I’ll be honest.
Answering email is one of my least favorite tasks, simply due to the volume of messages I receive from those who want something for nothing.
I have no patience for that kind of mentality.
I’d rather spend my time helping people who genuinely want to do the work needed to succeed, not those expecting handouts.
So I was already a tad bit frustrated when I stumbled upon a message from a guy who questioned my integrity because I promote ClickBank.
His email read…
Hi Lisa,
Love your work, but was quite shocked to see that you promote a program like ClickBank. I have been an affiliate for at least 5 years and have sent thousands of visitors to them and have not received one single sale. I have concluded they are a scam and removed all my links.
This isn’t the first time I’ve heard this. In fact, my YouTube videos on ClickBank often generate the same kinds of comments.
And quite coincidentally, as I was polishing up this post yesterday, I checked my Facebook page and Clarence Middleton posted this…
First of all, I’ve got to give props to Clarence for at least admitting he may have taken a sip of the Hater-ade. 😉
But he’s not alone, and it’s not usually about hating. There’s this attitude that develops with some marketers who believe…
If I can’t make money with this program then it must be a scam.
If this sounds like something you’ve said, in reality, the real problem may be one or more of the following…
- Your marketing strategy needs adjusting
- Perhaps you are promoting products that don’t align with your reader’s needs
- You need to build more targeted traffic
- You haven’t established enough credibility to convert the sales
Now, I will say this. You have to be careful because ClickBank does have some less-than-stellar products in their marketplace. But it’s up to YOU to ensure that the products you promote meet a certain quality standard.
My ClickBank Strategy
I’ve done very well with ClickBank over the years, and for those who call it a scam, I’ve been a member since 2000 and have never had a problem getting my payments.
I don’t promote a lot of their products (no more than 2-4 per site), but I own the ones I do promote and make sure my readers know that.
For example, I’ve had pretty good success with referring Jim Edwards’ book, How to Write and Publish Your Own eBook in as Little as 7 Days.
Take note of my very simple strategy below…
I always make it clear that I actually purchased the book by giving specific details. Doing so will increase your conversions because it makes the review seem more believable and credible.
Knowing specific problems your audience struggles with helps too.
One reason I chose to add that last paragraph about not knowing enough to write a good book is because that’s exactly what my readers are constantly telling me via email and Jim’s book covers this issue very well.
The Concept is Actually Very Simple
As you can see, my strategy is not rocket science. And if you talk to anyone who succeeds with affiliate marketing, I bet they will tell you they do something very similar.
In fact, the affiliates who do the best promoting my two books (Niche Website Success and WP Starter Guide) often use a very similar approach.
Most of them write reviews that are very similar to what I did with Jim’s book above. They highlight specific, audience-relevant benefits they know will be valued.
When you have enough targeted traffic and find products that align with your visitors needs, affiliate marketing is actually not hard at all.
However, that doesn’t mean it’s not going to take work and time to promote your site and figure out how to convert your audience.
To Sum it Up
ClickBank is no more a scam than Amazon’s or Commission Junction’s affiliate program. It’s simply an affiliate network of digital goods. You choose the products you want to promote and if they convert, you earn a commission.
It’s as simple as that.
In 12 years, I’ve never seen any evidence of ClickBank being a scam, and it’s not fair to use that label just because something is not working for you.
By that logic, there are a lot of things I’ve encountered in my life that I could call a scam. 😉
Hey Lisa, pretty good post you have here. Thanks for share. Listen, I’m trying to figure out a product to sell online. Things that people really need. What kind of things would be a good choice to sell ? Continued success to you !
Almost anything sells online. So rather than approaching it from “what sells” start with what you’re interested in. Build a site around that topic and find related products to sell.
Hi Lisa,
I just signed up for Clickbank thanks to you and your posts about hard work and success! Hey, we have all got to start somewhere, right? I was just outlining a review and now am at the stage where I am ready to buy the product. Do you ever just ask the vendor for a free review copy, do you purchase via your own link on your webpage or buy through CB marketplace? Funny (ok, maybe just sad, lol), I just realized I’m not exactly sure how to make the purchase. Thanks for all you do!
