Article Marketing & Clickbank. What's the point?

24 replies
I just finished an article marketing set for the first time, promoting affiliate products from Clickbank.

Over 500 hops and not one sale. Now I know there has been a lot of talk about Clickbank screwing up lately, but come on.

I don't see why anyone would want to do this unless I'm totally missing something? lol

I could have written a short report of my own to sell or learned how to utilize some new type of review site I've never done before instead of sending a couple thousand visitors to someone else's sites.

Opinions or ideas?

Thanks in advance!
#article #clickbank #marketing #point
  • Profile picture of the author Jeremy Kelsall
    You see, that is your experience.

    I'm doing a live campaign right now for about 150 people to see and I've made over $500 promoting one ugly site with about 15 articles for 8 days.

    You have to pay attention to what's going on to make sure you are doing everything in a way that is profitable. Just writing and submitting will get you nowhere.

    Jeremy
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    • Profile picture of the author reapr
      Many things can have an effect on your conversions. On some of my better CB campaigns have seen 1 in 15 conversion over the life of the campaign. Others 1 in 500 at the start of a campaign which means I have to make changes. Some niches just do not have good conversions and some targeted keywords are not ones that convert well.

      My sites are either ugly or just plain. If have found that if changing to a related or similar product in the niche can make it or break it. Products I thought would sell better proved me wrong when I switched to a competitor.

      I often have a sales blurb above the fold to try and get the customer to the merchants sale page ASAP. Then I use 3-7 more sales pitches throughout the page to get them to click through.
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  • Profile picture of the author trippmarxx
    You can't base your whole experience off of one article. Now, if you've got around 50-100 under your belt and see no sales, then I would back up to see what you're doing wrong and analyze everything, including your niche. There are so many other techniques with article marketing, and it's more than just "writing an article" and sitting back waiting for sales.

    I've got a free article marketing guide that will show you the stuff you might be missing. It's free, so no worries. Links in my sig if you'd like to check it out. It should help you add some pieces to the puzzle.

    -Bryan
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  • Profile picture of the author flnz400
    A couple different products, three to be exact. One has received over 220 hops, which is less than 1% conversion.

    I understand what you guys are saying. I should have stated I didn't go into this blind.

    I have presold.
    I have article marketing products- wags stuff, newbie blueprint, etc...
    Traffic is not minimal. One niche is daily x,xxx ; "xxx"

    Perhaps not desperate enough buyers for todays allotted economic expenditure.

    I'm not knocking the entire process, and would like to refine and learn what does work, but my early results just don't seem like a good return is all.

    Thanks for the feedback, and more is definitely welcomed!
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  • Profile picture of the author dwoodward
    You may want to look at converting your articles into power point videos, posting on you tube, stripping the audio into podcasts. I have seen a lot of success with this using traffic geyser. But it all depends on your niche and how keyword sensitive it is.
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  • Hi if you really want to make sales, you must have a solid product that other people want and need desperately. A product no one else has to sell is best. It's called supply and demand. And even then you must remember your dealing with the Internet here. You may only have 1 sale for every 300 to 500 hits you get at first, because people must build up trust in your product. I have sold tons of ebooks on ebay over the years, and I averaged 1 sale for every 200 people on average who clicked on my auctions. But I also had a secret for drawing huge crowds to my auctions using Internet marketing from outside ebay, and bringing people into my auction..... on average 30,000 people per auction and sold by volume only.
    I ran about 3 auctions at a time selling about 600 to e-books a month at $28.50 each. I made close to 18,000.00 monthly , once my business was up and running big time. So it can be done,on the Internet also, ebay no-longer allows digital downloads, so you must find another way to get traffic.
    Tons of Internet traffic and a great product is the key !!
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    • Profile picture of the author Steven Wagenheim
      Without more detail as to what you promoted and how you promoted it, it
      would be impossible to tell you what you're doing wrong, if anything.

      The product could not be converting for anybody.
      Your articles could not be doing the job.
      Not preselling (reviewing the product first) will hurt your chances.

      You have to understand the psychology of people who read articles. It's not
      the same mindset as somebody who sees an Adwords ad and goes directly to
      the sales page off of 3 lines.

      People who go to sites from Adwords pretty much already know what they're
      looking for, or at least think they do. Plus, they're not readers and want an
      instant solution.

      Article readers aren't quite as sure. They need more info. That's why they
      read. They are tougher to convert. That's why the article MUST be well
      written.

      This is what a lot of Bum Marketers don't get. They think they can write
      just any old crap and get people to the sales page.

      It's not that easy.

      Me?

      I write a good informational article.

      I then send them to a review site for the product so that they can get
      even more info.

      THEN I send them to the sales page.

      If you only get their curiosity up enough to "check out" the sales page
      but don't really make them feel like you're really trying to help them, that
      sales page better be damn good in its own right or they're not going to
      buy because YOU let them down.

      For all you know, they may have looked elsewhere for that review that
      YOU didn't give them and when they found it THEN they went back and
      bought...under somebody else's hoplink.

      That's the reality. Once you understand that and give people what they
      want with your articles, you'll start to see some sales.

