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Is Clickbank truly worth it?

by DrAlexMV
53 replies
I recently became interested in the IM market and profit potential. After some research, I stumbled upon Clickbank. Excited, I went on to do some serious research on the forums and found highly polarized opinions on Clickbank.

I am currently looking for means of profit to pay my college loans and tuition, and I surely do not want to get sucked into something that will not work.

Could some trustworthy Warriors debate the viability of Clickbank products?
#clickbank #worth
  • Profile picture of the author myob
    Just as in any marketplace you will find a wide variety of products, of quality, diversity of opinion, and misinformation. I do agree with much of the sentiment that there is an awful lot of crap, but there really are also some sparkling gems.

    In addition, what may be one's ticket to fortune, may be another's failure; not necessarily a reflection of the product itself. There are indeed many right here on this forum bringing in 5-7 digit monthly incomes or even more. It's been well worth it for me for several years (in dozens of non-IM niches).
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    • Profile picture of the author rwbovee
      Something called cb-tracker can give you the refund rate on these products. If there's a high refund rate that product is probably a ripoff but if the refund rate is at or near 0%, especially for a higher priced item, it's probably legitimate.
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      • Profile picture of the author Kate_Kruz
        Clickbank is really good if you are a product creator, it can really help boost your income if you are experienced in what you are teaching, I helped with a product in the health weightloss niche that had tons of affiliates jumping on board to promote and lots of people got paid including myself, refund rate was low and some affiliates earned some big commissions.
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    • Profile picture of the author Astron
      Originally Posted by myob View Post

      Just as in any marketplace you will find a wide variety of products, of quality, diversity of opinion, and misinformation. I do agree with much of the sentiment that there is an awful lot of crap, but there really are also some sparkling gems.

      In addition, what may be one's ticket to fortune, may be another's failure; not necessarily a reflection of the product itself. There are indeed many right here on this forum bringing in 5-7 digit monthly incomes or even more. It's been well worth it for me for several years (in dozens of non-IM niches).
      Paul,

      May I ask you how many CB products do you promote? Do you promote products in highly competetive niches?

      I manually checked almost 3000 products but I only found 5-8 what I could use..

      I skipped the weight loss, IM and health markets..(too competetive, too difficult to set up a good converting sales funnel) Also I`m not interested in these crap niches as well: forex, satellite, xbox. And in some funny niches like: how to build a chicken coop, how to raise goats, chickens, rabbits...
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      • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
        Banned
        Originally Posted by Astron View Post

        I manually checked almost 3000 products but I only found 5-8 what I could use.
        Hmmmm ...

        There's someone here who's even more selective than I am. I wouldn't have put money on that.

        Originally Posted by Astron View Post

        I skipped the weight loss, IM and health markets..(too competetive, too difficult to set up a good converting sales funnel) Also I`m not interested in these crap niches as well: forex, satellite, xbox. And in some funny niches like: how to build a chicken coop, how to raise goats, chickens, rabbits...
        You're excluding some niches there that very, very few truly successful pro-affiliates would exclude.

        Highly competitive markets can have non-competitive marketing niches and marketing methods within them.

        "Crap niches" are very subjective, aren't they?

        And "funny niches" can sometimes have bestselling low-gravity products available, with brilliant, high-converting sales pages about which very few affiliates are aware.

        Just my perspective.
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        • Profile picture of the author BillyBee
          Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

          Highly competitive markets can have non-competitive marketing niches and marketing methods within them.
          This is exciting to read, Alexa. I'd like to hear more about this. Maybe even an example so that I'm clear on what you mean, exactly.

          Let me take a stab here . . . so a competitive market such as weight loss could contain any number of niches within that market, right? And let's say you saw that there were some good products and not so much competition in, say, yoga. (Have no idea if this is true; just brainstorming this as an example.)

          So one way to do this would be to ... what exactly? Put up a site pertaining to yoga and how it relates specifically to weight loss? And then find some channels (marketing methods) that might work well for that niche?

