How important is Clickbank gravity?

[Jonathan Price]

It's pretty important as I still use it as a metric to decide what to promote on any given day, it's basically how many affiliates are promoting. And remember, the more competition the better. A few vendors artifically inflate their gravity to rank higher, but it's not a big problem.

[Alex Copeland]

2 schools of thought...

One set say that the higher the gravity the more people fighting for a piece of the pie so harder to get your cut.

The other set say that if the gravity is high it must be easy to sell and convert better...

My view?

Doesn't make a blind bit of difference, the only way to see if something will sell is..... to try and sell it

[Steven Wagenheim]

I saw that this was an old thread but because I had not responded to it
originally (guess I missed it the first time around) I am going to add my 2
cents in now.

For starters, I am appalled at some of the misinformation being spewed as
gospel in this thread. No wonder so many new people are having a hard time.

I have been studying Clickbank gravity since 2003. So what I am sharing
here comes from many years of battle weary experience. Take this advice
for what it's worth to you.

The truth about gravity is this...it is an almost totally unreliable indicator as
to how easy or hard it will be for an affiliate to make a sale.

Why?

Well, there are a number of reasons. I'll cover the main ones here.

For starters, gravity does NOT indicate how well a sales page converts.
It only shows how many affiliates have made at least ONE sale in a given
time period.

Joe Blow can have 5,000 hops and just ONE sale and that will STILL count
as one gravity point if within the time frame designated by Clickbank. I
think it's 90 days but don't quote me on that.

What does that tell you about ease of selling the product if the product
itself has a gravity of 300 and all 300 affiliates are converting at some
ridiculous figure like 0.005%?

That's one problem with gravity.

Another problem is that it can be artificially increased.

One of the most popular ways is through a process that I actually wrote
about in one of my books.

Here is it in an outline nutshell.

Step 1 - Product creator creates product
Step 2 - Project manager hires copywriter to write sales letter
Step 3 - Affiliate manager sends out email to list of 100,000 plus members

Step 3 is the key. What happens is, in the letter, essentially what is said is
this...

"Product XYZ is available. It pays 75%. Please promote it and feel free to
purchase a copy using your own affiliate link."

Most affiliates will do just that, especially if it's a MMO product. When they
do, each sale artificially inflates the gravity.

Then, when affiliates go to the marketplace looking for products to sell, they
see this 300 plus artificially inflated product and think it's a big seller. So
they jump on the bandwagon.

As time goes on and they find that the product doesn't sell nearly as well or
that easily, they drop out, but because usually one or two sales trickle
through for each affiliate (not enough to keep them promoting it) the gravity
doesn't drop too much.

But trust me. Track any huge product launch and watch the gravity start
to drop as time goes by. Eventually, the number of affiliates jumping on can't
make up for the number that leave...pretty similar to an MLM before it goes
bust.

Another problem with gravity is that it doesn't show good products that
actually convert well.

A product creator may not be into recruiting affiliates. Maybe he doesn't
want his link spammed all over the place, but he uses Clickbank because
he doesn't want to rely on an in house solution and PayPal. He wants to
know that he'll make his money and actually get his check from Clickbank
as long as his sales page is within guidelines.

His actual self promotion is quite good and because the sales copy is solid,
the product converts very well. But the gravity is low or even non existent
because he doesn't actively seek affiliates.

The only way you'll know if these products have a decent chance of
converting is if you read the sales page.

This is why so many diamonds in the rough go unnoticed.

Lower gravity products that actually have SOME gravity are probably the
most accurate indicators out there, though by no means is this fool proof.

Why?

Because a product can have a gravity of 30 either because there are truly
only 30 or so people promoting it and having success (maybe unless they're
still only selling ONE per period) or because there are 5,000 people promoting
it but because the sales page converts so poorly, only 30 people are making
any sales.

There is just no way to know for certain.

I have sold all sorts of Clickbank products and have tracked their gravities
throughout their lifespan and I can tell you for certain...there is little
correlation between a product's gravity and how many sales YOU will make
from promoting it.

This is 8 years of experience talking.

Take it for what it's worth to you.

[myob]

Originally Posted by Alexa Smith

Wow, really? And I thought I was the great enthusiast of high-converting, low-gravity products.

I'm just an enthusiast of high-converting products. Gravity is another matter.

[budhaya]

it is about to change. very soon a high refund rate will bring down the gravity score.

[megalinktraffic]

Gravity Can be indicative rather if you focus on the target group with the niche you can definitely make huge bucks using cb and even if it is below 50..
be the best
rueben

[kaper7]

Newly launch products will have a high gravity and in time decrease however the conversion may stay the same. That said, I look at other factors such as epc and the overall popularity of the product. If am satisfied with such factors, I buy it and give it a test drive to see if the product delivers. Only then do I promote the product. Exceptions are when I personally know the product creator very well.

[GeorgR.]

High gravity (150+) in a nutshell means everyone and their mama is promoting it.

Go look at the latest craze products especially in the "make money" niche, the products with gravity 200, 300 or more.

All those fake web sites and so called "review" sites want a piece of the cake.

I have one site in a micro niche, gravity is around 5 or so and it does pretty well. Gravity simply does not mean a lot...respective could actually mean i dont want to promote this product if it has high gravity.

[Hamida Harland]

Gravity means zilch to me. My best converting Clickbank products have nearly always been under 50. My current top 5 earners all have a gravity of under 10.

[djshaz]

i have dealeed with a niche marketing product which strictly states to select low gravity products to promote.....so i dont think it makes difference...

[kaper7]

Newly launch products will have a high gravity and in time decrease however the conversion may stay the same. That said, I look at other factors such as epc and the overall popularity of the product. If am satisfied with such factors, I buy it and give it a test drive to see if the product delivers. Only then do I promote the product. Exceptions are when I personally know the product creator very well.

[g36]

Originally Posted by bretski

But other very experienced marketers here have stated that they have promoted products with low gravity that convert like a mad. I'm confused! Who do I believe? What should I do?

You should split test yourself. Try to promote 2 products, one has high gravity and one has low gravity. Wait for a month and compare the result. Because for me, I got better sales from product with gravity more than 50. By the way, I have affiliate review website that promotes a lot of clickbank products, so I know the difference.