Confused - Clickbank and paydotcom - do people really buy this stuff?

63 replies
Dear Warriors!

Newbie and first post, so please be gentle! Fantastic forum and great advice. Only read a fraction of the articles and so much more to learn!

Have tried loads of ways of generating money online but have been unsuccesful to date - online shops, premium rate chat numbers (actually generated over $1000 a month in calls but only broke even after marketing costs) and affiliate marketing.

Now moving onto the next project and want to consider promoting Clickbank and Paydotcom products via articles with links to blogs and websites etc.

However, have spent several hours looking through Clickbank and Paydotcom and, to me, it just seems like page after page of mindless junk. Cheesey, tacky sales pages (that have me reaching for the back button before the page has even finished loading), mindless get rich quick schemes for earning $1m a year, ways of losing 2 stone in 24 hours and ways of treating illnesses with holistic methods that have no scientific or medical basis (very very scary and completely and utterly unethical!).

Do people really spend their hard earned cash on this junk? Are there any sites with quality information products to promote?

Have also spent many an hour looking for ebooks (resale rights/PLR etc) to sell via my own websites. But once again, every package that I have (been silly enough) to buy has been complete and utter rubbish (with the exception of WSO "The Newbie Blueprint" which was actually very good). Anyone know where I can get any decent ebooks to sell?

Am I missing something here? If you're convincing enough is it really possible to sell this tripe? Why would people spend $60 on an unprofesssional ebook written by someone they have never heard of when that can buy something 1000 times better from Amazon for a fraction of the cost?

Thanks,

Andy
#buy #clickbank #confused #ebooks #paydotcom #people #stuff
  • Profile picture of the author CSwrite
    Hi Andy,

    Do people really buy this stuff - oh yeah. Clickbank processes 20,000 or more orders a day.

    As for why they pay for ebooks vs. Amazon books, I think a lot of it has to do with getting instant gratification and the market for many of these ebooks are people who are searching for the next great thing.

    One man's crap is another man's treasure essentially.

    That said, there are a lot of diamonds in the rough if you look for them - and if you can't find what you like there is always the option of making one of your own or outsourcing to get it done.

    CS
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    • Profile picture of the author ruchirkc
      The fact is that most of the products in the clickbank database are crap but some are real gems, if you know what I mean. It's up to you to find out the good ones.

      Oh, and welcome to the forums
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      • Profile picture of the author Jelasco
        Originally Posted by ruchirkc View Post

        The fact is that most of the products in the clickbank database are crap
        That's your opinion, not fact.

        How many of the products (not web pages) have you personally reviewed to come to your conclusion?
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    • Profile picture of the author websitemoneynow
      Well clickbank seems to be favoured for sellers it is 50 dollars for a seller account , i beleive amazon is 125 dollars to get started and paydotcom is absolutely free and some argue that paydotcom has a better affiliate tracking system , but if your going for a place i would suggest clickbank as they have 100k affiliates you can leverage
      Signature

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      • Profile picture of the author Mike Hill
        Originally Posted by websitemoneynow View Post

        Well clickbank seems to be favoured for sellers it is 50 dollars for a seller account , i beleive amazon is 125 dollars to get started and paydotcom is absolutely free and some argue that paydotcom has a better affiliate tracking system , but if your going for a place i would suggest clickbank as they have 100k affiliates you can leverage

        It really doesn't matter the entrance fee... and the affiliate network means absolutely nothing if you don't know how to leverage it. Putting a product on ClickBank won;t all of a sudden get you affiliates promoting it...

        A lot of people that are new to this industry think all they have to do is put a product up in ClickBank and affiliates will be lining up to promote it. I made this mistake too a few years ago but the truth is you have to find them, they won't find you until you are in the top 10 of your category.

        So ClickBank might have a network of 100K affiliates but that is irrelevant if you cannot attract them.

        Mike Hill

        PS. The number 1 reason affiliates choose to promote ClickBank products is because they know as affiliates they will actually get paid and get paid on time. I promote a lot of products on many different networks and ClickBank has been the only network that has never been late with a check ;-)
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  • Profile picture of the author alexanderberson
    Originally Posted by Andy1750 View Post

    Dear Warriors!

    Newbie and first post, so please be gentle! Fantastic forum and great advice. Only read a fraction of the articles and so much more to learn!

    Have tried loads of ways of generating money online but have been unsuccesful to date - online shops, premium rate chat numbers (actually generated over $1000 a month in calls but only broke even after marketing costs) and affiliate marketing.

    Now moving onto the next project and want to consider promoting Clickbank and Paydotcom products via articles with links to blogs and websites etc.

    However, have spent several hours looking through Clickbank and Paydotcom and, to me, it just seems like page after page of mindless junk. Cheesey, tacky sales pages (that have me reaching for the back button before the page has even finished loading), mindless get rich quick schemes for earning $1m a year, ways of losing 2 stone in 24 hours and ways of treating illnesses with holistic methods that have no scientific or medical basis (very very scary and completely and utterly unethical!).

    Do people really spend their hard earned cash on this junk? Are there any sites with quality information products to promote?

    Have also spent many an hour looking for ebooks (resale rights/PLR etc) to sell via my own websites. But once again, every package that I have (been silly enough) to buy has been complete and utter rubbish (with the exception of WSO "The Newbie Blueprint" which was actually very good). Anyone know where I can get any decent ebooks to sell?

