DanzDigitalz

If you have questions about the ClickBank Gravity Score, we’ve put together some answers that take the mystery out of the cryptic metric.

hbsptReady({
portalId: 5154711,
formId: “7642b9fe-5d46-49e7-aa54-737c33f9221c”,
target: “#hbspt-form-1607695828000-2710865748”,
shortcode: “wp”,

});

Pop quiz time! The term “gravity score” refers to… Roger Ebert’s review of the Oscar-winning film, Gravity starring Sandra Bullock 

a) A metric used in beer making 
b) A metric used to measure offers in the ClickBank Affiliate Marketplace 
c) A score used to rate the performance of rock climbers (high gravity = bad, low gravity = good)
d) None of the above
e) Other
f) Just get to the dang point 

Okay, okay. The correct answer is C. Gravity score is a metric used to measure offers in the ClickBank Affiliate Marketplace. 

However, if you’re unfamiliar with ClickBank, any of these could sound plausible. Even if you are familiar with ClickBank, you just might not quite understand what the metric is and that is a-okay. Today we’re going to shed some light on the mysterious gravity score and get some expert advice on how to read and understand it.

The History of the Gravity Score

Gravity score is a metric unique to ClickBank that is based on an algorithm that was built to rank offers in a way that is agnostic from revenue. This is helpful because there are elements that make an offer attractive to affiliates that aren’t solely based on revenue–like competition, commission rate, and average earnings per sale. Gravity score identifies, with an arbitrary numeral value that has no cap, affiliate success. 

Two Offers, Two Different Gravity Scores 

So, for example, let’s say there are two offers: 

Offer A has a score of 360 and Offer B has a score of 349. This means that affiliates who promote Offer A are making more sales than the affiliate who promote Offer B. This information is helpful to affiliates who are searching for offers because, in theory, they wouldn’t want to promote something that isn’t sellable. 

However, a high gravity score doesn’t mean that an offer is the best choice to promote. Offers with high Gravity scores are likely promoted by many affiliates and competing with affiliates who likely have large ad budgets can be difficult (and discouraging) for affiliates just starting out.

According to Thomas McMahon, the reason these offers have lower gravity score truly has to do with one part of the puzzle: 

“Why are they so far down in the Marketplace… on page five with a gravity score of 71 compared to 300? Well, it just means that less affiliates have picked them up, but they’re still running big volumes because big affiliates have promoted them… it just means they’re less exposed to a big chunk of affiliates, which actually means they might convert better for you because they’ve had less exposure in the overall market.”

What goes into the calculation? 

Gravity score is calculated on a 12-week rolling cycle with more weight placed on recent sales. “Sales from yesterday count more towards (the score) than sales from last week,” says McMahon. 

Scores will start to dip if sales start to lag, but not in real time. This is why an offer won’t stay at the top forever, but will move down or up the list depending on sales. 

The One Thing to Keep in Mind 

The most important thing to keep in mind when reading the score is that offers even five pages into the list of offers on the ClickBank Affiliate Marketplace are still converting and are still solid selections. A lower score doesn’t mean an offer should be written off from promotion–it only means that an offer above it has more affiliates experiencing success at the same time.      

Want the whole scoop? Listen here to Thomas McMahon break it down. 

Do you want to ignite your digital marketing career? We recommend Spark, the only ClickBank-endorsed education platform. Spark has over 70 videos that harness the power of ClickBank’s two decades of expertise and is the best way to shorten the time between now and your first ClickBank paycheck.Monday, December 7th

The post Demystifying the ClickBank Gravity Score appeared first on ClickBank.

Source: clickbank

Your average order value tells a story about the health of your offer and its potential. Read on to find out more about how you can improve and increase your AOV numbers.

hbsptReady({
portalId: 5154711,
formId: “7642b9fe-5d46-49e7-aa54-737c33f9221c”,
target: “#hbspt-form-1607004004000-7836955166”,
shortcode: “wp”,

});

Average order value (AOV) is a key metric that all vendors need to pay attention to when monitoring the status of their offer. However, just like conversion rate, it doesn’t tell the whole story. You may have a high conversion rate and an abundance of traffic, but profits may be lagging. If this is the case, you may be interested in learning how to increase the amount of money people are spending on an order. There are a few ways to do this, but first, let’s dive into some definitions and data. 

What is average order value?

Average order value is total revenue divided by number of orders. For example, if your total revenue was 5,000 and you sold 100 orders, that means that–on average–each order was $50.

Of course, keep in mind that this number could be skewed by one or a couple high value orders. Or, inversely, skewed by one or a couple low value orders.

If you have the capabilities, it’s a good idea to look deeper at the data and throw out any outliers that may be pulling the average to one end or the other. Segmenting the data can also help build a more accurate picture of what may be affecting the AOV calculation.

Two Parts of AOV

For direct response marketers, there are often two parts to AOV: the average initial order value, and the total order value. Looking at these two values independently can help sellers figure out where there is potential to increase their revenue. 

ClickBank had a chance to do their own data analysis on top vendors from Q3 of 2020 and discovered that average initial order value plays a critical role in getting order value numbers up.

