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The Best Way to Be an Affiliate for EBooks (As a beginner) - Conflicting ideas on vital info?!

by JamesMcCaferty
15 replies
Hello fellow warriors!

I've asked some different questions about this issue, but most people's answers have been conflicting...I'm going I can consolidate to one thread and get the answers that will surely help me and others! I'll try to keep my question simple and concise.


1. Want to get started with affiliate marketing.
2. Want to be an affiliate for a clickbank product. It's an ebook.
3. Do not have a blog with loads of readers, nor a list, SO:
4. I'd like to use some type of paid advertising. Budget is about 200 bucks.
5. I'd like to use Google PPC, as I think that's the least intimidating as a starter to IM.

I've heard different things. Landing pages, squeeze pages, build a list, wait for the sale, don't wait for the sale, get paid traffic to a blog post, don't get paid traffic to a blog post...needless to say, it's left my head spinning.

SO: What is the best way to promote a clickbank product as a newbie?

Build a small niche site with blog, update the blog. On the site, have a squeeze page somewhere, get leads, autoresponder campaign, and then make the sale eventually?

Where does the paid traffic come in? What page on the site should I be directing them to? Squeeze page with free bribe?

Needless to say, I'm feeling a bit lost. I've found myself reading post after post, racking my brain, searching online reading blogs with [very] different methods.

Thank you for your help! Much Appreciated!
#affiliate #beginner #conflicting #ebooks #ideas #info #vital
  • Profile picture of the author tim_buchalka
    Hi James,

    #1 - Ok lots of good information in this forum.

    #2 - Why? How did you decide on this product?

    #3 - Everything starts at zero!

    #4 - Adwords is one option but pricing will be dependant on keywords - different keywords attract different rates.

    #5 - Do not think its no intimidating - It is (or you should see it as intimidating). Many newbies start and lose a lot of money - Becoming good at PPC takes time and is a skill - If you rush in expect to spent your $200 VERY quickly.

    Personally I think you are putting the cart before the horse - Don't rush into PPC, or rush into promoting a particular product.

    Learn as much as you can about affiliate marketing and then (and only then) decide what you are going to promote.

    You really need to choose the right strategy to succeed so start reading!

    Good luck!
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    • Profile picture of the author JamesMcCaferty
      Originally Posted by tim_buchalka View Post

      Hi James,

      #1 - Ok lots of good information in this forum.

      #2 - Why? How did you decide on this product?

      #3 - Everything starts at zero!

      #4 - Adwords is one option but pricing will be dependant on keywords - different keywords attract different rates.

      #5 - Do not think its no intimidating - It is (or you should see it as intimidating). Many newbies start and lose a lot of money - Becoming good at PPC takes time and is a skill - If you rush in expect to spent your $200 VERY quickly.

      Personally I think you are putting the cart before the horse - Don't rush into PPC, or rush into promoting a particular product.

      Learn as much as you can about affiliate marketing and then (and only then) decide what you are going to promote.

      You really need to choose the right strategy to succeed so start reading!

      Good luck!

      Hey Tim,
      Thanks so much for your response - it's mucho appreciated. I've been using the forum, and it's been insanely helpful for sure.
      I chose the product: Because I think it's good, the KW competition is fair (I've been an SEO freelancer for quite some time), I'm well aware that most people will lose money before they make money, I'm just looking to have a good launch point.

      Any insight as to WHAT kind of site I should build to promote a CB product? And what kind of page I should direct traffic to? Thanks tim!
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  • Profile picture of the author tim_buchalka
    I still think you are putting the cart before the course with choosing a product now - Build up a site with great content around a niche you choose and worry about the product later.

    People are searching for great content, so give them what they want first - great content and then later you can introduce them to products that are hopefully complimentary.

    I think a blog with a number of posts is where you should start.
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  • Profile picture of the author WealthWithin
    If you're just starting out, go ahead and build a site. Don't spend too much time on details. Put up a wordpress blog, install a related free theme. Then write an honest review on what the product is and why you think it's good.

    Don't spend money on PPC on the beginning. Once you have some traffic and sales, you'll understand how much traffic is needed to make a sale. Then you can scale it up.

    Since you have SEO experiance, you can optimise the pages on the site for those keywords. After the site is up, focus on getting as much as free and qualified traffic to your site.
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  • Profile picture of the author JamesMcCaferty
    Thanks guys, I guess I shot myself in the foot a bit. I'm not a COMPLETE beginner. I'm fairly skilled at things online. I know about great content, consider myself a pretty good writer, keyword research, and creating websites.

