Posts Tagged ‘affiliate marketing’

ClickBank is excited to announce and invite you to the first ever ClickBank Exchange! The ClickBank Exchange is an Internet marketing conference that will take place on August 19th-20th at the Crowne Plaza Times Square in New York, NY. Our event will be action packed, with two days of high level educational content and networking opportunities.

An amazing collection of speakers and panelists has been assembled to teach you the strategies and shortcuts to building your digital empire. We’ve gathered a mix of industry leaders and under-the-radar marketing “ninjas” to share the specific tricks, as well as the business philosophies, that have helped them dominate the Internet marketing industry. Here are some of the many topics we’ll be covering at the Exchange:

• Keynote panel: How to build your Internet marketing empire
• The latest SEO tips & tricks from the CEO of SEOMoz
• The secrets of killer copywriting that really converts
• How to drive massive amounts of free, qualified traffic through Facebook
• How to be a marketing rockstar and get raving fans
• And much more!

In this day and a half of inside information guests will get real time cash creation secrets from the top Internet marketing millionaires that ClickBank has assembled. The speaker line-up includes:

• Gary Vaynerchuk
• Yanik Silver
• Joe Polish
• Chris Farrell
• Rand Fishkin
• Ryan Lee
• Marc Ostrofsky
• Jeff Siegel
• Mike Hill
• Joe Sugarman

And the list doesn’t end there! Discover the full lineup here.

ClickBank Exchange attendees are sure to learn more money-making techniques at this event than at any other event this year.

Click here for more information and to register today!

Written by: Guest Author, Nikki Young

The majority of people that start down the enticing road of Internet marketing give up soon after their first promotion. An extraordinary amount of effort for little profit sees many retire from the game almost immediately. Both affiliate marketing and online product marketing may first appear as easy ways to make money, but people soon realize that the web is not an easily tapped goldmine. Internet marketing requires commitment and hard work and can quickly become overwhelming.

The marketing processes involved span way beyond creating a web page or writing an eBook. As a vendor there are a broad range of marketing methods that can be followed, with few of them ever resulting in success. And as an affiliate, even the seemingly basic sifting through of products you might potentially choose to promote, presents a challenging task. From building a list of potential customers that trust your word, to launching a new product to market, being diligent enough to understand the multiple disciplines of online marketing is the downfall of many. However, for those with the staying power, Internet marketing is a great way to establish a lucrative online business.

For those of you just getting started with Internet marketing you will no doubt hear the following phrase many more times, and if you’ve been Internet marketing for some time you are about to hear it again: testing is critical! Internet marketers say this all the time because there are so many different marketing mediums available to be utilized in the marketing process, that it can be quite tempting to flitter back and forth trying out each one in part. Once a person doesn’t experience instant success with one, they tend to quickly switch to a new strategy, and then to another, and so on. The problem with doing this is that it means not fully realizing the potential of each marketing method. By constantly switching between strategies you aren’t giving one particular strategy a chance to flourish. Therefore it is vitally important that you test, test, and test some more with each process, strategy and theory, so you can rule out what doesn’t work and rule in what does.

By doing this you will be able to select the most valuable parts of each strategy and start to build a bulletproof strategy of your own. It is important to recognize early on is that there is no “one size fits all” in Internet marketing, and that the same strategies don’t work for every niche, or even necessarily in the same niche. What works for you might not work for someone else, and vice versa. So decipher what works for you through a continual process of trial and error. Develop a system of your own. It will take some time but will be well worth it in the end. And who knows, one day you might be able to sell your system online as a top-selling product!

Trying multiple marketing methods and only putting limited input into each will only bring frustration. Instead, focus all your energy on one or two marketing approaches. Master them and make sure you have exhausted their capabilities before moving on or adding a new approach to your armory. Don’t keep dipping your fingers in and out of a bucketful of ideas hoping that one will suddenly come to fruition.

Think long-term not short-term. Invest wisely in the short term in order to make money in the long term. And by this I mean investing in the help of some educational programs/books and the advice and help of mentor(s) to help you learn faster and get to your destination of success quicker. If you can master one or two approaches, you will be well on your way toward a successful business. If you learn only parts of a number of different strategies you will remain a “jack of all trades but master of none.”

