Social Proof doesn’t have to be on your sales page, though.  In fact, “offsite” social proof (think buzz) is what helps establish your reputation, and that of your product. 

Offsite social proof is more believable.  Whether it’s a product review on someone else’s site, or a thread in a forum, the uncontrolled comments of others will carry more weight than all the testimonials you can put on your sales page.

I’m not saying that you don’t want those testimonials.  Merely that the offsite references are just as important, and will even bring you traffic you wouldn’t have received otherwise.

I recently found myself checking out the inbound links to Rapid Action Profits.  There are scads of these (all of which help me in the search engines) and I thought I would show you some of these as an illustration of the types of links that are attainable (with little or no work on your part).

Willie Crawford/Blog Talk Radio

Ezine Articles

Affiliate Blogs

HUB Pages

Marketing Blogs

Squidoo lens

more Squidoo

IM News Watch

Warrior Forum

Video Sites 

You can create offsite references to your product(s) simply by setting up your own blog and posting there about what you’re doing.  (This post is a good example.)  

These are just a few examples of literally thousands of backlinks that have appeared over the past year, and only one of these required any effort on my part (Willie interviewed me on his Blog Talk Radio show). 

The rest are the result of other people doing reviews of my product, discussing its merits in various forums, creating social bookmarks, blogging about their own experiences, etc.

By encouraging others to review your products, or stimulating discussions on public forums (answer questions as they come up, or debate the relative merits of your product), and setting up a good affiliate program, this type of social proof almost happens on auto-pilot. 

A little “nudging” from time to time to get something started, will often feed the flames, and have a more dramatic effect than you ever imagined.

Think about Wordpress.  You have a HUGE selection of plug-ins that you can use to add functionality to your blog.  With version 3.0 of RAP, you can do the same.  Want to add  Bonuses to your sales page?  or maybe a Dimesale?  A lot of people do this - right?

But… can they do it with point and click ease?  Can they switch out bonuses to see which ones affect their sales the most?  … or add a Terms of Service?  … or let their affiliates add THEIR OWN bonuses to create even more incentive to buy a product?

I mentioned this when the product was released, but now the Add Ons are beginning to roll out the door, and RAP customers are the winners.

Instead of paying for inflated feature content as with most “scripts”, RAP customers can pick and choose.  Besides getting a very powerful script for driving and tracking their sales, they can select only the Add Ons that they need/want to enhance their sales!

There is a new video up on YouTube that can give you a good overview.  It’s done by Jeff Davis (who’s created video tutorials for Rapid Action Profits), but it’s a good way to get an overview of what RAP is all about - without having to read the whole sales page.

The Add On Architecture means that RAP can continue to be improved with new features, without affecting the price of the core product.
 
After buying RAP, purchase only the features that match your own marketing strategies instead of paying really big dollars for a bunch of bloated functionality (most of which you may never use).

Take a look to see what I mean.

Here’s the full text.

___________________________________

[This message was auto-generated by Rapid Action Profits Security]

The Rapid Action Profits system has caught an attempt to purchase Rapid Action Profits for $0.01 instead of its actual purchase price.

Be assured that the person was denied access to the download.

Also, it is suggested that you report this person to PayPal’s fraud department. The person’s information is as follows:PayPal Email: domain@yoursouthaustralia.com
First Name: Dom
Last Name: Aines
Business:
Country: AU

PayPal can be contacted at 888-215-5506.

___________________________________

He/She probably won’t appreciate me posting his email address this way - but then… there are things about this person that I don’t particularly appreciate either.  

 The name is obviously fake, but it looks like the domain was set up just for the purpose of opening a Paypal account.

Notice that the download (a $177 product) was not made available to the purchaser?  That’s just one of a number of fraudulent purchases that RAP protects.  And why you can feel comfortable using it for higher-priced products.  Even more protection is planned for the next release of Rapid Action Profits, along with a lot of new features too.

I should have made mention here long ago, but things have just been too hectic.  Here are just the major new features that have been added to this release.

1. RAP 3.0 incorporates our proprietary Add-On Architecture.   In fact, I’ve negotiated a FREE add-on as a new bonus for your purchase.  It means that RAP can continue to be improved with new features, without affecting the price of the core product.
 
After buying RAP, purchase only the features that match your own marketing strategies instead of paying really big dollars for a bunch of bloated functionality (most of which you may never use).

2. Another great feature of RAP 3.0 is the new Affiliate Center.  Affiliates and JV Partners can now login to the affiiate area and view their own sales stats and go to the affiliate tools page to pick up your affiliate tools, with their affiliate link already embedded in the material.
 
(RAP is one of the very few affiilate programs that offer this sort of ability for products sold through Paypal.)

3. As long as we’re talking about compensating others… I should mention the new “Equity Partner” feature.  With this feature, you can set up one or two partners that will participate in the revenue from ALL sales - just like you (independent of who the seller is). 

