Affiliate Information
for Acupuncturists

1. Diversify your income streams as a way to "recession proof" your practice.
2. Market your Acupuncture education, knowledge, and experience in other ways than just providing acupuncture treatments.
3. Earn money while you are on vacation, on Sabbatical, and entering retirement.

Anyone in business understands the importance of "recession proofing" their business. By diversifying your income streams, you are in effect assuring that events beyond your control (e.g. bad press on Chinese herbs, insurance companies unexpectedly reducing their reimbursement rates, a sudden illness preventing you from practicing, et cetera) do not cause you to go out of business.

So ask yourself this question: Do I want to increase my streams of revenue and earn passive income using my acupuncture knowledge, experience, and education? If the answer is "Yes", read on. However, if you are satisfied with what you are earning by providing acupuncture services and want to stay focused on that, then this information may not be for you.

Learning the simple steps to integrate affiliate marketing into your existing acupuncture website is just one way to maximize and diversify your earning potential. It has worked for me and may work for you. 

What is an "Affiliate" Anyway?

An Affiliate is a term used to describe someone who recommends and refers a customer to purchase a company's product thereby earning a commission as the "referrer".

It is no different from rewarding patients who refer their friends to schedule with you by giving them some sort of "Referral Bonus", such as their next treatment at half-price or a coupon for a product.

This is a common marketing method acupuncturists use to say "Thank You" to patients who are out there promoting their acupuncture practice. Additionally, it encourages them to continue doing so.

Of course Referral Bonuses only work if your patients really think you are fantastic! Your patients do not want their friends to be disappointed or come back to them saying, that was awful!

You must instead, earn each new patient and be so impressive that they gladly continue the referral cycle. Everything begins and ends with the quality of your acupuncture practice.

When patients love you so much that they are eager to tell their friends and family about you, this is what is called a WIN-WIN because:

1. You are motivated to provide quality services so your patients (continue to) refer their family & friends.
2. Your patients benefit from the "Referral Bonus" they receive as a result of referring their family & friends.

I have seen many acupuncturists' websites, blogs, and newsletters and I cringe when I see that they are missing out entirely on passive income.

Some people do so intentionally because they believe they should not "benefit" financially from other's work. Or they feel like a financial reward is a conflict of interest and "muddies" their message. I understand that, but if you are doing this with integrity (and I know you are) then you have nothing to worry about. 

Note: If you do have difficulty with earning money, please read Kevin Doherty's ebook, "How to Build Your Dream Practice" now!

Other acupuncturists I talk with want the financial reward provided by affiliate commissions, but are intimidated by the process of setting up affiliate links.

For those of you who want to earn passive income but just don't know how to set things up, I want to show you the following simple steps to get you started. 

Affiliate Information For Acupuncturists

Use the power of your voice and experience to refer to the products and resources that you use and value.

It does not cost anything, except a little time in learning how to set it up.

In order to show you how to earn passive income through affiliate commissions, I am going to provide an actual example I am using on my website right now. If you follow these steps you can start earning affiliate income today. It is that easy.

Here is a step by step process for learning how to earn an Affiliate commission through your website simply by recommending a great ebook by Kevin Doherty, LAc, called "Build Your Dream Practice".

It is a book I purchased and LOVED. I personally contacted Kevin and asked if I could actively promote his ebook, and in the process use the picture of his book on my website. (You can see his book here.) He immediately said yes.

Here is the "WIN-WIN-WIN":

• WIN #1: Kevin benefits by getting a reference from me, an acupuncturist who sees value in his book and who has a website designed to target a segment of his specific market. I provide free advertising for Kevin.
• WIN #2: I benefit because I make my website more valuable to my visitors (that is, YOU) by giving you a good quality resource to help you build your acupuncture practice. By sharing my review of Kevin's ebook I am "advertising" it for him and when my visitors click on my "Affiliate Link" to go to his webpage to purchase the ebook, I am electronically given credit for the referral and given a commission.
• WIN #3: Visitors to my website (i.e YOU) win because you have found valuable information from a trusted and reliable source. You will bookmark my website, Sign Up for my Acu Insighter Alerts, select my RSS Feeds, and check back with my website often because you know you can rely on my valuable information.

How to Become an "Affiliate"

If you have your own website, e-newsletter, or email list and want to promote Kevin's book (or any other ebook) all you do is become an Affiliate (for Free) of the company that provides download access to the ebook.

In this case, the company is ClickBank. ClickBank is similar to a PayPal account except in addition to accepting payment from customers, ClickBank specializes in tools to let you sell your "Digital Media" such as ebooks, ezines, and online e-courses.

ClickBank has a solid reputation as both a Publisher and as an Affiliate.

Just so you know, a "Publisher" is someone who is selling their products (in this case, Kevin is the Publisher). When YOU write YOUR ebook (hint-hint!) and want a way for people to purchase it securely off your website, you too can use ClickBank by joining as a Publisher for a one-time set-up fee. The incredible benefit of using ClickBank is that there are thousands of other Affiliates who can promote and sell YOUR ebook on their sites all over the world. (Another WIN-WIN.)

