I was working out today and when I came back I checked my email and saw this.

Dear jim kukral,

new sale / lead was registered by our affiliate program.

Sale details:
Total cost: 164.00
Commission from this sale: 54.12

I made $54.12 during my workout, for doing nothing. When I teach students about this, it blows them away. This is what good affiliate marketing can do for you. These are the kinds of things that happen multiple times a day for me because I put the right pieces in place to drive visitors to content that includes my affiliate links.

Make high-quality, problem-solving content and give it away for free as an eBook, or in an email list or whatever, and put your affiliate links inside of that content. And watch as you earn commissions over and over while you sleep. Literally.

This is what you’ll learn how to do when you visit the Affiliate Summit event.

The other day I posted about how to do a successful Webinar. One of the things we didn’t have time to cover in that podcast was passion, and how important it is for you to show it in your voice.

I do an enormous amount of online teaching as well as teleseminars, podcasts, Webinars, videos and online teaching for the University of San Francisco Online. If there’s one thing I pride myself on is my passion for the topic at hand, and specifically how I convey it through my voice when I’m speaking. On stage in person too.

When I’m talking to someone on a class who’s all the way on the other side of the world, I have to make sure they can feel my passion through my voice. Believe me, it resonates if done right. Students and prospective clients can literally feel it in the tone of my voice, and because of that, I come off as someone they’re more likely to listen to closely, and someone who isn’t just trying to sell them something.

You’re passionate about something. I know you are. What is it? Why aren’t you taking that passion and communicating it to your audience in a way that they can literally feel it oozing out of you? You can’t do that in text. Why not try podcasting, or Webinars, or teleseminars or video?

Here’s a good example of a Webinar I did this week. It’s about a half hour long. See if you can feel the passion in my voice.

Prfessor Jim Demo from Josh Walsh on Vimeo.

If done right, passion resonates as more than a sales pitch, it’s a belief. It starts with you, and ends with your new customer. Get it, and get it now.

If you’re going to charge more for your product/service, then you better make sure you deliver more. I’m constantly amazed by how greedy business owners can be. They work so hard to build up a brand that people love, and when the first sign of success hits them, they scale back and raise prices and make their product not as good. That’s pure greed.

Here’s a tip. You can raise prices, fine. But you can’t scale back quality at the same time.

Restaurants do this all the time. My family used to frequent Boston Market all the time as a Friday night dinner spot. But the franchise decided to both raise the prices, and cut portions… all at once. So you tell me. Why in the world would I continue to eat there? I don’t.

Look at the businesses in your neighborhood who have lasted for 20+ years or longer. Those are the ones who realize that once you build a brand and find success, you can raise your pricing here and there, but you absolutely can’t lessen the quality of the product you serve.

Are you guilty of this? If so, you’re not going to be in business very long. The rules is this: If you raise prices, make sure you raise quality or quantity as well. This is true in any online or offline business. It’s the classic upsell and downsell argument.

For example, if I offered you coaching services at $50/month. Then a month later reduced that price to $25 to all new people. The people that paid $50 are going to pissed off, assuming I’m selling the same coaching product.

Now, if when I reduced the price, I also reduced the features… well then, that’s not the same is it? It works the same way when you raise the price.

So if I raise the price, I should add features. Your customer will continue to trust you if this is the way you practice. Otherwise, they’re going to feel like you cheated them.

Long-term success comes from consistency and fairness to your customer.

I just wrapped up a podcast with friend Greg Friese about Webinars. If you are at all interested in using Webinars to close more business or train or educate a group of people, a Webinar is for you. Download here.

More specifically, you will learn:

• What software options to use for Webinars
• How to promote your Webinar
• How to use a Webinar for training, sales and education
• Other fantastic tips and tricks both Greg and I use

This is one of the most informative podcasts I’ve ever done on a niche topic. Please let me know what you think, and share any tips you have in the comments.

I have a disclosure policy now, do you? Do you have one? If you don’t, you may want to get one in place soon as the FTC will be tightening up the noose on bloggers coming on December 1st, 2009.

It’s funny, as an affiliate marketer and long-time blogger, I’ve learned these things.

