Looking for Clickbank advice

[ShayRockhold]

Hey!

I am looking for info about getting more Clickbank sales.

If you know of any articles, blog posts, WSOs etc. - please PM me a link or post a link in this thread.

OR - feel free to share any priceless pearls of wisdom you may have.

Thank you!

[Hamida Harland]

How do you want to go about getting Clickbank sales? Article marketing, content sites, Adwords, blogging, list building etc? There are lots of different ways, so if you could be more specific with what you want I'm sure you'll get lots of suggestions.

[Steven Wagenheim]

Shay, the process that works for me is simple and I don't know why more
people don't do it. It won't cost you a DIME to implement this.

1. Find a Clickbank product that you're interested in promoting.

2. Write to the owner and ask for a review copy. Tell him you're seriously
considering promoting it but won't do so until you are sure of its quality.

3. Write a review of the product and put it on a blog. A Blogger blog is fine
for this. Make sure you have your affiliate link at the end of the review.

4. Write just one article a day on the subject matter relating to the topic and
submit it to EZA. Make sure the resource box has a strong call to action to
read the review of the product at your blog.

I sell a boat load of stuff doing this. It's the easiest affiliate money I've
ever made. It's 15 minutes work a day for each affiliate product that I
promote.

Now, you could get more advanced by doing videos, social bookmarking
and giving away bonuses, but this will get you started.

[ShayRockhold]

Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim

Shay, the process that works for me is simple and I don't know why more
people don't do it. It won't cost you a DIME to implement this.

1. Find a Clickbank product that you're interested in promoting.

2. Write to the owner and ask for a review copy. Tell him you're seriously
considering promoting it but won't do so until you are sure of its quality.

3. Write a review of the product and put it on a blog. A Blogger blog is fine
for this. Make sure you have your affiliate link at the end of the review.

4. Write just one article a day on the subject matter relating to the topic and
submit it to EZA. Make sure the resource box has a strong call to action to
read the review of the product at your blog.

I sell a boat load of stuff doing this. It's the easiest affiliate money I've
ever made. It's 15 minutes work a day for each affiliate product that I
promote.

Now, you could get more advanced by doing videos, social bookmarking
and giving away bonuses, but this will get you started.

THANK YOU!!! This is perfect!

[ShayRockhold]

Originally Posted by Hamida Pall

How do you want to go about getting Clickbank sales? Article marketing, content sites, Adwords, blogging, list building etc? There are lots of different ways, so if you could be more specific with what you want I'm sure you'll get lots of suggestions.

I was wondering how other people are promoting Clickbank items - any method that is working for them.

[jbshort]

You might be interested in reading my post on The Secret to Affiliating with Profitable Clickbank Products.

[ShayRockhold]

Originally Posted by jbshort

You might be interested in reading my post on The Secret to Affiliating with Profitable Clickbank Products.

Thank you!

[ShayRockhold]

Steven -

How do you choose a CB product? Is it just a matter of reading the copy and thinking it sounds great or is it more analytical - gravity numbers and such?

[jem]

Hey

Article marketing is working for me - consistency is key! Some products perform better with a link to a review page whereas others perform better with a redirect straight to the merchant - you've got to test to know what works best for the product you're promoting.

At first I started just trying to get out as many articles as possible but not many sales resulted from that approach.

Once I started concentrating on good titles and bio boxes, sales improved. My writing is also getting better now that I think about what sort of questions I'd ask if I was interested in the topic that the product is designed for.

It really does pay to get into the minds of your customer!

Good luck

[Steven Wagenheim]

Originally Posted by Shay60654

Steven -

How do you choose a CB product? Is it just a matter of reading the copy and thinking it sounds great or is it more analytical - gravity numbers and such?

Shay, that's another can of worms and unfortunately, to explain it completely
here would take even me quite some time. It's a combination of many factors
including:

1. Market
2. Price
3. Commission Rate
4. Gravity
5. Product Itself

It's a lot of stuff. This is one of the biggest mistakes that affiliates make
when picking products. They don't spend nearly enough time on the
selection process. That's why so many affiliates fail because they end up
promoting products that they have no business promoting.