    Of course, it's an understood to create a great site with great content - that's square one. I'm interested in getting paid traffic to the site.

    Thanks again for your responses =D
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  • Profile picture of the author traficmaster
    adwords doesnt really like clickbak products.so dont just throw a landing page there but build a nice blog.you can try facebook ppc
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    • Profile picture of the author JamesMcCaferty
      Originally Posted by traficmaster View Post

      adwords doesnt really like clickbak products.so dont just throw a landing page there but build a nice blog.you can try facebook ppc
      I've heard about adwords not liking CB prods. What if you were to link your adwords to just a page on your large blog, no CB products, just a squeeze page?

      Also with PPC, what kind of page should you be directing people to? A squeeze page to capture leads, then have an auto-responder campaign?
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      • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
        Banned
        Originally Posted by JamesMcCaferty View Post

        Thanks Alexa - I'm still learning..but I think I'm spinning in circles with this particular question.
        You and a large number of other people, I think, James. In various guises, it's a popular and thorny question.

        In my opinion, it's also one of those questions (of which there are so many) about which there tend, underneath the surface, to be two completely consensus of opinion: one among "people who are promoting ClickBank products as affiliates" and another, often radically different consensus among "people who are making a very good living promoting ClickBank products as affiliates".

        (It's the kind of thing you see whenever a subject like "gravity" is discussed: such threads will often quickly fill with posts from people saying that high gravity is an indication that a product's selling well. And however many experienced, highly successful affiliates point out, however firmly, that that's total nonsense and that they simply don't understand how the thing works at all, there just isn't a way of stopping that from happening.)

        It's very much "caveat emptor" when it comes to dealing with information on this and related subjects because it isn't always immediately apparent (a) that there are these two distinct groups, or (b) who is in which.

        Distinguishing requires judgement, and more or less by definition, one doesn't have that when one doesn't have experience and wants to learn the basics. Be careful, if you can: there's already some pretty misguided advice (however well-intentioned) even in this thread.

        Originally Posted by JamesMcCaferty View Post

        From what you guys said, it looks like people don't drive paid traffic to their site just to market CB affiliate products. Am I getting it all wrong?
        There are without doubt some people who do exactly that, and do it very successfully, but equally without doubt they're a very small subset of "successful ClickBank affiliates" with specific PPC skills not very widely shared by others, and I strongly suspect (but can't swear) that they have rather different websites from "the average ClickBank distributor", too.

        Remember that if it were trivially easy to make a profit by driving traffic to a ClickBank product by using something like AdWords, many vendors would do that themselves and not need to pay their affiliates up to 75% (or even more, in some cases) of the revenue, for producing the traffic.

        Originally Posted by JamesMcCaferty View Post

        what kind of page should you be directing people to? A squeeze page to capture leads ...
        Every time I've tested, in every niche in which I've tested, a content-rich site with a prominently incentivized opt-in on its landing page has worked best for me.

        I've done a lot of split-testing of this. I always get more opt-ins from squeeze pages, and make less long-term money from the resulting lists. Different people opt in to squeeze pages. At least, enough are different people for it to affect the bottom line significantly. I don't use squeeze pages any more. As a result of that decision, I build smaller lists and earn much more money.

        http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...-turn-off.html

        http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...e-sign-up.html

        http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ml#post5475859
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  • Profile picture of the author WealthWithin
    You'll need some good numbers to make Adwords work with Clickbank.

    Let's say you pay $0.50/click and get 100 clicks. The product converts at 2%, with 50% commission on a $47 product.
    Spent - $50
    Commission - $47 (- fees)

    If you're going to use PPC, send it to a squeeze page. But Adwords don't like MMO products, so be cautious.
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Originally Posted by JamesMcCaferty View Post

    What is the best way to promote a clickbank product as a newbie?
    Understand the basics really clearly before getting into any technical details.

