Is Clickbank A Scam? … What You Need To Know

Are you looking to find a way to earn some money online? There are a number of programs to be found online that offer a platform to achieve financial success but can they be trusted? One such platform is called Clickbank that offers an affiliate program to those interested in generating an income from home. Is Clickbank a Scam? Let’s look closer:

What Is Clickbank? A Scam Or The Real Deal?

Clickbank represents itself as an affiliate marketing network that provides a service to three specific groups. The network focuses primarily on digital products, and products or services that can be directly obtained with a click on the computer keyboard. In recent years, however, they have added a few physical products that may be purchased. Clickbank is and remains the number one network with thousands of digital products.

As mentioned earlier, Clickbank provides a platform for three specific groups. As outlined on their website, here are the three types of individuals that may find the Clickbank network one of interest.

 

Customers

Anyone has the opportunity to visit the website and purchase a product (digital) of their choosing. After doing so, the customer will receive instant access to their product through a link or download.

Product Creators   (Vendors)

These individuals use the Clickbank network to display their products or services to the needs of their customers. Many of these product creators or vendors do quite well in selling their self-created products through the Clickbank network.

Digital Marketers   (Affiliates)  

Digital marketers are basically affiliates, who promote and hopefully make sales using a product that has been made available by product creators. As a digital marketer (affiliate) you will have the opportunity to choose a product that you wish to market by receiving an affiliate link that is unique to you and you only.

How Clickbank Works … As An Affiliate

As a digital network, Clickbank provides a platform that enables individuals to earn income in a few different ways. Let’s take a look at these, and give you a better idea on how this process takes place.

The first step in using Clickbank is to set up an account with a simple sign-up process. After doing so, you will receive a Clickbank ID that will be used to market and promote digital products. As an affiliate, this personal ID will allow you to search the marketplace to find a product that you would like to promote. More on the marketplace in a minute.

Let’s assume that you have done your research and have decided on a product that you would like to market. Great! You now will receive an affiliate link that represents the specific product you have chosen to market. What next? You will need a source where you can market and promote your product in order to make sales. Got you covered here!

The Marketplace … Thousands Of Options!

The Clickbank Marketplace has thousands of digital products in various niches so finding one to market that interests you should not be an issue. Below is just a sample of some of these niches (categories) that are offered through the Clickbank website. As an affiliate, you have many options.

As you can see, there are a number of choices here. Each one of these categories contains sub-categories which will give you additional options in choosing a product.

I chose Business/Investing to illustrate these sub-categories. Check it out below:

 

Finding a Product To Market … What To Look For

As mentioned earlier, the Clickbank network offers thousands of product to market in a number of niches. So how do you know which product to choose, and which one can prove to be beneficial to you as an affiliate? Let me show you a few things to consider when choosing a product through the following screenshots:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Gravity (Grav)

Within the Clickbank network, gravity has significant meaning to affiliate marketers. Gravity refers to a calculated performance (By Clickbank) of a specific product, with a Gravity (Grav) number representing the number of affiliates who have made a commission over the past 12 weeks by selling this product.

By looking at the screenshot above and the one on the left, you can see that the Gravity (Grav) is a little over 143. This roughly means that there are 143 affiliates who have made a commission in the past few weeks. That’s the good part. Here comes the bad! With 143 affiliates already making sales, you can bet there are many out there marketing this product (Lean Belly Breakthrough) as well. Competition will be tough in making sales with this product!

In the screenshot on the right, (Xtreme Fat Loss Diet) you can see where the Grav is a little over 12. Using the same explanation as we used above, you can tell that are 12 affiliates who have made a commission selling this product in the last 12 weeks. Although competition is much lower with this product, you have to ask yourself if this product has a market. Why is the Gravity number so low? Through some simple research, you will find your answer.

Initial $/sale

In using our screenshots above, you can see that the Lean Belly product has an initial sale of $35.08. This number indicates the amount ($35.08) that you will make with your initial sale. With the Xtreme Fat Loss product, your initial sale would be $22.35.

Avg % sale

This number represents the amount of commission you receive when selling this product. In our examples we are using above, the product on the left is 77% with the one on the right being 75%. These are the average commission rates for each of these products.

Rebill

This a very nice feature that many of the products offered through Clickbank have attached to them. In our products listed above, you can see that neither have this feature. For those products that do, a rebill is a process where your customer purchases the same product month after month which can give you a nice residual income.

 

Pros

Let’s now take a look at some benefits associated with becoming a Clickbank affiliate.

1. Thousands of products to choose from (Roughly 6,000)
2. New products being introduced by vendors almost daily
3. High commissions (Usually somewhere between 50% and 70%)
4. Cost nothing on your part to join as an affiliate
5. Payments are sent to you in a timely manner (Every one to two weeks)
6. Allows you to promote in four different languages (Can promote worldwide)

Cons

Here are a few of the disadvantages of becoming a Clickbank affiliate.

1. You will have to spend some time with research to find a product that meets specific criteria.
2. Customer support, in most cases, does not respond to an issue quickly.
3. Payment can be delayed until certain criteria are met (Clickbank guidelines)

How And Where To Promote Your Clickbank Product

Okay, you have got your Clickbank product and you are ready to start earning some income. How do you plan doing this? How do you plan on marketing and promoting this product? Without having online traffic that you can place in front of your product, you have little chance of generating sales. Here’s an idea:

Many successful affiliate marketers use a website (blog) that allows them to market and promote their Clickbank product. This can easily be done by giving a review of your product, and pointing out the things you like and don’t like about your product. Be honest with this review, as your readers can easily tell fact from fiction.

Some of you at this point may not have your own website or have no idea on how to build on. There is a program I found that will actually build a website for you, and get this, for free! The name of this site is known as Wealthy Affiliate where ‘techy’ knowledge or website experience is not necessary.

Once you have your website created (less than 30 seconds) through Wealthy Affiliate, you now have a place to market your product. With your own website, you now control what you want on to display on your site and drive traffic right to your Clickbank product.

Conclusion

Well, I hope you have learned something new about Clickbank and hopefully answered some questions you may have had. I especially like Clickbank for affiliates just starting out due to its simplicity in signing up (free to join) and the number of products available to market.

Is Clickbank a scam? In my opinion, absolutely not. Thousands of individuals worldwide use this platform every day and many are making a good deal of money with as a Clickbank affiliate. It does require work on your part but the rewards can be substantial.

For those looking to market your product through your own website, I would suggest you give Wealthy Affiliate a good look and see just what they have to offer. It will cost you nothing to do so and offers a fantastic affiliate program as well. Simply click on the banner ad below to get started now!