Archive for the ‘General’ Category

Posted by: Terra Goeres, Manager – Client Account Management

Bob Dylan’s classic 1964 song may have been a bit before my time, but when I look back on my years with ClickBank, his catchy hook always pops into my head.

I started with ClickBank on May 11, 2000, shortly after the owners moved the company from San Diego, CA, to Boise, ID. I was the fourth full-time employee hired. We rented a small office which had five rooms: offices for the owners and for our VP of Sales; a larger room for me, Jennifer, and Sommar, the other two customer service representatives at the time (both of whom are still with ClickBank today in other roles!); a small conference room, and a small lobby area which was decorated in kitschy furniture from the ‘70s that we borrowed from one of our board members. We had a single phone, which rarely rang, and twice a month we would all gather in the conference room to stamp our President’s signature on our clients’ checks and stuff them into envelopes. Clearly, it was an impressive, high-tech process!

There were no bells and whistles at that time (those of you who remember our original website can attest to that)! Instead, we focused on one simple concept, which we did better than anyone else: providing reliable commission tracking and on-time payments to our publishers and affiliates.

Fast forward 8 years, and I can proudly say that our commitment to serving our clients’ needs has never changed. Instead, like a fine wine, we’ve only gotten better with age! Our staff of 7 has grown to over 50, which includes a new Executive Team (as of 2005), a beefed up IT and Development staff, and many other key additions in our Customer Service, Security, Marketing, and Accounting departments. This has given us the resources to provide you with better communication, to seek out your feedback, and to fulfill many of your requests for new features and enhancements. The additional staff also means that we’ve long outgrown our little 5 room office.  Over time, we’ve expanded into two offices:  one still in Boise, Idaho, and another in Broomfield, Colorado.

Even my own career at ClickBank has gone through several changes. After spending the last 8 years in our Boise office doing everything from customer service to product approvals to managing people, I have recently moved to our Broomfield office and taken on the position of Manager – Client Account Management in our Business Development Department.

In my new position, my responsibility is to drive the success of our clients. My job is to act as the voice of our clients within the company, to manage and develop programs that foster the growth of our clients’ businesses, and to generate new business by reaching out to the greater Internet marketing world. On that note, if you have comments on any of our past changes or suggestions for future enhancements, please reply to this post. I would love to hear your thoughts!

Yes, “the times they are a-changin’” at ClickBank, but in my estimation it’s the best kind of change- we just keep getting better!

Posted by: Bob King, CEO

I have to laugh as I follow along with all the debate and controversy regarding the Long Tail Theory of marketing and retailing. For those of you unfamiliar with the Long Tail Theory, several years ago Chris Anderson from Wired magazine wrote a book advancing the theory that the Internet is going to fundamentally change consumer buying habits. His theory was that online commerce will allow larger, basically unlimited, assortments of product to be made available. This would be a big shift from the limitations of brick and mortar stores, where space constraints limit the number of products to just the top-selling items. Now the consumer is free to buy whatever niche product they want via Internet commerce, without being limited to only what is stocked in the store.

I have to admit, when I first saw this theory, I was new to ClickBank and the Internet business and I said, “Wow, this is great!” Every time I talked about ClickBank to my friends or anyone else, I somehow worked Long Tail into the conversation.

Now a Harvard Business Professor, Anita Elberse, has come along and said, “Hey, wait a minute, this Long Tail isn’t really that revolutionary.” Her argument is that even though more product assortment is available, we are creatures of habit and we still mostly just buy the most popular items. She uses movies and music examples to support her argument.

So maybe it’s time to drop the Long Tail from my conversations, so I don’t have to get into a senseless argument.

But when I think about ClickBank in the context of the Long Tail, we are the Ultimate Long Tail. Not many businesses could be as niche-oriented as ClickBank. If you have information or advice on virtually any subject that you can put in digital form, you can find out if anybody wants to buy it by using ClickBank.

Granted, we have a modest number of products that are our best sellers, just like any other business. But we have a vast amount of product out there on the “ClickBank Long Tail.” Because of that Long Tail, it can still be profitable to create and promote an e-book or software program that doesn’t sell millions, or even thousands, of copies.

All it takes to get started is a little work on your part to get it ready and $49.95 to list it. It exists in digital form, so there are no warehouses, no trucks, and no further expense until it sells. Then you just pay the commission to the affiliate that promoted it and a small transaction fee to ClickBank for processing the order.

So, the Long Tail, with the blockbusters and thousands of other products, is alive and working here at ClickBank. That’s good news for everyone.