          Trying to get my mind around this because you hit on something that seems rather "A-ha!" to me. Thanks for any help.
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          • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
            Banned
            Originally Posted by BillyBee View Post

            This is exciting to read, Alexa. I'd like to hear more about this. Maybe even an example so that I'm clear on what you mean, exactly.
            The example that springs to mind (though I'm not quite sure how "on-topic" it is to the context you're asking about) is that a year or so ago there was a group of ClickBank affiliates who made a real killing out of a product called (I think) "FatLoss4Idiots" by finding a "less competitive way" to market it. They knew that some very high percentage of buyers of products like this are women over the age of 30 (which I'm sure is right), and decided to target their marketing at non-weight-loss online places frequented mostly by women over the age of 30 (anything to do with kids, I suppose? That sort of thing?), to avoid the typical problems of marketing in a highly competitive niche. Just "overlapping customer demographics", really - nothing particularly clever about it, but it worked really well for them.

            In a sense, even just looking for very long-tail keywords is an example of that, though, perhaps? :confused:
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        • Profile picture of the author Astron
          Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

          Hmmmm ...

          There's someone here who's even more selective than I am. I wouldn't have put money on that.



          You're excluding some niches there that very, very few truly successful pro-affiliates would exclude.

          Highly competitive markets can have non-competitive marketing niches and marketing methods within them.

          "Crap niches" are very subjective, aren't they?

          And "funny niches" can sometimes have bestselling low-gravity products available, with brilliant, high-converting sales pages about which very few affiliates are aware.

          Just my perspective.
          Thanks for the reply! Yes you are right about that "Highly competitive markets can have non-competitive marketing niches" For instance the "how to get pregnant" niche is a very competitive one, but one of its subniche the "how to get pregnant with twins" (yes there is a product on that on CB ) could be a way less competitive one to target. My only problem with the 3 biggest markets on CB (IM, weight loss, health) is that it`s way more difficult to setup a sales funnel for these kind of products comparing to other smaller markets.

          It`s not equally as easy to archive a sale in every niches. (I only promote through article marketing.)

          In some niches you need to write professional presell articles. If you don`t know how to write them you need to hire a very good (very expensive) ghost writer who has some copywriter skills as well. You need to setup a professional autoresponder sequence which lasts for months. You frequently send out presell articles, bonus presell Ebooks, reports, reviews, your very best tips on the subject. You teach your subscribers for weeks, months in order to sell them your 1st cheap product, you start to teach them on related subjects, why they need your 2nd medium priced product, your high ticket item, a membership product etc.

          You literally need to present yourself as an expert on the subject, you need to prove why they should listen to you. Nobody will buy your fat loss product just because you wrote an article on "How to lose 10 pounds in a week". There is a lot of evidence that people don't buy on the first visit in a niche like this. They can chose from thousands of fat loss products, why should they listen to your recommendation? Who are you, anyway? You should follow up them through a complex sales process (by opt-in) before your visitor decide.

          Also in some niches (the type what I`m currently looking for) - I.E. "how to get rid of bed bugs", "fear of flying"..- you maybe don`t even need to build list. Or if you do, the sales process is not that complex, because you may only need to send out a couple of basic "how to", "tips and tricks" articles to get additional sales. There is no need the teach the subscribers on the subject before you can archive a sale. No need to build trust, to make them belive that you are an authority on the subject. You just write some well researched presell articles on the subject. It works because your readers needs immediate help, they desperate, they want a quick fix, they don`t wanna read through a bunch of articles, they don`t wanna learn a lot more before they decide to buy. You can get them buy in a matter of minutes.

          You have a lot easier job to convert them into buyers.

          Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

          "Crap niches" are very subjective, aren't they?
          Sorry, I meant about crap products on CB, in my opinion in these niches: forex, internet satellite tv and so on..there are only scam products. If somebody disagree, I would be more than happy to check out a good one.

          Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

          And "funny niches" can sometimes have bestselling low-gravity products available, with brilliant, high-converting sales pages about which very few affiliates are aware.
          Yes I agree, but the internet is loaded with completly free resources on these niches. Also, the search volume is very low for targeted long tails in these niches, and again they attract info seekers. I might give a shot sometime, but for now it`s hard to belive that there is a lot of money in these niches.
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          • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
            Banned
            Many thanks for such an excellent and perceptive reply.

