Sell Junk Food or Salads with Clickbank?

by mook
9 replies
Hi all! I am hoping to get some opinions on this topic from either side of the fence... no judgement here.

I've been a member on here for about a year (mostly lurking, I don't have much expertise yet in IM to contribute) and in that time have tested the waters with a couple Adsense and Amazon sites. I had not done anything in IM prior to that. I've been surprised through only KW research, SEO, and content writing that the sites each bring in at least a dollar a day. Small beans, but this has been an excellent, rewarding experiment so far in getting a feel for what direction I want to go from here.

After going through this process I really feel product creation would suit me best for the likes/dislikes I've come across up to now.

What is surprising to me as I look at the products with high gravity on CBengine is that titles which are clearly bogus can have so much success. For one example here, there is no scientific means by which to increase one's chance in winning a "random" lottery. Any basic level of understanding statistics can tell you that. Yet apparently it's selling like hot cakes. If the lottery is the "tax on the fools", then purchasing a guide on how to win it makes them, literally, card carrying members. Again, just one example... of course, there are many similar cases seen everywhere going back probably thousands of years to the "dawn of sales" -lol.

I guess it comes down to personal morals. I can write very well and have developed enough emotional intelligence by virtue of my career to be quite persuasive in communication media or pitches.

What do you guys think? Would y'all consider creating products that were essentially junk food, but were tantalizing in their promises and sales potential? Or lean more towards factual, mentally nutritious "information salads" which might be light on sales? Somewhere in between? Just cater to the market's needs and mentality? Seems like a slippery slope...

I am wrestling with this question in brainstorming my first product. And yes, I know that plain facts, in themselves, don't really sell in comparison to sensationalizing. That is where the "marketing" comes in. "Eat sensibly and move around" is not going to sell well as a one-sentence weight loss book.

Thanks for any opinions!
#clickbank #food #junk #product creation #salads #sell
  • Profile picture of the author Corey Geer
    Mentally Nutritious (Informative) + Infoproducts/eBooks = ???

    I'll get back to you on that one if I find the answer but this is the general nature of marketing. Just about every product out there is trash because it's usually some random person working from their garage looking for some quick sales.

    Just remember, junk food catches up with you sooner or later so selling "junk food" essentially will catch up with those people who sell it constantly sooner or later.
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    Skype: Coreygeer319

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  • Profile picture of the author seriousjake
    I guess I can see why people would do either. The answer really depends on your situation AND moral flexibility.

    Playing the devil's advocate, I'd say that if you're in a rough spot financially, it would be very easy to make the decision to cash in on what would bring you some quick money. I.e. the junk food. Of course, it's not your fault that consumers are idiots and that's one way to rationalize it.

    However, as a long term solution I'd have to agree with Corey above and say that salads trump junk food. And yes, I do find the grey area in between and feel it's a slippery slope myself. I was preparing my affiliate marketing email sequence today and had a rough time balancing out sales-speak with presenting realistic expectations. What I did was to only elaborate on features I knew would work. I left the rest to the product creator's sales page. It IS kind of hard to find a balance between the two IMO.

    The products I recommend are actually useful but with all the overpowered copywriting on the sales pages, the expectations set forth by the creators just drown out the true value of the product which does suck. Sure, in an ideal world you'd just have to be factual to get people to understand but hype is the name of the game and apparently, what sells.
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Originally Posted by mook View Post

    What is surprising to me as I look at the products with high gravity on CBengine is that titles which are clearly bogus can have so much success. For one example here, there is no scientific means by which to increase one's chance in winning a "random" lottery. Any basic level of understanding statistics can tell you that. Yet apparently it's selling like hot cakes.
    The key word there is "apparently".

    Sales figures are not disclosed. Not to you, not to me, and not to CBEngine, either. Beware sites that claim to be able to work out and present this information from their own "secret proprietary algorithms" (if that's what they're doing).

    There isn't a correlation between gravity figures and numbers of sales.

    Many products with single-figure gravities are consistently outselling products with 3-figures gravities.

    If this surprises anyone, these three threads may ease their confusion ...