This one area alone can take up an ebook and there is just no way I
can do it justice in a forum post.

[timpears]

Steven responded with the article thing,

Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim

Make sure the resource box has a strong call to action to
read the review of the product at your blog.

which I have seen before. And I always wonder what that should be like. I just uploaded a few articles to EZA that I outsourced and I had to figure out what to say in my resource box. I probably wasted my time as the best I could think of was stuff like “for more information please visit www.whatever.com.” I wouldn’t consider that strong by any means, but if I could write compelling stuff I wouldn’t have had to pay to outsource them in the first place.

Any feedback?

[Steven Wagenheim]

Originally Posted by timpears

Steven responded with the article thing,



which I have seen before. And I always wonder what that should be like. I just uploaded a few articles to EZA that I outsourced and I had to figure out what to say in my resource box. I probably wasted my time as the best I could think of was stuff like “for more information please visit www.whatever.com.” I wouldn’t consider that strong by any means, but if I could write compelling stuff I wouldn’t have had to pay to outsource them in the first place.

Any feedback?

Hi Tim:

Yeah, here's some examples and then my general rule of thumb. It works
like a charm for me.

For my copywriting book.

Tired of your sales page not converting? Want to write copy just like the
pros? Visit my site at <URL>and discover killer copywriting tips that have
allowed me to write my own copy for years and earn myself a 6 figure a
year income selling my own products.

For my email marketing book

Tired of not getting your emails delivered, read or opened? Sick of not
making any sales from your email marketing efforts? Visit my site at
<URL> and get your hands on 5 years of my personal experience with email marketing...experience that has earned me tens of thousands of dollars yearly.

For my affiliate marketing book

Tired of being an affiliate failure? Want to turn yourself into an affiliate
assassin like I am? Want to land in the top 20 of every affiliate promotion
you tackle just like I do? Check out my site at <URL> and start earning a
solid income as an affiliate marketer.

See any common themes?

If not, I'll spell it out.

Step 1 - Ask them what they're sick of having in their life. The problem.
The thing that's making them miserable.

Step 2 - Point them to the solution to their problem.

Step 3 - Point out a benefit of doing so.

That's it. It's cookie cutter and it works like gangbusters for me.

[Hamida Harland]

Originally Posted by Shay60654

I was wondering how other people are promoting Clickbank items - any method that is working for them.

I do pretty much the same as Steven W. except after testing a products conversion using blogger I then create a niche site based around it with Wordpress.

[timpears]

Thanks Steven,

I am glad I finally asked this question. Now I think I understand. I have wanted to follow your advice on the review sites but just never could understand how it was done. I am going to try and do a couple of these and see how well I can implement it. Sooner or later, I might even be able to write a decent article or at least one that will answer the readers problem and get them to go and buy.

Thank you.

[richdirtygirl]

Steven, honey,

this was AWESOME!

Mmm I'm feeling really inspired right now... give me 30 minutes and I'm back...

RDG

[oregongal]

Hamida, I have a question for you. If you build a wordpress site, how big do you make it? And are talking about building it around just one product, or a variety of products? Also, what kind of results would you consider good?

For example, if you wrote about 20 articles around one product, and sent them to a review site you made, what kind of sales would you have to make to consider it successful? And how long a period of time?

I'm trying to figure some things out and I kind of like building mini-sites, but they do take more time. I just made my first review page recently.

Thanks,
Diane

[Hamida Harland]

Originally Posted by oregongal

Hamida, I have a question for you. If you build a wordpress site, how big do you make it? And are talking about building it around just one product, or a variety of products? Also, what kind of results would you consider good?

For example, if you wrote about 20 articles around one product, and sent them to a review site you made, what kind of sales would you have to make to consider it successful? And how long a period of time?

I'm trying to figure some things out and I kind of like building mini-sites, but they do take more time. I just made my first review page recently.

