Affiliate for Amazon or Clickbank, which one do you prefer?

My refund rate at ClickBank is also very low.

It's easy to blame the "guarantee" for the refunds, but the reality is that the refund rates depend on how the products are selected and pre-sold by the affiliates. (Products which have a high refund rate across all their affiliates are very quickly removed from the Marketplace).

My CB refund rate isn't quite 0%, I admit, but it's not too much above. And of course it's the no-questions-asked, 60-day guarantee that makes the sales so easy, there, in the first place.

There are areas like "MMO" and "IM advice" and "forex" which, for their different reasons, are always going to have some refunds, of course. But there are plenty of other good and valid reasons for not promoting those anyway, and fortunately there are about 397 other, better, safer niches, too.

Not all. There are plenty of services sold at ClickBank, and some physical products, too.

I like Amazon, as well. The commission-rates seem terribly low, after ClickBank, but of course the conversion-rates are much higher. It's a little bit geographically limiting, though, compared with ClickBank.

As long as I can subscribe people to my lists from my niche sites, and build relationships based on credibility and trust, it doesn't matter too much to me which site happens to be selling what I promote, really: if the quality of everything I promote is good enough to satisfy my subscribers, they'll continue to buy on my recommendations, and that's where all the money is, in affiliate marketing.

I would have to say I prefer Amazon. Granted it's a shorted cookie, but it's so easy to find something to promote. Besides, you can buy eBooks there for nowhere near $37 that most are on CB.

For ClickBank products, I've found I've had to stick around a niche for a while to gain trust before folks consider buying a product. The guarantee does help. I haven't had many refunds on there either. Just slower paced.

Selling Amazon products on the other hand is a lot easier. People already know the site and a even a Squidoo page can sell those products relatively easy. Although most times, it isn't what I've directed people over to, as they buy some other stuff.

So for me, I prefer to use Amazon associates.

I was going to say the same thing as Annie...I would recommend both. I try to diversify myself as much as possible without spreading myself too thin. If you prefer Amazon build mostly Amazon niche sites but I would still create some Clickbank sites if I were you.

Amazon's low rates of commission may keep many marketers off it, but the quality of Amazon products rocks really! The cookie period although only 24 hours still is more than handful!

I like clickbank because of scalability and margin.

I haven't found the margin at amazon to make it worth sending paid traffic to.

I want to make a nice penny on a promotion. And in order to do that I need to be able to make a good chunk of money per sale.

I use them both to help monetize my websites! Yes it's true about clickbank but they do have good products to promote. Two different types of products and markets. Amazon is more physical goods while clickbank is digital. Just make sure you research your clickbank products and don't promote crap to your list or on your site and you will be fine.

Sometimes you have to go far back in the marketplace to find good products or you can use the advance search function. If your unsure pick something with a gravity between say 30 and 100. I would not go to high with the gravity because the higher the gravity the more competition you probably have.

It can depend on your audience. In general, I favor Amazon for my authority sites.

For impulse sales, Clickbank is difficult to beat. However, I find it far more difficult to rank well with sites that focus on Clickbank products, and hold onto those rankings. The "ugly little site" approach seems to hold up best.

Your niche is a key factor. My art-related websites perform very well with Amazon affiliate links. However, just one Clickbank link can raise a virtual eyebrow among my readers in that niche. So, I'm sticking with Amazon and the occasional CJ link to Dick Blick, etc.

What keywords are you leading with? If they're heavily weighted towards quick results -- long-tail phrases that include terms like "now" or "this week" -- Clickbank products can have far more appeal than Amazon. For those sites, Amazon affiliate ads & links can be a waste of virtual real estate.

In general, I like the stability of Amazon products and the solid image they add to my authority sites... but that may be just my business model.

For my IM-related sites and my "ugly little sites" for people with urgent and/or embarrassing problems, Clickbank does better. However, those sites are a minority in my online portfolio.

Amazon is a household name in many countries whereas Clickbank is not. That said, you can only really promote Amazon products in those countries where Amazon is present thus narrowing down the target audience. The Clickbank target market is universal because as soon as a person buys a Clickbank product from any country in the world he or she can download it immediately - geographical boundaries are irrelevant.

Although Amazon products may not have a refund rate to be worried about, it could be the same for many good products on Clickbank. Internet marketing products have had a traditionally higher refund rate than many offline niches. Just avoid those niches where scams are known to occur.

Some niches do well on Amazon and the same holds true for Clickbank. Watches, for example, are known not to be too profitable for many Amazon affiliates whereas toys and baby products work out well for a large majority, at least from what I have been told.

If you're an Amazon affiliate choose products that have low competition, very good reviews and are priced at $150 or above. It should also belong to a niche where people do buy online(and not buy from a Walmart or Best Buy like groceries - yes, Amazon also sells groceries!)

If you aspire to be a Clickbank affiliate choose a product with a gravity between 25 and 50(not too high, not too low) a low refund rate and a decent commission. Check out the sales page to ensure that the claims made are realistic and put yourself in the visitors' shoes before answering the question to yourself, "Will I buy this product?".

Refund rates are indeed not officially published though there are ways to estimate it which I think come close to what the average refund rate might be for a product. It's a debatable topic and I wouldn't like to give out any method of calculation that may only arrive at an estimate.

In any case Clickbank now reviews products that have a refund rate of 15% or above.
To be safe, promote those products that have been around some time since newer ones may have spikes in refunds that may not have been acted upon by Clickbank.

I've only had a few CB refunds, mostly for recurring payments customers forgot they were paying monthly for...

I like to target Amazon for SEO traffic and clickbank for traffic I send via email marketing...

Both are great though : )

It's really up to you. I like to use clickbank. If you do some research and pick the right products to promote from there, you shouldnt have many refunds.

but click bank pays more , at least for forex trading products pays more than amazon

I'm currently concentrating on clickbank as the commission is reasonable and doesnt put me off. I'll try amazon real soon because I know of friends who earn decent from amazon because of their amazing 24 hr cookie that they use. Everything else that your customer purchases within that timeframe from amazon will be counted as your referral.

CB all the way !

Test both.

Amazon.... solely because I almost exclusively promote physical products... If clickbank started to offer physical products then it would be a much harder decision because I like their overall setup.