    Am I missing something here? If you're convincing enough is it really possible to sell this tripe? Why would people spend $60 on an unprofesssional ebook written by someone they have never heard of when that can buy something 1000 times better from Amazon for a fraction of the cost?

    Thanks,

    Andy


    Hi Andy
    welcome to the warrior forums


    To you it maybe mindless junk, but to people who are interested in these products it means one thing and that is "hope". They are buying hope and will most likely never use or even read the product. If something made you feel better about your life or about your body, for $49,99 + tax() , would you pay that much? Yes you would.

    I am promoting dating ebook. LOTS of sales. Every day sales. People love dating material as well as "how to make money online" stuff, also, "how to lose weight". Probably 3 hottest products on the market.


    Hope this helps
    Best regards
    Alexander
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    • Profile picture of the author Dick Doe
      Originally Posted by alexanderberson View Post

      Hi Andy
      welcome to the warrior forums


      To you it maybe mindless junk, but to people who are interested in these products it means one thing and that is "hope". They are buying hope and will most likely never use or even read the product. If something made you feel better about your life or about your body, for $49,99 + tax() , would you pay that much? Yes you would.

      I am promoting dating ebook. LOTS of sales. Every day sales. People love dating material as well as "how to make money online" stuff, also, "how to lose weight". Probably 3 hottest products on the market.


      Hope this helps
      Best regards
      Alexander
      Funny, sometimes I buy one of those 'mindless junk' just to beat stress!

      I actually feel better after spending the money, believe it or not!

      Of course, I mostly buy from the wso section.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dan Briffa
    Andy, it sounds like not alot has been working for you lately. Your saying you have spent lots of money on marketing but only broke even. Not good bro.

    Have you tried selling anything on ebay before? Thats a good way of getting your product in front of lots of hungry customers with a credit card in their hand literally ready to buy!

    I would reccomend trying it if you have not already.
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  • Profile picture of the author Michael Lee
    Originally Posted by Andy1750 View Post

    Dear Warriors!

    However, have spent several hours looking through Clickbank and Paydotcom and, to me, it just seems like page after page of mindless junk. Cheesey, tacky sales pages (that have me reaching for the back button before the page has even finished loading), mindless get rich quick schemes for earning $1m a year, ways of losing 2 stone in 24 hours and ways of treating illnesses with holistic methods that have no scientific or medical basis (very very scary and completely and utterly unethical!).

    Do people really spend their hard earned cash on this junk? Are there any sites with quality information products to promote?

    You can never be sure if a product is crap until you've read and used it yourself.

    Avoid jumping to conclusions unless you're sure... and one reliable way to verify their quality (if you don't want to buy them) is to read reviews of those products.

    Be careful and open-minded when reading reviews though, as some could get biased just to make some sales.
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    • Profile picture of the author deejones
      I've bought a lot of good products from both ClickBank and PayDotCom. So saying all of it is junk is a little unfair. And the fact that the sales letter might look a little loud and flashy often has nothing to do with the quality of the product. Really, the only way to know whether a product is garbage or not is to buy it and judge for yourself.
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      • Profile picture of the author Andy1750
        Hi everyone,

        Wow! Great forum - didn't expect so many responses so quickly.

        Jelasco -Yes - I have bought some information products with a view to selling and, as predicted, they were complete and utter rubbish.

        Dee - OK. But how many have you bought that aren't that good? Not saying that all the information in all these products is completely useless. However, based on my experience, the majority is. Same as betting on horses - you are bound to win occasionally. However, the majority of the time you will loose out. As a consumer I would prefer to play safe and purchase from more conventional sources. That being said I would be quite happy to sell this stuff to people if they are want to buy it!

        Michael - have in fact done as you suggested (and spent a lot of time doing so). Having done quite a bit of research one of the most common strategies for promoting these products is via positive reviews. How can you therefore believe anything that you read?

        CSWrite, alexander, ruchirk - quite agree that everybody's different. If, despite what I have said, people want to buy these products then fine. I have no concerns over the morality of it all! Only concern that I have is that Clickbank and Paydotcom have a finite shelf-life. I agree that in a lot of circumstances you are selling hope - but after that hope has ended in disappointment once people won't return. Hence the concern that I have over including marketing these products via my websites. Set against that of course you have the fact that the tobacco industry kills half of its customers and they're still doing OK! I guess the most important thing to accept is that, to be frank, a significant proportion of the population isn't that intelligent, and will continue to buy these products over and over again. I remember reading for instance on another forum about a guy that admitted spending over £700 ($1200) on get rich quick schemes despite that fact that not a single one had ever worked. There are also people that waste thousands on Casino websites despite that fact that, in the long run, losing money is a mathematical certainty.

        One of my websites is actually dedicated to ways of earning small, but genuine amounts of additional income online - and it's not doing too well, despite a high page ranking in Google for some very polular keywords. Seems that the best way of making sales is to convince people that they are going to achieve the impossible - recover from incurable illnesses, become a millionare overnight or date a supermodel.

        Dan - no, not tried ebay. My understanding was that a lot of people now sell on ebay as a hobby for tiny profits making it very difficult to make a reasonable return.

        OK - next question. After everything that I've read, the key component to any succes is selecting niche keywords. Despite this I notice that most products on clickbank and paydotcom are based on common themes - weight loss, muscle building, common illnesses and get rich quick schemes. How can the thousands and thousands of people that succesfully promote these products all have niche keywords?

