One of the many tools available that I absolutely love is Amember from CGI-Central. Amember not only manages my membership sites, it also handles digital product sales, delivery, and protection.

For instance, it protects download pages, offers backend sales and automation, allows protection of “external” folders and files, and it even comes with a built-in autoresponder. (And that’s just a partial list.)

I use Amember with WordPress for my membership sites, such as, for example, the all-new Success Chef University, among many others.

But Amember does have its flaws…

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Rant warning: what follows may offend some people. But I wanted to throw in my three cents on the topic of “forced continuity,” which seems to be the subject of a lot of debate these days.

Several well-known marketers have made offers of late with forced continuity. What it means is, the intended product you want to buy can only be purchased when you buy another (often, a continuous subscription) billed to your account every month or so until you cancel.

Forced continuity is nothing new. (In direct marketing, they call these “Til Forbid” offers.) It’s another type of offer, pure and simple. It’s marketing. And there’s nothing wrong with that. What’s wrong is not the way the offer is made.

The real problem is its lack of transparency.

But that’s not what I want to rant about today.

What a lot of people seem to be missing here (and something my brilliant wife brought to my attention, which makes perfect sense to me), is that there is a deeper, much darker side to this whole thing.

Something all marketers need to be aware of…

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I know Paul Hancox.

Paul is a fanatical tester. He’s also an excellent copywriter.

But what you may not know is that Paul is also the creator of the very first split-testing software I’ve ever used. We’re talking, um, circa 1999, I believe. It was called “Sales Page Master Pro.” (Paul has a new version out now.)

Well, another copywriter, Paul Myers, recommended this new “report” written by Paul Hancox. I snatched it up in a heartbeat. I did because the simple title piqued my curiosity. In it you discover how to raise the conversion rate of any piece of online copy you write.

Not to 2% or 3%. Not even to 5%.

It shows you how to boost your conversion rate…

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When a sales page is not performing up to your expectations, the worst thing you can do is nothing.

In most circumstances, there are steps you can take to alter the copy to improve your results immediately. By taking action and making changes, you can strengthen your copy quickly and improve your sales conversions.

The key to this process is testing to boost your outcome.

However, when most people start testing their sales copy, they immediately think of something they can add or tweak. Or they’re confused as to what to test, particularly what to test first.

I’ve found that the best and most efficient element to test is to actually first remove the things that are stopping people from ordering. In other words…

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One of my coaching students recently asked me whether it’s better to offer a free trial or a $1 limited time trial as an incentive to sign up for a paid newsletter subscription.

The answer involves the vital role of tracking and testing throughout your entire sales funnel.

Generally speaking, a free trial is likely to convert more visitors initially, but the $1 trial may be the better choice over the long term. Such generalizations have little place in business. The only way to determine the right answer for your business is to track and test the process from beginning to end.

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The other day I was asked, “How do I motivate a potential joint venture partner to bite? When you have a great idea and you’ve located the perfect partner, how do you motivate them to do business with you?”

In my last post, I talked about the power of a USP and how to define one. Being unique, or having an interesting twist or hook, will definitely up your chances of getting noticed.

But regardless of how you approach your prospective partner, whether it’s through an email, fax, or phone call, or by snail mail or FedEx, it is important to craft the offer in a manner that shows the benefits to your joint-venture partner.

However, there are a few extra tricks to motivate a potential partner.

Here are some of them…

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Scarcity is a tactic often used in copywriting to create a sense of urgency and convince the “on-the-fence” customer to make a purchase decision. Above all, the goal is to prevent prospects from procrastinating.

As online consumers become wise to these direct-response copywriting tactics, one question often arises:

“What about digital products and electronic downloads, like ebooks and software? How can you create a sense of urgency for something that, in itself, is limitless (or perceived as such)?”

Here’s how to use scarcity selling effectively with digital products:

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