For the past 3 years of 2009, 2010, and 2011 I have held status in this program which is now called the ‘ClickBank Premier Program’. Certainly being a top ClickBank affiliate myself would qualify me to write this article, but it’s what I’ve learned from other top ClickBank affiliates that has brought me continued success.

Each year ClickBank hosts various get-togethers (aka parties), as well as an annual event called the ClickBank Exchange. It’s at these events surrounded by other top affiliates and vendors where I’ve learned much of what it takes to be at the top. These are the keys I believe you must acquire to become a Top ClickBank Affiliate.

Start building relationships, they’re everything! – Once I started reaching out, connecting, and learning from other marketers my business benefited almost overnight. The relationships I’ve developed benefit me every day at this point. I’ve noticed the majority of top ClickBank marketers know each other in some way. It’s amazing to see them come together and instantly start connecting and helping one another. In fact, when you go to some of the ClickBank events and sit back and listen you’ll be astounded by the volume level as so many marketers are connecting and sharing.

Learn from others and be willing to pay. – When meeting and connecting with other top affiliates something I’ve noticed is their eagerness to learn. They realize in order to stay on top they need to be constantly getting the edge. Being able to leverage the experience and knowledge of others is the fastest and most effective way to get the knowledge you need to grow your business. I constantly see top affiliates paying to travel across the country, even the world, to attend various marketing events so they can learn from others.

Treat your affiliate business like a business. – Something else I’ve observed about the top Clickbank affiliates is they treat their affiliate business like a REAL business. So many people set out to make money online but don’t see it as a real business and I believe it’s this lack of vision holds them back from reaching the 6, 7, and even 8 figure income many ClickBank marketers are making. This doesn’t mean you need venture capital, an office, and 6 employees. It means you need a realistic and detailed plan, goals, deadlines, organization, and commitment.

Put in the required time. – When you start out with your ClickBank business you may only work a few hours a day or week, but if you want to get to the top eventually you’ll need to be working part-time and most likely full-time at your ClickBank business. This doesn’t mean you need to always work 40 hours a week, many top marketers don’t. However, most of the top ClickBank affiliates are working at their business as much as they can and putting in the hours necessary to make it happen.

You must fail. – Even the top ClickBank affiliates still have failures. I’ve seen it happen numerous times and if you ask any one of them they’ll tell you they were persistent. You’re going to fail at times, I promise, there’s no way around it. What separates those at the top from everyone else is they simply didn’t quit. Even as I write this, somewhere out there are future top Clickbank affiliates who are failing miserably, but eventually they’ll reach their goals.

Get started NOW! – One of the biggest reasons I don’t see people become successful on ClickBank is because they simply don’t put in a serious effort to get started. I can’t even being to tell you how many people email me to tell me they’re ready to get started, they want to do consulting, or coaching, or they simply want to tell me they’re super pumped about ClickBank and going to be a top affiliate. Then I never hear from them again, they disappear into the quiet void of a broken dream. Please don’t be one of those people.

I remember in college a friend told me something I’ve never forgot. He said “Doing homework is easy; all you have to do is start. Once you start you’ve already done the hardest part, now all you have to do is keep going.”

I’ve applied my friend’s advice to so many things through the years from working out, to work in general, and he was right. Getting started is the hardest part, once you’re going you won’t want to stop and it will be easier to keep going. So if you haven’t already, get started now!

When they check their ClickBank earnings after only a few days they expect to see sales pouring in. As days of zero earnings and few website visitors turns into weeks the reality sets in… No one is coming!

If you have made the decision to start building a website with the intent of selling ClickBank products you need to be creative and provide value to the consumer. You have just entered a very crowded marketplace where everyone else is constantly researching tools and techniques to beat you. The other guys are studying SEO, using PPC, and competing to outrank your site in Google in every possible way.

