PART 1 –WELCOME… TO PROJECT X

Author: glend

Introduction – how you got here, what went before

Welcome to the Project X manual. This is the book I never expected to write…
A little over a year ago, I got started in Internet marketing, and – seemingly
like everyone else – I started off with affiliate marketing. I knew there was
money to be made, but I just could not seem to get it working. Failure begets
failure, and pretty soon I was on a losing streak. None of my promotions
worked, and the sales didn’t seem to come. It wasn’t easy, and it got worse…

Then, I stumbled onto a few successful techniques – which in turn made many
of my campaigns profitable. Just a few techniques was all it took. This gave
me the confidence to experiment and uncover new methods. Pretty soon, I
was making a good income from my affiliate marketing methods – and within
a few months I became a self-employed affiliate.

My core area of competence was always Google Adwords – hence me writing
the de facto guide on Google’s PPC engine back in April of this year
(www.adwordsmiracle.com). The guide showed me what it was like being a
ClickBank merchant, and generated a few more ideas. The guide also put me
in touch with thousands of affiliates – many of whom I spoke to personally,
and in private. Pretty quickly something became clear to me: there was a
fundamental error with the way most affiliates went about their business. I
delved deeper.

The vast majority of them seemed to be going broke quickly (not just the
“newbies”) – and yet a select few were absolutely raking it in. Being the
curious marketer that I am, I quizzed the successful ones and tried to see what
they were doing that the rest weren’t.

Pretty quickly, I started to see patterns emerging. The affiliates who were
making a good income were very selective in the products they were
promoting. They seemed to know exactly when to push a product, when to
start a PPC campaign, and when to pull away from a promotion. This
intrigued me and I dug deeper still – coming up with several product selection
methods that are in this guide. (Note: product selection is very, very, very
important for affiliates. Push the right product and you are laughing).

These guys (and several gals) also had certain skills – many were good
copywriters (writing convincing sales letters), and a large minority were in the
process of building lists. A vast majority used free articles as a promotion
method and all had five to ten promotions going at any one time. In short, the
“super” affiliates flocked together in the same way that the ailing affiliates did.

Moreover, I consider myself a successful affiliate, making six figures per year
from other people’s products, and I noticed that I was doing the same as the
successful affiliates. This all fed my curiosity further, and I delved deeper still.
Meanwhile, many of the so-called “gurus” in the game seemed to be
advocating that affiliates do the exact opposite of what was working “in the
field”, both on their affiliate pages, and in their overpriced products. This
pissed me off quite a bit – as I considered this misinformation the main
reason that it took me so long to get it all working. It got me thinking…

The stage was set for a super product that would settle the score and tell the
affiliate marketing community what worked and what didn’t in a conclusive,
matter-of-fact fashion. And so, I began to devise the product that is now
known as “Project X”. In the end, I felt the best way to approach the guide was
to write a collection of competitive advantages that could be used on their
own, or as part of a wider strategy. A tool-kit for super affiliates in 2006, if you
will.

Project X, then, is a collection of the most profitable affiliate strategies on the
planet. At times, I will go into some depth as to why a given technique works. I
will also stick to my guns and use British English spelling, much to the chagrin
of the same customers who bought Adwords Miracle and complained that I
spelt “specialize” with an S. Please forget about the typos, and focus on the
techniques – that’s what counts on both sides of the Atlantic.

When Project X was created, I decided to handpick a select group of “newbies”
and intermediate affiliates and so I mailed out my list asking for volunteers to
beta-test the product. In the end I chose a dozen affiliates from a short-list of
100+ and drip-fed them the techniques over a three-week period.

By the last week of September, the results were startling. Of the 12, fully half
were making $100 or more per day in net profit using the Project X strategies.
Four of the remaining six affiliates were making $50 per day, and the final two
frankly did not invest the time required to make it work (although they both
still earned over $200 in less than two weeks).

Part of the reason they did so well was that I was there to encourage them, and
I constantly pestered them for their latest results. You won’t that luxury, but
know that the only thing that stands between you and financial freedom is
your own work ethic. Everything else has been done for you. I hope that
thought empowers you to be the next testimonial on my sales page. Truly, I
do.

These strategies, when taken together, have the power to make you $100 per
day within the space of a few weeks. But, you must be prepared to commit
some time, and a little capital. Also, remember that there are literally tens of
thousands of products for you to promote – and choosing the right product is
of vital importance (I will drill this into you by the time I am done). So, you
will need to do some research when choosing your products, and have a
portfolio of products that you are promoting / considering promoting at any
one time. The profits are there for the proactive and no-one else.

