I am very interested in becoming a Clickbank vendor, for a 100-page natural health remedies product ebook and since I have never been a vendor on Clickbank, I was hoping to get some feedback from existing vendors. Question #1: I would be using a plain website template to build from. I have Webstarts in mind. Does anyone recommend any other site to create a capture page or just stick with Webstarts? (I don't have web designing HTML knowledge) Question #2: I would have an affiliate page, which I would offer articles, signatures, and keywords. If I don't have banners or graphic images as well, would this greatly impact and therefore decrease my rate of success of affiliates promoting my product?
I would say not having banners would significantly decrease your chances of attracting affiliates. All affiliates seem to like a good promotional materials page from the vendors. Having the proper marketing tools readily available for your affiliates is probably an important step in your business model that you shouldn't skip.
It's far more complicated than just not having banners, but definitely you should create a custom theme for your website, something unique that will stand out and banners for the affiliates. (it's a must to have all the tools ready in place once you launch your product) Hire someone to do the graphics for you .. and if you can't write copy that converts you might want to hire a professional copywriter as well.
I think you're putting the buggy in front of the horse - meaning why in the world are you worried about affiliate materials already? Most people here seem to think there is this hidden secret system, and the moment you come out with a product as a vendor, BOOOOM clickbank and the affiliates within are going to make you filthy rich.... Time and time again, in fact just today alone I see 3 brand new products where NO testing has been done, NO sales conversions, just "My New Product - Come Promote me - I haven't made sales yet but YOU might so put your hardest effort into it"... I would be more concerned with the product itself, I would be more concerned that YOU can make sales happen well before you even think about your affiliate/resource center. Make your product convert, and you won't have to worry about creatives too much, people will find you, they will make creatives for you/them, as long as you can make 100% sure it has good conversions BEFORE you announce it here and expect a flock of sales/interest right away. .02.
What he said ^^^ Affiliate materials are essential, and without them you won't really get anyone getting involved very easily - they are vital, and if you look at some of the most popular products on clickbank their affiliate sections are bigger than their sales pages.. But as mentioned above this is the second step - you need to thoroughly test your product sales - check the conversion rate, and improve it. Collect stats and then start working on your affiliate materials - base them off what has worked for you - if articles are working then make sure you add plenty, test banners, scrap the ones that don't work and add more of the style that gets better clicks / conversions - show your PPC results to affiliates and give them sample ads / keywords based on what has worked for you - affiliate materials are essential, but you need to know you have a standard solid conversion rate (and need to prove this to affiliates too), and your affiliate materials should also be based in reality - on your experiences of what converts for you basically, so not only are there materials already there so the hard work is done for affiliates, but when they use them you know they will lead to sales...