There was a similar thread about this a while back.. here was my response from that thread, and I still think this right now:

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I pretty much ignore gravity if I have already got a new niche on the go.

If I am looking for something new, I will dig into the deeper echelons of lower gravity products to find a gem or two.

But the majority of the time, I pay very little attention to gravity.

In fact I would advise most people to base their promotional decisions on anything BUT gravity..

The weather, the wind direction, hunger, thirst... anything but gravity. It's a figure that is often falsely inflated and doesn't really give you much of a picture about anything important anyway.

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Hi John,

I'll try ...

Gravity is an indication of how much competition there is. It measures the number of affiliates who have each made one or more sales over the previous 8 weeks. Each affiliate gets, effectively, a “score” between 0.1 and 1.0 (according to when they made their last sale, but not according to the quantity they sold) and the total is the product's gravity figure. Sounds easy enough to understand? It isn’t.

Nearly all internet marketing guides make the howling mistake of advising beginners to promote only high gravity products. This has a hugely distorting effect on the market and its observed statistics. There's a big and constant turnover of new affiliates trying to sell high gravity products, failing, dropping out and being replaced by others repeating their experiences. This of course boosts those products' gravity figures further and further, because gravity measures the number of affiliates who (eventually) make a sale, not the number of sales made.

If there are two otherwise equivalent and equally good products, with otherwise matching statistical parameters, but one has a gravity of 15 and the other has a gravity of 150, my own instincts are to suspect very strongly that (other things being equal) both the conversion-rate and the numbers of sales are actually very likely to be higher for the lower gravity product.

So, I actually avoid high gravity products: the day I learned that (and a few other things) and started acting on it was the day I started earning some real money through being a Clickbank affiliate

I promote 15 different Clickbank products at the moment, and my two best-converting products, by far, out of all those, both have single-figure gravities. Some people think that's a “coincidence”. I think they’re wrong.

I stay away from high gravity products because (as Clickbank now, finally, advises affiliates openly on their site) the one thing you know for sure about a high gravity product is that it's going to be competitive to sell.

Here's a little example, which might possibly clarify the issues:-

Clickbank Product A

- Sales-page conversion-rate 2.8%
- Solid product from well-known marketer
- Product has almost no refund requests
- He has 20 affiliates of whom 10 are superaffiliates who sell huge numbers of the product
- Product is easy to promote and sell
- Sales numbers are therefore very high, but the gravity figure is obviously very low (maybe around 10)

Clickbank Product B

- Sales-page conversion-rate 0.2%
- Dreadful product from scammy marketer
- Refund request-rate is higher, of course
- Product had a "professional launch" with 100 "temporary affiliates" (accounts used once each to buy one product, privately refunded, and/or the figures were massaged in one of the other "customary ways")
- Product is obviously a complete and utter nightmare to promote and sell because the sales-page doesn't convert well
- Gravity figure starts out at about 110, and rapidly rises to 150/200 because gullible affiliates are attracted by the gravity figure, believing wrongly that it "validates the fact that the product is selling very well", and they all struggle and waste time/money, but eventually they obviously make 1 or 2 sales each anyway, and for this reason the gravity figure rises still further to 250/300 as the inevitable consequence of its self-fulfilling prophecy for the naive.

Obviously enough, product "B" is the high gravity product.

Obviously enough, product "A" is the one for which I want to be an affiliate.

These examples are in no way contrived. They're both realistic and common.

A product with 20 affiliates each making 1,000 sales will have a far lower gravity than a product with 500 affiliates, all attracted by the high gravity and struggling to make 1 sale each because the sales page hardly converts their traffic at all. But by the time they make 1 sale each, that boosts the gravity figure still higher. This is part of the explanation for the sometimes dreadful conversion-rates of the sales pages of the products with the highest gravities.

Key points:

(i) there's no correlation between the gravity figure and the conversion-rate

(ii) there's no correlation between the gravity figure and the number of sales: specifically, for various reasons, low gravity products can have enormous numbers of sales without this showing. High gravity products can (and quite often do) have comparatively low sales. This confuses a lot of people.

Here are more little examples of how the numbers work:-

- A product with 100 active affiliates each making steady sales will typically (but not necessarily) have a gravity score around 50 - 70

- A product with 100 active affiliates who all made their sales very recently will have a gravity score much closer to 100

- A product with 100 active affiliates who all made their last sale many weeks ago will typically have a gravity score of about 10

- A product with 100 active affiliates can't have a gravity figure higher than 100, however many copies they each sell

- If product A has 100 affiliates who each made one sale last week but have never made any other sales at all, and product B has 100 affiliates who have each made 500 sales over the last 2 months, of which in each case the most recent sale was last week, then these two products have the same gravity, though one has of course sold 500 times the number of copies of the other. (This difference will be reflected to some extent in the product's "popularity score", but not in its "gravity score").

