Posted by: Che Horder, Business Intelligence Manager

This is part five of a five-part, five-day series about how to best take advantage of the new analytics.

The new ClickBank Analytics feature has been available for a few weeks now, and we would like to follow up with ideas on how to explore and utilize some of new metrics that are now available to you. Part 1 of this series details what the different stages represent and how to measure the full process from Stage 1 to Stage 4. Part 2 outlines Order Form Sale Conversion and Part 3 examines Hops Per Order Form Impression. Part 4 looks at order form impression count vs. order form submit count. Today’s post deals with Order Form Submit count vs. Gross Sale Count.

Order Form Submit Count vs. Gross Sale Count: Stage 3 to Stage 4

You will need to look at two metrics to measure the progress of prospects from the Order Form Submit stage (Stage 3) to Sale stage (Stage 4): Order Form Submit Count and Gross Sale Count. You may view these metrics one of three ways:

1.     Plot each individually on the trend chart

2.     Compare the 2 metrics on the trend chart (using the “Compare To” drop down box)

3.     View the metrics in the data table

Keep in mind what constitutes an Order Form Submit. It is defined as the act of a prospective customer clicking the Pay Now button on the ClickBank Order Form (our reporting will count up to one order form submit per customer visit to the order form).

For prospects to successfully make it to the Sale stage, the following must have occurred:

• The customer information from the ClickBank Order Form is validated.
• The customer is verified to not be participating in fraudulent activities
• The customer has the funds and is authorized to fulfill the sale transaction requested

Common barriers for prospects exiting at this stage include:

• An invalid Postal Code entered on the ClickBank Order Form
• An invalid Name entered on the ClickBank Order Form
• An invalid Card Number entered on the ClickBank Order Form
• The prospect’s payment method is not authorized due to problems with funding
• The prospect is identified to be participating in fraudulent activities
• An invalid Card Expiration Date is entered on the ClickBank Order Form

Posted by: Che Horder, Business Intelligence Manager

This is part four of a five-part, five-day series about how to best take advantage of the new analytics.

The new ClickBank Analytics feature has been available for a few weeks now, and we would like to follow up with ideas on how to explore and utilize some of new metrics that are now available to you. Part 1 of this series details what the different stages represent and how to measure the full process from Stage 1 to Stage 4. Part 2 outlines Order Form Sale Conversion and Part 3 examines Hops Per Order Form Impression. Today’s post deals with measuring Order Form Impression Count vs. Order Form Submit Count.

Order Form Impression Count vs. Order Form Submit Count: Stage 2 to Stage 3

You will need to look at two metrics to measure the progress of prospects from the Order Form Impression stage (Stage 2) to Order Form Submit stage (Stage 3): Order Form Impression Count and Order Form Submit Count. You may view these metrics one of three ways:

1.     Plot each individually on the trend chart

2.     Compare the 2 metrics on the trend chart (using the “Compare To” drop down box)

3.     View the metrics in the data table

For a prospect to successfully make it to the Order Form Submit stage, the following must have occurred:

• The customer clicked the Pay Now button on the ClickBank Order Form

Check back tomorrow for details about Order Form Submit Count vs. Gross Sale Count.

Posted by: Che Horder, Business Intelligence Manager

This is part three of a five-part, five day series about how to best take advantage of the new analytics.

The new ClickBank Analytics feature has been available for a few weeks now, and we would like to follow up with ideas on how to explore and utilize some of new metrics that are now available to you. Part 1 of this series details what the different stages represent and how to measure the full process from Stage 1 to Stage 4. Part 2 outlines Order Form Sale Conversion. Today’s post deals with measuring Hops per Order Form.

Hops per Order Form Impression: Stage 1 to Stage 2

The Hops per Order Form Impression metric tells you how successful your prospects at the Hop stage are at converting to the Order Form Impression stage. If your Hops per Order Form Impression is 12, that means on average it takes 12 prospects at the Hop stage to have 1 prospect successfully reach the ClickBank Order Form. The lower the metric, the more efficiently you are converting prospects from the Hop stage to the Order Form Impression stage. You may use the trend chart feature to find time periods when your Hops per Order Form Impression is lowest, and then correlate that metric to specific marketing tactics that work well.

For a prospect to successfully make it to the Order Form Impression stage, the following must have occurred:

• A valid, properly formatted HopLink is clicked on
• A vendor pitch page is rendered on the web browser
• A customer decides to proceed with purchasing the product, following a link to the order form
• A valid, properly formatted link to the ClickBank Order Form is clicked on
• The ClickBank Order Form page is rendered on the web browser

This metric is available to create a trend chart or view in the data table. To create a chart utilizing the metric, locate the Data Type selection box and choose Hops. Then locate the View selection box and choose Hops Per Order Form Impression. The metric will be displayed on the trend chart for the timeframe you choose. The metric is also available to view in the data table located below the trend chart. The data table allows you to view the metric by a specific attribute of the sale and in total over a specified time period. For example, you can choose to view Hops per Order Form Impression for a specific country or product.

