Of course she was absolutely certain that the affiliate program was ripping her off — She’d actually made sales but they weren’t credited to her affiliate account.

Maybe that was true in her case, I don’t know, but there are also other factors that could explain here lack of affiliate sales.

1.  Does the affiliate sales page convert?

This is probably the biggest thing that all affiliates should consider before joining because it will have the biggest impact on your bottom line.   Does the sales page for the affiliate product that you want to promote have a good conversion rate?  In other words, how many people who click over to the sales page actually buy the product?

Believe it or not, conversion rates average around 2%… but I’ve see affiliate sales pages converting at much, much less.  It’s not unusual to find affiliate conversion rates in the tank at 0.01%.

2.  Does the sales page offer “untracked” sales?

Sometimes an affiliate sales page offers prospects other forms of payment that can’t be tracked to the affiliate who referred them.

For example, if a prospect can order by 800 number, then the affiliate may not get credit for sales they’ve referred who purchased through that toll free number.

I’ve seen a lot of Clickbank merchants do this kind of bait and switch thing to affiliates… let me explain.

The merchant joins Clickbank and sells one of their products through them.  Once they’re in the Clickbank marketplace and affiliates start promoting them, the merchant switches over to take payments through PayPal, phone, or another payment system and cuts the affiliate out of the sales.

3.  Is your advertising targeting the right market?

This is what I think happened to my coaching client… she was getting plenty of clicks, but they weren’t people who were interested in actually buying the product she was advertising.

It’s easy, especially with pay-per-click, to get a lot of people clicking through your ad.  All you have to do is word the ad so that it provokes a lot of clicks.

But clicks aren’t what really matters in a pay-per-click campaign… quality clicks are what matter.

That’s why most PPC experts use negative qualifiers and precise information to weed out all the tire-kickers.  Once you do that and specifically target who will see your ad, you’ll find that the quality of your clicks and your return on investment (ROI) improves tremendously.  (If you want to learn more about PPC, then I highly recommend The Definitive Guide To Google Adwords!)

In the end, there are probably lots of reasons why some affiliate products don’t sell, but these are the most common problems that affiliates face.

No related posts.

So… of course I started checking into it.

Stop #1:  The Sales Page

Strictly speaking, the first page you see when you visit The Clickbank Code is actually a splash page, but  I have to tell you that the splash page is really a work of art.

1. There is very little distracting information on the page, including minimal links.
2. The layout is professional and eye-catching.
3. Everything that you need to see is above the fold — You don’t have to scroll to see it.
4. It has an effective lead capture system.  You have to submit your name and email to see the next video.
5. The video on the splash page is engaging and plays automatically.

It was worth visiting the The Clickbank Code just so that I could take notes on the sales system that they’re using.  I love to see how other people are doing it and discover new strategies that work well!

If you’re new to the idea of splash pages or looking into creating your own splash pages, you should seriously check this one out.  It’s pure art… all the way down to the headlines, colors, graphics, etc.

Even the arrows work effectively.

Stop #2:  The Sales Page

As you can tell, I’m a big fan of the splash page… not as big a fan of the sales page.

Don’t get me wrong, it was a well done sales page full of the same professional graphics and videos.  I just thought it was a bit of a let down after the splash page.  Michael Jones, the product owner, claims that the conversion rate for the sales page is over 7%, so the sales page must work pretty well.

I may just have to borrow a few of the ideas here.

Bottom line:  I’ve visited both the splash page and the sales page and I still don’t have a really good idea if I’m interested in this product or not.

Stop #3:  Online Reviews

As you might expect, there are tons of “honest reviews” of The Clickbank Code available online.  The vast majority — 99.99% of them are candy-coated reviews designed to elicit affiliate sales.

That’s hardly a review at all!

Of course, there’s also the anti-reviews or “scam alerts” that are written to capture affiliate sales for other products related to The Clickbank Code.  Those aren’t particularly honest.

I still have no idea if this is a product that I’m interested in or not.  I’m certainly curious about the product, but not willing to pony up out of shear curiousity.  I honestly expect that the product is really just a re-mix of the same old information about Clickbank, SEO, PPC, etc.

But how can I find out?  YouTube!

Stop #4: Get A Sneak Peak

So my last stop is to check out the various YouTube videos out there that show sneak peaks of the product.  My goal is to get that “insiders view” of The Clickbank Code so that I can decide if it’s something that I’m interested in either buying or promoting.