If the five points above make sense to you, then you know how "gravity" really works.

This goes for me, too: it's of less concern and interest to me if I already have a niche on the go and am "just adding something", to be honest.

Wow Alexa ... you are quickly becoming one of my hero's. I do sell promote products but do not sell my own through CB.

My own critieria has included looking for higher gravity although I avoid the IM market (just getting into it actually). I think that products in those categories will definitely suffer with inflated Gravity scores based on your comment ... which makes absolute sense.

So as long as the product and sales page looks sound. It offers outstanding value a lower gravity would suggest a more profitable route.

Thank you

John

To Alexa Smith: Wow...you explained gravity better than..Newton.

Thanks, (seriously)
_____
Bruce

People are usually going for gravity 60+ products because they think that it's not overcrowded with other affiliates. If the product has got very high gravity, than it's easy to understand that it's being promoted everywhere.

I've found this kind of explanation in many courses and ebooks.

Katie

You will find preferences on both sides of the coin. I have had success with both.

@Alexa You are awesome Now i finally understand what gravity is.

Alexa....Sir Issac Newton would be proud of you
explanation of gravity....

You've probably heard some say high and some say low. There are pros and cons to each:
High: You know it sells and it converts and others are promoting but that also means mroe comeptition
low: You know the market is open but does it sell?

I guess you need to do some research. Find a product with a good gravity at least above 25 in my point of view while yet ensuring you can enter it and successfully pursue it.

Not any guru or experienced im on the contrary infact but just my humble opinion.

The trend of the gravity is more important than the number. If it was 8, then 10, then 13 then 20 then 27, that is more important than the actual number. It shows that a product is growing in popularity, usually because its getting conversions.

you could have it the other way, 150 then 120 then 100 then 80 then 50 then 30, which would you rather start on? If its losing promoters, that usually means its not selling or converting and people are bailing on it.

Gravity is based mainly on sales volume of the total number of people promoting the item.

We already had this debate on another thread, but here we go again...

I agree with your (ii): there's no correlation between gravity and number of sales.

However I don't agree with your (i). In real world terms, low gravity means that:

1) there are few people promoting that product and thus few people scoring sales. In this case there's no correlation between gravity and CTR, because both figures are low.

2) there are indeed people promoting that product but few actually scoring sales. In this case, this is in fact an indication of low CTR.

High gravity generally means the product is selling and that is why many people tend to select and sell products with higher gravity.

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Low gravity means
1. The sales page conversion is bad, or product is bad
2. People avoid to promote it, since it has low gravity.

You just need to investigate which one is it.

I think the Gravity is not the most important factor to take into consideration. Should choose products that are relevant to your specialities, customer's needs and your understanding.

stay clear from clickbank stuff.

but if u were to go for it i would say pick the middle gravity.

too high and its too competitive. people out there probably already seen this and are more likely to turn away again if not they would have bought the 1st time around already.

dont pick too low as it means its not a good product. so a rule of a thumb pick middle.

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I am laughing out loud as I read Alexa's great explanation, followed by dumbfounded individuals with < 50 posts spouting off the exact opposite with no explanation or examples, then poor Alexa trying again.... LOL. Who needs cable TV?

In my opinion,

High gravity sells better.

You are really amazing Alexa. You help so much those newbies by sharing what you have especially your ideas about internet marketing.

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Thanks Alexa!! Great stuff! A little confused now since I always looked at gravity before but I am going to open my mind some. Thanks again.

Very interesting post, I'm new to IM and I found this is a great source for information (too much at times).

I made some money on Clickbank products, but I'll definitely try your method of picking up products.

wow. Alexa Smith , you are an expert!! amazing!
Thanks so much for info~

This is true and the reason why is because the products with very high gravity have a lot of competition.so it's best to choose products with some gravity but not too much gravity

the best answer for that is "It Depends". If a product has a HIGH gravity then it clearly sells well. but just because an item may have a LOW gravity dsnt mean it doesn't sell well. maybe everyone overlooked it b/c of the low gravity as well. The best bet is to Try it. nothing proves more that Trial

Are products with rebill will cause higher Gravity than products without rebill ?

Alexa, that was an awesome post and very helpful!

I've started on the lower gravity CB products as well and it's helped a tremendous amount in terms of grabbing more traffic and conversions.

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I think Alexa Smith said everything about gravity. Thanks Alexa

Sometimes a high gravity product performs worse than a lower one. It's about doing your research and the most important factor - would you buy the product yourself? So put yourself in customers shoes.