        Thank you Warriors for all the advice so far!

        Andy
        Signature

        Not trying to sell you anything :-)

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        • Profile picture of the author deejones
          Originally Posted by Andy1750 View Post

          Dee - OK. But how many have you bought that aren't that good? Not saying that all the information in all these products is completely useless. However, based on my experience, the majority is. Same as betting on horses - you are bound to win occasionally. However, the majority of the time you will loose out. As a consumer I would prefer to play safe and purchase from more conventional sources. That being said I would be quite happy to sell this stuff to people if they are want to buy it!
          Most of the products I've brought at ClickBank or PayDotCom have been good in that they did what they claimed they were going to do, and they taught me something new. They also motivated me to try something, which can be worth the price in some cases.
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          • Profile picture of the author Nicola Lane
            I have found a great product being sold thrugh clickbank - and it is here on a current WSO

            http://www.warriorforum.com/warrior-...fer-price.html

            Check it out! On the full price page there is a link to his affiliate sales page - and he has some great stuff for affiliate marketers.

            I cannot recommend this product highly enough - you will discover that it is not even fail;tly junk, it is one of those diamonds that you are searching for. among the genuine I imagine the refund rate will be zero. I have read it about six times now!
            Signature

            I like to keep an open mind, but not so open that my brains fall out

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            • Profile picture of the author Sirius Lin
              Like any marketplace whether online or offline, there'll always be some junk that you'll have to sort through before you get to the good stuff. I've made a some Clickbank purchases over the years, and asked for refund for a couple because the product turned out to be rehashed PLR stuff.

              Bottomline: you won't know what is good until you buy it. And since there's a money-back guarantee, I think it's a risk worth taking.

              ~ Sirius
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            • Profile picture of the author IM Ace
              Welcome to the Forum, Andy!
              In my opinion, most of the time a highly successful career in IM is not always consistent with being highly ethical. How do you define a highly successful IMer? Someone who is able to "sell" to lots of people or someone who gets lots of "WOWs" from his/her customers? Although both these attributes can coexist, most of the marketers who dont surface up to pronounce their success simply believe in "selling" what sells. Then again, you can add your personality to make the marketing process and what you make your customers feel, unique.
              Hope this make you understand something.
              Signature
              I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.
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        • Profile picture of the author Dan Briffa
          ANDY
          Dan - no, not tried ebay. My understanding was that a lot of people now sell on ebay as a hobby for tiny profits making it very difficult to make a reasonable return.


          I think thats a bit of a myth, i know of plenty of sellers that are making big money on Ebay. Just yesterday i turned over $1,478.38! and over half of that was profit!

          The people that struggle to make money on Ebay are the people that dont know how to effectively market there products or lack knowledge on hot market identification. These people tend to only sell what THEY want to SELL and NOT what people Want TO BUY.. well the majority of people anyway.. You see, alot of the time the seller will think, 'oh i can sell these on ebay, sure people will love to buy them' but what they should be doing is first locating a hungry market and doing the proper research to see if good money can be made selling what they want. There are also other things that must be in place but my point is you can make alot of money on ebay if you do it properly.

          You can even use ebay as a tool to build lists, i know of some people that have generated huge lists in there niche.

          Note also that only 20% of ebay members are sellers 80% are buyers. IS there not a huge gap there for us to make some money ??
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  • Profile picture of the author Monetize
    Hi Andy. The answer to your question is "yes" - ppl
    will buy anything. However, if you feel that CB & PDC
    products are junkie, you can either develop your own
    digital data or establish an account with aff networks
    such as CJ or SAS and promote "real" stuff.
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    • Profile picture of the author Alan Petersen
      You're having a bit of elitist attitude looking down all these products. You are not your target audience. Remember that. If everything is "rubbish" write your own info product and sell it.
      Signature
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      • Profile picture of the author Dissonant
        Originally Posted by Alan Petersen View Post

        You are not your target audience. Remember that.
        Very good point. That's the way I see it.
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        • Profile picture of the author Andy1750
          Alan/Monetize/Dissonant,

          You are absolutely right. I consider there to be a huge gap in the market for quality information products which is yet to be exploited.

          Somewhat surprised that none of you have conseded to my comments. You are right - I am not my target audience. But how can anybody consider any of this stuff as anything but junk? OK it sells. But if the quality was improved it would sell so much better. If any of the people that work for me prepared a report that was less than 100 times better than the rubbish that I see on Clickbank I would genuinely fire them - I really really would.

          I spent many weeks trying to set up a site selling ebooks but could find no content worth selling. Perhaps I should consider doing this myself? Am genuinely confident that I could do a much much better job.

          What has staggered me the most about so many information products is not just the questionable content, but the amateurish (schoolboyish even) presentation and layout in comparison to conventional (and far far cheaper) information resources.

          Electronic information products have some significant catching up to do and the person that exploits the current situation (instead of just jumping on the bandwagon) is going to make a lot of money!

          Andy
          Signature

          Not trying to sell you anything :-)

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          • Profile picture of the author Chris Lockwood
            Originally Posted by Andy1750 View Post

            Somewhat surprised that none of you have conseded to my comments. You are right - I am not my target audience. But how can anybody consider any of this stuff as anything but junk? OK it sells. But if the quality was improved it would sell so much better. If any of the people that work for me prepared a report that was less than 100 times better than the rubbish that I see on Clickbank I would genuinely fire them - I really really would.