The insights were shared in the quarterly publication The Rundown Report. According to the report, it may not be prudent for product owners to rely too heavily on their upsell: 

“The best of the best don’t rely on upsells to increase their order value. Instead, they focus on their initial cart value. In fact, the top 10% of ClickBank Top Earners have an average initial order value of $406.52.” 

Click Here to Download the Full Q3 Rundown Report FOR FREE 

An average initial order value that large may seem unrealistic if your top priced product is $75, but take the ratio into perspective: 

The same group that had an average initial order value of $406.52 only relied on upsells for 8.45% of their total AOV. That means for someone with an average total AOV of $50, their average initial AOV would be $48.78.

Don’t Rely on the Upsell

While numbers and spending thresholds vary wildly between industries and niches, for ClickBank data analysts, the big takeaway from the recent data was that the pros and top earners don’t always rely on upsells to increase their AOV. The focus must start with the initial order.

So what are some ways you can take what you learn from your own data analysis and increase your average initial order value? 

Top Five Ways to Increase Average Initial Order Value

Tactic 1: Create or raise your order limit for free shipping. 

These days it seems like everything ships free so it can be nerve wracking to create or raise an order limit for free shipping. But with the right combination or products or an optimized offer funnel, you can effectively move buyers to increase their initial order value to reach that threshold.

One way to make sure you’re increasing average initial order value and not cart abandonment is to make sure strategically priced items are front and center and attractive as an impulse buy. If people are trying to reach a free shipping price threshold, they likely do not have the patience to shop sizes, colors, and cuts to find just the right item to put them over the limit. 

Tactic 2: Consider Your Current Buyers 

Another way to increase your average initial order values is to go back to the basics and do a little more market research. If you have enough data to calculate a meaningful and statistically significant AOV, then you have enough data to figure out who your primary customers are.

With your new insights you can tailor your products or your offer to better fit your current buyers as well as any new buyers you may attract. Market research is a priceless tool that can help you leverage up and coming trends as well as classic marketing tactics that can create and maintain customer loyalty.

Tactic 3: The power of bundling.

Bundling is a powerful tool that, when done right, can make a big impact on your average initial order value. The key to offering an enticing bundle is to communicate the value of the bundle correctly. Take the example Derek Gleason uses in his article, “Product Bundling Strategy: How to Get it Right”: 

Here’s the classic example: A $750-per-night hotel charges $10 for a bottle of water. Consumers feel ripped off. However, that same hotel room for $760 per night including water seems like a reasonable deal.

If you have a product of value that has some “major friction”–as Gleason says–adding into a bundle with the more expensive main item can reduce buyer apprehension. 

This is only one of many bundling tactics. Bundling, like many marketing practices, has deep psychological roots that delve into human behavior. While the science is fascinating, if you don’t have time to read a peer-reviewed paper, it’s wise to consult some experts (or at least their blog posts) when you start offering bundles. 

Tactic 4: Personalized plans.

If you have the capability to add personalization to your offer, then you may have found your golden ticket to increase your average initial order value. 

Eccommerce has largely stripped the buying experience of the intimacy that people might get with a one-on-one in-person sales encounter. You can add a dash of that back in by offering customizable elements to your products or offers flows.

Individualization is the preferred meal of the ego, so the potential to feel special can help your buyers spend a little more. However, if the quality of the personalization feels gimmicky, you risk a poor product experience. 

Like bundling, do a little research when it comes to personalization options and find the one that works best for your product and offer. 

Tactic 5: Focus on brand experience.

The last suggestion on our list is the most important: 

You have to focus on brand experience. From your UX design to your product quality, focusing on brand experience is the only long-lasting tactic to retaining customers who will buy more because they trust your sales process and your product. 

A study by Dimension Data found that 92% of companies who focused on improving customer experience saw a growth in revenue. 

Customer trust starts at the first brand touch. One bad experience can turn a potential or current customer off for a lifetime. By focusing on brand and customer experience–from start to finish–you’ll have people coming back and, over time, you’re guaranteed to see the needle move on your average order value.

Do you want to ignite your digital marketing career? We recommend Spark, the only ClickBank-endorsed education platform. Spark has over 70 videos that harness the power of ClickBank’s two decades of expertise and is the best way to shorten the time between now and your first ClickBank paycheck.

The post Average Order Value: Learning from The 2020 Q3 Rundown Report appeared first on ClickBank.

Source: clickbank

A customer service visionary gone too soon. CEO of Zappos, Tony Hseih, has died from injuries sustained in a house fire in Connecticut. He was 46.

hbsptReady({
portalId: 5154711,
formId: “7642b9fe-5d46-49e7-aa54-737c33f9221c”,
target: “#hbspt-form-1606917526000-6519456565”,
shortcode: “wp”,

});

Hseih was best known for his leadership of Zappos. He joined the company as CEO in 1999 after co-founder Nick Swinmurn left him a voicemail. Initially skeptical of a company that sells shoes online without customer try-on options, Hseih was ultimately swayed by Swinmurn mentioning that footwear was a 40 billion dollar industry with 5% of that total coming from paper catalogs. Within 10 years of its conception, Zappos had cleared a billion dollars in revenue.

