Written by: Beau Blackwell, Client Knowledge Guru

At ClickBank Exchange 2011, Rand Fishkin of SEOMoz wowed the crowd with his presentation on how SEO opportunities have evolved over the years, and what you need to do now to rank highly in the search engines. His presentation was so popular that we asked him to join ClickBank team members Beau Blackwell and Molly Lane to give his presentation again, with a few extra updates to talk about the latest changes.

If SEO is important to your Internet marketing efforts (which it should be!) you don’t want to miss out on the amazing tips and techniques Rand shares in this video. He shows how there’s much more to SEO these days than just plain site listings, and how you can use the latest advances in new listing types to get more traffic to your sites, increase your credibility, and much more. Check out the video now:

Download the slides from Rand’s presentation here!

As part of our ongoing commitment to providing high quality products to consumers, ClickBank is adjusting certain fees relating to refund and chargeback rates for ClickBank vendors. These changes will affect a very small number of ClickBank vendors, and will not affect affiliates.

Starting October 17, 2011, vendor accounts with a refund rate over 15% and/or chargeback rate over 1% over the past 60 days may be subject to additional fees or penalties. Refunds and chargebacks negatively affect everyone, including customers, affiliates, vendors and ClickBank, so it is important that we all work together to keep refunds as low as possible.

For vendors over the 15% refund rate threshold, ClickBank may opt to retain our transaction processing fee on any subsequent refunds, rather than returning the processing fee to the vendor as we do now. Vendors with refund rates significantly higher than the 15% threshold may also be subject to additional processing fees on refunds and additional penalties including removal from the Marketplace or account termination. Vendors with chargeback rates over 1% may be subject to additional fees on subsequent chargebacks.

As stated earlier, this change will impact a very small number of ClickBank vendors, and will not affect affiliates.

To support vendors in lowering their refund rates, we are adding a clear indicator of the vendor’s current 60-day refund rate to the Account Home page so vendors can easily track their refund rate and take action if necessary.

As we begin to implement this new policy in the coming weeks, ClickBank will contact affected vendors individually before any additional fees are applied to their accounts, and will attempt to work with these vendors to lower their refund rates whenever possible.

We are committed to supporting our clients and end customers, and these changes are part of our commitment to keeping affiliate marketing profitable and sustainable for years to come.

Written by: Beau Blackwell, Client Knowledge Guru

We’re excited to announce a new series here on the ClickBank Blog: Tech Tuesday. These posts will feature the best in tools and technology designed to help ClickBank clients and Internet marketers build their businesses and make more money. Some of those tools will be free and others will be paid, but we’ve got a great new free tool to kick things off!

WordPress is one of the most popular web publishing platforms out there, and is used by many Internet marketers because it’s so simple, powerful, and best of all free. We’ve recommended in the past that ClickBank vendors use it to host their Pitch Page and Thank You page, but Internet marketing and programming genius Jack Born has created a free plugin for WordPress that does something else really cool: it creates dynamic, powerful Affiliate Tools pages that vendors can use to provide valuable resources to their affiliates.

Jack and I recorded the following video to show off the plugin and talk about how you can get the most out of it:

To download Jack’s amazing (and free) plugin, visit http://affiliatesaleschannel.com/freeplugin

BONUS: Jack has created a second video where he goes into more detail about all of the available features and uses for the plugin. Be sure to check out this companion video too!

Thanks for joining us for our inaugural Tech Tuesday- we’ll be back with more great technology and tools for you very soon!

Written by: Beau Blackwell, Client Knowledge Guru

We’re back with a new episode of Affiliate Marketing Today, and this week we talk about one of the most important aspects of affiliate marketing: list building. Whether you’re an affiliate or vendor, building and cultivating a list of interested prospects and buyers is the #1 step you can take to make your business successful.

To cover such an important topic, Molly and I invited Itay Paz, an Internet marketing superstar who has built lists in a huge variety of niches and uses them to bring in profits month after month. Itay shares some great insights into how to get site visitors onto your lists, how to keep them there, and how to get the most profit out of your lists. He also tells us about a revolutionary new tool he’s built called One Click Optin to get people on your list quickly and easily.

If you’ve been struggling to build a list in your niche, or still don’t understand exactly why it’s so critical, be sure to check out this episode!

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN NOW!

Written by: Guest Author, Marie Forleo

Guest Author, Marie Forleo

Do you ever feel like you kinda suck at your business?

Despite the amount of money you make, or the amount of time you’ve been in the game, I think it’s fair to say that we all feel like failures, from time to time.

