As a ClickBank affiliate, the number of ways you can
promote ClickBank products is nearly unlimited. However, to help get you
started, here are some of the most common ways that ClickBank affiliates choose
to promote products, as well as the pros and cons of each.
Article Marketing
If you’re an affiliate who’s just starting out and doesn’t
have a big budget to spend on your advertising initiatives, or if you enjoy
writing, article marketing can be a good way to start promoting products without
having to spend a lot of money. Your main investment in article marketing will
be your time and creativity.
Article marketing is the technique of writing articles that
are posted and distributed online for the purpose of driving traffic to a
particular website or product you’re promoting. These articles may be posted on
sites dedicated specifically to article marketing, such as Ezinearticles or
Goarticles, or could be written for an industry-specific website. There are many
different styles of these articles, such as expert advice articles, a review of
a product, or many other topics.
For example, let’s say you are promoting an ebook about
gardening. You could write an article in an online directory that offers readers
some advice about a specific topic, like general tips on growing bigger roses.
You could then mention that you learned these tips and more from a particular
ebook, and that they should check it out if they’d like even more advice. You’d
then post your HopLink, so you get credit if someone ends up purchasing the
product.
The additional benefit of article marketing is that if your
articles are useful enough, you could become recognized as an expert in a
particular field, which could end up generating more exposure and sales for
you.
Pros: Free; allows for a
great deal of creativity, especially if you like writing; if your article gets
shared or distributed around the Internet, it can “go viral,” resulting in a
great deal of additional free traffic for you
Cons:
Time-consuming; may take a lot of effort before you see articles start
generating traffic; can be competitive if there are many other people writing on
the same topic
Niche Sites & Blogs
Like article marketing, creating
niche sites and/or blogs can be another great option for affiliates who have
more time and creativity than money. If you do create your own website or
self-hosted blog, there may be costs for a domain name and hosting, but these
are typically pretty small. There are also many options to get your own site or
blog that is hosted for free, though you may be more limited on options like the
look and feel of the site or how many pages your site can have.
Once you’ve identified a niche market that you want to
promote (such as gardening), you create your own website or blog that is
dedicated to this topic. You then write articles for your own site, similar to
the types of articles you might write for article marketing directories. The
goal is to get free traffic to your website, either by getting linked to from
other sites or by ranking well organically in search engines on particular
search terms. You can then have HopLinks to a number of different ClickBank
products in that niche, giving you the opportunity to promote many different
products from a single source.
Creating your own site is especially beneficial for ranking
in search engines, as the more articles and content you create, the higher
search engines will rank your site. Like article marketing, this technique can
take time before you start seeing results, so it’s not something you should
expect to show immediate returns, but it can be one of the best ways to create
sustainable long-term profits with a minimum of money spent. You can even
combine this technique with article marketing or social media marketing, by
linking to your site from the bio of your article or social media profile.
Pros: Low cost or free;
allows for a great deal of creativity; potential to drive large amounts of
traffic through search engines or social media; you can build a “brand” for your
website, especially if you host your own site or blog and have a unique domain
name
Cons: Time-consuming; may take a lot
of effort before you start generating traffic; can be very competitive if there
are many other sites in your niche
Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing has exploded in the past few years
as a way to advertise and drive free traffic. “Social media” is a very broad
term that includes sites and services like Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, social
bookmarking sites like Digg and Del.icio.us, Youtube, and many more.
The main benefits of tapping into the power of social media
are that it’s free and that your message has the potential to “go viral” and
reach a huge amount of people quickly with no extra effort on your part. The
difficulties of social media are how to get your voice heard above the millions
of other people out there, and how to avoid being seen as a social media
“spammer.” The key to being successful promoting products in the social media
space is to provide content that’s worthwhile enough for people to actually want
to follow you and take your advice when you recommend products.
Pros: Free; easy to get
started and participate in; has the potential to reach huge audiences; many
potential sites and services to participate in
Cons: Lots of competition on popular services like
Twitter; many people on social networks don’t like to be sold to, so there’s the
potential to be labeled a spammer
Search Engine Marketing
Search engine marketing is
comprised of two main techniques: search engine
optimization (SEO) and pay per click
advertising (PPC). Each has very different challenges and benefits.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of trying
to get your website, blog, or other page (such as an article you’ve written for
an article directory) ranked highly in search engines for a particular keyword
or phrase. The ultimate goal is to drive free traffic to your website or
promotion when someone searches on that keyword. SEO can generate an extremely
good return for you, but often requires a significant investment of up-front
time to learn good SEO techniques and apply these to your work. However, the
long-term benefits of creating content that ranks well in search engines can be
extraordinarily profitable.
Pros: Typically free;
can drive huge amounts of traffic; has long-term returns
Cons: Steep learning curve; search engine positions
change regularly, so results can be inconsistent; may take a long time before
you see results, if at all; competitive
Pay per click advertising (PPC) is the practice of placing
paid advertisements in search engine results for a particular keyword or phrase.
You agree to pay a certain amount if someone searches on a keyword and clicks on
your advertisement. Many very successful affiliates pay to advertise on the
search engines, as the main benefit is highly-targeted traffic, but the downside
is that it can cost a significant amount of money and requires a great deal of
testing and experimentation to find profitable keywords, ad copy, etc. It can
also be very competitive, so PPC can be a difficult and expensive tactic for
affiliates who are just starting out.
Pros: Quick to get up
and running; popular keywords can drive a great deal of traffic
quickly; you can target highly relevant, well-qualified traffic
Cons: Can be extremely expensive; highly competitive;
search engines (especially Google) have many rules about what affiliate
promotions are acceptable; usually require a great deal of research, attention,
and oversight, especially early on, to be profitable
These are just a few of the many ways you can effectively
promote ClickBank products. ClickBank affiliates are constantly finding new and
innovative ways to promote products and expand their reach. Hopefully this list
will help get you started, but we’ve only scratched the surface. The best way to
discover what will work for you and your niche is to get out there and start
experimenting!
FAQ
Q: Can your team help me create or decide where to
place ads or promotions?
A: Outside of the advice
we provide in our Help Center and the ClickBank Blog, we cannot assist you in creating or
placing ads or other promotions.
Articles from http://www.clickbank.com/
