Posts Tagged ‘vendors’

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: 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.

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: Guest Author, Haden de Boer

The number one question that any potential affiliate will always ask themselves before promoting your offer is “Will this thing make me money?” In other words, will this offer convert to my list (or my web-traffic)? But beyond creating a stronger product and a more compelling sales message, how can vendors improve their program and encourage affiliates to…

1. Promote their product, and
2. Promote any other products they may release in the future?

Fact is, these days it’s not enough just to put up some banners and swipe emails and leave it at that. To build a loyal group of affiliates who are motivated to promote what you have, you need to go that extra mile.

Here are 7 ideas to get you started…

1. Offer Personalized/Custom Landing Pages

No matter what your product, different traffic sources will give you varying conversion rates. This is simply because different people are looking for different benefits from your product. So if you can somehow customize your landing pages to target different groups of people you can create a much more targeted message… and convert more sales.

For example, the flagship product at SaleHoo.com is membership to a directory of wholesale suppliers. Affiliates have the ability to send traffic to landing pages that are customized based around product type, because prospects tend to be interested in finding suppliers for a certain type of product, rather than products in general. Customization can be as simple as different headlines, or even going as far as using alternate pictures and content.

Another way you might consider customizing your landing pages, is to create unique pages for individual affiliates. Now, obviously you won’t be able to do this for every affiliate, but when they have a proven track record this is something you should certainly consider to help them convert more sales.  You might even offer a special bonus or discount just for their leads.

2. Periodic Bonuses/Competitions

Another way to keep affiliates motivated is to offer incentives for top performance. This strategy is used regularly in major product launches, but there is no reason you can’t adapt it to a product that you already have on the market. The idea is simple: Just let your affiliates know that whoever sends the most leads/makes the most sales between now and a certain date will win prizes.

Don’t be afraid to get creative with your prizes, but keep in mind that most larger affiliates will be more motivated by the cash than anything else. You might choose to run these contests monthly, or even based around events such as Halloween, Christmas, or a birthday sale. (If you’re in the dating niche Valentine’s day would be a good one to use).

3. Offer Multiple Products

This one might be obvious, but it’s worth repeating. Simply put, the more products you offer, the more chances affiliates have to find something that will fit with their list/market. Plus, you’ll find that once you have one good product under your belt (that converts), affiliates will be more receptive to promoting other products that you come out with in the future. In short, it’s about giving them what they want.

A good example of this is Affilorama.com which has four main products available for affiliates to promote in their affiliate program. Each caters to slightly different segments of the market, and has a different price point (all the way from FREE membership, up to a $497 course).

4. Offer Recurring Commissions

Carrying on from #3 (above) some affiliates prefer recurring products (while some would much rather promote only a front-end offer).  But by having at least one recurring offer (for example a membership site or monthly magazine) you cater to those affiliates who are looking for this type of offer. And what if your only product is a recurring one? Consider jacking up the commission to entice those affiliates who want all the cash on the front-end until you can come up with another offer for them specifically.

5. Offer Specific Guidance to New Affiliates

Not everyone who promotes your offer is going to be an experienced affiliate. Especially as your product becomes more well-known in the marketplace, you will find more and more ‘newbies’ are interested in promoting your stuff. New affiliates are good for business because they provide new potential streams of income. However, their inexperience can mean that quite often, they do not know where to start. So what can you do about this? Well, if you consider your affiliates as an important and indispensible part of your business, then why not help them out by offering your guidance and advice for free? In reality, many of these smaller affiliates may never even make a sale of your product. But some of them will, and others will eventually grow to be top promoters in the future.

To see an example of how we do this at SaleHoo (using an email newsletter) – go here and sign up as an affiliate.

6.  Test Test Test

You’ve seen it here on the ClickBank blog before, and I’m sure you’ll see it again. Testing is one of the most important tools in any marketers arsenal. Even if you have a great product today – and you don’t think there is any way to improve conversions… you should still be testing new ideas. The truth is, people change. And markets change. Promises that worked ten years ago (or even one year ago) do not necessarily work today. You can keep on top of what works in your market by keeping an eye on the competition, but if you really want to know for sure, you need to be testing new ideas for yourself.

(Note for Affiliates: If you want to check if a vendor is actively testing, have a quick peek at the source code of their landing page(s). If there is some code there for GWO, Optimizely, or some other testing software then it’s a good sign that the vendor is actively tweaking and refining their offer.)

7. Having a Dedicated Affiliate Manager

As your business grows, and the number of affiliates promoting your product expands, the more demands running your Affiliate program will make on your time. Using ClickBank is a huge help, but eventually you’ll still be swamped by requests, offers, and obligations. Making it hard to focus on the rest of your business.