At a recent conference, I had the pleasure of hearing Russell Simmons, Ted Turner and Bill Clinton speak about business and life, and was intrigued by what I heard.

My favorite line from Russell was (I’m paraphrasing), “Many of my biggest business endeavors were failures before they became a success.  Some failed for as long as six years before they hit.  Everyone around me thought I was crazy.  You just have to stay at it.”

Interesting, right?  Loads of business “failures” coming from an entrepreneur with a multi-passionate net worth of an estimated $340 million.

At that same conference, I also had the pleasure of some ridiculously good close up magic from the incomparable David Blaine. I didn’t know that much about him before meeting him, but let me tell you, this guy’s talent is off the chain.

While I was holding playing cards in my hands he managed to make them jump, tear, flip and completely transform.   Talk about jaw-dropping. After hanging out with him, I became mildly obsessed and went online to watch everything I could about his other high-profile feats.

Turns out, David gave an amazing TED talk about his many attempts to break the world’s record for holding his breath underwater.

He pulled some pretty crazy and outrageous stunts to get there.  And, a lot of his failed attempts were very public.  Like to the tune of millions and millions of people around the world watching him fail to before he finally succeeded with a mind-blowing time of 17 minutes and 4.4 seconds.

Despite all the public disappointment, criticism and embarrassment, Blaine stuck to it.  He kept changing his strategy and eventually, achieved his goal.  He continues to be one of the most legendary illusionists and endurance artists of our time.

Then there’s my friend and fellow marketer, Frank Kern.

Turns out Frank, too, had some pretty seismic stumbles in business (he got sued by the Feds and was nearly bankrupt) before becoming one of the most highly respected, highest paid and most sought after online marketing consultants in our industry.

Side note: one of my favorite nuggets from a recent seminar was Frank’s response to a question on how to write a sales letter:  “You sit down and f*#cing do it.”  Gotta love that kind of simplicity.

So what’s the point here?

Anyone who accomplishes great things in business and life is bound to “fail” along the way.

Feeling like a failure is a natural part of becoming a success. It’s actually a good thing and means you’re taking action and putting yourself out there.  Which is way more than most critics and naysayers have the cajones to do.

I’ll be the first to admit I feel like a failure.  Often.  I’ve burned through a lot of cash, time and energy hiring programmers, virtual assistants and designers for projects that never saw the light of day.  Of course, I learned something from each experience, but at the same time, they could accurately be considered “failures” too.

Here’s the bottom line.

Feeling like a failure is normal.  It simply means you’re human like the rest of us.  The good new is that you’re actually in the game rather than sitting on the sidelines.

Legendary success in any field requires a ton of stick-to-it-ness.

When you know you’re meant to birth an idea into existence, take it from Russell, David, Frank and yours truly:  feeling like a failure often means you’re moments away from your biggest success.

About the Author

Marie Forleo is a marketing and lifestyle expert who teaches entrepreneurs to live Rich, Happy & Hot.  If you enjoyed this article, join more than 40,000 others who get her weekly business training videos at www.marieforleo.com (It’s Free!).

Written by: Beau Blackwell, Client Knowledge Guru

One of the biggest challenges facing information product vendors is how to get affiliates to notice and promote your product. Many vendors take the “Field of Dreams” approach: build it and they will come. But in this eye-opening episode of Affiliate Marketing Today, our special guest Danny Iny of Firepole Marketing tells us why that’s a big mistake, and lays out exactly what steps you should take to get your new information product off the ground and picked up by affiliates!

Danny is a highly successful serial entrepreneur and information product vendor and affiliate, so his advice will be a huge help to anyone wanting to make a living from selling and promoting information products on ClickBank.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN NOW!

Written by: Guest Author, Chris McNeeney

I’ve been selling on ClickBank for approximately 5 years, across a myriad of niches.

These are the best ways I’ve learned that vendors can lower refunds on ClickBank.

Work through this checklist and you are sure to slash the number of refunds and chargebacks you run into, hopefully with minimal effort.

Ask yourself, “How easy is it for my customer to get their order?”

Sounds simple but by far the most common reason I’ve come across for a customer refunding is that they cannot get access to their order. This is either because they never received an email containing their login info (either it went into the spam filter or perhaps your download delivery system failed), their browser crashed mid-order, or they did manage to access the download page but some technical issue stopped them from actually accessing the product. If you look at your refund reasons then you will very probably see that the vast majority of frustrated customers are frustrated not because they got the product and didn’t like it, but that they didn’t get the product, period. In a world of instant gratification you may find that not everyone takes action when they’ve digested your content – but the vast majority will at least try to download it. And if they can’t, they will refund. Sounds simple but this is definitely the first thing to look at. A customer who doesn’t get access to a product will almost always refund.

