL feeling like a needle in a haystack. Much like the way an Internet marketer might feel trying to get his/her message out there and heard amongst millions of other Internet marketers using traditional advertising techniques.

A Customer Acquisition Exchange brings the needles together out of the hay using the magnetic precision of Customer Reciprocation.

All the suspicion of potential buyers is eliminated when they find you rather than the other way around.

Let these customers discover you and your offerings by submitting your URLs into a Customer Acquisition Exchange today.

----------------

go to http://www.affiliate2affiliate.com to experience Customer Reciprocation the fun way

7 instant ways to save anywhere online

2005-11-20T20:30:00.000-08:00

Online shopping is convenient and fun, but did you ever shop for something only to find that the products were not that cheap once you include shipping costs? Or worse, you find the same product cheaper elsewhere after you've already paid for it?

Here are 7 quick ways that will save you money when shopping with online merchants. I've listed the pros and cons of each.

#1) Play hard to get. Instead of checking out your cart, try to leave the site. Often the merchant will present you with a popup or send you an email offering you discounts through vouchers or coupon codes. Pros: savings up to approximately 20%. Cons: you may need to add your item to the cart again.

#2) Negotiate. Just because you're not dealing directly with a person does not mean you cannot negotiate the price. Contact the merchant and let them know why they should give you a discount, often they will match/beat their competitors or at least give you discount shipping. Pros: get the price you want to pay. Cons: may take 24 hours for merchant to reply.

#3) Compare. Open up your favourite search engine and do a quick search for competitors who sell the same product. There are plenty of sites offering comparative shopping. Pros: get the best price available online. Cons: comparisons do not cover all merchants, and can take time.

#4) Coupons. While you're searching, search for coupons for the merchant. Often the merchant offers discounts to visitors of other sites. There are also directories that specialize in giving away discount coupons. Pros: savings up to approximately 20%. Cons: check that the coupon codes are still valid.

#5) Reward Schemes. Shop within a network of merchants. Most have a rewards scheme earning you points that you can cash in towards other purchases. Pros: savings up to approximately 20%. Cons: You are limited to shopping with the network's registered merchants.

#6) Join special offer mailing lists. You will be notified of many merchant discounts. Pros: offers get sent directly to you. Often matching a predefined criteria. Cons: the timing of the discount may not fit your shopping pattern.

#7) Subsidize your purchases. Join your favourite merchant's affiliate program (almost always for free). You don't need to be a website or email list owner to earn commission. Use a customer acquisition exchange to find you customers (earning you commission) whenever you purchase anything online. Pros: The ability to shop anywhere online, and the fact that the commission may cover more than the cost of your purchase, putting cash in your pocket. Cons: you need to be a member of an affiliate program.

I hope you enjoyed reading my article and feel excited about applying these money saving techniques when shopping online. If you know someone who would also benefit from learning these, please share the knowledge by forwarding this article to them.

Regards Michael Lever

Michael Lever is a co-founder and CEO of SpinningTornado.com, an independent company offering unbiased tools and services to help affiliate and network marketers build profitable online businesses. http://www.SpinningTornado.com Partnering affiliates the world over.

Taking control of performance based outcomes.

2005-11-13T18:42:00.000-08:00

Finding the affiliate links on your website are not driving as many sales as you would like?

There is a better way than just relying on the amount of traffic your website generates to derive income from your affiliate links. Especially when you consider that the vast majority of webmasters pay more money attracting traffic to their websites than revenue derived from traffic that clicks those affiliate links.

The problem is that you really can't control what action a visitor takes once they visit your website.

But one thing you definately can control is your online purchase decisions.(unless you happen to be my wife!)

And I bet you didn't know that each and every one of those controlled purchase decisions of yours can gain a buyer willing to make a controlled purchase decision through one of your affiliate links!

Not only that, but why limit your affiliate links to the traffic of your own website/s when you can freely enter them into a huge, growing community database of like minded affiliate marketers and profit from a captive audience willing to create multiple win-win scenarios.

Imagine a world where instead of having to cloak or hide your affiliate links (as per your website/s), you can openly show your affiliate links to other affiliate marketers who may even be promoting the same product/s. This is because of a brand new service that simply converts affiliates from being competitors into becoming collaborative partners.

This service is called a "Customer Acquisition Exchange" and is facilitated through a process known as "Customer Reciprocation". Customer reciprocation simply describes the partnering of two parties (affiliate marketers) to become each others customer.

The identical situation applies to merchants regardless of whether they sell just their own product/s or have affiliate links on their website as well.

They can exert a measure of control over their own sales simply through their own purchase decisions. This is because a "Customer Acquisition Exchange" treats the merchant as if they were an affiliate of their own product/s.

It makes huge sense for merchants to benefit from the exposure obtainable through such a database because they can also super-leverage off the purchase decisions of any of their own affiliates who may already be part of this vast and growing community.

For more information on super-leveraging off a merchant's own affiliates read the following article "How I offered my products at a massive discount without lowering my price".