Wooooo. Made my first sale on ClickBank yesterday! I found out about ClickBank through you on YouTube and read all your posts on it. The funny thing was that I thought I would never make money from it because I didn’t think anyone would buy these eBooks. And then I read a post about positive/negative thinking in IM and why it’s the “missing link”. I was defeating myself before even trying. Well not anymore.
That’s great Dan! Yes, success is largely mental. If you believe something doesn’t work you will continue to look for evidence to support your theory. Fortunately the opposite works too! Glad you didn’t give up!
I came to know about clickbank affiliate program around 2 months ago. I then created a website http://www.magyjobs.com and placed several clickbank affiliate links with bannners, widgets and text ads. I then published an ad on our local newspaper. Guess, what? My expectations were crushed !!!
No commisions at all. I am sure people would have bought the products as these were employment, work from home related products. However clickbank did not even give me a penny.
Getting people to buy takes more than just putting up links, banners and ads. I NEVER sell anything that way. If you look at this blog, there is a ton of content on my personal experiences. I build credibility by giving away information I’ve learned. Every now and then I will weave in related products and THAT’s how I sell Clickbank products and Amazon. If I used the strategy you mentioned, I’m not sure I’d have much success either.
The key to selling ANYTHING online is to build a niche website around the products you promote and build credibility. You also need targeted traffic then to test, test and test.
I also don’t think a newspaper ad is a good strategy for this kind of marketing unless you know you have a very targeted audience. It could work, but a lot of testing is required.
Hey Lisa, What do you think about Jvzoo ?
Never used it, so I don’t know much about it.
Hi Lisa, Thanks You For Sharing Your Experience. I Also Have Doubt That ClickBank Is Scam That’s Why Never Tried 🙁
Time To Join Click Bank And Read Your Guide About Click Bank.
My Twitter Username is OshoGarg89 I don’t how it added “russellworld” in above comment by default :O
Dear Lisa
I’m trying to understand how to create a Niche Website? I haven’t made a Dime on Click Bank. So I’m a Beginner. I ‘ve register ClickBank Months Ago. I kinda understand How to Promote the Products. But the problem is i’ve to paste the URL link of a ClickBank to a Niche Website so i can earn Commission. Please i Beg you show me how Niche Website works? I’m a poor guy who have Financial Problem. Please Reply Back.
Best Regards
Noah Sahle
Hi Lisa, Thanks for putting your experience. Actually, my website is a Technology Blog having Tips, Tricks related to internet, Windows, Mobile OS, Social Networking, Blogging and a bit about Making Money. I am using Google Adsense on it. Pageviews are around 45k per month but I am generating an average of just $10.00 per day from Adsense.
So, I was thinking to move to Clickbank. Yeah, I am having enough visitors but they are not that quality visitors for ClickBank Type Programs. Should I start using Clickbank on it?
I am enough hard-working but not gaining good results. What you think ? Shifting from Adsense to Clickbank would be good ?
Please Reply!
For some odd reason, I was denied a click-bank account.
Wasn’t given a concreate reason. Just that it couldn’t happen at this time…
Does anybody think HubPages “punishes” a Hubber, for turning off
th Hubpage ad program?
I had it off for a month; and I received nothing from yhe AdSense ad’s that were running on Hubpages.
I know for certain AT LEAST 50 ad’s were cliced on my Hubs that month. More like 100.
Is it really coincidence I would get ) clicks/ 50?
I’d rather post the same article on my Blooger blog. I trust Google slightly more than HubPages
Oh, slimlink is TOTALLY worthless. I have made .00 on that bad boy.
Plus, iy looks ugly.
-Napedog
Really? I don’t think I’ve heard of anyone getting declined.
is there another program like clickbank that has product that pay you for just email sign-ups
hi,
why some people not getting checks?
