A few questions regarding Clickbank Affiliates

[Spyder77]

These are in regards to a recently launched micro-niche site that's been developed toward marketing a single Clickbank affiliate product - additional revenue streams will be considered as the site matures. With that out of the way,

1. Affiliate Product Selection: it may seem ironic to ask this after reading the above, but that's only because there are several affiliate products to choose from, while the site is going to be aimed at promoting one of the choices in particular (though not in an "all eggs in one basket" sense by referencing it in every article), and that's what this is question is about.

Alexa Smith has written some good stuff on no opt-ins, no leaks on the affiliate sales page and the logic behind that. It resonates with me, but to clarify: is it an opt-in when the only link into the product is through e-mail info (no "buy now" option)? This is popular approach among many affiliates in this particular niche, and as they all offer residuals, my guess is they do this for the progressive up-sell. Anyone making use of affiliates who use this method and have any feedback on it from your experience?

2. Deciding how long to promote the affiliate product to evaluate whether to keep it or dump it: this is probably a tougher one to answer and vague is okay as I'm not expecting any kind of specifics on this one. Its also more for future reference to critique the performance of the affiliate product, and some things I take as a given here. That would include sufficient traffic from enough sources (SERPs, back links, syndicated articles, etc.) and some arbitrary period of trial time (i.e., I wouldn't dump a product in the first week just because it didn't sell that week). Yet there are metrics of some kind I'm assuming you guys are using to judge how its doing, and after eliminating other factors like leaks, navigation and aesthetics, product placement, etc. Adequate pre-sell is assumed too.

Basically (because this is not as concise as it could be), once you've ruled out any other site related factors, how long do you generally trial an affiliate for, and is there any rule of thumb factors you use in deciding whether to keep it or not?

Of course, it would be nice to nail it the first time out, and even better to promote multiple affiliates, however the latter is out for now because it doesn't fit with the design concept and marketing plan. I'm familiar, from a psychology background (which may seem an odd one for IM but it provides a lens that suits it well IMHO, though its not a necessary one) of the concept of "false choice" (the term itself escapes me) where the consumer is persuaded toward choosing one option or the other, each of which benefit the marketer, instead of the psyche's default "yes/no" mind map.

That's an ideal approach from my POV because I've seen some really good examples of it in action, and it exploits an element of how choice selection works that is common to everyone; but I'm not going with it this niche until/unless I figure out a way to implement it without it backfiring and leading to the no choice scenario (and no sale). I also have another site that's broader in scope and where I can play with that idea.

All of which is a really long-winded way of saying its very likely going to be a single affiliate niche (but monetized later through other revenue streams that don't detract from the focus of it), and therefore any general feedback on product selection and evaluation would be welcome.

You guys have a lot more experience here and any feedback would be really helpful.

-Spyder

[filippot51]

well im an affiliate as well and just started .I tell you this i was starting to promote a product ,then i read threads in this article and i saw that the people that were going to that website had to leave their email before enter the website,then they could visit the website etc etc.I went to the house of a friend and i clicked on my webpage and then the link to that website leaving my friend email address,well of course my friend didnt buy anything he got every day ONE email from tht website, with offers special offers and etc etc amd of course now you and of course the people that buy through the email that they send to them you dont get a cent of commission.There are other websites were you leave your email after you bought the product just filling out a form to become member for membership.Now about the numbers before you go to promote another products are still obscure to me.I asked myself too ...after how many hops you leabe that product and go to another product.I definately would avoid those products with the email in first page..this is what i know for now i believe that at the beginning is a LOT of trying,there is no a exct rule .what works for one is not working for another,for what i get.One makes money selling bad hotdogs and another makes no money selling excellent food.I think there are too many factors involved.Traffic on your page is one and then how you PRESELL the product,i surely dont believe to people that say..hey make 400 $ during the night.I have been working a lot reading doing things for a month and I didnt see one I say one dollar.