            I think the only place where I really disagree with you at all is my feeling that some of the "funny" niches do actually have some money in them ...

            (I traded forex for a living - of sorts - for nearly a year; it's my father's profession and part of my upbringing, and I've read 40+ textbooks on the subject; I don't claim to have seen every ClickBank product in the niche, obviously, but I'd be astonished if there were one there that I'd be willing to promote: they're all directly or indirectly "indicator-based", aren't they?! ).
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            • Profile picture of the author Astron
              Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

              Many thanks for such an excellent and perceptive reply.

              I think the only place where I really disagree with you at all is my feeling that some of the "funny" niches do actually have some money in them ...

              (I traded forex for a living - of sorts - for nearly a year; it's my father's profession and part of my upbringing, and I've read 40+ textbooks on the subject; I don't claim to have seen every ClickBank product in the niche, obviously, but I'd be astonished if there were one there that I'd be willing to promote: they're all directly or indirectly "indicator-based", aren't they?! ).
              Thanks for your suggestions! I might have a look sometime, I really like these:

              - How To Build A Tree House
              - How To Survive in Prison



              I have a huge list of niches now since I spent days on cb-analytics..
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          • Profile picture of the author josoave
            I am very new to clickbank and have seen very different experiences. I have a blog and the way I am incorporating CB is having a link to a product related to the content of my blog. I can share my experience once I give this a try.

            did anyone try this yet? It would be good to know if actually works.
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      • Profile picture of the author myob
        Originally Posted by Astron View Post

        Paul,

        May I ask you how many CB products do you promote? Do you promote products in highly competetive niches?

        I manually checked almost 3000 products but I only found 5-8 what I could use..

        I skipped the weight loss, IM and health markets..(too competetive, too difficult to set up a good converting sales funnel) Also I`m not interested in these crap niches as well: forex, satellite, xbox. And in some funny niches like: how to build a chicken coop, how to raise goats, chickens, rabbits...
        I promote about 300 Clickbank products which consists of 6 to 15 products in several of the Marketplace categories. These are in some of the most highly competitive niches (translation - very lucrative). All of the products I promote have a gravity under 5, and quite a number of them actually have the gravity of a goose egg.

        Using lists and presell pages to promote Clickbank products will dramatically increase conversions. IMO it is absolutely essential to have a list. My style of marketing is progressing my subscriber lists through a sequence of incrementally higher priced products from the inexpensive to continuity programs and ultimately six-figure high end Amazon products. The pipeline extends from a few months to over 11 years of repeat buyers.

        I have posted a few of my favorite niches before, but here they are again: besides health and fitness, there's mobile marketing, telecommunications, Near-Field Communication (NFC), Internet Protocol Television (IPTV), light emitting diodes (LED), robotics, astronomy, software, renewable energy, investments, agriculture, apparel, personal development, interior design, weight loss, pharmaceuticals, video games, gambling, golfing, tattoo removal, condoms, circumcision, mammagrams, baby products, baby boomer products, funeral products, sports, security, janitorial services, water treatment, weddings, asbestos litigation, pet services, conspiracies, UFOs, end of the world, cake decorating, recipes ... etc. (new ones are being added all the time)
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        • Profile picture of the author Astron
          Originally Posted by myob View Post

          I promote about 300 Clickbank products which consists of 6 to 15 products in several of the Marketplace categories. These are in some of the most highly competitive niches (translation - very lucrative). All of the products I promote have a gravity under 5, and quite a number of them actually have the gravity of a goose egg.

          Using lists and presell pages to promote Clickbank products will dramatically increase conversions. IMO it is absolutely essential to have a list. My style of marketing is progressing my subscriber lists through a sequence of incrementally higher priced products from the inexpensive to continuity programs and ultimately six-figure high end Amazon products. The pipeline extends from a few months to over 11 years of repeat buyers.

