Is product creation the only reasonable alternative? - Clickbank Rant

Clickbank can be a jungle. But there are plenty of great products there just the same.

Here's what I'd do. Go to popular blogs in the markets you like. Get on a few lists and see what they're promoting. Or you could be a lot more direct and just email the blog owner and ask his or her opinion of what products are good. Most people will be helpful, just like here.

I know the feeling.

It can take a long time. I've done that for probably nearly 600 hours over the last 3 years. But it's worth it. I currently have about 25/26 products there which I'm happy to promote, and there are plenty more. But, out of 15,000+ items, it is a big task to identify them.

Who knows? Who cares? To me, that's just nonsense. The very few people I do know who have ever split-tested anything like that, rather than relying on "popular belief", have abandoned it very quickly. Anyway, it makes absolutely no difference to me, because I'm not sure I'd be willing to promote that sort of sales page even if my customers were willing to buy from it (which they're certainly not).

Good luck - that can be done. Suggestions here, if you haven't seen them: http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ml#post3641838

Partly this, I think. It isn't easy.

You'll perhaps find some good ones in sub-niches of niches of the "health" market, I think.

But, honestly, yes - you may be looking in what might turn out to be the wrong niches for yourself: I think you may be looking in big/popular/competitive niches, anyway. That does suit some people, I know. Partly, it depends on what your traffic sources are going to be. For myself, if I were thinking of SEO traffic (which I don't, much, but I know many people do), I might be a little wary of relationships and fitness, unless I had "special keyword skills" which I don't actually have.

Not for me. For me, being a vendor would have huge disadvantages, compared with being an affiliate. But it's a subject that's difficult to discuss in this forum because most people who post when the subject's raised think the opposite, and although many of the reasons they give in favor of creating your own product actually apply equally to affiliates, they have such strong views about it that (again, for me) it isn't really worth debating it with them. :p

Good luck getting your feet wetter.

Might i suggest starting a blog? The Internet marketing world can be daunting especially when your just throwing your self into it. And product promotion isn't for everyone. A blog can be a great way to build a list and build credibility. Followers that will be willing to buy anything you suggest with out shoving it down there throats.

Also, You could run an online business without selling anything. There are plenty of bloggers making a full time living on advertisement alone.

Yes blogs can be time consuming but when you're blogging about a passion it hardly feels like work.

Ok, You're gonna get tons of different views here and thats what makes this place great!

Personally I don't promote clickbank products due to the same issues you have! I only promote what I have personally bought and thought was real value, no matter what niche! however as you stated, unless you are stinking rich, you're right, you can't buy all these products to test. That is why there are tons of marketers promoting rubbish day in day out and unless you are someone like Alexa who has obviously put in alot of hours and work into refining a system to weed out the good ones, then its probably something to keep as a work in progress and look for somewhere else to obtain great products, and the best answer is what has already been said, and that is to study the niche you are interested by visiting blogs and forums around that niche.

Let me give you an example:

I'm from the UK, a massive interest in Carp fishing, which is one of the niches I do very well in, I joined a shed load of carp fishing forums (forum marketing in such a niche is fantastic), plus its something I know a fair bit about so it helps, about six months ago there was a new dvd out by a famous carp fisherman called Kevin Nash and everyone of many forums were raving about it, and one of the most talked about aspects was a Rod Pod set up (for fixing your rods too, on the bank with bite alarms and tons of other bits) that this guy was using in the dvd.

So I searched the net for any fishing stores with affiliate programmes and found one selling this rod pod, I have to admit the commision rate was lousy, but I put in my signature "Kevin Nash DVD - Do you want THAT Rod Pod?" and seriously a couple of posts on six different forums a day made me more money in that month than I had done all year!

My point is yes clickbank is huge and some people have mastered the art of finding good stuff to promote, but its not the be all and end all! move away from what everyone else is doing and be your own person! I started strictly promoting in the IM niche, but now it strictly a small residual thing, the bigger markets are there to be taken advantage of!

Good luck mate, hope it works out!

Creating your own product is good. You get access to the customer name after purchase, and can follow up on them with your backend offers. This is where the money is.

Product creation is the "alternative" choice?

I think I mentioned to Alexa last year about reading a report by George Wright about "Why not get paid 50 cents or more per word from article writing...?"

If you can write articles you can do that, its called "product creation". Its getting paid ten times the money for writing the same amount of articles you are now to push affiliate products...

By selling the content yourself in your own products.

For most people its just as simple as shifting the direction of the energy they are already using.

Better to focus on being yourself than worrying about credibility, I mean; I dont know why the fear of sending out a bad product would come to mind if you only intend to send out stuff you believe in in the first place?

If you are truly doing that, credibility is still going to come and go with certain people here and there...

Just be yourself... some like it, some dont, some like it sometimes and sometimes they dont.

You find out in action what you can only PONDER in thought.

You really should have your own affiliate program, but you don't have to create your own product. You can put PLR products on Clickbank.