Many people have questions about ClickBank.
Whether or not this is a legitimate platform, how to set up an account, how to promote products, and so on.
It is a well-known affiliate network so no wonder, people are curious if it is possible to make money with ClickBank (CB).
Some of them just want to purchase a course or a program.
Others (like Vendors or Merchants) want to add their products to the ClickBank marketplace so they can sell easier.
The majority of them would like to become partners with ClickBank as affiliate marketers.
Are You Also Affiliate Marketer?
You might be interested in 20+ Questions answered about Affiliate Marketing:
Either way, they want to make sure that they do not get scammed.
It is understandable, nobody wants to lose money.
We are going to review ClickBank as one of the oldest affiliate networks (founded in 1998).
Why there is some suspicion about CB, but most importantly we will answer the question, is ClickBank legit?
Right off the bat, I can tell you that it is legit, but at the same time, it is necessary to pay attention to some products/vendors.
The reason why so many people get confused about ClickBank’s credibility is not the ClickBank itself, but the products that are listed within the marketplace.
The truth is that there are many misleading systems/products, that people buy, and at the end of the day they do not benefit from it, and/or they may feel like they just have been ripped off.
Let’s start from the beginning.
What Is ClickBank?
ClickBank is an affiliate network that works as an intermediary between merchants and affiliates (or publishers).
Merchants are product creators who want to sell their products. To reach more customers (on top of building their website) they go to ClickBank and make a request to include the product within the ClickBank marketplace.
It is like in the old days when people (farmers) living in countries did not have a chance to attract customers.
They went to the market and offer their products here, where a lot of people gather from all over the country/state.
ClickBank (as the owner of the marketplace) takes a fee for listing the merchant’s product.
Now, Publishers or affiliates are those who choose a merchant (or more of them) and they help them to sell their product for a commission.
It is called affiliate marketing and it is one of the easiest ways how to start a business online.
You don’t have to worry about:
- suppliers
- customers
- you don’t need storage for merchandise
- no customer support
Just make sure to deliver helpful and meaningful content.
ClickBank as the intermediary makes the payment procedures and overall relationship between merchants and affiliates easy.
Since CB has been around for more than 2 decades, its affiliate technology is great.
Set Up an Account With ClickBank (CB)
ClickBank is very easy to access.
Unlike many other affiliate networks, ClickBank accepts everyone.
I mean almost.
There are certain countries that are not accepted. (It is similar to the Amazon Affiliate program).
Here is the list of banned countries:
- AFGHANISTAN
- ANGOLA
- AZERBAIJAN
- BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
- BANGLADESH
- BURKINA FASO
- BURUNDI
- BENIN
- BELARUS
- CONGO, THE DEM REP OF
- CENTRAL AFRICAN REP
- CONGO
- COTE D IVOIRE
- CAMEROON
- CUBA
- DJIBOUTI
- DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
- ALGERIA
- ECUADOR
- ERITREA
- ETHIOPIA
- GABON
- GUINEA
- EQUATORIAL GUINEA
- GUINEA-BISSAU
- GUYANA
- IRAQ
- IRAN, ISLAMIC REP OF
- KENYA
- KOREA, DEM PEOPLES REP
- LIBERIA
- LIBYA
- MOLDOVA, REPUBLIC OF
- MADAGASCAR
- MYANMAR
- MONGOLIA
- MAURITANIA
- MALAWI
- MOZAMBIQUE
- NIGER
- NIGERIA
- NEPAL
- PAPUA NEW GUINEA
- PALESTINIAN TERRITORY
- SERBIA
- RWANDA
- SUDAN
- SIERRA LEONE
- SENEGAL
- SOMALIA
- The SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC
- CHAD
- TOGO
- TAJIKISTAN
- TIMOR-LESTE
- TURKMENISTAN
- TANZANIA, UN REP OF
- UGANDA
- ZAMBIA
- SRI LANKA
Merchants have different conditions than publishers (affiliates) when it comes to partnering up with CB.
But generally, it is an easy process, and as I said there are no restrictions.
Here you can watch how to get started with a new CB Account.
One Note.
For those of you who don’t have a ClickBank account yet and want to sign up, there was a change on October 29th.
Since October 29, there are some changes regarding the ClickBank account so I have decided to include this video.