          I have posted a few of my favorite niches before, but here they are again: besides health and fitness, there's mobile marketing, telecommunications, Near-Field Communication (NFC), Internet Protocol Television (IPTV), light emitting diodes (LED), robotics, astronomy, software, renewable energy, investments, agriculture, apparel, personal development, interior design, weight loss, pharmaceuticals, video games, gambling, golfing, tattoo removal, condoms, circumcision, mammagrams, baby products, baby boomer products, funeral products, sports, security, janitorial services, water treatment, weddings, asbestos litigation, pet services, conspiracies, UFOs, end of the world, cake decorating, recipes ... etc. (new ones are being added all the time)
          Wow, 300 products. I never thought that it`s possible. I guess you bypass the salespage in most of the cases and you simply promote the products through your autoresponder!?

          Many thanks for your niche list! Do you use CJ as well?
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          • Profile picture of the author myob
            Originally Posted by Astron View Post

            Wow, 300 products. I never thought that it`s possible. I guess you bypass the salespage in most of the cases and you simply promote the products through your autoresponder!?

            Many thanks for your niche list! Do you use CJ as well?
            All of these 300 or so Clickbank products are not in the same niche nor even on the same list. In fact, there's only between 6-15 CB products at the most promoted on any one list.

            Basically, my marketing is one simple formula that was scaled up dozens of times over. All I do essentially is write articles on niche topics with the article resource box pointed to a presell/landing page. That's it; that's my base marketing model encapsulated in one sentence.

            The presell page includes a strong incentivized bonus for using my CB affiliate link to make the purchase. After a successful purchase, the buyer subscribes to my list (entering the purchase receipt#) to receive the bonus. I use software called CBlist automator for automated product delivery fulfillment (easybiztools.com), although it's not necessary to begin.

            Subsequent emails promote other Clickbank products with incrementally higher price points. When the Clickbank product line is exhausted for that particular niche, the autoresponder sequence begins with Amazon products. So far, I've never run out of Amazon products to promote.

            And this has nothing to do at all with SEO, ranking in the SERPs, or any expensive promotions. This simple little marketing system works in any niche no matter how much competition there is. Massive targeted traffic is driven by articles placed in front of highly targeted eyeballs.

            You don't have to start with 300 products. Begin with a viable niche and product(s) that you can write about, then scale it up.
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            • Profile picture of the author BillyBee
              Originally Posted by myob View Post

              Basically, my marketing is one simple formula that was scaled up dozens of times over. All I do essentially is write articles on niche topics with the article resource box pointed to a presell/landing page. That's it; that's my base marketing model encapsulated in one sentence.

              The presell page includes a strong incentivized bonus for using my CB affiliate link to make the purchase. After a successful purchase, the buyer subscribes to my list (entering the purchase receipt#) to receive the bonus. I use software called CBlist automator for automated product delivery fulfillment (easybiztools.com), although it's not necessary to begin.
              Pretty simple, pretty brilliant, and damn impressive, I'd say.

              What sort of bonuses do you offer on these presell pages? And what do these pages look like? Are they blog posts? Single-page websites? Multi-page websites? I suppose it might depend on the niche, but please share whatever you can about your approach. Thanks.
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              • Profile picture of the author myob
                Originally Posted by BillyBee View Post

                Pretty simple, pretty brilliant, and damn impressive, I'd say.

                What sort of bonuses do you offer on these presell pages? And what do these pages look like? Are they blog posts? Single-page websites? Multi-page websites? I suppose it might depend on the niche, but please share whatever you can about your approach. Thanks.
                All CB product preselling websites are based off of basically the same template and layout for niche branding, and are standalone for every CB product being promoted. Depending upon the product, pages may include, Main presell page with optin form, Tour (demo or applications of the product), Testimonials, About, Contact page, Privacy Policy, Terms of Service, Disclaimer (FTC affiliate statement), FAQ (frequently asked questions), Blog (articles).

                As far as optin incentive bonuses, I used to give away niche relevant plr ebooks edited of course to include affiliate links, website, and contact info. These can be found all over the internet or in plr membership sites for just about any Clickbank product. Over the last few years, however, my writers have developed very specific info products for marketing in these niches.
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            • Profile picture of the author josoave
              Originally Posted by myob View Post

              All of these 300 or so Clickbank products are not in the same niche nor even on the same list. In fact, there's only between 6-15 CB products at the most promoted on any one list.

