Newbie Question: Do these things really sell?

Hi Yako,

welcome on board.

Clickbank (CB) is the most obvious choice for many affiliates,
and while most fail to generate commissions (I think up to 95%
of affiliates does not make commissions), it is still probably
the greatest money maker among affiliate programes. But you
need to be in those upper 5 %.

CB will not pay you until you 1) reach the minimum threshold
2) get orders from 5 different buyers
(to prevent you ordering from your card just to test different
programs for yourself and getting commissions from them at
the same time -however you can buy through your link as long
as you make those 5 orders)

Do CB offers convert?

Clickbank offers definitely DO convert, but make sure you choose
the right ones. The top guys there are making 6 figures monthly
and they have tested and tweaked every copy.

Remember, conversion is numbers game. If you get 1-2% conversion
from untargetted traffic(random visitors) - (10-20 vistors out of 1000),
then you will probably be making money with the product.

Sending targetting traffic (people from your email list,etc) can convert
even higher.

Remember, at CB Marketplace you can sort products according to
"Gravity" - this means how many different people are making money
with the particular affiliate offer and is strong indicative that the
product is really competitive. Top money making programs have
gravity even above 500, but that does not neccessarily mean they
are the best or that they actually help those who buy it (this is
usually the case where you have a better sales copy than the
product - big bald promises, no work required, push button solutions.

As far as niche products (other than Internet Marketing), in most cases
gravity 50-100 should be enough for a competitive product.

2) Is it possible for me to create my own landing page and then link that to the checkout page?

Definitely, once you know the ropes, you can use your own landing pages
and just send people to checkout (I am not sure, however, if you do not
need vendor's permission)

3) If I use PPC to promote the products, it is ok to link to the landing pages?

No, most likely no. There are a few vendors who allow it, but the real reason
here is that Google (I do not know about other ppcs) would slap your account
immediately for linking to affiliate offer (especially in Make Money, Health, Lose
Weight) and it would also hurt the vendor's site rating.

Hope that helps

Thanks a lot, it really does help!

I have one more question regarding PPC, I want to understand the correct way of using PPC with CPA.

The problem is not linking to an affiliate offer but the offer itself right? Or is it any form of affiliate linking banned from Google AdWords?

Thanks again!

First of all Clickbank is not CPA. Clickbank is an affiliate network where you get a portion of revunue from selling someone else's product. CPA is cost per action where you actually get paid when someone performs an action-meaning that you can earn even if someone does not buy anything. It can be as simple as someone entering their e-mail adress.
With regards to Google and affilate marketing. If you use adwords you must send them to a landing page that provides some type of quality to the user and then link that page to the offer. Check googles guidelines for landing pages and go from there.

This is exactly what i thought when i started with IM! I read this "Rich Jerk" ebook many years ago where he said how great it is to sell digital products, i simply could not believe than ANYONE would buy that stuff...

But CB has the advantage that it has many, many products and many different niches...so even it would have 80% junk it still has 20% interesting products. Just keep doing it. Focus on "hungry" niches, stay away from "make money" and "weight loss"...provide products which provide a solution for a problem!

(And yes, CB is not CPA actually)

Welcome to the forum and to IM.

It seems you got all your questions answered above so what I would add is that as you mentioned CB has really low quality pages.

They also have a high refund rate.

I like to offer different products from different networks so that all my eggs aren't in one basket. If someone changes the rules, you don't want that to be your only source of income.

You have the right idea about putting up your own landing page and building your own list.

Then you can promote other products.

I like commission junction. I also like recurring items that get sent on auto ship.

So I find a niche that fits that criteria, put up landing page, build a list and promote affiliate products that have a recurring monthly fee in something that the person is not likely to stop any time soon.

Good luck.

P.S. Join the War Room -- lots of great free stuff in there and the one time lifetime fee is so worth it. Also, check out free ebooks in the Make Money Online forum here, no opt in is required to get the ebooks in that forum is the rule. You can get a lot of advice on stuff in those two forums and a whole lot more.

Try maxbounty, they are great Search their offers, you can find way more better things then clickbank. Let's say you make 1 sale on CB and get $20... $200 on maxbounty for the same time only with email/zip offers.

Welcome to the site and wonderful world of affiliate marketing!!

1 - YES! they do convert! There wouldn't be people doing this if they didn't

2 - YES! For most offers you can do this

3 - This will also vary offer by offer, however many do allow this

Yes those pages really convert to sales, just all depends on your approach for marketing. The lander is definitely important and if you don't feel comfortable or testings do not show solid conversions, then you can definitely create your own.

Yes you can link to the landing pages via PPC.