So you’ve heard stories of people that make a living do something called “Internet marketing” and you want in on the action too. That’s great because earning money online is actually super easy. But, where do you start, and how do you actually make money?
The general idea behind affiliate marketing is this: Why sell your own products when you can sell someone else’s? Basically you market someone else’s product, and when a sale is made they pay you a commission. It’s a win/win for everyone.
First we’re going to take a more in depth look at how affiliate marketing works, then jump right into how you can get started with it using a service known as Clickbank.
What is Affiliate Marketing?
Let’s say someone just created an amazing product and wants to bring it to market but they don’t have the funds or resources for a marketing campaign. Instead, they decide to play it smart and offer others a commission for marketing and selling the product.
That’s affiliate marketing. The affiliate is the one that does the marketing/selling, and the vendor is the one who creates the products. If you’re new to all this, being the affiliate is the way to go, so that’s what we’re going to be covering.
Here’s a quick list of benefits when it comes to affiliate marketing. Keep in mind that there are many benefits that are a bit more intangible, like the satisfaction of being able to provide for your family, but here are the obvious ones.
- You don’t have to create products
- You don’t have to handle refunds
- You don’t have to do customer service
- You don’t have to worry about branding
- You don’t have to keep an inventory
- You don’t have to worry about shipping
As you can see, affiliate marketing is very convenient. All of the hard work is essentially handled by the vendor while all you have to do is market their product for them. This is literally one of the simplest business models you’ll ever find online.
But how does it actually work? When you chose an affiliate marketing product to promote you then get people to go to the sales page using your affiliate link. Any sales made using this link will earn you a commission. That’s all there is to it.
We’ll go over the marketing side of things in a little bit but for now let’s take a look at what Clickbank is, and how it can be used to find and promote affiliate products online.
An Overview of Clickbank
If you’re just getting into affiliate marketing there is no better place to start than Clickbank. Clickbank is a service that brings together vendors and affiliates, making things easier for everyone involved.
For vendors, payments to affiliates are made easy, and they’re also able to showcase their products to a wider audience of affiliates. For the affiliates, Clickbank makes it easy to browse tons of different products, and getting paid is fast and easy.
It should be mentioned that many products on Clickbank are digital, like ebooks, video courses, and stuff like that. This isn’t a bad thing since it is actually very easy to sell products like these online for many reasons.
Anyway, Clickbank has its own benefits, just like affiliate marketing in general. Here are some of the benefits of Clickbank, and why it’s a great choice for anyone who wants to get into affiliate marketing.
- Get paid commissions up to 90%
- Get paid reoccurring commissions
- Always get paid on time every time
- Easy to find the perfect products to market
- Avoid scammers running fake affiliate programs
That last bullet point is a big one. There are actually a ton of scammers out there who make fake affiliate programs but never actually pay their affiliates. This isn’t a problem on Clickbank because every vendor is vetted to make sure that they’re honest.
Getting Started on Clickbank
Okay so you’re ready to dive into this but you’re not sure how to get started. Not a problem. Getting set up and ready to go on Clickbank is simple, and will only take a moment. Before you do that though, it might be a good idea to just look over the site.
Once you’re ready to sign up, you’ll have to enter some basic info like your name, country, mobile number, etc. Once you’re done with that and have set up your account profile, you can then take a look in the marketplace for products to sell.
Finding A Good Product to Promote
When you first go to the Clickbank marketplace it can be a little confusing. You’ll see a bunch of different categories and when you click on them you’ll then see a list of products with all kinds of stats and data. Don’t let this get you down though.
The first thing you should do is visit a category that you know about. For example, if you know all about travel, then try looking in the travel category. This is because your prior experience will help you to tell strong products from weak products.
There are also a list of stats for each product that can help you pick a winner. If this is your first time on Clickbank then you likely won’t know what these stats mean so you should take a moment to visit the support page that explains them.
One thing to keep in mind is that there is more to choosing a good product than just looking at the Clickbank stats. Make sure you actually visit the sales page for the product to see if it looks professional.
You can also ask the vendor about the sales page conversion rate, which is extremely important. If the sales page doesn’t convert, then it doesn’t matter how much traffic you send to it. Any good vendor should be willing to share this info with you.