              Basically, my marketing is one simple formula that was scaled up dozens of times over. All I do essentially is write articles on niche topics with the article resource box pointed to a presell/landing page. That's it; that's my base marketing model encapsulated in one sentence.

              The presell page includes a strong incentivized bonus for using my CB affiliate link to make the purchase. After a successful purchase, the buyer subscribes to my list (entering the purchase receipt#) to receive the bonus. I use software called CBlist automator for automated product delivery fulfillment (easybiztools.com), although it's not necessary to begin.

              Subsequent emails promote other Clickbank products with incrementally higher price points. When the Clickbank product line is exhausted for that particular niche, the autoresponder sequence begins with Amazon products. So far, I've never run out of Amazon products to promote.

              And this has nothing to do at all with SEO, ranking in the SERPs, or any expensive promotions. This simple little marketing system works in any niche no matter how much competition there is. Massive targeted traffic is driven by articles placed in front of highly targeted eyeballs.

              You don't have to start with 300 products. Begin with a viable niche and product(s) that you can write about, then scale it up.
              I have never seen someone so massively successful with CB. That serves as an inspiration. I guess I had the right hunch on my earlier post about putting affiliate links related to the content of my blog.

              I don't want to cross the line but would you let me see one of your websites?
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              • Profile picture of the author myob
                Originally Posted by josoave View Post

                I have never seen someone so massively successful with CB. That serves as an inspiration. I guess I had the right hunch on my earlier post about putting affiliate links related to the content of my blog.

                I don't want to cross the line but would you let me see one of your websites?
                Of course you can. Here:

                edoggies.50webs.com/subscribe.htm

                This is typical of my selling process.

                However, it would be far more beneficial to learn the process itself. I have often recommended this ebook
                "Turn Words Into Traffic" by Jim Edwards. It's all over the internet; just google it.
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  • Profile picture of the author Vikram73
    There are highly polarized opinions on everything in IM and about a million different strategies that work for different people. Just take it all with a grain of salt.

    ClickBank is a big affiliate site but not the only one. Each affiliate network is filled with crap and good products alike.

    With CB I get paid regularly. The products I promote I know are good for my customers. On occasion there is some weirdness with their tracking and conversions but no different than the weirdness I've seen on some CPA networks.

    ClickBank won't earn you money. You need to build a good quality website with content and traffic coming to it. Once you have that in the niche you like you can monetize it in different ways. ClickBank is just one way.
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  • Profile picture of the author kakaboo
    If you are looking for IM products to promote on Clickbank (which I conclude from your signature) - then well yeah it's a bad place to start.. you should look into promoting products from the other niches if you are just starting out.
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  • Profile picture of the author Vikram73
    There are highly polarized opinions on everything in IM and about a million different strategies that work for different people. Just take it all with a grain of salt.

    ClickBank is a big affiliate site but not the only one. Each affiliate network is filled with crap and good products alike.

    With CB I get paid regularly. The products I promote I know are good for my customers. On occasion there is some weirdness with their tracking and conversions but no different than the weirdness I've seen on some CPA networks.

    ClickBank won't earn you money. You need to build a good quality website with content and traffic coming to it. Once you have that in the niche you like you can monetize it in different ways. ClickBank is just one way.
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  • Profile picture of the author Arock
    I really like Clickbank. Some of their products have been great.

    If you are going to promote Clickbank ebooks or software, make sure you get a copy of the item before you promote it. You don't want to be out there promoting a poorly written e-book. Of course, that is an upfront expense.

    One other thing about Clickbank. When you go there for the first time the structure is a little weird. Hard to find the Marketplace. Weird hoplink generation etc. You'll get used to it if you use it enough.

    As far as paying your college loan...you better get to work going through everything for sale over there.
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  • Profile picture of the author Bill Lassiter
    myob and vikramd both brought up excellent, viable points concerning CB. I especially agree with vikramd point that you need to build a good site with traffic first.
    And as with anything asking the question; "Does it work?" can be a double-edged sword. You are certainly in the right place to learn and obtain the tools to you'll need to achieve your goals. Much Success to you.
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  • Profile picture of the author DrAlexMV
    Thank you fellow Warriors, I see you all bring many good, informative points. I believe that no matter what the product is, quality traffic is the important. I cannot say I know much about traffic acquisition myself.