Thanks,
Diane

Firstly I test out the product using a review on a blogger blog so that I know it converts for me. I build fairly small, tightly focused niche blogs - they probably never get much bigger than 20-30 posts (I start them off with as little as 3-4 posts).

Some I build around one product and call the blog something like productnamereview.com and just blog about that product and related information. Others are more general (e.g. a general blog on weight loss) and I might add 2 or 3 products (but I would push one more than the rest).

Results very much depend on the product and the niche - my best site converts at about 1 sale in 7 hops (on a good day), but I wouldn't want to go lower than about a 3-4% conversion rate for any of my sites.

If I wrote 20 articles for one site I'd submit them over a period of about 2 months (I submit about 2 articles per site per week). I'd hope to be earning at least $300-$500 per month after 2 months - but I'd also be doing other promotion like social bookmarking, getting backlinks, using web 2.0 etc. Again, results depend - I have sites earning $1000+ per month with less than 5 articles submitted, and I have other sites that have 20+ articles that might only earn a few hundred.

[oregongal]

That's very helpful, Hamida. I'm trying to refine what I'm doing, I feel like I have a somewhat scattered approach. For the first time in a year I'm having at least one clickbank sale a pay cycle, which is exciting, but I feel like I've been spinning my wheels for almost a year! Slow learner, I guess!

Any other tips, I'd love to hear them. Thanks

[Hamida Harland]

Originally Posted by oregongal

Slow learner, I guess!

Not at all! It takes time, but once you find that breakthrough product/site/technique it will become alot easier . The review in your sig is great - I'd be surprised if that didn't convert for you.

[ShayRockhold]

Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim

Shay, that's another can of worms and unfortunately, to explain it completely
here would take even me quite some time. It's a combination of many factors
including:

1. Market
2. Price
3. Commission Rate
4. Gravity
5. Product Itself

It's a lot of stuff. This is one of the biggest mistakes that affiliates make
when picking products. They don't spend nearly enough time on the
selection process. That's why so many affiliates fail because they end up
promoting products that they have no business promoting.

This one area alone can take up an ebook and there is just no way I
can do it justice in a forum post.

LOL It's okay. I appreciate the answer, and I understand that it is complicated.

[Shlomi Khutoretsky]

Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim

Shay, the process that works for me is simple and I don't know why more
people don't do it. It won't cost you a DIME to implement this.

1. Find a Clickbank product that you're interested in promoting.

2. Write to the owner and ask for a review copy. Tell him you're seriously
considering promoting it but won't do so until you are sure of its quality.

3. Write a review of the product and put it on a blog. A Blogger blog is fine
for this. Make sure you have your affiliate link at the end of the review.

4. Write just one article a day on the subject matter relating to the topic and
submit it to EZA. Make sure the resource box has a strong call to action to
read the review of the product at your blog.

I sell a boat load of stuff doing this. It's the easiest affiliate money I've
ever made. It's 15 minutes work a day for each affiliate product that I
promote.

Now, you could get more advanced by doing videos, social bookmarking
and giving away bonuses, but this will get you started.

hi steven

nice method
i will try it for sure
but i have one question
how the hell i will convince the seller of a 100$ product to give me a review copy?

thanks,

shlomi

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by articlerelated

how the hell i will convince the seller of a 100$ product to give me a review copy?

Shlomi, may I leap in with a suggested answer in the form of telling you what I was planning to try myself? (Steven's answer, if there is one, will be miles more relevant and authoritative than mine!).

First, remember that what looks like a $100 product to you might be only about a $20 product to him, if he's paying 75% commission on it, after Clickbank deductions and other costs. And it isn't really costing him anything to give you a copy anyway. Secondly, write a great email that makes him sit up and take you seriously and makes it clear to him that there are potential future sales at stake here which he won't otherwise get. Thirdly, give him reasons to take you seriously by referring to other things that you've done succesfully (your website, your previous record, whatever you can think of). Fourthly, you could mention that his product is one of perhaps two or three specific ones that you think you may already have a market for (with your list, your blog, or whatever). Some sort of chutzpah like this might work?

