Affiliate marketing is the fastest and easiest way to make money online, and today I’m going to walk you through, step-by-step, one of the most successful, and innovative affiliate promotions I’ve ever held.

In fact, it produced $419,752 in commissions in just one week, by sending four emails which I’m going to give you here today, AND… It incorporated an extremely powerful marketing technique you’ve probably never seen before, because no one has the guts to use it.

As an “affiliate”, you are basically promoting someone else’s product. They get the sales and customers, and then split the revenue with you. The typical commission rate is 50%.

So if you promote a product that costs $100, you’d make $50.

You need to be extremely selective about the products you promote, because you’re tying your reputation to that product. If you promote low quality products, your readers will stop taking your recommendations.

So in a normal year, I may promote just 2 or 3 affiliate products or services beyond our own.

These are always products I’ve purchased myself, and really enjoyed.

I’ve also found that promoting someone’s product is a great way to meet the author/owner if that’s something you’re interested in.

This was the case with The Palm Beach Letter, owned by Mark Ford.

Having written many bestselling books under the pen name, Michael Masterson,

Mark is an iconic entrepreneur and investor. Having the opportunity to meet him in person and establish a relationship would be priceless, and there are few better ways to earn that opportunity than to send over a significant amount of business and gratitude.

Now this promotion had two very important marketing components to it…

The first was a lack of “scarcity”.

Scarcity is an extremely powerful marketing trigger I use often, which is defined by the fear of loss.

This usually comes in the form of a discount for a limited amount of time, or a limited number of units available for sale.

For example…

1. If you purchase right here, right now, you’ll receive a 50% discount.
2. Only 250 of these autographed sets were created. Purchase your collectable edition now before they’re sold out.
3. This product is only going to be available until midnight on Saturday. Once the doors close, this offer will be gone forever.

Scarcity, combined with risk removal through a money back guarantee, is the most powerful marketing combination I’ve ever found for getting people to buy.

This two-part combination is at the heart of any promotion we do because it works so well.

But, there was a problem with the Palm Beach Letter promotion…

While their offer included a money back guarantee, it didn’t incorporate scarcity.

And without scarcity, people don’t have a compelling reason to pull out their credit card and buy now.

There was no reason for urgency.

They could purchase PBL for $99 today, or $99 two months from now.

So… I had to figure out how to create that scarcity and urgency on my end.

I remembered a marketing lesson I learned from one of Dan Kennedy’s books years ago about the “double your money back” guarantee.

The premise was simple, but seemingly risky…

“If you’re not completely satisfied with our $50 product, we’ll double your money back, and send you a check for $100.

Now the really interesting part of Dan’s lesson was that so few people actually requested a refund whenever he used this marketing tactic.

So I decided to take a gamble.

I’d give my whole-hearted endorsement of the Palm Beach Letter, and put my ass on the line by offering a double your money back guarantee.

If someone wanted a refund for the $99 PBL publication, then PBL would process that refund, and I’d personally send them a check for an additional $99.

But!

My double your money back offer was limited to a five-day window. You had to buy during those five days, or you wouldn’t qualify for the double guarantee.