Internet marketing can take its toll on you psychologically, especially when you have tried out a variety of marketing methods, invested financially and put in a lot of time and effort for little or no reward. But this psychological battle presents a critical stage in your development and success. This is the very point at which many who made it past the first promotion and into further learning stages give up. A knack for perseverance is so very important in Internet marketing and indeed in starting any business. Don’t give up at the third hurdle. Stick by your guns and persevere with strategies that feel comfortable and complement your strengths and ability.

Four Solid Bits of Advice to Help You Succeed in Internet Marketing

Advice #1: Find a Mentor
Whether in business, self-development or Internet marketing, growth can be rapidly moved forward by finding a mentor. Mentoring helps you develop at a faster rate, helping you learn faster, develop skills more adeptly and avoid making the same mistakes over and over again. A mentor, like a good teacher, will help you understand exactly what you need to learn, how to learn it and the best time for you to execute the knowledge.

I seek mentors in my life because I know it’s the fastest way to learn. Not only has mentoring helped me to get to where I am today in Internet marketing, but it also continues to be very important to me in other areas of my life. By having a mentor for each important aspect of my self-development, I learn faster and succeed faster. Since starting out on my own journey as an Internet marketer I myself have become a mentor to others. It has truly been a pleasure watching those I have helped grow from online newbie to successful online entrepreneur.

Advice #2: Don’t Work on too Many Projects at Once by Yourself
A huge mistake beginners make is thinking they need to do everything alone. Focus your energy on the most vital areas of your business; the areas that encourage growth and will help you reach your goals faster. If you work on too many projects at once you will find your progress is slow and hindered by many barriers. You can’t be an expert in every discipline, so outsource work where you can. Set aside a budget for delegating work to third parties that prevent you from paying attention to more important areas of your business. Taking on more and more work yourself will see you bogged down unnecessarily in tasks that will significantly slow your progress. Outsourcing will also allow you to have more valuable time away from your computer.

Advice #3: Utilize Free Resources
When a person first decides to get involved with Internet marketing, he or she will be exposed to numerous different online money making products. These products appear as very attractive prospects, and it isn’t uncommon for people to get excited and buy into multiple products in a short space of time. The truth is, almost every marketing method you will read about is potentially a profitable one, but mastering one takes considerable time. Don’t splash out on multiple expensive products. Instead, choose one or two referred to you by your mentor(s). Learn them and utilize them to their full potential before moving onto another area.

In addition to this, make use of as much free information as you can. There is a huge amount of great reference material online that can be found in books, eBooks, video and on blogs. It is often difficult to sift through conflicting information and ideas online, but again, ask your mentor and trusted associates for help in directing you toward informative blogs, forums and other reliable free resources.

Advice #4 Maintain Persistence
You never know when the breakthrough will come, it could be next week, it might even be tomorrow, or it could take six more months. If things are getting on top of you then take a step back from your business and re-think your strategy. Ask yourself, “Am I focusing my energy, time and investment on areas conducive to leading me to my goal?” “Are there things I am avoiding, ignoring or only doing half heartedly that could better position me for success?”

Your success in business is dependent on your mental attitude, your strategy and your devotion to learning and developing yourself on a daily basis. Commit to your goal of becoming a successful Internet marketer and be persistent in your endeavours. Take these words of advice into consideration and go for it. I hope that they help you to become successful in your online venture.

About the Author
Nikki Young has been active in Internet Marketing for 4 years. During this time she has built up a successful online business, which includes the selling of her cookbook series within ClickBank. www.paleocookbook.com.

Written by: Michael Cecchin & Alex Miller of The Fat Loss Authority

Getting Started

Before you begin building your website or hiring freelancers, you need to decide what your niche or subject matter will be. I would suggest selecting a niche that you are familiar with, enjoy, and that has a definite demand for continuous content.

The worst thing is to be three months into the project and realize the niche puts you to sleep. You need something that is exciting for you!

I decided to choose the mother of all niches, weight loss. I guess it’s fair to say I like a good challenge, but you have to manage your expectations and figure out what is realistic when it comes to achieving your goals, and how much effort and investment you are willing to put in.

Your content should always solve problems and answer questions that users are likely to be searching for in the various search engines. Doing plenty of keyword research is necessary so you can target long tail keywords and avoid hard-to-rank-for terms like “how to lose weight” or “lose weight fast.” As a new affiliate marketer you have to be realistic with what you can achieve. But the long term goal is one of residual revenue and an online property you can eventually sell to reap the benefits of all of your (and/or your outsourcers’) hard work!

