Confused!!! -- To ClickBank or not to ClickBank that is the question ...

[nykotai]

Hi all,

Just joined this great forum after reading about it in the PPC classroom 2.0 course.
My question is that in the PPC classroom 2.0 Amit recommends starting with Clickbank but after reading this forum i see that many people do not recommend Clicbank for newbies ... therefore i m confused....

Any insight on the matter or recommendations?

Thanks

[Linda Buquet]

Hi nykotai,

Welcome to 5 Star. Glad PPC Classroom led you here. Wise investment to get involved with that program.

Oh dear, lets see... there are LOTS of pros and cons. Many affiliates started with and still do well with Clickbank. I suspect it was easier as a newbie there a couple years ago, but then again wasn't everything?

I am probably the main one you've seen advising against CB - ONLY FOR BRAND NEW NEWBIES! I'm sort of anti eBooks in general too, so that's my bias. I've expressed my concerns in lots of other threads so won't rehash again here.

I lean more toward retail products and lead gen or pay per lead programs. Many of the top earning affiliates I know make their money in pay per lead. But some of the pay per lead markets are pretty competitive and not a good place to try to start right off the bat though either.

Having said all that, if you are following Amit's training I would do it the way he recommends. Following a proven path and step-by-step instructions is much different than the typical newbie that just starts right out of the gate trying to sell "Affiliate Mega Blaster Super Duper Secret Weapon" with no experience, no plan and no idea how to compete with the sharks.

There will probably be others that weigh in and say CB is the bomb, so you hopefully will get a variety of opinions. But I still say if you are paying for the course, follow Amit's lead and see if it works for you.

[davemclean]

To be honest i found clickbank a bit confusing, if not a bit daunting, there are a few other sites that are a bit easier to navigate.

[PPCguySCOTT]

My experience has been that Clickbank is just about like any other product, service or lead gen vertical in PPC marketing in that you are going to probably hit one winner for every 4 or 5 losers. I've been doing PPC affiliate marketing very successfully for a few years now and I still get more losers than winners and I'd be suprised to hear any other top marketer tell you any different. When starting out in PPC, it's very important to keep this in mind so you don't blow your whole budget or all of your energy and enthusiasm on the first try.

Ahmit and Anik know how to structure a good campaign and they teach that in PPC classroom, however once you have the right campaign structure in place, there is still some secret sauce that each marketer puts into his or her own campaigns. You may want to take Linda's advice and start with physical products and only use what I call "closing keywords"

Find a popular toy or sporting item and when you put together your first keyword list, be very specific in your description and then put the word: buy or purchase or lowest price or free shipping or overnight shipping in front of your primary specific keywords. Only run them as [phrase] or "exact" match keywords and use the keyword as they headline of your ad. These keywords are typically only used by "buyers".

By starting like this you will get a lot lower volume (maybe only a few clicks a day), but your closing rate should be much higher than on a general e-book in clickbank. However with that said, I run multiple profitable campaigns in CB and my advice there would be to focus on keyword groups that solve a specific problem rather than advertise a general product. Dog training is pretty popular there so instead of using keywords like dog training, try stuff like stop dog from peeing in house. Who's more likely to NEED a program now?

O.K., I could write a book (maybe I should) but for a newbie you can start anywhere as long as you keep in mind that you are better off starting with very specific keywords to preserve your budget because you'll be lucky if you hit a winner on your first try or two.

[Linda Buquet]

Excellent advice Scott. You made some really good points, especially about
the 'buy' keywords and 'need' key phrases!

[jfree98]

Hi Scott,

Great Post. I was just wondering though, in what Affilate Networks can you find physical products to promote? Physical products is kinda what I am leaning towards.

[Larwee]

jfree98, there are several. Here are two:

Commission Junction - A Global Leader in Affiliate Marketing, Online Advertising and Search Engine Marketing

LinkShare | Online Marketing Services, Search Marketing, Lead Generation, Affiliate Marketing

[PPCguySCOTT]

On many physical web sites you can look down at the bottom of the page in the fine print and actually find a link for affiliates which is sometimes run internally or sometimes run through an affiliate network. Linkshare.com is also another big company that carries a lot of physical products and top name brands.

[Linda Buquet]

Additionally there is Google Affiliate Network. They have millions of products from
hundreds of name brand merchants.