Archive for December, 2008

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Posted by: Greg Lems, VP of Information Technology

I’m in the midst of a long-overdue remodel of the second floor of my home. Although I hired someone to do most of the specialized work, I decided to tackle several projects myself to save money in these trying times.

One task that I learned would save a fair amount of money if I did it myself was carpet removal. However, while the main part of the work was very fast and easy, I quickly discovered that removing the hundreds of staples left behind was a much bigger chore than I had imagined! At first I thought I was in for hours of extra work as I started removing each staple by hand.

Fortunately for me, the contractor I had hired for other work saw what I was doing and stopped me before I wasted too much time. It turns out there’s a simple tool that carpet installers use to remove staples quickly and easily. After he showed me how to use it, all of the staples were gone within a matter of minutes, saving me hours of work and a lot of backache.

It got me thinking about how an enterprising ClickBank publisher could have helped me solve my problem earlier. Every successful ClickBank product solves a problem or addresses a need. In my case, I’m a relatively handy person, but need some specific advice on DIY home remodel techniques that save people money. If someone like my contractor, who has a lot of knowledge and advice to offer people like me, had created an e-book that addressed common remodel techniques that save money, I’d have bought it in a heartbeat. The time, money and effort it would have saved me would have been well worth the cost.

If you’ve always wondered what kind of e-book you could write and sell, think about what kinds of problems and questions you have the answers to that most people don’t. For example, most people don’t have the time or inclination to become a full-fledged contractor, but they’d love to take advantage of all the time- and money-saving tips that contractors have learned over the years.

Chances are good that if you faced a particular problem in the past and figured out how to overcome it, there are many other people who will face the same problem at some point and would gladly pay for the solution! Some of our most successful products address needs like this. Here’s a 2009 DIY project for you: think about your experience and knowledge, write it up in an e-book, and list it with ClickBank. Who knows who else you’ll help?

Posted by: Bob Dunlap, Director of Marketing

Nobody said it was going to be easy.  Successful affiliate marketing takes discipline, savvy, and hard work.  Even experienced Internet marketers go through tough times and make their share of mistakes.  While everyone likes to talk about their most recent success, few are willing to detail their failures.  That’s why I found this recent blog post interesting.  The author recounts his “worst month ever,” where he made exactly $182.64 in profit after normally making thousands.  Your mistakes are likely different than his, but you should still analyze “why” when things don’t go according to plan. It’s the only way you’re going to grow as an affiliate marketer.

Speaking of planning, now is the time to prepare for 2009.  The end of the year is always a good time to reflect on the accomplishments, challenges, and mistakes from the previous year and formulate your goals and plans for the next twelve months.  As part of this process, you might want to check out the December issue of Affiliate Classroom magazine.  This issue provides some great lessons learned from 2008, and things to consider when compiling your 2009 plan.

As 2008 winds down, I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone in the ClickBank community for a successful and memorable year.  Our success is a result of the hard work and creativity you put in every day.  From all of us at ClickBank, Happy Holidays and best wishes for a healthy and prosperous 2009!

Posted by: Beau Blackwell, Marketing Coordinator

We’ve just released a new “how to” video for ClickBank publishers, which shows how to create a customer-facing ad that will be used in our forthcoming ad platform and will soon be included in our XML feed. This video walks through the process of creating an ad step-by-step, and also includes information on our quality and content guidelines, plus some tips on writing effective ad copy. Check it out!

Posted by: Beau Blackwell, Marketing Coordinator

Whether you’re a ClickBank publisher or affiliate, a key component to your success is getting people to take action based purely on the strength of your writing.

For publishers, it’s obvious that your pitch page needs to be able to sell interested visitors on why they really need your product, how it’s going to improve their lives, and why it’s better than any of your competitors’ products.  Once you’ve made the sale, your product needs deliver the value you’ve promised, and be easily comprehensible and actionable to people all over the world.

Affiliates need to have an even broader range of writing skills, depending on where and how they’re trying to promote products. If you’re paying for search engine advertisements, you have a very limited amount of space in which to convince searchers to click on your ad, and to explain what they should expect on the landing page. If you write articles, you have to legitimately inform people and entice them to click on your Hoplink. Affiliates have to master a wide variety of writing styles and learn how to use them properly in many different locations.

