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. 😉
Affiliate marketing can give anyone a negative attitude really fast. Poor tracking, unscrupulous merchants, unintentionally signing up new affiliates for the merchant and not being paid for it. You intend to sell people something and they instead insult you by signing up as an affiliate and you make diddly squat. When you’re envious of people who work at Walmart because at least they have a guaranteed salary and actually get paid for their work something has to give.
Hi, regarding Clickbank – are there any ideas about improving conversions on a varied webpage? I have a document sharing webpage and as such it is extremely to match products to the visitor. Many thanks
This “i’ll be honest” guy is anything but. He’s just a troll trying to push his agenda. If clickbank were that bad, none of the affiliates (or vendors) would stay around. (I didn’t just fall off of the turnip truck) Clickbank would have long since gone belly up and closed. You are either a troll, naive,or one of these lazy people that falls for ” Make five million dollars on auto-pilot before supper” kind of idiots. This guy’s maturity level is lacking to say the least.
Hi Lisa I have seen many of your post and i take your tips. I ‘m promoting products by reviewing them, But i don’t spend money on getting traffic. I will wait for the traffic come it on its post. Many of them talk about they make income daily or monthly,Honestly i will make money soon.If you can check my website and can give any advice i am ready to hear from you anytime.I want to make a regular income because iam not a rich person, iam a normal person .But i believe i will soon make it …Thank you
Hi Lisa,
I’m going to be honest here, I am one of those, not lazy, but people who would like to make money online without all the website building. I can build websites, I also know a bit of HTML, but what I am really interested in is domain redirecting …. Any advise would be appreciated
Hi Lisa,
I believe this is human mentality, they often believed that what doesn’t work for one will and not may not work for others. Although am new to clickbank and with a lot of review I have read about clickbank, there is no identification of being a scammer or been scammed their affiliate however, to get things done, it must be done the right way.
Hi i have only one question. I get 420 hops, 47 order form server calls. But no sales. I was read about decline credit card, not correct info input’ ok. Can be another reason?
Answer me if someone have this problem. Thanks aLL !
I was developing my website and I was going over youtube for some tips on how to’s when I came across your videos. The impression you gave me was one of pure honesty and a real geuiness to help your viewers. So I decided to visit your website and look into you a little further. I must say that you have a very informative content and you thoroughly did your homework. It shows your compassion and mission to succeed in life. I am reading your material and soaking it all in. I want to be successful as you are. I have no desire to be a filthy rich kid, but I do have a desire to keep up in this world and pay the bills, know what I mean? So far I am trying to follow the blueprint and just opened up a Facebook account called Sonia Sorogal Rodriguez, can I have you as my first friend? That would be awesome. I would love to aalso contribute in purchasing some of your materials but I am unemployed at this time hence, the real reason why I just started this website. Once I get some kind of funds regardless thru the websites or not I will be ready to purchase them as I want to continue on this venture. Come check me out…www.sorogal291.wordpress.com Thanks for all your help and advice. Sonia.
Hi Lisa
I have read about your write and blog, Thank you for the clear indicaton of how to get about in click bank. I have been promoting clickbank for 5 years,till today I have not event make a single cent. Lucky I came across you blog and write up teaching how to use clickbank. I have a website but i did not promote clickbank products, as i in the first place do not know how to start. I just use some free adv to promote clickbank products.
Once again Lisa thank tou for your write up.
Liow
In the UK it is against the law as far as I know to advertise something at the wrong price. In the UK if you advertise something for sale then you have to provide information as to whether or not the Tax is included in the price by law.
Lisa Irby you do not advertise the full price of your products when you advertise them online through Clickbank and Clickbank are at least guilty of allowing this to happen. Your Ebook Niche Website Success is advertised at $27 but when you get to the payment page it actually cost $33 because of the fact that you have to pay the tax and it is hidden from the potential buyer.
The correct term for this is known as low balling people and is against the law in the UK.
It is a confidence trick you get my confidence with a lower price than the actual real price and say I can’t do nothing about the Tax but you don’t state that it is not included in the price.
As far as I am concerned both you and Clickbank are guilty of misleading people with a scam.
One big reason many people don’t make money with click bank is because it is so easy to switch hop ID’s and pay yourself from the sale of the product but you and nobody else mentions this. Also many people open the link in one browser remove the hop ID and then open it in another browser effectively cutting the affiliate out of the loop.
