If you’re looking for a step-by-step guide to learn how to make money with ClickBank, you’ve found the best ClickBank Guide. Here is a no nonsense guide with proper ClickBank affiliate strategies.
Affiliate marketing is one of the greatest ways to make money online.
You don’t need to make a product, create a course, or generate massive volumes of traffic to make money from advertising.
It’s much simpler than all these approaches.
Plus, affiliate marketing is a massive market. Currently sitting at over $15 billion. All you need is a little slice of it and you’d be set.
I’ve been using Cloudways since January 2016 for this blog. I happily recommend Cloudways to my readers because I am a proud customer.
One of the most widespread affiliate networks is ClickBank. You’ve probably heard stories of people earning millions just by promoting the products listed here.
But, is this true, or is all the noise surrounding ClickBank, just that, noise? That’s why I decided to write this post, to cut through all the noise surrounding ClickBank and show you how you can make money on ClickBank.
Below you’ll learn everything you need to know about ClickBank, the good and the bad, and the steps you can take to start earning money from ClickBank today.
What is ClickBank?
We’ll start from the very beginning–the origins of ClickBank. It was founded in 1998, in sunny San Diego, California, making the company over 20 years old. In terms of the internet, they’re pretty much ancient.
Currently, they’re the leading affiliate network for digital products. Think things like eBooks, online courses, software, and other similar digital products.
A lot of people consider ClickBank just another affiliate network, but unlike most other platforms they support people who create products, along with affiliate marketers. The focus of this post will be on you, the affiliate, but it’s important to mention.
Plus, ClickBank is massive! Over 200 million in sales every year flow through the platform and are currently one of the top 100 largest internet retailers in North America. You’ll also find over 21,000 different products to promote across over 270 different categories. No matter what niche you’re in, you’ll be able to find something to promote.
ClickBank is completely free to join for affiliate, plus there’s no cap on what and how much you can sell. The analytics are straightforward, and the process couldn’t be simpler.
This is why it’s one of the easiest networks for beginners to get started on.
You sign up, choose a product, get your unique link, then start driving traffic and making money. You’ll learn how to do everything just mentioned here, in detail below.
ClickBank vs Other Affiliate Networks
So, why would you choose ClickBank? And is ClickBank for beginners?
After all, as an affiliate marketer, you have a nearly endless amount of products you can promote from almost every website imaginable. There are all kinds of large affiliate networks you can join too like Amazon Associates or CJ.
Plus, digital products are one of the best types of products to be an affiliate for. With digital products, the person only has to make the product once (plus update it every now and then). But, once it’s complete it can be sold again and again.
This allows digital products to have much higher margins than physical products, making it so sellers can offer much higher affiliate payouts. ClickBank offers up to 75% commissions on some of the products sold, which means much higher affiliate payouts for you.
Beyond the reasons above, here are a few more reasons you’ll want to consider choosing ClickBank over other affiliate networks:
- It’s beyond easy. The ClickBank signup process is incredibly simple, you can literally sign up within a couple of minutes.
- Anyone can join. Anyone can join the network for free, this makes it a great option for beginners who are just starting.
- Massive product selection. There are thousands of different products to choose from, you’re bound to find a couple of products you can promote, no matter the niche you’re in.
- Higher than average commissions. ClickBank not only pays out super high commissions, compared to the rest of the market but also pays very quickly. This means solid paychecks, without having to wait around for the affiliate payouts.
Types of Affiliate Programs Available
If you’re already running a website, or have an audience built on another platform (like social media), you’ll no doubt find a handful of products that align with your market.
Even better, if you’re a total newbie who’s just getting started with affiliate marketing and haven’t found their niche, then you’ll be able to narrow down on the perfect niche for you.
Here’s a quick look at some of the categories of products offered on the ClickBank platform:
- Arts & Entertainment
- Business/Investing
- Cooking & Food
- Online Business
- Employment
- Fiction
- Games
- Home & Garden
- Health & Fitness
- Self-Help
- Software & Services
- Travel
- And on
Let’s dig a little deeper into what these product categories mean. Within each category, you’ll find dozens or even hundreds of different products.
For example, when we open up the Home & Garden category, here’s what we’ll see:
Even though this isn’t one of the most popular categories there are still 223 products listed.
When you start exploring the marketplace you’ll come across categories like Health & Fitness, E-Business, and Self-Help, which will have thousands of products to choose from at any given time. But, even if you’re in a one of the less popular niches you’ll be able to find at least one product that’s worthwhile.
ClickBank Payment Methods
Once you’re starting to make sales you’re probably wondering, how am I going to get paid? With ClickBank you’re in luck, you’ll find 4 different payment methods to choose from.