Check back tomorrow for information about order form impression count vs. order form submit count.

Posted by: Che Horder, Business Intelligence Manager

This is part two of a five-part, five-day series about how to best take advantage of ClickBank’s new analytics reporting.

The new ClickBank Analytics feature has been available for a few weeks now, and we would like to follow up with ideas on how to explore and utilize some of the new metrics that are now available to you. Part 1 of this series details what the different stages represent and how to measure the full process from Stage 1 to Stage 4.Today’s post deals with measuring Order Form Sale Conversion.

Order Form Sale Conversion: Stage 2 to Stage 4

Order Form Sale Conversion measures the success of moving a prospect from viewing the order form to completing a sale. It is measured as a rate or percentage, and therefore the higher the rate, the more efficient your conversion process is. This metric is particularly useful in the case where a product is sold without the use of a HopLink. In this situation, Order Form Sale Conversion measures the full sale process.

For a prospect to successfully make it from the Order Form Impression stage to the Sale stage the following must have occurred:

• The customer clicked the Pay Now button on the ClickBank Order Form
• The customer information from the ClickBank Order Form is validated The customer is verified to not be participating in fraudulent activities
• The customer has the funds to fulfill the sale transaction requested

Check back tomorrow for details about the Hops per Order Form Impression metric (measuring stage 1 to stage 2).

Posted by: Che Horder, Business Intelligence Manager

This is part one of a five-part, five-day series about how to best take advantage of ClickBank’s new analytics reporting.

The new ClickBank Analytics feature has been available for a few weeks now, and we would like to follow up with ideas on how to explore and utilize some of new metrics that are now available to you.

As you know, optimizing the conversion of prospective customers into completed sales is key to your success as a ClickBank affiliate or vendor. The new analytics offer more insight into this process than you have previously had. The process of sales through ClickBank flow through the following stages:

• Stage 1 – Hop: Prospect clicks on HopLink and is taken to vendor Pitch Page
• Stage 2 – Order Form Impression: Prospect views order form
• Stage 3 – Order Form Submit: Prospect submits order form
• Stage 4 – Sale: A sale/order is successfully processed

At each stage of the sales process, your prospective customer chooses to continue or exit the process. To maximize successful conversion from prospect to sale, you must minimize the number of customers that exit the process along the way. The metrics introduced are intended to inform you of where prospective customers are exiting the process so you can improve the tactics you employ to convert prospects into sales.

Over these five posts, we will explore various ways to measure conversion from one stage of the sale process to another, beginning with measuring the full process from Stage 1 to Stage 4.

Hops per Order: Measure the Full Process (Stage 1 to Stage 4)

The Hops per Order metric will tell you how successful your prospects at the Hop stage are in converting through the full process to the Sale stage.

For a prospect to successfully make it to the Sale stage, the following must have occurred:

• A valid, properly formatted HopLink is clicked on
• A vendor pitch page is rendered on the web browser
• A customer decides to proceed with purchasing the product, following a link to the order form
• A valid, properly formatted link to the ClickBank Order Form is clicked on
• The ClickBank Order Form page is rendered on the web browser
• The customer clicked the Pay Now button on the ClickBank Order Form
• The customer information from the ClickBank Order Form is validated
• The customer is verified to not be participating in fraudulent activities
• The customer has the funds to fulfill the sale transaction requested

You can explore this metric either in a trend chart or view it in the data table. To create a chart of the metric, locate the Data Type selection box and choose Hops. Then locate the View selection box and choose Hops Per Order. The metric will be displayed on the trend chart for the timeframe you choose.  The metric is also available to view in the data table located below the trend chart. The data table allows you to view the metric by a specific attribute of the sale and in total over a specified time period. For example, you can choose to view Hops per Order for a specific country or product.

If your Hops per Order is 100, that means on average it takes 100 prospects at the Hop stage to have 1 prospect successfully reach the Sale stage. The lower the metric, the more efficiently you are converting prospects from the Hop stage to the Sale stage. You may use the trend chart feature to find time periods when your Hops per Order is lowest, and then correlate that metric to specific marketing tactics that work well.

Check back tomorrow for information about Order Form Sale Conversion (measuring stage 2 to stage 4).

Posted by: Beau Blackwell, Community Manager

ClickBank VP Dush Ramachandran recently wrote an article for DMNews.com discussing the possibility of upcoming Federal Trade Commission regulations on the affiliate marketing and blogging industries, and gives some thoughts about the possible outcomes. Be sure to check it out, as this topic is likely to affect everyone involved in affiliate marketing and blogging very soon.

Posted by: Beau Blackwell, Community Manager

While at Affiliate Summit East, I had a chance to sit down with successful long-time ClickBank affiliate Scott Wolf, of ArcaMax Publishing. I asked him about a variety of topics, including how he got started with ClickBank, how he identifies which products to promote, and for advice he’d give to beginner affiliates just starting out.