[Steven Wagenheim]

Originally Posted by alexa_s

Shlomi, may I leap in with a suggested answer in the form of telling you what I was planning to try myself? (Steven's answer, if there is one, will be miles more relevant and authoritative than mine!).

First, remember that what looks like a $100 product to you might be only about a $20 product to him, if he's paying 75% commission on it, after Clickbank deductions and other costs. And it isn't really costing him anything to give you a copy anyway. Secondly, write a great email that makes him sit up and take you seriously and makes it clear to him that there are potential future sales at stake here which he won't otherwise get. Thirdly, give him reasons to take you seriously by referring to other things that you've done succesfully (your website, your previous record, whatever you can think of). Fourthly, you could mention that his product is one of perhaps two or three specific ones that you think you may already have a market for (with your list, your blog, or whatever). Some sort of chutzpah like this might work?

Alexa, I couldn't have said it any better myself.

[mrmcd]

Firstly, don't start in the IM "internet marketing", it still is very profitable, but a little competitive for newbies. I think finding the right niche is a good start. There are many ways to get ideas on niches. Here's two easy way to get new niche ideas:
To come up with good niches:
- Browse around eBays catagories (there's over 26,000 categories!)
- Look at the magazines on Amazon

Once you've got a niche, start digging in and find "micro-niches", like
a niche within a niche within a niche...

ClickBank has loads of affiliate programs for all sorts of niches, and
if you don't find one there, head over to Affiliate Program Search Engine.
It's a custom Google search for affiliate programs.

hope that helps.

[timpears]

Shlom,

I had the same kind of question as you did about getting the product for review purposes, without paying for it. I posted a thread here a while back on it. And then from the answers decided what the hell, just buy the damn thing. But money is a little tight and I saw a product that caught my eye and found the publisher very easily and sent him an email. I mean, what is the worst that he could say, NO. But in just a few hours I got this email from him telling me, I would be an idiot to refuse that.

So what did I offer him. If he would send me the product for review, I would review it and if it was good I would have some articles written and build a site to promote it. He was offering a 60% commission on a $97 product. It is a real good product and has been reviewed by a number of Warriors from what he told me. I even asked him if I could steal his graphics to make the transition from my pre sell to his sales page consistent and he agreed.

The site is up, the articles have been submitted and STILL waiting for review and approval. If anyone would be willing to give me feedback on it I would be interested to hear what you have to say, either in public or private at timpears@comcast.net. My site is www.instantcashexposed.com and then when you enter the capture information you go to the pre sell at www.instantcashexposed.com/sales.htm. That way you don’t have to subscribe to my list. This is actually my first effort so be kind. Lie to me and tell me it is great, NOT. It was all outsourced so hopefully it does well so I can go back and get him to do some more for me.

Now there is going to be a limit of how many free products they are going to give out, but I doubt they are inundated with requests and I figure that the worst that can happen is they turn you down. Fortunately Kevin and I hit it off and he believed in me. I expect to reward that with plenty of business, I hope.

[XFactor]

Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim

Shay, the process that works for me is simple and I don't know why more
people don't do it. It won't cost you a DIME to implement this.

1. Find a Clickbank product that you're interested in promoting.

2. Write to the owner and ask for a review copy. Tell him you're seriously
considering promoting it but won't do so until you are sure of its quality.

3. Write a review of the product and put it on a blog. A Blogger blog is fine
for this. Make sure you have your affiliate link at the end of the review.

4. Write just one article a day on the subject matter relating to the topic and
submit it to EZA. Make sure the resource box has a strong call to action to
read the review of the product at your blog.

I sell a boat load of stuff doing this. It's the easiest affiliate money I've
ever made. It's 15 minutes work a day for each affiliate product that I
promote.

Now, you could get more advanced by doing videos, social bookmarking
and giving away bonuses, but this will get you started.

Steve, I've been meaning to ask you what ratio of articles written to sales
have you made this way on average per month (affiliate products only).

Thanks,

John

[Steven Wagenheim]

Originally Posted by XFactor

Steve, I've been meaning to ask you what ratio of articles written to sales
have you made this way on average per month (affiliate products only).

