Are Any Affiliates Really Making Money?

by dunester

Posted: 15 years ago 39 replies

INTERNET MARKETING

Hi, I'm new to affiliate marketing and am already having doubts!

In the last few months I've read tons of stuff, from many 'gurus' and forums etc, specifically related to clickbank. I've Analyzed lots of publishers, competitors ads and landing pages, how long the ads run for and variations etc. I've also set up a few campaigns of my own, with limited success.

So what I want to know is are there any affiliates REALLY earning decent money, or is all the money going to publishers, clickbank and the 'google money monster' (I recently read of a guru making $350,000 and his google costs were $200,000!)

Now I know it's still early days for me, and I don't have enough experience to judge, but it seems to me that maybe the majority of affiliates are making nothing.

Ok, as an example, if we look at the highest gravity clickbank product at present, FAP Turbo. We never get to know how many copies are sold, so how do we know it's really successful? We assume because it has a high gravity that it must be.

I've been monitoring the ads for it for a while, and it seems as one batch of affiliates give up on it another lot start promoting it, so there are always a lot of affiliates promoting it, so it looks very successful. But if theres a constant turnover of affiliates it might not be as successful as we are led to believe.

All gravity seems to mean is how much a product is being promoted, not how much it is being promoted constantly by the same affiliates, which would be much more useful information. All a product needs is some one in a high place give it a push and voila - up goes its gravity! Affiliate manipulation maybe?

Well, back to my examle, what we seem to have is lots of affiliates spending lots of money promoting FAP Turbo and maybe breaking even, then going on to try something else, to be replaced by others doing the same. Thanks to their efforts FAPTurbo get sales and a high gravity, and google gets a bunch of cash. Even if the FAP Turbo only gets one or two sales from each affiliate the rapid affiliate turnover provides a steady income.

So, back to my question: are there ANY clickbank affiliates out there making money for themselves!!

p.s. I don't need publishers telling me there affiliates sell xxx copies a week, I've already heard that one over & over

Xavier

#affiliates #making #money

mick535 15 years ago

Take your time. If you try to slap things up on a site and click go you are destined to fail. There are good products out there which help you with this process, but you do not have to buy every single one of them.

Focus on one area or niche first. Then, once you start to make money, add to it.

Clickbank is a great place to start with, but you can't jump in and expect immediate results.
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JayXtreme 15 years ago

Hi Xavier

**
Note: I can tell you with my hand on my heart that there are many, many affiliate's out there making BIG incomes, it's not a question of CAN you do it, you should be asking yourself HOW do I get this done.
**

Affiliate marketing can bring you some great things if you focus your actions on proven strategies that :

a) Generate targeted traffic to your sites/pages

b) Allow you to insert other avenues of profit into every stream of traffic (CPA, List building, Cross selling)

These two basic affiliate marketing principles should take up the majority of your time.

Find a niche market of people who are hungry for something.. and give it to them in return for your healthy commissions.

People with Acne buy acne products all day, every day.. so find a way to put YOUR message in front of them. People with weight loss issues are online each and every day looking for solutions... so give them the solution...etc etc just replace the two issues above with ANY issue that currently is out there.

Peace

Jay
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bauger 15 years ago

The thing is to actually research and pick a good product that you might think you want to promote.

The main thing is not to worry about all the other product being promoted and stick with the one you pick that has a good commission.

That's how a lot of people waste money is buying and trying to promote too many products at one time. If you just stick with one and make it profitsble you can move on and pick the next one you like.
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callmestrip 15 years ago

Your at the right place if you want to learn this business.

Just stay on here all day for 2 weeks and you'll be right up to speed.

I def. would invest a little bit in educating yourself. Nothing wrong with that.

I'm sure if you pulled a poll on this forum asking for a good product or wso that will quickly get you up to speed. You will get honest answers.
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- Steven Wagenheim 15 years ago
  
  You actually bring up some valid points. Gravity is a very misleading indicator
  as it only shows a weighted average of the number of affiliates that have
  made at least one sale in X number of days. I think it's 90, but don't quote
  me on that.
  
  However, having said that, what Jay says is true. There are affiliates out
  there making good money. I personally made over $1,300 (not including
  prize bonus) for the last product that Dean Shainin came out with.
  