            Why would people concede something they don't agree with?

            How many products have you bought from Clickbank?

            Very few of the ones I've bought were junk. Maybe you need to be more selective.

            Could you explain why some products have such low refund rates if they are all junk?
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            • Profile picture of the author Takuya Hikichi
              Andy,

              Give us AT LEAST ONE example: What about these CB products that disappointed you (to the point you'd call them "junk")?
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              • Profile picture of the author Michael Mason
                I agree with what everyone else said. There is a TON of junk on Clickbank and I would never buy some of the products they have on there! However there are plenty of good products/services as well. I personally have some of the ebooks available on Clickbank and I would recommend them. But there is also a lot of junk out there too. Be careful when you are searching for products to promote.

                Another idea is to make your own information products. Write an ebook yourself and make it high quality so you won't feel bad promoting it. Make the price reasonable and start promoting it then. You will make money and feel good about it. Good luck!
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                Net Space Profits 3.0- Make Money Renting Sites to Local Businesses
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          • Profile picture of the author ripsnorta2
            Originally Posted by Andy1750 View Post


            ...

            I spent many weeks trying to set up a site selling ebooks but could find no content worth selling. Perhaps I should consider doing this myself? Am genuinely confident that I could do a much much better job.

            ...
            It's possible that you are simply looking at the wrong eBooks.

            There's an old rule of thumb, the 80/20 rule, that says that 80 percent of anything is crap. You see it in movies, music, and art. I'd be hard pressed to say that the 80/20 rule doesn't apply to eBooks either.

            I think the big problem is that people don't really know what they are looking for when they buy the eBook in the first place. They know they want to make money online, or get a hot date, but they don't have any idea of the market. So they use a shotgun approach and buy a bunch of random products and subsequently get disillusioned.

            I think the best bet, like anything else is to research the eBook you are going to buy first. Just google for reviews. Most of the time you'll be able to find some commentary that gives you an idea of the quality.
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            • Profile picture of the author Takuya Hikichi
              I just want to say something different.

              Had it not been for Clickbank products, I probably wouldn't have read half of all my library as I have up until today.

              Had it not been for Clickbank products, I probably wouldn't have acquired half of my knowledge as I have gained up until today.

              When I buy a Clickbank product, if I GAINED ONE KNOWLEDGE I didn't have before, it's worth my money for me. I'm not out there looking for new "breakthroughs" or something truly remarkable.

              If I happen to read an "already existing information" in a product, as long as the author gives me a different perspective, it'd become a new information for me and worth the purchase.

              I just hate hearing phrases like "A lot of", "Majority of...", "So many of ..." CB products are "crap" or "junk". At what point do you draw a line?

              After 5 products? 20 products? 500 products? Out of 20,000 products? And if it's that bad, just ask for money back and that's what CB is there for.

              People take pride in putting their products up in CB and there are more than enough information found alone in CB to grow anybody's business.
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          • Profile picture of the author dv8
            Originally Posted by Andy1750 View Post


            What has staggered me the most about so many information products is not just the questionable content, but the amateurish (schoolboyish even) presentation and layout in comparison to conventional (and far far cheaper) information resources.

            Electronic information products have some significant catching up to do and the person that exploits the current situation (instead of just jumping on the bandwagon) is going to make a lot of money!

            Andy
            Hey Andy,

            I have never bought anything off of Clickbank, so I am not in a position to say whether they are junk or not.

            But, I do agree with you on the "amateurish" presentation comment. I see A LOT of bad websites. Yes, I know pretty doesn't mean more sales. I am talking more of poor copywriting, going crazy with the highlighter, lots of different fonts, etc.

            Andy- PM sent.
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            • Profile picture of the author Brian Tayler
              Andy,
              I can certainly see where you are coming from.

              Sadly I've seen Reports or eBooks promising a new untapped method to make money... saying in 10-20 pages essentially... "Hey go use Yahoo! Answers, and answer people, then after awhile you'll gain credibility, and you can post affiliate links" Wow really? No sh!t. Wanna tell me about a cool new site that allows me to query pages all over the internet too? Like maybe.... 'Google'?

              Then you have the products that claim to have a new 'technique' to generating millions/thousands/pennies/whatever... then proceed to tell you their super cool ninja trick for rewritting articles... they use this little resource unknown to the general public called a 'thesaurus'

              The sales letter is generally MUCH better (in presentation, grammer, layout, and audio/video quality) than the actual product. Wow... talk about backwards.

              I understand your pain. Truely. But... welcome to marketing. This isn't unqiue to the internet by any means. Clickbank might be the mecca for bad products... but it's no different than there being a channel on TV dedicated to infomercials. Clickbank attracks scum like a bug zapper does bugs. Weeding through this may seem hard and endless... but it is possible.

              Anyone trying to defend Clickbank as not having mostly crap products is probably a product pusher themselves.

              This is actually a HUGE benefit though. Because when someone has a new and unique product it blows up exponentially.

              It may seem tiresome sifting... but the pay offs are huge.

              To your success,
              Brian
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              • Profile picture of the author dabbler
                I agree with the sentiment that most clickbank products are crap. That can be great for hype purposes, but limits your audience severely.

                I wonder why this forum seems so focused on clickbank? There are plenty of non-clickbank quality products (including software products) that a good marketer could promote to a wider audience. (even using the high-pressure sales pitch format).