After viewing the videos, I decided that I’d like to promote the product and see how it performs for me, but I’m not interested in buying the product at this time.  From what I can see in the videos, the majority of the information available in The Clickbank Code is stuff that I either already know how to do or currently use in my business.

I’ve been in this business a long, long time… there’s just not that much that’s totally new to me anymore. (Am I showing my age?)

But I do think there’s some really good stuff in The Clickbank Code for those who haven’t been in the game as long as I have.  That’s why I offer the best sneak peak videos that I could find for you below:

In the end, I can’t personally recommend The Clickbank Code because I don’t own a copy myself.  It looks very promising for those who aren’t making as much money as they’d like at Clickbank and I’m planning a PPC campaign around the product to see if it really lives up to that 7.1% conversion rate claimed.

If you want to check out the splash page or sales letter, here’s the link to The Clickbank Code.

If you own this product yourself, tell me what you think about it.

Is it worth the price?

I’d love to hear from you!

No related posts.

As an affiliate, it looked like a good deal.

Just send targeted visitors to the sales page and make one sale for every sixteen or so visitors you send them.

So, I started working on my affiliate marketing campaign for the product.  In this case, I decided to use pay per click(PPC) to promote it.  Here’s why I started with PPC:

Read the rest of this post at www.The-Affiliate-Directory.com (one of my other blogs)

No related posts.

The problem with the Republicans is that they need a better marketing strategy.

Here’s my three step plan for getting the GOP back on it’s feet through a solid marketing plan.

Read the rest of this article at http://www.Politegrity.com

No related posts.

Running up a pretty substantial bill with poor results isn’t hard to do… but most newbies don’t do it on this scale:

“I am very new to this google adsense and posting ads. Last night I wanted to do a “TEST RUN ONLY” for Google to monitor before I could run any ad for my blogger.com. This morning 04/27/2009 I see a cost bill of almost $30,000.00?  Oh my GOD, how could this happen?  PLEASE HELP!  This is a mistake!  Please fix this problem and remove this cost of almost $30,000.00 from my account.  I don’t have that kind of money.  I’m a single mom and I’m not even working.  Please help.  I look forward to your response to my request.”

The quote above came from a Google AdWords Help thread and illustrates just how easy it is to get in trouble with PPC.

That’s why newbies should do their homework before they dive into the deep end of the pool!

Don’t get me wrong, I am sympathetic.  I think it’s really sad that this poor woman probably saw some kind of rhetoric online about how easy it was to make money with Google Adwords and jumped right in.

You can make money with Adwords, if you:

• Promote the right product
• Use the right keywords
• Learn to write great ads
• Pre-qualify people before they click
• Test and track everything you do

At the very least, learn how to set campaign limits in your account so you don’t rack up the bucks like this!!!

PPC is not for the faint of heart or those who don’t know what they’re doing.  You’ll lose your shirt if you don’t get a little basic education first.

If you seriously want to learn more about how to run a profitable Google Adwards program, then I highly recommend The Definitive Guide to Google AdWords by Perry Marshall.  I own it and thinks it’s absolutely excellent!

However, I’m also a realist and know that most of the people who need the information in Perry’s book won’t actually go out and get the book.

My Free Gift To Subscribers

That’s why I’m also offering my subscribers a free gift:

Google AdWords Pay-Per-Click Basics

This is a six part video series that explains all the basics of setting up an AdWords campaign so that you don’t get taken to the cleaners like the poor woman we talked about earlier.

This video course currently sells on other sites for $27, but I’m giving it away free to my subscribers.

One Warning: These aren’t my videos.  I didn’t produce them.  I have watched them, however, and they do provide a good basic foundation for PPC… although they are a bit dry!

In addition, these videos are no substitute to a solid education in PPC and all the tips and tricks to really make money using it.  For a solid education, I still recommend The Definitive Guide to Google AdWords.

If you’re already a subscriber, you’ll receive the download link in you inbox sometime today.  If you’re a new subscriber, send me a direct message on Twitter or through my contact form and I’ll make sure you get the link to the file!

The bottom line… don’t make a $30,000 PPC mistake like this.  Learn the ropes before you jump into AdWords or any other PPC.

No related posts.