It concerns how to find the nicknames and how to move to other areas within ClickBank.
How to Choose a Product
Once you have your account up, you can go to any category you want, and promote whatever you want.
OK, not that fast 🙂
In a real-life, you should choose a category where you feel some attraction towards it.
Or an interest.
Whether it is dieting, education, languages, sports, or travel, you should choose one.
At least at the beginning. (As your business grows you can definitely delegate some part of the work and start thinking about the new project or niche).
After selecting your favorite category, go to the list of products and choose a specific one.
If you are not sure, sort out the products according to “rank” – from High to Low, so you have the TOP10 most popular products on the 1st page.
There are certain “parameters” related to each product and one of them is called Gravity.
What is the Gravity?
This is an indicator (each product has it) of other marketers who made money in the last 12 days.
It does not show an actual number of affiliates though. It is a number calculated based on how many sales were made in the last 12 days.
Whenever a sale is made, ClickBank adds 1 point to the gravity score.
It is recalculated every day.
Meaning if the sales were done yesterday, the point is being added.
On the other hand, if there is no sale for yesterday, a new number is added to the gravity score. Instead of 1, a 0.96 is added.
This number decreases as there are no sales in the next days:
3 days without sale: 0.96 x 09.96 = 0.9216 ( = 0.96^2 )
4 days without sale: 0.96 x 09.96 x 0.96 = 0.884736 (= 0.96^3)
…
…
6 days without sale: 0.81537 (= 0.96^5)
and so on…
Enough of the math 🙂
Let’s sum it up:
- Usually, it is not recommended to promote a product that has lower gravity than “5”. That means that there are not that many affiliates (publishers) who sold this product.
- When there is a gravity higher than “20” it indicates that the product is popular and publishers have good results in sales (with this particular product)
- Gravity ranges from 5 to 20 – always check how old os the product is. If it is a new one, this can be a popular one as well.
Also a tip for you – you must trust the product you are going to promote.
Don’t choose a random product just because of a high commission.
Get to know, what it is all about, how it works; how the system looks like, and then promote it.
That means, checking the sales page. It can’t be too hyped up. Must be clean, understandable, and realistic.
Here (Home Income Millionaire) is an example of a very bad product.
You can see that they had been using fake testimonials as well.
Eventually, this product, called Home Income Millionaire, was removed from the ClickBank marketplace.
This leads me to the next section on how to promote such a product.
How to Promote The Product
I see all the time, throwing affiliate links in FaceBook groups, without any introduction, hoping that someone will click on them and purchase them.
Some people use this “method” so often that it is considered spamming.
They don’t realize that this is not working.
1st of all – FaceBook feeds are not shown to all your followers.
Also, Facebook wants people to stay on Facebook.
1. Social media
That being said, it is much better to do research about the product at first and then write a post about what you have learned. Mention the highlights and the PROs.
This way people might comment on your post; If so, make sure you connect with them and reply to comments.
If you have followers on Twitter, and Instagram you can leverage these platforms as well.
2. YouTube
Another great approach is to create a YouTube video about the product.
You don’t have to be on the video. Make a presentation and record the screen.
Post a link to your website (as I am going to mention in the next paragraph), to the post where you describe the product as well.
Have that affiliate (hoplink) within your post. The best would be in the middle of your post and at the end.
3. Your own Website (+the above)
The single best approach is to have your own website where you describe the product.
Also, have a link to Facebook, YouTube, and vice-versa.
You want to inform people about the product. Educate them that it is not a scam.
List the pros and cons. Obviously, if you promote it, the cons will not outweigh the pros. But be legit.
Don’t try to trick people into buying some scam.
They will find out and ask for their money back. That means you get no commission.
Remember that ClickBank holds the commission until the 30-day money-back guarantee period is over.
Some products offer a 60-day money-back guarantee. Only after this period is up, do you get paid.
So there is no point in being misleading.
Regarding the promotion;
Organic traffic to your website – It is the best way how to reach your visitors.
Actually, they reach out to you, so you don’t have to bother anyone.
There is a very good training course teaching how to get free traffic and most importantly, how to monetize the traffic.
I am a member of that platform as well.
If you want to read some tips on how your post should look, click here to read about 9 Proven Steps To Increase Site’s Ranking.
This platform has step-by-step training that is perfect for beginners (and also experienced marketers). In fact, the first 10 lessons are absolutely free.