Also, be aware that some vendors actually offer you additional tools to help you market their products. This could be anything from banner ads, to fully made web page templates. Vendors want you to be successful so that they can be successful.
How to Market a Clickbank Product
Once you’ve found a product that’s a real winner, it’s time to start thinking about how you’re going to market it. This is a very simple concept since all you really have to do is get people to go to the vendor’s sales page.
That said, actually marketing a product does take some knowledge of marketing psychology, and of course copywriting. We’ll cover this in just a moment but for now, let’s focus on the different ways to market Clickbank products online.
Social Media
You may be tempted to think that just throwing links out there on social media to a large audience will be enough to be successful with affiliate marketing. Yes, you can make some money doing this, but it isn’t a viable long term strategy.
This is because social media is not a good tool for selling. People on social media are actually very resistant to being sold to, which is why most companies use social media as a branding tool and do very little actual selling with it.
If you’re going to use social media as a part of your affiliate marketing strategy, then this is something you should be doing as well. Make your social media posts helpful and entertaining. Once you have a following, you can then throw out a link.
Blogging
Bogging is an excellent way to promote affiliate products. For example, if you have a cat care blog you can occasionally do cat product reviews then use your affiliate link to link people to the product so that they can buy it and you can get a commission.
The big drawback here is the fact that it can take a very long time to develop a following for your blog. Social media can help you promote your blog, but it still isn’t going to just blow up over night unless you get super lucky and go viral.
If you’re going to use a blog to promote affiliate products you’ll either need to already have one, or be prepared for this to be a long term project. If you are just starting out, you will be able get a good start using SEO to position your blog.
Running Ads
This method of marketing is probably the easiest, and can generate a lot of money in a very short amount of time. The big drawback here is that running ads costs money, and you will lose money during the testing phase before you start making money.
Running ads is only for experienced marketers. Not knowing what you’re doing when running an ad campaign can be costly, and may set you back hundreds or thousands of dollars.
Even so, running ads can be incredibly profitable when done right. If you want to go this rout, you need to learn all you can about running ads, have a decent budget for your testing phase, and also know when to kill a campaign that isn’t preforming.
Marketing Psychology 101
If you’re going to market something, then you have to be able to think like a marketer and understand the psychology of your customers. Just having a good product isn’t enough, and often times it’s the mediocre products with good marketing that shine.
The first rule of marketing is to make it about the customer, not you, and not the product. This means that you need to understand the needs or want that your product fulfills, and make sure that your present it as such.
Marketing is all about benefits, and when presenting your product you must be able to clearly explain how it benefits your target audience. Just listing the features isn’t enough so make sure that you word it so that each feature is also a benefit.
Speaking of target audiences, you also need to make sure that your pitching your products to the right people. Unfocused targeting will lead to a lot of wasted time and/or money marketing to people who have no interest in what you’re selling.
Instead, take the time to do some research, and identify who wants and/or needs your product the most, then find out where they hangout online. Once that’s done, craft a well written marketing message and present your product to them.
You can also hire help if you’re really struggling with this. For example, if you have a landing page that’s getting good traffic but isn’t converting, you can hire a copywriter to write professional sales text for it.
You can also hire a graphics designer if needed as well. How your page looks visually can have a big impact on who stays around to read it, and who clicks off immediately because it looks like garbage.
Affiliate Marketing is a Numbers Game
Being successful with affiliate marketing and Clickbank is all about the numbers. You shouldn’t expect to see massive conversion rates for your efforts like 50% which means that you’ll need a lot of traffic to see good money.
However, you also shouldn’t think that getting tons of traffic is going to be the key to riches either. If your marketing materials don’t convert, then all the traffic in the world won’t matter.
Take the time to learn all you can about online marketing strategy, and apply that knowledge to a well thought out campaign. Test, test, and test some more until you get it right, and your conversions and total sales will slowly improve.
You won’t get it right on your first try, so be prepared for some trial and error. If you can stay motivated, and keep moving forward, then there is no reason you can’t earn a living through affiliate marketing online with Clickbank.