Each equity partner can be set up with their own commission rate, independent of the commission rates set for affiliates and JV Partners.

4. ALL customer facing pages and customer emails now have templates so that you can customize them (or even translate them for a foreign language site), and the Paypal Locale code (to control the language on the Paypal site) can also be set for each product.

There’s a special dicount available right now for RAP, but it’s only good until midnight (EST) the 24th (that’s tonight.  Just click on the Orange Frog next to the order button if you want to have a look.

Many were looking to re-launch an old product with an affiliate program, or to incorporate a back-end offer into their campaign - but many others were looking for a way to launch a brand-new product.

That was the case with Bill Ortell and his Quick Web Creatons.  He was looking for a way to launch his new product and RAP fit the bill.  

Long story short…
Bill’s “Quick Web Creations” was a sellout.  Literally!  It was great to be a small part of it, and it’s great to be a part of his new re-launch coming up this week.

Frankly, I was told not to share anything about this product’s details, but I know first hand that nothing does what this product does online - that is a fact!

—–

ALL visitors expect clean, crisp images.  Especially those
that glue your eyes to the screen… You know, the ones…

…the images with gloss, reflections, shadows, multiple gradients, etc…

And these are extremely pricey to create in high-end (and very expensive) software applications. Not to mention the plain and simple fact that you *must know how to use them*.

Not anymore!

Membership to this great tool was closed - but not for much longer!  He’s re-releasing it with even more features! (more on that later)

What if you could access an online application that (with just a few clicks) created professionally designed images that literally look as if you had an expert hand-creating every single one!

No Software? No design experience? Virtually, No talent whatsoever?

NO PROBLEM!! 
Quite literally, within a few seconds, you WILL create images that you say “WOW! I cannot believe I did that!” It’s simply a point-n-click solution.

Look how Easy!

———————————
Keep this confidential!!! Please!
———————————
I was introduced to Bill in Fall of 2007.  That’s when he and I first got to know each other.  I was personally blown away at his product, and still am!

And, as a result of our relationship, I’ve been given rather unique
and early information for those who get the Basic Membership access!

The “scoop” is that there’s going to be a “Premium Membership” option  that you’ll be offered - immediately following the Basic Membership purchase.  And you’ll be given an over 50% discount! (Actually that may be even more information than he wanted me to give, but shhh!)

I was not given liberty to discuss this with you in detail, but I will
say that if you think his basic membership is good - OMG, just wait ’til you see the “Premium Membership” upgrade option.

.

Willie’s been using my Rapid Action Profits (RAP) sales system lately to market a number of his digital download products. Since I just rleased a major upgrade (version 2.0) to my customers, Willie thought it would be an appropriate time to let people know about RAP and the new features in this release.

If you’ve read my other posts about Rapid Action Profits and have questions about how it works or could help you sell your own products (original, PLR, or Resale Rights), this would be a great way to learn about RAP and some of the online sales strategies you can implement.

If you’re interested, you can go to
http://BlogTalkRadio.com/WillieCrawford

In the “Upcoming Shows” section, you’ll see the announcement and a button to click so that you can get an email reminder before the show.

Willie’s scheduled some extra time, so if we don’t run over, he’ll open it up to questions from the callers.  You can get your own questions answered if you call in - or just listen in over the internet and learn from questions other people ask.

 BTW - Willie’s also going to be making a special, limited time offer during the show.  It’s worth being there.

The primary enhancements in this release are:

• The “auto” opt-in feature now works for ALMOST ANY auto-responder script (whether self-hosted or a 3rd party service) .  That means you don’t need a squeeze page to capture contact info for your customers.  If you use this option, it streamlines your sales process by eliminating a step that many customers will resent anyway.
  (note - I say “almost” any auto-responder script simply because there’s just no way to test it with every possible script, but as long as your auto-responder uses an HTML opt-in form and allows you to specify a return URL it should work with RAP.)
• Ability to broadcast mail to “front-end” customers and OTO customers separately.  That means your follow up emails can be more targeted based on what the customer purchased and how much they were willing to spend.
• The detailed sales reports now have a one-click “filter” option that allows you to look at just front-end sales, OTO sales, or both.
• The transfer to Paypal (when someone clicks on your order link) now “breaks” frames to avoid potential Paypal problems if your affiliates use frame cloaking techniques.  Your affiliate can use framed cloaking without costing you a sale.
• RAP now offers single-tier or 2-tier affiliate payments (by product), and to my knowledge is the ONLY system available on the market that offers this option with immediate affiliate payments.
• Ability to customize the automatic “system” emails rather than using “canned” text for the customer download email or the email from the “tell-a-friend” function.
• RAP now includes Discount Coupon management that allows you to set a discounted price with an expiration date.  Great for special sales.  Create a Discount Coupon and give the code to your affiliates so they can make special, limited time offers to their member/readers.
• New “Sales by Referrer” report lets you see how many sales have been generated by each affiliates, and how many of those were paid to you, how many to the affiliate, and (if you’re using the 2-tier opton) how many were paid to the 2nd tier affiliate.  Sales are shown with counts and amounts and are totalled and cross-footed. (This is now my favorite statistical report in the system).

