As you know, recently ClickBank added a new stat to the marketplace (Avg %/rebill). As well, they have changed names of other stats. You can find more about this on ClickBank’s blog post "Marketplace Stat Changes". And also check the "What Marketplace Stats Mean" section on this page to find out what each stat means.

I’ve decided to update cbgraph accordingly to the changes. As well, I’ve done some other updates.

What was removed from cbgraph?

First of all, I need to mention that removed features weren’t popular among affiliates and have been eliminated to make cbgraph more clear and easy to understand.

1. Historical graphs of popularity ranks.
2. Changes in a vendor’s title/description.
3. Left products section.
4. Re-listed products section.
5. Movers & shakers based on popularity ranks.

What was added/changed?

1. The biggest change is in the way you can find ClickBank Movers & Shakers. This feature now is based only on gravity delta (today’s gravity -minus- gravity N days ago).

2. All stats are now named as in the ClickBank Marketplace.

3. Some graphs (Avg %/rebill, Commission) were added to the "Basic Graphs" report.

4. You can see any vendor’s activation date. Also, on the ClickBank Search page, you can set a release date beginning on 01/01/2000.

Well, that’s it. I hope you like these updates.

Best regards,
Sergey

PS. This is a fresh version and it might contain some errors/bugs. If you find something wrong, submit a comment to this post, please.

PPS. Also, don’t hesitate to write what you think about the new updates.

The good news is that the keywords database of cbgraph’s ppc spy tool was enlarged and now it contains more than 300,000 high volume keywords. It means you can find more profitable opportunities to invest your money.

The bad news is that I’ve decided to deprecate the ppc spy tool on December 21, 2010. Yes, the whole ppc section will be removed from cbgraph which is going to be only a ClickBank analysis tool.

Please, consider storing all keywords and ads you’re interested in on your computer. And also consider moving to some similar specialized tool like KeywordSpy.

Regards,
Sergey

I’m glad to tell you that, finally, my PPC Spy for ClickBank affiliates is here! I’ve been working on it for the past year and it is completed. You should try it!

With this PPC Spy you can find exactly how other affiliates manage their PPC campaigns to promote ClickBank products, which of their keywords and ads lead to sales.

If you are not familiar with PPC Spy technology, I’ve written a free eBook for you. You can get it for free by visiting this page:

By the way, this eBook contains a lot of tips for affiliates on how to create a business that generates a consistent and predictable income.

I hope you enjoy this news as much as I do!

Cheers!

Sergey

But before you do this, you should ask the vendor’s permission!

So, how to send your visitors directly to the ClickBank order page?

Instead of using hoplinks, you need to use the next link:

http://ITEM.AFFILIATE_VENDOR.pay.clickbank.net/
where:
ITEM is a number 1..500
VENDOR is a vendor's ClickBank ID
AFFILIATE is your ClickBank ID

Here is an example of such link:
http://1.john123_ipodpsp.pay.clickbank.net/

As you might know, any vendor may have up to 500 items (different products, discounts, etc.). You can find lists of vendors’ items with my free ClickBank analysis tool.

But! Don’t use this link in such way (without an iframe/image, see below)!

If your visitor has already opened the vendor’s website through a hoplink of another affiliate, you won’t receive any commission.

To avoid this, you have to place an invisible "iframe" somewhere in the beginning of your own sales page on your website. Here is an HTML for it:

<iframe width="1" height="1"
src="http://AFFILIATE.VENDOR.hop.clickbank.net/"
style="display:none"></iframe>

Or you can use a tiny image *instead of* the iframe:

<img src="http://AFFILIATE.VENDOR.hop.clickbank.net/" width="1" height="1" />

However, some visitors disable images in their browser. So, you’d better use the iframe.

Only then you can place the payment link:
<a href="http://ITEM.AFFILIATE_VENDOR.pay.clickbank.net/">Click Here To Order Now</a>

If you want to recommend a product to your subscribers via email, create a simple landing page with the above iframe/image and your payment link. You shouldn’t place a direct payment link into the email message.

So, if you want to send your visitors directly to the ClickBank order page, you should:

• Ask the vendor’s permission
• Use tips from this post

The definition of the ClickBank refund rate

A ClickBank refund rate means how many customers out of 100 ask for a refund.

For example, if a ClickBank refund rate is 3%, it means that 3 out of 100 customers ask for a refund.

The ClickBank refund rate formula

As defined in the ClickBank Help Center, ClickBank subtracts 7.5% + $1 from every sale. That’s why, the formula used by ClickBank refund rate calculators is:

EST = (Price * 0.925 – $1) * (PPS / 100%)
Where:
EST is the estimated affiliate revenue
Price is the product's price
PPS is the vendor's %/sale

RR = (1 – EPS/EST) * 100
Where:
RR is the ClickBank refund rate of this product
EPS is the actual $/sale from the ClickBank Marketplace stats

Where can you find calculated refund rates of ClickBank products?

In CBGraph you can open any vendor’s stats and get the "Items + Refunds" report.
There will be estimated affiliate revenues and refund rates for all products of the vendor.