    http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ml#post5210243
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  • Profile picture of the author rooze
    If you want to BE an affiliate for someone else then it is generally expected that you'll be creating a source of traffic.
    If you want to CREATE a product so that others can be an affiliate for YOU, then they would be the ones to worry about creating the sources of traffic.
    Since what you're asking really is 'how do I get a source of traffic' (then how best to utilize it), why don't you create the product and approach other people to market it for you?
    If you're committed to the first approach then here's my concerns -
    The fact that it's a Clickbank product suggest there will already be other people promoting it through PPC, so unless you're a wiz at identifying low-comp keywords your CPC is going to be prohibitive. Plus, when you do get clicks you'll be competing with others who've been in this game and doing it for a while, for the conversion (since people do tend to shop around a little).
    My approach would be to either buy a good list, or buy ad space on someone else's list.
    Create a good sales system on your own website. You'll want to have both an optimized landing page / sales page and a method of getting people to opt-in on your site. If you're approaching people with existing lists you may hit some resistance to sending their subscribers to an opt-in page, so you'll need to have a sales page with the opt-in component a little more discrete on the page, to satisfy some of the list owners.
    Then, since you know SEO, work on building organic search traffic to your site. Create some reviews, articles etc and do your stuff with back-linking.
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    • Profile picture of the author JamesMcCaferty
      Originally Posted by WealthWithin View Post

      You'll need some good numbers to make Adwords work with Clickbank.

      Let's say you pay $0.50/click and get 100 clicks. The product converts at 2%, with 50% commission on a $47 product.
      Spent - $50
      Commission - $47 (- fees)

      If you're going to use PPC, send it to a squeeze page. But Adwords don't like MMO products, so be cautious.
      It's not a MMO product - but I'll still be cautious. Thanks for your heads-up. Your numbers are certainly worth thinking about.

      Originally Posted by rooze View Post

      If you want to BE an affiliate for someone else then it is generally expected that you'll be creating a source of traffic.
      If you want to CREATE a product so that others can be an affiliate for YOU, then they would be the ones to worry about creating the sources of traffic.
      Since what you're asking really is 'how do I get a source of traffic' (then how best to utilize it), why don't you create the product and approach other people to market it for you?
      If you're committed to the first approach then here's my concerns -
      The fact that it's a Clickbank product suggest there will already be other people promoting it through PPC, so unless you're a wiz at identifying low-comp keywords your CPC is going to be prohibitive. Plus, when you do get clicks you'll be competing with others who've been in this game and doing it for a while, for the conversion (since people do tend to shop around a little).
      My approach would be to either buy a good list, or buy ad space on someone else's list.
      Create a good sales system on your own website. You'll want to have both an optimized landing page / sales page and a method of getting people to opt-in on your site. If you're approaching people with existing lists you may hit some resistance to sending their subscribers to an opt-in page, so you'll need to have a sales page with the opt-in component a little more discrete on the page, to satisfy some of the list owners.
      Then, since you know SEO, work on building organic search traffic to your site. Create some reviews, articles etc and do your stuff with back-linking.
      Yup, I suppose that's my real question, how to drive traffic and how to get people to purchase the affiliate product. Is it possible that I'm seeing things the wrong way? Do people not do this?

      Originally Posted by honestbizpro View Post

      I just had a conversation today with a fellow warrior who was up to 7 figures a month passively with niche websites utilizing Clickbank.

      He wanted Out!

      Why? Because no one ever mentions the Dark Side of Clickbank...the tricks your fellow affiliates use, also the product owners, the refunds, on and on.


      But there is always a way to win....

      Your own products, you create or have someone create for you, physical products and other programs outside of CB.
      Damn - I'm getting a lot of resistance! Is it possible that people don't drive paid traffic to be an affiliate to clickbank?

      Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

      Understand the basics really clearly before getting into any technical details.

      http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ml#post5210243
      Thanks Alexa - I'm still learning..but I think I'm spinning in circles with this particular question. From what you guys said, it looks like people don't drive paid traffic to their site just to market CB affiliate products. Am I getting it all wrong?

      Thanks everyone!
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  • Profile picture of the author bearbo001
    Originally Posted by honestbizpro View Post

    I just had a conversation today with a fellow warrior who was up to 7 figures a month passively with niche websites utilizing Clickbank.

    He wanted Out!

    Why? Because no one ever mentions the Dark Side of Clickbank...the tricks your fellow affiliates use, also the product owners, the refunds, on and on.


    But there is always a way to win....

    Your own products, you create or have someone create for you, physical products and other programs outside of CB.
    Amen to this! Get in front of the money. Control your destiny. Use affiliate model to fill in gaps.
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  • Profile picture of the author JamesMcCaferty
    Thanks all. To be honest, I'm still a bit confused.

    For now, I'm going to: Create a niche membership site. offer incredible value to people. Capture leads. email campaign, then suggest offers.

    For the paid traffic aspect, I'll do some more research, but I will probably do PPC to a squeeze page with free ebook bribe . Cheers all!
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