Hi,
I just brought 2 items on my click bank promote link to test it out and it never told me I have made a sale or see the money showing up does it take a few days to show up?
please post here when it does show up or if it did, if in few days it didnt , then i think clickbank is scam
no I was feeling wierd because I was getting order impressions but no sales and most of the time when you visit the order form at least a couple will be sales. I asked clickbank and they said it shows in 2 to 3 hours of the sale. Make sure your affiliate name is on the bottom of the order form
HI.
so i just started for one month now , and am with clickbank for 48 hours so far, since making money with Adsense is almost impossible for me , however i am really lost here i choose the right product with most sells % on the market and even bought a Template for my blog so it looks Unique .
so whats left for me to spend more money on to make some Sells on my blog for clickbank?
Buy Alexa Ranking?
Buy some SEO?
Buy 100s Of Backlinks?
all the above i bought it for adsense so i can have some high CPC, and red 100s of articles on how to do this and that with adsense and nothing actually worked out so i hope Clickbank is not the same thing.
Nice post, hopefully this clears up things for a lot of people. Clickbank is NOT a scam. I too, get tired of people saying that clickbank doesn’t work. It takes hard work and sweat to make a sale. And Lisa, that was a nice tip of how you give specific details to prove your readers you actually bought the product. Cheers!
hi Lisa,
I have to say this is an awesome site, full of great ideas and help, so thanks for that.
re the clickbank affiliate, what about the dreaded chargebacks, there are so many scammers out there?
It happens but it’s only a small percentage — at least in my experience.
I dont have a website yet. I just trying to figure out which way would work for me there are so many different ways to make money online and also everyone say that i need a website and thats cool but i don’t know on what topic i could build one and how to constuct it so that it can be affective kinda need a guilding hand to get started and was wondering if you had some tips or a begining direction so i can get started on geting a wwebsite together and how to make money with it using clickbank and any other options for a beginner to use to start out with…
Blah, Im wondering if clickbank is broken. Ive had 48 click through from my wood working project website to a wood project plans click bank offer and no sales)-:
I cant help to wonder if someone really did purchase but I didnt get credit. Im converting the site to adsense.
Hey Jason, sorry but 48 clicks is not a lot AT ALL. If you figure a GOOD promotion may get a 2% conversion, but the average person usually converts less than that. Now if you are getting hundreds or thousands of clicks and no sales then that’s one thing. But I wouldn’t be alarmed quite yet.
I just wanted to say that clickbank is definately not a scam i have a site that makes me money on clickbank every single week. I do have to be honest though i can be rather lazy at times(ok most of the time) and im going to go against the grain because i know lisa always says that it takes hard work but actually i dont do anything but spend the money once it gets deposited into my bank account every single week. I can offer a suggestion though and im sure lisa already knows this but always target subscription based clickbank products. I mean it makes a lot of sense if you think about it. Ok heres a little example suppose this month im just starting a clickbank account and i got 5 people sign up for a subscription that costs $14 per month, ok thats $70 i think(im not that smart so i know you can do it) ok come january you get 5 more subscription sign ups and to make a long story short it continues on through out the year i think you can see how you can make some easy money here, well this is basically how i do it.
I am new to online work. I have tried other stuff and have lost my shirt, pants, shoes; well you get the point. Financial I am at a point where I have to start brining in an in come before I can put money into a system. So my question is, how can I make click bank work without putting any money into it just yet? I am not stranger to hard work. I work full time, go to school full time, and I am a single mother with three kids (a 5 year old and 11 month old twins). I am willing to put in the time (and money once I have it) but I do not know where to start at no cost to me (just yet). I have a click bank account, but when it comes to marketing products I am at a lose where to get started. Can you help me?
You can target the search engines and spend very little if any at all. The tricky thing about today is that search engine optimization is a lot more challenging than it used to be. So let’s say you have a blog on how to manage your money and stay out of debt. You could build a bunch of useful content around that subject and promote Clickbank products that relate to your niche.
I don’t consider myself a marketer. I’m a teacher. So I write about things I know and casually recommend Clickbank products that are relevant to what I’m talking about. The most challenging part is getting traffic. I have an entire traffic section on my site here http://www.2createawebsite.com/traffic/index.html
Great post and a really good reminder that hard work is always required, not excuses. Thanks and keep up the good work!