If you want to keep growing (and still want to take good care of your affiliates) then you should seriously consider hiring an affiliate manager. They will be able to take care of all those tasks that gobble up all your time – like handling email requests, sorting out landing pages, and sorting through JV offers… while leaving you free to work on the most important parts of the business – like creating high converting offers.

About the Author: Haden de Boer is the Affiliate Manager over at SaleHoo.com. Please feel free to check out the SaleHoo Affiliate Program and their newest offer SaleHoo Stores.

Written by: Guest Author, Mark Ling

Hey everyone,

I’m writing this blog post for ClickBank Affiliates (and this applies to vendors too for that matter) who are concerned about the impact of Google Panda‘s update has on the way in which they should be optimizing their sites for the search engines going forward.

Since February 24, Google has run several Panda updates (the most recent was Panda 2.2 on June 16, 2011). Firstly I want you to be aware that Panda is an update, not an entirely new ranking algorithm so many of the things you do to try to achieve high search engine rankings still apply as they used to.

The initial Panda update did in fact affect approximately 12% of the websites in Google, however the effects were much larger than Google has stated because most of the sites that were affected were websites that rank in the top pages of Google.

In addition, Google have also publicly stated on Google Webmaster Central Blog that Panda is not the only significant update that they’ve been running and that there will be more than 500 tweaks to their algorithms throughout the year. Furthermore, Google states “Some publishers have fixated on our prior Panda algorithm change, but Panda was just one of roughly 500 search improvements we expect to roll out to search this year.”

What’s more, Google’s representative says, “In fact, since we launched Panda, we’ve rolled out over a dozen additional tweaks to our ranking algorithms, and some sites have incorrectly assumed that changes in their rankings were related to Panda. SEO is a complicated and evolving art and science, so rather than focusing on specific algorithmic tweaks, we encourage you to focus on delivering the best possible experience for users.”

Google’s representative went on to list the following as questions that one could use to assess the quality of an article or a page:

• Would you trust the information presented in this article?
• Is this article written by an expert or enthusiast who knows the topic well, or is it more shallow in nature?
• Does the site have duplicate, overlapping, or redundant articles on the same or similar topics with slightly different keyword variations?
• Would you be comfortable giving your credit card information to this site?
• Does this article have spelling, stylistic, or factual errors?
• Are the topics driven by genuine interests of readers of the site, or does the site generate content by attempting to guess what might rank well in search engines?
• Does the article provide original content or information, original reporting, original research, or original analysis?
• Does the page provide substantial value when compared to other pages in search results?
• How much quality control is done on content?
• Does the article describe both sides of a story?
• Is the site a recognized authority on its topic?
• Is the content mass-produced by or outsourced to a large number of creators, or spread across a large network of sites, so that individual pages or sites don’t get as much attention or care?
• Was the article edited well, or does it appear sloppy or hastily produced?
• For a health related query, would you trust information from this site?
• Would you recognize this site as an authoritative source when mentioned by name?
• Does this article provide a complete or comprehensive description of the topic?
• Does this article contain insightful analysis or interesting information that is beyond obvious?
• Is this the sort of page you’d want to bookmark, share with a friend, or recommend?
• Does this article have an excessive amount of ads that distract from or interfere with the main content?
• Would you expect to see this article in a printed magazine, encyclopedia or book?
• Are the articles short, unsubstantial, or otherwise lacking in helpful specifics?
• Are the pages produced with great care and attention to detail vs. less attention to detail?
• Would users complain when they see pages from this site?

As you can see based on the questions above, Panda is an attempt for Google to assess websites that have too many low quality pages. If your site carries a Panda penalty, that doesn’t mean your site is out of Google, however it does mean that your website’s pages carry a penalty that makes it harder for them to get to the top of Google’s search results.

Also remember, if you make changes to your pages based on the information above, it may take several weeks before you notice changes to your rankings as Google only runs the Panda filter periodically to calculate the values it needs (about every 5 to 7 weeks).

Going forward, the key takeaway from this is that when you build your websites you need to start with your potential visitors in mind. This is a key distinction from those who have been creating websites based on highly searched for keywords and on securing low quality writers to throw up content based on those keywords.

You now have to think about producing content that users actually want to read.

This was always a good practice, however it has become even more important for those wanting to thrive with their affiliate sites (and vendor sites) going forward.

About the Author

Mark Ling is the founder of Affilorama. Visit Affilorama to gain free and instant access to over 100 hours of easy-to-follow, step by step video lessons on affiliate marketing, plus online web based tools and a community of over 150,000 members willing to help with your affiliate marketing success. Click here to visit Affilorama.

