Is making money through clickbank and affiliate marketing still viable?

27 replies
So I guess the title says it all, is it still a profitible venture?
#affiliate #clickbank #making #marketing #money #viable
  • Profile picture of the author mikeroosa
    Sure it's still possible. Many people make a very good living promoting affiliate products. Find a system that works for you and go for it.
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  • Profile picture of the author RichardF
    Sure, it's just not viable for people who aren't willing to put in the work. It takes a ton of time and effort, which is why so many people give up before they even earn a single $.
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  • Profile picture of the author MaxZimmer
    Sure.
    Find a good product + a good niche, write a few quality articles, do some seo and you'll make some sales very soon.
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    • Profile picture of the author ramon25
      I would say also backlinks, squeeze page, a list ect. Also is the health feild to saturated?
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      • Profile picture of the author Steve Faber
        Originally Posted by ramon25 View Post

        I would say also backlinks, squeeze page, a list ect. Also is the health feild to saturated?
        No, there are a million high demand niches within the health field. It's definitely not too saturated. Just don't be one of those affiliates who sell sham products that don't work to desperate people who really need relief from their problems. There are too many honest ways to make affiliate money in the health field
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      • Profile picture of the author myob
        Originally Posted by ramon25 View Post

        ... is the health feild to saturated?
        Not at all saturated, but very competitive. There are some big bucks being made by CB and Amazon affiliates in this and hundreds of other hot niches as well as millions of other lucrative but less competitive niches.
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    • Profile picture of the author timpears
      Originally Posted by MaxZimmer View Post

      Sure.
      Find a good product + a good niche, write a few quality articles, do some seo and you'll make some sales very soon.
      I think that is the hard part though. There is so much crap on Clickbank that is isn't easy to find good products.
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      • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
        Banned
        Originally Posted by myob View Post

        Not at all saturated, but very competitive.
        Indeed ... a significant distinction.

        "Health" isn't a niche, but a market, and one of the world's biggest. It contains (at least) hundreds of different niches, with varying degrees of competition. But "saturated"? Not even close ...

        Originally Posted by timpears View Post

        There is so much crap on Clickbank that is isn't easy to find good products.
        I don't disagree at all.

        But with 14,000+ active products, there are good ones there, too.

        It's very time-consuming finding them, but enormously worthwhile/profitable when you get it right. You really do have to look hard and go gravity-mining for the gold-dust.

        I try to spend 20 minutes per day, every day, scouring the marketplace for stuff I've missed. (It's quite interesting and enjoyable, too: you get to see a lot of weird and wonderful copywriting that way, albeit that you need a strong stomach to digest some of it.)

        Overall, it's actually one of the most essential and valuable ways I have of spending "working time".

        I despair for people when I see them saying how much time they spend on every other aspect of their business and how they expect to be able to choose a product in 10 minutes. :rolleyes: :p
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        • Profile picture of the author omk
          yeah, it's always hard in the beginning. A lot of time has to be put in.
          I call it paying your dues. We all have to go thru some of that.
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      • Profile picture of the author Paperchasing
        Originally Posted by timpears View Post

        I think that is the hard part though. There is so much crap on Clickbank that is isn't easy to find good products.
        Man, tell me about it. I've basically sat on my hands for almost two years since I opened my Clickbank account because finding a product I would actually buy there is a nightmare. And I know there's good stuff on there, too...I just can't find it.
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  • Profile picture of the author smoh
    absolutely. I haven't done much through clickbank and found another niche to work in. I found it difficult to find enough solid products and I hate putting my name out there for products I wouldn't use myself.
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  • Profile picture of the author omk
    Oh yeah, it's still profitable. The problem many marketers have is that they are looking at the IM world thru their own little window. So they see just what's in their front yard.
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  • Profile picture of the author Curt Snow
    I think one of the toughest parts of online marketing is to step outside of our usual "thinking box" and look at things from the eyes of others.

    We all think a certain way and have certain interests. This can make it tough at times to find niches to promote. This has been the area where I have probably battled the most. A lot of it has to do with personality types and how we think.

    It can be overcome, but takes a bit of work and perseverance on the part of the individual.

    Competition is definitely a bigger factor now than it was when I started several years ago. It is probably 25 times more competitive (not 25%... 25X) than it was 4 years ago.

    Google has also made it much, much tougher to compete, especially in the PPC arena, shutting down affiliate Adwords accounts at will.