For example, a recent article I posted is on how to make your body burn more calories, which is obviously a topic with significant search volume. Once searchers find it, strategically placed affiliate ads will take users to a weight loss or diet supplement website. See how that works? Find a market you can corner that’s not over-saturated with competition and you can start building from there.

Content Needs

The days of content farms are drawing to a close, with even EzineArticles.com losing over 30% of its traffic due to a recent update to Google’s search algorithm.

The path to the future is clear—create an authentic site with quality content and a positive user experience. Otherwise, your organic ranking days could be numbered!

Once you’ve chosen what your website will be about, it’s time to start generating some excellent content. The keys to improving the flow of traffic to your website are quality content and genuine inbound links (link farms are also on the swift decline).

Setting your website up as an authority on a particular topic ranging from auto repairs to weight loss, using unique, quality content that is well-written, will help ensure your content drives the “right” kind of customers to the websites you promote.

The goal is to get people to your site and then on to the vendor’s site, and that requires helpful information that’s related to the vendor’s content. If you’re not a writer, or if you simply don’t have time to create content for an entire website, utilize the services of a freelance writer. These services can be found at sites like Elance, where I’ve found some of the best business partners around. Try to find someone that is already familiar with your niche, who has a basic understanding of search engine optimization and who can freely post quality content onto your site without you having to.

A professional with these skills will be able to provide you with high quality content that’s sure to bring visitors to your website. Without good content that keeps readers coming back, your affiliate links and promotions may not generate any additional income.

When you choose keywords to optimize for, make sure to choose phrases that are relevant to your subject matter and related to your vendor’s subject. You should also make sure to use phrases that would actually be searched for in search engines. For example, instead of ‘how to lose weight with oolong tea,’ which is too wordy, optimize your keyword text to read ‘oolong tea health benefits‘ and create a page title around that phrase.

Posting Frequency

An important factor in building a reputable site for affiliate marketing is posting fresh content to your site often. You want your site to become an authority on a subject, which means you want readers to check in with your website often for new content. By posting content at regular intervals, your readers know when to come for new information. Think of your website like a television show—you want readers to know when to come back for the next episode.

An authoritative website has many pages of content, which you will build up over time. This can’t be done in a few days. Give your website an edge by having a large amount of content ready for posting when your website goes live, and then continue to post high quality content regularly.

Networking

In addition to paying for the services of a freelance writer, you immediately want to begin networking with other bloggers. Bloggers with similar content may be able to act as ‘guest’ writers on your blog and you can do the same for their website.

[NOTE: If anyone is looking to exchange guest posts with us, just send a message via the contact form on our site].

By acting as a guest writer on another blog, it builds your reputation, and your website’s, as an authority on a particular subject. It tells your readers that you’re not just trying to make money, but you actually know what you’re talking about too. And those back links you get by guest posting will also help give your website’s rating a boost.

Inadvertent networking is another great way to boost your ranking in search engines. By creating high quality content that provides helpful information, other bloggers will link to your website as a credible resource, which will also improve your search engine ranking. This is why enjoying your niche is important, since it will make it easier for you to keep pushing out great content and chatting with new people in the industry.

Starting an authoritative website is fairly easy, and with the right tools you can be up and running in no time. Find your niche, stockpile your content for frequent updates, build your website and start linking! It’s easier than you think, and who doesn’t need another avenue to earn income these days?

Good luck!

About the Authors

Michael Cecchin in a successful Internet Marketer, Entrepreneur, and professional J-O-B escapee based in Toronto. Michael owns a number of online properties in the diet and fitness niche and is currently exploring opportunities in other niches. He has been working full-time online for the past 2 years and claims the terrifying memory of cubicle life is what keeps him motivated to continually expand his online business and live the dream.

Alex Miller is an affiliate and SEO superstar, originally from the UK and currently living in Orlando, Florida. Alex started as an affiliate in the Forex and fitness niche while building his SEO credentials. His main projects are now in the SEO niche, helping other business owners improve their site rankings through white hat tricks and tactics unavailable to mortal men.

You can check out their own authority site at The Fat Loss Authority Blog.

Written by: Simon Hodgkinson, Guest Author

The secret to becoming a successful affiliate marketer: WORK BACKWARDS

This might seem odd so let me explain…

Over the last few years, we’ve generated millions in commissions and taught thousands of budding affiliate marketers how to make more money online. After many unsuccessful attempts, we finally realized what we were doing wrong.