A New Way of Doing Things 

Much of Zappos success is credited to Hseih’s pioneering customer service and company culture methodologies–ideas and skills he perfected during and following his graduation from Harvard in 1995. 

With his computer science degree, Hseih envisioned and developed LinkExchange, one of the first online advertising networks, and Venture Frogs, an investment firm.

Hseih was CEO of Zappos for 21 years and spearheaded company culture changes that would lead Zappos to be voted one of the best places to work by Fortune multiple times. These initiatives included moving the company towards a holacratic way of management. In a holacracy, there are no typical bosses and employees have the autonomy and support to make decisions that would be typically left to management positions.

In a 2017 interview with Guy Raz, host of NPR’s “How I Built This” segment, Hseih talked about how he sees himself in the role of CEO:  

“I’m probably different from a lot of typical CEOs. Imagine a greenhouse, where maybe at a typical company, the CEO might be the strongest and tallest, most charismatic plant that all the other plants strive to one day become. … For me, I really think of my role as more about being the architect of the greenhouse, and then all the plants inside will flourish and thrive on their own.”

A Game-Saving Pivot

This kind of hands off management style was what attracted top talent to Zappos and paved the road for an Amazon acquisition worth 1.2 billion dollars in 2009.

However, the journey to multi-million dollar success was not an easy one. Like most ecommerce companies, Zappos had to survive the dot com crash of 2000. Investments were hard to come by, especially for online shoe retailers. 

“It was pretty much impossible to raise money from anyone. And also, if someone wanted to invest in an internet company, the last thing they wanted to do was invest in an online shoe company…because no one would ever buy shoes online,” said Hseih. 

The game-saving pivot for Zappos would come in the form of an unyielding commitment to customer service and customer experience.

“I think for us a big turning point was really deciding we wanted to build our brand to be about the very best customer service and customer experience. It led us to do a lot of things that would not have made any sense if that wasn’t our north store.” 

A Brand that Stands for Something 

An example of Zappos commitment to customer experience was offering free shipping both ways. According to Hseih, that customer service decision was made with long term brand in mind:

“We would have made more money in the short term during those days but then we wouldn’t have built our brand and reputation… When you want your brand to stand for something or have some sort of purpose, you do things that are kind of nonsensical in some ways and that your competition would never do.”

Being different has always been considered an asset to the Zappos team. One of the questions the hiring team asks potential talent is “How weird are you?”

When it came to being weird, on a scale of one to ten, Hseih considered himself an “8.” He notoriously didn’t have strong feelings for shoes and made daily commitments to challenge his introverted nature by doing things that made him uncomfortable. 

“I’m not passionate about shoes at all. I’m passionate about customer service and company culture, but I can’t say anything about shoes,” said Hseih. 

A Legacy to Remember 

Hseih’s commitment to customer service and company culture changed the way ecommerce interacts with customers and pushed the bounds of what is expected out of an internet retailer. From turning down acquisition offers for fear of diluting Zappos culture, to the publication of his book, “Delivering Happiness,” Hseih remained unwavered in doing things not just different, but better.

“So many people are unhappy at their jobs for various reasons. It could be the work itself, the culture, the lack of autonomy, all of those things are things that we want to hopefully show that there’s a different and better way of not just work, but life.”

The post Remembering Former Zappos CEO Tony Hseih appeared first on ClickBank.

Source: clickbank

If you’re struggling to feel gratitude right now, you’re not alone. In fact, you’re among good company. Below, find ways you can reshape gratitude to live authentically.

hbsptReady({
portalId: 5154711,
formId: “7642b9fe-5d46-49e7-aa54-737c33f9221c”,
target: “#hbspt-form-1606399204000-0386384997”,
shortcode: “wp”,

});

There’s not a lot to write about 2020 that hasn’t already been said. As we close now on the 11th month, the novelty of coronavirus, social unrest, and environmental catastrophe has given way to something like a collective shrug. Though death surrounds us more than ever, our shared suffering seems to border on monotony.

With one month left to go, we’ve accepted the terms and conditions of the year and become quite adept at pantomiming normal–if normal even remains an option for us. For so many entering this holiday season, “normal” was sharing their table with a loved one who succumbed to the virus.

Yet all around, people fumble with grief, disappointment and hopelessness, then diligently try to turn these heavy stones into a wispy “made for social media” rhetoric of thanks and resiliency.

Don’t get me wrong–the power of positive thinking has been hailed as a life saver. From cancer to unthinkable loss, the masses have touted gratitude and thanksgiving as a way of thriving through times too dark to bear. However, these days, the thankful mindset seems nearly performative in the way we all jump to post heartwarming narratives of how we’ve been able to count our blessings despite the heaps of emotional rubble we’ve emerged from.

It’s almost as if we need to prove that we’re fine lest we be considered weak–or worse, too–negative.

It Starts With Vulnerability

For those who turn to positivity as a means to assimilate, the fear of not conforming to what is now seemingly the consistent rhetoric of social media can cause feelings of shame. Studies have linked shame to larger health issues like depression and anxiety.

According to Dr. Brenee Brown, esteemed author and patron saint of self care, the antidote to shame is empathy.

