Using Clickbank as a Vendor (HELP)

[system]

Hey guys,

I am soon to launch a digital product..

I am very curious to hear others' experiences using Clickbank affiliates to promote an offer.. I plan on giving 75% commission on every sale but my only worry is affiliates using spam/negative marketing techniques to promote the product which has my personal brand all over it (picture, name etc).

I know the product will do well in CB I just don't want it to ruin my online reputation.

Thoughts, experiences, stories, advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[FreeMan]

I had a couple of products on Clickbank from 2007 til last year. They were very small (hundred's/month) but after the first couple of months when I used Adwords, I didn't do any further promotion. The large majority of sales for the last few years were by affiliates.

My name and face weren't on the product, but the expert that I hired was on the sales letter. I don't remember him mentioning anything negative about having his name associated with the product. We also only gave 50% commissions too. But as you said above, you don't have control over what the affiliates do, but the big reason for using Clickbank is getting your offer infront of a large pool of affiliates.

If control over your personal brand is a concern, you may need to look at alternatives as you don't know who the affiliates are.

 

[system]

Thank you @FreeMan , very much appreciated!

 

[Dan Willis]

So if you aren't overly attached the product and looking to tap into a sizeable affiliate network clickbank is great. What if the product has some specifics where you would want control over the affiliate group? Any suggestions?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[system]

@Dan Willis I'm not very experienced in the affiliate networking field, but from what I've been reading JVzoo is another option.. I know it doesnt have the affiliate force like CB but its supposed to have a better reputation.

I know theres some people on here that know more about this than I do

 

[Blueskies4me]

Any suggestions?

I know a lot of people intro their concept with clickbank JVzoo [ebook, video course] to introduce people to their brand and then email market or bounce them to a more controlled environment like their own website / social media where they have full scale upsells. Kind of like using it as PRWeb.

 

[healthstatus]

a) your sales page will have to be converting at an extremely high rate for people to do that level of spamming.
b) if you are converting at that high a level, you want as much traffic as you can get.
c) your name is not what going to attract buyers (at this point), so that will not be the content of sales emails and ads.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[system]

@healthstatus Very well said.. Are you speaking from first hand experience with CB?

If you put together a great product and offer good affiliate commission you have the chance at creating a high selling product over a number of years (given the niche isn't over saturated and your product isn't crap). Once you have developed the product its kind of downhill from there aka a fastlane automated source of income. Couple this with actually helping people with your product and I think you are on to something larger than yourself..

 

[smarty]

What if the product has some specifics where you would want control over the affiliate group? Any suggestions?

JVZoo lets you approve each affiliate individually and you can un-approve them anytime. That way you have some control.

 

[system]

JVZoo lets you approve each affiliate individually and you can un-approve them anytime. That way you have some control.

I may be wrong but with clickbank you are able to report/unapprove affiliates as well? I think it just takes longer as dealing with CB support can be a bit of lengthy task

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[smarty]

I may be wrong but with clickbank you are able to report/unapprove affiliates as well? I think it just takes longer as dealing with CB support can be a bit of lengthy task

have no idea about that. I only used JVZoo a few times last year.

 

[limitup]

Hey system sorry we keep missing each other.

I got your last message here at the forum but figured I'd respond here ...

Regarding your question above, ClickBank does have what they call a "whitelist" feature to control who can promote your product, and how much they earn. There are 2 types of whitelists.

The first type is called an exclusive whitelist, and if you ask them to enable this for your account then no one will be able to promote your product until you add their CB username to your whitelist.

The other type is called a tiered whitelist, and this allows you to setup commission "tiers" and give different commissions to different people. For example you could have a standard 50% commission in the marketplace but give your customers/JVs etc. 75%. For either of these you just need to contact CB and ask them to enable this feature in your account.

I personally wouldn't worry about your brand or reputation. I just don't think you'll have a problem. It's not like it was a few years ago when people were using flogs and farticles and making up stories and testimonials and all that. There are still some "rogue" affiliates out there who do, but they are few and far between these days and easily dealt with if necessary.

On to your other questions about getting traction in CB, and pricing.

Regarding pricing, all you can do is test. $57 is a weird price and I'm almost certain you can increase it to $67 without any drop in conversions. Your primary competitor is $67 on the front-end and your site and your product are both better than theirs, so you shouldn't have a problem.

I will tell you the only "secret" to getting traction on ClickBank. Ready?

Have the most profitable offer.

If affiliates make more money promoting your offer than your competitors, most of them will promote your offer. It's just that simple.

So just look at the Avg $/sale for your competitor in the marketplace, and that is the number you need to beat. They have a subscription-based upsell to increase their customer value, so you're going to need to do the same in order to compete with them. It really is as simple as that.

My other suggestion is to make sure you test and tweak everything BEFORE approaching affiliates.

You only get one shot to make a good "first impression" so you need to get this all worked out before approaching people. Only AFTER you're positive that YOUR Avg $/sale is higher than your competitors should you approach potential affiliates and JVs.

At that point it's easy, because you can show them "proof" of how great your offer is, and you'll have the confidence to do anything it takes to win over the super affiliates and partners.

Any other questions just let me know. If it's something specific/private you don't want here just send me a PM or email me, otherwise let's just keep this thread going!

 

[system]

@limitup Check your email, sent you some starbucks for your continued contributions to this forum and myself.

I also have a subscription upsell that I have implemented and it is unlocked within the site if they choose to upgrade.. While going through the approval process clickbank said the they do not normally approve "coaching" products but would approve me and add me to their beta testing group.. I thought this was somewhat odd since ive seen a number of coaching/mentoring products on clickbank

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[system]

I have found it extremely annoying how JVZoo sends you a ton of emails promoting their offers..

I purchased a small product from a JVZoo vendor and even in the first email you are sent to deliver your purchase they jam it with links to other JVZoo products.. kind of an unprofessional look for you as a Vendor in my opinion.

Clickbank sends the email to deliver the product, a receipt, and thats it.

 

[Phillipbro]

I have found it extremely annoying how JVZoo sends you a ton of emails promoting their offers..

I purchased a small product from a JVZoo vendor and even in the first email you are sent to deliver your purchase they jam it with links to other JVZoo products.. kind of an unprofessional look for you as a Vendor in my opinion.

Clickbank sends the email to deliver the product, a receipt, and thats it.

That's the thing about working with public vendors like JVZoo, the private affiliate networks are a bit more professional and they have all the professional affiliate guys that do insane numbers.

 

[system]

the private affiliate networks

Any in particular that you have experience with?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Phillipbro]

I don't have any experience with private networks as a publisher. But I could recommend F5 Media. They derive most of their affiliates from the STM (stackthatmoney) forum; STM forum filters out all the noob affiliates by way of having a $99 subscription monthly membership fee.

 

[system]

STM forum filters out all the noob affiliates by way of having a $99 subscription monthly membership fee.

That will do it..

I'm looking into it now, are you a member?

 

[Phillipbro]

I applied a few months back as an affiliate but did not follow through with the phone interview. I may apply as a publisher in the future. I believe Nosferatu on the forum is an affiliate over there.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.