Hi Lisa, I watch many of your Youtube tutorials, I’m also interested in the video you made about Clickbank. But I have to know a little more about it first before signing up. I wrote down a few notes about Clickbank after watching your Youtube video, thanks so much.
Hi Bree, I just published this new article here http://www.2createawebsite.com/money/clickbank-guide.html That should help! 🙂
Hello Ms.Lisa, I really like your posts and your sites that give so much info and the fact that you keep it 100. You are not on here selling that get rich quick @h%T, i read and study every day so i can get a ubderstanding of the affiliate marketing business. I need your help with a thing or two,they say to write about what you love,that would be music,can you give the best place to really understand content writing? I also want to understand whole thing about building a niche site? By the way do you take on students? If so please let me be one. Keep up all your hard work and PLEASE,PLEASE,keep it on 100.
we must take verything as a business : it means it requires time and investement (in affiliate marketing we don’t need lot of ressources ). and making money online is a reality and every oe can do it
pls i really need one on one coaching on how to make money from clickbank.frustrated
I’m new to this affiliate marketing thing and just last week I do not even understand what a niche is -,- (having a retarded moment). Saw your videos lisa and I must say that your one of the few people I’ve seen so far that’s honest. Never had the guts to make my own website but after seeing your videos and reading your articles I am going to give it a shot :). I know it wont probably work but I will keep on trying until it works. Thanks for the encouragement lisa even though you dont know me, you my friend has helped me a lot.
I was also trying to sell ClickBank stuff for the last several years without success, but very honestly, I never criticized them because, so many people are making money that I am not, means something got wrong with me, and it is an encouragement for me to open up my own website, just to see whether it works.
HI lisa!
I am an affiliate of clickbank and i wanted to ask about the autopilot system of clickbank.Is it a scam ? But I havent found any negative reviews about it. Can u please give me advise on that.coz it seems too good to be true.!!!
Hi Silk, never heard of this but I don’t like products that use “autopilot” in the title. LOL Always sounds like it’s a get-rich scheme to me. Not saying that’s the case because I’ve never used the product.
haha I’m a total clickbank hater-ade drinker!! no but honestly, I think what the main problem is is that clickbank is over-saturated with GARBAGE eBooks. Finding the right ones to promote can be the hardest part of it. It certainly isn’t impossible. I just wish there was some sort of quality control on their part…do u agree?
Yes I do agree on the QC but they have a 60 day money back guarantee. So if you buy something you want to promote and don’t like it, just get your money back. It’s really that simple. That way you aren’t promoting garbage and you’ll have an easier time converting because your credibility will help you convert even more.
Love this Blog Post and all of your work on youtube Lisa. 🙂 Clickbank is a gret place for anyone who is looking to start making money online very quickly.
With a bit of learning and taking action almost anyone can pick a profitable product and start making commissions from sales generated. The key is targeting your target prospect and getting traffic in front of your offer.
Discover How to start right now here:
ClickBank Secret Formula
ClickBank is not my favorite affiliate platform but the ease of which a person can join and sell any product without jumping through any approval hoops makes it easy to test products. They are a reputable company and handle the sales process very well, including refunds and payments.. etc. You never have to worry about not getting paid. The key to success is as you say Lisa, selling relevant products that your audience want.
There is one market where it doesn’t work too well, and that is selling products to existing affiliate marketers who have ClickBank accounts. If you email them an offer about a new product related to their internet marketing business, once they see the ClickBank order page, they can simply find the product in the ClickBank marketplace and then buy the product through their own link. This is not against ClickBank policies and makes sense as to why people would do it.
Yeah so true. Some companies like Commission Junction don’t allow people to do this. I wish CB would implement the same policy.
I have never used click bank but considering it. Is it as simple as Copy and pasting a “hoplink” on my website from clickbank?
