Article Marketing & Clickbank. What's the point?

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.

For me I'd like to see a sale within the first 100 hops alright, but alot of my products have gone from converting 1 in 20/30 to 1 in 200 lately, so it could be to do with this general Clickbank downturn.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.