Here are the four different ways you can receive payment from ClickBank:
1. Check
If you love the thought of a paper check showing up in your mailbox every month, then this is the option for you. Just enter your mailing address and you’ll receive a paper check.
2. Wire Transfer
Wire transfer is available for international affiliates in countries where direct deposit isn’t available. These payments can take up to five days to process depending on where you’re located.
3. Direct Deposit
It is pretty fast and will typically show up in your account within 1-2 days. Direct deposit is available for affiliates in the US, plus a handful of other supported countries.
4. Payoneer
The final option is getting paid via a Payoneer Mastercard, this is free to set up and Payoneer will help you open a US bank account where the funds are deposited. This works no matter where in the world you happen to live.
Beyond choosing your payment method, you can also set your payment threshold. This is the amount that you’ll have to earn before funds are transferred to your account. You can set this as low as $10!
You can also change your payment method at any time, so you aren’t stuck if you decide you want to get paid another way. However, keep in mind that it can take up to 7 days for your new payment method to start working.
Is ClickBank a Scam?
Anytime you start searching for ClickBank online you’ll come across a handful of articles that say ClickBank is a scam. So is it a scam?
No, it’s a legitimate business. However, it all depends on the product you’re choosing to promote. There are thousands of products that are listed on ClickBank that you can promote.
Not all of these are going to be good. Some will be complete junk. However, there are some life-changing products listed in the marketplace as well.
Think about Amazon. There are millions of products listed that you can buy online. Are all of these quality products? No way!
It’s up to you as an affiliate to fully vet the products and offers you’re going to promote (you’ll learn how to do this below).
There are millions of product owners and affiliates on the platform, and some have achieved massive success. It’s up to you to find the products that are incredibly high-quality and will enhance and change the lives of your audience.
The Pros and Cons of ClickBank
As you can see by now, ClickBank has a lot to offer affiliates, from those just starting to seasoned affiliates who’ve been making money online for years.
However, the platform still isn’t perfect. Like anything, there are flaws.
Here are some of the biggest advantages and disadvantages of using ClickBank as an affiliate:
Pros of ClickBank:
Can sign up in a few minutes
The sign-up process is incredibly easy and can be done in a few minutes. No complicated paperwork, or multi-step forms. You can sign up within minutes (you’ll see just how easy it is below).
Beginner-oriented affiliate network
Some affiliate networks can be very difficult to get started with. Not only is sign up difficult. But, finding products to promote and integrating tracking codes can be near impossible. Luckily, ClickBank makes this easy. The entire process is pretty straightforward and you can easily begin selling your first product in a single afternoon.
Massive product selection
No matter what niche you’re in, or where your passion lies, you’ll be able to find relevant products to promote. As you’ll learn, not all these are high-quality, but you’ll at least find a handful of high-quality products in every niche.
Sky-high commission rates
The commission rates offered on ClickBank are some of the highest affiliate commissions you’ll find online, making it one of the more lucrative affiliate programs. The rates range from 50% to 75%, in some cases, you’ll even find commissions for 100% of the original sale price. You’ll even find recurring commissions, which means you get paid again and again for making the sale once.
Fast affiliate payments
Most affiliate programs take months to payout once you’ve reached the payment threshold. Some networks make you wait months, or until you’ve achieved hundreds of dollars in sales. ClickBank offers weekly and bi-weekly payments, plus you can set your own payment threshold.
Cons of ClickBank:
A lot of low-quality products to sort through
ClickBank has a wide variety of products. Since people create their products and upload them for affiliates to promote, not all of these will be high-quality. Below you’ll learn an in-depth research process for how you can avoid these low-quality products with ease.
Customer support can be slow
Customer support can be pretty slow across the board. It can take up to 7 days to receive a response sometimes. However, they also have to support millions of customers, so it’s understandable.
A lot of affiliates promoting similar products
When a product is red hot you’ll have a ton of different affiliates promoting the same thing. This means you’ll find a lot of articles and YouTube videos online that are advertising the same thing. This can dilute the effectiveness of your product promotions.
Penalty on accounts not being used
When you create an account and start selling there are penalties for not making any sales. The goal of this is to prevent users from signing up once and never using their account. But, it’s something worth considering.
The penalties are as follows: $1 per pay period penalty after 90 days of no earnings, a $5 per day period penalty after 180 days of no earnings, and a $50 per pay period penalty after 365 days of no earnings.
Keep in mind that these penalties are for accounts with a positive balance, but once you get additional earnings, or your account goes to zero, these charges will stop.
By now you should know if ClickBank is right for you. If it’s an affiliate network you want to get started making money with, then keep reading.
How to Sign Up for ClickBank
Signing up for ClickBank is an incredibly quick process.
Just follow the steps below and you’ll be all set:
Navigate to ClickBank and click ‘Sign Up’ in the upper-right corner:
Then, enter your email address, name, and select your country.
