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So you’ve been to Clickbank and browsed around. You’ve seen the pitch or sales pages for a number of products. In this article we will take a little more in depth analysis of what goes into creating a powerful pitch page for a Clickbank sales page and give you some tips on how to create one yourself.

The first thing you notice is that every pitch page for a Clickbank product is one single page. There are no sites with links to other pages featuring other products by the publisher. The reason for this is simple. To understand that reason one must realize that there are two ways a visitor might make it to a Clickbank sales page. First, they may have done a search for a product on-line and found the site in the organic listings on YaHoo!, MSN, Google or some other search engine. Let’s call these people “fresh visitors.”

There are also visitors coming to Clickbank sales pages who clicked on a link from an affiliate for that product and that click resulted in them being taken to the Clickbank site. In such a case the visitor clicked on what is called a “hoplink” to the sales page. The affiliate created that hoplink which Clickbank will monitor and place a cookie on the visitor’s computer when they reach the pitch page. If the visitor ends up buying the product on that page, Clickbank will read the cookie and award the affiliate his or her commission for referring the customer to the sales page in question.

If a publisher were to sell more than one product from their Clickbank site, it would interfere with Clickbank’s tracking and make it nearly impossible for Clickbank to award commissions to affiliates properly. THis is why all Clickbank sales pages are only one page long and never promote more than one product.

Now, what about the content of the page? Most Clickbank pitch pages start with either an attention getting header graphic, or a big bold heading in 18 or 24 point text. Often Tahoma or Impact fonts are used, but sometimes something like Times or Times Roman are used. The headline needs to grab the reader’s attention. You only have a few seconds to pull the visitor in to want more information.

Some Clickbank publishers will tell exactly what their product is all about in the headline, others will create a sub-header to do that task–but however it’s done, the reader must become locked into the site within the first 10 seconds.

About one-third of the way through the pitch page most of the power seller’s pitch page will begin with a, “From The Desk Of…” message to the reader. The purpose of this is to establish a relationship with the reader. This part of the page is more personal–they try to make it sound as if they were right across the table talking to you. This is important, the seller must infer some degree of trust to the reader before they can ask for credit card information.

Virtually every Clickbank ebook seller will also have an opt-in form on their pitch page as well. Some use static, in-line forms–but most use a pop-up or “hover-over” type form. Collecting name and email info is a top priority because the publishers will work their lists aggressively to harvest more sales.

And one more key feature: The vast majority of power sellers will have some kind of exit-capture strategy for visitors clicking to leave their site without ordering. The two most common exit-capture systems are provided by IntelliChat and VirtualSmartAgent. You’ve see this used. You go to click to leave the site and a pop-up appears with a chat box and a virtual sales agent. The agent will offer you a $10 or $20 discount you order through them. These companies collect a commission on every sale they capture through this technology. Before you purchase any Clickbank product, I would recommend closing the pitch page to see if you are offered a discount rather than ordering directly. You can often save a few bucks.

My last ket point involves the testimonials. Here’s a little secret: A great number of testimonials on Clickbank pitch pages come from affiliates who are promoting the product on which their testimonial appears. I’m not suggesting this is wrong, but you should know that many of these are not testimonials from the average “Joe on the street.” There are a handful of affiliates who have their testimonials appear on dozens and dozens of Clickbank sales pages.

This is partially because they are affiliates for these products, and also because the big guys always include the URL for the web site of the person giving the testimonial. This is sort of a “pay-back” for the comment as some visitors will then click on the affiliate’s web site.

Mike McMillan is a former inner-city teacher who left teaching in 1989 to devote full time to writing over 40 nonfiction books and ebooks. He has been interviewed on over 80 radio stations and televisions programs including ABC World News on the topic of self publishing. Mike’s on-line self publishing course is offered through over 1,400 colleges and universities across the U.S.

His newest ebooks include Big Money Writing Little Books, and Cleaning Out The Vault: Secrets of the eBook Power Sellers Exposed.

Download Mike’s newest eBook, Creating An Affiliate Army To Promote Your eBook, for free at http://www.extreme-self-publishing.com

This time of year, many building managers and building service contractors have tax deal with the problem of icy sidewalks. To keep sidewalks safe, most building managers use an ice melting compound. There are dozens of ice melting products on the market today, so what’s the difference? The active ingredient used taxes ice melt is usually a combination of one or more of the following ingredients:

Sodium chloride (rock salt). This is the most commonly used product, yet it has limited effectiveness in extreme cold and does not melt ice below 20 degrees. Rock salt does not chemically attack concrete, but it is corrosive to rebar and steel. This product is corrosive and can damage lawns, trees and shrubs.

Calcium chloride. This liquid is converted into pellets by removing the water. It can quickly absorb moisture from the atmosphere so it can work at extremely low temperatures, down to -25 degrees. The cost is generally higher for an ice melt that contains calcium chloride. Calcium chloride can also damage nearby lawns and other vegetation.

Magnesium chloride. This is similar to calcium chloride. It is considered less corrosive, safer for use on concrete and less damaging to plants.

Potassium chloride and urea. These are chemicals commonly found in fertilizer, but that does not mean they are safe around vegetation. At high concentrates these chemicals are harmful to plants. Since urea does not contain chlorides it is less corrosive and safer to use on concrete containing rebar and around steel structures.

Ice melting products may also contain sand or clay additive to help with traction.

How the products work. All deicers basically work the same. Deicers work by attracting moisture to form a liquid brine to generate heat to melt the ice. The product must reach the pavement to become effective. Once on the pavement this “brine” can spread out on the ice and break its bond with the pavement. As the ice is loosened it can be more easily shoveled away.

The rate of melting depends on how fast the specific chemical reacts to the existing moisture. Ice melting products work best if applied before snow or ice accumulates. Spread the ice melt thinly over the surface. In very cold weather it may be helpful to add some water to the product to begin the melting process as it is the chemical solution of the product and water that actually does the work.

Determining product effectiveness. One of the first things to look at is the range of temperatures that a product will work in a reasonable time period, generally 15 to 20 minutes. Calcium chloride works in the coldest temperatures, and magnesium chloride and sodium also rank high in this category.

An ice melter must dissolve into a solution quickly to be effective. Since calcium chloride and magnesium chloride are liquids in their natural states they return to a liquid quickly. Then when these chemicals come in contact with water a reaction is caused that gives off heat to melt ice and snow. Overall, calcium and sodium chloride rank the highest in effectiveness based on speed.

No matter which ice melt you decide to use keep the following tips in mind:

*Don’t over apply the chemical; follow the instructions on the label.

*Don’t try to melt everything. Before applying ice melt, make sure any snow accumulation has been shoveled or brushed off.

*Wear gloves when applying ice melt. The chemicals in some products can irritate skin.

*Make sure the container is tightly sealed when storing the product. Ice melt products can absorb moisture from the air and harden.

*Don’t use ice melt on new concrete that has not fully cured.

*All products will have some impact on the environment. If you suspect plants have been damaged from runoff (look for stunted growth, portions of the plant dying back, browning of foliage), flush the area with plenty of water in the spring.

Steve Hanson is co-founding member of The Janitorial Store (TM), an online community for owners and managers of cleaning companies tax mistakes want to build a more profitable and successful cleaning business. Sign up for Trash Talk: Tip of the Week at http://www.TheJanitorialStore.com and receive a Free Gift!