Clickbank: A Basic Introduction
by Warren
(NY)
At its core, Clickbank is essentially a clearing house that functions as a central hub for affiliates, merchants and customers. Merchants can post products that they have to sell. Affiliates can find great products to market, earning a commission and customers can locate a product, order and download it.
Clickbank’s merchandise consists strictly of digital products. You can find digital music, computer courses, eBooks and various types of software.
What is so great about Clickbank is also to a degree what is so frustrating, the breadth of its marketplace. In terms of promoting a product, there are over 10,000 items available. At times, the number of products to a niche can be overwhelming.
As you can imagine, the value add of Clickbank is in the fact that it is both a marketplace for vendors in digital products as well as a marketplace for skilled affiliate marketers. The two basic premises that support Clickbank's model are:
1-Designers, creators of digital products hate having to also market them.
2-Those that like marketing do want the burden of product creation.
By creating a marketplace for both affiliates and merchants, Clickbank is able to carve out a nice profit while creating a win/win situation for all parties involved.
Clickbank affiliate marketing program is fairly easy join. As an affiliate, you simply need to follow the registration process just as you would with most sites. As a merchant, in addition to the registration process, there is an initial set up fee of $50. Given the fact that Clickbank is capable of getting a merchant’s product in to the hands of at least 150,000 affiliates, and a customer base in the millions, the $50 is usually looked upon as a small investment.
Setting up the actual products to sell on Clickbank is also quite easy. As a merchant/ vendor, you can have a maximum of 50 products under one account. Once your products have been set up, all that remains is to obtain a link for placement on your website. Affiliates are also provided with links which are both used to track commissions as well as direct customers to a product.
The real benefit in the use of Clickbank, to both the affiliate and the merchant, is the fact that Clickbank handles all of the administrative and financial details. It operates a completely functional merchant account and you don’t need a PayPal account. The customer pays Clickbank and it in return then pays both the merchant and/or the affiliate commission.
One other thing to remember, as an affiliate or maybe someone with just a niche website, we are trying to diversify our incomes. With Clickbank, you aren’t necessarily tied to one person’s product or company. You choose which products to promote, and for how long. If something is not working for you, it is easy to move on.
One final note, it is an absolute must that you be cognizant of the quality of the products that you promote. Products that are scams/rip-offs tarnish your reputation. It becomes extremely difficult to market products with a poor reputation. It is always a good idea to review the product that you intend to promote. Purchase it, try them out. It may cost you a little but it is always cheaper than losing your reputation.
Maybe Clickbank is for you, maybe not. One way to find out. Head on over to Clickbank.com. Diversify your income!