Since great writing is important and valuable to all of us, I wanted to share a few particularly useful articles from my favorite writing blog, Copyblogger.

• Copywriting 101: Brian’s 10-step tutorial has something for everyone, whether you’re writing full articles or just PPC ads.
• Do These 3 Common Copywriting Mistakes Keep Your Readers From Buying?: Sonia makes some great points about why solid products sometimes don’t sell as well as you’d expect, and how to remedy that.
• The Two Most Important Words in Blogging: Although the title refers to blogging, this post applies equally well to all sales writing.
• How to Write Magnetic Headlines: This series of posts about writing headlines can be especially useful to affiliates working with a limited amount of space, like in PPC advertising. It’s also great for publishers who want to grab a visitor’s attention immediately on a pitch page.
• Ten Timeless Persuasive Writing Techniques: Great advice for all kinds of copywriting.
• And finally… Five Grammatical Errors That Make You Look Dumb: In affiliate marketing, credibility is key, and even smart people make grammatical mistakes from time to time.

These posts, along with the rest of the useful information available on Copyblogger, will go a long way toward help your affiliate marketing efforts thrive!

Posted by: Kristen M., Marketing Communications Manager

For many people creativity doesn’t come easy. Companies use strategies as varied as brainstorming meetings in rubber-padded rooms with beanbags, popcorn parties, and even brainstorming retreats to try to foster creativity and find the next big idea.

We don’t go to quite those lengths here at ClickBank, but I do take steps to cultivate my own creativity. One resource that I find very helpful is the Springwise Weekly Newsletter.

Springwise summarizes new business ideas spotted around the world—everything from maps that allow you to navigate cities by mood to personalized PDF magazines converted from RSS feeds.

Only some of these products are digitally delivered. Other inspired ideas include customized couture helmets and sticky car art.

Almost all, however, are creative solutions to an existing business need. Not to mention, they are certainly fun to read about. So check them out, and get the creative juices flowing for your next big idea.

Posted by: Miles Baker, Guest Blogger

Having been a publisher, affiliate, and even an affiliate manager over the past 10 years, I’ve been able to get a unique perspective on what it’s like to be on both sides of the affiliate/publisher relationship.

Given that insight, I’ve noticed most publishers are leaving money on the table when it comes to recruiting, assisting, and building relationships with their affiliates. Therefore, I’ve put together some of the most important things a publisher should be doing in order to build and nurture their affiliate base.

Be Available – Many times I’ve been eager to promote a product or service and have a question about it, but I am unable to find an email, phone number, or any way to contact the publisher. Sometimes, even if I do find that information and contact the publisher, I never hear back from them. This doesn’t leave me with much confidence as an affiliate promoting their product. Don’t make this fatal mistake; be available in some way. One easy way is to place an email or contact box on your site and then use the phone to follow up and further your relationship with your affiliates.

Use The Phone – Don’t be afraid to talk to people on the phone. This doesn’t mean you need to post your phone number on the Web. However, it does mean that you should be using the phone to talk with potential affiliates and build relationships with them, as well as maintaining relationships with your existing affiliates.

As a publisher, you are most likely very busy, and most people don’t have the resources for a dedicated affiliate manager or the time to talk to every affiliate that emails them. However, keep in mind the 80/20 rule, which applied here dictates that 80% of your sales will come from 20% of your affiliates. If your time is limited, then at least make sure you’re talking with that top 20%.

Go To Conferences – This is the best place not only to learn, but also to meet potential affiliates and super affiliates. Going to an affiliate marketing conference like Affiliate Summit, for example, will allow you to meet new and existing affiliates, other publishers, and even people from ClickBank. When going to a conference, don’t try to recruit someone as an affiliate without getting to know the person first. Your purpose should be to get to know people and build relationships first, and then decide if they are a good candidate to be an affiliate for you.

Get Feedback – Now that you’re building relationships with your affiliates and you’re in regular communication with them, you’ll start getting priceless feedback. Listen to your affiliates, be proactive by encouraging feedback, and most importantly, take action on the feedback you get! The feedback you receive from your affiliates will help you to improve your products and services, conversions, and can give you numerous profitable insights.