In the same way as affiliate marketers are converted, the merchant environment is changed from a competing to a co-operating one creating win-win partnership outcomes for all.

A "Customer Acquisition Exchange" should form part of any merchant/affiliate marketer's arsenal in the battle to drive additional sales volumes. It offers a cost effective addition to the traffic generation techniques currently in vogue as well as a complimentary role to the services that affiliate networks presently offer.

7 Customer Acquisition schemes your competitor is hiding from you.

2005-11-09T23:09:00.000-08:00

Customer Acquisition is beyond doubt the number one priority for all serious business owners. Whether you're a merchant or an associate/affiliate of a merchant, your goal is to grow sales. That is why the best in your industry are closely guarding their customer acquisition techniques. Regardless of what they're telling you, they will not give up their competitive advantage and will hide their techniques and true motives behind "smoke and mirror" tactics.

Things aren't always what they seem.

Two men are walking in a forest when they come across a deep hole in the ground. "Wow, that must be really deep", says one man after throwing in a pebble and listening for the sound. "Lets throw in one of those large rocks and see how deep it goes." The men throw in a football-sized boulder and wait anxiously for the sound... Nothing! "There is a railway sleeper over there in the bushes", said the other man. "Help me throw it in, it's definitely going to make a sound". The two men heave the railway sleeper into the hole and watch it disappear in the darkness...again, Nothing! Suddenly a goat appears from the forest. It runs full speed between the men, leaps into the air and falls into the hole". Just as the men exchange looks of utter bewilderment, a farmer comes running out from the trees yelling "Hey, have you guys seen a goat around here?" "Sure did", replied the men. "It was the craziest thing. It ran right past us and leaped into that hole". "Nah, can't have been my goat", said the farmer. "My goat was tied to a railway sleeper".

The moral of the story is, "Don't believe what you perceive". Many successful businesses will guard their customer acquisition secrets by trying to convince you they've got to where they are by good honest hard work. Others will distract you by trying to sell you their unique system, packaged and guaranteed to generate you overnight success.

So what are your competitors really doing? Listen closely, I am about to reveal to you, the top 7 schemes they're using to boost their sales and baffle their industry peers like yourself, making you wonder what the heck you're doing wrong.

#1) Perception Management. Online businesses in particular are excellent perception managers. You've seen them before, professional looking web site with images of sexy sales people ready to take your order. Often however, they're one-man operations run from the spare bedroom. No insurance, enforced customer privacy, or quality merchant processes. But on the surface, it's intimidating to competitors and assuring to new customers.

#2) Strategic alliances. Most businesses do not make it on their own. Joint Ventures, and behind the scene business deals are often the true reason for rapid customer acquisition. Alliances are generally only revealed if customer acquisition can be further enhanced through brand alliance.

#3) Puppet Masters. Many businesses are in fact just small branches owned and controlled by a larger third party. They can afford to run without profit while lucratively appearing cost-effective. The business often exists not for profit, but as a strategic tactic to ensure the parent company has a finger in that market segment pie.

#4) Leveraging. Most of today's technology would not be here without yesterday's inventions. Imagine your home if plastic was not invented. Business is the same. Competitors will invest their time and money on safe, fast and cost-effective outcomes. Innovating new ways from scratch is risky. Leveraging existing customer acquisition services is favorable. For example, by creating incentives for your customers to recommend you to their network of contacts, is a viral marketing technique that leverages the customers you already have.

#5) Super-leveraging. You cannot use leveraging alone, as your competitor will have the same advantages you have. So unless you have the funds to buy out the customer acquisition service before your competitor discovers it, you need be creative and innovate smart methods before them. These are your intellectual property and competitive advantage, so guard them well. For example a merchant with an affiliate program would super-leverage it using a "customer acquisition exchange" service. This delivers a new sales channel (customer reciprocation) that can be competitively used in many creative ways to boost business.

#6) Intelligence and surveillance. Not only do successful business super-leverage known services for customer acquisition, they also super-leverage as a strategic intelligence move. For instance, online merchants will use Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising services like Google and Overture not to bring customers directly but to learn about their competitors and how much they pay for customer acquisition. Remember, they're in the game to win and the more they know about their opponent the easier it is to manipulate them.

#7) Precision systems. A market leader will use targeted and measurable strategies. Every element is monitored and adjustable. Through trial and error, your competitor will tweak the customer experience for profit and growth. It is a systematic approach to customer acquisition that successful organizations like McDonalds use to thwart their competition.

So there you have it, just a few of the secret happenings that go on behind the scenes at your competitors business. Look out for more information about how to decipher your competitor's business model to take the lead.

Regards

Michael Lever

How I amazingly got WordTracker for free, and will get any other product free too.

2005-11-06T17:02:00.000-08:00

Hi, my name is Michael and I'm about to share an astounding breakthrough with you.

