Here’s an article you can use to promote the Promo Dashboard.  You can even put it in an email if you want!

Make sure you replace the “CDXXXXXX” with your affiliate ID.

Hello,

Marlon here.

Posting on forums is one of the cheapest and fastest ways in which
you can advertise affiliates products on the Internet; however, in
order to do this successfully, you must do a number of things
carefully. Simply starting a thread that contains an affiliate
link might be a good way to get banned from a particular forum
board, but it will never be a good way to make sales.

The general procedure involves making multiple posts on a forum
board before you even setup a signature file, which includes a
link to your site. Even if the particular forum you are using
does not specifically mandate this, you will want to do this,
anyway, as it will increase your credibility – which is your real
goal.

You can start by finding a number of forums for your particular
niche or marketing angle. You can find massive lists of forums at
the following URL:

http://www.big-boards.com/

The first resource is currently the largest forum directory on the
Internet. The second resource contains less directories, but
includes some that are not listed on Big Boards.

Now, once you have selected a number of directories that match
your specific marketing angle and affiliate product, you will want
to investigate to determine whether or not they have rules
regulating signature files. For instance, some sites do not allow
any links in signature files; others, by contrast, allow links,
but do not allow any commercial links. Make sure you know what
the rules are before you post. Otherwise, you are simply setting
yourself up to be banned from the forum.

Next, take the list of forums you have created – that are both
relevant to your topic and allow commercial links – and begin
developing a reputation on those forums. Post regularly, avoid
meaningless fights and flamming, and contribute useful, on-target
information to discussions. In a matter of 1-2 weeks, you will
have developed a reputation, provided that the forum receives a
considerable amount of traffic.

Once you have developed a good reputation, you will want to begin
advertising through your forum signature. Ideally, you will want
to include some eye-catching assortment of colors, symbols, and
words in your signature. This will draw people’s attention. You
will then want to link them to something other than an affiliate
page – whether it be a page you created to sell an affiliate
product or an autoresponder course used to capture email
addresses.

Remember to repeat this process in all applicable forums. Look for
high traffic forums that allow commercial link posting in
signature files – and that also happen to fit with your specific
audience-targeting and marketing angle goals. Next, create a
reputation. Last, add your signature in some attractive way that
draws visitors’ attention, but is also likely to convert them into
interested clickers. You will find that this form of advertising
pays off considerably – and does so faster than other methods
available.

With the basics covered, there are a number of details you should
take into consideration before you start posting. The following
are two advanced techniques, which could score you additional
points on the forums. Not only will they improve your credibility
as a forum contributor, but they could also drive endless traffic
to some product you’re promoting…

Technique #1: The ‘Real Time Project’ Post

If you want to succeed with a real time project post, you’ll need
to have the dedication to see it through to the end. Additionally,
you’ll need the fortitude to deal with being in the spotlight,
since that’s exactly what creating such a post will do – put you
in the spotlight.

The following is a simple outline for succeeding with a real time
project post:

Step #1: target one forum related to your market and scan it for
hot topics. Find something that everyone is trying to do. If
you’re targeting an Internet marketing forum, for instance, you
might select a topic such as ‘Adsense sites’ or ’search engine
optimization’ — two things people perpetually struggle with.

Step #2: declare – in a post – that you are going to attempt to
achieve something related to that hot topic. For instance, you
might say: ‘I’m going to build 5 Adsense sites in the next week
using the following steps: x, y, z. I will post every detail –
failures and successes – in this thread.’

Step #3: actually follow through with your claim. If you make
absolutely no money at all, post that. If you made $3, post that.
At least a few times each week, post a full update, treating that
particular thread as if it is your blog.

By the time you finish with your project post, you should have a
lot of people eagerly following along to see whether you failed or
succeeded – and what you did along the way. This is not only a
great way to network, but it will expand your forum audience in
the future. Next time you make a post, you can count on more
people reading it, which will work to your favor if you decide to
make a product pitch.

Technique #2: Post Product Reviews — Fast

This technique is short and straightforward. Whenever there’s a
new product release, be the first person to jump on it. Grab a
copy of it, review it thoroughly, turn that review into a PDF;
and then freely give it away on forums. Ideally, if you can start
to circulate your version of the review on message boards on the
night of the release, you can expect to pick up a lot of
additional affiliate sales.

With that said, be careful to craft a review that thoroughly
engages the plusses and minuses of the new product. Don’t simply
say ‘buy this’; instead, try to be as thoroughly rigorous and
objective in your review as is possible. And, of course, don’t
forget to include your affiliate link to the product at several
points throughout the review!