  There is of course all the talk about how 95% of affiliates fail. I don't know
  how true that really is or isn't. I can only tell you that I get a ton of emails
  from people who tell me that they can't make any money or very little. So
  the failure rate is probably pretty high.
  
  But you have to look at why this is.
  
  Why do some people do well and others don't, especially when they're
  promoting the same product?
  
  Why did many, in the contest I was in sell nothing when I came in 2nd?
  
  Well, I can't answer for them because I can't tell you what they did, but
  I can tell you what I did.
  
  1. I wrote articles promoting the product.
  2. I wrote reviews about the product.
  3. I emailed my list and offered them great bonuses if they bought from me.
  4. In short, I put in the time and effort needed to make the promotion a
  success.
  
  It takes work. Nobody said it didn't. And it takes the right kind of work.
  
  The simple answer to your question is yes, affiliate marketers who know
  how to market DO make money as affiliate marketers.
  
  [ 1 ] Thanks
  
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Mark.UK

15 years ago

Originally Posted by dunester

So what I want to know is are there any affiliates REALLY earning decent money, or is all the money going to publishers, clickbank and the 'google money monster' (I recently read of a guru making $350,000 and his google costs were $200,000!)

$3.50 for every $2.00 spent... Seems like a good investment to me

Thanks
1 reply

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dunester 15 years ago

Originally Posted by Mark.UK

$3.50 for every $2.00 spent... Seems like a good investment to me

Hi,

I know that's a good return. The point I was trying to make was that for all the hard work the affiliate did he got $1.50 and google took $2
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- 3 replies
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- dunester 15 years ago
  
  Thanks to everyone who has posted so far, I appreciate the input. I'm not on the verge of giving up before I've really started, so to speak, I just wanted to hear some other points of view.
  
  It would be good to hear some advice from a few people who have promoted a product consistently for a long time, any of you out there?
  
  Thanks
  
  1 reply
  
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  ScamFreeSuccess 15 years ago
  
  The only way I've made money promoting a Clickbank product is with PPC. Costs were $30.00 sales $90.00. I did it as a test to review an info product that I was interested in promoting. I found it too tedious and didn't like the risks. Personally I like to do the work once and have it pay off repeatedly. Any steady affiliate earnings I've had come from real product reviews. One of which I started promoting in 2001.
  
  Thanks
  
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- Mark.UK 15 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by dunester
  
  Hi,
  
  I know that's a good return. The point I was trying to make was that for all the hard work the affiliate did he got $1.50 and google took $2
  
  But google didn't "take" $2! In this example the marketer PAID google $2 and in return they recieved $3.50 in commision!
  
  My point is that you seem to be coming from a "scarcity" point of view.
  Change your perspective to one of "abundance" and some strange things may start to happen...
  
  Thanks
  
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- Travis72802 15 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by dunester
  
  Hi,
  
  I know that's a good return. The point I was trying to make was that for all the hard work the affiliate did he got $1.50 and google took $2
  
  Sheesh dude...come on?
  
  Travis
  
  Thanks
  
  1 reply
  
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  Sipboy3000 15 years ago
  
  I can speak for myself to say that there are many affiliates that make money who you never hear about. I made good money in 2008 using mainly clickbank and PPC. I made enough to support my family of 5 (3 kids, wife, self). I am now focusing on the product side where the "real" money is. It took me several months before I became successful, but if you are determined to be a success you can do it.
  
  You can't be lazy and think you will make either. There are times I had to remind myself what I was working for in order to accomplished anything. I think alot of affiliate fail when they realize how much work it takes to be a success. You have to treat it like a real business or a real career. You only get out what you put in.
  
  I also made almost all my commissions in niches that are unrelated to internet marketing and "make money online" products. Waaay to competive for a newbie. Stay away from these until you have some really good experience. As a matter of fact, you could never promote IM and MMO products and make all the money your heart desires.
  
  Thanks
  
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robert11 15 years ago

I am also having little success with affiliate marketing. My advertising always seems to cost more than I make, but I still think there is money to be made once I get everything right.
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Trent Rez 15 years ago

I have success in doing the simple circle method I use .

Hubpages , Squidoo , WP , Blogger , Article directories , Then link them together in such a way that it only links to one .

You create 2 articles per 2.0 site a day .

Once traffic picks up . Was rinse repeat .