    Is it still a viable way to make a good living? Absolutely. It just takes a lot of hard work. The rewards are worth the effort, though
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  • Profile picture of the author Tom Lazenby
    I've never been able to make a penny from Clickbank products...though last I tried I was in my early "Try a bit of everything, work on it for 5 minutes, then claim it doesn't work before moving on" phase...thankfully, I'm over that now.

    My main successes have come from selling my own products and having affiliates promote them for me. It can definitely work, just don't expect to throw up a page and make sales overnight.
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  • Profile picture of the author SeanSupplee
    Yup but you need to watch what products you promote there is way to much crap out there right now and its going to damage your reputation if your recommend people to crap.
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  • Profile picture of the author lotsofsnow
    It really depends on how you plan to get the traffic. If you spend too much on traffic or if you spend too much time on getting free traffic it is obviously not viable. But if you can figure out how to get lots of targeted traffic it can be very rewarding.
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    • Profile picture of the author SB274
      hpgoodboy made a great point. There is plenty of money to be made in affiliate marketing on and off clickbank - if you know how. Having good quality targeted traffic is imperative to make any real money with affiliate marketing. If you don't have a list, a good source of traffic can be from solo ads. I would check that out, but be very careful who you work with.

      Originally Posted by hpgoodboy View Post

      It really depends on how you plan to get the traffic. If you spend too much on traffic or if you spend too much time on getting free traffic it is obviously not viable. But if you can figure out how to get lots of targeted traffic it can be very rewarding.
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  • Profile picture of the author Leonsroarteam
    It certainly is! Just need to make sure you are doing what you enjoy and put forth the effort and dedication and you will see results
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    • Profile picture of the author ramon25
      Thanks guys for all the responses! lots of stuff to think about. In the best possible light. With dedication, seo, a list, good product ect. What can the average person expect to make? just a rough ball park.. Anybody here make good money through this?
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      • Profile picture of the author myob
        Originally Posted by ramon25 View Post

        ...Anybody here make good money through this?
        There are quite a few here in the WF making six figures per month and more just promoting affiliate products.
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  • Profile picture of the author jgant
    I do pretty well solely with affiliate marketing. Targeted traffic is the key. Get as much targeted traffic as possible.

    Once you have traffic, you can test to improve conversion and build a list. You can also role out your own product if inclined (but you're asking about affiliate marketing).

    I focus on a couple large sites, but am also directing a few resources and time to some micro-niche sites I set up about 10 months ago for testing (testing SEO and conversion).

    Once your site starts ranking well, when you add a post, you'll get traffic to that post fairly quickly, especially if you throw some backlinks to it. I liken affiliate marketing to rolling a boulder up the hill. It's slow-going at first, but once you hit the crest, it gets so much easier.

    Focus on targeted traffic like a laser. Targeted traffic is targeting buying keywords. If you write articles that are info-based (rather than pre-selling) link to your pre-selling articles.

    For a long time I ignored getting traffic. Then I had a site getting some okay traffic (100 unique visitors/day) and I was making sales almost every day. That's when it dawned on me - if I make $20 or $30 per day from 100 unique visitors, how much could I earn with 500 or 1000 unique visitors. It's all about traffic and then conversion!!

    I'll echo Alexa in that choosing good products is also important. For digital products, I generally buy them first to see if they're good so I can write informative articles about them. I also find when I shell out $50 or $100 (or more) for a digital product, I'm pretty keen in writing some killer content to recoup my investment asap.

    Once you get traffic, then you must test your conversion especially if you aren't getting sales. Keep tweaking until you get sales. It's frustrating, but necessary. If building a list, and you're not getting opt-ins, test your copy and the give-away. For one list I'm building, I had to try 4 different offers until I found one that worked well.
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    • Profile picture of the author ramon25
      you mean create a product?
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  • Profile picture of the author calfred
    Yes. It's a goldmine. Don't get on it.
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  • Sure it is.

    But you have to know how to do it the right way. I'd say, get started and keep making mistakes until you make money.
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  • No. I think you should try something else, for sure. :p
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  • Profile picture of the author Trent Raymond
    Originally Posted by ramon25 View Post

    So I guess the title says it all, is it still a profitible venture?
    Absolutely, yes, the opportunity still exists. I started 5 months ago and my income is improving each month.

    They key is to find a repeatable formula. For me that is building niche sites and using VAs to do all the work so that it doesn't take very much of my time to get them built and ranked in G.

    I blog about the "how" part of all of this, so if you want to read some posts, just click my sig link.

    The short versions is:

    1. Research your keywords and pick the low hanging fruit
    2. Build sites that are SEO friendly
    3. Write compelling content and backlink the heck out of it
    4. Split test your offers
    5. Count the profit
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