Please take a moment to watch this funny video I put together to illustrate my point:

If you want to create long lasting ClickBank affiliate sites that work they’ll need to provide value. Making them unique, creative, original, and even inspirational will set you apart from the mass amount of spam, poor quality, and worthless websites out there. In addition, it will be a website people will WANT to come back to. Follow these tips and you’ll be on your way to creating successful ClickBank affiliate sites with value…

• Narrow your focus. In the vast ocean of online users find the audience that you can relate to, and that can relate to you. You can’t be all things to all people, so make sure you’re targeting people that will benefit from what you have to offer.
• You must be yourself. There is no one that has the same traits and perspective as you and you must use it to your advantage. Leverage those things that set you apart from the crowd and let people know who you are.
• Connect. Find out what you have in common with your website visitors and connect with them. Talk to them; respond to their comments, feedback, and emails. Reach out to them, survey them, and most importantly help them.
• Offer something for free that other people are charging for. Early on in your audience building you have to sacrifice your time and effort to build relationships that will help you in the long term. Doing so will set you apart from the crowd. Put your own goals aside for a moment and give. Trust in the law of reciprocity.
• Perform random acts of kindness and inspiration. People will remember you if you are genuine and actually willing to help. Even small gestures will go a long way in building relationships as most people don’t take the time.
• Reach out. Get active on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus. Make sure your website has a presence on these social networking sites. Remember that creating a successful ClickBank affiliate site is about connecting with your audience wherever they may be.

Contrary to what many people think you are not solely trying to drive traffic to your website. In the early stages you are simply trying to connect with an audience. Find a group of people who will listen to you and that you can listen to. Over time these connections will grow organically.

If you have done your job correctly you’ll have a built-in audience that is interested in what you’re offering. Many people will be happy to buy from you now that they know who you are and know you’re trying to help them.

In the world of Internet marketing where honesty and integrity are hard to find your visitors will be more than willing to support you once you show them you have these qualities.

Unfortunately, for consumers (and for ClickBank), most ClickBank review web pages are doing things all wrong, and deliver no real value to the consumer. This tends to make ClickBank products appear more like ‘scams’, and has an unfavorable impact on the internet marketing community.

Based on my experience in wanting to develop my own ClickBank review web-site, here are the top 10 mistakes that I’m attempting to avoid:

1. Not Being Sincere about ClickBank Product Reviews

   Most ClickBank product review websites I’ve visited are essentially duplicating the content of the product sales page, which is always full of extremely unrealistic expectations and testimonials that present the item as better than it truly is. Be sincere with your buyers in all regards, give them beneficial information about what to expect, and people far more likely to buy from you.

2. Not Using Rich Media for ClickBank Reviews Like Pictures and Video

   ClickBank product review sites that are composed of long paragraphs of text are neither exciting, nor engaging for the audience. Individuals are more likely to commit to a purchase if they’re engaged through content that consists of videos and graphics.

3. Not Having Sufficient Knowledge of a ClickBank Product Prior to Reviewing It for an Audience

   In order to help other people understand the truth about a product listed on the ClickBank marketplace, you have to learn all the details. It is tempting to write a bunch of content about product just for the sake of having more content, but in order to gain the trust of potential clients, it’s essential to demonstrate your knowledge.

4. Not Engaging the Audience by Leveraging Social Media Channels

   To build the validity of your site as well as your expertise, you have to demonstrate that you have gone the extra mile by attempting to engage your customers through other social media. Any honest online enterprise must have established profiles on the various social networks in order to be recognized as an authority on the subject matter.

5. Not Creating Original ClickBank Product Reviews

   For those who plan to develop a ClickBank product review site by buying articles or scraping articles from other sources, you’re most likely to run into quite a few issues. Search engines (and people) are usually seeking for one thing: unique and authentic content that comes from passionate people.

6. Not Looking Professional

   Any internet site is destined to fall short if it looks like it was built from a cookie cutter WordPress web template or from canned CSS obtained from another website. Commit your time and energy into learning the fundamentals of web development, and style your site based on other modern websites that follow best practices.

   An excellent place to get started is usually to locate a website which you pay a visit to frequently, and study the layout and design. Do not copy the style, but use it as inspiration as you craft your site identity.

