ClickBank's
100,000+ affiliates earn a percentage of every purchase made by every customer
they refer to any ClickBank product. These affiliates generate well over half of
the sales of our top selling products. The ClickBank Marketplace is where
affiliates go to select the products to which they will refer traffic.
Every
product listed in the ClickBank Marketplace is associated with a sales
commission rate. Commission percentages range from 1% to 75%. On any one sale
the minimum commission is $0.25 and the maximum is $100.00.
In the
Marketplace products are ranked by their "productivity score". To
preserve the integrity of the system we do not publish the exact formula for
the score, but we can say that it is a function of three factors:
1. The
number of sales of that product generated by affiliates.
2. The
number of affiliates who made those referrals.
3. The total
dollar volume earned by affiliates on those sales.
All factors
are combined, and adjusted such that more recent sales activity is given
greater weight. Products are not listed until at least one has been sold.
To improve
their Marketplace ranking products must show a history of reliably converting
referred traffic to paying customers over the past 90 days. Products that
maintain a higher ranking naturally attract more affiliates, and make more
sales overall.
What is the Ranking History?
ClickBank web site shows only the product's current rank.
The Affiliates Alert Server collect and keep the ranking of all the products
over time. This creates the ranking history.
By looking at the
ranking history you get a better view of how the product sales perform
over time. For example, if the ranking steadily increases, it means that
this product sales performance is improving. It is worthwhile to consider promoting it. But if
the ranking decreases over time it means the product has lost its power,
probably suffering from massive refunds, or, most of the market has already bought it. It probably would
be a waste of time and money to promote such a
product.
The ranking history table shows the following information:
Date and Rank
.
Date
- the date when the rank was achieved.
Rank - the rank that was achieved on that date.
Increasing
ranking is marked in green.
Decreasing
ranking is marked in red.
If you see only one rank, it means that the product rank is steady and
was never changed (since we started collecting this data). In more dynamic products you'll
see more ranking changes.
Case studies
Here are four real world case studies
that cover most of the common scenarios
Case study (A) – New
Killer Product
Let's start with an easy and rather rare scenario
that happened only a few days after I started to develop Affiliates Alert – Jeff
Alderson's "Traffic Equalizer".
On September
27 "Traffic Equalizer" entered ClickBank at position 66. A week later it had climbed to position
13 and only 2 weeks after its first appearance it reached position 7. When it first appeared
in position 66, I read its sales letter and knew right away it would be a killer product. At
that time, probably very few people purchased it and only a few affiliates promoted it.
Only 2 weeks later it was ranked at position 7 which meant it had sold quite
a few. Only one month later I've started to see people become aware of it on
Internet Marketing forums. I could have marketed this killer product a full month
before anyone else even knew about it!
Case study (B) –
Dying Product
In case study (B) we'll see the opposite case - a product
that stops selling the way it sold before. Here I prefer not to mention the
product's name.
When I started collecting data, it
was ranked in position 7, inside the honorable top 10. The position implies
that this product sold quite well and also probably had many affiliates, but since then you
can clearly see its consistent decline in position. One thing is for sure -
the product is selling less and less. Why? We can't tell, but it might be one of the
following:
It
suffers from high refund rate as a result of a disappointing product, bad
service or something else. (Caution – this might hurt YOUR reputation as
well!)
Most of its
potential customers have already purchased it.
Somthing else that damages the sales.
Whatever the reason is, it is
clearly a warning sign for you whether to promote this product or not. One thing is
for sure - you will not make money, but about the risk to your reputation - too
much to sacrifice if you ask me.
Case study (C) –
Underexposed Product
This is the most common case –
the underexposed product. There are many good products out there that are simply
underexposed. Most of the GOLD
is found here!
This product isn't one of the top 10 killers, yet you can
see it is slowly climbing the ranking ladder. There's an opportunity here,
because you can see that more and more buyers are purchasing it, but still it is
obvious that it is not overexposed and there are a lot of other potential
customers out there. BUT before promoting it I would recommend you do some extra
checking:
See if you can test the product, whether it suffers only from
underexposure or from something else, like poor quality or bad service.
Try to
get more details about it. Ask about the product in forums, find out whether
the customers are satisfied, find out how the service is, etc.
Contact
the product owner, ask him questions, get to know him.
Case study (D) - All
Time Killer
Let's take a look at the ranking history of
Rosalind Gardner's "Super Affiliate Handbook":
Well, All time number
one. I would have recommend you to enjoy it too, but bear in mind that almost every
affiliate in the world is promoting this product. Who do you think is making
most of the money here? The money goes to the product creator and to afew
professional super affiliates. The rest of the affiliates do
not see a dime. So, what should you do? Become a professional affiliate by yourself,
invest your time in (A), (B) and (C), and then (D) will follow by itself.
Conclusion
Case
(A) is the most desirable, but like any good thing, it is not common. Like a good
stock trader who is lurking and waiting for a good stock you should observe
the "Affiliates Alert" data and be ready to catch such opportunities. As
you've seen, the way from the first entry at position 66 to the top
10 was very short: only 2 weeks, and 4 weeks untill people started to talk
about it - but these 4 weeks can mean a lot of money when you act
quickly.
Case
(B) – no need to say more, just open your eyes. Don't be
tempted just by nice words. Always check the numbers.
Case
(C) – most of the opportunities are here, but there's also some
work to do. This is where the real GOLD is lies and wait for someone to pick
it
up!
Case
(D) – Killer in deed, but very few make money here... a lot of money...
