why would affiliates promote my product instead of promoting the #1 product on CB?

34 replies
I am in process of learning about affiliate programs and building a team of affiliates but i m trying to understand and think why would affiliates want to promote my product , when they can go and promote one of the top 10 products on click banks?

some of these products clam 20-30% conversion, vs my site which is 1-2% max conversion.
#affiliates #product #promote #promoting
  • Profile picture of the author Suzanne Morrison
    It's hard to say without knowing what the products are, but you could contact some people and offer to do a JV, where you promote their product to your list (as an affiliate) and in return they promote your product.

    Also, there may be other reasons why people would promote your product e.g. higher commission, recurring commission or because it fits in better with their niche.

    Cheers,
    Suzanne
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    • Profile picture of the author butters
      If your product tackles the same problem as the no.1 in CB then yeah, your screwed but if yours is at a different problem but in the same niche, then you will find an affiliate who wants to promote it because it fits better for the,.
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  • Profile picture of the author GarryMSayer
    As an affiliate myself the first thing I look for in an InfoProduct is the sales page.

    Does it make me want to buy the product?

    If the answer is yes then I'll likely consider promoting it.

    Garry.
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
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    • Profile picture of the author SeanfromVanCity
      Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

      "Top" isn't really defined on Clickbank.

      There isn't a way of knowing what the top selling products are, because the numbers of sales are not disclosed.

      Many people make the mistake of thinking of "highest gravity products" or "most popular" products as the "top" products, because they forget that there's no real correlation at all between gravity and sales numbers and that the formula for working out the "popularity" scores is not defined anywhere.

      Speaking for myself, I wouldn't want to promote a "top" product because of the competition. Who wants to be up against professional associates with enormous Adwords budgets and all the keywords sewn up, in the most competitive niches?



      The highest conversion-rate claim I've ever seen, myself, is 5% and I didn't believe it and neither does anyone else I know, so I have no idea where 20-30% comes from, but it's not worth taking seriously, anyway.

      A conversion-rate between 1% and 2% is very acceptable: don't worry about it, and good luck!

      (Personally, I would actually not promote your product because of the opt-in on the sales page, and as you can see in many discussions in many threads here, many professional affiliates share that attitude, but there are also some affiliates who don't, and it's another matter altogether, anyway!)
      Hey alexa, i thought if its on page opt-in its ok, i was just reading about how some people dont like promoting squeeze pages, but i thought opt in On a sale page is fine. thanks for letting me know
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      • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
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        • Profile picture of the author Flierboy
          Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

          Clickbank allows vendors to contact such potential customers by email and give them links to their own hoplinks - which overwrite the affiliate's cookie because the most recent cookie gets the sale - after the affiliate has found them, this is the problem).
          Alexa,

          There is a way around this that works for me. I sign up for the optin on the sales page myself, and see what kind of links are being promoted in the emails. If the vendor is sending out emails with embedded links which will over-ride my cookies, then of course I won't promote that product. Otherwise I am good to go.

          I have found that most professional vendors (with good sales funnel, professionally done & well converting sales page, good product etc.), don't do funny stuff like over-riding your cookies in their email links. They have more than just their reputation to loose!

          In fact I often embed their entire email capture form directly on my site, so that a visitor to my site is directly opted in to the vendor's autoresponder series. Why? Because I find that vendor's emails are more compelling and help convert the opted in prospects better than I ever could.

          So yeah, 'leaky sales pages' aren't always the bad deals they seem to be.

          Cheers and Happy Holidays everyone

          -Ritesh
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        • Profile picture of the author garyv
          Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

          No prob - and good luck! (Some affiliates won't promote anything with a "leaky" sales page, the term "leaky" referring to any way that the vendor can get into direct email contact with the affiliate's potential customers. Clickbank allows vendors to contact such potential customers by email and give them links to their own hoplinks - which overwrite the affiliate's cookie because the most recent cookie gets the sale - after the affiliate has found them, this is the problem).
          Usually "leaky" means anything that leads the customer away from a sale. In my case, I have opt-ins on some of my products, and those products have some of the highest paid clickbank affiliates promoting it. I've done testing and have found that the conversion rate is almost twice as high on those products when I put an opt-in on it. Which means that my affiliates make twice as much money as they would have if I had left that opt-in off of the page. So to ignore a merchant just because he/she has an opt-in on the sales page is just plain ignorant. You should at least test it out. And to say that most "professional" affiliates would ignore an opt-in product is just flat out wrong as well. Believe me, I have affiliates that are tearing it up right now, and that's especially on those products that have an opt-in.
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      • Profile picture of the author Black Hat Cat
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        Originally Posted by SeanfromVanCity View Post