You only need your email address to access the platform.
Can You Make Money with ClickBank? To Sum It Up
Sure you can.
Have a website or YouTube channel where you can promote the products.
That means you need traffic (or getting more views in case you have a video).
In my experience, the beginner will have the best results using organic (free) traffic.
You can also educate people on social media, like Facebook.
For example, choose a group and be active within the community. Be helpful. Engage with others.
Offer them a solution to a problem they might have – depending on the niche.
If it is losing weight, let them know your opinion.
Don’t send them your affiliate link right away. Make them curious about the offer you are about to present
What do I like About ClickBank?
- Many programs pay high affiliate commission (50%-70+%)
- It is easy to get a partner with ClickBank – They accept beginners even without a website (although it is recommended to have a website)
- A large variety of products to choose from (both physical and digital)
- Founded in 1998 – so it has been a well-established platform
What I Do Not Like?
- ClickBank does not accept some countries to join (as per the list above)
- Some products, listed in the ClickBank marketplace are, misleading (or they are low-quality products)
- A minimum of 5 sales must be made from 2 different payment forms (f.e. different credit cards)
Is ClickBank Legit? – Final Thoughts
Yes, ClickBank is a legit platform.
The reason why the reputation might have been a bit damaged is due to the products they used to accept.
But this has been fixed.
If a certain product has a high refund rate, it is removed from the ClickBank marketplace.
The thing is, that for ClickBank it is not always possible to evaluate the quality of the new program. Therefore it is always recommended to check the reviews of the program you are about to join.
Make sure to check 2 or 3 reviews.
Google following:
Is “name-of-the-product” a scam
or
“name-of-the-product” review
One other thing you want to be careful about is that many of these reviews are just promoting that product and as an affiliate, they try to sell it.
In many cases though, such biased reviews are easily recognizable. One of the signs is that they mention almost no negative sites about the product.
Nevertheless, the ClickBank representatives want to make sure that the refund rate is low and therefore customers remain happy.
But it takes time, a few months, sometimes even more.
In case you like the idea of being an affiliate marketer, you should not limit yourself to ClickBank only. There are tons of affiliate networks out there.
Sure not all of them accept newbies, but with proper training, you will learn more and more stuff and tricks. You can become an authority within the affiliate marketing space and that opens a new door for you.
You can easily scale your income once you are an affiliate for more networks.
Before we wrap up, let me also include a Clickbank video about How To Make Money Online With Affiliate Marketing:
ClickBank itself also delivers good quality content for free, so it is definitely a legitimate platform
I know we have covered a lot.
In case you have any questions, please let me know in the section below.
Also if you have a comment or any thoughts regarding ClickBank or Affiliate marketing let me know in the comment section below.
I will be more than happy to answer them. (Hopefully within 24 hours).
Thanks for reading
Mike
I learned affiliate marketing with ClickBank from Richard Solomon X, he’s a good guy.
You can see some of his stuff at [link deleted] and his Podcast.
Basically, he teaches the concept of an affiliate funnel and getting free traffic from Facebook every day.
I think his Passive Comm course and affiliate funnel template are still available for free, you can check it out at:
[like deleted]
Hope this helps.
Thanks for the comment.
Please understand this section is not for promotion.
cheers
I remember when I made my first sale on ClickBank. Your article is very informative. To be honest I’ve been really gullible in the past that I had no idea that people hired actors on Fiverr to get fake testimonials, and yes I noticed that some of their affiliate programs are misleading. Thank you for putting together a great article
Great that you have made money with ClickBank!
Congratulations!:)
thanks a lot for your thoughts
Wishing you all the best
Mike
Thank you for sharing this helpful information about Clickbank. I’ve seen numerous videos on YouTube talking about Clickbank and how you can make money from it and the fact that you’ve shown how exactly to promote products that are listed on Clickbank just proves that it is not a scam. I’ve been wanting to learn more about Clickbank and this article gives a perfect introduction to Clickbank.
That is right. ClickBank is legit, but some of the products that are listed here can be misleading – especially in the Make money online niche.
So be careful about that.
Do research about the specific product, first if possible buy it test it, and then go ahead and promote it.
If you can’t be the product (for whatever reason) do your homework first – make sure you know all the pros and cons and do your best to deliver the value to the potential customers.
