Hi there for many of us just starting out a very popular method to make some cash is to be come an affiliate and sell other people’s products for a commission. Absolutely nothing wrong with that and there’s many out there who absolutely swear by it and have made great livelihoods from it.

Affiliate Marketing – Is It For me?

For me its been a very useful area of our online activities – but like with all these areas you need to put some effort in to make it happen, read on & we’ll tell you how!

But as with all things when it comes to the internet there’s a smart way and a not so smart way to make it as an affiliate & in this post you’ll get the ‘heads up’ what you need to look out for when choosing a Clickbank product to promote- hope it helps, let us know ……

Finding the right Clickbank product to promote is always tricky.  As soon as you pick the wrong one and fail miserably to make money, you think you’ve learned your lesson; only to get screwed over again!  It’s a long learning process and it takes tweaking.  Here are the basics.

Looking At Clickbank Stats

Most of us know how to look at gravity, percentages and referrals.  These are all indicators that tell you how much a product is selling, how much for and to how many people.  The trouble is that with each one of these, you need to find a nice balance.  For example, your gravity should be at least 40 or else there’s a good chance nobody’s buying.  But as you inch up toward 100, the competition gets too high.

So basically, if you can stay as close to 40 as possible, you can be pretty sure to rank high in the SERPs for the product’s keywords.  Of course, you can always just do a regular Google search and get some idea of how many marketers are already targeting that product as well.

You want to go for a high percentage of the money, but that all depends on strategy too.  You can sell one copy a month if the product is a make money online course that sells for a couple thousand dollars.  On the other hand, you can dominate a new product and sell it like crazy.  You can make a ton of sales and even if it’s just $15, you’re doing well.

Quality Counts, For Real!

There are lots of different ideas on how to choose products, but here’s the golden rule.  Understand this and you’ll do well – Quality is everything.

The single biggest affiliate marketing mistake nearly everybody makes (and this is why it’s so ‘hard’ to make money with affiliate marketing) is that they promote a crap product.  You only look at the numbers and base everything on that.  You don’t even know WHAT you’re selling, and then you wonder why you’re getting all of these refunds!

When considering a product, contact the vendor and ask for a review copy.  They’ll probably give you a copy that you can’t save, but at least you can check it out.  Or, buy it yourself!  Then, you’ll really know if it’s garbage or not – YOU’RE money was spent on it.

It might sound silly, but this really is the most important point.  You’ll have no trouble selling a great, honest product that really helps people.  If you’re pushing the latest junk, you have to force every sale.

 Top Tip

If you wouldn’t buy it yourself why would you try & sell it to others? That’s just simply daft. Not only will you get loads of credits but when your customers receive another marketing message from you in every likelihood they’ll just delete it – credibility is vital in this day & age – don’t gamble with yours – ever!!!

Is It For Your Readers?

Along with this, consider that you’re offering it to your readers.  Is it something they’re really looking for?  It’s not enough to just choose any product that’s in the same niche.  It’s got to be the kind of thing your list members or readers are looking for.

And speaking of your list, remember that what you offer them directly affects your reputation.  If you offer them low quality products, they’re going to unsubscribe like crazy.

Watch Out For Leaks

Finally, most people don’t fully understand this, but there are all sorts of tricky things vendors can do to steal your commission money. These are ‘leaks’ that lead the customer somewhere else to purchase the product, and guess what?  The affiliate doesn’t get a dime.

One of these is the payment leak.  This is where they let the customer pay using a non-Clickbank method.  They might take phone orders, for example.  If these aren’t tracked, how do you know if you’re getting paid?

There are links to other merchants like Amazon or ‘network’ stores.   There’s no way for these to be tracked either.  Lightboxes, pop-ups and any other navigational links that lead the customer somewhere else should be avoided like the plague.  If the product vendor uses these, you’re losing money that’s rightfully yours.

There’s much more to choosing affiliate products on Clickbank than just looking at stats.  These non-stat considerations can easily make or break your affiliate marketing campaign.

 

Tony