While ArcaMax is different from many ClickBank affiliates, as they promote ClickBank products through email newsletters they publish, his advice and techniques still hold true for many affiliates. Check out the interview now:

Posted by: Beau Blackwell, Community Manager

Several times over the past few weeks, I’ve been asked what advice I would give to affiliate marketers who are just starting out and trying to learn the ropes. During my time at ClickBank, I’ve seen many affiliates go from knowing very little about what they should be doing to being extraordinarily successful. While every affiliate’s path to success will be different, as I’ll explain below, there are several general pieces of advice that I think can benefit every affiliate marketer. I hope they’ll be useful in helping you on your journey to affiliate marketing success.

• Treat affiliate marketing as your job- I can’t stress this point enough. While the ultimate goal of most affiliate marketers is to eventually make enough money to only have to work an hour or two a day (and there are many who do), one key to starting off well in affiliate marketing is to work as hard as you would at any other job. The most successful affiliate marketers start out by putting in long hours and doing lots of work on their promotional efforts, both in studying effective methods and actually putting them into practice. If you work 8 hours a day doing affiliate marketing, you’re going to be successful a lot sooner than if you only work 1 or 2 hours a day. Even if you’re doing affiliate marketing part-time, the more time you spend on it, the more successful you’re likely to be.
• Do what you’re good at- Affiliate marketing takes a lot of work, but one of the best parts of being an affiliate marketer is the freedom to choose how and when you work, what products you want to promote, etc. One of the best ways to avoid burnout, especially when you’re not yet making good money, is to choose promotional techniques that fit your personal style. Not everyone is a great writer, or even enjoys writing. If this describes you, you’re probably better off avoiding article marketing, which requires you to write large quantities of high-quality content. If you’re not the most social person and prefer anonymity, you probably won’t enjoy social media marketing very much. Since one of the main reasons for doing affiliate marketing is so you can work how you want to work, it’s important to figure out what suits your style and personality. Your work will be better, and you’ll be more willing to stick with it, if you’re enjoying yourself.
• Recognize that there are many ways to succeed as an affiliate- Since many new affiliates start out by reading books or following programs created by affiliate marketing experts, they think that these techniques may be the only way to make a lot of money and do well in the business. I’ve met many successful affiliates, and they’ve gotten to where they are today by many different paths. What works for one affiliate may not work at all for another, and there are always new tools, techniques, product niches, etc, being developed that can completely change the affiliate marketing game. Never be afraid to branch out on your own or try a crazy idea that you think just might work. Don’t be afraid to fail, because when you make mistakes you’ll figure out what works and what doesn’t, making you more successful in the long run. There’s a lot to learn in the business, so the sooner you start making mistakes, the sooner you’ll start learning what works!

Besides this advice, I recommend reading our Help Center article Affiliate Dos and Don’ts, which offers some more specific advice for working with ClickBank and how to avoid common mistakes.

I’d also like to welcome comments from experienced affiliate marketers who have advice to share with beginners and can offer some encouragement or guidance. Please share your advice by leaving a comment!

Posted by: Beau Blackwell, Community Manager

On Monday night, after the first full day of the show, ClickBank hosted an exclusive invite-only cocktail party at the famous 21 Club in midtown Manhattan. Some of our biggest clients attended and got a chance to meet with ClickBank staff members and network with each other. One of the highlights of the party, outside of the great venue, was the Clickbank Moneymaker, a custom cocktail co-invented by our own Dush Ramachandran and Terra Goeres. It was a delicious hit with the crowd, and we’re pretty sure that some big moneymaking deals were made over Moneymakers!

The crowd at the party included extremely successful vendors and affiliates from all over the world, including Israel, Poland, France, Switzerland, and more. One of the best parts of the event for us at ClickBank was hearing what features and services we should introduce to help make our clients even more successful. We got some great ideas for new features and shared some upcoming features we’ll be rolling out soon that were very popular with the crowd. All in all, the party was a huge success, and when it finally wrapped up, some great ideas had been shared and plans and partnerships made for the future. We look forward to our next party at Affiliate Summit West in a few months!

Below are some pictures from the event. You can see more pics from the event at our Flickr album.

ClickBank Team Members Kylee and Terra

ClickBank Account Specialist Ashley Adamson with several clients

A crowd of top-earning ClickBank clients listen to Terra Goeres speak

Posted by: Beau Blackwell, Community Manager

Today we unveiled our brand-new booth, and it was a big hit on the show floor. We got a lot of great comments about the look, which stood out from the crowd quite a bit. Here are a few pictures:

Our booth before the show started

Showing off our cool backlighting

Terra, Kylee, and Ashley getting ready to meet the public

The show floor was packed by mid-morning, and we met with many current and future clients. It was great to finally put a face to the names we’ve been working with for years. Many of the people we met with were very excited to see us exhibiting at the event, and to hear that our participation at these shows will just get bigger and bigger in the future! For more pictures from the day, check out our Flickr album.

After the trade show floor closed for the day, we geared up for our exclusive VIP Cocktail Party at the 21 Club later in the evening. More details and pictures from the party are coming soon!