                If you are promoting them via a website, your site might even get a few return visitors, which can have side benefits...
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                • Profile picture of the author Aegon
                  People like me wouldn't buy any of this stuff. I don't know who does.

                  But their are affiliate networks, which I use, that do have things that even I myself would buy, but haven't because of no money lol
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          • Profile picture of the author Andy Fletcher
            Somewhat surprised that none of you have conseded to my comments. You are right - I am not my target audience. But how can anybody consider any of this stuff as anything but junk? OK it sells. But if the quality was improved it would sell so much better. If any of the people that work for me prepared a report that was less than 100 times better than the rubbish that I see on Clickbank I would genuinely fire them - I really really would.
            I think you're missing some pretty key points here. No one knows what the product is like when they buy it. It's not a book they've picked up in a shop and thumbed through. The only thing they have read (other than offsite reviews) is the sales page itself.

            So please stop saying that better quality information would sell better because it wouldn't (except for the rare occurences where people really start talking about the product and word of mouth spreads). The only actual quality bar you need to get over is the fairly low refund bar. If it's above a certain quality you don't get many refund requests, although that does increase with the price people paid.

            In summary -

            Better product + same sales page = Same sales

            Same product + better sales page = More sales
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            • Profile picture of the author Andy Money
              Am I missing something here? If you're convincing enough is it really possible to sell this tripe? Why would people spend $60 on an unprofesssional ebook written by someone they have never heard of when that can buy something 1000 times better from Amazon for a fraction of the cost?
              Andy I agree. I'm also willing to bet you have spent a long time on the internet. The same usually can't be said for the people buying this "junk". Anyone I show who is seasoned-net-pro thinks any of these sales pages look ridiculous and like scams while any newbie to the net thinks they're just fine--they don't know the difference.
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              • Profile picture of the author Nick Brighton
                Andy,

                There's some things you're missing here.

                1. There ARE lots of quality info products available on the networks. I've bought a few before. Perhaps you're just not looking in the right places.

                2. The sales pages, no matter what you think of them as amateurish, are designed in such a way to make colossal sales every single day. They convert. You wanna know why? Because they nail th emotional hot buttons of the people who are already interested in the solutions these products offer.

                3. These products you see, particularly the top sellers, are engineered to direct response perfection. If you don't like the way that tastes, then try your hand at something else. Many of these "tripe" products generate hundreds of dollars of revenue each month, with very few refunds (most with less than 2% refund rate).

                Btw, weight watchers is one of the most successful diet programs ever created, yet there's still people who are on that are fat. Products are only good when you use them.
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                • Profile picture of the author Skynex53
                  Banned
                  [DELETED]
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                  • Profile picture of the author coreytucker
                    Andy, I thought the exact same thing as you when I got started. I always thought "why would someone pay $50 for a weight loss ebook" when they could get something better at the bookstore for cheaper?

                    In fact I struggled for a while to even realize this was possible, instead I tried selling my own products for dirt cheap (which isn't a bad idea if you know how to market) and pretty much failed doing so simply because I could not drive targeted traffic to my offers.

                    But the point here is people do buy clickbank products. It seems crazy, but ive come to realize that people will pay good money for a problem they are trying to solve. Its nice to make $30 a sale on products that keep coming in. So yes, they do sale Good luck!
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              • Profile picture of the author Mike Hill
                Originally Posted by mrsleep99 View Post

                Andy I agree. I'm also willing to bet you have spent a long time on the internet. The same usually can't be said for the people buying this "junk". Anyone I show who is seasoned-net-pro thinks any of these sales pages look ridiculous and like scams while any newbie to the net thinks they're just fine--they don't know the difference.
                So is that your solution... have NO sales page at all and expect a blog to do your selling..? LOL.

                If these people that you "show" this too are seasoned-net-pro's then they are fully aware of the sales page...

                And when you say "Junk" it's completely unfair to paint everyone with the same brush. Not to mention, your article writing service probably has many clients that promote these products. So when you think about it, you are condoning the continuation of these products by providing marketers with your article service.

                As for me, I have a few of my products on ClickBank and they are top quality. Very low refund rate and I get a lot of email testimonials from satisfied customers.

                Mike Hill
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          • Profile picture of the author Scott Burton
            Originally Posted by Andy1750 View Post

            Somewhat surprised that none of you have conseded to my comments. You are right - I am not my target audience. But how can anybody consider any of this stuff as anything but junk? OK it sells. But if the quality was improved it would sell so much better. If any of the people that work for me prepared a report that was less than 100 times better than the rubbish that I see on Clickbank I would genuinely fire them - I really really would.

            I haven't been through all the replies yet, this is as far as I could go before I had to interject something.

            Unfortunately when it comes to marketing, it isn't the quality of the product that determines what sells. It's the quality of the promotional material.

            If I put an absolute garbage product out (which is entirely against my nature to do), but I got lots of targeted traffic sent to the sales page and had absolute dynamite sales copy, I'd probably make a lot of sales. (Admittedly I'd likely see more refunds with such a piece of garbage product.

            If at the same time I released another product that was total perfection, including absolutely everything you could hope it contained, but had a garbage sales page, I probably would sell few if any. Although those who bought would probably be thrilled with what they received.

            Saying the product would sell better if the quality was improved is a bit inaccurate. Sales are increased by improving the sales material. You can't see the quality until you've already bought the product.

            Improving the quality of the product will increase the satisfaction of customers, and generally reduce the number of refunds, but it will not directly increase sales.