Right now, however, these are the steps you need to take to sign up with ClickBank for Free as an Affiliate.

I will use Kevin's ebook, "Build Your Dream Practice" as an example, but you can promote any of the products listed in their "Marketplace".

1. Join ClickBank for FREE. Click Here.

2. At the bottom of the page, Click on SIGN UP.

3. Fill in ALL the information on the ClickBank Signup Form

4. The last line of the ClickBank Signup Form says, Select a Nickname for Your New Account. This is an important step. This is your unique word that indicates you are the affiliate referring people to purchase Kevin's ebook. This is how you get credit and earn a "passive income". (In the case of Kevin's ebook you will earn about $15 per sale. Not bad just for telling people about a good book!)

Your "nickname" will appear in all your ClickBank links. It can be an easy to remember word and/or numbers. Many common words are already taken so it might take a while before there is a unique one available. That's it! Click Submit.

5. Now you have to get a special code in fancy computer lingo (called HTML) so that you can link your nickname and website to Kevin's ebook. This is call a "hoplink" and ClickBank generates it for you so all you have to do is copy and paste it into your website or blog. To start doing this the next step is to click on Marketplace.

6. Go to Search the ClickBank Marketplaceand type into the "Keywords" space Kevin's ebook title in quotes just as it is shown here, "How To Build An Alternative Healthcare Practice".

7. His book comes up as How To Build An Alternative Healthcare Practiceand underneath the description is a link that says, create hoplink. Click on it! 

8. In the Affiliate Program: Promote Products box there is a place for you to fill in your ClickBank NickName. This is the unique word you selected in Step 4 above. Fill it in (skip the Tracking ID) and hit Submit.

9. You will see two links in Blue. These are the links that have your Affiliate Nickname and Kevin's Publisher code (which is shown as "SHERAB"). So it should look something like this: 

10. : )

11. ClickBank sends checks twice per month once you have earned $100 in commissions. (You can decrease that threshold amount if you want a check sooner by going into your account.) How easy is that!

Once this is set up, traffic that you send from your website to purchase Kevin's ebook results in a $15 commission for you. Day or night, 24-hours a day your website or blog is broadcasting this link and earning you Passive Income! 

My Results With Affiliate Marketing

I am not trying to show you my numbers to brag. In fact, anyone who knows anything about affiliate marketing will tell you that my numbers are pathetic! My earnings could be much higher, but I have been on a slow learning curve. I hope I can save you time and increase your earning potential right away.

As you can see, I "sell" an ebook or two every few days. It doesn't seem like much, but it adds up. Plus, remember this is automated so I can earn money while I sleep! 

I have had people from all over the United States and Canada purchase ebooks through my affiliate links. If I limited my marketing to only those people in my local area, I could never generate this kind of revenue. 

My projected earnings for 2008 are much better than 2007. 

I am barely 5 months into 2008 and I have already surpassed all of last years earnings. This is a great "return on investment" in the sense that once I put in a little time to learn how to set things up, the income generation is on autopilot.

Once you get the hang of this you can look for other products and services that you use. Read the terms of joining as an Affiliate because not all programs are created equally. The companies provide the computer coded (HTML) links once you are an approved Affiliate. Of course, the key is to only recommend companies, services, and products that you use or have researched and find to be good quality.

Examples of products I use in my acupuncture practice and recommend to other acupuncturists include:

• VistaPrint for Acupuncture Business Cards, Brochures, Business Address Labels and other Printed Marketing Materials
• Quickbooks which allows my customers to Get up to 20 % Off QuickBooks Accounting Software Products + Free Shipping 
• Solo Build It for Acupuncture Business Website Tools and Resources

You get the idea. All of these have my Affiliate code embedded in the links. I can earn a Passive Income just by providing information and resources for products and services that I am using and value. More importantly, I can focus on providing good quality content to the people who visit my website and are looking for reliable information.

It really is a WIN-WIN-WIN!

If any part of this process is unclear, or you have any questions or comments, feel free to Ask For Help. I am happy to offer a few minutes of my time and experience to help you succeed.

One last note, your acupuncture website is targeting patients who are obviously not going to be interested in Kevin's ebook on "How to Build a Dream Practice". 

All you have to do is add a button on your navigation bar that says "For Acupuncturists" (or "Professional Resources" or something along those lines) and have an entire page of resources you have utilized to help you succeed. When you talk to struggling acupuncturists, hand them your business card and tell them to go to your website and click on "Professional Resources".

These can include books with an Amazon affiliate link, your office management or bookkeeping software, or anything else you have utilized. Look around you and you will be amazed at the hidden income you can start bringing in.

Best of all, this is a great way to "pay it forward" and get paid at the same time! 

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