Does Clickbank work?

[Wotack]

I've always shied away from the typical Clickbank offers of "Discover the secrets of how Jonny-Big-Bananas made £100k in 50 days by playing Poker online" type scenarios for three main reasons:-
1) I think promoting that sort of cheap stuff adds to the wealth of useless cr@p already floating around on the internet
2) I question the effectiveness of landing pages for that purpose as I always click back on my browser when I hit an obvious landing page
3) I find it difficult to judge how much money to put aside on adverts to promote that sort of stuff as I struggle with point number 2 and hence think I would struggle with ploughing more money into it if it wasn't converting.

But in the spirit of embracing this AM game and with a new 2016 attitude of preparing to whore myself for a mere buck or two I'm prepared to try different strategies. My questions to anyone that will listen and cares to add their 2 pennies worth are these:-

1) How much money is a reasonable amount to put aside on promotion of landing pages? (my thinking is cap at £100 ($150) - is that a reasonable amount to judge whether a campaign is a success or failure?
2) What are the best ad networks for this type of cheap "Landing page 2 offer"? (my thoughts are stick with Facebook and Google Adwords, but £100 split may not get me far).
3) Are Clickbank offers more successful for the US market or do they also translate well for the UK market too?

Any musings on the above would be greatly appreciated. I'll also make sure I post my stats, losses and hopefully gains as soon as I have my landing page whorefest* up online.

*Disclaimer on the "whorefest" comment in that it relates to the very nature of cheap and nasty landing pages for clickbank offers rather than promoting appointments for hookers ;-)

 

[Matt Wilson]

I have wondered this myself, I anew to all this however I do think there could be some gems on CB! It used to be the only main AFF site i knew about until i wanted to actually try being one! I know some stuff on there is a classic to good to be true etc and i do question how well they actually sell, however, there are some good money making products on there which I hear have been selling well, Iv seen some money saving programs which been selling well also seen some programs that teach you about matched betting which seems to be a very popular way to make some cash!!

Iv not yet tried anything form ClickBank as I have just started but it won't be long and I'm sure I will be using CB very soon!

 

[Wotack]

Good luck with it Matt, hope it works out. I agree the betting stuff seems somehow more palatable to promote.

 

[spook2992]

There are a lot of quality products on Clickbank, but they are usually hidden among the crap that you just mentioned.

Promoting those types of offers is a big no no because you end up losing a lot of your profit to refunds

 

[T J Tutor]

I've always shied away from the typical Clickbank offers of "Discover the secrets of how Jonny-Big-Bananas made £100k in 50 days by playing Poker online" type scenarios for three main reasons:-

Staying clear of CB offers because some of them are not up to your expectations is a typical green light/red light syndrome. We are not the "offer police"! If you have not studied the reviews of a product, or used the product, then who are you to judge it. We are marketers, not product police!

In addition to your propensity to slam CB, our Dojo is promoted through them and I am proud to collect my monthly checks from them for the Dojo sales I have generated!

Every marketplace, whether it is an affiliate marketplace, a grocery store, a liquor store, a medical facility, a military base, a banking system, etc., is going to have elements one may object to. What we as humans do is find what works for us when shopping products and/or services for ourselves. We make the decisions for ourselves. What we as marketers do is find what is working in the marketplace and replicate it without judgement! Now, I am not saying we should sell, or promote, inappropriate products and services to inappropriate prospects. I am saying what is one person's trash may be a gold mine to another and it is not up to us to pre-determine for anyone what the answer is or what the value to them may be.

1) I think promoting that sort of cheap stuff adds to the wealth of useless cr@p already floating around on the internet

If you are not comfortable with a product, the simply move on instead of wasting your time filling your head with judgemental crap. Make a decision and move on without the lingering scent of judgement. It does not serve you!

2) I question the effectiveness of landing pages for that purpose as I always click back on my browser when I hit an obvious landing page

Again, you are determining in advance what someone else would do. I can tell you that some of the ugliest landers out there do very well. It isn't known what a landing page may or may not do until it is tested!

3) I find it difficult to judge how much money to put aside on adverts to promote that sort of stuff as I struggle with point number 2 and hence think I would struggle with ploughing more money into it if it wasn't converting.