1) They know what are they going to buy
2) You don’t risk that these customers will ask for a refund. Because if the do you don’t get your commission.
If you have any more questions, let me know
Mike
Hello, Thank you for the information. I appreciate the hard work you put into it. Now you got me thinking. I had no idea Clickbank’s payout is 50-70%. I think that’s amazing! That’s a huge difference from Amazon’s 6-8%. I will be darned if I don’t look into this. Thanks again, and by the way, cool popup!
Yes, the commission is pretty high, but it is important to realize that that it is much harder to sell the product that pays 70% commission.
Almost all of them are digital products and people tend to hesitate when it comes to these products.
But Once it is done properly, meaning you drive a lot of traffic, you can make a few hundred per week.
Wishin you lot of success
Mike
Thank you so much for sharing with us such a beautiful article .I’ve heard about ClickBank for the good reason I’ve been working in the online world for a long time .However, your idea of clickbank through your article became a complete change .Thank you for your wonderful research .I knew ClickBank was an old affiliate network .And I heard almost nothing negative before reading your article .In fact, I was unaware of some of the confusing systems or products here .I learned from your article today that ClickBank is an affiliate marketing firm that acts as an intermediary between traders and affiliates.And merchants create and sell some of these products, and to reach the customers, they go to the click bank at the top of the website to create different websites and request that the product be included in the CB marketplace.So I want to set up an account with CB which is very easy to do in clickbank access .So I would like for all of you to feel free to set up an account with ClickBank CB and make money from here.This affiliate technology is really cool .
Thank you for stopping by.
Yes it is easy to set up a ClickBank account – and almost everyone is accepted (besides those banned countries)
It can be a good opportunity to make some money on the side, but still, there is a learning curve when it comes to the promotion of any product.
It is not easy to learn how to promote the product solely within the CB website.
But for guys with experience, this is a good opportunity. I would sign up for other affiliate programs as well, just to diversify the potential income.
Very good info on the pros and cons of Clickbank and the essentials of its platform. I agree that it is a good platform but there are products on it that are not so good as well. I appreciate your insights on this and all the details which you provided.
Glad you like it.
Yes, the majority of the digital product within ClickBank is not so good.
What I find disturbing, many of them advertising their course for a price something like $37, but at the end of a day, if the prospector wants to have an entire package, he ends up paying a couple of hundreds.
To me that is misleading.
But apparently, it works.
Nevertheless, when I do the reviews, I reveal the full picture right at the beginning.
It is important to read product reviews before purchasing them.
Detailed Reviews, can’t ask for nothing else as in information. thanks bro
You are welcome,
glad to help
Mike
I have heard a lot and viewed what Clickbank has to offer and despite there may be some negative things that have been said about Clickbank though I have never tried it seems to be legit base on what I have seen and heard over the years.
Thank you, Norman for your comment.
Yes, ClickBank is legit, but you have to be careful what product you decide to promote. As I mentioned in my post, do your due diligence and check it first. You don’t want to end up promoting some misleading system. There is no point of doing it.
People will eventually request their money back and you have no commission at the end of the day.
You can still do the review though, honest review with all the Pros and Cons. Your visitors will appreciate it.
Wishing you good luck
Hi Mike,
This is one of the most excellent and well detailed review I’ve read lately on ClickBank. Thank you for this elaborated write up.
Although I am a full-time affiliate marketer I am yet to promote ClickBank products. Many of my blogging friends are making money by promoting ClickBank products. The challenge is… There are genuine products and also products that under-delivers with low-quality we need to find the right one.
I do have an account with ClickBank but not using it. I was wondering about Gravity and you gave me a clear understanding on it and thanks for the detailed explanation about it. Indeed, the fake testimonies and those products are the ones I referred as low-quality products.
The step by step walk-through on choosing the product and the video you embedded is very helpful and informative.
After reading your review I am planning to utilize and promote CB quality products.
Thank you, Paul,
I appreciate your comment
Yes, it may be challenging to find the “right” product. I personally don’t feel like promoting some misleading overhyped system.
If a product uses paid actors to do the testimonials, it is always a deal-breaker for me. Not worth it.
I am also glad the ClickBank tries to get rid of such scammy products (especially in the e-business section). It makes it easier to find systems with a value in it.
Good luck Paul.