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My final step in this mini-challenge of creating a rebrandable report is to make the report umm….. rebrandable.

This sounds complicated, and it can be a bit confusing the first time you do it. But it’s a pretty easy process and is worth any of the aggravation you may go through on your first attempts.

First, I’ll be using the Viral PDF Silver ebook rebranding software to do this. I recommend this over the classic version because the file to rebrand requires less steps for your readers. You don’t have to send a .zip file with the rebrander and the PDF; this requires your end user to unzip, open the brander, and drag in the PDF. Yes, that should be simple enough, but it’s amazing how many people still get frustrated with this. ViralPDF Silver makes 1 file (an .exe file) that your user downloads and runs. The PDF is already inside the file.

Although it’s more expensive than the classic, I think this feature makes Silver really worth it. Plus, with the Silver edition, your affiliate link back to ViralPDF is already embedded automatically in the brander, so you’re likely to see your investment come back to you in affiliate commissions – and then some.

I’ll share the steps below for making the report rebrandable, but this also shown step-by-step for customers of ViralPDF.

Prepare Your Rebrandable Links

To prepare your report for the rebranding process, you need to get your links ready. This involves inserting a special code into your link which designates the rebrandable element.

I’m using Microsoft Word for my report, and it’s a bit quirky when it comes to making active links. So the rebrandable part must come after the http://.

So for my text links, instead of inserting the link as http://TeleseminarFormula.com, for example, I need to link to http://-8-teleseminar-formula-url-8-

In the rebrander, the end user will see teleseminar-formula-url as what they need to rebrand.

I then use the same exact link wherever that particular destination will appear. Any variation of that, including capital letters, will result in an additional rebranding step for my end user.

Experience has shown the less steps to rebrand the more likely they’ll finish the process.

Setting Default Links

With Viral PDF there is another cool feature that you want to use: default links. If you go through the process above, but your end user does NOT rebrand one of the links, what happens? The reader of the actual report will have broken links that do not work. This doesn’t help you, your affiliate, or the reader.

So the default link feature lets you, as the original author of the report have a default link. If your affiliate does not rebrand all the links, the ones they don’t rebrand reverts back to yours. This helps you because you’ll see more affiliate commissions (plus your reputation in the eyes of the reader), and it helps your reader because they get to the website they’re clicking on.

To activate a default link, your code has an extra setting – namely a $ followed by the default link.

So my link goes from

• http://-8-teleseminar-formula-url-8-

to

• http://-8-teleseminar-formula-url$TeleseminarFormula.com-8-

Notice that there are no spaces in the URL here. If you want to rebrand the text in your document, you can have spaces. But in the URL, you can’t have any spaces between the -8- start and end codes.

Publish Your Rebrand-Ready PDF

Once you’ve formatted the new version of your report with these links, you publish it as a PDF again, like I showed you in Step 4. Use a different name for this one because you don’t want to overwrite your original PDF that you’ll be giving out yourself.

Plus, recognize that whatever you save this PDF as will be the default for the reader later on.

I like to save mine with the word gift in it.

Make Your Report Rebrandable

Once you have your PDF ready, open up ViralPDF Silver. Click Open, find your PDF, and verify that the rebrandable elements are coming in correctly. If you see the same thing in multiple formats, and you want to clean it up, you need to go back through the links, republish as a PDF again, and start over.

This is where the aggravations can set in – but again, you don’t want your affiliates getting confused.

Once your rebrandable elements come in cleanly, you’ll “Sign” the file, which creates the rebrander. I like to save that rebrander with the prefix “REBRANDTHIS” so it’s easy for them to find again later. That name does not automatically get passed on to the affiliate’s copy.

Now that you are finished rebranding your report, you simply need to upload the .exe file to the web, just like I showed you in step 4 for the regular version of your report.

Wherever you link to the report, you may want to include instructions for your affiliates on what they are to rebrand, and where they find their links.

Here’s an example of a rebranding instructions page that I made for the report I put together during this mini-challenge.

You’re all set!

I hope you have enjoyed this extended lesson on creating a rebrandable report, and that you take action on the steps. Rebranding is a great way to have your message sent out far and wide. The links that you allow your users to rebrand will help them, which gives them the incentive to pass it around. The links you do NOT allow to be changed continue to come back to you. So include at least 1 or 2 that you’ll always get the benefit of (such as a link back to your blog or your Twitter profile).

Bob Jenkins

p.s. Rebranding works really well with 2-tier affiliate programs and MLM, by the way. That dramatically increases your opportunity for revenue from your reports. If you’re in MLM, here’s one 2-tier affiliate program that you might want to include no matter what company you promote.

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