            --Scott Burton
            Signature

            - = Signature on Vacation = -
            (We all need a break from what we do for a living. I thought it was time my signature got a break too)

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            • Profile picture of the author tiger325
              That's exactly what it is...we live in a world of wanting things fast and now. The internet along with ebooks provides that for customers and yes I am proof..they do buy.
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              • Profile picture of the author Tovuti
                I personally have written several ebook that are on Clickbank so I take exception to the statement that Clickbank products are junk.

                Having said that, there are some Clickbank products that are of questionable value. Clickbank has a way of dealing with products that have high refund rates and these publishers are charged a higher holdback rate (i.e. the average holdbank rate is 10% of current sales to be released in 12 weeks. They can go higher up to 100% as they see fit).

                One thing you'll always get from a Clickbank product that you'll never see from a book you buy from Amazon is a 100% guarantee. Try returning a book to Amazon because you didn't like it and see what kind of response you get.
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                • Profile picture of the author Shevd
                  People definately do buy stuff from clickbank and paydotcom , look at the gravity on some of top selling products and you will see.
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                • Profile picture of the author Raquel
                  Andy,
                  Why don't you try it yourself? CB product sells and people here are making a living out of it. There are thousands if not millions of products available in CB. If you cannot sell one, there must be something wrong in the way to market it.

                  Im my case, I still have a lot of things to learn, but I am making sales.

                  When I started in IM, the only thing I have is FAITH and POSITIVE ATTITUDE...for 3 months I have no earnings, but I keep selling...I always think "If they can sell CB products, why can't I?...So i keep selling and selling and selling and try every product that have high gravity (because that means people are promoting it and why will they promote it if the product is not selling?) But in time you will also discover a lot of things on how and what product to choose. What niches are profitable...

                  I read this somewhere and I believe this is true: "If you know how to sell you do not need a job"

                  Goodluck Andy, CB product sells
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                  Raquel

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                  • Profile picture of the author TheMagicShow
                    If clickbank was stuffed with tons of rubbish products ,then clickbank would have been out of businss long time ago, makes sense doesn't it? Junk to you might be a treasure to someone else.
                    Signature

                    " You can either give a man a fish and feed him for a day OR teach him how to catch a fish and it will feed him for a lifetime"

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  • Profile picture of the author jhongren
    Originally Posted by Andy1750 View Post

    Dear Warriors!

    Newbie and first post, so please be gentle! Fantastic forum and great advice. Only read a fraction of the articles and so much more to learn!

    Have tried loads of ways of generating money online but have been unsuccesful to date - online shops, premium rate chat numbers (actually generated over $1000 a month in calls but only broke even after marketing costs) and affiliate marketing.

    Now moving onto the next project and want to consider promoting Clickbank and Paydotcom products via articles with links to blogs and websites etc.

    However, have spent several hours looking through Clickbank and Paydotcom and, to me, it just seems like page after page of mindless junk. Cheesey, tacky sales pages (that have me reaching for the back button before the page has even finished loading), mindless get rich quick schemes for earning $1m a year, ways of losing 2 stone in 24 hours and ways of treating illnesses with holistic methods that have no scientific or medical basis (very very scary and completely and utterly unethical!).

    Do people really spend their hard earned cash on this junk? Are there any sites with quality information products to promote?

    Have also spent many an hour looking for ebooks (resale rights/PLR etc) to sell via my own websites. But once again, every package that I have (been silly enough) to buy has been complete and utter rubbish (with the exception of WSO "The Newbie Blueprint" which was actually very good). Anyone know where I can get any decent ebooks to sell?

    Am I missing something here? If you're convincing enough is it really possible to sell this tripe? Why would people spend $60 on an unprofesssional ebook written by someone they have never heard of when that can buy something 1000 times better from Amazon for a fraction of the cost?

    Thanks,

    Andy
    Hi Andy,

    Great question to ask for your first post.

    Eventually, you are going to clear your doubts and move on beyond a newbie mindset.

    For clickbank and paydotcom, since you have not bought any, I feel it is too early to label all of them as "mindless junk".

    Perhaps you have "tried" many ways to make money online, may I ask what exactly did you do and what the conversions are and whether you did seek advice from someone who is successful and fine tune your methods.

    Many Warriors here have been making money online but their successes sure don't happen overnight.

    Most have persevere for many years and fine tune their methods till they work and are bringing them lots of passive income month;ly, some 5 figures while others 6 figures.

    For others who say IM does not work, most likely they "tried" it (not do whatever it takes) or they just keep on buying IM products, read a few pages and chuck it somewhere to collect cyber dust.

    Cheers,
    John
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    • Profile picture of the author Daniel Scott
      Andy,

      I agree. Most of the products are terrible. But not all.

      In my niche, there are maybe 20 ebooks that I've found so far. I'd say 17 of them are terrible. Three are good - mine and two others.

      I usually go by testimonials, but I know way too many people who make those up. It's not something I personally can stomach doing, but I know a lot of successful marketers who DO do it.

      However, for me, getting those kinds of testimonials is just awesome. The ones where people tell you how much you have improved their lives. It reaffirms to me that my product is good and is making a difference.

      One thing I have found is to check who is advertising on PPC networks - those are the products that are profitable and convert well. Also check to see how long they have been around.

      If a site has been around a fair while and is still advertising on PPC networks (or anything that costs money, really) then they are likely to be a good bet.