Statistics show there’s a 95% chance that you aren’t as successful at affiliate marketing as you’d like to be, and even if you’re doing great, by simply applying the little ‘mind shift’ I’m about to share with you, you’ll be able to take your current success to an entirely new level.

Before you begin any promotional campaign you need to identify your end goal.

Think about it for a second, and ask yourself why are you even working as an affiliate in the first place? Although affiliate marketing can be fun, making money is essential.

Like everyone else, you’re an affiliate because you need the money. Making car payments, paying bills such as rent or mortgage, family vacations or the 101 different things that factor into our cost of living add up.

One of the biggest problems is that most people never sit down and add the cost of all these expenses. Once you begin to crunch those numbers and figure out exactly what it takes to live without the worry of how much things cost, or where the money for the next bill is coming from, is when you will start to see the true power of affiliate marketing.

The revelation is that affiliate marketing doesn’t just have the power to make you some ‘extra cash,’ it has the power to set you free!

So how do we start? First you need to know how much you need (pretty simple right). ☺

Grab a notebook and make a list of everything you spend money on each month. At the top of your sheet, you want to write “living expenses.” Go through the fixed costs that you have each month (everything should go in here, rent/mortgage, car payments, cell phone, utilities, food etc.).

Then you want add in your entertainment expenses (the fun stuff!). You can estimate the monthly costs but include things like movies, eating out, monthly mini-vacations etc. Next combine your living expenses with your entertainment costs and you’ll have a total monthly expense figure. Got it?

Don’t underestimate the power of doing this. This has been the number one exercise we ask our coaching students to do because affiliate marketing is not the be all and end all – it’s the tool that gets you there. Without the end goal, you don’t have any kind of way to evaluate your progress!

Let’s work an example: Say $5,000 is the amount you need each month. If your affiliate income can match $5,000 (which is peanuts compared to what you can do if you really push things), you’ll have all of your expenses covered!

Now it’s just a matter of building your system that will generate this income for you automatically, every month. We need to calculate how many sales we need to achieve our income goal. What I want you to do is take your income goal and divide it by the net amount of commission you plan to make with each sale.

For example, let’s say that we’re going to make $30 per sale. $5,000 divided by $30 is equivalent to 166 sales a month. When you break that down, it’s just 6 sales a day.

Now, if you think it’s hard to sell 6 ClickBank products a day, just understand that there are people who can sell 150 ClickBank products a day and more. What I’m talking about here doesn’t even take into account rebills and future payments and how they can compound over time!

So how much traffic do we need to get to those 6 sales?

Just take the monthly number of sales you need (which was 166), and divide that by the vendor’s sales page conversion rate.
We can make a quick assumption that sales page conversion rate will be around the industry standard of 2%. Then, we divide the total number of sales we need by .02, and see what we get from that. Don’t worry if you don’t want to do all the calculations right now, I have handy ‘one click’ resource for you coming up at the end. ☺

For example: 166 / 0.02 = 8,300 unique visitors a month. Break that down and it becomes just 277 unique visitors a day.
The point is, with this formula you’ll know how to figure out exactly how much traffic you need to reach that goal, and vice-versa. If you know how much traffic you site is getting right now, you can reverse the calculation to determine which programs to promote based on commission amounts. It’s not just random numbers floating around anymore!

You have a target to aim for!

Well, kind of. That’s the number of visitors you need to get to the vendor’s page (the page of the person you’re promoting), however, you’ll probably want to send them to your own site first, and then get them to the vendor’s site. In a perfect world you could get every visitor to go from your site to your vendor’s page (that would be a 100% conversion rate), but it’s not a perfect world. So the big question is how many do you actually need to come to your site to reach your goal?

For a quick and dirty answer just divide the number by 0.3 (this is a 30% conversion rate from your site to a vendor’s site). Although you may be able to achieve a higher conversion rate (we have pages that covert to 40%-50%), we will estimate on the conservative side. So, 8,300 / 0.3 is 27,666 and that’s the traffic we would need to reach the goal in our example. The next step is to take that 27,666 and divide it by 30. That tells us how many visitors per day we need to arrive at our own website. That’s 922 visitors a day.

And that’s everything you need for financial freedom! Beautiful how this works isn’t it?

Conclusion:

When you calculate your own personal freedom formula number, you might be surprised how close you are to it already. It’s just a matter of setting up your traffic plan and finding the best programs from the ClickBank Marketplace to promote.