Please do not think that you can make money on clickbank as Lissa do. Lissa can speak and write in english well, but me “NO”, and i know only French and i made some sales and i earned 380$ check. but these days i dont make any more sales erevything is gone i am very pissed off with clickbank!
I haven’t tried Clickbank. It is a subject very popular though (perhaps because people are not ok with their job and try to have an extra income from home).
This is not an evaluation, right? Mostly a tutorial, I think.
Very useful, I’ll give it a try. Thanks for sharing!
Clickbank like anything else requires discretion. There is a lot of junk on Clickbank that I would not want to advertise or review on my website because they look like spam and often have manipulative webpages to keep users on the page or annoying videos and audio. These are very common in my niches of forex and penny stocks.
Yet there are quality products out there. Part of it requires honing your efforts to find them but also using them yourself. A little experience helps
I have been promoting Clickbank product for awhile, but I have not made any money. However, I know people who are making money with Clickbank so I did not think it was a scam. It takes time to make money with any product.
Indeed you can make good money with Clickbank if you know how and if you choose good products. But there are also lots of junk products out there (like the ones promising to make you rich over night, betting systems, forex, penis enlargement etc) and that’s why many people became suspicious about Clickbank. That’s also why Google hates lots of sites promoting Clickbank products.
I have to admit that I signed for Clickbank about 4 months ago and so far I have earned “zero” but I know it’s me. I don’t have a good strategy in place. It is very frustrating and it takes hard work, time and you need to be “a patient worker” I agree with Lisa 100% with this post.
Four months, shucks it took me 4 years to make my first sale! LOL Once I really started finding products that fit with my audience and actually owned the products I promote, things turned around.
Great article and just wanted to add that I can relate to your opening statement. I get loads of messages from people who have not even bothered to read my blog posts properly and then ask me stupid questions or asking for something when they haven’t even bothered to read one word of my site and what I am about. Keep up the good work.
Hey Lisa,
I also started with clickbank but very frankly, not a single sale in two month and the most shocking part is that I am on 3rd in the first page for my keyword. May be my content is not appealing or might something else. Anyway After reading your article, once again I am going to start with clickbank. Hope this time I will make some bucks
My first online sale back in the day which got me hooked on internet marketing was from ClickBank and I still make money with them even for products promoted on year old posts and I can count on less than one hand how many refunds there were SO for lack of a better phrase: whoever sent that email to you was tripping!
When things aren’t turning out the way that you wanted to, it doesn’t mean that life is scamming you, right? You just have to change what you’re doing. We have the time in the world to fix whatever we did wrong; it won’t matter if it’s only for a short moment.
= Gerald Martin, Resell SEO =
“But it’s up to YOU to ensure that the products you promote meet a certain quality standard.”
Nothing could be truer. They’ve definitely been trying to clean up their marketplace in various ways, with the FTC compliance for vendors post and the refund rate monitoring, but it’s a huge marketplace and tons of bad apples still squeeze through the cracks.
I am amazed at how personable and committed you are to your followers considering the ridiculous amount of traffic you must get here.
I’m not an affiliate of ClickBank myself, but I did make a purchase a couple of months ago from a popular affiliate marketer and was cheated. Long story short, did not get a refund and ClickBank response was indifference. So I’m not anywhere near those guys even they offer me free money.
I’m surprised you didn’t get a refund going directly through ClickBank. Was it within the normal ClickBank 60 day refund timeline? I’ve never seen a person have a problem get a refund directly through ClickBank. If you’re in the U.S. or Canada, they have a toll-free number: 1-800-390-6035 (which I wasn’t aware of until a commenter posted it at my blog a while back).
Hey Lisa,
I recently began making Clickbank Sales, but before today, it was really hit and miss.
So what am I doing differently?
This time a round, I am using 2 EXTREMELY IMPORTANT marketing techniques to boost my sales with Clickbank.
1 – I am making Youtube videos –
Although blogging is a great way to make money online, establishing credibility and getting traffic to your blog for that matter is much more difficult. This is because the amount of writers compared to video makers is HUGE!