      -Dan
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      Always looking for badass direct-response copywriters. PM me if we don't know each other and you're looking for work.

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      • Profile picture of the author Faisal Anwar
        oh yeah, at first when I started IM, I also thought no one would buy all these eBooks. But after doing IM, I realise people actually buy these product, its a market of its own! But paydotcom has much lesser order than clickbank as most affiliates prefer clickbank
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  • Profile picture of the author andrew_writes
    I don't know if this will help you but I threw up a directy with a bunch of ebooks, many of which have resell rights for another warrior this week past.

    You or any other warrior may download them as you see fit.

    The link to the directory is;
    htttp://www.componga.com/Nowak

    Let me know how it turns out and I will probably remove the directory next week to save on hositing space.
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    • Profile picture of the author jhongren
      In summary -

      Better product + same sales page = Same sales

      Same product + better sales page = More sales
      To add on to what Andy Fletcher said,

      There are various Marketing Techniques we use and this affects the sales too.

      Marketing can be simply from:
      1. PPC campaign
      2. SEO
      3. Article marketing
      4. Social traffic
      5. Forums marketing
      6. Ad swap
      7. JVs
      8. Email marketing through list building

      And the more Targeted the customers are, the more sales you will get.

      John
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      • Profile picture of the author dabbler
        Response to the opinion that quality does'nt matter on clickbank...

        The only product I ever bought on clickbank was a SEO software program. I had seen it recommended by several seo types on the net whose opinion I valued to a certain extent. I bought it and it repayed me many times over.

        If this product had sucked, I would never have heard about it, researched it further, or bought it. I might be an exception to the rule though.

        And yes I concede there might be a few good products on clickbank.
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        • Profile picture of the author Kevin Marshall
          Andy I wanted to personally thank you for posting this question. I am new to IM too as I have only been doing research on IM for just over a week. Last weekend, I started looking through the Clickbank products and I felt the same way that you did! I was like...People actually buy this stuff? The responses to your question are the answers I've been looking for.
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          Confused about SEO? Facebook? Adwords? Send me a PM to apply for your free 30 minute consultation today!



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  • Profile picture of the author Daniel Molano
    Originally Posted by Andy1750 View Post

    Dear Warriors!

    Newbie and first post, so please be gentle! Fantastic forum and great advice. Only read a fraction of the articles and so much more to learn!

    Have tried loads of ways of generating money online but have been unsuccesful to date - online shops, premium rate chat numbers (actually generated over $1000 a month in calls but only broke even after marketing costs) and affiliate marketing.

    Now moving onto the next project and want to consider promoting Clickbank and Paydotcom products via articles with links to blogs and websites etc.

    However, have spent several hours looking through Clickbank and Paydotcom and, to me, it just seems like page after page of mindless junk. Cheesey, tacky sales pages (that have me reaching for the back button before the page has even finished loading), mindless get rich quick schemes for earning $1m a year, ways of losing 2 stone in 24 hours and ways of treating illnesses with holistic methods that have no scientific or medical basis (very very scary and completely and utterly unethical!).

    Do people really spend their hard earned cash on this junk? Are there any sites with quality information products to promote?

    Have also spent many an hour looking for ebooks (resale rights/PLR etc) to sell via my own websites. But once again, every package that I have (been silly enough) to buy has been complete and utter rubbish (with the exception of WSO "The Newbie Blueprint" which was actually very good). Anyone know where I can get any decent ebooks to sell?

    Am I missing something here? If you're convincing enough is it really possible to sell this tripe? Why would people spend $60 on an unprofesssional ebook written by someone they have never heard of when that can buy something 1000 times better from Amazon for a fraction of the cost?

    Thanks,

    Andy
    Hey Andy,

    First of all, I'm glad you liked my e-book and that it was the exception!

    Now, the truth is, those things in CB and Paydotcom sell.

    And some are actually pretty good. The thing with those sales letters is that it has basically become a standard in the industry, but sometimes there are really good products hidden behind them.

    I'll send you a PM with a few suggestions.

    Best of luck,

    Daniel Molano
    Signature
    Como Ganar Dinero Por Internet - Spanish Make Money Online Site

    Daniel Molano
    - LinkedIn Profile
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    • Profile picture of the author nursehoney
      There's a lot of junk in the bookstore too. Ugly covers, boring writing, and wrong information. Anytime you have a huge repository like a bookstore or clickbank, there's bound to be some junk.

      On the other hand, just because you see it as 'tripe' doesn't make it tripe. I feel the same way about most of the 'graphic novels' on the market today. I think they're awful. But that's big business too.

      Like others here have said, you have to find the gems among the stones.

      But you don't have to sell anything from Clickbank, ever. There are thousands of other products with affiliate programs.

      Best of luck,
      Honey
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      • Profile picture of the author timpears
        Andy,

        If you are so smart, and the products out there are such crap, then produce your own. I got to tell you that I got tired of reading this thread real quick. You start off telling us that you failed at making money online as your expenses equaled your income, therefore no profit. Then you try to tell us the product, that seem to be written by those that are making money, are less than worth while. You sound just a little elitist to me. Obviously you don't belong in this business as you don't believe in the product, so if you don't create your own product you shouldn't promote products that you don't believe in. I don't think that you can produce a product of you own as you don't know how to make money on the net in order to write about it. Maybe you can write something on losing weight or god knows what.