[Spyder77]

Originally Posted by filippot51

well im an affiliate as well and just started .I tell you this i was starting to promote a product ,then i read threads in this article and i saw that the people that were going to that website had to leave their email before enter the website,then they could visit the website etc etc.I went to the house of a friend and i clicked on my webpage and then the link to that website leaving my friend email address,well of course my friend didnt buy anything he got every day ONE email from tht website, with offers special offers and etc etc amd of course now you and of course the people that buy through the email that they send to them you dont get a cent of commission.There are other websites were you leave your email after you bought the product just filling out a form to become member for membership.Now about the numbers before you go to promote another products are still obscure to me.I asked myself too ...after how many hops you leabe that product and go to another product.I definately would avoid those products with the email in first page..this is what i know for now i believe that at the beginning is a LOT of trying,there is no a exct rule .what works for one is not working for another,for what i get.One makes money selling bad hotdogs and another makes no money selling excellent food.I think there are too many factors involved.Traffic on your page is one and then how you PRESELL the product,i surely dont believe to people that say..hey make 400 $ during the night.I have been working a lot reading doing things for a month and I didnt see one I say one dollar.

Thanks for the feedback. I'm steering the site toward a particular sub-niche of products, but fortunately there's a few and I decided against tying anything in my post that specifically references the affiliate product (like a buildup toward product Y, or Mr. X's system, etc) just in case it seems like it should be selling (lots of click throughs to its sales page) but isn't. Then I can at least cut my losses without having to rewrite anything (except maybe a single pre-sell post that links to it).

Better still would be the stuff that can avoided right off the bat with general rules of thumb on affiliate products. I don't have many of those yet (no experience there).

-Spyder

[Spyder77]

Originally Posted by cosmokid

A lot of Clickbank affiliates don't want to promote products which have an email optin ANYWHERE on the site.

I'm one of those affiliates. Not only do I want this particular site linking to a leak free sales page, but it was developed to be leak free itself from the ground up: no blogroll, no directory lists, etc. The only OBL are to unrelated sites to credit for theme and plug-ins. Note that this not to discount the value of blogroll links etc in affiliate marketing, just stating that they're not in-line with my marketing approach on this site. On my other site that's broader in scope, judicious use of those types of OBL I have no issues with.

This is considered a "leak" -- a point at which a potential buyer is suddenly going to be tempted to sign up for your email (usually in exchange for a freebie of some kind) and will mess with that affiliate being credited for the sale since the visitor is likely to register his email with you, you sen
d him the freebie, and if he's interested he might buy through a link in that email -- and not buy through the affiliate's cookied link at your site. The traditional "squeeze page" is notorious for this and most of us affiliates don't promote sites with squeeze pages unless 1) we really believe in the product and don't care too much about losing commissions or 2) if the commission on the product is HUGE - then we might be more willing to take a risk. At least, this is how I approach such sites.

Some good food for thought here. The potential commission on the products the site is narrowed down to choosing from is pretty big if Clickbank's $/avg figures are accurate: $300-$500 depending on product, as each offers residual income on top of the initial sales commission.

If you can create text on your site that just generally sells people on the NEED for a certain type or range of products then you can easily swap out recommendations to specific affiliate products you're promoting over time as you test conversions, etc. So instead of posting loads of reviews about X product or Y product, talk about what needs that range of products addresses, what problems does it fix, how common are those problems, what statistics state that 99.9% of Americans have this problem, etc. Lead them up to the sell instead of heavily promoting just one product if you want to leave your options open to promote a wider range of products over time.

Good advice and in-line with what I have in mind. As I'm not swayed by testimonials, and the sales page I'm linking to is likely going to have those anyway, I prefer the "you are here because... and this is what it can I can do you for about it" approach. The site itself is a progressive pre-sell based on the strategy of putting myself in the mind of the visitor, why they're there, what they need, and what will appeal to them.

From that POV it doesn't matter what its done for "thousands" of others, as its all about what it does for them personally. The only example I use is myself, as I write to try and create a dialogue/connection with the customer aimed at mutual identification and trust creation. This is also how I can promote one product only (so long as it sells), without gearing the site toward it: I'm the product, I'm free, I've solved you're need, and here is how (then the pointer to the unmentioned by name elsewhere product, which contains more specific info to it along with the link to its sales page).

I think the approach you're using is very similar to what I'm attempting to establish in my own niche, and its good to see a more experienced Warrior really drill it down like you have here as your reply has been really helpful.

Thank you!