This is the simple version .

You CAN use some long winded explanation .
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TLTheLiberator

15 years ago

In my opinion and experience, it's 10X easier to make good money when I promote products that have nothing to do with how to make money.

Hope This Helps!

TL

Thanks
2 replies

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dunester

15 years ago

Originally Posted by TLTheLiberator

In my opinion and experience, it's 10X easier to make good money when I promote products that have nothing to do with how to make money.

Hope This Helps!

TL

Yeah, I can understand that totally, and it's what I'm currently doing. It seems to me the majority of people buying affiliate money making products will tend to be affiliates anyway, so they'll know to go buy them through their own id for the discount!

Thanks

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MarQueteer

15 years ago

Originally Posted by TLTheLiberator

In my opinion and experience, it's 10X easier to make good money when I promote products that have nothing to do with how to make money.

Hope This Helps!

TL

Absolutely true. My favourite are tangible goods. People have seen the commercial on TV, they have read the review in a magazine, they want the product, all you have to do is tell them where to buy it.

Thanks

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MarQueteer

15 years ago

Originally Posted by dunester

Now I know it's still early days for me, and I don't have enough experience to judge, but it seems to me that maybe the majority of affiliates are making nothing.

It's not a clickbank specific phenomenon, for most affiliate programs/networks across all niches/industries 10% or less of the affiliates make 90% or more of all sales.

It's incredibly easy to enter the affiliate marketing business. You signup and you are an affiliate, no questions asked, no experience needed, no website needed. All you have to know is your name and address.

Loads of people are entering the industry daily, with high expectations...but many forget one thing: It's not the "Press here for money" button. You put in X ammount of work for Y dollars. The more knowledge, experience and money to invest in your business you gain, the more Y for X. No X, no Y.

Thanks
1 reply

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dunester

15 years ago

Originally Posted by MarQueteer

Makes sense to me - I just hope my Y doesn't run out before I've done all the X to make more Y

Thanks

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jasondinner

15 years ago

Originally Posted by dunester

So, back to my question: are there ANY clickbank affiliates out there making money for themselves!!
Xavier

yes there are, but Clickbank isn't the only show in town.

I actually promote Clickbank products less than anything else now.

A lot of the stuff (NOT ALL) that comes out on there is garbage.

No offense to anyone who just launched a site on CB - LOL
(not like I care either if I offended you - I'm just sayin

)

Thanks
1 reply

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dunester

15 years ago

Originally Posted by jasondinner

)

Yeah I've already been thinking the same thing, there's a lot of garbage on there, and a lot of it seems very popular! The hardest thing for me, as a newbie, is separating the cream from the milk.

Thanks

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chopsii Banned 15 years ago

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- cliffmaster 15 years ago
  
  My first few years was crap. I couldn't even get anyone to click onto my adsense ad's. Now I'm over four figures a month. It takes time but it is very possible to make a living doing this stuff.
  
  Thanks
  
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michaelmac 15 years ago

Hi,

After a pretty intensive 6 months i am now in a position to move onto my 3rd niche. I am very strong in my primary niche, with one site averaging $600 per month.

My main source of traffic generation is article submission to primarily EZA. Over the last 2 months i have ploughed everything i've made into outsourcing...i now have a regular article writer, who along with myself create the primary traffic flow to my sites. I also have some inexpensive SEO outsourcing done by a friend in India. He looks after my article submissions to all directories, other than EZA which i control. He also does all my forum posting and backlinking.

I create my blogs, sites and especially my lenses. I have a lens ranked #3 out of 415,000 on Google unchecked.

Nothing spectacular here, just a solid base for me to expand upon. The plan is to continue opening niche affiliate sites to increase those all important income streams. I will then commence developing my own products in these niches.

So you see there is money to be made but you must have a plan and follow it, testing as you progress.

Best of luck to you,

Michael
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GeoffreyF67 15 years ago

I have made about $1350 via clickbank in the past 2 weeks. Made about $300 last year LOL.

Michael's right tho...get a plan, stick to it and follow through...keep the winners ditch the losers

G-Man
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PhillipOlsson 15 years ago

Affiliate's are def making serious cash online.. a few that i can think of right off the bat are becoming an affiliate for your auto responder, any informational software or training material or the program you use to personally design your sites. you never really want to become an affiliate for any product that you cant 100% back up.
and remember if its an essential tool to making money online then its def perfect for an affiliate campaign.