Best Wishes,

Marlon Sanders

Hello,

Marlon here.

If you’re ever bored and want to stir up some trouble, go to an
Internet marketing forum and post a question asking how well ezine
advertising fares in comparison to other marketing methods. The
answers you get are likely to be diametrically opposed. This is
not only because each marketer has his own product to sell – and
it is in his best interest to justify the purpose of that product
- but it is also because there has been a genuine debate raging
for the past few years about the effectiveness and direction of
ezines and ezine advertising.

There are those who posit that ezine advertising is dead or is
near the bottom of a very steep decline. They see the average
person as being overwhelmed by superfluous emails on a daily basis
- some coming from friends and others coming from businesses and
ezines. In their eyes, this amounts to a continuing decrease in
attention paid to any emails that look business related, even if
they specifically subscribed to them. Additionally, they argue
that many people forget that they joined lists and eventually
begin to ignore emails coming from that address. And all of this
is true – which is precisely why it is important to take it into
consideration when you are conducting ezine advertising campaigns.

So how can you effectively advertise in ezines and reap a profit
from affiliate products?

There are a number of different ways, of which, I will cover six
below:

1.Target ezines that are related to your specific affiliate
product. Create a viral report that is related to your affiliate
product (as we discussed in the previous lesson). Purchase sponsor
ads in reputable ezines – and send all of those interested to a
page where they can download your viral report for free. This
report will have an embedded affiliate link, which will generate
sales on your behalf.

2.Create a persuasive solo ad. Again, start off by purchasing solo
ad space in cheaper ezines – ones that are responsive, but have a
low subscription count. Test your solo ads to determine your
approximate conversion rate with the given affiliate product. Once
you have a rough handle on your profit margin, attempt to market
your solo ads in larger publications, including e-zines with
subscriber bases of over 100,000. Keep in mind that this will be
expensive, but it will also pay off if you did your homework in
the previous steps.

3.Consider targeting high-end online publications with your ads.
These will include ones that don’t normally include their sites in
ezine directories, such as authority sites that publish a monthly
ezine in PDF format. These often have high response rates and will
similarly draw the best response if you use them correctly.

For regular ezines with reasonable fees, you will want to check
out the following site, which lists most ezines that offer
advertising: http://www.ezineadvertising.com/. If you’re looking
for something less expensive, you may want to check out the
following URL: http://www.ezinead.net/.

4. Find a number of relevant ezines at
http://www.ezineadvertising.com/. Consider what factors might be
most important to you as an advertiser. Should you concentrate
most of your time on large ezines, using circulation as your
primary determinant? Should you look at how often ads are
published? Should you look at how frequently the ezine goes out?
In fact, you should look at all these things. And the site I
listed above will tell you about all of them.

…But there’s something else you should do – something very few
advertisers do. You should subscribe to all of these ezines before
you ever use them to advertise! The reason is simple: no matter
how much you read ABOUT the ezine, you are likely to get an
insufficient feel for how it’s readers feel about it. Spending a
couple weeks checking out their emails may give you a better idea
of whether it’s high-quality or simply an outlet for spam.

5. If you have a mailing list of your own, one of your best bets
is to try out the directory at the following URL:
http://www.directoryofezines.com. Unlike the other directories
I’ve mentioned thus far, this one allows you to essentially work
as an insider, setting ad exchanges with other lists. This could
give you the opportunity to try out your ads in a couple of big
ezines without wasting a lot of money in the process. Once you
find ezines that work, you can try to advertise in them more
frequently.

There’s one important caveat to keep in mind: in order to
exchange with these other ezines, you, yourself, will have to
allow their owners to advertise in your ezine. If you’re not
comfortable with that, then you may want to stick to simply
purchasing ads, rather than doing swaps.

6. Actually write good ads. Often, when you sign up to be an
affiliate for some product, you’ll find an ‘affiliate section’,
where you can generate links, download nice-looking banner ads,
find text for high-converting classified ads, and copy large solo
ads. Many affiliates fall into the habit of doing one of two
things: 1) grabbing that solo ad and sending it out unchanged;
or 2) writing their own poor-quality advertisement.

Here’s what I suggest you do: assess the solo ad they offer on
the affiliate section (if they offer one). If you think the ad is
capable of converting – great. Add your name and URL to the ad and
send it out without thinking twice. If the solo ad is sloppy,
either fix it up or hire a copywriter to create something
completely new for you. If you send out an ad that will not
convert, you will not make any sales. Don’t even think about
experimenting with this. Start off with a good ad. Tweak it later.

Best Wishes,

Marlon Sanders