In fact, I found a niche on Youtube which only has 10 videos, tops! But if you look on Google, there are millions of competitors for that same niche.
The great thing is, Youtube videos usually rank on page #1 or #2 of Google, depending on how many views, likes, comments, your video gets. They only take 10 minutes to make, and don’t usually require any backlinks.
2 – I am capturing subscribers –
It is said that a buyer has to see a product 7 times before making a purchase. Well, how are you going to show that buyer a product 7 times without some way of keeping in touch with them?
Aweber is a great solution for building subscribers and selling them products.
Unfortunately, people ABUSE Aweber, and think that it’s simply to SELL, SELL, and SELL… When this definitely isn’t the case.
Summary –
I’ll say it again, because I have said it before. If you’re going to be successful in this business, you need to become an AUTHORITY.
How do you become an authority?
You become an authority by showing people that you have been at POINT A (where your readers currently are) but have gotten to POINT B (where your readers want to be.)
i.e. if you’re in the fat loss business, make videos showing readers how to lose weight, show them before and after pictures of how you lost weight, and then link to a free eBook in the description of your video (where readers have to enter their name and email to get your book.)
Once you have become an authority and showed them that you know how to do what they’re trying to do, you have to gain their trust. The first 5 to 7 emails that you send them should BE FREE VIDEOS of things that they can begin doing right now to change their lives. After sending the readers these videos (and they trust you) you can begin promoting products every so often.
To promote products, you want to PUSH THE READERS HOT BUTTONS! One of my best converting emails told the readers that they were going to FAIL! And actually described life to them as if they were to fail, and never reach their goals. At the end of the email, I showed them the solution to their problem. Let’s just say that the conversions were high, and my buddy (the guy who created the program I was promoting) was shocked by the results.
I apologize for the long comment. Once I begin making a lot more Clickbank sales, I’ll be releasing an eBook on exactly how to make money with Clickbank. But for now, I want to make more sales, and show people that I am actually an authority – going from no sales, to maybe 1 or 2 sales at the least, every other day.
Great post, Lisa,
Taylor Thompson
91 Day Challenge
Don’t apologize for writing such a useful post! Thanks for sharing that detail about your email campaign. Fantastic strategy and shows how you have to get creative and learn what your readers need!
This is the first reply from a big name blogger that I have ever received in a comment. I have done guest posts for John Chow, but I have never once received a replied comment. Thanks for the reply. I’ll be reading your blog more often. 🙂 But not too often though. Otherwise, I will never implement what I learn into my strategy lol
Well, all I know is that I’m getting regular income from clickbank so whoever calls it a scam clearly dont know what they are talking about or they are doing something really wrong. To be honest with you, I don’t own all the clickbank products I promote but they still convert. The funny thing is that the ones I own don’t convert as well.
Credibility is the key, when your readers trust you they’ll follow your recommendations.
I never had any luck with clickbank, But Looks like I need to try it after reading your blog post.
Hi Lisa, When I started with Clickbank I have done some research, most of the places over the net it reads like a way people are not happy with the services.
I agree its about finding the correct product and promoting it and I think one of the places where clickbank needs to improve is marketplace, they need to tied there search function…once you have correct product you can promote it to good effect.
Hi Lisa It’s sooo true don’t know how many times I’ve heard that, it’s not a scam you just have to know how to affiliate market successfully and then you will make money from it 🙂 …
Thanks
Joe Elliott
Amen Joe!
Hmm it looks like your blog ate my first comment (it was super long) so I guess I’ll just sum it up what I submitted and say, I’m thoroughly enjoying your blog. I too am an aspiring blog blogger but I’m still new to everything. Do you have any recommendations for first-time blog writers? I’d really appreciate it.
Awesome information I do believe it takes a lot of effort at affiliate programs like ClickBank to succeed, and not everyone succeeds it takes determination.
Learning our capability and skills is the most important.. Accept our fails.. and learn from it..Thanks for the interesting post..
You can do article marketing. This is where you write articles related to the product and put a link back to click-bank with the hopes that the reader will buy your product.