Once again, these new features were added to Rapid Action Profits based on popular customer request, and were designed to retain all previous functionality while allowing the option of “seamlessly” integrating the new features.  Upgrade was a “breeze”.

Unfortunately, I (and darn few others) have had a chance to preview the EXACT materials being offered because it isn’t ready yet.  I expect it to be first-rate, just based on Joel’s track record - but there isn’t enough to look at yet to be able to say, without a doubt, that you’d be getting your money’s worth. 

If the buzz hasn’t reached your inbox yet, what Joel has done is to record a dozen top online wealth building experts as they spilled their guts to a very select group of online entreprenuers (as part of the Next Internet Millionaire Reality Show if I understand correctly).

Without a doubt…
there will be a lot of “heavy-hitters” promoting this the minute the doors open (noon tomorrow), and the “little guy” trying to promote Joel’s course will probably be drowned out by the barrage of emails from other marketers.

That’s where Jon Leger enters the picture.  He’s devised a Secret Classroom Giveaway contest.  Really more of a raffle, actually - where he will give away all of the commissions he earns from promoting the Secret Classroom. 

You don’t even have to purchase Joel’s product!

You have a chance to win a lot more if you do (50% of every month’s commissions will go to someone who buys through Jon’s link), but half of everything Jon makes on this every month will go to 5 people who just registers for the raffle (10% each).

Jon’s a whiz at automating things with scripts, so he’s also set up a way so that you can get up to 10 chances to win every month.  He shows you how to get your extra “raffle tickets” after you register for his giveaway.

Or… you could write a detailed review and post it on your own blog.

A number of my own affiliates use this last technique and it works great for them as well as for the merchants they represent.

Here’s an example

Take note of how thorough Case Stevens has been in reviewing the product.  It’s obvious from his write-up that he has, indeed, used the product and is making an honest evaluation.  Assuming his readers have come to trust Case’s judgement, they won’t have any trouble at all following his recommendations.

Just like any pre-sales/landing page you might create to promote a merchant’s product, you can get organic search engine traffic to your blog post.  You can also target your post in any other form of advertising.  Whether you use Google or Yahoo PPC advertising, purchase ezine ads, or simply link to the page in traffic exchanges, you now have an effective promotional page in place to drive sales through your affiliate link.

You could even marry a couple of strategies.  Go ahead and create the blog post like in the example above, but then write a small introductory article for the article directories, that lead to your blog post.  Go the extra mile and watch your affiliate earnings begin to grow steadily.

Alarm bells went off in my head!

Rapid Action Profits isn’t sold with re-sale rights, and it’s illegal to share the code with anyone else.  I could see my sales grinding to a halt.  It didn’t matter that the download was outdated.  Some people will take a free download (even with no support) rather than paying for a current version with full support included.

Rapid Share is supposedly a legitimate file-sharing service, and I have to admit they disabled the download as soon as I brought the matter to their attention - but I question the need for such a service (and, therefore, their true reason for existence).

Anyway, since the product download on my own site is protected, and I really didn’t think a customer would purposely share something for free that they had paid good money for, I decided to do a little digging to see if I could find out where this rogue download came from (Rapid Share wouldn’t disclose who had uploaded the file to their site).

Luckily, a friend of mine publishes a really great guide, “Download Hacks and How to Avoid Them“, so I got myself a copy and started researching. 

I found yet another site with a link to a download of my product. 

Note - this site appears to be a forum that was set up solely for the purpose of letting people steal other peoples products by encouraging that they post links that they find anywhere in their search for “free” product, so I didn’t hold out much hope of getting them to remove the link.

It turns out that one of my customers was outsourcing the installation of Rapid Action Profits to a developer, and had uploaded the zip file to their web site as an easy way for the developer to access the files.  It got left there for 6 weeks in an unprotected directory, someone found it, and rather than just stealing it for themselves, published a link to the file on that public forum. 

At the end of the day, I was able to contact my customer and get them to remove the file.  That rendered the link on the forum worthless so I won’t lose any more sales because of it - but I’ll never know exactly how much that cost me in lost revenue during the 6 weeks that the link was working.

If you purchase someone else’s product, without resale rights… DON’T put the downloadable file on your own web site.  That constitutes distribution and is illegal.  A copyright infringement suit could cost you your home and several years’ income. 

If you sell your own products, you might want to get a copy of “Download Hacks and How to Avoid Them“.  I’ll never know (and don’t want to) how much it cost me NOT to have it.