Posted by: Jeff Leget, Director of Operations

This past weekend, my family and I had a neighborhood garage sale. We made about $85 in 3 hours. For my family it was a moderate success. It’s not that we don’t have enough stuff to sell;  the problem is that times and technology have changed. My only real goal on the morning of our half-hearted garage sale was to drag stuff out of the basement and into the morning sunshine so I could take pictures and post items on Craigslist or eBay. If a consumer happened by and wanted to purchase something, all the better. They saved me the upload and posting time.

Compared to online portals, garage sales are so limited. You store your stuff and wait patiently all year for the single marketing opportunity when the whole neighborhood comes out to sell their dusty relics. The garage sale definitely favors the buyer. The buyers are usually looking for something specific. They usually know the real value. And experienced garage sale speculators know how to negotiate to a bargain. Sellers like me simply want to make some extra cash and not have to drag all of that stuff back into the house.

However, the Internet and its classified and auction portals have changed all of that. These days, I can sell my used snowboard right at the start of ski season, and not in the middle of June. I can research the going rate for my used cell phone and accept only fair offers. I can also see what other people are selling, and how what I have compares. The buyer also gets an improved experience. At a single glance, the buyer can view all of the items that match his or her requirements and make informed offers. Best of all, they don’t need to drive around random neighborhoods on Saturday mornings.

ClickBank is trying to do for your knowledge capital what classified and auction sites have done for your garage. Did you finish your basement recently? Did you successfully flip some real estate? Did you have to plan a family reunion or wedding? Are you into photography or video editing? Do you have experiences to share on home schooling? Gardening? Genealogy? Saving energy? Starting a business?

The fact is that most people have life experiences or knowledge capital that can benefit others.  With over 300 million people in the U.S., the chances are high that someone else is facing a similar problem that you have already solved. With a little time and talent, you can clean out your mental basement or attic, let your ideas face the light of day, and profit from your experience.

Posted by: Dush Ramachandran, VP of Sales and Business Development

At parties and social gatherings people often ask me what I do, and I tell them I work for ClickBank. This answer is usually greeted with a puzzled look and a quizzical “Who?” But when I tell the ClickBank story, the puzzlement is often replaced by wonderment and admiration, and the inevitable follow-up question is “What’s the secret of ClickBank’s success?”

Even though the person asking the question is always different and is perhaps expecting a different answer every time, I answer the question in exactly the same way every time: “Our affiliate network.” If it weren’t for our incredible army of motivated and innovative affiliates, all of the hard work we’ve put into ClickBank over the years would not amount to very much.

It is our simple, low-risk approach to becoming a ClickBank affiliate that causes an average of 2,000 people to sign up for a ClickBank account every day. And a fair number of those people go on to become successful and earn a decent income from ClickBank. Some of our affiliates have even completely replaced their traditional income with their ClickBank earnings. With over 110,000 active affiliates generating revenues, ClickBank’s affiliate network is truly at the root of our success.

We think affiliates are so important to our success that we’re going to be at the Affiliate Summit in Boston on Aug 10 to 12, and our CEO Bob King is going to be on a panel discussion about trends in affiliate marketing. If you’re planning to attend the Affiliate Summit this year, come see us at Table 23 at the Meet Market on Sunday Aug 10, between 12:00 noon and 6:00. We’d love to meet you, and say thanks for being the secret of our success!

Posted by: Jen Johannsen, VP of Operations

I also had the privilege of meeting a group of ClickBank clients “live and in person” in London earlier this month. Several people at the meetings mentioned that it would be interesting to learn more about who we are as a company and as individuals, so I thought I’d take this opportunity to share a few of those things with everyone.

It is true… in the beginning (back in 1998), ClickBank was operated by a handful of innovators working out of a garage-like office. Over the last ten years, though, we have grown to a staff of over 75 people operating out of two locations. One location is based in Boise, Idaho, and the other is based in Broomfield, Colorado (near Denver). Both offices have dedicated and experienced teams working to  deliver consistent, client-focused business operations, and friendly, responsive customer service.

We are also committed to helping in our communities, and feel fortunate to employ a group of people that enjoy making our volunteer opportunities successful. In the last year, we have participated in many charity events, including events for the Children’s Hospital and the Cancer Center of the Rockies, The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, The Muscular Dystrophy Association, the Epilepsy Foundation, Habitat for Humanity, the Salvation Army, the Red Cross, and our local food banks.

While we all enjoy working hard every day, and donating time outside of work to give back to our communities and local charities, we also have a great time getting together outside of work. ClickBank employees have been active this year playing for the company softball team and soccer team, as well as enjoying an occasional trip to the bowling alley.

While we’ve gotten to know thousands of terrific customers over the years, we look forward to meeting and helping out many more of you in the future!