        Sorry if I sound a little harsh, but your post was just a tad elitist in my mind. I have read some of the crap that you refer to, and found some very interesting information in it. I wasn't reading Shakespeare, but then I wasn't expecting to. I wanted to know certain information and many times I got that information. That is what I paid for, and that is what I got. That wasn't crap, it was what I was looking for, the answer to my questions.
        Signature

        Tim Pears

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        • Profile picture of the author Ricter
          Thank goodness for elitism. I don't want houses, planes, bridges, buildings, or relationships with people or this universe built from dollar-store crap.

          That being said, the dollar store is just fine for certain products. The difference is, "Dollar Store" is on the shingle outside. You know what you're in for before you buy a thing.
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          • Profile picture of the author Daniel Molano
            Originally Posted by Ricter View Post

            Thank goodness for elitism. I don't want houses, planes, bridges, buildings, or relationships with people or this universe built from dollar-store crap.

            That being said, the dollar store is just fine for certain products. The difference is, "Dollar Store" is on the shingle outside. You know what you're in for before you buy a thing.
            I agree. Besides, Andy is NOT being elitist, he is being "picky". And last time I checked "picky" is good.

            There is nothing wrong with being an educated consumer, in fact, the world is needing more people like that now a days.

            Best of luck,

            Daniel Molano
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            - LinkedIn Profile
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          • Profile picture of the author Mike Hill
            Well, my product is on ClickBank and there are a lot of
            people here who bought it and are thrilled with it...

            Mike Hill

            PS. The method were you generated $1,000 but broke even...
            you just need to find a better way to market it.
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            • Profile picture of the author Ricter
              Originally Posted by Mike Hill View Post


              Mike Hill

              PS. The method were you generated $1,000 but broke even...
              you just need to find a better way to market it.
              And/or, assuming it is of the quality Andy implies he seeks, perhaps it was underpriced.
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          • Profile picture of the author ktian
            Clickbank main business is to provide a platform for people to sell information. In the information age era, people will pay a lot for specialized information (A 200+ pages book can cost $120++, a seat in a seminar can cost up to $3000 for 2 hours!).

            As for some people concern that whether people will buy those "get-rich" e-books on clickbank, then you got a very wrong perception on what clickbank does (see above). Internet marketing e-book is just one type of information available. There is e-books on
            • How to improve your computer gaming skills
            • How to cure arthritis
            • How to manage your cash flow
            • How to invest in stock markets
            And the list goes on and on! Therefore your job to earn money on clickbank (or any other places) is to direct people with problems to the products that have answers they need! That's how value is created to them.

            As for whether people will pay for e-books that are written by unknown authors, then you can be relieve. Because
            • Humans are emotional animals. With the right marketing strategies, you can sell to them (Have you ever took a dumb investment advice from your friends and lose money? They are not as good as Warren Buffett is it!?)
            • Most Clickbank products have a 60 days money back guarantee. This hedge the risk from consumers to products creators, which they are pressured to create something that really works!

            Regards,
            Kevin Tian
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            • Profile picture of the author Daniel Molano
              He's just saying that a lot of the products he's seen are crap, which is true. I don't think he ever stated that all the products are bad.

              Sometimes you will find gems digging around, for any niche.
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              - LinkedIn Profile
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          • Profile picture of the author seasoned
            ALOT of stuff on clickbank IS junk! MAYBE most of it. And, you know what? Some of it NEVER sells!!! Still, some IS good. Some DOES sell.

            CSWRITE said like 20,000 orders a day! ALL orders are from ONE "vendor". That means, even distribution, that there may be THOUSANDS that don't make a sale every day. Since a handful may make hundreds or thousands of sales a day, that means MANY DON'T. But some sell well, and most of them are at least passable. NOT 100% junk.

            I bought a few things. MOST didn't have a hope of living up to the promise, and some are ones **I** would have considered junk, but I think almost all were passable to someone. A few I even liked! Then again, I don't buy EVERYTHING.

            Steve
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          • Profile picture of the author Ben Roy
            Andy,

            The emperor IS wearing clothes and they ARE very nice. We all know it's true! Take your talk of nudity elsewhere.
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          • Profile picture of the author Michael Gentry
            The products sell. Its all in the marketing.
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            • Profile picture of the author Ricter
              Originally Posted by mikeg514 View Post

              The products sell. Its all in the marketing.
              That's great news! I'm writing a new ebook, hypnosis of course, for men, to enlarge their... well, 'nuff said!
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      • Profile picture of the author Matt Fulger
        I feel your pain!

        But believe it or not there are quite a few decent products
        selling on CB and PDC right now. Many of them are from
        fellow warriors. Some are offered right here through the
        WSO forum.

        You just have to do your due diligence, which I know can
        be extremely hard with so many promoters writing positive
        reviews for shit they've never really seen. But it is still
        possible. One way is to communicate directly with the
        product owner and/or the affiliate marketing the product.
        You can kind of gauge the quality of the product from the
        quality of the responses you get from the product owner.

        If you cannot get a reply or you get cheesy one line replies,
        you pretty much know to skip that one and move on. If you
        know what I mean.

        As for the "amateurish" looking sales pages....
        In many cases this is done purposely, to give the impression
        that ANYONE can do this. People kind of warm up to the idea
        that they really can do this too when they see that these types
        of sales pages are making consistent sales daily.

        Peace & Prosperity,
        Matt Fulger
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