7. Underestimating Your Audience

   Your buyers know when they are getting pitched to. Let the truth do the talking and focus your reviews on products that work and improve the lives of the consumer.

8. Not Providing More Information than is available on the Product Sales Page

   Go into as much detail as you can to ensure that the consumers reading your evaluations find out more about an item than they can discover from anywhere else on the web. Become the authority for a product and people will direct potential buyers to your website simply because you have the most beneficial information.

9. Using the Same Template for Every Review

   A lot of ClickBank review websites are put into place by individuals who think that adding new content implies a copy, paste, spin, and edit cycle. I won’t call out any specific websites, but if you see that all the reviews follow the exact same structure, you know that these reviews were generated in a ‘factory’ and not created by real users who have genuine passion and interest in the product.

10. Not Admitting that you are Trying to Sell the Product

    At the risk of repeating other bullet points, I’ll reiterate that most visitors will know that your ‘review’ website is also an affiliate website that’s trying to sell to them. Be upfront about it, announce it to your guests, and thank them for their interest and willingness to help you succeed in your endeavor.

If you are thinking of getting into this niche and developing your own ClickBank reviews website, do the world a favor and make it a better place by offering value for your website visitors. Without offering value for your potential consumers, you’ll not have the ability to build relationships, and you’ll be destined for failure.

Miles Baker of ClickScoop shares 3 reasons you should attend ClickBank Exchange 2012. ClickBank Exchange will be held Aug. 10-11 in Times Square, NY.

Use coupon code “CLICKSCOOP100” to save $100 off registration.

Links mentioned in video…

• ClickBank Exchange Speakers
• ClickBank Exchange Registration

This second annual event will include networking events, sessions with Internet marketing experts, access to ClickBank staff and executives, a Cocktail Party, and more. Speakers listed so far include Robert Cialdini, Ryan Deiss, Joe Polish, Chris Farrell, Ryan Lee, Mike Hill, Chris Haddad, Derek Halpern, and Susan Bratton. ClickBank’s CEO, CTO, and Vice President of Client Development will also be speaking.

The ClickBank Exchange event will be limited to 450 attendees only. The cost to attend is $797, however you can use coupon code CLICKSCOOP100 to save $100 off registration. Click here to register.

According to ClickBank registration will include the following…

• Access to all sessions, including very special keynotes
• Unprecedented networking sessions
• Access to industry experts and ClickBank decision makers
• Lunch on Friday & Saturday
• A Saturday night cocktail party unlike any other

This will be ClickBank’s second ClickBank Exchange event. Watch our video recap of last year’s event.

For full event details, a list of speakers, and to register, visit ClickbankExchange.com.

In order for ClickBank clients to continue to use their ClickBank account they must to agree to the new contract.

The changes in this Client Contract update seem fairly minor and mainly created to protect ClickBank. Other than small grammatical or minor wording changes here are the new main changes…

A clearer definition of what a ClickBank Vendor is…

(“Vendor” is defined as any person or entity who submit one or more Products for sale via the ClickBank Marketplace)

An additional agreement not to manipulate ClickBank Gravity…

You will not interfere with or manipulate ClickBank’s “Gravity” (defined as rankings of ClickBank’s Marketplace (as defined below in Section 3(c)) tracking of Commissions, or the normal flow of traffic to, through, or from the ClickBank Services.

An additional rule for termination or cancellation of your account…

…in the event You breach any term of this Agreement, or Your account becomes dormant as defined in our Accounting Policy and/or has a negative balance ClickBank will have the right to immediately suspend or terminate Your Account and Your rights to access, use and/or otherwise participate in the ClickBank Services.

New terms that make you responsible for attorneys’ fees and costs from funds due ClickBank…

You agree that ClickBank shall be entitled to its reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs resulting from collection of funds due ClickBank, enforcement of ClickBank’s rights under this Agreement or other policies issued by ClickBank.

What is it?
CouponMagic is an automated coupon system for ClickBank vendors to create coupons for their ClickBank products. Additionally, vendors can create time-limited coupons or create coupons that are restricted to specific affiliates.

