Clickbank the Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Part 1

byTheCatherine

14.6K followers

Updated 1 year ago

If you ask ten different affiliates if they would promote Clickbank products in 2024., you would get ten distinct replies, and I am guessing that 8 out of ten of those cats would say no.

I am not sure that that reply is justified if you know what you are going with Clickbank. Over the next few days, we will examine how to be a super affiliate in 2024 Clickbank.

This is a series of articles where I will examine the pros and Cons of being a Clickbank affiliate. How to make it easy to promote the best products Tomorrow, we will look at how to be a super affiliate. Today, we are going to have a look at the pros and cons.

There are pros and cons to promoting Clickbank products; this can be a nightmare for a newbie. A little knowledge goes a long way to finding the correct offers for your niche with a low refund rate.

The Reasons to Be A Clickbank Affiliate

1. Huge Selection - Clickbank has a massive library of products and offers across almost every category, niche, and vertical. So you can always find offers relevant to your audience.
2. High Commissions - Many Clickbank products pay commissions between 50% to 75% of the sale price. The payouts for one single sale can be quite lucrative.
3. Recurring Income - A number of Clickbank offers feature recurring billing, continuity programs, or membership sites. This allows you to earn regularly from the same customer.
4. Useful Metrics - Clickbank's marketplace interface reveals helpful stats like gravity, conversion percentages, average sales etc. to research offer potential.
5. Rapid Payments - Clickbank pays out affiliate commissions every 2 weeks via multiple payment methods. You don't have to wait long to collect earnings.
6. Own Account Dashboard - The Clickbank dashboard allows close tracking and analysis of vital statistics on your referred traffic and sales. Easy to monitor campaigns.
7. Free To Join - Becoming a Clickbank affiliate is completely free. There are no monthly fees or minimum sales requirements to maintain your account.
8. It is one of the oldest affiliate networks, and it has paid out millions in commissions since its inception.
9. There are no minimum sales to reach and the threshold for payments is only $10.00.

With high commissions, recurring potential, and helpful data, Clickbank serves as a newbie-friendly and profitable avenue for affiliate marketing with digital information products.

How Many Products are Added Daily

As of 2022, Clickbank has over 10,000 product listings in their marketplace across a wide range of categories. Roughly 300 new vendor partner accounts are added daily to create and upload new offers. Clickbank screens all submitted products to maintain marketplace quality standards. Approximately two-thirds of all submissions get approved.

Given hundreds of new vendors joining daily, and assuming each submits 2-3 offers on average after approval, a reasonable estimate would be between 200 to 400 new products added per day. The best estimate is likely between 200 to 400 fresh offers and products uploaded to Clickbank's marketplace every day.

This steady influx ensures variety and options across niches. It allows affiliates to continually test promising new offers their audience may be interested in. Keeping product selection fresh boosts overall sales.

The Cons of Being a Clickbank Affiliate.

1. Low-Quality Products - The marketplace, unfortunately, contains some low-quality information products, which leads to buyer dissatisfaction and refunds. This hurts commissions.
2. High Competition - Many popular offers attract lots of affiliates, so you really have to work harder on differentiation and value addition to get conversions.
3. Frequent Refunds - Some product creators do not focus enough on delivery or support. High refund rates on these offers will cut into your bottom line.
4. Cookie Manipulation - A few unethical vendors in the past have allegedly stolen commissions by manipulating cookies to credit the last click rather than the entire sales funnel. This is harder to do now as Clickbank has an encrypted affiliate link.
5. Spam Compliance Issues - Aggressive email marketing and problems like low sender reputation or spam complaints can hamper efforts.
6. Delayed Payments - While Clickbank pays regularly, payments may be slightly delayed due to processing refunds or payment holds, especially for high-ticket products.
7. Account Suspension Risk - Use of blackhat tactics, trademark violations or excessive disputes/chargebacks can easily get your account shut down.
8. Clawbacks. Clawbacks are when Clickbank issues a refund after the initial refund period; they will claw back the money from you.

The high commission rates make Clickbank tempting for beginners, but lack of due diligence and unethical actions to drive conversions carry high risks. Focusing on value addition and compliance is key.

One of the great things about the Clickbank affiliate program is that they pay commissions every 2 weeks like clockwork via their affiliate dashboard.

As soon as you make your first sale and the refund period expires, the commissions will be included in the next payment run as long as you meet the minimum payout amount.

The minimum payout threshold for Clickbank affiliates is only $10. As soon as you have $10 or more in unpaid earnings showing in your account, they will be paid out on the next scheduled payment date via check, direct deposit, Payoneer, etc.

This means, technically, you only need one or a couple of sales before you start earning regular payouts every few weeks. There are no monthly minimum sales requirements or thresholds before you can withdraw earnings.

This quick payment schedule and very low minimum payout make Clickbank one of the most beginner-friendly affiliate programs to monetize blogs and websites.

With one good promotional tactic like an email sequence or review blog post, you can easily generate a few sales to push you over that $10 threshold and trigger regular payouts from then on.

Does Clickbank have rules?

Yes, Clickbank does have some rules and policies that affiliates must comply with. Some of the key guidelines for Clickbank affiliates include:

1. No Spam Policy - Affiliates may not send unsolicited emails or use deceptive practices like spamming to promote offers. This will lead to account suspension.
2. Transparency Rules - Affiliates must clearly identify promotional content as affiliate marketing and disclose their financial relationship with merchants.
3. Trademark Guidelines - Affiliates should not use merchant trademarks or brand names in the domain names without permission or inaccurately represent brands.
4. Incentivized Traffic - Incentivized traffic sources like paid advertising are allowed but activities like ad stacking, forced clicks etc. are prohibited.
5. Blackhat Tactics Ban - No manipulating cookies, collecting personal info illegally, misrepresenting products, or other blackhat tactics. Can cause account deactivation.
6. Compliance Burden - Affiliates must ensure website, emails, ads are compliant with advertising laws, email regulations, and anti-spam laws.
7. Customer Support - Affiliates should not make guarantees or false claims about products. They are expected to provide customer support.

By adhering to ethical guidelines and legal requirements around transparency, privacy, and consumer protection, affiliates can operate sustainable businesses safely. Violations risk the loss of commissions or account access. Usually, there is no recourse if this happens.You might want to look at my article of a few days ago regarding email compliance ,

As a lot of marketers don't know about this or won't comply, there will be a gap in the market for email marketers who have complied.

Tomorrow we will look at the tools available to make you a better affiliate and then I will look at the best methods to promote Clickbank products. Overall despite the legitimate claim that there are crap products for sale on Clickbank if you know what you are doing, there are some great recurring offers that pay well.