For some of you, the techniques will completely new. A few marketers may say
that they “know” one or two of the methods. If that is the case, and you ever
find yourself saying that, I want to make two points: firstly, pay close attention
to the emphasis I put on certain parts of the techniques. All pre-sells are not
created equal, and saying you have “tried pre-sells in the past and they didn’t
work” is like saying that you saw a trailer for Goodfellas and decided you
didn’t like any Scoresese movies. Generalizations are pointless here, and a few
subtle nuances are very often the difference between a super-profitable
campaign and a dud. That sounds counter-intuitive, but try to internalise it.
It’s a running theme in APX.

I really want to drill home here that the methods are broken down step-bystep
and you should try and “copy and paste” the techniques as closely as
possible – at least when starting out (with time, you will be able to
interchange the techniques and develop your own methods but it’s best to
start with the tried and tested and ask questions later).

I will be sure to emphasise the really important points, but if you try and
freestyle your way to financial freedom it won’t work. If there ever was a
blueprint for you to follow, this is it. Just be sure to follow through and if you
have “tried” a method “before”, try and work out what you were doing
differently to the blueprint and make amends.

There is a deceptively large amount of material to get through here. When I
created Adwords Miracle, one criticism that a few people had was that my
font was too large and it seemed to “fill out” the material (I couldn’t have seen
that one coming). Project X is straight to the point and written in the smallest
font known to mankind. If you want fluff, I suggest you head over to Google
and make use of the vast amount of free content in the public domain. The
material there is free because the authors can’t shift close to 6,000 units in the
first week with no “big launch” and complete congruence. I can.

If it’s in Project X, it is making someone somewhere rich (someone I know,
someone I “borrowed” a technique from, and yours truly of course). If you feel
overwhelmed with the information and don’t know where to start, then I
suggest you start slowly and begin to use the techniques as and when you feel
comfortable. This isn’t a race, but make sure you do start off. This is not
another e-book you want to let sit on the shelf. Trust me. Also, note that
Project X has now got several tools for “complete” beginners to take advantage
of. Make use of them…

Within the first week Project X was on the market, several buyers have
reported making over $1,000 from these techniques so far, and more than
thirty have made at least $400. I have over a hundred testimonials, some from
“big names”, and some from complete beginners. I have kept all of them off
my sales copy to preserve the original idea behind APX, before the records
were broken and the hype overtook the content: “average Joe” affiliates can do
this if they have the heart. The material has once again proven itself and it will
no doubt continue to do so for those who take ownership of their future and
take action.

And remember, this is APX v2

One last point as well. You are actually reading the updated Project X package.
The update was completed November 26th and includes the following
additions to the original APX manual which was released eight weeks earlier:

- The thumbscrew: how to zoom in on your market and find out what buyers’
wants are, even if you are a complete beginner to that niche (hint: it’s obvious.
But it is fundamental to my success. And no-one does it).

- Adwords Editors: what they do to mess up your plans and some workarounds.
No-one talks about this. A sizeable chunk of another $300 Adwords
back-end I had planned for ’07.

- The Leech: part 2: The pre-sell section of APX was everyone’s favourite. Just
added: a variation of the original version (with another profitable real live
example for the naysayers)

- The affiliate diary: another few methods to subsidize your list building
efforts.

- The workhorse method: a few additional pointers. Workaround for E-zine
Articles’ “no direct linking” rules. Hint: it comes with a user warning.

- Battle-plan for APX: quick video on what to do when you get APX. Where to
get started, which features to focus on. Where the money is being made right
now (from guys who are in the field and reporting back to me).

- “Product portfolio” log file: the product portfolio is vitally important. So
important that I use a log file to keep track of my initial campaigns - and now
you can use it too.

- Getting Started video: a full-length for complete beginners, about Adwords,
ClickBank, all of the basics well and truly licked.

… and a hell of a lot more. Along with the original industry-killing guide. And
there is more to come in the future, but keep that between us…

Now, onto the layout of the updated guide.

First, I want to cover the basics of affiliate marketing, and then I will move
onto the Project X methods. Read and re-read the guide several times over if
necessary, and then get started. You will be making money in no time. Once
more, thanks for the purchase: now it’s on you to make this work.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 21st, 2008 at 3:58 am and is filed under Affiliate Tips, Work At Home. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.