1. Disclosing actually strengthens your affiliate links
2. The vast majority of readers really don’t care, or even know, and once they know, they don’t care. Assuming you’re not trying to deceive them that is.

Ted Murphy at Izea just released another round of super-juicy, well-done disclosure today called the disclosure sandwich. This is good, and funny.

Today we’re releasing some important changes in SocialSpark, specifically related to how bloggers disclose in their posts. While in-post disclosure has been required since the beginning of SocialSpark, we’re taking it a step further today, requiring both text and image disclosure. It’s just one of the extra steps we’re taking to make sure that our bloggers and advertisers are maintaining the highest standard for transparency and ethics in sponsored posts.

Nice move Ted. The way the Web and marketing and government and control is all going… more disclosure is the right way to go.

Now is the time I disclose I’m on the Izea Advisory Board.

This is a guest post from David Brier. His information is below. If you’d like to submit a guest post, click here.

When I am not solving clients’ branding problems, I am planning the next delicious meal for my wife and myself. I make a mean (and ridiculously succulent) Tandoori chicken breast, a mouthwatering peppercorn-marinated filet mignon and a killer cappuccino, but I digress….

The Places I Shop (and Why)
I shop at two primary places for food and cooking ingredients. One is a natural food co-op and the other is a more upscale supermarket. I have my usual routine between these two shopping venues.

But one day, I realized something. I shopped one of these 5X more than I shopped the other. Hmmmm…

I looked at why since, after all, I know my clients would enjoy a 5X increase in customer traffic. Here’s what I discovered.

Same Shit, Different Day
The supermarket provided the same stuff. In other words, I went there already knowing what I was going to buy, nothing new, just routine.

The co-op on the other hand not only sold some usual suspects I would routinely purchase but in addition, during each visit, I always went to their small floor-standing cooler that showcased the day’s salads, unique re-heatable meals, little hand-made munchies, etc. In other words, they had something new and different everyday.

Compared to my weekly visit to the local supermarket where I spent a couple hundred dollars, I would go almost everyday after work and spend between $20 to $40 each visit.

What’s This Got To Do With My Brand?
I looked at this amazing difference between these two destinations and why one was getting 5X the amount of traffic from than the other. I asked myself, “Could this principle apply to any brand?”

After a little analysis, I discovered this applied equally to online destinations as well as brick and mortar destinations.

I find I visit sites that offer something new and different, and I am not alone. Look at Copyblogger, Threadless or Mashable and you’ll find the basis of these leading online brands is “something new and different all the time.” Heck, it’s even part of the brilliance of the amazingly successful iPhone with all of its “new and different” apps.

Stagnancy is the Road to Brand Death
The days of the stagnant Web site and the stagnant brand are over. Your brand must be relevant, meaningful and—above all—fresh. The more it’s fresh and fluid (which happens to mirror the increasingly fleeting attention spans of most consumers and clients).

Mirror your clients attention span and you’ll be the next star in your industry. Stay stagnant and your brand will die a quick and sure death.

Lesson learned: Embrace your audience’s interest and attention span and you too can see a major increase in loyalty, traffic and engagement.

About the author: David Brier is Chief Gravity Defyer of DBD International and the author of branding bible for those sick and tired of average results: Defying Gravity and Rising Above the Noise. You can follow David on twitter here.

If you’d like to write a guest post for JimKukral.com I’d be happy to discuss it with you. I’m looking for original only content of course. Please contact me to submit your post.

What kind of content am I looking for? Text, audio, video, you name it. I’d like it to be based on one of the following topics or a mix-match, somewhat.

• All kinds of Online marketing (affiliate, email, ppc, search, etc…)
• Blogging
• Revenue
• Success
• Motivation
• Entrepreneurship
• Online learning/teaching
• Web tools/resources
• ROI
• Social media
• PR

You get the idea. If it’s helpful, entertaining or problem-solving, I’d love to post it here. Looking forward to hearing from you.

I wrote the other day about how Aweber added a nice new form builder feature to their product. Read about that here.

It got me thinking. Aweber gets it. They know that you have to continuously improve your product if you want to stay on top, and they know that you need to then give it to your customers as a feature. I’ve seen some companies try to paste on extra fees for upgrades like the Aweber one.