Don't scroll down to see the price. You won't find it. I am sharing this knowledge with you for free. Why would I do this? Because as you're about to discover, the strategy I'm going to show you is dependent on an ever-growing community of participants who partner with each other to obtain win-win outcomes. The results are comparable to online dating services, the more participants there are, the better the results for everyone. I therefore encourage you to show this strategy to all your relevant friends and colleagues.

Before I show you in detail how I got WordTracker absolutely free, you need to understand the mechanics of what makes this clever purchasing strategy work.

The strategy is not exclusive to WordTracker. I have simply chosen WordTracker because it is the resource I talk about in my testimonial. The strategy can be used to get any product subsidized or free , and you can purchase from any of your favorite web sites (any of the ones you are normally happy to shop at). The amazing benefit is that you will now be subsidized a cash amount for your purchases. This subsidy may be so large that it may even surpass the cost of your purchase, making the product or service absolutely free. The fact that you can purchase from anywhere online is partially what makes the strategy successful.

There are 3 things you need to understand about the strategy.

Firstly, the online store merchants you are intending to purchase from do not miss out on their profits. You are not breaching any of their agreements, terms or conditions. In fact, from their perspective you're a 100% normal customer with all the normal privileges. You will even receive a receipt that you may be able to contribute towards a tax deduction.

Secondly, there are no losers with this strategy. It is one hundred percent legal and does not involve pyramid schemes, purchasing matrix, or anything of that nature. No scams here. Everybody wins.

Thirdly, you are still receiving the product you want direct from the merchant of your choice. So you can expect the same product quality, customer service, and shipping that you are accustomed to. You're simply getting what you had already decided to purchase at a massive discount.

"So what makes it work?"

The key ingredient is a process known as 'Customer Reciprocation'. Customer Reciprocation is facilitated by a 'Customer Acquisition Exchange'. It relies fundamentally on merchants using affiliate programs for customer acquisition.

"Are you confused? Don't worry, I was too."

In a nutshell, merchants with online stores pay people like you and me sales commission to find them customers. You can generally join the online merchant's affiliate program for free, and immediately commence earning commission as an affiliate marketer. You earn by directing potential customers through a unique web link issued to you. This is your 'referral URL'. The link identifies you to the merchant so they know that you are the referrer of the customer and must be paid commission.

So basically whenever you are intending to purchase something, there's an affiliate marketer out there trying to catch your attention and direct you transparently to your chosen merchant through their referral URL. When you purchase something, the affiliate marketer can earn upwards of 50% in commission.

Customer reciprocation is defined as the process of two parties (affiliate marketers) partnering to become each other's customer. "I'll be your customer, if you'll be mine". When you want to purchase WordTracker like I did, why not purchase it through an affiliate marketer who is willing to purchase at one of your affiliated merchants?

"Do you see the obvious benefit?"

You will earn an instant commission when your partner purchases from your affiliated merchant. The commission may be more than the cost of WordTracker or it may be less. But it is beyond doubt an instant subsidy. Your merchants will love you for bringing them a customer, and you'll have a legally acquired copy of WordTracker and extra money to use on anything you like.

"So where do you find affiliate marketers ready to shop at your merchant's online store?"

Affiliate marketers are already seasoned Internet shoppers who've overcome the trust hurdle and embraced online purchasing. There are so many around that you need only do a search for anything in Google or MSN to find them fighting over the highest positions in the search results.

The trick is finding someone affiliated with the merchant you intended to shop with, who is intending to purchase from your merchant. (Customer Reciprocation).

This is where a Customer Acquisition Exchange comes into play. (See the references at the bottom of this article or search for "Customer Acquisition Exchange" in your favorite search engine.).

A Customer Acquisition Exchange allows you to manage your portfolio of referral URLs. I am a member of six different affiliate programs even though I only actively market one of them. Whenever you want to purchase something you simply submit your purchase intention (in the form of the merchants website address) to the Customer Acquisition Exchange.

In my case I wanted to purchase from http://www.WordTracker.com. The system immediately commenced searching for affiliate marketers of WordTracker who had a purchase intention for one of my merchants. This submission process literally took me less than one minute. I received an email containing my exchange partner's referral URL and proceeded to click on it and was taken to http://www.WordTracker.com, where I purchased my copy.

When I returned to the customer acquisition exchange I noticed that my portfolio showed a sale at one of my affiliated merchants. "Fantastic", I thought. My commission report from my affiliated merchant revealed that my exchange partner had indeed purchased something. In fact, the commission I earned from the sale totaled $24 more than what WordTracker cost me. Meaning I got WordTracker for free and received $24 for my one-minute effort.

So now that you too know this simple no-risk strategy, I hope that you will use it to your advantage and derive previously unheard of discounts. I trust that you can see the benefit of recommending Customer Reciprocation to your peers, because as the community grows there will be more participants partnering rather than viciously competing for new customers.

Regards

Michael Lever

What is the most profitable internet application?

2005-10-17T21:14:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wondered what the most profitable internet application is?