Posted by Bob King, CEO

I was thinking the other day, after I wrote the post on the New York Sales Tax, about our responsibility at ClickBank. There are literally tens of thousands of people who make a living or a part-time living selling and promoting products on ClickBank. It’s not just those of us who work at ClickBank as employees, it’s all of our publishers and affiliates depending on the health and wellbeing of ClickBank to pay the mortgage or the car payment or send the kids to college or put food on the table. And now more than ever, with turmoil in the world economy, expensive gasoline, and rising food prices, we have to be at the top of our game.

So when changes come along like the New York Sales Tax, we have to be ready to react and make sure we have the system in place to handle the situation. We also have to be mindful of all the issues related to regulations and compliance. I know sometimes it looks like we may be picking on a certain type of product or a certain way of promoting products, but we sometimes have to think about the greater good. ClickBank has to be in business for all the people and can’t be put at risk for the sake of a few who want to push the line.

As recently as a few years ago, ClickBank “flew under the radar” and may have seemed not very interested in our clients’ opinions. That wasn’t really true then and it is certainly not true now. It is part of our responsibility to listen to your needs, so we started Advisory Boards and initiated a Client Survey last year. It’s that time again and we will be having Advisory Boards and doing a Client Survey again this summer.

It is also our responsibility, after getting your input, to respond with new features and capabilities to improve your, and our, businesses. And, oh yes, when we do come out with something new, it has to work. That’s why it sometimes takes awhile.

I just want you to know we take our responsibility seriously and we appreciate all of you hardworking people in the ClickBank Community.

Posted by: Monty Sooter, CTO

It is interesting when a neighbor asks me what I do for a living. I usually say I do computer stuff, and then there is no telling where the conversation is going. A common response that I like to receive is, “Oh, that’s nice,” and then we end up talking about the latest weather or how the kids are doing. The conversation I love to have is, “It’s incredible how the Internet has transformed business/life in the past decade,” and then I get to tell them about ClickBank. The conversations I try to avoid are, “I’m having a problem with this free software package on Windows 95.” I usually try to be patient, but I know there is a slim chance they will get help from me or anyone else. It would be less painful to just give them a thousand bucks for a new PC.

At work I have similar conversations. Some of my fellow co-workers do occasionally ask me what I do for a living; I hope they’re kidding. We do have great conversations about how ClickBank is transforming business. All of us have had many “traditional” business experiences, but ClickBank is the one that we view as the most transforming business experience in our careers. It is still amazing how this affiliate-driven digital goods business model provides so many benefits to folks across the globe, and it is only going to get bigger and better.

At ClickBank, we know that to “take care of business” we have to be able to adapt quickly to any problem that comes our way. Our thousands of affiliates and publishers rely on our IT systems to keep their businesses running at all times. Unlike most companies, our IT infrastructure doesn’t only affect our ability to do business; it affects the livelihood of our clients as well. It would be nice if we were only presented with easy problems, such as a failure of one piece of equipment, the failure of one network connection, or the failure of one database. Instead, we have to be ready to take care of the difficult problems, like a partial failure of one disk that corrupts one sector of a replicated database in the secondary data center.

We prepare to take care of these difficult problems when (not if) they happen by buying fully supported network gear and servers, purchasing support for all of the software products we use in production, and having redundant systems in two data centers. In each of the data centers, we have redundancy in the most critical hardware (database servers) to ensure that any failures do not impact business. Most of our software is open source and we make sure we have support contracts in place. We also take the time to perform regular hardware and software maintenance to make the most of our support contracts.

It is less painful and smarter to have put in the extra time and spent the extra bucks to have all the right hardware and software in place to make sure we are “taking care of business” for our many clients. It also means that I don’t have to ask my neighbors for help.

Posted by: Bob Dunlap, Director of Marketing

If you are an internet marketer, I’m sure you are watching the merger (takeover?) talks between Microsoft and Yahoo with the same level of interest that we are.

We don’t have a dog in that fight, but it still has far-reaching implications for our industry. A lot of successful affiliates are successful because they’ve figured Google out – among other things. Google is a verb for a reason. They are the 800lb gorilla. But what if the merger goes through?

If there is a merger, Google won’t be displaced overnight. Recent market research shows that Microsoft and Yahoo would still have a long way to go in trying to dethrone Google. Maybe the combined search engines wouldn’t have an impact on the search marketing industry at all, in the short term. Combining the number two and three search sites together, though, might change some of the rules of the game, bring a new twist to the paid search marketplace, and make Google sweat a little. Who knows how that would impact searches – or pricing for keywords?

Even if this merger doesn’t end up happening or takes a different form than the original takeover plan, it’s an important reminder that the online world is never stable. Just when we think we have it mastered, a new player comes along that changes the rules, like Google did for search, YouTube did for online video and MySpace did for what we now call social media.