You can also run more than one campaign, identify programs that offer recurring billing to automatically add fresh commissions each month to your tally without having to drive more traffic and test and tweak your own pages to increase conversions to ultimately reach your goal. In fact there are many easy-to-apply adjustments that will reduce the time it takes to achieve your objective. Just remember that knowing your objective first is the best way to achieve it.
If you’d like to calculate your own freedom formula number (and you don’t want to crunch through all those numbers in your head), we’ve put a useful online tool that will do it all for you with just a couple of clicks. Click Here: http://www.cbcashgrenade.com/freedom

About the Author

Simon Hodgkinson and his business partner Jeremy Gislason have been involved in Internet Marketing for more than 10 years and are the creators of a number of best selling information products and software applications. For more information about their business visit www.cbcashgrenade.com.

Written by: Beau Blackwell, Community Manager

We’ve got a great new episode of Affiliate Marketing Today for you! Dush Ramachandran and I talk to Chris Farrell, who’s managed to become a huge success in the Internet marketing industry despite only starting two years ago.

Chris shares his thoughts on having the right mindset, developing your skills, and much more. If you’re new to affiliate marketing and think you’re getting started too late, this episode will prove you wrong. Tune in now!

Written by: Chris Jones, Guest Blogger

Over the 4 years that I have been involved with ClickBank, I have seen countless products, niches, and services all trying to compete for market share.

If I could give you one piece of advice to maximize your affiliate marketing efforts, it would be this:

Stand out from the crowd, be unique, and the profits will follow.

This has never been more vital than it is today. Over the past 3 years the Internet has changed substantially—“Web 2.0” sites have become very popular, YouTube has become a major player both for entertainment and for Internet marketing, and there are more people online than ever before. To get people’s attention these days, your affiliate marketing efforts have to be truly special.

Here are 3 things that can help you stand out from the crowd with your product or service:

Design:

As mentioned above, the days where you can just have a blank page of text, a few pictures and a Buy Now button are over. Focus on making your site design fit the niche you are in, and work on making the design look really professional so potential customers trust you.

A good way to ensure your design will resonate with your audience is to learn from the best in your niche. If it is a gaming site, for instance, then check out some of the biggest game companies on the web and follow suit. Make sure your images, colors, and even fonts are in line with what visitors to gaming sites would expect.

Video:

As I’m sure you’ve noticed, many of the most successful ClickBank vendors and affiliates have started using video on their site, and there’s a good reason for it.

Video can improve conversions ten-fold if executed properly, so make sure you have a professional video made that focuses on the benefits of your products.

Some of the most profitable sites on ClickBank now use a simple video on their main sales page. If you’re not taking advantage of video yet, you’re missing out.

Product/Service:

Even though there is a lot of competition in any given ClickBank category, and especially the largest ones, the top products find a unique angle or selling point that helps them stand out. Make sure that you put some thought into what makes your product or service different from all the others in your niche.

Is it a totally new technique? Do you provide better support resources? Really cool tools or bonuses? Make sure you’ve got something unique that will resonate with buyers. If your product has a unique selling point, it can do very well!

Conclusion:

The final point that I wanted to recommend in this blog post is to be yourself! There is no one like you in the whole world and your product/website should reflect that.

Of course, don’t ignore learning the basics of skills like copywriting, web design, and video creation, but when you are using them, make sure to add a little bit of your personality so you stand out, and you’ll see your conversions improve.

About the Author

Chris Jones has been a Clickbank Vendor for 4 years and co-owns DUBTurbo with NC Media. For in-depth tutorials on how to get started with ClickBank, visit the NicheChoppers Forum.

Written by: Beau Blackwell, Community Manager

We’re very proud to announce that starting today, June 17, at 1pm ET, ClickBank will begin hosting the Affiliate Marketing Today show on WebmasterRadio.FM.

The bi-weekly show, which I’ll be co-hosting with our VP of Business Development, Dush Ramachandran, will cover affiliate marketing trends, advice, opportunities, and risks for affiliate marketers.

We’ll have frequent guests, including top Internet marketers and affiliate industry insiders. We’re looking forward to sharing our knowledge and experience with you, and helping you get the most out of your affiliate marketing efforts.

For more info on the show, check out this WebmasterRadio press release.