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: Beau Blackwell, Community Manager

ClickBank is very proud to announce the Beta release of our new Featured Marketplace! This complement to our current Marketplace is intended to showcase a wide variety of top quality ClickBank products, including top sellers, great new products you might not be aware of, and featured listings from a wide variety of established ClickBank vendors.

In the Featured Marketplace, you’ll be able to learn more about a vendor’s products before deciding whether to promote them, and every listing includes a link to the vendor’s Affiliate Tools page so you can get immediate help and guidance in promoting their products. It’s a great new way to learn about products and quickly get your promotional efforts up and running.

You can check out the Featured Marketplace here: http://www.clickbank.com/featured

We’d love to hear your feedback on the Featured Marketplace, so please leave a comment with your thoughts! Since this project is in Beta, we’ll be making regular improvements based on feedback and testing.

Written by: Chris McNeeney, Guest Blogger

When I first got started as a ClickBank vendor several years ago, I faced one of the major challenges that faces all new ClickBank vendors: how to find and attract affiliates to promote my product. Since then, I’ve sold several very successful products through ClickBank, and have learned what it takes to get affiliates to promote your product, which is absolutely key if you want to make a lot of sales. In this post, I’ll share what I’ve learned over years of finding and attracting affiliates.

First Things First

An extremely important step in attracting affiliates that many new vendors don’t know about or ignore is promoting your offer yourself before seeking out affiliates. The reason for this is that you need to make sure your offer converts. Otherwise, all your efforts will be wasted. Many affiliates, especially highly successful ones, will only give a product one chance. If it doesn’t convert into sales for them, they’ll stop promoting it and probably won’t try again, especially if they spend money to promote it.

Pay Per Click traffic is a great way to test how well your product converts. The goal is to get a conversion rate of at least 1% – ideally closer to 3%.

This may sound like unncessary groundwork, but it really is a vital first step: the importance of having a high converting offer can’t be stressed enough.

If your offer converts, recruiting affiliates will be a piece of cake. Any affiliates you bring on board will make money and continue promoting you. Their efforts will quickly pull in many new affiliates, and so on – its a virtuous cycle. Your offer will go viral if your conversions are high, as other affiliates start to see what their competitors are promoting.

However, if your offer does not convert you will have a tough time keeping any new affiliates you do manage to enlist. Your offer will likely stagnate and then disappear for good.

So be sure to run a simple PPC campaign to test your conversion rates before reaching out to affiliates. You can get more info on PPC at my Affiliate Videos page.

Next Steps

Now that you have a proven 1-3% conversion rate, its time to start contacting affiliates. The good news is that some of the work is already done. With ClickBank, you are never working from a dead start.

First, the ClickBank Marketplace will introduce your new site to a potential network of hundreds of thousands of affiliates (you should submit your product to the Marketplace as soon as you are approved). Second, the fact that all payments are handled by ClickBank ensures you have instant trust with affiliates. ClickBank have paid out over $1 billion to vendors and affiliates – so your affiliates know they will be paid on time, which is important since you don’t have any reputation right now. In short, listing your product with ClickBank gives you a firm platform to recruit affiliates from. You may well even attract affiliates passively before you start work.

But a mere presence on ClickBank won’t be enough; we have to actively build on that platform and reach out to affiliates if we want to succeed.

So how do we do that? And what kind of affiliate do we recruit? To a large extent, it depends on your niche. In the fat loss niche, for example, you have many avenues open to you. There are thousands of potential affiliates, some with lists of customers (so they can promote you via e-mail), some spending huge amounts of money on Pay Per Click traffic, and others with well-visited “authority sites” that pull in masses of free (“organic”) traffic from the search engines.

Smaller niches may be more restrictive, with all the sales coming from one traffic source or affiliate type. For example, in your niche, perhaps there are 10 big e-mail affiliates (“list owners”) who account for 70% of all sales. I’ve seen it happen before. Perhaps all the action is happening on a handful of search engine keywords that can be targeted via “organic search” or “pay per click” (this is actually the norm).

I have divided affiliates into 3 types here, but there are many other traffic sources, such as affiliates who purchase ad space on media networks (“media buys”). For simplicity’s sake I have restricted the affiliate types to e-mail, Pay Per Click and organic.

Pay Per Click Affiliates

PPC affiliates are very often the easiest to reach of all, although often the most fickle (they are constantly tracking their return on investment, and so will move to the highest converting offer in a heartbeat – another reason to ensure you are converting before you recruit affiliates).

PPC affiliates basically buy traffic from search engines such as Google, so that when people enter a keyword relating to your niche (e.g., “fat loss guides”), their ad shows up on the right hand side of the search results page.