        Hey alexa, i thought if its on page opt-in its ok, i was just reading about how some people dont like promoting squeeze pages, but i thought opt in On a sale page is fine. thanks for letting me know
        Most professional affiliates don't mind opt in. Pretend professionals are the ones who have an issue with it. You think affiliate marketers hesitate to promote Frank Kern's products because he uses a squeeze page? If you're not ripping people off by overwriting their cookies, no affiliate marketer worth their salt will have an issue with you using a squeeze page.

        i m trying to understand and think why would affiliates want to promote my product , when they can go and promote one of the top 10 products on click banks?
        Why can't they do both? That's what a professional affiliate marketer would do. 90% of the people they send to that top seller won't buy for one reason or another. They might buy yours though.
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    • Profile picture of the author Emily Meeks
      Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

      Many people make the mistake of thinking of "highest gravity products" or "most popular" products as the "top" products, because they forget that there's no real correlation at all between gravity and sales numbers and that the formula for working out the "popularity" scores is not defined anywhere.

      Speaking for myself, I wouldn't want to promote a "top" product because of the competition. Who wants to be up against professional associates with enormous Adwords budgets and all the keywords sewn up, in the most competitive niches?
      Exactly. That's why I wouldn't want to promote the "top" product, the promotions would be white-noise. The trick is finding a product that looks decent and is well-converting, but NOT #1 (and occasionally, while surfing I'll come across a really ridiculous "product" - ridiculous as in, "OMFGWTFBBQ WHY would anyone put their name on this let alone get other people to promote it" - and post for laughs...)
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  • Profile picture of the author cashcow
    If you have a better sales page, better affiliate tools and a better product or any combination thereof, I think that might be a reason why affiliates would promote you instead.

    A better payout wouldn't hurt either I suppose.

    Lee
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  • Profile picture of the author John Atkins
    Originally Posted by SeanfromVanCity View Post

    I am in process of learning about affiliate programs and building a team of affiliates but i m trying to understand and think why would affiliates want to promote my product , when they can go and promote one of the top 10 products on click banks?

    some of these products clam 20-30% conversion, vs my site which is 1-2% max conversion.
    They claim that they have massive conversion rates, but that doesn't
    mean that it's true. I've promoted 100s of clickbank products and I've
    never found one that has a conversion rate higher than 10%, let alone
    20%.. lol


    Ho to get affiliates?

    It's very easy... Don't wait fo them to join...
    contact them directly. Contact bloggers, article marketers,
    PPC marketers, heavy forum posters (for their sig) etc...
    and show them the benefits of promoting your product.

    If you contact plenty, some of them will most likely start
    promoting it

    PS: Don't forget to provide killer promo tools for them
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    • Profile picture of the author Dan C. Rinnert
      Another thing to consider is this...

      Let's say that 9 out of 10 people purchase the "top" product on Clickbank. That means 1 out of 10 people buy something else.

      If it seems like everyone and their brother is promoting that top product, that means there is a lot of competition for that product.

      On the other hand, I might be able to carve out a comfortable niche for myself by promoting that product that only 1 out of 10 people buy. Less competition can be good for me as an affiliate.

      Not everyone buys the "top" product. And, the top selling product may not be the best product either. So, there's plenty of room for competition.
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  • Profile picture of the author timpears
    Probably one of the main reasons is because of the 20% conversions, to start with. If they will lie to you about this, they will lie about other things too. And that is not a way to conduct any business relationship.