Who is it for?
CouponMagic is designed for ClickBank vendors interested in creating coupons and special offers. The program works in conjunction with the vendor’s ClickBank account and products.

How to use it?
To use CouponMagic, users must create an account with CouponMagic and download and install the program to their computer. Once the user’s account is created and the program is installed, coupons are created through the CouponMagic program interface by creating campaigns and individual coupons within each campaign. Users can export embeddable javascript code to place the CouponMagic Form onto a website.

Our Review:
The installation and setup for CouponMagic was a breeze. Simply download the setup file and install the CouponMagic software on the PC. By default, a CouponMagic shortcut is placed on the desktop. Opening the program will prompt a user login:

Entering the account credentials will bring up the account dashboard. The main dashboard is easy to navigate and displays account information, lists of campaigns, and helpful user tools such as Create New Campaign, Open Campaign, View Campaign Stats and more.

Before getting started, we went into the ‘How-to Videos’ section for some tips on setting up our first campaigns. The video tutorials are extremely well done and were a great guide to getting started with our first campaign. We recommend all users who are new to the program go through each video tutorial before getting started or while they are setting up their first campaign.

Creating our first campaign was easy to do. Each field description was clearly explained and the Campaign Editor features plenty of customization options to make the coupon box match the website.

Clicking ‘OK’ within the Campaign Editor will create the Campaign.

Before you can create a coupon, you must prepare you ClickBank Account and duplicate an existing product. The video tutorial ‘Preparing Your ClickBank Account’ does a nice job of explaining the steps inside the vendor’s ClickBank Account.

The next step is to create a coupon for the campaign by clicking ‘Add Coupon.’ Creating a coupon was easy to do by filling in the blank fields. Each coupon must have at least one product link attached.

Using the ‘Get Code’ feature allowed us to generate the embed code to place on our website.

Implementing the CouponMagic Form is fairly simple. In order to get the coupon form to function, users must manually add in the coupon’s Class link inside the paylink’s HTML code. Example:

<a class="CM_PurchaseLink" href="http://item.vendor.pay.clickbank.net">
Link text</a>

Users of CouponMagic will need to be familiar with editing HTML in order to add in the link class.

The CouponMagic form worked flawlessly after we embedded the coupon form code and payment link class.

What’s the bottom line?
CouponMagic is a relatively simple solution for creating coupons for ClickBank products. The program features and friendly user-interface and is supported by a series of helpful video tutorials. The coupon entry form can be highly customized to match any website. The ability to track stats within the CouponMagic program is a major bonus, however the program is not able to track sale transactions. The program’s advanced features such as the ability to create multiple coupon offers for a single product and designate certain affiliates to selected coupon offers will meet the needs of the most advanced vendors.

ClickBank created the Premier program to enhance the relationships with top clients and provide its best affiliates and vendors with tools and resources to grow their online businesses.

“The enhanced Premier program is a testament to our commitment and dedication to our top-performing clients. Our rigorous selection process allows us to identify and reward the efforts of the best of the best doing business on ClickBank over the past year,” said Kate Wallace, vice president of client development at ClickBank. “Our goal is to develop a community that enables our clients to reach their maximum potential through the ClickBank network. This program is designed to help clients take their businesses to the next level and offer them valuable resources that would not otherwise be available to them.”

Premier program members receive a dedicated Account Manager, opportunities to test pilot new programs and features, invitation-only access to key networking events, the ability to connect with other Premier clients, as well as other exclusive benefits and recognition. Additionally, Premier program members receive opportunities for exposure through ClickBank newsletters, its blog, and ClickBank Insider Radio podcast.

ClickBank also offers an Elite status, which provides additional benefits and is given to the 100 highest-performing clients that represent a mix of affiliates and vendors.

This is not a definitive guide but it is all you need to get a quick and successful start in the ClickBank world of affiliate marketing.

1. Identify Problems and Sell the Solution

The most successful affiliates identify problems quickly, then focus on them and sell the solution. This means creating content around the problems a specific product solves.  Identifying problems in a specific market can be done quickly by putting the topical keywords into a tool such as Keyword Questions from Wordtracker. Assuming you promote dog training products you would likely put in words like dog, puppy, training, stop, chews, etc. to find what problem keywords people in that market are looking for.