Please leave a comment with any topics you’d like us to cover, as we’re always looking for great show ideas. Be sure to tune in later today to hear the first episode!

Written by: Mark Ling, Guest Author

Since I’ve been a successful affiliate marketer for a long time and have coached many affiliates on how to be more successful, I thought it could be helpful write about the key differences that I see between the mindsets of super affiliates and struggling affiliates.

If you have dabbled in affiliate marketing but aren’t making a killing yet, then you might find that some of the differences I mention below are issues you need to resolve first.

1. Super affiliates take action towards their goals, while struggling affiliates often procrastinate, or spend too much time overeducating or preparing themselves and not enough time DOING. Super affiliates are usually prepared to fail fast and often, learning from their mistakes, rather than not making any progress at all.

2. Super affiliates invest their money in software, marketing, and outsourcing, and then spend what is left. Struggling affiliates spend the vast majority of their money on other parts of their lives, and then invest what is left in their online business.

3. Super affiliates invest their time in networking with and learning from other successful people, whereas struggling affiliates often try to work alone, or listen to people who have a negative influence on them. In addition, super affiliates try to learn as much as possible from other successful people through books, audio, or DVDs. This is especially important when you’re not in a position or location where you can network with other successful Internet marketers face to face.

4. On a similar note, super affiliates enjoy the process of learning, even when they’re learning from their failures. Struggling affiliates often don’t enjoy having to constantly learn new techniques and ideas, and don’t appreciate the experience of failing in order to learn and grow.

5. Most super affiliates understand the power of their mind and focus on developing strong self belief and an abundance mindset, whereas struggling affiliates can get derailed by negative self-talk, focusing on what is going wrong in their lives and in their affiliate marketing efforts.

6. Most super affiliate millionaires that I’ve met in person (and I’ve met dozens) only focus on one or two niches. It’s true that most have experimented in many other niches in order to find the ‘golden’ one or two that work for them. Struggling affiliates, though, are often scattered all over the place, and even when they find a niche that makes them money, they keep moving on to the next niche without fully maximizing their potential or getting to know a niche in extreme depth.

7. Most super affiliates build a strong mailing list through email capture and make regular repeat sales to the same people. Struggling affiliates often like to skip the process of building a website to gain leads and focus on direct traffic, missing out on the chance of repeat sales and having more marketing opportunities.

8. Most super affiliate millionaires I know, including myself, make the vast majority of their money from the big competitive niches, and not from the smaller, less competitive niches. Super affiliates are not afraid of competition, whereas many struggling affiliates are. Super affiliates realize that to make big money, you have to go where the big money is. I’ll clarify this by saying that small niches are good to sink your teeth into early on and to make some sales, but in the long run, to make 7 figures or more online, you need to get good at marketing in one of the major niches where billions of dollars are being spent (e.g., diet/fitness, make money online, dating/relationships niches, self-help, security software, etc.).

I hope the above differences between super affiliates and struggling affiliates inspire you to upgrade your mindset and start thinking and acting like a super affiliate! Above all, make sure you follow point #1: super affiliates take action towards their goals.

All the best to your success!

About the Author

Mark Ling is the Founder of Affilorama, an affiliate marketing training portal that offers cutting-edge free video training, education, and affiliate tools to both beginning and advanced affiliate marketers. You can follow Affilorama on Facebook or read Affilorama’s Affiliate Marketing Blog.

Mar. 16, 2010 – While Amazon.com moved swiftly last week to halt its business relationships with affiliate marketers in Colorado, ClickBank officials vowed to continue to work with affiliate marketers located in the company’s home state despite a new law that taxes affiliates’ sales.

Amazon terminated its marketing affiliate program in Colorado just eight days after a new law took effect that will tax affiliate sales. In what was viewed as a surprise move by some of the estimated 4,000 online affiliate marketers in the state, Amazon distributed a letter to affiliates saying the company would immediately cease doing business with them because of the new tax law.

But ClickBank, a global online retailer headquartered in Broomfield, Colo., says it has no intention of terminating relationships with affiliates or discontinuing its longstanding policy of collecting and remitting taxes to the appropriate tax authorities in various domestic and international jurisdictions.

“We will continue to honor our agreements with affiliates in Colorado and all other states in the U.S., and will continue collecting and remitting taxes in compliance with the new laws affecting affiliate sales,” said Dush Ramachandran, ClickBank vice president of sales and business development.