You’ll be taken to another screen where you’ll fill out more information about your profile, location, and more. After you’ve filled out your account details you’ll be able to access your full account dashboard.
Here you’ll be able to see your sales stats, contact support, and more.
If you’re ready to start researching products, then click ‘Affiliate Marketplace’.
This will open up a new window where you can browse products you can sell as an affiliate.
With your account created it’s time to dive deep into how ClickBank works and start finding the perfect affiliate products for you to promote.
How Does ClickBank Work?
Once you’ve signed up for ClickBank you can start promoting products to your audience and start to make it rain money.
But, before we jump into that let’s break down some of the key terms you’ll come across when you start promoting new products.
Here are four terms that you’ll need to become familiar with:
- Front-end offer. This is the first offer you’ll promote to a customer. Sometimes this will be the entire offer, but usually, it’s a low priced product that’s designed to get a customer into your world, so you can sell to them later.
- Upsell. This is a higher-priced product you can pitch to your customer once they’ve purchased the initial front-end offer.
- One-time commission. This is a payment type where you’ll only get paid once for every sale you make.
- Recurring commission/rebill. This is where you’ll get paid continuously, usually every month or quarter, for something you sell once. This is common for membership products and things like software.
With those terms floating around your head let’s look at an actual ClickBank product to make sense of these terms. When you open up a product listing there are a ton of stats, and it can get a bit confusing.
General ClickBank Marketplace Stats
Here’s what they all mean:
- Initial $/sale. This is the average commission that an affiliate earns for selling this product. This number includes any upsells after the initial sale, however, it doesn’t include any recurring commissions.
- Avg Rebill Total. This is the average amount that affiliates make from recurring product commissions. If it’s not a recurring commission product, then this will be 0.
- Avg $/sale. This is the average amount of commission an affiliate earns from initial and recurring commissions.
- Avg %/sale. This is the average commission percentage an affiliate will earn for the product, which includes initial purchase, upsells, and recurring commissions.
- Avg %/Rebill. This is the average recurring commission only based on rebills (i.e. the percentage of the recurring subscription).
- Grav. (This is one of the most important metrics). This number will show you the sales potential of the product you’re viewing. It’s based upon the total number of affiliates who have earned a commission promoting the product in the last 12 weeks. So, a high Grav (Gravity) score means the product is selling well, and a lot of affiliates are promoting it.
- Cat. This is the category where the product is listed.
- Affiliate Page. This is the URL for the product’s affiliate page, here you’ll find all of the affiliate details, along with any promotional materials.
- Affiliate Support Contact. This is the contact email of the product owner, so you can reach out with any details.
As you can see there’s a ton of information for each product. However, not all the information is important.
When looking for a product to promote there are two very important metrics, Grav and Ave $/sale. These two metrics will tell you how popular the product is, along with how much money you can expect to make per sale.
How to Improve Your ClickBank Success (Aka Choose the Right Product)
As you know by now, there are a ton of products on ClickBank. But, not all of those products are going to be great. Some will be complete duds. To make your life as a ClickBank affiliate much easier, you’ll want to master the skill of finding profitable products.
Here’s a process you can follow to find great products:
1. Check the Gravity Score and Ave $/sale
As we covered above, two of the most important metrics of any product listed on ClickBank are Gravity and Ave $/sale.
The first metric we’ll look at is Gravity. So, choose your product category and at the top, you’ll notice a drop-down that says “Sort results by:”, and select ‘Gravity’.
Now, you’ll have a list of the highest converting products in the category. Ideally, you should aim for a Gravity score of above 50.
Read: Conversion Optimization: Ways in Which to Help Achieve This
Also, keep in mind that you’ll want a product with a decent Ave $/sale, as this is how much you can expect to make per sale. The higher this number, the less you’ll have to sell to meet your income goals.
However, keep in mind that products with the highest Gravity and Ave $/sale will also have the highest competition. So, you might want to choose a product that’s lower down the list.
2. See if the Product Has a Good Landing Page
The next thing we’ll look at is the quality of the product’s landing page. The last thing you want to do is promote a product that has a low-quality sales page.
The job of the sales page is to point out your prospect’s problem, educate them about the solution, and promote the product as the solution to this problem.
This is the page that you’ll be sending your traffic to (from your website, email list, or social media), so you’ll not only want to make sure the sales page is legit but that it also makes you feel comfortable promoting it.
Here’s an example of a high-converting product sales page:
Here are some questions you can ask yourself:
- Is the landing page spammy, or does it address a real problem?
- Does it sound like it’s making an impossible promise?
- When you read the sales page does it make you want to buy the product?
Beyond the sales page, you’ll also want to see if there’s an affiliate center as well. This is usually a separate page that’ll give you more information about the product and give you a ton of marketing resources you can use in your campaigns.
