By Trevor Johnson
The Clickbank marketplace has thousands of products that are just waiting for you to promote. Is it really that easy to make money with Clickbank?
In theory, yes. All you need to do is put up a link from your blog or website using the "hoplink" code that you can get from Clickbank's site. Then when visitors to your site click that link, your affiliate identity is set with a cookie and if the person goes on to buy, you get a commission.
That means there are several variables at play here:
1. You need to get people to your website first
Oftentimes, people use systems such as Google AdWords to do this. You write an advert, select appropriate keywords and decide how much to bid to display your ad across Google's search results and - if you're feeling brave - their content partners as well. Trouble is, this can get expensive and you may end up spending more than you earn. If you can persuade people to sign up to your email newsletter when they reach your site then at least you can send them emails every now and then to help persuade them to make a purchase.
2. You need to get people to click on your links
The best way of doing this is to weave your links into your blog or website post. The less the link looks like an advert and the more it looks like a personal recommendation, the better. If you've actually bought and used the product you're promoting, write an honest review of it. Not a sales pitch - that's the job of the site you send them to - just an honest review. Bring out a couple of negative points as well as positives. So long as it's true, say that these aren't damaging to the whole product and that it's possible to get round the issues. Or if the product really is bad, say so and recommend an alternative that's better or cheaper or whatever.
3. You need to get people to come back to your site
Providing your website or blog has a theme, this is a matter of asking people to sign up for your newsletter. Don't spam them when they sign up! Tell them that you won't sell or give away their email address and that you won't pester them every day but will only send them an email when there's something important to tell them. Then keep your promise. Make each newsletter or email have some actual content. The best way is to tell your readers what they need to do to accomplish their goal. But don't tell them exactly how to do it. Instead, gently point them to the Clickbank product you've found that explains in great detail all the points they'll need to cover. This method works a treat - your customers are getting value from the information you're giving them and you're getting sales when they click through to find out exactly how to do it. If you can produce a short screen capture video to help get your point across, this is even better.