Remember your residual income not only depends on having a list. but marketing quality products to that list so that they want to continue learning from you.

Best of luck,
Phill
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Bakai 15 years ago

In the great depression the industries that thrived were sex, gambling, booze, cigarettes, drugs... all the good stuff. As the economy worsens (now that Obama is king it surely will) "make money" opps will go insane.
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lexilexi 15 years ago

There are some affiliates making bank, but it's not easy to do this out of the gate.

I think some of the biggest affiliates are those who already have web sites with massive traffic.

There are several routes to go down, but the trouble with PPC is as soon as you stop spending the money, you stop getting the income.

If you have a high traffic, high-value-content site getting a lot of pageviews, and it has options for user contributions / sustained community - then you could be a "super affiliate". Once you've got steady traffic flow, you can run various affiliate schemes until you find the one that does best.

It's well known that plentyoffish received one of the biggest adsense checks. I'm sure that if he posted a page with links to clickbank dating niche products, he would wreck it.
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kadezack 15 years ago

Persistence! Persistence! Persistence! That Is The Key!
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lexilexi 15 years ago

Dwayne, what do you mean by creating a sales funnel?
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- GreatBiz 15 years ago
  
  A sales funnel is actually a marketing pathway you want your prospect to go through.
  
  It can look like this:
  
  Drive Traffic > Landing Page > Capture Email > Follow up with Email > Merchant Page
  
  There are different ways this can look like. The simplest would be driving traffic to a presell page and redirecting your prospect to the sales page.
  
  Drive Traffic > Presell Page > Merchant Page
  
  Originally Posted by lexilexi
  
  Dwayne, what do you mean by creating a sales funnel?
  
  Thanks
  
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GreatBiz 15 years ago

Affiliates do make money but I can tell you that it is hard work. I personally make a high 4-figure doing affiliate marketing for other's products. Eventually, aim to own your own products. I have a few affiliate programs that are making me another 4-figure income so like what I said, have a mixture of both, ie be an affiliate marketer as well as a product owner. You will realize that most products do contain affiliate links as well.
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lexilexi 15 years ago

Ah, ok. Thanks. I'm already doing that, just not familiar with that term...
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dc006 15 years ago

As a new Affiliate marketer in 2008 using Clickbank, I only made a bit over $600 for the year. That is a major step for me since before 2008, I paid out much more than that and made about zero. Good question. And, I agree that you need to have a plan and stick with it.
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denniston 15 years ago

GreatBiz makes a valid point, ALWAYS direct your traffic to a landing page (a.k.a. squeeze page) so you know "who" you are marketing to. Make sure the landing page asks the prospect for their First Name and Email then have that data stored in an autoresponder which should be loaded with a minimum of 15 pre-scheduled messages. Ideally, 60 messages spread out over the course of 2 years... it takes time to convert a prospect into a customer, it is not as "instant" as one might think. Studies show people buy between the 7th and 12th point of contact so follow-up is KEY to a successful marketing campaign.

Be sure to check the deliverability of the autoresponder service you plan to use because they vary widely and WILL make a difference in your conversion rate of prospect-to-customer.
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Rick G 15 years ago

I think the best thing is to stay with one affiliate, because I keep jumping around and around and NEVER make enough to get paid. LOL

Rick
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Monetize 15 years ago

Clickbank is great if you can devise a system that generates
conversions, however you should not limit yourself to just CB
as there are thousands of affiliate products and services that
can generate tons of revenues. Do your research, develop a
basic marketing plan and finetune it until it is perfected.
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dsmpublishing 15 years ago

I earn money through affiliates through a number of programs the secret is not just to use one service i.e. clickbank.
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Puusep 15 years ago

The secret of earning money as an affiliate, is ... that there is no secret. Just work and put pieces together.
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ShazLeghari 15 years ago

It all really depends my friend, best solution is always stick to a decant product you are promoting, don't suddenly jump into another product and expect results, no it don't work like that, it takes focus, determinations, and sweat before you can make your fist affiliate sale, remember this always concentrate in one thing and you will be successful and make sure its a decant product that you know it well sell well, take time by all means because time and effort will give you great results GUARANTEED!
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