Some common resources include:
- Product images
- Video content
- Pre-sell content
- Pre-written email campaigns
- In-depth customer information
- Additional landing and sales pages
And much more! All of these resources are created to help you more easily sell products.
You can just copy and paste these templates and start earning money.
Note that not every ClickBank product will have a dedicated affiliate center. If you’re a beginner look for products that have this setup, as it’ll make your marketing much easier, and you can use the resources in your own campaigns.
3. Check Online Reviews and Research the Creator
Once you’ve done your research on the product sales page and back end funnel it’s time to see what the rest of the online world has to say.
For most products, you’ll find a handful of online reviews. However, you probably want to take these with a grain of salt, as some of them will only be product praise from another affiliate promoting the same product.
Some great places to find unbiased reviews are Quora and Reddit. These are real-world people giving their feedback on a product.
After all, you don’t want to promote a product that doesn’t deliver the results it promises, even if it pays high commissions.
4. Buy the Product and Test it Out
Finally, if the product you want to promote satisfies all of the conditions above, then it’s time to buy it. A lot of affiliates miss this step and then wonder why they aren’t successful.
But, by knowing the product inside and out you’ll know exactly the type of benefits it can bring your potential buyers. Plus, it’ll give you a whole new level of confidence when you’re promoting the product.
This step might seem like overkill, but it’ll truly tell you if the product is worth promoting.
But, if you’ve satisfied all the steps above, then you’ve truly found a gem of a product. You’ve sorted through all the over-hyped and fluff products and found one that’s truly valuable.
How to Make Money with ClickBank – Best Affiliate Strategies
Now, it’s time to start raking in the dough.
You’ve already done the hard part of finding a great product (most affiliates on ClickBank never get this far).
There are a myriad of ways you can promote ClickBank products and earn money as an affiliate.
Here are a few methods you can take to make money with a solid ClickBank product:
1. Create a Blog Based Around the Product
One of the best ways to become a successful ClickBank affiliate has nothing to do with ClickBank products. Instead, it’s all about building a blog. ClickBank can be a great way to make money blogging.
Yes, it’s a long-term strategy, but one that can pay off handsomely. When other affiliates are busy sharing their affiliate links with uninterested buyers you’re creating content that solves your reader’s problems.
This allows you to insert your affiliate links into your content naturally.
Yes, you can still create product review content, but the rest of the content on your site should be valuable to your readers and help to build trust.
The best thing is this asset will only become more valuable in time. You can start promoting even more products from ClickBank and because of all the value you’ve provided from your content they’re very likely to buy your recommendations.
2. Create a Compelling Freebie
Once you’ve built your website and have a few blog posts up you’ll want to create what’s called a lead magnet or freebie. This is something enticing that you’ll give your users in exchange for their email address.
You can host this on a separate landing page or the sidebar of your blog.
The important thing is that it’s enticing enough for your users to subscribe and want to enter their email addresses.
You’ll also want your giveaway to be in alignment with the ClickBank product you’re promoting. For example, if you’re promoting a product on the Keto diet, then you could create a lead magnet with 5 easy to make Keto recipes.
For example, on this site I offer a free email course that shows people how to lay the foundation for a popular blog.
4. Rely on the Relationship-Building Power of Email
Once you’ve got your prospects email, you can create an autoresponder series that offers free value and eventually promotes the product.
Ideally, your autoresponder series will run 7 to 10 emails. The first few will be pure value, while you’ll slowly start introducing the product naturally.
Towards the end of the autoresponder you can more aggressively pitch and sell the product.
Remember, a lot of ClickBank products include promotional emails and even autoresponder sequences you can use, just copy and paste them into your email marketing tool of choice.
5. Create Engaging YouTube Videos
One unique way to make money through ClickBank products involves YouTube. Video is one of the fastest growing online segments and a lot of people’s preferred way to consume information. There’s a reason that YouTube is the second most popular search engine in the world.
Building a YouTube channel gives you a great way to promote ClickBank products.
For example, once you’ve found a single product you’d like to promote or a handful of related products, it’s time to head over to YouTube. Then, search for popular YouTube channels in the same niche. Next, you create a similar channel that addresses topics from their most popular videos.
Here’s the secret, in the description of your video you include a link to the ClickBank product you’re promoting!
Below is an outline of incredible ClickBank funnel AuthorityHacker use.
In Closing: Is ClickBank a Good Way to Make Money Online?
In short, yes! ClickBank is one of the easiest affiliate networks to get started with. There’s a near endless supply of products and can fit into virtually any niche.
Combining high-converting ClickBank products with the power of building a blog can be one of the best and easiest ways to make money online. It’s a great affiliate network to learn the ropes of affiliate marketing.
It might take time and some trial and error, but in time you will succeed!