Once you have your own keyword questions created, move on the step 2.

2. Answer Questions

People find solutions by asking questions about their problems as pointed out above. Once you find the questions the next step is to answer them. There is a plethora of places to find answers from experts for free and many times you find the answer when you find the question. Here are some recommended resources:

• Quora
• Omgili
• Google Discussion Search
• Boardreader

Go to each of the sites listed above and search with the problem keywords you identified in step 1. Then create an article for each specific problem with a viable solution and link to any products or services (with an affiliate link) that are needed to solve the problem.

3. Powerful Images

It’s true: a picture is worth a thousand words yet people do not want to read those thousand words, they just want the visual representation known as a picture. Magnify the problems your readers have with images that people instantly connect with. If you are pushing a dog training guide then look for images of a wrecked house, a chewed up shoe and dog poop in a house combined with copy to drive each point home. There are some amazing free images available at creativecommons.org.

4. Include a Video

People watched approximately 279 minutes of online video per person in January, which is up 44.5 percent since last January according to data from Nielson. Not surprisingly, a large majority of these viewing minutes occurred on YouTube, so ignoring this channel to capture more traffic is leaving a lot of opportunity to gain new customers on the table. Re-use the Q&A content you already created to make some short videos that point back to your own money site or directly link to the ClickBank landing page.

5. Leverage Strong Domains

Now that we know what problems customers are facing we can craft content that answers those questions. Most people would write up some “How To” articles, register a new domain, add a WordPress template and quickly build a brand new site. While this can be a great strategy it can take anywhere from 90 – 180 days before seeing any significant traffic to monetize.

Instead you can test the market while making some quick cash by publishing on existing websites that allow user submitted content with affiliate links. The advantage is that your content ranks in Google & Bing much quicker for organic search traffic plus you can attract people who use the website itself. Some of the more mainstream websites that allow this include YouTube, Pinterest, Hubpages, Squidoo and even Facebook.

Cashing In

Go find a new product to promote on ClickBank then apply the five tactics above to boost your commission check. It takes some work but the payoff is usually well worth the effort. Once you have success on ClickBank remember that you can branch out to other affiliate networks to monetize your customers with other offers. These could be additional products for someone who purchased a product they may want instead of the products you are promoting

“Our podcast is for current and aspiring Internet marketers, and is a great place to learn tips, trends and techniques for making money with ClickBank,” said Beau Blackwell, ClickBank’s Client Knowledge Guru and host of ClickBank Insider Radio. “We interview top marketers to get their best strategies for success, and cover the latest news and ClickBank features to help marketers grow their businesses.”

ClickBank’s previous podcast, ‘Affiliate Marketing Today,’ covered more general affiliate marketing topics and was delivered through Webmasterradio.fm.

“With ClickBank Insider Radio, we’re able to focus specifically on ClickBank, so we can bring listeners more in-depth info and advice that’s focused on the ClickBank portion of their businesses,” said Blackwell.

ClickBank Insider Radio is hosted by Beau Blackwell and Molly Lane, who are both veteran ClickBank employees. Beau Blackwell is ClickBank’s Client Knowledge Guru, and is responsible for client education and training materials, as well as staying up on the latest trends in the Internet marketing industry. Molly Lane is ClickBank’s Marketing Specialist, and is responsible for most of ClickBank’s client-facing communications and content, including the ClickBank Blog and newsletters.

“The show features top Internet marketers from a variety of niches, including many ClickBank Premier clients,” said Blackwell.

The first episode of ClickBank Insider Radio, which published on Feb. 8, 2012, featured Internet marketer Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income.

New shows will air weekly according to Blackwell, and upcoming guests include Ryan Lee, Chris Farrell, and many more.

Listeners can subscribe to the podcast via iTunes or RSS. In addition, all podcasts are available on ClickBank’s website, ClickBank Insider Radio.