Web hosting?
Book or CD selling?
Merchant account providers?

You may be surprised to learn that it is none of the above although they can all be profitable in their own right (particularly industry leaders such as Amazon and Paypal).

Why did I choose the above examples?

Because they are perceived to be ideally suited to online marketing and the fact that there are so many offering those very same products/services means they have to be profitable, right? Wrong!

The problem with the above examples and for merchants in general are that for the vast majority it is just too competitive to succeed online without viable offline sales channels as well.

Without any shadow of a doubt, the most profitable of all internet applications are those that provide exchange services. That is the single most important ingredient to any online success story. The reason is simple, they match buyers and sellers of a myriad of wants and needs. Economically speaking, they match supply and demand.

Lets look at some examples.

Perhaps the most obvious success story is Ebay - an online auction service that matches buyers and sellers for an unrestricted choice of product.
Other good examples are search engines like Google and Yahoo which match information demand with supply.

Another biggie is MSN messenger which matches communication desires between friends (although they face stiff opposition from mobile phones in the offline world).

And I don't want to elaborate on the hugely successful marriage of pornographic sites to the demand for sexual fantasy.

High usage demand for these exchange services means huge exposure and advertising revenue in addition to any actual cost of using the service itself.

Many wise heads have identified the huge profit potential of online exchange services.
Online dating, gambling, school reunion, broking (share and real estate), affiliate networking, and even customer acquisition exchange websites all utilise the exchange application.

The trick is to go out and find a niche exchange service, one that hasn't already got 10,000,000 search listings for it. If you can be one of the first to develop and market a new exchange service then watch out - your profits will be about to soar!

Regards

Michael Lever

Is your Affiliate Network upto scratch? Put them through a 30 pt. checklist.

2005-10-10T18:01:00.000-07:00

Isn't it time you put your Affiliate Network under the microscope?
This guide will greatly assist you when deciding which Affiliate Network to join should you not yet belong to any.

Features and benefits checklist from the merchant perspective:

Primary:

Per Click, Per Lead and Per Sale campaigns.
Fraud protection that prevents affiliate link hijacking and eliminates repetitive clicking on PPC campaigns through unique IP address verification procedures.
Provide targeted media by category, conversion, and even local geographic focusing.
Detailed post analysis on all campaign performance.
Provide a suite of sophisticated real-time deep statistical reporting.
Skyscrapers, text-links, banners, co-reg, pops, contextual and search should be covered in the network - shouldn't restrict the type of campaign to be run.
Efficient, reliable third party tracking of all traffic with ability to detect if tracking code has been sub-hosted on another domain to rack up false lead/sales figures.
Maximise your ROI with dedicated account management and support and by avoiding the type of kickbacks that can result in less optimal media alignment.
Secure live Order logging.
Secure Client Fund management.
Provide affiliate links that are not long, cumbersome, unsightly and overwhelming; links that won't be split and rendered useless by e-mail clients.
Examine the performance of each piece of marketing material, including information on the affiliates who are using the links.
Actively seek and recruit new affiliates through allowing direct contact.
Create links to your latest promotions and specials, new banners and HTML marketing material.
Multi performance based media channel providing maximum flexibility.
Should not require exclusive affiliate marketing contracts.

Secondary:

Shouldn't require an upfront deposit for leads/sales generated, reducing as leads/sales are generated and topped up at any time in the secure merchant login area.
Co-branded sign up page. Ability to recruit affiliates from your site.
Manual or Auto approve affiliate that apply to join your campaigns.
Network marketing tools and options to maximize Publisher exposure.
A tiered payout system to help Advertisers drive performance and reward performers.
Shouldn't charge a monthly fee to activate merchant's account, or charge a fee if your merchant account is inactive (i.e. not generating any revenue) for a period of 30 days.
Affiliate ranking.
In house design media provided in HTML, RichMedia, and Email marketing.
Review of your current affiliate marketing model and affiliate incentives.
Affiliates should not have to link to your home page, any page within your site (such as specific product pages) should be linked to directly by your affiliates.
Development of a one page sales guide allowing your affiliates to learn more about your product and how to sell it effectively.
Country-wide exposure on websites targeted to your audience.
Create well concealed affiliate links for web pages.
Run multiple campaigns from one account - multiple campaigns for different URLs under same account.

One of the major drawbacks of Affiliate Networks as opposed to having your own independent affiliate program is that you share affiliates who sign up to other merchant affiliate programs within the network, many of whom may compete with you thus diluting their effectiveness.

You probably weren't aware that there is now a new technology emerging that will reshape the relationships between affiliates and merchants.

Customer Acquisition Exchanges (CAEs) provide an innovative service through a process known as Customer Reciprocation.

Compared to Affiliate Networks, CAEs are a much newer concept and as such require a brief explanation.

According to Wiktionary, CAEs can be defined after understanding what Customer Reciprocation means.

Customer Reciprocation (n): The process of two parties (affiliate marketers) partnering to become each other's customer. It is largely dependent on the use of affiliate programs as a primary tool of customer acquisition by merchants.