Posted by: Nathan Hangen, Guest Blogger

I need to get something out of the way…I am a Twitter fanatic. In fact, it would come as no surprise to me if my wife was spending every free minute she has in order to learn how to become a hacker so that she could take it down and have her husband back (I’m really not that bad, but you get the idea).

So considering that fact that I spend a lot of my time learning how to master the art of Twitter marketing and that I’ve even created my own Twitter products, what I am about to say might be a little too close to the bone…even for me.

However, the truth is the truth and if we try to hide from it, then we end up dying because of it. And here it is:

99% of the affiliate marketers on Twitter have zero idea how to market correctly.

Furthermore, many of those that don’t get it are teaching new users how not to get it too, leading to a cycle of spam, crappy auto-DM’s, and accounts that get suspended or marked as spam before they have even had a chance to flourish.

So, what are they doing, and why are they doing it? Let’s tackle the former first.

1. If you want to sell an affiliate product on Twitter, you cannot expect to be able to do it in 140 characters, and yet, that’s what many marketers try to do. Their Twitter streams are filled with blatant sales pitches, so much so that you start to wonder if there is a real person behind the curtain.

Look, if I don’t know who you are, I don’t know where you are linking to, and I don’t see anything but pitches in your Twitter stream, then I am not going to click through. If I do, if you get lucky, you will see me hit the back button before the page even finishes loading.

2. You cannot take over someone’s DM’s (Direct Messages) and have them send out spam on your behalf. Aside from the fact that it is extremely annoying, it takes advantage of people that don’t know any better. You are actually hurting your customer in the process. Hit-and-run business tactics are shameful and will not help you in the long run.

3. Creating a product that only teaches people how to make money on Twitter by promoting your “make money on Twitter” product is, well, just sad. Sure, you might make a few bucks, but what does that get you? Again, it is this type of short term thinking that turns Twitter into a madhouse and creates an environment where marketers are no longer trusted. At that point, you’ve ruined it for all of us. Thanks.

4. Perhaps the most blatant offender is the reply spammer, which is relatively new to the scene. These people reply to popular Twitter users with an affiliate link, and try to trick people into clicking. These reply spammers also try to trick the popular person’s followers, because at first glance, it looks like the Tweet is coming from them. Considering most of these tweets look identical, I simply click the block button and move on. Get blocked often enough and you’ll be suspended. Good luck getting your account back.

So Why Are They Doing It?

1. Most affiliate marketers on Twitter are doing this because they are too lazy to learn how to effectively sell affiliate products. You shouldn’t try to sell someone in a PPC ad; you bring them to your sales page so that your sales letter can do the selling. It’s the same with Twitter. To do this, though, you’ve got to be relevant, which means that not everything you say can be a sales pitch. When it is, though, it has to address the needs of your list. Sending out blanket replies just doesn’t work.

2. Sadly, many people buy systems that tell them that these methods work. To make matters worse, many of them use viral friend adders that help them get recognition and more marketers promoting their products. Eventually, regardless of how faulty the system is, it spreads like wildfire. Everyone gets caught, no one wins.

3. They aren’t interested in helping people. The last category is comprised of marketers that use the same tactics in other venues. They use software to generate new accounts by the dozens, so they don’t care if they get suspended. They aren’t interested in helping people…they simply want to make an easy buck.

So How Do You Sell on Twitter?

I’ve written about this extensively because it is a matter that I am extremely passionate about. I am tired of shady marketers ruining it for everyone and more importantly, I’m tired of seeing new people get taken advantage of.

So here’s the truth:

If you want to sell on Twitter, you have to build relationships and create targeted lists based on interests. Once you learn how to build these networks (which really is easy to do), you can link to relevant affiliate offers without having to worry about getting unfollowed or blocked. The key is to let the content, not a Tweet, do the selling. If everything you say on Twitter is a pitch of some sort, it won’t work. However, if you learn to be relevant and helpful, your random pitch will not only be noticed, but will be appreciated.

People love to buy…we love to consume great content. However, we have to be warmed up before we do it. On social networks, it’s the relationships that sell, not the message. It’s really up to you, though. You can spam people and make a quick buck (maybe), or you can build credibility and build a successful business. In my opinion, taking the latter route is much more efficient.

About the Author: Nathan Hangen writes about web entrepreneurship at NathanHangen.com, and about how to use social media to fuel your brand at Making It Social . Follow him on Twitter @nhangen.