Without a great offer, you have nothing to sell.  So creating that offer will be one of your most important tasks as an internet marketer. 

The offer consists of three parts:

* The price,
* The bonuses
* The upsell

I've mentioned this before, but I want to repeat it once again. If you have not read Mark Joyner's bookThe Irresistible Offer: How to Sell Your Product or Service in 3 Seconds or Less, you really should. It describes exactly how to craft an offer that your readers will find, well, irrisitable.

Anyway, let's get talk about your offer.

The price

When setting your price, you need to keep a couple of things in mind.

First, price is determined by value. If you are selling a product that can help your customers make more money, then you should price accordingly. That's why you'll find so many $97 e-books in the Internet Marketing business. Because if they can really help you earn thousands of dollars, then $97 is a small price to pay for that kind of value.

Another aspect of value are the bonuses that you give your consumers. You know what I'm talking about. These are the freebies that you get in addition to whatever it is you are actually buying. By piling up the bonuses, and making sure that your bonuses have real value, you can justify a higher price.

In MBA school, you'll hear professors talk about "price signalling." That's a fancy word that means that consumers will think your product is higher quality if it has a higher price. They will just assume that more expensive means better.  I will prove it to you.

Imagine that you have the choice of two bike helmets. One costs $25. The other costs $45. Which helmet do you think will protect your head better? Of course, the $45 one.

In reality, maybe it will, maybe it won't. That's not the point.

The point is that you thought the more expensive one would be better. So higher price make consumers think of higher quality.

But an acceptable price is also determined by what's available in the market right now. You don't want to price your product way beyond anything that's already out there (unless you are providing something completely unique).

A good strategy is to shoot for the more expensive end of the scale, but not too much above your most expensive competitor.
Bonuses

Everyone loves a bargain. Everyone loves getting someting for nothing. And everyone loves bonuses.

I am talking about incentives you add to your offer to sweeten the deal and move your prospects from "thinking about it" to "gotta have it."

You see this kind of selling at car dealers all the time. You are negotiating over a new car, and the dealer will offer you all kinds of stuff, like a year of free oil changes, pinstripes on the car, a luggage rack, whatever. He'll keep throwing that stuff at you without raising the price of the car. Those are bonuses.

And you see this all the time in online sales letters, especially in the world of e-books.

Bonuses like free audio recordings, secret interviews with internet marketing experts, scripts, software, website templates, articles.

Why do webmasters do this? Simple.  Because it works. It works in an automobile showroom, and it works online.

As you put together your offer, gather up a series of bonuses that you can offer at no additional charge to your buyers. But there is one thing to keep in mind.

You bonuses have to be valuable. So valuable, in fact, that people would be willing to pay for them as products in themselves.

In fact, you will see a lot of internet marketers assign prices to their bonuses. $47...$57...$249.

In this way, they can claim to offer you a deal on thousands of dollars in e-books for just the cost of the one they were trying to sell you in the first place.

Seems a little cheesy, right? Maybe so. But your customers expect this. So you had better line up some bonuses now.

Backend Sales

You to earn more money without doing additional work, right? Well, having a backend selling plan is the way to do that. Here's how it works.

Jjust prior to, or just after, you've convinced someone to buy, you offer an even better option. This could be a cross-sell (in other words, if you've just sold a set of encyclopedias. Now offer the buyer a dictionary and thesaurus for a an additional $10). It could be an upsell (you offer a set of deluxe leather-bound encyclopedias), or additional services, like consulting or education to help them make the most out of your product, or you just point them to a page with affiliate links for related products.

The key is to do this right after the reader has made the decision to purchase. Because they now trust you, they are in a buying mood.

At the very least, you should be capturing your buyer's email address, so you can send additional offers later on.

Again, they are more likely to buy from you again in a short period after their initial purchase.

In fact, very savvy marketers will sometimes sell their products at a loss, because they know that they will make the real money on the upsell/cross sell.

The point is, when you are putting your offer for your first product together, you need to be thinking of what additional products you can sell afterward.

The backend is the key to big profits.

After all, you've done all the work to attract, convince and convert a prospective buyer. So push just a little bit harder to supercharge your revenue.