Approach your customers as if they are complete newbies

If you’re selling your own ebook on CB, then chances are you have a high degree of specialized knowledge about your field. In other words, you’re an expert. And when you’re an expert its tempting to think that the value you deliver is by giving people information which is advanced, brand new etc – information they can never find anywhere else. Indeed, your sales copy is probably positioned in line with this kind of thing.

But when it comes to the product side of things, being overly technical can do you more bad than good. I’ve found in almost every niche I’ve sold in that most customers (and often most of the best ones) are complete beginners – not intermediate or advanced users. So you’ll do better to teach them from the bottom up. I’ve found that refund reasons of “this is too complicated for me” outweigh refunds because “this isn’t advanced enough for me” by ratio of ten to one.

The conclusion? Treat your customer like they have absolutely no experience in the area. Start from the basics and explain everything in depth. Use simple images, diagrams and as many videos as you can. Write and talk like you would to a complete novice. Make everything idiot-proof as possible. By all means mix some more advanced stuff in there too (later on and ring-fenced from the beginner-focused stuff ideally). But if you approach your customers as if they are complete newbies you will actually lower refunds. And the more visual (video and step-by-step diagrams) you can explain everything, the better. Oh and one final point – if your product requires any technical plugins (Adobe Flash, Apple Quicktime etc, give them very prominent and clear links to download whatever they need).

Is your sales letter too “blind”?

One instant way to lower refunds is by making it much clearer to the customer what they will get and how it will be delivered. If you keep it “blind” and don’t tell them what the product is about, then you will very likely generate more sales, but you’ll “catch a lot of people in the net” who really shouldn’t be buying your product. Of course this is a trade-off between generating sales and minimizing refunds, but if you find your refund creeping up, try and make your sales letter more specific.

One way to still get the sale but not suffer the refund is by talking about the experience the customer will have once they’ve ordered your product. For example…
“Once you order, you’ll be instantly be redirected to our download page. Just enter your name and email, then you’ll be presented with our full and complete e-course. Since our method is firmly based around getting free SEO traffic, we’ll present you with a series of beginner’s videos to explain the basics. If you already know the ropes, you can skip past these and head straight to the core method itself – which is presented in a series of videos and to-the-point PDF ebooks.”

A simple paragraph like this will prepare the customer for what happens after their order – and will make it all less “blind” and lower refunds.

If all else fails, go physical

One very underused trick is to create a physical version of your product. If it’s software, put it on a CD or DVD. If its an ebook, make it printed. Offering your product in physical form can lower refunds by up to 30% – and that’s even if customers don’t need to return it to get a refund.

The reason is simple. When a customer buys a physical product, it instantly has more perceived value than one that’s purely digital. Customers love physically holding something in their hand, and they are more likely to consume your product if its physical as opposed to just sitting somewhere on their desktop. Remember also that when a customer fires up their computer, they have a million and one distractions. But if you get a physical product in their hands, you have their undivided attention. One additional bonus of this is that it means you have their physical address, allowing you to send newsletters or even presents (such as cookies) – with their permission of course. This builds your relationship with the customer, separates you from others in your niche (who are surely not doing this) and will definitely lower refunds.

Respond to customers instantly (even if it’s automated)

This is another simple trick I’ve picked up along the way. Very often, customers go into panic mode if they can’t get their download, or need to solve a fundamental problem right away. A typical scenario goes like this: they buy an ebook, and can’t get instant access as promised. They email support and hear nothing back. They panic and either refund or chargeback. A simple solution is to setup a detailed autoresponder that explains exactly how your support ticket works – with open times, and expected response times (aim for under 24 hours). So any customer email to support will get an automated, instant autoresponder email back.

This kind of thing will stop customers going into a panic and cut a few percentage points of your current refund levels. Likewise, try to give a prominent link to a customer FAQ with your top 10 most common support questions (and answers). This will give many customers an answer without them having to wait to hear from you, which in turn will lower your support volume and lower refunds.

Review your customer support tickets at least once per month

This is really the one thing that you should be doing more than anything else – you need to be “in the trenches” with your customers. Its tempting to outsource your customer support, and I’m not going to argue the pluses and minuses to this approach. But if you do decide to do this, you need to keep a very close eye on what your support team are up to. At the very least, try to read through as many tickets as you can and compile a list of the most common complaints and refund reasons. Some will be long-term changes that take time to implement, but many will be tiny little changes you can make almost instantly. It definitely pays to stay in touch with your customer – if you want to lower your refunds, they’re the first person to ask.

