I've been a clickbank affiliate for ages now - and one thing I find, is that within the web marketing niche especially, it is VERY hard to make affiliate commission - or should I say the conversion rate from visit to sales is minute. The obvious answer to this, is that other than total newbies, the majority of people in the WM niche understand clickbank, and that they can very simply go in & create their own hoplink, and get themself a commission on their own purchase = a very healthy discount. I know there are tools to hide the hoplink, but anyone with a tiny amount of knowledge understands that they can just go to clickbank & generate their own hoplink. In fact, on some of the WM products i've promoted, I've found that there is quite a lot of activity which suggests that people are getting to the order page, realising it's clickbank - and then going & starting the process again with their own hoplink. This confuses me because there are vast numbers of people promoting WM products, am I the only one who finds this? Anyone else surprised that Clickbank hasn't stopped people from being able to use their own hoplink? Cheers Kev
that's a very valid point you are making. i have had the same thoughts for ages. what i saw is many IM products are not launched via clickbank and have some kind of inhouse affiliate programs. the ones on clickbank (those with the mount everst gravity for a few months) i think the vendor gets the high gravity exactly for the reason that affiliates buy via their own link. I highly doubt it is possible to make a lot of money selling IM products as a clickbank affiliate to other clickbank affiliates. another thing i noticed in the past is "IM gurus" sending me notifications on product launches (mailing lists)with some kind of special incentive to buy via the link they are sending me.i think that a lot of the high grav for these clickbank products come from these mailing lists which are traded or used between "gurus" . Anyway, just my 2 cents
I really don't know why I should buy a Clickbank product from a different aff., when i know i can simply search for that product at Clickbank market place, buy it through my id, then get the commissions (making the product cheaper for me!). Think it is common sense. Most people who make money from those products are the vendors, or maybe affiliates who can catch newbies who are completely new to this whole make money online thing.
I agree, not all internet marketers are familiar with clickbank and there is definitely a market for this. Many of the top vendors in the make money online niche or the internet marketing niche have such high gravities because affiliates do realize they can get the product for cheaper by using their own affiliate link. All that says is that the stats in the clickbank marketplace are a bit skewed and you need to factor this into your business model when picking a niche to promote.
Will agree as well - Now you see why the gravity reaches stupid numbers on launches in the MMO niche. gravity = 1352 yet 1100 of them were sales made by aff's w/their own links. You can still bank huge but if you're not comfy with regular dick/jane average every day products and promo's, you'll probably fall really short on the mmo niche. Many affiliates also incentivize a lot, so if they order from you and you only, you give them a bonus x... Don't get it twisted though, there's wayyyyyyyy more people that have no clue wtf an affiliate link is or what CB is compared to those that do. All you need is a great noobie list or two (or partners w/them) and you're off to a great kickstart, the rest is easily inflated.
That's why I tend to avoid the IM/MMO niche...and only promote IM once in a while. It's just gurus passing around "pricey rocks" to one another - "Hey, buy this rock for $77 - 250 folks only - pass it on!"
i get about 4 emails a week from steve clayton and tim godfrey saying "Hey, try this it worked for us...we make $100,000 on it" Ya, fuck you! they never tried any of these products and we all know it. All these guys do is go to JV Joint Venture, sign up for the next launch and bombard you with emails hoping you will buy. I bet none of these guys, besides a few could even set up a campaing from scratch and make some money.......
^ Yep, I bet you're right too, however nobody says you have to be smart or morally sound to be the richest. In fact the total opposite applies in most success stories. I know many millionaires that stumbled and fumbled their way there never imagining their success to get to where it is, and it was never due to their overwhelmingly brilliant planning or because they did or didn't go into gray areas. Would be nice to see a stat of how many people actually planned "I'm going to make millions with this, and here is my plan" and did it by the books/to their plan (I'd guess very very very few). Not to take away from the original discussion just thought I'd throw it in there for those that get discouraged seeing what they think they'll have to do in order to be successful (you don't have to cheat, lie, steal, or spam the fuck out of your userbase and lists weekly to bank, but you can).