    Also, the product in my signature I did not find on ClickBank. It is a WF WSO type of product. It did teach me a couple of things and I paid nothing for it.
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  • Profile picture of the author traineeship
    It a bit weird when i heard about clickbank but now I'm used to it and it is truly helpful.
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  • Profile picture of the author Prashant_W
    vikram's opener was spot on! you're going to find polarised views on just bout' anything to do with online marketing.

    as far as i'm concerned, clickbank is a very genuine company. they take their clients very seriously, and they won't do something that would jeapardise their reputation.

    but that said, i wouldn't recommend putting all your eggs in one basket.

    you might want to consider using a few different affiliate programs. a couple of the famous ones are commission junction and paydotcom.com
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  • Profile picture of the author Mark Jordan
    Depends on how you use it. Choose products with high gravity and also check out the affiliates websites and investigate before you promote.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rich Struck
    The vast majority of Clickbank products are crap, there is no doubt about that.

    However...

    There are a few gems and if you are able to match the right product with the right traffic you could make some money.

    I use Clickbank here and there and make maybe $1000 a month with it pretty much doing nothing but it took a lot of trial-and-error to make it all work.
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    • Profile picture of the author davidstar
      Rick had said it all. If you are new stay out from Clickbank. Only few gem and many crap(duplicate). You wont know which one ?
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  • Profile picture of the author Allan Rich
    If your looking for a sure fire way to generate income, I wouldn't really start with affiliate marketing unless you already have some type of experience... It can be a big learning curve for someone who is just starting out, I'm not saying you can't make money from it but there is easier ways to generate income a little quicker

    A few ways that I've tested and which worked out great is:

    Offering some type of service like article writing or design work.

    If your not skilled at anything, it still shouldn't stop you from making money. A good way to earn income is from other peoples work. Here's an example.

    If you go to the forums and look in the "for hire section/classified" section. Look for some article writers. You can find some good ones that charge $5 per article.

    Now go to Elance | Outsource to freelance professionals, experts, and consultants - Get work done on Elance and register for an account there. Fill out your profile and really beef it up, you want to look professional... you'll be posing as an article writer.

    What your going to do is bid on projects that requires article writing. Charge the person $10 an article. Then give the work to the article writer from the forums at $5 an article. You just made a profit. $5 might not sound like much but the average job you'll be bidding on will be for 10+ articles, so you can expect around a $40 profit after fees. It's real easy to get multiple jobs at once so the income really adds up, all you have to do is manage the article writer who is actually doing the work for you.

    Once you get a little more established you can start charging more money per article... $15-$20 an article is around the norm for quality work, which means more profit in your pocket. I've helped a few people do this and they easily earn 3k+ a month and more as they get more established.

    Seems like your looking for a sure fire income source, hope this helps. There's a lot of other things you can do besides affiliate marketing.
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  • Profile picture of the author DrAlexMV
    Allan I have tried that methods which you have postulated and it is truly much harder than it sounds. I used Fiverr instead though.
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  • Profile picture of the author nelaffiliate
    Clickbank is fine, but you can always monetize your website with products from other networks. I earn good income with clickbank and they pay on time.
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    "King of Fast Video Keyword Research"... Get Easy to rank, Zero competition keywords today. Rank your video on Youtube first page in minutes! Visit: https://www.fiverr.com/nel11111/do-v...yword-research

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  • Profile picture of the author Allan Rich
    Elance is all about you how you present yourself... Just beef up your profile real good and interact with the person who listed the job, don't send generic messages when you make a bid. After a few projects it's easy.

    The method is easy man, trust me Elance and fiverr is miles apart, two totally different level of consumers. Try it on Elance and see how you do.
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  • Profile picture of the author imdomination
    Personally, I think Clickbank is a great site. There's basically nowhere else on the internet where you can find such a huge variety of products to sell on your niche sites. As long as you stay away from the internet marketing section, clickbank is great.