Customer Acquisition Exchange (n): The means by which the process of "Customer Reciprocation" can be facilitated.

Comparing CAEs and Affiliate Networks:

CAEs represent one of the newest and fastest-growing affiliate communities specializing in cost-per-acquisition (pay for performance) marketing.

They employ Cost-Per-Acquisition (CPA) pricing models for merchants and affiliates alike. This means that clients only pay when they acquire a new customer through their proprietary technology.

This structure provides zero risk for clients while at the same time guaranteeing a great ROI for their online marketing dollars. CAEs assume the risk so clients don't have to.

CAEs deliver consumers directly to the merchant's website. Once the consumer reaches the merchant's website the consumer has the opportunity to become a paying customer for the product or service offered. The client only pays for customers acquired.

What CAEs offer to merchants that they don't get using Affiliate Networks:

A customer/sale each time the merchant intends purchasing anything online.
A customer/sale each time an affiliate of the merchant intends purchasing anything online.
The chance to super-leverage their affiliate asset base.
The chance of gaining a customer/sale merely by entering referral URLs into the database without intending to purchase anything.

From the affiliate marketer/publisher/webmaster point of view, Affiliate Networks offer pertinent information about the advertiser/merchants in their particular network.

CAEs on the other hand, offer a totally unrestricted choice of advertiser/merchants with which to partner with (promote) or purchase through.

How Affiliate Networks view CAEs and how they incorporate it into their merchant solution strategy:

They may realise the advantage they offer merchants as a way of super-leveraging off the purchase intentions of their affiliates provided the network allows direct communication between merchants and affiliates.

They should see CAEs as a complimentary service for their merchants and affiliates alike rather than a competing one. This is because CAEs offer new and previously unavailable benefits for merchants and affiliates independent of whether or not they belong to any Affiliate Networks.

Because CAEs are non-exclusive entities, there is no incentive or disincentive for Affiliate Networks other than to point out to their members the benefits of CAEs as a tool to aid in their marketing efforts.

By including them in their marketing tools and resources section they would effectively enhance both their affiliate and merchant solution strategies.

In summary, being part of one or more Affiliate Networks will provide a degree of organic growth in your affiliate marketing results; however by using a CAE as a complimentary tool, you can successfully take your online marketing performance to a new level with a greater degree of confidence.

Turning online purchases into profit.

2005-10-06T00:42:00.000-07:00

Dear internet marketer,

I have some advice for improving your bottom line, whatever that may be.
It could be many things ranging from improving website traffic to increasing sales or even just expanding your mailing list.
But whatever your bottom line is, you have two choices when setting out to achieve it.

Your first choice is to employ an assortment of free traffic, sales, or opt-in subscriber generating techniques.
These can be effective but generally take time and results are usually slow.

Most people adopting solely this choice end up failing and frustrated. But at least they haven't lost their pants in the process.

The second choice you have is to pay for services designed to improve your bottom line. This will almost certainly speed things up and improve the results you achieve both short and long term.

If you find yourself choosing this second option, make sure you can measure quantitative results as you need to know what ROI (return on investment) is being achieved for each paid service.

Most of you are probably a combination of both choices. And if you're anything like me, you probably started using free techniques before moving to paid alternatives.

Enough beating about the bush.
What's my advice? Simply this.

If you pay for any form of online advertising or promotion, do yourself a big favour and explore services designed to assist this process without attempting to influence your decision-making in any way.

Affiliate directories and Customer Acquisition Exchanges also known as "Customer Reciprocation" are 2 such services.

These are really an extension or improved version of link exchanges as they can provide paying customers instead of potential traffic generation (leads, click-throughs, or visitors).

It's that simple. These paying customers earn you sales or commission, depending whether they purchase your own products or products from your affiliated merchants.

So what are you waiting for?

Each time you purchase online and don't take my advice, you're missing out on paying customers willing to purchase through your own referral URLs.
Choose wisely and turn your online purchases into profit.

Side note - I've mentioned thus far your online advertising and promotion purchase intentions but did you know that all online purchases you make can gain you paying customers?
That's because customer reciprocation services incorporate unrestricted global shopping directories.

A comparison with Ebay makes interesting reading.

Whereas Ebay matches buyers and sellers of products through an auction process, customer reciprocation services match buyers and sellers through referral URLs via their own exchange engines.
In effect, they work like limited versions of Ebay.
The exchange process can only be completed for people who promote product using referral URLs.

However, they expand on the Ebay model in the sense that with Ebay, sellers can only offer their own product whereas sellers are able to offer both their own product and those of other merchants through the use of customer reciprocation services.

Online Shoppers Loophole - the new buzzword is out!