    There may be a product that can convert at such a rate, but I don't know of any, and I doubt that a publisher would need to put it on Clickbank to get affiliates selling it if they did have a conversion that high.
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    Tim Pears

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  • Profile picture of the author Glassjaw009
    Sean,

    This is a valid question. The thing about Clickbank is, that even though a product may have an extremely high gravity, not every single person will promote that item. I don't promote items that have extremely high gravity, because doing so is like going for a super competitive keyword when ranking. You've got a lot of competition with high gravity items.

    Hope this helps.

    Thomas
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    • Profile picture of the author Hesaidblissfully
      Also, a product's popularity doesn't neccessarily equate to it's quality. Some affiliates would rather promote a product that they actually feel good about recommending to other people, rather than promoting something that they feel doesn't deliver on it's promise, even if the latter converts well.
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  • Profile picture of the author KristiDaniels
    Do a split test between your sales page and the sales page for the #1 product.

    If you end up with fewer sales, then fix your sales page.

    If you end up with more sales, publish the case study on your affiliate information page with the exact numerical results of your split test and how you performd it.

    Conversion rate is the #1 most important factor for affiliates. Show them that they will make more money promoting your product and they will switch from the #1 to yours.

    The only reason they are promoting the #1 product to begin with is because Clickbank doesn't publish overall EPC numbers like CJ. So affiliates are forced to use their "gravity" or "popularity" numbers which don't necessarily have much to do with conversion ratio... but they are the best numbers available.

    Give them better numbers and they will convert to your religion.
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  • Profile picture of the author KristiDaniels
    timpears,

    Amazon.com routinely converts at 20% or higher.

    ProFlowers.com routinely converts at 30%.

    Those are "visitor to sale" conversion ratio.

    Now you know of two places that routinely convert higher than 20%.

    A high conversion rate doesn't mean someone is a liar. It means they are a damn good marketer. Learn from them instead of calling them names.
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  • Profile picture of the author GeorgR.
    Originally Posted by SeanfromVanCity View Post

    I am in process of learning about affiliate programs and building a team of affiliates but i m trying to understand and think why would affiliates want to promote my product , when they can go and promote one of the top 10 products on click banks?

    some of these products clam 20-30% conversion, vs my site which is 1-2% max conversion.
    20% - 30% conversion my ***, a sure sign that the vendor isnt telling the truth.

    There is more to CB products than their gravity. One factor (for me) is whether they have pop-ups on the page..how attractive the sales page is..and VERY important how well they support their affiliates with affiliate material.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dennis Gaskill
    There are lots of reason someone may choose your product:

    1) Offer higher commissions - obviously if your competitors products are offering 75% you can't offer a higher commission, but you can match it.

    2) Offer incentives - in addition to the commission, you can offer various incentives for reaching different levels. Example: 10 referral sales gets them a free copy of your product. 25 referral sales they get something else, 50 sales, 100 sales, etc.

    3) Offer better marketing tools - instead of the usual banner and text links, provide a whole range of promotional items: solo emails, an autoresponder tutorial series (those promoting you could build their own list while promoting your product), brandable ebook mini-courses for them to give out that promote your main product, reviews for them to customize, content they can use that has in-context links, etc. You're only limited by your imagination.

    4) Offer a bonus for significant achievement - a $100 bonus for 50 sales, a $250 bonus for referring 100 sales, for example.

    5) Offer a vesting option - after referring 100 sales they get resale rights, for example.

    Most affiliate owners do very little to help their affiliate make sales. Make your affiliate program one of the few exceptional ones and you'll get affiliates.
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  • Profile picture of the author TheRichJerksNet
    Unlike what some think, not everyone likes clickbank.. Matter fact I know many that do not like clickbank and would not sell anything from clickbank.

    I would not worry about trying to compete with clickbank when having your own affiliates and your own affiliate system.

    James
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    • Profile picture of the author mariochase
      I would say.. that people will sell your product if they see that your Sales Letter is converting well.

      I have heard of big affiliates that have softwates that warn them.. when a product is getting popular on Clickbank. So they don't only promote products that are in the first page.

      As other people have said in this topic. If there is a lot of sales and it is in the first page, there is a lot of competition to promote this product.

      If you can find a product that sells well. It's like finding a cheap stock that is going to grow fast. You can make a lot of cash.