But some vendors have a negative refund rates in this report…

What does a negative ClickBank refund rate mean?

Fact is that every vendor may have up to 500 different items, such as different products, discounts, combinations of product, etc.

But for every vendor ClickBank provides only the average $/sale received by affiliates who sold any item of the vendor.

So, it’s just impossible to calculate refund rates of products of a vendor who sells a lot of products or actively gives discounts! If you see negative or huge refund rates, just ignore them.

However, a lot of vendors sell only one product and don’t give discounts. Although they have created many items, they use only one. In such case, there will be a correct refund rate near to the main item.

Try to avoid selling products with refund rate more than 3%. Usually such products have a low quality and don’t provide any value to people.

"Gravity" is the vendor’s gravity. There is also the gravity delta in the brackets, which means the difference between today’s gravity and gravity 3 days ago
(Gr_<today> – Gr_{<3 days ago>}).

"Earn" is the vendor’s $/sale and %/sale.

If the ClickBank vendor has the line "Future & Total/Sale", than he/she has recurring billing products.

Referred line corresponds to the vendor’s %/refd.

Commission is the commission rate you will earn from a successful referral of the vendor’s product(s). The vendor may change this rate, but the rate displayed is current. This value differs from $/sale, because the latter shows the average value for the past 8 weeks.

In the categories block, you can discover to which niche(s) the vendor’s products are related. There is also information about the vendor’s ranks in the ClickBank categories and their changes.

By clicking on a category name, you can find similar products.

In the section "7-day Rank Acceleration", you will find the maximal and the average values among the vendor’s rank changes and rank deltas. This information is used to determine the vendor’s performance.

It contains many extremely useful tips on how to improve your landing pages. Tim describes the most common mistakes on them and how you can fix them. Here is the list of those 7 "sins of landing page design":

• Unclear Call-to-action
• Too Many Choices
• Asking For Too Much Information
• Too Much Text
• Not Keeping Your Promises
• Visual Distractions
• Lack of Credibility & Trust

It is a must see webinar on highly convertible landing pages creation. It will be useful for many ClickBank affiliates, especially for Pay Per Click advertisers.

The ClickBank TID is a part of the HopLink. It has the next format:
http://your_clickbank_hoplink/?tid=zzzzz

As said in the ClickBank FAQ:
"The tracking code value, which is "zzzzz" in the example above, can be 24 characters long, containing alpha and numeric characters only. Any value longer than 24 characters will be truncated. Any value containing characters other than alpha or numeric values will have the entire tracking code value removed from the HopLink and order process and, will not show in the transaction report. Tracking code values received lower case characters will be set to all uppercase. The tracking code parameter, which is "tid" in the example above, must be lower case."

1. Use ClickBank TIDs to monitor the sources of your sales

You may place your HopLink on the landing page, mention it in some article, write it on your videos, etc.

But different sources of traffic provide different conversion rates. And you should pay more attention to those sources that have the highest conversion rates. To determine such sources you can use ClickBank TIDs.

You should also know *not only* the type of the source (articles, landing pages, videos, etc.) with the highest conversion rate, but also which articles or landing pages convert readers into buyers. So, you should use different TIDs wherever it is possible.

2. If you want to become successful with affiliate marketing, you should always improve your content

For example, you’ve written a landing page. Try to improve its title, text and even such elements as the background color and the "Order" button. Have these changes increased the conversion rate of the page? To realize that, use different ClickBank TIDs:

tid=page3version7
tid=page3version8
...

But never do more than one change at once! If you do this, you won’t be able to understand what exactly has led to better results.

Conclusion: Track every source of your traffic and always make improvements to your content. It is crucial!

• Your content will be ranked higher in search engines because of its earlier appearance
• You can occupy direct linking ads in Google AdWords and other PPC advertising systems.

How can you find new ClickBank products?

1. Use Analysis -> New Products to find ClickBank products that were added to the ClickBank Marketplace on its last update. Here you can choose a ClickBank category on the right sidebar to filter new products by categories.

2. If you’ve missed new products for the previous days, you can use The Advanced ClickBank Search and specify the "Release date" option.

Needless to say, not every new ClickBank product should be promoted. You have to check sales page of a new product (even with zero gravity):

• Does it have a good design?
• Is sales pitch well written?
• Would you buy this product?
• Isn’t it a rip-off?

Ideally, you should try the product yourself. And if it has a good value, you can start to promote it.

And there is one more important point. Sometimes newly added products with zero gravity are not ready to be sold. In this case you should not risk. You’d better ask the vendor whether his/her product is prepared.

Let’s look on the distribution of %/sale among top 100 ClickBank vendors:

You won’t find here any vendor with %/sale less than 50%!!!
The average %/sale among top 100 ClickBank vendors is 68,01%.
The most popular values of %/sale here are:

• 75% (56 times)
• 65% (15 times)
• 50% (14 times)

It is much easier to promote products with a big %/sale, especially if an affiliate uses paid sources of traffic.

That’s why, if you are a vendor, you should set a high %/sale value.