Thanks,

John

John, it comes out to roughly one sale for each article I write.

[tommygadget]

Hamida,

The one thing that I am wondering is this: Are all the products you are promoting ClickBank products? If not, what else are you promoting? Last, but not least, what (not specifically) converts best for you? This last, you can PM me if you are so inclined in case you don't want to divulge too much info. in a public forum.

TomG.

Originally Posted by Hamida Pall

Firstly I test out the product using a review on a blogger blog so that I know it converts for me. I build fairly small, tightly focused niche blogs - they probably never get much bigger than 20-30 posts (I start them off with as little as 3-4 posts).

Some I build around one product and call the blog something like productnamereview.com and just blog about that product and related information. Others are more general (e.g. a general blog on weight loss) and I might add 2 or 3 products (but I would push one more than the rest).

Results very much depend on the product and the niche - my best site converts at about 1 sale in 7 hops (on a good day), but I wouldn't want to go lower than about a 3-4% conversion rate for any of my sites.

If I wrote 20 articles for one site I'd submit them over a period of about 2 months (I submit about 2 articles per site per week). I'd hope to be earning at least $300-$500 per month after 2 months - but I'd also be doing other promotion like social bookmarking, getting backlinks, using web 2.0 etc. Again, results depend - I have sites earning $1000+ per month with less than 5 articles submitted, and I have other sites that have 20+ articles that might only earn a few hundred.

[Dana_W]

I picked a clickbank product that had reasonably high gravity, that I thought was good quality, and that was in an area I am familiar with. I went to ezinearticles.com and looked to see what other people in the same market were writing about. I looked to see who got the highest number of ezinearticle views. I picked apart why they appealed to people.

For instance - and this is a niche I haven't used but have considered - in articles about relationships, the highest number of views seem to go to articles about "how can you tell if she's interested in you"? or "how can you tell if she's flirting with you?" What that tells ME is that guys are afraid of making a pass at a girl and being shot down. Figure out the psychology of your audience.

I wrote similar articles to what the most popular articles in the catergory were.

I linked to a butt-ugly Squidoo lens which I set up as a sale page. I made about 1 sale per article. 30-50 views per article, 1 sale on average.

And that is the conclusion to my little story.

[XFactor]

Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim

John, it comes out to roughly one sale for each article I write.

Great job Steve.

Even if only 1 sales is made per article (with no further sales from that specific
article), it's an outstanding income.

- John

[Chris_L]

Steve,

After an affiliate product is selling well in your review blogger blog, do you also create a new niche site to promote it further?

Thanks.

~Chris

[Steven Wagenheim]

Originally Posted by Chris_L

Steve,

After an affiliate product is selling well in your review blogger blog, do you also create a new niche site to promote it further?

Thanks.

~Chris

Chris, honestly, I don't bother because I'm too lazy. I make enough sales
just from the articles I pump out so there's no motivation to do anymore
work than that.

But yeah, if I did, I'd do even that much better.

[Chris_L]

Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim

Chris, honestly, I don't bother because I'm too lazy. I make enough sales
just from the articles I pump out so there's no motivation to do anymore
work than that.

But yeah, if I did, I'd do even that much better.

Thanks, Steve for your answer. Your posts are always very informative.

[Naqoyqatsi]

Originally Posted by XFactor

Great job Steve.

Even if only 1 sales is made per article (with no further sales from that specific
article), it's an outstanding income.

- John

I'm a little curious how it would be a great income in that case, and I'm just asking. If you made one sale, for example $40 profit, from writing one article in 30 minutes, then it's great income for 30 minutes, but you're going to need more than "no further sales from that specific article".

Otherwise, it's "then what?" Write another article on the same product? How amy times could you do that before you drive yourself mad?

If you have a lot of products, then you could make the rounds with an article a day and not have to write on the same product for many days, or even weeks.

But I would think you have to keep adding new products to provide a source for new articles....

