Okay, this article may not go down well with a few people, but it will prove helpful for many others. It’s time to truly take a look at yourself and ask – are you truly cut out for entrepreneurship? This is a serious question and if you can’t answer it, then find the answer first before you start.

Don’t Be Afraid To Start Small

Every successful entrepreneur I know started from humble beginnings. Well, here’s mine. I started out as a nobody. That’s right – a nobody. I had no market, no list, no skills, no business to speak of. Yet today I have a list of nearly 55,000 clients. Why is that? I believe it’s because one day I decided enough was enough. I was tired of drudging around and decided to do something with my life. I was tired of people telling me what to do at work and having my financial and time freedom dictated by others. So I quit my job, and started my own business.

In my heart, I knew I had what it takes to succeed. You see, I was enthusiastic about it. I actually enjoyed marketing online. That’s the key difference between those who succeed and those who don’t – enthusiasm. Enthusiasm can be tapped on for many things – optimism, energy, aggression, all of which can be used positively in business. On the other hand, take a look at what happens if you don’t have enthusiasm for entrepreneurship – fear, insecurity, indecisiveness, lack of confidence etc. All traits which are suicidal for starting a business.

You Need To Be Enthusiastic

So my advice is this – if you are not enthusiastic about your business or aggressive enough in your marketing, you are probably not going to succeed. That’s no shame. 99% of online businesses fail. But if you want to join the 1% that is successful, get enthusiastic about something.

[Ed. Note: Fabian Tan is one of the top 5 Internet Marketing experts in Asia and is the founder and CEO of Unbounded Systems Ltd., a powerhouse that has helped thousands of people worldwide increase their profits. He has been widely known as an action-oriented marketer with a passion for creating unique actionable content, and he has also created an astounding 8 successful products in less than a year. Let Fabian help you make $10,000 to $20,000 per month online with just 30 minutes a day! Click here to get started.]

There are many product launching ideas that can help increase your chances of making your product launch a raving success. This article will offer 5 proven product launch ideas that can help you jump start your launch and put you ahead of the pack. Some of the ideas you may have heard of before, others you may have not. Whatever the case, there are many variables involved with a launch, and you will want any advantage (legal and ethical) you can get.

Here are 5 ideas you can put into action for your launch:

Idea #1: Offer A High Commission Rate

Having a high commission rate is a must to attract joint venture partners to promote your product. Some of these super affiliate partners have massive lists of subscribers that you can tap into, but to entice them to promote your product, you need to offer a commission rate that will attract them. In the information products arena, 50% to 75% commissions is the norm. For physical products, they can be in the range of 4% to 20%. But bear in mind that information products are cheaper to produce, that’s why high commission rates can be given.

Idea #2: Use A Proven Payment Processor

Using a proven payment processor gives your customers confidence in ordering your product. If you use a processor like ClickBank as well to process your payments and track your affiliate sales, more affiliates will also promote your product as ClickBank has been proven to pay out on time.

Idea #3: Split-Test Your Sales Copy

To maximize your sales conversions for your launch, you need to split-test your sales copy. Split-testing at its most basic means testing two sale pages by inserting a code on to your webpage. Split-testing can be done through a service like Google Website Optimizer or Hypertracker.

Idea #4: Create Swipe Files

To make it easy for joint venture partners and affiliates to promote your product, it is a good idea to provide swipe files for them that they can use to promote your product. These can include email ad copy, banner ads, sample blog posts, pay-per-click ads etc. The easier you make it for partners to promote your product, the more likely they are to push your product hard for you.

Idea #5: Have A Joint Venture Launch Contest

Having a contest for your launch spices things up and makes your launch exciting for joint venture partners. It gives them two incentives for promoting your product – the prizes or cash prizes available, and the bragging rights for securing the top spots in the contest. Joint venture partners can win cash prizes or hot products from your contest and gain recognition in the process. This is another product launching idea you can implement to really tip the scales in your favor.

[Ed. Note: With the right tools, an online business can quickly become very profitable. Discover 7 sure-fire methods of making up to $20,000 per month online in just 30 minutes a day with Fabian Tan's Maximum Money Blueprints.]

(This is part of a 10 part series that will help your advertising campaigns immensely.
Previous entries can be found here.)

#2) Emphasize Benefits, Not Features

What are features? They are descriptions of what qualities a product possesses.

- The XYZ car delivers 55 miles per gallon in the city.

- Our ladder’s frame is made from a lightweight durable steel alloy.

- Our glue is protected by a patent.

- This database has a built-in data-mining system.

And what are benefits? They are what those features mean to your prospects.

- You’ll save money on gas and cut down on environmental pollutants when you use our energy saving high-performance hybrid car. Plus, you’ll feel the extra oomph when you’re passing cars, courtesy of the efficient electric motor, which they don’t have!

- Lightweight durable steel-alloy frame means you’ll be able to take it with you with ease, and use it in places most other ladders can’t go, while still supporting up to 800 pounds. No more backaches lugging around that heavy ladder. And it’ll last for 150 years, so you’ll never need to buy another ladder again!

- Patent-protected glue ensures you can use it on wood, plastic, metal, ceramic, glass, and tile…without messy cleanup and without ever having to re-glue it again—guaranteed!

- You can instantly see the “big picture” hidden in your data, and pull the most arcane statistics on demand. Watch your business do a “180” in no time flat, when you instantly know why it’s failing in the first place! It’s all done with our built-in data-mining system that’s so easy to use, my twelve year-old son used it successfully right out of the box.

I just made up those examples, but I think you understand my point.

By the way, did you notice in the list of features where I wrote “steel alloy?” But in the benefits I wrote “steel-alloy” (with a hyphen). Not sure off-hand which one is correct, but I know which one I’d use.

Here’s why: you are not writing to impress your English teacher or win any awards. The only award you’re after is your copy beating the control (control being the best-selling copy so far), so take some liberty in grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure. You want it to be read and acted upon, not read and admired!

But—back to benefits…

If you were selling an expensive watch, you wouldn’t tell your reader that the face is 2 inches in diameter and the band is made of leather.

You show him how the extra-large face will tell him the time at a glance. No sir! He won’t have to squint and look foolish to everyone around him trying to read this magnificent timepiece. And how about the way he’ll project success and charisma when he wears the beautiful gold watch with its handcrafted custom leather band? How his lover will find him irresistible when he’s all dressed up to go out, wearing the watch. Or how the watch’s status and beauty will attract the ladies.

Incidentally, did you notice how I brought up not squinting as a benefit? Does that sound like a silly benefit? Not if you are selling to affluent baby boomers suffering from degrading vision. They probably hate it when someone they’re trying to impress sees them squint in order to read something. It’s all part of their inner desire, which you need to discover. And which even they may not know about. That is, until you show them a better way.

The point is to address the benefits of the product, not its features. And when you do that, you’re focusing on your reader and his interests, his desires. The trick is to highlight those specific benefits (and word them correctly) that push your reader’s emotional hot buttons.

How do you do that? More to come in Part 3 of my report!