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Since not everyone likes the short and sweet, here's the long
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As writers and musicians, Michael
and I could have just gone the regular route with this and simply
publish and sell it through an established publisher. But as the
economy began to worsen, we noticed the people hardest hit by the
downturn were non-profits and churches. When income becomes tight,
people cut back on everything, especially donations to worthy
causes. Unfortunately the need for help goes up as the income goes
down.
That’s when we realized it would be
far better to publish our books and music in such a way that
organizations and people out there trying to help others as Christ
would help, could raise money very quickly while educating a new
generation about the eternal blessing of His birth; what it means to
be a part of this amazing Kingdom of God…and dish out some happiness
to a lot of people at the same time while keeping Christ in
Christmas. That is why this is a digital book, rather than a printed
one and we’d really like to help your organization or cause succeed
in its endeavors and advocacy through its sale and distribution.
Storybook Advent is set up to be
a fundraiser and revenue generation for churches, organizations and
companies. Fifty-percent of the profits go directly to you. This
means if the retail price is $9.95, your church or organization gets
50% of the profits per book sold through your link. This works
out to about $4.12 per copy of the book and $3.66 per copy of the
MP3 or $7.84 if both are purchased together.
Making this possible
ClickBank is an
online library of electronic products. An electronic product is
software, e-books, film or music, anything that can be delivered
over the internet as soon as you buy it. Publishers of books,
software and music create accounts with ClickBank. ClickBank then
makes these products available to businesses, organizations,
individuals and others with websites or e-mail newsletters to sell
for a split in the profits. This split is defined by the supplier of
the digital product, the copyright holder.
This is the
information you will need to set up a ClickBank affiliate account.
If you choose to have direct deposit rather than checks mailed, you
will also need your organizations banking information: Account name,
address, routing number and account number. Clickbank requires that
new accounts be in existence 6-weeks before direct deposit can be
instituted.
Once you’ve completed
and submitted the above form online, simply replace the XXXXX in the
affiliate hoplink (http://XXXXX.sbadvent.StorybookAdvent.com
with your Account Nickname and you can start raising funds with the
Storybook Advent Calendar and Carols.
For example, The Storybook Advent
Calendar™ and The Storybook Advent Carol Collections™ are
both offered at 50% revenue share. Anyone can sell these products
with a ClickBank account. ClickBank accounts are free to set up for
resellers and affiliates, (this is you). Your account is how your
sales, (donations) and income are tracked, which is why making sure
your link, which is called a ‘hoplink’, is correct. The common term
for this is ‘affiliate marketing’. Once you have an account, you can
log on daily to see how many sales you have and how much income
you’ve made that day or week.
Why Clickbank?
ClickBank pays every two weeks and
if your organization uses direct deposit, your earnings will appear
in your bank account within 14-30 days, depending upon when the
income was earned. ClickBank is wonderfully consistent and
predictable.
ClickBank processes orders in
15-different currencies and takes debit cards, MasterCard, Visa,
American Express, Discover and PayPal. We’ve been working with
ClickBank since 2002 and they ALWAYS pay on time. Plus, because the
pay cycle is so short, your organization will see your income before
the end of the year from any purchases made by December 13th,
giving you an unexpected financial boost. Given the current state of
the economy, we’re sure this will be welcomed!
Another reason we chose ClickBank to
manage the sales cycle is that we’ve never had any issues with the
company, whether we’re selling digital products or purchasing
through one of their vendors. ClickBank provides excellent customer
service if you’re having trouble setting up links, understanding the
process or just have questions.
How it works
There are just
3-steps to this fundraiser: Promote, Purchase & Download
1)
Promote Click Here for Marketing
Materials
You, (Church, Organization,
Newsletter Publisher or Company) promote The Storybook Advent
Calendar and/or the Storybook Advent Carol Collection.
Let your parishioners, customers or readers know that if they choose
to purchase a copy through the link you are providing, 50% of the
profits go to helping your church, company or organization. Your
people receive a unique one-of-a-kind Christian children’s e-book
and/or the music and they get to help you raise additional funds for
your organization as well. It’s a win-win all the way around.
Marketing Copy and product shots for
online or print are available at
http://www.storybookadvent.com/marketing.
The best methods for promoting the
Storybook Advent Collection are:
-
Include your unique hoplink with product shots on your website
-
Include your hoplink with product shots in an e-mail to your list
-
Publish your hoplink and information about the book in your weekly
sermon notes or other collateral material. This option works
well if you do not have a website or just want to further promote
it. A PDF you can print out is located here:
If your readers/parishioners forward
your hoplink to friends and family who also buy, you’ll create a
wonderful viral marketing opportunity with additional worldwide
fundraising capabilities.
