In this article, I answer all questions about Clickbank – the affiliate network for digital products and give tips on what to watch out for and how to use Clickbank to your advantage.
The following points are dealt with:
- Introduction and basics to Clickbank
- How to successfully sell products with Clickbank
- What are possible barriers to using the Clickbank Affiliate Network?
- Tips and tricks for successful application
Introduction and basics to Clickbank
Clickbank has existed since 1998 and is, therefore, one of the pioneers in the field of affiliate marketing. Basically, Clickbank is more than just an affiliate network, it’s actually an online retailer because, in every transaction, Clickbank is the seller. Clickbank originated in the USA, Clickbank was founded in 1998 in San Diego, California, United States.
As already mentioned, Clickbank specializes in digital products and acts as an online retailer and affiliate network at the same time, making work easier for sellers and possible sales partners (affiliates).
The cycle is that sellers create a digital product (eBooks, videos, software, coaching, audio, etc.) and post it to Clickbank. Clickbank verifies the product and sales page and approves it for sale and it appears in Clickbank’s Marketplace. The seller can now sell his product in a regular way – Clickbank takes care of the entire sales process (payment, email notification, cancellations, etc.).
The other big advantage is that the widespread use of Clickbanks means that many affiliates become aware of the product and sell it for the seller and receive a commission for it. The commission is much higher (between 50 and 75% on average) in relation to other branches and other affiliate networks, such as Zanox, Affilinet, AdButler, etc. Thus, the seller has much less of the sales price due to sales through the affiliates, but a much faster and free distribution of his product and thus sales.
How to successfully sell products with Clickbank
Of course, in order to be successful with Clickbank products, you need an audience that sees your offers. For example, your own website or a blog is good for this. But even if you have a YouTube channel, you can optimally market Clickbank products there.
If you don’t have a website or a YouTube channel, so you don’t have any traffic that you can use for marketing, then you also have the option of generating traffic quickly and easily with paid advertising.
- I recommend you pick a product that you think is good and could sell well. It is advisable to first buy the product yourself to make sure of the quality because if the customer returns the product, you will not receive any commission for the sale, so the quality is the first important decision-making criterion.
- Check if there is any demand for the product at all. You can see this on the one hand from the quantity already sold and the gravity number (a number that indicates how many affiliates sell products in what quantity via Clickbank) as well as from the corresponding Google searches.
- How effective is the sales page? The best thing to do is to check this yourself and read the sales page. Imagine you have a strong interest in the product. Does the sales page captivate you? Does it show you the advantages of the product and answer the most important question: “Why does the customer need this product in particular?”
- Check if there is an affiliate page or support area for affiliates. If it is important to the seller that a lot of sales are generated, he has also created a specially designed sales page with free texts, banners, mailings, reviews, etc.
- Check the seller’s support by asking a possible typical customer question – because support is one of the factors that determine whether customers are satisfied or not and whether they keep the product or return it.
What are possible barriers to using the Clickbank Affiliate Network?
Researching online on why some affiliates don’t use Clickbank found that there is a minimum earnings limit to get a Clickbank referral. By default, the minimum amount is $100, which is probably not reached directly at the beginning – but this can be reduced manually to up to $10 – but you have to keep in mind that there is a fee of $2.50 per check.
The other possibility is a direct transfer to the account. But there is a small catch here because a transfer to the account is only activated after two valid cheques. Billing cycles are every two weeks. So if you have received a check twice after a month, you can activate the convenient “online banking” and get your money directly into your account without any detours.
But there is another big reason why many stops using Clickbank.
Before a payout can be made, certain criteria must be met.
The most important criteria are:
- Sales were made using at least 5 different credit card numbers, and
- The sales were processed using two different payment methods (Visa/Mastercard/PayPal/direct debit).
This condition prevents affiliates from abusing the ClickBank Affiliate Program by using their own account to improperly collect rebates and/or discounts on their own purchases.
Furthermore, Clickbank holds a small part of the outstanding payment and only credits the account again after 12 weeks in order to have a “backlog” for possible quality problems with products (returns, cancellations, etc.).
These are many of the things that make it difficult to get started with Clickbank, but they are understandable and shouldn’t pose a real disadvantage if you use Clickbank’s programs normally.
Tips and tricks for successful use
The big “how?” is the question here. How do I promote a Clickbank product now? Probably the simplest and also a very effective option is to create blogs, so-called niche sites, which only focus on one topic, namely the topic of the product, and provide the customer with a lot of information about it. I’m a friend of good content – because, in the long run, only good content wins! So you have to register a keyword domain, set up a WordPress blog, and post good content and thus provide value to the customer and inform them very well. In addition, you advertise the Clickbank product for further information. With some SEO work, you’ll soon have a site that’s generating free traffic and selling a Clickbank product.
The other option, which is very, very, very lucrative, is to apply directly to the landing page via Google Adwords, provided with your affiliate ID. However, a lot of experience in dealing with Google Adwords should be available here, as there is a lot to do with demographics, landing pages, banners, call-to-action, click prices, titles and descriptions, split tests, etc.
Furthermore, Facebook Ads also offers a very simple but effective way to advertise Clickbank products, which with a little experience and skill as well as the necessary creativity can lead to financial success. But more about that in another article 😉
It is also an interesting possibility to build up a digital info business yourself with the experience gained on Clickbank.
That was a comprehensive introduction to the affiliate network Clickbank with all its pitfalls and hurdles, but also positive sides.
Would you like to learn more about how to be successful with Clickbank?
Once you are familiar with Clickbank and the products on the Clickbank marketplace, you can start marketing the products.
The only thing you need is traffic! For example, you can generate traffic through your own website, blog, YouTube channel, Instagram channel, and so on.
It is important that you properly inform your readers or viewers about the product you want to market.
In general, I can say from experience that you can sell one product to a hundred people. So if you have 1000 readers of your articles or blog posts, you will probably be able to sell 10 products… easy right?
Well, it’s not that easy 😉 I have a great site here that gives you more details about the right marketing and traffic strategies to sell Clickbank products. Just click on the banner to get to the website!