      Provided you're promoting a product worth promoting.
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      • Profile picture of the author naruq
        Try offering a free e-book, CD or Report before offering a prospect a Clickbank product or service. In other words, your first goal should be to get the prospect to opt-in to your autoresponder.
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      • Profile picture of the author TheNightOwl
        Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim View Post

        I write a good informational article.

        I then send them to a review site for the product so that they can get
        even more info.

        THEN I send them to the sales page.

        Steven, this is a fantastic tip. Thank you!



        TheNightOwl
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      • Profile picture of the author trippmarxx
        Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim View Post

        Me?

        I write a good informational article.

        I then send them to a review site for the product so that they can get
        even more info.

        THEN I send them to the sales page.
        I do the exact same....

        In fact, I highly suggest that anyone in article marketing should always direct the reader to a lander that leads to the sales page. Warming up a prospective buyer in that way will have them skipping over the sales copy and heading straight to the order button on the sales page (only if you have persuaded them enough and have given them the info they are looking for, which is obviously the key).
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  • Profile picture of the author anonymous123567
    Yeah dude,

    How long have these articles been live?

    I must say Clickbank has been acting rather odd lately.
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  • Profile picture of the author flnz400
    Thanks for the detailed info Steven. I think the product with now over 300 hops is No More Moles, Warts, or Skin Tagsâ„¢: How I Safely Removed Moles, Warts, and Skin Tags for Life - Get rid of your moles, warts, genital warts and skin tags with a natural treatment for mole removal and wart removal.

    I chose a couple high gravity products and the lower one mentioned above. Seems to kind of, suck, to put it bluntly. But I had keywords outlined for a skin tags and moles campaign that screamed "desperate" and wanted to try them.

    I see what you're saying about reviewing the product, which is kind of hard to do in some instances because you wouldn't really know how it would help you if you weren't in that predicament.

    But I understand what you mean.

    @ Alex- Not long, a couple days. But I've been building backlinks to the pages the articles link to since the first of the month, so I'm getting uniques from organics as well.
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    • Profile picture of the author Steven Wagenheim
      Originally Posted by flnz400 View Post

      Thanks for the detailed info Steven. I think the product with now over 300 hops is No More Moles, Warts, or Skin Tagsâ„¢: How I Safely Removed Moles, Warts, and Skin Tags for Life - Get rid of your moles, warts, genital warts and skin tags with a natural treatment for mole removal and wart removal.

      I chose a couple high gravity products and the lower one mentioned above. Seems to kind of, suck, to put it bluntly. But I had keywords outlined for a skin tags and moles campaign that screamed "desperate" and wanted to try them.

      I see what you're saying about reviewing the product, which is kind of hard to do in some instances because you wouldn't really know how it would help you if you weren't in that predicament.

      But I understand what you mean.

      @ Alex- Not long, a couple days. But I've been building backlinks to the pages the articles link to since the first of the month, so I'm getting uniques from organics as well.

      Let me tell you something about that product. My personal friends Juan
      Walker and Chris Gibson created it. It's one of the top products in the
      marketplace under health. It also is saturated as hell. If you want to have
      any chance of selling it, you MUST go the extra mile. If you look it up
      online, you'll see their Adwords ads are top of the heap. It's tough to
      compete with that with articles. Trust me, I know.

      If that's the product you want to sell, just writing articles and sending to
      a sales page isn't going to do it.
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      • Profile picture of the author Bujuk
        Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim View Post

        Let me tell you something about that product. My personal friends Juan
        Walker and Chris Gibson created it. It's one of the top products in the
        marketplace under health. It also is saturated as hell. If you want to have
        any chance of selling it, you MUST go the extra mile. If you look it up
        online, you'll see their Adwords ads are top of the heap. It's tough to
        compete with that with articles. Trust me, I know.

        If that's the product you want to sell, just writing articles and sending to
        a sales page isn't going to do it.
        One of the hardest part in IM is to decide what are the less saturated niche. Steve, any pointer that you can share with us .

        thanks in advance
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      • Profile picture of the author prodozoan
        Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim View Post

        Let me tell you something about that product. My personal friends Juan
        Walker and Chris Gibson created it. It's one of the top products in the
        marketplace under health. It also is saturated as hell. If you want to have
        any chance of selling it, you MUST go the extra mile. If you look it up
        online, you'll see their Adwords ads are top of the heap. It's tough to
        compete with that with articles. Trust me, I know.

        If that's the product you want to sell, just writing articles and sending to
        a sales page isn't going to do it.
        Steve,
        what makes you tell if there is severe adwords competition, it is not a niche worth targetting?

        Ajith
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    • Profile picture of the author Steven Wagenheim
      Originally Posted by flnz400 View Post

      Thanks for the detailed info Steven. I think the product with now over 300 hops is No More Moles, Warts, or Skin Tagsâ„¢: How I Safely Removed Moles, Warts, and Skin Tags for Life - Get rid of your moles, warts, genital warts and skin tags with a natural treatment for mole removal and wart removal.