So there you have it – my top tips for lowering refunds. Many of these are common sense but ask yourself “are you doing them?” If not, then start right away. Not feeling motivated enough? Well, ask yourself how much extra money you would make with 10%, 20% or even 50% fewer refunds. Hopefully thinking of this number will get you to take action and make it happen.

About the Author

Chris McNeeney is an affiliate and vendor. He has several websites, but right now he’s working on Affiliate X.

Written by: +Beau Blackwell, Client Knowledge Guru

Molly Lane and I have a great new episode of Affiliate Marketing Today for you this week, with one of our favorite guests, Internet marketing rock star Ryan Lee! If you’re not already familiar with Ryan, he’s been selling and promoting information products online for a long time now, and in that time has gone from a total newbie to a legend in the business.

One of the secrets to Ryan’s success is that he’s figured out how to build a long term “rock star brand” that can survive economic downturns, changes in rules and regulations, and ever-increasing competition. In this episode of Affiliate Marketing Today, Ryan shares many of his best tips for how you too can become a rock star and outperform the market and your competition. No matter what niche or level of expertise you have, this is an episode you don’t want to miss!

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN NOW!

In an ongoing effort to improve the buying experience for ClickBank customers, we are expanding and clarifying our Vendor Promotional Guidelines, effective immediately. These updates are in addition to the existing Vendor Promotional Messaging Guidelines implemented on August 1, 2011. New product submissions that do not meet these guidelines will not be approved, and existing Pitch Pages and sales materials must be brought into compliance as quickly as possible, or may face corrective action as detailed below. The ClickBank network compliance guidelines are designed to ensure that all clients:

1. Understand the promotional guidelines of the FTC and other regulatory agencies and
2. Create and promote quality products in a manner consistent with those guidelines

To ensure customers know what to expect when purchasing a product, particularly in the e-business/e-marketing (also known as Internet marketing) category, ClickBank vendors must include clear, detailed information about the nature of their product on their Pitch Pages. Pitch Pages that promise big results for customers without being clear about the nature of the training provided or what the included software actually does (also known as “blind offers”) will not be accepted for sale on the ClickBank network.

For example, if the product is an Internet marketing training program, the Pitch Page should describe what the product will teach, what (if any) prior knowledge or experience is required to use the techniques covered in the training, if customers will need to spend additional money to achieve the indicated results, and so on. Examples might include: the customer needing a working knowledge of SEO techniques, needing to have an email list and autoresponder service, or being able and willing to spend money on paid traffic in order to make money with the product.

Software-based products must include details about how the product functions, such as “This software will identify high-volume, low-competition keywords you can try to rank for in search results” or “This WordPress plug-in will automatically generate squeeze pages you can use to build a list and market to customers via email.” We also recommend including screenshots or videos of the product itself in action so customers can better understand what they will be buying.

Vague statements such as “Just enter a keyword, hit Go, and our product will do the rest!” are not acceptable, since even experienced customers have no way of knowing whether the product could reasonably accomplish the claims the vendor is making. We have found that there is a strong correlation between customer requested refunds and the use of these types of promotional methods.

We will be taking corrective action on vendors not in compliance with these guidelines, up to and including Marketplace removal or account deactivation. In addition to these guidelines, we will also be closely monitoring product quality metrics such as refund and chargeback rates, and removing products from our Marketplace that do not meet these requirements.

Thank you for your help in continuing to make the ClickBank Marketplace a trusted source for high-quality digital information products. By working together, we can increase customer trust and satisfaction, resulting in greater profits for everyone.

Written by: Beau Blackwell, Client Knowledge Guru

We’ve got a fantastic new episode of ClickBank’s Affiliate Marketing Today podcast for you. In this episode, Molly and I talk with Allen Baler, who’s something of a renaissance man in the Internet marketing world. A few years ago, Allen left his high-paying corporate job after discovering Internet marketing, and has since gone on to become a top superaffiliate. He also runs a successful business publishing and fulfilling orders for physical versions of popular information products like The Diet Solution Program and many others.

You don’t want to miss this episode, as Allen shares some of the coolest tricks he’s learned over the years that any ClickBank affiliate or vendor can quickly use to become more successful! He shared some of these tips as a recent speaker at the ClickBank Exchange, and offers to share his fantastic presentation with the Affiliate Marketing Today audience. If you’ve never checked out our podcast before, this is a great episode to start!

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN