ITT: Feeling Generous. Answering CB Questions

[gonzomcribbinz]

If you ever want to write a (physical) book let me know. You're good.

I'm already dipping my toes into physical book publishing and distribution. It's a whole other world than Clickbank, that's for sure but so far, so good.

And I'll be self-publishing my first full fiction book this year as well. That's just for fun, though. I'll be releasing it for free via Podiobooks this summer.

 

[gonzomcribbinz]

First of all: Awesome thread. You really answered a lot of questions I had.

I've been an affiliate for a little while now, but I really feel I should make my own product and sell it instead.. I feel I could make a far better sales page and product than most of the people out there.

Do you use SEO/PPC/All that to actually promote your own products, just like an affiliate would, or do you only have other people promote your products and do all the work for you, while your site just runs?

I try not to compete directly with my affiliates too much. Of course, its impossible for there not to be any overlap at all, but for instance, I usually don't run too much PPC after the initial sales copy testing since PPC is the fastest way an affiliate can jump in and start promoting my product.

I don't think that anyone can truly just sit back and let others do the work for you. That's a good way to end up in the bowels of the Clickbank marketplace where noone will see you. And even if you let your affiliates make all of your sales, its still a full-time job marketing your product to your affiliates, making sure they have the tools they need, giving them training, etc.

I'm going through all this right now on a product that got approved today on Clickbank. I have a site that sits on page #2 of Google for all the major keywords for that product. With a little work, I can get it on page #1 and even take the top spot within a few weeks but I'm holding back because almost all the guys on the first page are potential affiliates.

But as a "just in case" measure that if the whole project shits the bed and no one wanted to promote the product, I always have my own site and promotional tools available so I can just promote it myself. I also do media buys and, depending on the niche, offline advertising as well.

 

[RavenX]

1. how do you feel about direct linking to checkout (if you're the affiliate)?
2. when would you use this tactic?
3. now comes the facepalm question...how do you do a direct link to checkout as an affiliate?

Thanks!!

 

[gonzomcribbinz]

1. how do you feel about direct linking to checkout (if you're the affiliate)?
2. when would you use this tactic?

I try not to promote products that I'd feel it necessary to do this. If someone's sales page stinks so bad that I felt I had to direct link, then odds are their product sucks even worse and if I promoted it through my list recommending it, there goes my credibility with the list, at least for the people that bought it.

3. now comes the facepalm question...how do you do a direct link to checkout as an affiliate?

I use this secret software.

Thanks!!

No problem!

 

[RavenX]

I use this http://lmgtfy.com/?q=clickbank+direct+link+to+checkout.

I used that secret software too...but i felt safer asking here just to make sure

 

[paytonlowe]

Great thread!

Learned a few things.

 

[Mokerchino]

Sadly, My signature is much, much less red than yours and most likely always will be.

Thanks for all the great info, it's just good solid advice and this is such an informative and conversational thread. Great Info.

 

[gonzomcribbinz]

Thanks, guys.

Looks like interest has died down a bit since I started this thread.

I'd love for other experienced guys that have had some success in Clickbank - both as affiliates and vendors - to chime in with their thoughts, tips, etc. as well.

 

[redrose]

You do the SEO part yourself, and if yes, can you tell us how do you link to go to the top or do you outsource it? I ask because my seo skills sucks.

 

[gonzomcribbinz]

You do the SEO part yourself, and if yes, can you tell us how do you link to go to the top or do you outsource it? I ask because my seo skills sucks.

I manage the SEO of all my sites, though I do outsource some things like articles to be distributed off-site and some basic link-building.

But this thread is about Clickbank, not SEO. There are sections for both white hat and black hat SEO on this forum as well as a download section chock full of pilfered information products about the subject that should give you enough of an education to figure the rest out by yourself.

I will say this: SEO isn't difficult at all. Not in the least bit. It's just tedious, boring, and repetitive 99% of the time. That's why most people fail at it. They don't have the drive to complete a successful SEO campaign until they get the results they want, so they give up.

 

[gonzomcribbinz]

I used that secret software too...but i felt safer asking here just to make sure

Gotcha. Yeah, I don't direct link so I've never really looked into it. As an affiliate, it's not my job to "sell" the product - it's my job to "pre-sell" it. If I've got to do both to get something to convert, I may as well have my own product in that niche.

 

[ultimate34]

Truly speaking, I found your answers valuable and have better Q&A help. Great answers there. As an affiliate, I have 2 questions if you get a chance:

1. What improvements (changes) can be made from my site?

http://weightlossachievement.com

2. Do you think there will be a high CTR from visitors onto the sales page?

Thanks!

 

[gonzomcribbinz]

Truly speaking, I found your answers valuable and have better Q&A help. Great answers there. As an affiliate, I have 2 questions if you get a chance:

1. What improvements (changes) can be made from my site?

Hm...let's see...

1) Put more than 2 backlinks to it (if concerned with SEO)
2) Ugly colors. Kind of convoluted layout. Get Thesis 1.6+ with a single sidebar on the right.
3) Tell me right away what you're trying to do. Your site kind of does this, but not quite.
4) I never liked the splog format much. Doesn't leave a whole lot of room to make informative articles. Make a more informative approach, IMO. That always leaves much more room for expansion should the time come.

Check out some more things that I'd do differently that I laid out in this post including capturing leads as I talked about in this post.

One good blog that I know of that uses almost the exact same formula I talk about with very good results is pluginid*com. Notice on the right sidebar he has his ebook at the top, just underneath the subscribe? I put mine at the very top but I do almost the exact same thing: picture of the cover of the ebook and below it a blurb that says something like "I show you step by step how I blah blah blah in x days..." That would link to to my dedicated pre-sales page and then the pre-sales page, of course links to the sales page. I usually grab my opt-ins using a pop up like the plugin OptinPop for wordpress.

2. Do you think there will be a high CTR from visitors onto the sales page?

Thanks!

The ways yours is right now? I dunno. Split test it. Then go with the winner. The split test that. Then go with the winner. Then split test that...

 

[peter2002]

I have something that will help all of you to promote CB products successfully. A while back I opened a thread about it, but I'll explain it here as well because it fits in nicely on this thread.

It's about promoting Clickbank products "through the backdoor" and building a targeted email list as the same time. Here it goes...

1. Build a landing/squeeze page where you offer an attractive freebie that is highly related to the Clickbank offer you are promoting.

2. Create your "subscribe me" web form at Aweber (or whatever company you are using) and make sure to choose the Clickbank offer page as your "thank you" page.

3. This way your prospects will be re-directed to the Clickbank offer page after hitting the "subscribe" button.

4. In my "welcome" email to the new subscribers I not only provide the download link for the freebie BUT also give it another try to get them motivated to take advantage of the CB offer.

5. In all following follow-up emails to them I promote other Clickbank offers, affiliate products from other networks and also my own products (using PLR products and products with resale rights).

6. You can either just create one landing page using your most promising keyword or create several ones and optimize them for a certain keyword.

7. Do this again for other Clickbank niches you want to promote.

8. If you create a good 'freebie' landing page you can expect high conversion ( I achieved up to 76.43% sign-ups for my offered freebies). And since these are highly targeted prospects, you get also fair conversions for the CB offer.

9. Drive targeted traffic to your landing page(s), promoting your freebie. You'll find tons of traffic tips/methods here at BHW.

The good thing about this method is that you build short term income coming from the Clickbank sales AND long term income from your email list.

PS. Since you want to promote your affiliate products through the backdoor, you might want to promote your freebies instead of the products themselves. So, I'll give you some good coupon/freebies sites you can use to submit your freebies to. They get tons of traffic!

http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackhat-seo/attachments/clickbank/4069d1265819344-my-very-easy-method-promote-clickbank-products-through-backdoor-couponsites.txt

 

[jinsandy]

i have a question:

How much would a site cost to create? forgo the cost of content, I am wondering the cost of designing the site, the promotional material, graphics etc etc.

Reading your post, it seems you do only items that dont recurr.. is there a reason for that?

thanks for your help. i look forward to one day having a site.

 

[gonzomcribbinz]

i have a question:

How much would a site cost to create? forgo the cost of content, I am wondering the cost of designing the site, the promotional material, graphics etc etc.

I dunno, I do everything in-house. If you're talking about a site aimed to sell as an affiliate, just find a nice wordpress theme (I love Thesis) and do it yourself. Save your cash for other stuff. It's not hard.

Reading your post, it seems you do only items that dont recurr.. is there a reason for that?

No, I do recurring products too, just not as much. And everything I do has some continuity to it whether its higher-priced products or similarly-priced products. I'm always bobbing and weaving and cross-selling.

 

[jinsandy]

thanks for answering my questions! I do have some follow up if you dont mind;

Would you recommend using wordpress to build a membership site or another software? I noticed alot of plugins available for wordpress that would make it an ideal solution for a clickbank site but was wondering your thoughts about this.

 

[gonzomcribbinz]

thanks for answering my questions! I do have some follow up if you dont mind;

Would you recommend using wordpress to build a membership site or another software? I noticed alot of plugins available for wordpress that would make it an ideal solution for a clickbank site but was wondering your thoughts about this.

I use Wordpress for everything and I do mean everything. I'm not a "tech guy" and so when I learned WP back in 05, I never needed to learn anything else. I played around with Joomla but I came back to WP. The sheer number of plugins, the ability to secure it, and its unparalleled level of customization keeps me as a fan.

 

[Allegretto]

When you first enter a market or a niche, what do you find is the most effective way to start building your list? Do you find people to JV with or do you buy ads on sites like Ezine? I would love to hear your take on this

P.S. Calvin and Hobbes is the best comic strip ever

 

[host32]

Hey !

Thats one heck of a thread !

I have a question please,

Me and my partner are working so hard on a new product in a very big niche, we spent a lot of money and time into it and we want to make it the best in the market, since non of our competitors have taken the quality to the level we are going for !

So my question is how do you go about finding the PPCers with the big budgets ? we've all seen those CB merchants saying that their top affiliates are making six figures a month, where can we find them ? we do believe that our product will deserve more attention than those products,

Thanks you .