[Hamida Harland]

Originally Posted by tommygadget

Hamida,

The one thing that I am wondering is this: Are all the products you are promoting ClickBank products? If not, what else are you promoting? Last, but not least, what (not specifically) converts best for you? This last, you can PM me if you are so inclined in case you don't want to divulge too much info. in a public forum.

TomG.

TomG
The majority are Clickbank products but I do promote a few products that have their own affiliate program as well.

For example I promote a weight loss product with it's own affiliate program and it doesn't have as much competition because it's harder for affiliates to find (I don't think it's listed in any directories).

I also promote a few MarketHealth products, but these don't convert as highly for me. Probably because they are so competive - potential customers can visit 10 different reviews before buying if they want.

Clickbank always has the highest conversions for me, but I make my sites very tightly focused. I build my sites based around high converting products rather than just adding products to a general site. Plus most of my sites only promote one or two products - the more choice you give people the easier it is to lose them.

[GeorgR.]

I dont know whether i am allowed to push my own product, but i have a Tool/WSO called "Affiliate Hijacker". What i do, i use my own tool to create any site for whatever clickbank product (clickbank is especially easy) and then make a domain/subdomain.
And then i start PPC traffic to the site. Easy.

Interesting is also to use Adwords with placement targeting. So...i design a few nice looking banners (or get promo material right from the vendor, pre-made banners etc..) and i put all kinds of banner-formats on AdWords and target sites related to the subject.

Easy example: Get some "World of Warcraft Guide" products from clickbank, create a bunch of sites, get some domains if you feel like you want domains for those sites.
Get the banners...then go to AdWords and smash it on every "World of Warcraft" site out there: PROFIT

[Darrell Hagan]

Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim

Shay, the process that works for me is simple and I don't know why more
people don't do it. It won't cost you a DIME to implement this.

1. Find a Clickbank product that you're interested in promoting.

2. Write to the owner and ask for a review copy. Tell him you're seriously
considering promoting it but won't do so until you are sure of its quality.

3. Write a review of the product and put it on a blog. A Blogger blog is fine
for this. Make sure you have your affiliate link at the end of the review.

4. Write just one article a day on the subject matter relating to the topic and
submit it to EZA. Make sure the resource box has a strong call to action to
read the review of the product at your blog.

I sell a boat load of stuff doing this. It's the easiest affiliate money I've
ever made. It's 15 minutes work a day for each affiliate product that I
promote.

Now, you could get more advanced by doing videos, social bookmarking
and giving away bonuses, but this will get you started.

Originally Posted by Shay60654

THANK YOU!!! This is perfect!

I agree. Great stuff Steve, Thanks .

[The Seahawk]

Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim

Shay, that's another can of worms and unfortunately, to explain it completely
here would take even me quite some time. It's a combination of many factors
including:

1. Market
2. Price
3. Commission Rate
4. Gravity
5. Product Itself

It's a lot of stuff. This is one of the biggest mistakes that affiliates make
when picking products. They don't spend nearly enough time on the
selection process. That's why so many affiliates fail because they end up
promoting products that they have no business promoting.

This one area alone can take up an ebook and there is just no way I
can do it justice in a forum post.

Great post. Regarding conversion percentage for products and what to look for - if an affiliate program is claiming 1 sale for every 75-100 clicks/visitors (no information on the type of traffic), is this generally a good conversion? Or should we be looking for closer to 2% and higher?

Low refund rates are important too I think.

Justin

[Hamida Harland]

Originally Posted by The Seahawk

Great post. Regarding conversion percentage for products and what to look for - if an affiliate program is claiming 1 sale for every 75-100 clicks/visitors (no information on the type of traffic), is this generally a good conversion? Or should we be looking for closer to 2% and higher?

Low refund rates are important too I think.

Justin

Well, what the affiliate program claims in terms of conversion is not necessarily what you're going to get. It depends very much on how you promote the product - I've seen people complaining on DP about getting hundreds or even thousands of hops and not getting a single sale (sending highly untargetted traffic). I send extremely targetted traffic to all the products I promote and my average conversion rate is about 5%.

You won't really know what the conversions for any affiliate program will be until you start promoting them yourself.