The quintessential ingredient for empathy? Vulnerability. 

While vulnerability can take a multitude of shapes, it is not always the resilient “phoenix rising from the ashes” narrative we often experience in sales copy, social media posts, and testimonials.

Vulnerability is an honest moment of taking stock. It’s an authentic statement of a shared experience (i.e. “I’ve been there. I know what you’re going through.”) or it’s an admission of not having enough (i.e. “I’m not okay right now.”). Vulnerability is not a plea for charity. It’s a truthful assessment of one’s surroundings and experiences.

Because being vulnerable requires real, authentic, artisan (hand crafted by you, with love) emotions, it’s the perfect place for creativity to fruit.

“Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity, and change.”

Brenne Brown

Vulnerability is an invitation for problem-solving, crowd-sourcing, fundraising, synergy, and collaboration. It is where the ingredients to an authentic meaningful life are harvested. 

So, how can we harness the power of vulnerability in our own stories and during this extraordinarily difficult time to practice gratitude? How can we encourage vulnerability in our interactions with people in our lives and businesses that we interact with only on a computer? 

Below, find 5 ways you can rethink and reframe gratitude this year through vulnerability.  

1. Invite people to feel feelings together.

It goes without saying that 2020 has produced an abundance of feelings of all shapes, sizes, and intensities. One way to connect with gratitude is to set aside time to feel feelings with other people.

This can be especially healing during the holiday times. Talking about what you miss and inviting others to share what they miss as well can be cathartic and meaningful. Grief is often a catalyst for humor and reminiscing about, oh say, that one Thanksgiving when Uncle Ken had to call the fire department not once–but twice–is a good way to feel close to those that you love, even if they aren’t with you.

2. Let friends and coworkers know that you can be a non-judgmental listener.

Oftentimes our friends and coworkers don’t feel like they can share “non-positive” news. Or, if they do, they have to first put a positive spin on it before they can talk about it. One way to practice thanks is to let those who are in our lives know that we’re thankful for them, with no strings attached, and encourage them to share their authentic feelings.   

3. Embrace the power of dark humor.

Sometimes to lighten to the mood or to soften reality, people will use the “it could be worse” tactic. Some crowds get uncomfortable with this kind of humor, but now is a good time to lean in.

The absurdity of tough times can be too heavy to bear without the lightness of laughter so smile at someone’s irreverence or try it out for yourself. 

4. Feel gratitude for your less glamorous feelings.

Are you angry? Disappointed? Devastated by life events that you can’t control? It might feel counterintuitive, but say a quick thanks for these emotions and share them in their fullness. ALL feelings are a part of the wild ride of being a human. Yes, many of them are awful. And those awful ones are not usually the “main stage” emotions. They don’t get as many views or likes as the other “pretty” emotions.

Yet, they are yours and they are important.Rather than fold them into something they’re not, feel them fully and move through them knowing that all emotions have a place in the patchwork quilt of existence and right now you are living as a full authentic human ought to.

5. Take a personal day.

When it comes to feeling gratitude these days, it can be a complicated process. This is not an instance where you have to “fake it until you make it.” Instead, take some time to decide what gratitude looks like for you.

Your emotional health is just as important as your physical and mental health so if you’re feeling burned out from looking on the bright side, take a personal day to rest and recenter. 

In the end, gratitude is not a one-size-fits-all, cookie cutter, “tailored to a news feed” emotion. It is a highly personal acknowledgement of what it means for us, as individuals, to give thanks and bear witness. Gratitude might not always be rosy and bright. It may be a magnificent weight on your back alone, the burden of life, a thing carried because there is no other choice; a thing shared because there is a choice–the choice of community, and the bravery of vulnerability.

  

Are you new to affiliate marketing and seeking quality education and community? We recommend Spark, the only ClickBank-endorsed education platform. Spark has over 70 videos that harness the power of ClickBank’s two decades of expertise and is the best way to shorten the time between now and your first ClickBank paycheck.

The post The New Thankful: How to Feel Gratitude During Tough Times appeared first on ClickBank.

Source: clickbank

ClickBank has debuted the first and only ClickBank-sponsored education Platform, Spark. Spark is a robust opportunity geared towards affiliate marketers of all levels. Read on to find out more about how Spark can help you learn how to use ClickBank and jumpstart your digital marketing career. 

hbsptReady({
portalId: 5154711,
formId: “7642b9fe-5d46-49e7-aa54-737c33f9221c”,
target: “#hbspt-form-1606226373000-9807661727”,
shortcode: “wp”,

});

While you may run into internet content claiming that affiliate marketing is easy (i.e. “How I made $2,000 in 3 hours with this affiliate marketing trick!”) the truth is, there is a learning curve. While ClickBank has always been candid about the time and effort it takes to earn a living as an affiliate marketer, we also want to acknowledge that it’s not the simplest thing to do on your own. With so much information out there, parsing through it all can be frustrating and overwhelming. 

It Starts With the Learner 

So, a team of ClickBank experts got together and decided to make learning how to use ClickBank more straightforward. According to ClickBank Marketing Manager, Brett Chesney, the idea started with the learner in mind: 

“Even from its earliest inception we wanted to design a growth platform that not only provided students best-in-class training on becoming successful product creators and affiliate marketers, but also gave them the building blocks that are needed before that.