      Let's hope that your product is good.. and it call attention from the big affiliates.

      One of the things you can do... is to invest in a good page and in a good product.
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  • Profile picture of the author TimAtkinson
    In my opinion it's all about finding the right keywords that have traffic but not too much to determine if you should promote the product(of course sales page etc you have to consider). A product where I can dominate a long tailed keyword(with decent payout) and love the copy and product, I don't care what network or what page it is on..You dig

    It's a science to win with CPA--follow the formula and you almost win every time
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  • Profile picture of the author LB
    Originally Posted by SeanfromVanCity View Post

    I am in process of learning about affiliate programs and building a team of affiliates but i m trying to understand and think why would affiliates want to promote my product , when they can go and promote one of the top 10 products on click banks?

    some of these products clam 20-30% conversion, vs my site which is 1-2% max conversion.
    Sean, most warriors who have a weight loss product lack "before and after" examples....you have them which is great visual proof.

    Lose the graphical header (depresses response in almost all of my tests) and put some REAL before and afters in its place or right below the headline. I'm confident that will increase response. Get that proof above the fold.
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  • Profile picture of the author Troy_Phillips
    Some very serious affiliate marketers will not promote anything but a private affiliate program.

    Click Bank has it's purposes I guess but the only affiliate marketing i do now is through closed , private programs .
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    • Profile picture of the author jbsmith
      As someone who has several products on Clickbank and promotes other affiliate products as well - the fact is that when you first start out with your product you need to build your affiliate network by approaching jv partners/affiliates until you get some activity built up which will improve your "gravity" on Clickbank.

      Having the top gravity is not really necessary, but having a gravity of 20 or higher will get you much more affiliate activity in the Clickbank marketplace.

      Jeff
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  • Profile picture of the author Glassjaw009
    Here's the bottom line. Some people promote the highest gravity products because they know they have sold and do sell. Some people promote the lowest gravity products because they figure they have no competition. Some people go in the middle to try and find a "low hanging fruit" product to promote.

    The bottom line is not gravity, popularity, conversion rates or this and that. If the affiliate visits your site, it looks nice, you've got excellent sales copy and good customer service, odds are they'll give it a shot. With different people shooting for different gravity levels, you can't control that.

    The one thing you can control is making your site attractive to affiliate and to customers. If you do this, I guarantee you you'll attract affiliates.

    Hope this helps.
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    • Profile picture of the author jbsmith
      Yes but...as someone who has promoted dozens of CB products into 4 different niche markets I can tell you that you are safer sticking to products with decent gravity (more than 20) than picking products with little or no gravity.

      You can do all the work in pre-selling and then send them to a totally crappy site that loses them in the end - you don't want that happening.

      At the same time, I have had products with gravity in the 300 range that have sold very poorly for me, so I agree that high gravity does not guarantee sales - but some gravity is a good sign.

      Jeff
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  • Profile picture of the author JayPeete
    The best thing in my opinion for you is to do a JV. Now this method is a little bit costly but it works. Purchase a Directory of Ezines (DOE) membership and find a non-competing complementary product (use the JV "yes" in the advanced search parameters).

    Then view their ezines to determine and verify a good fit. When you find one, contact them and offer an even better deal to both the ezine owner and their subscribers. Let the ezine owner's relationship with their subscribers do the selling for you. Give the ezine owner an advanced copy so that they can pre-sell it. Their interested subscribers will just scroll to the payment button and purchase your product.

    Give it a shot, I know it works. I did a similar thing using the DOE a year ago and now I am the affiliate manager for a person that has many successful ClickBank products.

    I know that you were asking about how to get more affiliates to promote your product but get a few ezine owners onboard and these heavy hitters can really generate massive sales. I say you go for quality over quantity. After all, more sales and happy customers brought from just a few big affiliates will cause the smaller affiliates to take notice and promote for you as well.

    I hope this information helps.

    Good luck!

    Jay
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  • Profile picture of the author Tyler Pratt
    I usually find that If I have a different angle on a given problem then more affiliates will promote the produtcts.

    What makes your website unique from teh #1 site?
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