As you can see, all my points are based around the same concept – the relationship. Affiliate management and recruitment is all about relationships. Whether you’re approaching potential affiliates in person or on the Web, or just working with existing affiliates, your approach should always be the same. You should work to build a great relationship with them. Not doing that is one of the biggest mistakes you could make as a publisher. Besides, you never know where that relationship might take you. I’ve known a few publishers who have even started new successful business ventures with one of their top affiliates.

Miles Baker has been marketing online since 1997 and has been a ClickBank client for almost a decade. He currently resides in Fort Collins, CO where he runs several online businesses and Web sites. You can reach Miles, learn more about him, and even view his live office cam at his Web site, MarketingWithMiles.com.

Posted by: Shelly Spafford, Senior Customer Service Representative

As an e-commerce company, ClickBank knows the value of international customers. That’s why we recently added French and German language support to our existing lineup of English and Spanish. Smart e-tailers are constantly looking for ways to limit the effect borders have on retail business. If you have a product that offers valuable information to the general public and can be adapted to apply to different cultures, you may want to consider the following pieces of information, provided by internetworldstats.com:

• The Internet is now available on all 7 continents
• In Europe, where Spanish, German, and French are heavily used, almost half of the population uses the Internet (48.1%)
• In the Latin America/Caribbean region alone, there are over 139 million Internet users
• Spanish, French, and German are among the top 10 languages spoken by Internet users
• Worldwide, there are over 1.46 billion Internet users

You can see from the information above that if your product is currently only offered in English, you are missing out on a great opportunity to reach a very large consumer base.

You do not have to speak Spanish, German, or French in order to sell products in those languages. Here are a few companies we’ve run across that may be able to help you translate your product(s), but there are many translation services available:

http://www.translations.com

http://www.asta-usa.com/languages.php

http://www.trustedtranslations.com/language-translation.asp

http://www.tranflex.com/en/

Why limit your product, and your business, to just English? With the vast number of translating services out there, virtually any Web site, product, or service can be translated and sold to speakers of these different languages. What an opportunity!

We recommend selling your foreign language product as a completely separate product from the English version. ClickBank allows publishers to specify the language of their product when they submit their product for approval. When you do this, customers will automatically be sent to a ClickBank order form in the appropriate language. We also send out Spanish, German, and French receipts, as well as other notifications.

As Platform Globalization progresses, ClickBank plans to translate more of our Web site into these languages. Now is the perfect time to join ClickBank in its effort to reach beyond English-only products. If you have questions about this, you can always contact ClickBank’s Customer Service team.

Posted by: Jeff Leget, Director of Operations

During my family road trip over Thanksgiving I listened to a great deal of 80’s music on the radio. John Fogerty’s “Put Me in Coach, I’m Ready to Play” got me thinking about ClickBank and how many people these days may be “ready to play” and not even know it.

For example, my sister-in-law recently finished her second Ironman triathlon. She trained for 9+ months with the help of a coach, with whom she mostly corresponded online. (She did great, by the way.) My wife did the same thing for a half-Ironman earlier this year, and she too had great success. I am now getting almost-daily updates from a financial advisor via email about the stock market turmoil.

I have heard that a lot of people are re-evaluating their lives and looking for “life coaches” in the wake of financial catastrophe. Advice is important even for small decisions. Before my family started out on our road trip, we looked online for travel advice regarding where to go, where to stay, and what to do.

My point is that a lot of people have great information and experience to leverage for advising or coaching others. How do I avoid foreclosure? How do I land a job after I’ve been laid off? How do I start a new career? How do I pull together the best holiday party on a budget? How can I be a better parent, athlete, coach, or person?

So what’s your unique knowledge? What’s your niche? It’s time to get off the bench and start making money from your experiences. ”Put me in coach, I’m ready…” to get paid.

Andrew Warner of Mixergy recently conducted an extensive interview with ClickBank’s Director of Marketing, Bob Dunlap. In their discussion, Bob shared strategies he’s observed over the years for successfully creating and selling ClickBank products, particularly ebooks. If you’re thinking about developing a new ClickBank product, or want to know how to increase sales of your existing product, be sure to check out the Mixergy podcast.