The end result is an all-encompassing training program. We guide you through things like important industry concepts and terms; the psychology behind why direct response marketing works (and will always work!); how to write killer ad copy; and we even get a little zen and explore powerful ways each of us can tap into our own passions to help fuel our future success.”

Build Blocks for a Firm Foundation 

By focusing on the building blocks of affiliate marketing, Spark ensures a strong foundation of best practices for affiliate marketers of all skills levels who want to learn how to use ClickBank. It doesn’t hurt that the education platform is designed, driven, and engineered by ClickBank experts.

ClickBank Director of Content, Taylor Utt, says it the best: 

“The curriculum was designed through a combination of smart minds and proven leaders throughout our industry. Between our marketing and sales teams, compliance and fraud, as well as solopreneurs who have made the journey themselves, we carefully weighed each area of expertise and crafted a curriculum that touches all of the pain points a newcomer might face.”

Get Your First Paycheck Faster

One of the most fundamental things that sets Spark apart from all of the other digital advertising learning resources is that it is rooted in actual education. With the help of adult education experts, the ClickBank team designed courses that teach real skills in a very real way. Taylor chalks it up to the cutting-edge tools Spark offers:   

Spark not only provides the education needed to get started, but supplies marketers with actual tools and strategies that are used in the industry today. Most online education classes talk in terms of hypotheticals or long winded stories. Spark gives marketers the tools and resources needed from day one.”

Just Like Rome… 

Spark definitely wasn’t built in one day. Like all projects worth doing, Spark had to go from inception, to conception, to creation. Even with 22 years of experience, and a team with robust and adept skill sets, getting it all from paper to production didn’t happen without a lot of hard work. For Brett, the process was well worth the experience:  

“Anyone who has ever launched a product at this scale can attest to the sheer amount of moving pieces necessary to create something people will not only find continued value in, but something they’ll want to tell all their friends about. From branding and colors, to editing and content creation, website design, engineering and extensive Q&A… The journey from what was just an idea with a few words on a piece of A4 paper to the experience that it is today was equal parts challenging and equal parts rich and rewarding.”

Who is Spark For? 

Now that the building is done and Spark is on the market… you might be wondering, “Is Spark for me?” The short answer and only answer is: 

Yes. 

Spark is the only ClickBank-endorsed learning platform on the web. You may know some things about digital marketing, but if you truly want to learn how to use ClickBank, Spark is the answer. With new material being added and exclusive access to experts and invite-only webinars, Spark ignites your digital marketing career in a way that other digital marketing educational resources just can’t.

Spark is for anyone who wants to shorten the time between now and their first ClickBank paycheck. With over 70 videos that harness the power of ClickBank’s two decades of expertise in the industry, it’s a living solution that’s worth investing in if you’re serious about making money online. 

Learn How to Use ClickBank… 

… and jumpstart your journey to your first ClickBank paycheck. Get access to Spark, now! 

The post Learn How to Use ClickBank With Spark appeared first on ClickBank.

Source: clickbank

Free traffic. Everybody wants it. Read on for how to get it, use it, and why “free traffic” is actually a bit of a misnomer.

hbsptReady({
portalId: 5154711,
formId: “7642b9fe-5d46-49e7-aa54-737c33f9221c”,
target: “#hbspt-form-1605708004000-3783639030”,
shortcode: “wp”,

});

If you’re new to affiliate marketing, you may not have the kind of traffic that some veteran affiliates have. Traffic, especially free traffic, is a commodity in the affiliate marketing world. For new affiliates, it’s not always the easiest to procure, however, without it, the truth is, your likelihood of making it as an affiliate is slim. Traffic truly is power. 

We get it though; as a new affiliate, shelling out mad cash for some traffic is intimidating, and not always the safest way to get it. To give you a leg up, we’ve compiled this list of tips and tactics to get free traffic.  

No Such Thing as Free Traffic

So, the unfortunate reality is… there’s no such thing as free traffic. Thomas McMahon, Senior ClickBank Business Development Manager, explains: 

“There’s not going to be a lot of true free traffic anymore. There’s going to have to be some amount of work put in to earn traffic. You might not have to pay money for it, or at least much money, but it’s going to take some sweat equity to gain a traffic source that you can then leverage to make money.”

Three tried and true ways to gain traffic are: 

1. SEO and blog growth
2. Social networking
3. Email list traffic

SEO and Blog Growth 

Focusing on SEO and blog growth will generate an organic source of traffic. While generating organic traffic from Google is not as easy as it was ten years ago, it is still doable–but it takes catering to a niche. And, even then, you’re going to need a website. Plus a lot of time to write blogs. (You can always hire freelance content developers, but the good ones will cost you.)

As you plan for the kind of content you’re going to feature on your website, remember that you’re trying to rank for highly specific keywords. Niche focusing will help you rank faster, however, it may be difficult to pinpoint what kind of keywords you should go for to set yourself apart from the competition.

Tools like Ahrefs, Google Search Console, SEMRush, and KWFinder. Of these four, Google Search Console is the only free one. 