The rules that have applied to our brick and mortar friends for years apply to the online marketplace as well – the people that stay in business the longest are the ones that quickly adapt to changes in the marketplace. That’s why we’re always innovating at ClickBank, and we’ve seen that the most successful affiliates are always ready to innovate, too.

Would a Microsoft-Yahoo merger change the way you operate as an affiliate? If so, tell us how by leaving a comment.

Posted by: Michael Poston, Product Manager

I like thinking back to my start here at ClickBank, when we often heard comments about things we needed to address. Your requests, like better uptime, new features, and more responsiveness, all made perfect sense. As the Product Manager over the last two years, I’ve worked hard to address your concerns and have enjoyed assisting in the evolution of the product.

For instance, right from the start you expressed interest in enhanced system performance, better communication, and features like:

• Ad tracking
• Reporting
• Cookie-less Hops
• New Order Form
• Subscriptions
• Installments
• Instant Notifications
• Spanish Language Capabilities
• Product Images

Looking at our short-term roadmap, we are excited about implementing other features and services you’ve requested like:

• Recurring Billing with PayPal
• Multicurrency
• Multilingual French & German
• Client To Client Communication
• ACH Payment Alternative
• Reporting Enhancements

In addition to our short-term plans, your input will shape our long-term roadmap. We are constantly evaluating a multitude of good ideas to identify what our next priority should be. It is our goal to deliver products and features that are in demand and provide significant return on investment for our clients and our customers. So, please comment below and let me know what features you think are important.

Things you can count on in the long-term from ClickBank include a continued commitment to product evolution, with your needs forging the path; expansion into new markets with a larger service offering; and an unwavering commitment to raising the bar while meeting your needs.

We are, and will continue to be, the market leader in affiliate-powered e-commerce!

Happy selling, friends!

Posted by: Dush Ramachandran, VP of Sales and Business Development

I recently attended and presented at gatherings of non-fiction writers, here in Colorado and in New York City and I have come away amazed at the incredible breadth of topics these authors cover. Ranging from travel and adventure to faith and religion, and everything in between, these talented writers illuminate little known corners of the world and shine the light of expertise on obscure or arcane skills. And these authors are perfect for ClickBank and dare I say, ClickBank is perfect for them.

Traditional publishers in the physical book publishing world are constrained by having to pick a few authors and topics that are most likely to become best-sellers, since book stores have limited shelf space. Even on-line stores like Amazon have limited warehouse shelf space, and stocking a particular title is at the expense of stocking another. This gives rise to the unfortunate “only best-sellers” mentality. That’s fine if you happen to be Stephen Covey or Barack Obama, who will have no trouble finding shelf space. It’s somewhat different if you’ve just written “The Definitive Guide to the Migratory Patterns of the Galapagos Turtles.”

ClickBank is a true ‘long tail’ company, where we have no constraints on physical space. To us, carrying a million titles costs little more than carrying one hundred. The reach of our affiliate network is truly global, and so even if the particular title sells a modest number of copies, we have no problems with carrying it. ClickBank therefore represents the ideal way for the author of a niche special interest book to get to market.

In the physical book publishing world, even if you have managed to get the book into print, and secured shelf-space at the retail bookstore, the challenge of how to attract buyers to the book still remains. The more than 110,000 active ClickBank affiliates who specialize in every conceivable area of interest, assume the task of driving targeted traffic to the particular book resulting in higher sales.

Non-fiction authors in the physical book publishing world resort to self-publishing to get their books into print, and knowledgeable estimates place the cost of self-publishing a book at about $6,000. When the author makes approximately $2.00 per copy sold, and the average sales figure of a self-published non-fiction book is in the hundreds of copies, it’s not hard to figure out that this is indeed a labor of love. Companies that support self-publishing usually require a minimum print run of 1,000 copies and all these costs are typically borne by the author.

With only a $49.95 fee to have the e-book listed on the ClickBank marketplace, the author who chooses to publish through ClickBank has negligible up-front costs, and no unsold copies of his book cluttering up the basement. Since the book stays in digital form, there are no printing costs. Subsequent editions of the book don’t need expensive print runs. Just update the original file once, and it is available for download infinitely after that.

Many publishers and self-publishing houses ask first-time authors to assign the intellectual property rights to their work to the publisher. This means that if the author later wishes to publish the work through some other medium such as an audio-book, they need to seek the permission of the publisher who now owns the rights. ClickBank makes no such requirement. All rights to the work of the author belong to the author – forever.

So ClickBank truly represents the brave new world of self-publishing. If you have written a non-fiction book or know someone who has, ClickBank could be the publishing vehicle you have been looking for.