If you enter a few keywords that relate to your niche, look at the ads that appear down the right hand side. Do any affiliates appear here that are promoting your competitors’ offers? Are there are any vendors promoting their own offers but collecting leads? If so, they may be open to promoting your offer to their lists.

If you find advertisers like these, you should contact them and ask them to promote your offer.

You can brainstorm keywords to find these PPC affiliates by entering the URL of your website or related keywords using the Adwords Tool or my affiliate keyword tool. Search for each related keyword that the tool returns and look for affiliates advertising on that phrase.

Organic / Website Affiliates

Some affiliates buy traffic from the search engines via PPC, but others have established sites that actually get free rankings in the search engines. These “organic” affiliates often have a huge amount of traffic coming to their sites, and so can be superb affiliates.

The first step to finding them is to take the keyword list you generated earlier (when you were looking for PPC affiliates), enter the same keywords, and now look for webiste owners appearing on the left hand side of the results page. Visit every site and head to their contact page, explaining how your offer is relevant to their website. Some website owners may not be familiar with affiliate marketing, so you may need explain to them why it can be lucrative for them and a good fit for their audience.

You can also search for the name of a competitor’s product (e.g., “The Ultimate Fat Loss Guide”) and contact any website that has a review of your competitor’s product. If they are promoting your competitors, they may well promote you also. When contacting these organic affiliates be sure to emphasise why your offer will add value for their visitors.

E-mail Affiliates (“JV Partners”)

These are the hardest affiliates to get on board, but also potentially the most lucrative. E-mail affiliates have a list of customers that they can promote offers to. It stands to reason that many of your top e-mail affiliates will be your competitors, such as other product vendors. These guys have a customer list of their own, and may be interested in promoting your offer to their list.

If you do get them to promote, they can generate huge numbers of sales with a single e-mail. Secondly, e-mail affiliates are the key to going viral: since all the big product vendors and affiliates sign up to each other’s lists, if they do promote you, other affiliates can jump on board quickly. A high-converting offer can go viral off a single e-mail, as more and more affiliates see the e-mail blast and jump on board. That’s the power of reaching thousands of people with a single e-mail.

List owners like this are in theory very easy to find – just do a simple search on the ClickBank Marketplace and contact any vendor in your niche who is collecting names and e-mails on their Pitch Page.

However, while they are easy to find, these affiliates are also the hardest to recruit. Many of your e-mails asking for promotion will probably go ignored, much more so than the other kinds of affiliates. These guys are bombarded with e-mails like yours, and they just don’t have the time to answer every one they receive. It isn’t personal, its just business.

For this reason, I advise you to focus on the PPC and organic affiliates to start with. Then, when you have some grass-roots traction behind your offer, and you know your product converts well, you can approach the big e-mail affiliates from a position of strength.

What to Say When You Contact Affiliates

You usually only get one shot at contacting affiliates, so it’s vital that you do it right the first time. First, make your e-mail personalised to the affiliate in question. Reference their site and start by telling them your offer is relevant and will deliver value to their visitors/customers. Please do not send out a “one size fits all” e-mail. Any potential affiliate receives dozens of e-mails like yours – you need to make it personalized if you want your offer to stand out.

Next, tell them why they will make money by promoting your offer – give them your overall conversion rate, details of any affiliates you already have on board, and how successful they’ve been. Explain what is working especially well for you. Finally, close by giving them a call to action – tell them to either visit your affiliate page or e-mail you back for further information and a review copy of your product.

Closing Thoughts

I’ll repeat my advice from earlier: it’s vital that your Pitch Page converts before you recruit affiliates.

This will make it much easier to retain the affiliates who you do recruit, and also bring on new affiliates once you get your first set of affiliates on board. Once you have a high-converting offer, set up your affiliate page, listing details of your conversion rates at the top of the page. The affiliate page is where you will be sending potential affiliates, and should include your HopLink info and any resources (Adwords ads, e-mail swipe copy, etc) that affiliates can use.

You should also submit your offer to all the affiliate directories that are out there, along with the “announcements” sections of the top affiliate forums. This will take some time, but is vital to establishing your initial grass-roots foundation. Then, once your offer converts, your affiliate page is live, and you are listed in some directories, you can approach the above 3 affiliate types and start generating some real sales for your ClickBank product.

Finally, understand that affiliate recruitment is a numbers game. Look at it as a process rather than an “end game.” You’re looking to build gradual momentum, get your offer out there, and if it converts, the viral power of the Internet will do the rest. A high-converting offer only needs a little push before it gathers traction. So get to work – and build that initial buzz yourself!

About the author

Chris McNeeney is the owner of Affiliate X – a resource site for ClickBank affiliates with affiliate tools, affiliate videos and training information.