Even if you are new to the world of internet and affiliate marketing you have probably heard of Clickbank.
Making money with ClickBank can be pretty easy, as long as you know what you are doing. In a nutshell, it simply involves doing some simple and duplicable steps. Clickbank has long been the leading online retailer of digital information products and software and has a huge affiliate network. Sales of eBooks and software through Clickbank total millions and billions of dollars. The program has helped many people make a very good online income.
As a potential new affiliate, it is very easy to convince yourself that by signing up as an affiliate with Clickbank you will soon be raking in huge commission checks. The reality is that most hopeful Clickbank affiliates earn very modest amounts. And there will be many who will struggle to make a single sale.
Due to the size of the network and the sheer number of products on offer, a whole industry has sprung up around Clickbank. It has produced all kinds of aids claiming to help aspiring affiliates to make big bucks.
A Wide Range of Products to Select From
These range from Clickbank storefronts, portals, viral eBooks, and contextual Clickbank advertising. A slew of products claiming to reveal the secrets to Clickbank riches using Pay Per Click advertising with Google AdWords or their rivals is also available.
It is indisputable that some Clickbank affiliates have made some really good money using PPC ads. However, for many struggling entrepreneurs, the cost and non-exact science involved in PPC campaigns make them unwilling to venture into the crowded waters.
The Clickbank marketplace may be huge. The web is also saturated with affiliates and Clickbank can be a very tough introduction to affiliate marketing. Many people will lose heart quickly when the anticipated commissions do not start coming in. However, this is not to say that beginners should be put off. This is particularly true if you have a website or blog catering to a specific niche. Clickbank products encompass a wide range of subjects so finding something relevant to your visitor’s interests should not be too difficult.
Promoting ClickBank Product
When it comes to promoting products from the Clickbank Marketplace, there are a wide variety of tools and resources to help you. Some of these are free and some require investment. You should consider each on their merits and how you can use them alongside your online business ventures. There are free storefronts available that will present Clickbank products on neat and easy-to-find pages. These are useful if you do not have a website of your own. Also, there are plugins that enable you to place search portals and search boxes on your web pages – some look better than others.
Placing Clickbank ads on your web pages can be a profitable course of action. But, as with any advertising, a lot will depend on your website’s content and traffic. At least with Clickbank ads, one sale can pull in a very decent commission. So if you are struggling to make money with AdSense, perhaps incorporating some relevant ads for Clickbank products could earn you more.
Becoming a Clickbank affiliate is free. Whether you will make any decent commissions will depend greatly on your willingness and ability to promote the products to a relevant audience.
Step 1: Creating Your ClickBank Account.
In order to sell ClickBank products, the first thing you need to do is to register as a ClickBank affiliate. To do this you need to create your free affiliate account by following the next few easy steps in the process:
a). Go to ClickBank.com and complete the ClickBank affiliate sign up form. This will only take you a few minutes. It is a straightforward thing to do, just follow the instructions on ClickBank.com. It is important to make sure your contact details (email) are correct as ClickBank will confirm your affiliate account by email.
b). Once you receive your affiliate account confirmation email. Click the link within the email and this will bring you to the confirmation page. This is where you can log in via the log-in link at the top of the page.
When you have logged in you will then be taken to your account homepage, where you can keep track of your sales and earnings. Once here, you just need to enter some info in the Payment information section. There are 2 parts to this section, one for your preferred payment method, and the other for your payment thresholds. The payment method gives you the option to choose how you would like to receive your commissions. However, new affiliates can only receive their commissions by check, until they have made some consistent sales.
The Payment Threshold is the minimum amount you will need to earn in commissions before ClickBank will send your payment. You can edit this by clicking the edit link located in the top right-hand corner of the payment information area.
Step 2: How to Select Your ClickBank Product.
Now, obviously selecting the right ClickBank product to promote includes some other important steps you will eventually need to explore, such as keyword research. As keyword research is outside of the remit of this article and is a complete subject on its own. You can find out more and read some of my keyword research.
On the My Account Homepage you will notice a link at the top of the page called “Marketplace.” Click on it! You will now see a list of product categories; from which you can choose a product to sell. So choose a category and we can move on to the next stage of the process.
Assuming you have chosen a category, you should now be looking at a list of product results. You need to take a number of factors into account BEFORE making your product choice, such as:
- Gravity – This tells you how many affiliates are making money with the product. I recommend choosing products with a gravity of 10 or more.
- %/Sale. – This gives you the average amount of commission that vendors will offer for each sale. I recommend promoting ClickBank products that offer 50% commission or more.
- Rebill. – This tells you whether or not this product is a subscription product or not. I recommend only choosing the products that will pay you a recurring monthly income. ONLY choose a product that has a $15/25% or more rebill total in this field, because this means you will get paid this amount over and over again.
Now that you have selected your ClickBank product using the criteria above, you need to create your unique affiliate link to begin promoting. ClickBank call this a “Hoplink”.
To create your “Hoplink” you need to do the following (Don’t worry this is easy):
- Click the “Promote” button next to the product you have chosen.
- On the next page called “Affiliate Program: Promote Products for (Vendor name)”. You need to enter your account nickname (ID) then click “Create”. You will be presented with 2 affiliate links (Hoplink).
- Copy these links and paste them into an excel spreadsheet on your computer. Remember these are the AFFILIATE LINKS that you will use for promotion and are how you get paid for each sale. Look after them as ClickBank will not store them for you.
You will notice that there are two Hoplinks. Unless you are a web designer with HTML coding knowledge, you should only need to use the shorter version (usually with the black font as opposed to the longer one in blue)
Step 3: How to Start Making Money with ClickBank.
You should now have your FREE ClickBank account created with your first Hoplink to promote. There are many marketing methods you can choose but beware of “marketing method overload” particularly if you are a newbie. This is when you try to master all marketing methods at once and do not achieve your goals as you don’t become competent at any.
The best advice is to choose a marketing method you are comfortable with. Become a master at it, then move on to the next.
To start your making money with ClickBank journey, start with free Social Media marketing, particularly if you are on a limited budget, and especially if you have time as opposed to money.
However, if you are looking for fast results from your marketing, and you can spend some money, then paid advertising is the way to go. Try using PPC or Solo-ads.
The only way to know whether making money through affiliate marketing is for you is to give it a try. Learn it, master it and profit from it.