You really have to stop with this judgement crap. We determine the viability of an offer based on the success of the offer. We determine the success of a product through research. If research demonstrates that the offer is succeeding, then we create a test campaign to see if we can achieve the same results or better.

But in the spirit of embracing this AM game and with a new 2016 attitude of preparing to whore myself for a mere buck or two I'm prepared to try different strategies. My questions to anyone that will listen and cares to add their 2 pennies worth are these:-

My two cents worth is to recommend you read Zig Ziglar. His books will teach you that you have a case of "stinkin' thinkin'". You have a case of the red light/green light syndrome. You are trying to validate offers based on whether or not you approve of them and whether or not you feel their landers are effective and you are doing all of this without research. This is a model for failure right out of the gate. As well, you are labeling yourself, and consequently the rest of us, as whores. I resent it and I am sure most reading this will feel the same way. In addition, it is not for a mere buck or two. For those of us that earn six and seven figures a year, or more, those bucks add up quickly and I never resent one of those bucks nor do I resent myself for promoting the offers or the advertisers for making the offers available to me and my counterparts.

1) How much money is a reasonable amount to put aside on promotion of landing pages? (my thinking is cap at £100 ($150) - is that a reasonable amount to judge whether a campaign is a success or failure?

You will determine the amount for testing a campaign by its payout. You need to find an offer you want to promote, determine how you will promote it, build a plan around the marketing of the offer to include the traffic source, whether or not you will collect leads, and what tracking methods are available for the promotional architecture.

Now, for an average, and I say this lightly, you will determine the viability of your campaign (not the viability of the offer, this should already been done), by the results of your test campaign. Test at least three time the payout for each version of the campaign. You should have at least five versions of the creatives and five versions of the landers. If you are not inclined to test that many, then go with no less than three of each.

2) What are the best ad networks for this type of cheap "Landing page 2 offer"? (my thoughts are stick with Facebook and Google Adwords, but £100 split may not get me far).

This is so full of holes on the outside that I can't even begin to address this without writing five hundred words. But I will say this, start reading our WIKI to learn more about the buzz words of the industry. Why, because FB and Adwords are not ad networks!

An online advertising network or ad network is a company that connects advertisers to web sites that want to host advertisements. The key function of an ad network is aggregation of ad space supply from publishers and matching it with advertiser demand.

FB and Adwords have ad platforms that are vehicles for us to advertise on. FB is not a network, it is a social platform with an advertising platform available. Adwords is not an ad network, it is an ad platform for the Google Search Engine.

3) Are Clickbank offers more successful for the US market or do they also translate well for the UK market too?

There are dozens of countries in which to promote CB products. It isn't a matter of it's being on CB, it is a matter of which offer may be a good fit for the available market in a country.

Any musings on the above would be greatly appreciated. I'll also make sure I post my stats, losses and hopefully gains as soon as I have my landing page whorefest* up online.

*Disclaimer on the "whorefest" comment in that it relates to the very nature of cheap and nasty landing pages for clickbank offers rather than promoting appointments for hookers ;-)

This is a very disturbing post with which you have started this thread. This is a compilation of distrust, demeaning afterburn, and a complete and utter load of disrespect for the members here and the industry on a whole.

Let me be clear, I am not slamming you, I am slamming your entire position on us and our industry. You might be a great person, but I can tell you that you are not posting anything here that will be of benefit to anyone. There is not one ounce of positive thinking in your original post. Now for the seasoned marketer, we can blow off your rhetoric. However, the Newbies of the industry can be led down a very destructive path if they believe one tiny bit of your negative position on this business.

Listen up, get your head on straight. I am trying to help you here. Sometimes the truth hurts, or often stings a bit. I can tell you that there is not one successful marketer that does anything more than review and research data. With that data we build promotions. We split test the promotions and gather the data from the campaigns to determine the winners and the losers. We drop the losers, scale up the winners and refine them.

This is what we do. No moral judgements, no predilection for telling ourselves (or others) whether something will work or not without testing first.

This is a data driven business, period! Get the prejudgements out of your business immediately and a world of awesomeness will open up for you. Fail to do this and you will continually narrow your opportunities until there aren't any more.

 

[azgold]

Wow. I started to read then stopped, was floored. Then did go back and read.

@Wotack

First of all, read @tjtutor 's post. All of it, every word.