    Plus for newbies, there are a lot of low-competition niches with products out there if you're not confident enough to try a competitive market or create your own product.
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  • Profile picture of the author RylanClayne
    There is no doubt about the huge profits to be made in the IM market but the truth is that a lot of people (especially newbies) do not take the time to research the products in this niche and therefore end up promoting products that just dont do well for a variety of reasons.

    If you are intent on getting into the IM niche you would do well to research the top names in the game and go after product launches from these big names. Obviously the competition will be much heavier but you are more likely to be on a winner than selecting less well known marketers.

    As for clickbank, its been nothing but kind to me :-) In the end clickbank is a facilitator between an affiliate and the product creator. The polarised opinions you may have heard often stems between those who want to blame clickbank for a product that does not seem to do well or a product creator who does a poor job of communicating with his/her affiliates.

    All that being said the IM niche is as good a niche as any to get your feet wet in. Just make sure you have a plan of action before you set sail however its better to fight a battle and learn from it than never to fight at all!
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  • Profile picture of the author DrAlexMV
    Thanks Rylan, you bring good, positive opinions into the discussion.
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  • Profile picture of the author StevenJones
    For affiliate marketing I would go with CPA offers. If you have your own "superb" product clickbank would probably make you happy
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  • Profile picture of the author shahriyar
    You have to weed out the quality products form the rest. It's not that difficult.

    Couple of things you can do, if some product catches your eye, type the product name and search on Google. If you see lot of reviews sites related to the products it is like that product is in high demand and people are promoting it to make money.

    Also, in the CB marketplace, go into a category and sort by Gravity. It is a number that gives you can idea how well the product is selling.

    Good luck.
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  • Profile picture of the author Apollo-Articles
    For the time being Clickbank is the most popular affiliate network. With a huge amount of affiliates making a living off this one network alone.

    Clickbank works as well as the effort you put in and the quality of the products you sell.

    There are some great products and some not so good ones! Promote the good ones and you'll soon be checking into check your analytics account every 5 minutes!

    Sam
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
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    Originally Posted by shahriyar View Post

    go into a category and sort by Gravity. It is a number that gives you can idea how well the product is selling.
    It just doesn't, I'm afraid.

    This is a very widespread but completely erroneous belief: there's absolutely no correlation at all between gravity and how well the product is selling, for all the reasons explained here (and then some).

    There are products with gravities in low single figures, which sell by the thousand.

    There are products with high, three-figure gravities which nobody promotes at all (they're IM products and the reason their gravity's so high is that huge numbers of marketer-affiliates buy one copy each through their own hoplinks - nothing raises gravity like that).

    I'm an affiliate (very successfully), at the moment. for one product with a gravity currently under 5, whose vendor also has another product with a gravity around 140 (which I don't promote). The low gravity product consistently outsells the high gravity one and has a higher overall conversion-rate. That isn't unusual at all.

    Don't imagine that you can estimate either "sales numbers" or "conversion rates" from the gravity: you can't. And there's absolutely no reason why you should be able to, when you look at what gravity really measures and how it's calculated (which is disclosed by ClickBank but very widely misunderstood).

    Originally Posted by DrAlexMV View Post

    Could some trustworthy Warriors debate the viability of Clickbank products?
    ClickBank is a retailer, not a manufacturer.

    A "ClickBank product" is simply a product that its manufacturer has decided to ask ClickBank to list for sale there.

    The expression "the viability of ClickBank products" assumes some sort of connecting, defining "ClickBankness" about their vendors' products which is no more realistic than attempting a collective judgement about the products of any other retailer. There are good products and bad products, naturally. Their sales pages don't even live on ClickBank's website, but on their individual vendors' sites.

    Large numbers of Warriors are making our full-time livings by promoting ClickBank products in our various ways.

    Far greater numbers of people are trying to and failing. (It would be very surprising if that weren't true of any form of self-employment, wouldn't it?).