2005-08-21T19:47:00.000-07:00

Imagine if you had earned sales commission for every online purchase you've ever made?
How many commission payments have you put in someone else's pocket?
Anyone can now be subsidized in the form of a guaranteed sale at their own or affiliated merchant site, whenever they purchase any product, service, membership or program from any online merchant.
That's because of a new buzzword taking root in the world of affiliate marketing and customer acquisition.
It's called "customer reciprocation" and describes 2 of the newest services around namely affiliate directories (not affiliate program directories which have been around forever) and commission exchanges. These act as an extension or improved version of link exchanges in that they can provide paying customers instead of potential traffic generation (leads, click-throughs, or visitors).
If you want to make money on the Internet, you can either be a merchant and sell your own product, or you can affiliate yourself with other merchants and earn commission from referred sales.
If you are a merchant, imagine selling more of your own product each time you purchase anything online. If you run an affiliate program, you also sell more of your product each time an affiliate of yours purchases anything online.
If you are an affiliate, imagine combining with other affiliates in a way that allows each to gain the commission for personally referring the other.
With "customer reciprocation", this happens automatically each time you purchase anything online.
The loophole allows all affiliate and network (MLM) marketers to leverage off each other's commission and downline potential.
The same loophole allows merchant sites to leverage off each other's profit potential.
The beauty of the loophole is that it can be exploited without risk!
Merchants just need to list their sites for free while affiliate and network marketers just enter their referral URL's for free.

I sincerely hope you consider making the loophole work for you and take advantage of the new buzzword that is "customer reciprocation".

Regards

Michael Lever

----------------------------------------------------------------

Michael Lever is a co-founder and CEO of SpinningTornado.com, an independent company offering unbiased tools and services to help affiliate and network marketers build profitable online businesses.

www.SpinningTornado.com
Partnering affiliates the world over.

How affiliates can subsidise all their purchases using customer reciprocation.

2005-08-11T19:32:00.000-07:00

Imagine if you had received a subsidy for every online purchase you've ever
made?
As an affiliate marketer, how would you like to earn sales commission each
time you purchase from any website?
How many commission payments have you put in someone else's pocket?

Did you know that anyone can now be subsidised in the form of a guaranteed sale at their own or affiliated merchant site, whenever they purchase any product, service, membership or program from any website?
If you did, then you would have heard of "customer reciprocation”, the new buzzword taking root in the world of affiliate marketing and customer acquisition.
It describes two of the newest services around namely affiliate
directories (not to be confused with affiliate program directories) and customer acquisition exchanges.
These are in effect an evolutionary improvement on link exchanges in that they provide paying customers instead of potential traffic (leads, click-throughs, or visitors).
From a merchant's perspective, imagine selling more of your own product each
time you purchase anything online.
For merchants running an affiliate program, you will make additional sales each time any of your affiliates shop online.
However, the ultimate benefit customer
reciprocation brings to merchants is that their products become
exponentially more appealing.
This is because a customer acquisition exchange will subsidise the cost of the purchase to their customers with no loss of profit to the merchant.
If you are an affiliate marketer, imagine partnering with other
affiliates in a way that allows each of you to gain the commission for
personally referring the other.
With "customer reciprocation", this happens automatically each time you purchase anything online.
A customer acquisition exchange allows all affiliate and network (MLM) marketers to leverage off each other's commission and downline potential. It also allows merchant website owners to leverage off
each other's profit potential.
The beauty of customer reciprocation is that it can be exploited without risk!
Merchants just need to list their sites for free while affiliate and network marketers just enter their referral URLs for free.

I sincerely hope you consider making customer reciprocation work for you.

Regards

Michael Lever

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Michael Lever is a co-founder and CEO of SpinningTornado.com, an independent company offering unbiased tools and services to help affiliate and network marketers build profitable online businesses.

SpinningTornado.com
Partnering affiliates the world over.

The secret of how I got GoogleCash for free with 1 minute's extra effort.

2005-08-11T05:46:00.000-07:00

Hi, my name is Michael and I’m about to share an amazing discovery with you.

Don’t bother scrolling down to see the price. There is none. I am giving you this information free. Why? Because as you are about to discover, the strategy I’m going to teach you is dependent on a growing community of participants who partner to derive win-win outcomes. A bit like online dating services, the more members there are the better the results for all. I therefore encourage you to recommend this strategy to relevant friends and colleagues in your circle of contacts.

Before I explain exactly how I got GoogleCash for free, you need to understand the background of what makes this ingenious purchase strategy work.

The strategy is not specific to GoogleCash. I have simply chosen GoogleCash because it is the product in my testimonial. The strategy can be used for any purchase, and you can purchase from any of your favourite online stores that you normally trust to shop at. The benefit is that you will now be subsidised a cash amount so large that it may even surpass the cost of your purchase, making it absolutely free. The fact that you can purchase anywhere is partly what makes the strategy work.

There are three core things you need to understand about the strategy.

Firstly, the websites you are intending to purchase from do not miss out on any payment. You are not breaching any of their agreements, terms or conditions. In fact, from their perspective you’re a 100% normal customer with all the normal privileges. You will even receive a purchase receipt that may contribute to a tax deduction.