Ahrefs is the most recommended SEO tool and is one of the largest website crawlers, only second to Google.

KWFinder is best for finding long tail keywords that have a lower level of competition. This is a good investment for those who are trying to identify the best niche to gain traction and traffic in. 

Total Cost: $50, or more if you want writers 

Social Networking

After you have a website running with a little bit of content, you can start sharing it via social media. Social media is also an organic traffic source. Some might call it “free,” but this is really where the term “sweat equity” comes in. Nobody is entitled to a following on social media; you have to earn it. Sure, it doesn’t require cash up front, but building a following on LinkedIn or through Facebook Groups is not an overnight task. It takes trust, good content, and patience as you figure out what resonates with your audience and what doesn’t. There are plenty of resources out there on how to leverage the power of social networking to build a following. Three of our favorites are: 

1. Giveaways 
2. Relatable content
3. Valuable content 

Total Cost: Free, if you don’t count the hours you’ll spend building a following

Email List Traffic

It would be a drastic oversight if you didn’t use your new website to collect email addresses from your visitors as soon as it was up. This is the first step to building an email list and “earning” free traffic for your promotions. 

One of the best ways you can collect email addresses is through gated content or a subscribe function. 

Gated Content

Gated content is valuable content (like an e-book, a guide, a free download, etc.) that is “behind” a form that requires a visitor’s email address to access the content. If you’re working with a landing page builder like HubSpot, building the functionality behind gated content is relatively easy. Once a visitor gives you their email address, you can start sending them emails with content and promotions. But a word to the wise: these emails have to be good. Like, really good. Otherwise, your email list will dwindle as people unsubscribe. 

Subscribe Function

As you add content to your website, you can give visitors the option to subscribe to your email list to stay up to date on your content and promotions. This is similar to gated content, but you’re not incentivizing visitor’s with any particular piece of content, just your overall content goodness in general. This tactic can be more difficult, however, these users aren’t as likely to unsubscribe after they receive their initial deal. 

More Time Than You Think

Again, this kind of “free traffic” requires hard work, trial and error, and time… more time than you think it will. 

However, according to Thomas, the email list is what you should always be focusing on: 

“If you’re trying to grow organically on your blog or on the social channel, and you’re driving that traffic somewhere to an email list that you’re cultivating, you’re protecting that traffic source and taking it not offline, but you’re harvesting that for something you can continue to monetize and grow wherever you might go. And that way, if you do spin up a new traffic channel eventually, whether it’s another social platform or a new product or a website you’re launching, you have an email list you can now put that in front of and get that much faster traction than you ever did to start with.”

If you use SEO and blog growth and social networking to increase your email list, you’ll create a stable and reliable source of traffic that is a product of your hard work. The age old saying is  unfortunate, but especially true in affiliate marketing…. 

Nothing in this world is free; not even traffic. 

Do you want to ignite your digital marketing career? We recommend Spark, the only ClickBank-endorsed education platform. Spark has over 70 videos that harness the power of ClickBank’s two decades of expertise and is the best way to shorten the time between now and your first ClickBank paycheck.

The post Free Traffic: How to Get It and Use It appeared first on ClickBank.

Source: clickbank

Read on to find out how to advertise on ClickBank and harness the power of organically targeted display ads to attract more affiliates. 

hbsptReady({
portalId: 5154711,
formId: “7642b9fe-5d46-49e7-aa54-737c33f9221c”,
target: “#hbspt-form-1602943115000-0723495436”,
shortcode: “wp”,

});

ClickBank has revamped its advertising program. Now, getting your ad in front of potential affiliates easier than ever. Advertising on ClickBank is straight forward, and–most importantly–effective. 

What You Get

If you want to advertise on ClickBank, there’s a package that’s just right for you. According to Anna Steward, ClickBank’s Ad Sales Manager, it’s the options that make all the difference: 

“One of the best parts about the ClickBank advertising program is that there are options galore!” says Anna.

“ClickBank offers display ads on the login, dashboard, and marketplace zones. There are also options available for targeted email blasts, sponsored banners in ClickBank emails, and coming soon, we’ll have opportunities on social channels, events, and more. We want to work with you to determine what strategy and package best fits your product, brand, and goals.”

Advertising Made Easy

Selecting your ad package and getting started is simple. The first step is submitting this form to indicate interest. Then, Anna takes it from there. 

“Once we talk about your business and your marketing goals, I will suggest some ad placements, ad creative ideas, and impressions that are right for you,” says Anna. “Then, we pick a time frame and book it! It’s that easy.”

If you change your mind before the booked time frame, cancellation is no sweat. Once the campaign starts running, the ad sales team can provide real-time metrics. After the campaign ends, they send over a report with impressions, clicks, clickthrough rate, and more.

Straight-Forward

The ClickBank advertising program aims to help you achieve your goals. The ad sales team will work with you to determine the best ad package depending on your budget. Our experts can help you customize and select zones, ad types, and duration and then break down the package into an easily digestible basis.