    In my opinion, the single most important starting-point is to choose the right products to promote (and that doesn't mean high gravity ones!)
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  • Profile picture of the author shahriyar
    @Alexa Smith

    I haven't tried promoting low gravity products so I have no experience in that. But I have promoted high gravity products on multiple niches, weight loss etc. They all sold well and they are still selling.

    So, it might not give us selling numbers, but high gravity stuff sells well for me, that much I can tell for sure.
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      With respect, if you "haven't tried low gravity products but high gravity ones sell well for you", then you're in exactly the same position as someone who's never had a red car but has driven many blue ones successfully without them ever breaking down or being in an accident.

      Now someone's asking you for a recommendation about what make of car to buy and you're saying "buy a blue one".

      You're attributing causation to something where there is none.

      There are, in fact, many different possible reasons why high gravity products may not sell well, for many affiliates: seriously, Shahriyar - this post and the whole thread in which it appears may help you.
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  • Profile picture of the author 2011profit
    I don't really recommend Clickbanks it will really make a bad start for you. Try something else.
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  • Profile picture of the author shahriyar
    Alexa, I havent' disagreed regarding the gravity matter at all. I just suggested something that works for me and that might work for the thread owner as well. That's not really a bad thing I guess.

    Regarding your example, yes I am recommending the blue car because I know its good. I haven't tired the red car I do not have the right to recommend that. Someone else who has tried that will. Ultimately, judgement is upto the person who is going to read the opinions and decide from it.
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  • Profile picture of the author Gary Ning Lo
    Clickbank does not work anymore and no one is making good money with it...

    So i suggest not wasting time and looking for something else

    Cheers,

    ~Gary
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  • Profile picture of the author WebPen
    Myob is right- a list is very helpful with Clickbank products

    You can try promoting without a list, but you'll probably be disappointed in your conversion rate in the long run.
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  • Profile picture of the author radivoj
    it's all matter which niche you pick and which kw you targeting... forgeret what other tell you, I had a great success with ClickBank promoting remedy niche, targeting desperate buyer for problem/solution kw, just to reveal one product to you, promoting ClickBank Offer "Yeast Infection No More" I was making a 2 conversion per every 100 visitors to my site for this particular product, it's all matter which kw you are targeting and how you presell...when people are so desperate to find a solution to they problem, if you can answer they question offering them solution for they problem they will buy from you no matter what, I know that I have generated many sales under problem/solution kw with the great presale page ..and by the way you can waste so much time on wrong niches and the wrong kw without having a success..your success can only depend on one think and the only one think, and that's to Pick Right Niche and the the Right kw..Stop analyzing it all so much.Just jump in and learn by trial and error in finding your own special style, etc. This is not paint by numbers no matter what you have heard.
    There is not way you can get it "right" the first time anyway, ....you might as well just dive in and get started, and stay way from make money online niches by the way. Good Luck To You
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  • Profile picture of the author Shafiq Kamal
    It actually depends on you. You have to realize whether it is suitable for you or not. Someone has become successful being lawyer or playing basketball doesn't mean you and me will be successful doing the same. And those successful person may not be successful if they try online marketing. Everyone has their own unique strong field and passion. You have to find out your passion and skills where you are strong.
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  • Profile picture of the author c4822
    Clickbank products are great to promote and make money, just like other products out there. C/B provides you a "marketplace" to pick and choose based on a niche. If you pick the right niche that can give you sales, then it can be huge - just the other night I made $123 off of C/B products - 2 to be exact.
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  • Profile picture of the author nicoledeal
    dralex....you got all that right? I am happy with CB. Found a product I believe in...but more importantly, I found a product with demand AND manageable competition. Compete against the giants and you will not compete for traffic nor keywords. Just MHO.
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  • Profile picture of the author aeros
    Banned
    [DELETED]
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    • Profile picture of the author Rich Struck
      Originally Posted by aeros View Post

      At least Clickbank "the company" is solid and always seems to pay on time.
      This is true, they pay like clockwork and in 2011 that says a lot. And thanks to a bit of gentle prodding from the FTC they are going to be cleaning up some of the garbage too. I just wish they'd do something about the serial refunders now.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mary Wilhite
    Clickbank is really amazing..
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