Secondly, there are no losers with this strategy. It is 100% legal and does not involve pyramid schemes, purchasing matrix, or anything of that nature. No scams here. Everybody wins.

Thirdly, you are still receiving the product you want direct from the merchant of your choice. So you can expect the same product quality, customer service, and shipping that you are accustomed to. You’re simply getting what you had already decided to purchase at a massive discount.

“So what makes it work?”

The secret ingredient is a process known as ‘customer reciprocation’ facilitated by a ‘customer acquisition exchange’. customer reciprocation fundamentally relies on the customer acquisition efforts of merchants, primarily through affiliate programs.

“Confused? Don’t worry, I was too.”

Basically, merchants with online stores pay people like you and me sales commission to find them customers. You can join the merchant’s affiliate program generally for free, and commence earning commission as an affiliate marketer immediately. You earn by directing potential customers through a unique web link called a ‘referral URL’. The link identifies you to the merchant so they know that you are the referrer who must be paid commission.

In essence, whenever you are intending to purchase something, there’s an affiliate marketer out there trying to catch your attention and transparently direct you to your chosen merchant through their referral URL. If you purchase something, the affiliate marketer will earn upwards of 50% in commission.

customer reciprocation is the process of two parties (affiliate marketers) partnering to become each other’s customer. “I’ll be your customer, if you’ll be mine”. When you want to purchase GoogleCash like I did, why not purchase it through an affiliate marketer who is willing to purchase at one of your affiliated merchants?

“Can you see the obvious benefit?”

You will earn an instant commission when your partner purchases from your affiliated merchant. The commission may be more than the cost of GoogleCash or it may be less. But it is beyond doubt an instant subsidy. Your merchants will love you for bringing them a customer, and you’ll have a legally acquired copy of GoogleCash and extra money to use on anything you like.

“So where do you find affiliate marketers ready to shop at your merchant’s online store?”

Affiliate marketers are already seasoned Internet shoppers who’ve overcome the trust hurdle and embraced online purchasing. There are so many around that you need only do a search for anything in Google or MSN to find them fighting over the highest positions in the search results.

The trick is finding someone affiliated with the merchant you intended to shop with, who is intending to purchase from your merchant. (customer reciprocation).

This is where a “customer acquisition exchange” comes into play. (See the references at the bottom of this article or search for “customer acquisition exchange” in your favourite search engine.).

A customer acquisition exchange allows you to manage your portfolio of referral URLs. I am a member of five different affiliate programs even though I only actively market one of them. Whenever you want to purchase something you simply submit your purchase intention (in the form of the merchants website address) to the customer acquisition exchange. In my case I wanted to purchase from http://www.googlecash.com/. The system immediately commenced searching for affiliate marketers of GoogleCash who had a purchase intention for one of my merchants. This submission process literally took me less than one minute. I received an email containing my exchange partner’s referral URL and proceeded to click on it and was taken to http://www.googlecash.com/, where I purchased my copy.
When I returned to the customer acquisition exchange I noticed that my portfolio showed a sale at one of my affiliated merchants. “Fantastic”, I thought. My commission report from my affiliated merchant revealed that my exchange partner had indeed purchased something. In fact, the commission I earned from the sale totalled $12 more than what GoogleCash cost me. Meaning I got GoogleCash for free and received $12 for my one-minute effort.

So now that you too know this simple no-risk strategy, I hope that you will use it to your advantage and derive previously unheard of discounts. I trust that you can see the benefit of recommending customer reciprocation to your peers, because as the community grows there will be more participants partnering rather than viciously competing for new customers.

Regards

Michael Lever

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Michael Lever is a co-founder and CEO of SpinningTornado.com, an independent company offering unbiased tools and services to help affiliate and network marketers build profitable online businesses.

http://www.spinningtornado.com/
Partnering affiliates the world over.

The missing link between sellers and customers – why you don't make more sales.

2005-08-10T21:27:00.000-07:00

In these days of rampant commercialism everybody is selling something.

So what makes someone stand out from the rest as a super salesperson?

The best salespeople, of course, are those that sell themselves and I don't mean prostitution! They sell themselves on three main principles. These being knowledge, credibility, and trust.

However capable salespeople may be at selling themselves, to complete a profitable transaction they still require a customer willing to purchase their offering.

That's pretty obvious isn't it?

Yes my friend, whether we like it or not, customers are what make the world we live in spin around!

Whether we care to admit it or not, we're all customers just waiting to be sold. Disagree? Read on..

We avoid thinking about whether we've paid too much for, or even needed, what was sold to us. This is because we're constantly justifying our purchase decisions to ourselves with positive thoughts like:

1) I bought it on sale and got a discount so I saved money.
2) I am building my reward points towards my bonus of free flights, etc..
3) I got the latest release or technology making me a trendsetter.

Customers mean different things to different sellers. Or more concisely, they represent different natures and values to different sellers.