Effective 

Another perk to advertising on ClickBank is that the ads are organically targeted to people who understand ClickBank and use it on the regular. Remember, affiliates who view ads on the ClickBank dashboard or in the ClickBank Affiliate Marketplace already have a ClickBank account. These affiliates are already part of a niche ecosystem; understand how affiliate marketing works; and are looking for products to promote. 

Of course conversion is the ultimate goal of display ads. However, display ads have additional unique qualities that set them apart from native ads or video ads. For one, display ads are generally less expensive. Some native ads can be as high as $80-$90 per click, which can get expensive, fast. The CPM for ClickBank display ads is as low as $5.

Brand Exposure

Additionally, display ads promote brand exposure. If you’re familiar with marketing, you’re likely familiar with “The Rule of 7.” A brand must interact with a potential customer, on average, 7 times before the customer commits to the purchase. Nowadays, that number is much higher with the influx of social media advertising and general media noise that consumers must wade through.

The Perfect Audience 

Some may argue that display ads are no longer relevant in the changing marketing landscape, but the reason the ClickBank display ads are so effective is because the viewers are already ClickBank clients. In fact, for someone to view your display ad, they must be logged in to their ClickBank account. This is why Clickbank display ads retain their value. They are innately targeted to the perfect audience. This kind of targeting would be an additional cost if you were to advertise through Google or Facebook, but if you advertise with ClickBank, it’s already included in your advertising package. 

Trackable Data

Most importantly, display ads provide trackable data. ClickBank provides reporting on impressions, clicks, click-through rate, zone effectiveness. All tracked data can be grouped by week and day so you can make empowered marketing decisions. ClickBank ads can also use any destination URL you’d like to use for tracking purposes.

The Numbers to Prove It 

The Numbers to Prove It 

If you’re not sold yet, here are some numbers to back up our claims. 

• September 2020 ClickBank Advertising Campaign
  Recently, in September 2020, an ad campaign on ClickBank had over 4,000,000 impressions and produced a .19% CTR–a substantial percentage considering the industry standard for display ads is 0.05%.

  From the campaign data, our ad sales team was able to determine that the highest CTR for this campaign occurred in the ClickBank Affiliate Marketplace zone–a page where affiliates are generally searching for products to promote.

• Two Month ClickBank Advertising Campaign in 2020
  In 2020, a ClickBank vendor ran a campaign with over 3,000,000 impressions. The CTR on that campaign was .45% and the highest CTR occurred in the dashboard zone, producing a nearly 1.0% CTR.

The Takeaway

The power of ClickBank display ads is evident. They make an effective addition to your marketing plan, and can make an advertising plan more thorough and robust. Brand exposure, a perfect audience, trackable data, and case study data prove it. 

If you want to advertise on ClickBank, our ad team is standing by to answer any questions you may have. We look forward to finding the perfect ad option for your marketing goals. 

CLICK HERE to get in touch with our Ad Sales Manager today. 

Not quite ready for display ads and looking to promote or partner with ClickBank? Sign up for an account here. 

The post Advertise on ClickBank appeared first on ClickBank.

Source: clickbank

As you start to scale as a ClickBank Affiliate, not only will your profits increase, the amount of numbers you need to understand increases as well. We’ve put together this guide to help you figure out what data should be tracked.

hbsptReady({
portalId: 5154711,
formId: “7642b9fe-5d46-49e7-aa54-737c33f9221c”,
target: “#hbspt-form-1602856300000-4518152616”,
shortcode: “wp”,

});

The Best Data to Track for ClickBank Affiliates 

Keeping an eye on your numbers is critical for monitoring the health of your digital marketing career. However, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with just how many numbers there are to keep track of.

According to Moz.com, trying to optimize without data is pointless:

“If you don’t gather data, then you’re left making changes based on gut feelings alone. Guts are awesome! But making decisions on just gut feelings instead of rooting assumptions in data can be a waste of time and money.”

Below, we’ve listed the top metrics to monitor so you can supplement your gut feelings with actual evidence and stop wondering what data should be tracked.

Conversion Rate or CR 

The conversion rate is calculated by dividing the total number of conversions by the total number of visitors to a particular website or landing page. “Conversions” can refer to any action that you wish to take place as indicated by the call to action on the page. For example, a conversion can be a sale, a click, a download, or an email submission. 

Tracking your conversion rate is important because it provides insight into how well a page is performing. Of course, knowing how many visitors your site has or how many conversions occur is also important. But it’s the conversion rate that can be monitored and used as a “goal-setting” number. 

If you want to improve your conversion rate and reach a certain percentage, one of the first things you can do is to hypothesize reasons your traffic may not be converting. This is known as CRO–conversion rate optimization. Conversion rate optimization utilizes A/B testing to pinpoint elements of a landing page that are either improving or harming conversions. One of the best things you can do to improve your conversion rate is to test, test, and test some more.

How to read the numbers: A higher conversion rate is better.

This metric typically applies to affiliates who promote with a website. If you want to learn how to promote without a website, check out this blog post.

Earnings Per Click or EPC 

Earnings per click is calculated by taking the total earnings you generated over a specific period and then dividing that number by the total number of clicks you generated for the same period. This number provides insight into what you can expect each individual click you are generating to produce in earnings. 

