Is Clickbank For Beginners?

If there is one thing that makes me jump out of the nearest window straight away is the ‘How to make money on ClickBank for beginners’-type videos and blogposts. They just **** me off. It may be just me, but not long ago I was sitting in front YouTube, binge-watch videos on how to start affiliate marketing, how to make a quick buck, but I still could not get my head around ClickBank.

So the question started to form inside my head, ‘Is ClickBank really for beginners like me?‘ Am I missing something? Is it possible to get up one day with no experience in internet marketing whatsoever, sign up with Clickbank, pick a product and make money? It was not until I learned how to do affiliate marketing properly I could understand why ClickBank wasn’t working for me as a beginner and I am certain that;

ClickBank

Is

Absolutely

NOT

For Beginners

if ‘beginner’ means that someone is completely new to online marketing and affiliate marketing.

So, I save you some time: don’t watch any more ‘Clickbank tutorial for beginners step-by-step’ videos, it is not going to work for you. ‘Cause what they teach, it completely the opposite of what works in affiliate marketing.

Let me explain.

No matter how many videos and Clickbank tutorials I have watched, I could never really figure out how to even start making money on Clickbank. Even if you search Google, none of the first page results will tell you an honest answer.

Why ClickBank Is NOT for Beginners?

Okay, before trying to answer the question in detail, let’s just take a step back to see what you need to make affiliate sales. To put it simply, you need three things (besides a product):

1. An audience with interest in the topic
2. A platform to capture that audience
3. A mechanism to drive that audience to the platform where you capture them

Let’s break it down a bit more.

1. Audience

How do you find that audience? Well, before that, you should already have picked a product to analyse its strength and weaknesses, it’s selling point(s). Who is it made for? What is the value that it delivers?

Once you figured that out, what this audience does? What channel they use to make purchases? How much do they spend? Why would they buy this one over anything else?

Of course, you can pick a product without doing this kind of research but picking a product blindly will almost certainly lead to NO SALES. Nobody will buy simply because you are unable to target who the product is for.

Next question, how big is that audience? It will ultimately determine how much money you can make. If there are simply not enough interested people, you probably should not even bother promoting the product.

So, you must do some sort of keyword research to see search volumes and interest, identify trends. Picking a niche product with a downward trend may earn you some money but will never make you money on autopilot for a prolonged period.

Related post: How To Find an Affiliate Marketing Niche (5 Easy Steps)

2. A platform to capture the audience

The days of spamming comment boxes with HopLinks / affiliate links are long gone. Facebook does not even allow you to post affiliate links, so you must have a landing page with the affiliate link as a minimum. Then you can place a ‘normal’ link on social media, pointing to that landing page with your affiliate link.

Even better, if you have a few-page long website to provide further information on the topic or on the product.

You must also have a mechanism to capture the email address of the people who have already showed some interest but need more time / convincing to click on the HopLink or to make the purchase.

3. Now you need to drive traffic to that landing page or webpage

I have already mentioned social media, but unless you are a facebook/insta guru, we are talking about paid ads rather than waiting for people finding your post. It is the same with Google and other search engines. It is highly unlikely that a single landing page, or a few pages long website would rank on the first page of Google, but if you are an SEO expert already, you might nail this one too.

So we are talking about paid ads again.

But if you don’t know anything about keyword research and have no experience in paid advertising on the internet, then I can guarantee that you will burn a lot of money with little to none results.

So, Is ClickBank For Beginners?

Absolutely not.

If you start ‘affiliate marketing’ with searching a product to sell, you are destined to struggle.

• You don’t understand the potential buyers of that product
• You don’t know why they would buy the product you promote
• You ultimately will come across as sales-y, and that does not help sales

You can learn how to research and build out this marketing system with the various mechanisms I mentioned above, there are courses that teach you that in a few months.

Even by completing a simple course you will have a niche and a much better idea about what helps your audience, how to understand their needs. So technically, you will be still a beginner in affiliate marketing, but an educated beginner at least… (see my Resources page for free and paid courses that I have personally tried and liked).

But unless a product actually solves a problem that your audience struggles with the most, why on Earth would you want to promote? Just because it has a high ‘Gravity’ score? Because it pays great commission?

Who Is ClickBank For Then?

All that I have said above might have given the impression that I don’t like ClickBank, which is absolutely not true.

Furthermore, I think ClickBank is great for beginners. Confused? Let me explain.

• Clickbank has a wide variety of products.
• It is free to join
• Easy to start promoting any product
• Most of the time you have great resources to support your marketing campaign, like done-for-you emails, articles, banners etc.
• High converting sales funnels
• Clear reporting system and easy-to-understand publisher dashboard
• Prompt payment

For someone, who has already taken the first steps in their career as an affiliate marketer, ClickBank is a great match.

• You know the basics of SEO and keywords
• You already have chosen a niche
• You have built a website or started a YouTube channel (or have any other platform), and posted a lot of interesting content that provides value and helps people solving their problems within that niche
• You already have some traffic to your website / channel.
• But you are still a newbie, and don’t have much experience with different affiliate networks, advanced SEO, massive online marketing campaigns etc.

THEN, only then, if you can find a matching product from ClickBank, you research it and its great, you can promote it to your audience with a high chance of success.

And you don’t have to care about Gravity scores etc. If the product is the ONE that your audience NEEDS, it won’t matter how many other affiliate marketers promote that product (that’s the gravity score). You have your own unique audience, you are entitled to have your own affiliate product no matter what others promote. (And the opposite is true as well. If the product is not what your audience needs, don’t bother sell it to them).

This Is How You Make Money With ClickBank In a Day

It is even better if you can create a landing page in WordPress (or use GetResponse’s landing page builder) in the morning, you may even register a domain quickly and write 3-4 follow-up emails for your email marketing in GetResponse.

You set up your AdWords campaign after lunch, and spend the afternoon fine tuning it. Then you have every chance to wake up the next morning for some nice commissions.

But those bloody YouTube videos do not talk about this. And it p**** me off…

Does it make sense?

Do you see why I am so frustrated with those ‘Make $500 with ClickBank in a week’ videos?

What Can You Do For a Start Instead Of ClickBank?

You will have plenty of time to figure out ClickBank: how to choose a product, how to build up the marketing campaign should you wish to do so.

But the most sustainable and reliable way to start earning money online is if you create value first. By creating something that is valuable for a niche audience, you will inevitably attract people, who then will be more engaged and will more likely listen to you when you recommend a product to them.

Related post: What Is the Best Affiliate Marketing Course for Beginners?

It takes time though…

Affiliate marketing is not a get rich quick scheme.

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Greg

Aspiring entrepreneur online and offline for the last 14 years who is not afraid to share his trials, errors, failures and successes to help you avoid the same mistakes. Owner of 2 websites and 2 online shops, making websites ever since FrontPage Express was a thing and earning a side-income online since Amazon was a small business.

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