Because these
are digital products, you do not have to buy anything, maintain an
inventory, and worry about returns or hassle with order processing.
The entire process is automated online, fully secure and completely
turn-key.
Other than
setting up your account, (which takes about five minutes) and
letting people know about this fundraiser, you don’t need to do
anything else. It really is that easy.
2)
Purchase
Those wishing to purchase the book,
MP3 or both simply click on your hoplink or put it into the address
bar on their browser. Once they click on it, it will take them to
the information page where they can read more and decide if they
want to buy. Then all they have to do is click ‘buy’. ClickBank does
the rest.
Payment is made online through
ClickBank using debit cards, credit cards or PayPal. All sales come
with a 60-day money-back guarantee.
3)
Download
Once the payment option clears, the
buyer is taken to a page which allows each to download their
purchase immediately to his or her computer. From here, the book can
be printed out or read on the computer. One copy may be attached and
e-mailed to children or others to share. The music MP3, once saved
to your computer can be burned to a CD to play on any MP3 player or
imported into iTunes or Zune. You don’t need to do anything. Product
payment and delivery is fully automated.
All you need to do is give your
parishioners, customers, readers or members your unique URL to
purchase. In this URL is a code that is entered into the database
designating your organization as the originator of the sale.
ClickBank Set-up:
To use the Storybook Advent Calendar
and/or the Storybook Advent Carol Collection as a fundraiser for
your church, organization, newsletter or company, you simply need to
set up a free ClickBank Account through the
following URL:
To set up your account you will need
to know:
When you get your organization’s
ClickBank account set, Use your Account name where it says
‘Affiliate’ and include the following URL with your promotion.
http://AFFILIATE.SBAdvent.hop.clickbank.net
TIP: If you’d like to disguise your hoplink by masking it so nobody
can replace your affiliate code with theirs, we recommend using
either
ShortUrl or
ViralUrl. Both are free, though ViralUrl will get you inundated
with ‘offers’ from their members. However, their tracking system is
far superior and you’ll be able to monitor how many people click on
or buy. If you choose ViralUrl, we recommend getting a free e-mail
account from gmail, hotmail or yahoo and use this for your contact
email and PayPal account if you choose to have one. That way your
inbox won’t get cluttered with up to 50 offers a day. Whatever you
do, do not give ViralUrl a main e-mail address or one you want to
keep private. It will not remain private. We had to learn this one
the hard way!
This is what a
shortened URL looks like:
Go from this:
http://AFFILIATE.SBAdvent.hop.clickbank.net
To this
http://shorturl.ca/?2256040510PM
The reason you may want to shorten
the affiliate code is to prevent people from stealing the donations
meant for you and to assure that even if an e-mail is passed on with
your link in it, people come to your website rather than straight to
ours. After all, you work hard for the traffic and to build your web
presence.
Just in case you still need help on
this, give us a ring at
(800) 384-6918 US or
310-594-3728 from outside the US…hint,
if you have a Skype account, the 800 call is free from anywhere in
the world.
We’re around Monday through Friday 8-5PM PST. Or e-mail us 24-7 at
May God Bless you!
Lewis Brech
Quick Start Guide:
In a couple of minutes you'll be set
up and ready to go. Thank you so much for joining us!
To begin using the Storybook Advent Calendar and Carols
collections as a fundraiser all you need to do is:
1) Set up a
Clickbank Account
This takes 5-minutes and is free
If you already have one, skip this step. You just need your
affiliate code.
2) Go to the
Marketing Materials
Choose the elements you'd like to use or create
your own
3) Put your ClickBank User name in place of the X's in this
code:
http://XXXXX.SBADVENT.hop.clickbank.net
This is how your sales are
tracked and this is how your organization captures
donations. Use this code by itself or attach
it to banner ads and pictures.
4) Send out an e-mail to your list (or
use our pre-fab version) with the above hoplink
-AND/OR- Place the link on your webpage, (all materials are
available in the Marketing area) -AND/OR- Print out the
flyer, add your hoplink in the field and hand it out.
5) Add your Church or organization to
our affiliate database so we can keep you updated on
additional opportunities, product changes and releases.
You're done.
Clickbank processes the sales and you'll be able to monitor
how many sales you've had. Your code in your affiliate name
automatically assigns credit for the sale to you and you'll
receive 50% of the net profits on all Storybook Advent
purchases through your link.
Checks arrive about 2-3 weeks from sales date. |