      I chose a couple high gravity products and the lower one mentioned above. Seems to kind of, suck, to put it bluntly. But I had keywords outlined for a skin tags and moles campaign that screamed "desperate" and wanted to try them.

      I see what you're saying about reviewing the product, which is kind of hard to do in some instances because you wouldn't really know how it would help you if you weren't in that predicament.

      But I understand what you mean.

      @ Alex- Not long, a couple days. But I've been building backlinks to the pages the articles link to since the first of the month, so I'm getting uniques from organics as well.

      Let me tell you what I'm talking about with a real life case study going
      on right now.

      I just started promoting another product at Clickbank. I've written all of
      6 articles and so far got 54 visitors to my review page. I just now made
      my first sale. That's not too bad on 54 visitors. So it looks liked, based on
      my past experience that this is going to at least convert at 1% given the
      way I go about it, which has been a proven formula for me for years.

      But here's the key.

      The product has a gravity of about 15. Yet, the referral percentage is
      about 89%, meaning that most of his sales are from affiliates. That shows
      the page converts.

      The product is also very timely to events in the world today, so it's
      something that people desperately want.

      This is what you want to look for if you want to give yourself the easiest
      chance of making a few sales.

      I promote about 20 products similar to this. Occasionally, I'll promote a
      product with a higher gravity. Problem is, once people find out I'm
      promoting it, I might as well stop because the avalanche follows. That's
      why this product, there is NO way I'm letting this cat out of the bag. I
      learned my lesson with MMU. I killed a great income with that one.

      Anyway, go and find something that has been proven to sell but doesn't
      have everybody and their grandmother promoting it.
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  • Profile picture of the author Marcus Paul
    If CB has not been converting I would send them to your list building site until you get your head around what needs fixing. If your articles have URLs that are structured correctly, then should be able to change where you are sending that traffic. For example: EZA lets you forward your main domain to an affiliate link. In this case you would simply replace the affiliate link with the URL for your listing building site (niche related, of course
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  • Profile picture of the author Jakehyten
    It has to do with how well you presell your visotor before sending them to the hop. And your presell has to match up with where you send them. are you doing a review page, presell or a combination of both?

    I get about 2 sales for every 50 hops. It is because i do a tremendous job of preselling them. The would buy regardless of going to the merchant
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  • Profile picture of the author J A Neal
    I know Clickbank is at the top of the list, but is anyone using the other marketplaces, like PayDotCom, as another source of products? There might be some niches where article marketing would be a good option.

    I know it can be boring work, but I have always found if you can come up with a good set of criteria for your research, that applies to any niche, you can eliminate most of the duds.
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  • Profile picture of the author imafaccy
    i find all this information great. I'm going into article marketing and info from you guys has been very helpful. Thanks alot.
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  • Profile picture of the author Chris Stigson
    Good tips if you haven't made money online yet... Right now I'm doing about 1 article a day (minimum) and the secret is the alarm clock

    If you can't get yourself to write or do it... Use that and it'll remind you.

    After 30 days it's a habit and you should experience pretty cool results

    /Chris
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  • Profile picture of the author David Neale
    I think you answered your own question. Creating your own product of any kind puts you miles ahead of selling CB products. Driving traffic to something you own rather than something somebody else owns makes a lot more sense if you want to build a business rather than be a commissioned salesperson.

    Originally Posted by flnz400 View Post

    I just finished an article marketing set for the first time, promoting affiliate products from Clickbank.

    Over 500 hops and not one sale. Now I know there has been a lot of talk about Clickbank screwing up lately, but come on.

    I don't see why anyone would want to do this unless I'm totally missing something? lol

    I could have written a short report of my own to sell or learned how to utilize some new type of review site I've never done before instead of sending a couple thousand visitors to someone else's sites.

    Opinions or ideas?

    Thanks in advance!
    Signature

    David Neale

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    • Profile picture of the author Chri5123
      There are so many factors that come into this, but here are a few to think about:

      1. What keywords are you targeting?

      2. What would you type into a search engine if YOU wanted to buy the product?

      3. Would you buy the product from the sales page?

      4. Is it a HUNGRY niche? If they are not hungry they will not want to (eat) I mean buy!

      5. Are you building a list and keeping in contact with your exsisting prospects?

      6. What are other people doing to make money in the niche?

      7. How crowded is it?

      8. Is there any reason why they do not buy from that article? i.e a free option on the same page?

      Just a few thoughts!

      Let me know if you need any help.

      All the best

      Chris
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    • Profile picture of the author trippmarxx
      Originally Posted by David Neale View Post

      I think you answered your own question. Creating your own product of any kind puts you miles ahead of selling CB products. Driving traffic to something you own rather than something somebody else owns makes a lot more sense if you want to build a business rather than be a commissioned salesperson.
      Agree with you on this David.

      I've been a CB affiliate now for around 2 years. While it's great being an affiliate, the rewards are always greater when you publisher your own product. It's hard work upfront, but with the right product and the right market, you can really make something happen for yourself.
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  • Profile picture of the author madonemark2
    The more information that you give to your affiliates the better .. even write the auto responder messages for them .. that seems to work well . Try video to show people what they will be getting.
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    Mark

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