Bad idea. To be successful… to keep customers… you have to be constantly adding features, not charging more. Sure, you “could” make a nice chunk of change getting people to sign on for the upgrades, but in reality, all you’re doing is alienating your existing client base by not giving it to them already.

Why cheese off your customers? It makes zero sense.

My philosophy has always been to add, add, add… then add some more. Keep piling on the features until your customer loves you so much they will never leave!

I repeat… THEY WILL NEVER LEAVE!

That’s what you want. That’s how you build customer evangelists too.

Here’s a list of the resources and tools and blogs and, well, everything I love and recommend. Please enjoy.

Web Tools & Resources

• Aweber Email Marketing Software – This is what I use to build email lists on all of my sites/blogs. A no-brainer, just buy it.
• Constant Contact – Build your business with Email Marketing and Online Surveys from Constant Contact. FREE 60-Day Trial.
• Spyfu – Spy on your PPC competitors. Just use the free version, but upgrade when you need more stats.
• Prfessor – Build your own online university or training center from scratch, no tech-skills needed. Watch this demo to see it in action.
• Thesis Wordpress Theme – Best Wordpress theme out there.
• Wordpress Themes & Resources – My big list, enjoy.
• MemberGate – This is the member software I use to run TheBizWebCoach.com. It’s the Bentley of member software.
• Shareasale – Best affiliate network on the planet.
• Skitch – Screen grab tool for the Mac.
• FastStone Capture – Screen grab tool for the PC.

I’m A BIG Fan Of…

• JoeBees.com – All natural bee pollen golden capsules I take that have changed my life!
• Crossfit Cleveland – Another life changer. I’m healthier and happier and tougher because of Bill.

Websites/Blogs I Run…

• Scratchback Tip Jar – Accept tips on your blog using my Scratchback widget system!
• Online Video Toolkit – Learn how to make high-quality Web videos with inexpensive equipment… free!
• Awesome Million – My attempt years ago to capitalize on the Million Dollar Home Page craze.
• Big Brown Box – Another crazy idea I had years ago. Fun stuff.
• Mom Goes Green – My beautifully, talented wife’s blog about going green.
• 5DayBootcamp – Free, let me motivate you to success. How bad do you want it?
• $7.95 Marketing Plan – Build your brand for less than the price of a pizza.
• Buy The Flip – I love the Flip camera, come and find out how I use it and get one yourself.
• The Biz Web Coach Business Podcasts – Here’s a collection of free podcasts I’ve done with innovators and Web-entrepreneurs across many different topics.

Websites/Blogs/Conferences I Love…

• Affiliate Summit – The best conference around. I’m the emcee here, twice a year.
• Blogworld Expo – Fantastic yearly show about blogging and all that it entails, you need to come to this.
• Copyblogger – Copy is important. You need to learn how to write it.
• Problogger – Run a blog? This is where you want to learn from.

Friends (If you’re not here, contact me)…

• Shawn Collins
• Missy Ward
• Lisa Picarille
• Scott Jangro
• Sam Harrelson
• Todd Crawford
• Ted Murphy
• Zac Johnson
• Gary Vaynerchuk
• Chris Brogan
• Liz Strauss
• Jason Falls
• Angel Djambazov

Stuff I’ve Bought Recently…

• Gateway Laptop with Intel Core 2 Duo Processor – NightSky Black

I’m a huge fan of Aweber, the service I use that collects emails for me and let’s me do email marketing with ease. There are other out there you can use, but in my experience, Aweber is the only one that let’s you do it all (except import emails but that’s another story).

I was just reading about how Aweber is releasing a brand new form builder today that you will love and will make it even harder for you to go use another service. I know for me, even with the level of knowledge I have building Web pages and such, that formatting the email signup boxes on my site with the old method was a pain in the you know what to make it look good.

No more. Check this out.

Now you can easily create good looking email signup boxes, even with graphics! And, this is killer, the easy ability to add check boxes to your forms! These kinds of features are key to letting regular people who aren’t experts in building sites get started and create success. It’s so important to be able to put an email signup box in place on your site, and now, you’ve got even less excuse to get it done.

I love it when the technology catches up. I see a trend brewing. Everything is getting easier/better. That’s good news.

Go signup for Aweber, it’s what I use. That’s my affiliate link if you care.