    Gravity High or Lower - Which Sells Best & Why?
    Clickbank gravity - is there a sweet-spot here?
    Understanding Clickbank Gravity

    That said, I don't actually doubt that you make a good point here, and that some truly awful products based on all sorts of misinformation and nonsense do really make plenty of sales, even though there's no proof of that. The same, of course, is true of Barnes & Noble and Amazon, not just ClickBank.
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    • Profile picture of the author JMcGee2010
      If you are trying to brand yourself, then you want to develop products that are quality and provide value to others. In the case of the gambling and lottery books, you have to realize that a lot of folks have gambling problems and will buy anything that promises the next big one. It's kind of like people who get stuck over in the special offers forum here buying everything they see (been there, done that....LOL).

      Bottom line, if you sell junk, the chance of people being repeat customers is less likely.

      Hope this helps.
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      • Profile picture of the author Sandra Martinez
        I only sell things I would buy, and actually do... but don´t mind me... I´m sissy.

        There is a lot of trash in clickbank, but also some very good things... Just yesterday i saw that Carolyn Dean has a product in clickbank... that woman knows her stuff.
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        • Profile picture of the author mook
          @Sandra, that is my problem: I wouldn't buy any of that stuff at all.

          You've illustrated a perfect example and the essence of my post: Dr. Dean was found unfit to practice, used "unscientific methods of testing", and yet she sells a product on on Clickbank and has followers that support her. No offense, Sandra, perhaps you didn't know the following:

          Disciplinary Action against Carolyn Dean, M.D.
          http://www.casewatch.org/foreign/dean/dean.pdf

          I'm learning far more from this post than I originally thought
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          • Profile picture of the author Sandra Martinez
            Originally Posted by mook View Post

            @Sandra, that is my problem: I wouldn't buy any of that stuff at all.

            You've illustrated a perfect example and the essence of my post: Dr. Dean was found unfit to practice, used "unscientific methods of testing", and yet she sells a product on on Clickbank and has followers that support her. No offense, Sandra, perhaps you didn't know the following:

            Disciplinary Action against Carolyn Dean, M.D.
            http://www.casewatch.org/foreign/dean/dean.pdf

            I'm learning far more from this post than I originally thought
            I didn´t know. But it doesn´t change the way I think about her. I did see it coming. Any doctor in US who mentions the possibility to deal with cancer with a method different from cutting, burning or poisoning is persecuted.

            And bottom line... medicine is not and cannot be a science. The scientific method cannot be applied to life successfully. But I will not get into this conversation here because Alan will kill the thread, with reason.
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            • Profile picture of the author mook
              lol - Anyone want to buy some eBooks?
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  • Profile picture of the author mook
    Thanks for chiming in!

    @corey, see that's the crux of this post. I don't think in the vast majority of cases it ever catches up. On the contrary, because of the tiny-to-zero risk internet arena, people can be who they want and personalities/reputations are encouraged to be marketed as part of the product. The intangible, unlimited-stock e-product is therefore an extension of a "caring", intangible, unlimited-stock e-persona.

    Even real life junk food like the Big Mac… We all know it doesn't even decompose like real food and yet it is a *huge* seller. Where is the consequence? So there is an anti-obesity movement in America, fast food comes under scrutiny, so a smart company adds alternatives to show they are sensitive to that. They keep the Big Mac and it's not their fault the consumers choose poorly.

    @seriousjake Good points on the motivators ... I don't know about salads overtaking the junk food in the long run though.

    @alexa I agree that the gravity is not a true indicator and a fabricated metric, but the frequency and predominance of sensationalized products which are market dominators is pretty undeniable. Dollars spent on advertising speak to what is successful in converting the public. Therefore, it is "apparent", at least, that the majority of the consumer market subscribes to the copy found in hyperbolic advertising on CB, Amazon, TV, print, etc…. Mind-boggling as it may be.

    btw, extra thanks for replying… I've found particularly your and myob's posts to be among the most interesting here on the wf.
    ---

    I did read an interview with Mike Geary about him saying that he sells what people want, and then gives them what they need. In other words, he sells the image of their future self and the fact that there is a secret, or less than obvious route to getting a defined midsection. Then after they buy, they are given what they need: proper diet and exercise and probably a healthy dose of truth that for some, a six pack will not be attainable.

    Maybe I need to buy a successful Clickbank product on successful product creation! LOL
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