By different customer natures I'm referring to whether they are trusting, naive, gullible, impulsive, intelligent, streetwise, or cynical to name just a few. Yes, we humans are a diverse bunch!

Probably more significant and measurable is the value a customer represents to a seller.

Is the customer spending a little or a lot on a particular transaction?
Are they buying once or are they likely to make repeat purchases?
Would they refer other customers to the seller?
Could the seller value-add to the customer with other offerings and up-selling possibilities?
Is an MLM customer potentially more valuable than an ordinary shopper?

It is this relationship of matching the right customer to the right seller based on both parties natures and values that crucially defines the success we achieve in life. It's important to understand and use this knowledge to determine how to effectively market to a prospective customer.

All these factors determine both the effort needed and the successful likelihood of customer acquisition. This makes it easy to appreciate why it's far more cost effective both in time and money to retain existing customers that to acquire new ones.

Online sellers have an easier time of customer acquisition than offline sellers. This is due mainly to processes such as online auctions, affiliate marketing, and more recently customer acquisition exchanges. Additionally, internet marketing is generally far more cost effective than it's offline counterpart.

Is the missing link apparent yet?

Understanding that we're all both sellers and customers at the same time, will lead us to realise the motivations of others and have compassion toward them. Thus reducing skepticism and bridging the gap between sellers and customers. This is the link overlooked by unsuccessful sales people.

Regards

Michael Lever

----------------------------------------------------------------

Michael Lever is a co-founder and CEO of SpinningTornado.com, an independent company offering unbiased tools and services to help affiliate and network marketers build profitable online businesses.

SpinningTornado.com affiliate Commission Exchange and Customer Reciprocation Portfolio Management
Partnering affiliates the world over.

A merchant view of customer reciprocation

2005-06-26T15:48:00.000-07:00

The two merchants of a customer reciprocation exchange benefit from the reduced cost they can offer their products for.

Affiliate Marketers using a customer acquisition exchange like Spinning Tornado will be subsidized in the form of the commission earnings that they will receive from the other's purchase at their affiliated merchant.

Affiliate Programs - the money spinner of the Internet

2005-02-10T06:11:00.000-08:00

Ok lets take a look at the common ways people actually make real cash on the Internet.

1. Sell your own product or service.
2. Sell someone else's product or service for a commission.

Sell your own product or service online.

Selling your own product or service is not as easy at it sounds. All the normal business challenges apply to online businesses just the same as an offline business.

1. You need to advertise to get customers to even look at your offering.
2. You need to manage your stock.
3. Logistics of shipping your goods to the customer.
4. Procurement of goods including tax management.
5. Insurance.
6. Your site needs hosting, just like a real business needs a physical address.
7. You need to keep and manage proper customer records.
8. Management of complaints and return of stock/refunds.

Sounds like hard work eh?

All an online business gives you, that a traditional business does not is
1. A shop that is open 24 hours a day.
2. A shop that anyone can go to without leaving the comfort of their chair (anywhere in the world.)

These are both great things but they come with their own challenges.

Wouldn't it be nice if you could run a store and not have to worry about the shipping, stock management, merchant facility etc.

Well you can! and that is what thousands of people are doing right now!

Sell someone elses product or service for a commission.

Merchants are realizing that getting their advertised message through to their targeted audience is not easy at all. It is time consuming and expensive.

That is why the idea of commissioned sales force has become synonomous with Internet marketing. Individuals (often customers of a merchant) join the merchants affiliate program and are paid a commission for adding value to the merchant.

This is nothing new however. All the herbal companies have been doing it for ages. Have you received any little paper handout lately that request you to go to something like www.Loose-12kg-in-12-weeks.com" and on the back you can go to "www.make-money-from-home-using-your-pc.com". One side is the product that will make you slim, the other side is a sales pitch to recruit you into their affiliate program.

There are basically 3 categories of affiliate programs:
1) pay commission per sale of merchants product or service
2) pay commission per lead when your refer a potential customer (someone who actually signs up or leaves a contact details)
3) pay per click when you refer a person to visit the merchants website. (usually a very small amount)

The programs can have sliding pay structures, minimum cashout levels, bonus incentives and more.

Some programs known as Multi Level Marketing (MLM) Programs pay the affiliate commissions based not just on the activity the affiliate does but also any activity anyone the affiliate has referred does. So If Tom is earning 50% of every sale he referres, and he refers Mike who also signs up for the affiliate program. Then Tom might earn 5% of every sales Mike makes.

The affiliate programs are often free to join, but the commission that can be earned or the incentives offered are limited unless you upgrade to a paid affiliate membership.

So the challenge is obviously to get people under you (downlines) who will work hard to make sales and build their downlines. Eventually you can sit back and receive a passive residual income without doing much at all.

This is where SpinningTornado targets its service. SpinningTornado is the worlds first customer acquisition Exchange and Customer Reciprocation portfolio management system allowing you to join the program you want to join and receive a downline in return. I'll join your program if you join mine.