The first rule of advertising is to promote the positives and negate the negatives that is in, and of it’s self misleading, a scam so virtually all advertising is a scam because it is a confidence trick.
Hi Bob
I appreciate you bringing this to my attention, but I think you are assuming that I knew that Clickbank charges taxes for UK residents. I didn’t. And I’m assuming that’s the case for other countries. I would assume the tax is different depending on the country. There is not one for the U.S. so this never crossed my mind.
I bet most Clickbank Vendors don’t know this either.
While I agree there is deception in advertising, that wasn’t my intention here. What I will do is add a message below the price that says “Taxes may apply in certain countries.” But I won’t be putting the price because it would be different and it appears from doing a quick Google search that the amount changes. So I want to steer clear for any prices since it’s up to Clickbank to determine and it varies.
Thanks for bringing this up. I wish you hadn’t jumped to conclusions, though.
$27 added Tax where applicable.
It is good of you to do this but Clickbank are aware of this even if you are not so the question still remains is clickbank a scam? The other thing is Clickbank are also aware of hop ID’s being removed but it does not affect them so ??? It does not affect the vendor either so that leaves questions also for me. I do not buy or sell from Clickbank because it has many dark places hidden away.
I am happy you have not taken this badly because it was not made in any kind of hateful way and I am impressed by your concern to the point of committing to some kind of rectification of the issue.
Perhaps the world isn’t as dark as it seems sometimes.
Perhaps it’s as the old adage says, one bad apple can spoil the whole barrel, thanks.
I’m about to get my 3rd straight check from Clickbank, cool.
I posted a comment a whole back talking about clickbank scamming me BOY i was wrong my website just started to get a HUGE amount of traffic and it’s making around $500 – 1000 a day just off the clickbank products 🙂 so if your venturing into clickbank just hold on it just takes time!
I hate when people think everything is a scam is’t not the product or service it is the persons mind set ive completely changed it and i am doing 1000 times better than i was 6 months ago.
Cheers,
Donny Suitor
I got my first Clickbank check yesterday. It was really nice getting that check in the mail and I got it in just 3 days. I will be doing a lot more promoting of Clickbank products from now on.
Tonya
Yay! Congrats!!
Here’s an interesting read
http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/directory/clickbank
I just really started promoting clickbank products and I wished I had promoted them a long time ago. I’ve made a few hundred bucks just promoting part time. I have never got a check from them before but I now qualified for a payout and I wanted to know how long does it take for them to deliver a check to you? In my back office it says they are shipping the check out today.
Excellent Tonya!
Hi Lisa,
I’m a newbie and somehow came across your website and must say I love your work. Your information is great. I was looking at your info about plugin clickbank on your own website and didn’t really find the answer. I will be visiting your site a lot. Much success!
i am still working hard how to make money through clickbank can somebody can help me in this matter…………?
Tell us more about what you’re doing to promote the products.
my website is Gettting CRAZY traffic and i am marketing clickbank products i don’t understand why it isn’t ,making CRAZY sales. This is Highly Trageted Traffic. looking at my click bank analytics and there are hundred of hops every day and server calls with NO sales. Can someone enlighten me about this. Are people just not buying or am a getting screwed??? please reply
Hi Donny, what is your approach to selling? Are you using a landing/sales page? Are you recommending based on personal experience?
hello lisa…
i know this is a little bit ridiculous question but did you still use
review method IN 2013 to make money promoting clickbank product ?
Absolutely! It’s the ONLY way I’ve ever used. And what’s great about this method, as long as you have targeted traffic, it always works.
1)
thanks for the reply lisa…greetings from malaysia 🙂
2)
for your information:
im about to start promoting a clickbank product in NEXT WEEK,
the thing that a little bit discourage me is:
1=product price is high: 97 dollar
2=muscle building niche: competitive niche
about taking action:
website/domain=all done 🙂
just adjusting my review before launch it so
any tips so i can adjust my review writing to increase MY CONVERSION ?
i dont have any problem about getting super targeted traffic-ppc
3)
the big question is:
how much conversion can i expect IN ONE MONTH
with 97 dollar product in muscle building niche?
the reason why im asking this is:
unrealistic expectation=mother of all screw up..