What immediately struck me was the duality of your post. You're going to 'whore' yourself to succeed with something you don't expect to sell. I can understand getting a slightly jaded view of CB products if you're just starting out and don't know there are some good ones, too. What baffles me though, is the attitude. Maybe it's frustration or something else but geez. All you have to do is come to AFix and ask. That's what we're here for - to help each other.

Re ugly landing pages, like TJ said, they sometimes get the best conversions. Also, if you don't like the lander, don't use it. Drive your traffic to a squeeze page and do email marketing, or design and use a new landing page. Simple as that.

Seriously, you are making things extra difficult with that attitude.

1. Find an offer you feel okay about promoting
2. Promote it and collect your data
3. Take what's working and scale it
4. Cash the cheque/reinvest

Obviously, each of those steps have steps but you get the basic, simple idea. And if you need help, don't hesitate for a second to come and ask your fellow 'Fixers.

By the way, a few stinkin' thinkin' videos for you to check out.
zig ziglar stinkin thinkin - YouTube

 

[T J Tutor]

Wow. I started to read then stopped, was floored. Then did go back and read.

@Wotack

First of all, read @tjtutor 's post. All of it, every word.

What immediately struck me was the duality of your post. You're going to 'whore' yourself to succeed with something you don't expect to sell. I can understand getting a slightly jaded view of CB products if you're just starting out and don't know there are some good ones, too. What baffles me though, is the attitude. Maybe it's frustration or something else but geez. All you have to do is come to AFix and ask. That's what we're here for - to help each other.

Re ugly landing pages, like TJ said, they sometimes get the best conversions. Also, if you don't like the lander, don't use it. Drive your traffic to a squeeze page and do email marketing, or design and use a new landing page. Simple as that.

Seriously, you are making things extra difficult with that attitude.

1. Find an offer you feel okay about promoting
2. Promote it and collect your data
3. Take what's working and scale it
4. Cash the cheque/reinvest

Obviously, each of those steps have steps but you get the basic, simple idea. And if you need help, don't hesitate for a second to come and ask your fellow 'Fixers.

By the way, a few stinkin' thinkin' videos for you to check out.
zig ziglar stinkin thinkin - YouTube

EXACTLY! You're right on the mark @azgold. Asking for help and giving help is what we are all about as a community @Wotack !

 

[Wotack]

All good stuff and thanks for the feedback/comments, it's all very useful

The post was not meant to be a personal attack on anyone or the industry, it was merely an outpouring of sentiment based on my perception. If my perception has to change in order to be successful then so be it.

I can tell you that you are not posting anything here that will be of benefit to anyone

TJ & Azgold, I totally agree ...But it has provoked some valuable feedback which is really useful and which I'll take on board. So as far as the post being of nonsense, for me it has deemed a better response than I had hoped for. So in a sense this post is Gold (for me anyhow )

First of all, read @tjtutor 's post. All of it, every word.

Check ...and have digested every word from your feedback Azgold.

Guys, I'm a big boy and can take criticism. I am also happy to be put in my place if what I say/think is incorrect. It's all an education and an enjoyable one that so slam away.

So in connection with this post and the old saying of "not being able to polish a turd", this turd has been polished and been put on the mantle piece

Again thanks for the comments and the links and best of luck in 2016

 

[azgold]

@Wotack

I think you'll do just fine.

But next time, please just ask. You near 'bout gave me the vapours.

 

[Tim King]

@Wotack you're doing what I did/still do sometimes and bring a logical and knowing mindset to the party, where for some things in this game you need to be looking with no bias at all. I still get confused when people post details from some campaigns that I'd never dream of clicking the banner or ad of, but then i'm not the one being targeted. It takes a bit to switch mindset to one of going in blind and seeing where the data takes you.

Welcome to the AM world anyway If you're about to start your journey and want some great tips and help along they way then you could start a Follow Along (Follow Along & Journeys forum, cunningly named!)

 

[Matt Wilson]

@tjtutor Some great words there and great advice thanks! All new to this stuff and its great to see everyone helping everyone!

 

[azgold]

@tjtutor Some great words there and great advice thanks! All new to this stuff and its great to see everyone helping everyone!

That's what we do, that's how we roll. We're a family.