This number is particularly important in a cost per click environment or cost per impression environment. If you determine the cost per click for every click that you drive to paid ads for your promotions, then you can compare your EPC to your CPC. If your EPC is higher, then you’re making money. 

What’s great about this metric is how straightforward it is. While we don’t recommend that it’s the only metric in your data toolset, it’s a good one to have for quick insight. 

How to read the numbers: A higher EPC is better.

Return on Investment or ROI

Return on investment (or ROI) is a commonly tracked metric across all industries. For affiliate marketers, this means comparing all costs of promotion to net profit.

According to Investopedia, this is the the best way to calculate ROI:

“ROI is calculated by subtracting the initial value of the investment from the final value of the investment (which equals the net return), then dividing this new number (the net return) by the cost of the investment, and, finally, multiplying it by 100.”

So, for an affiliate marketer, calculating their ROI starts with subtracting all ad costs from their final profit and then diving that number by the ad costs value. That number would then be multiplied by 100 to get a percentage. If this number is positive, it means that there is a true profit from the investment. If the number is negative, it means that the costs it took to invest have not been recouped–or, to put it simply, you’re in the hole.

To get the purest version of your ROI, make sure you consider all costs that it takes to return a profit ad factor them into the calculation.

How to read the numbers: A higher ROI is better.

Affiliate Link Clicks

Monitoring your affiliate link clicks will allow you to see which links are performing well and which aren’t. This metrics is measured in number of clicks, therefore the higher the number, the more times people have clicked on the link. However, a higher number does not indicate a higher conversion rate. If you have a lot of clicks and very few conversions, you should evaluate the landing page and perform some CRO-related tasks. If your affiliate link clicks are high and the conversion rate is low, you may also want to consider if you want to continue to promote this offer. There could be a number of reasons that conversions aren’t happening and if the vendor isn’t working to improve their offer, there’s no point in continuing promotion.

How to read the numbers: A lot of clicks is good, but does not indicate growth in sales or profits.

Link and Advertisement Impressions

Tracking how many people actually see your advertisements and links is a helpful metric to determine your conversion rate. If your conversions are low and your impressions are high, you may want to consider your marketing strategy or review your copy.

How to read the numbers: A higher number of impressions is good, but does not indicate growth in sales or profits.

The main reason to keep track of your data is to see what is working. Then, you can replicate that tactic and grow your profit. At the end of the day, the best metric and measure for success is profit, so understanding the numbers related to that can empower you as an affiliate. If you want to lighten your load, you can invest in software like Voluum, a data-tracking plfatform specifically tailored for affiliate marketers

Do you want to get started as a ClickBank affiliate? The first step to your ClickBank paycheck is signing up!

The post What data should be tracked? | ClickBank Affiliate Edition appeared first on ClickBank.

Source: clickbank

You’ve done the hard part. You’ve put together your offer, tested it, and fine-tuned your VSL. Now it’s time to find people to promote your product.

hbsptReady({
portalId: 5154711,
formId: “7642b9fe-5d46-49e7-aa54-737c33f9221c”,
target: “#hbspt-form-1602080459000-9124990565”,
shortcode: “wp”,

});

Building the best affiliate program full of promoters who are eager to market and hype your offer is one of the most effective ways to scale your online business. If you haven’t tapped into the power of leveraging promoters’ audiences, you’re essentially sabotaging your own success. 

So, how’s it done? How do you find people to promote your product? And, after you find them, how do you keep them? Below, we’re outlined seven surefire steps to cultivating the affiliate program of your dreams. 

1. Bring your offer to the right internet retailer. 

I bet you thought I’d save the “ClickBank plug” for the bottom of this article. Well, surprise–I’m putting it in here at Step 1. ClickBank combines the global reach of an internet retailer with the scaling opportunity of its affiliate marketplace. When you partner with ClickBank, you immediately have access to the world’s best affiliates who are promoting in over twenty countries all around the globe.

To get this kind of retail opportunity would be next to impossible if you were trying to do it alone. The onboarding process is seamless and ClickBank is always working to make life easier for both affiliates and vendors through product updates and easy-to-understand instructional products. 

ClickBank CEO, Kelly Householder, says it the best in an interview with Websiteplanet.com: 

“Although ClickBank is often compared to other affiliate networks, our business model and product offering occupy a unique niche in the affiliate marketing industry. ClickBank is the internet retailer that actually sells the product. We ensure all of our products are compliant and high quality versus just making the connection between product vendors and affiliates like other networks.” 

Yes–I’m biased. After all, you are likely reading this on the ClickBank Blog. So it makes sense that I wouldn’t encourage you to take your offer anywhere else. But even if I wasn’t a copywriter at ClickBank, I would still endorse the company this empathically. I have witnessed extraordinary success happen on ClickBank and I know it comes down to vendors utilizing the remarkable affiliate marketplace, plain and simple.      

2. Make your product easy to promote.

The best way to get someone to do something for you is to make it as easy as possible for them to do it. If you want someone to help you jump your car, the process is a whole lot simpler when you have the jumper cables on hand. So, before you go out searching for affiliates, make sure you have the proper bait. In this case, it’s promotional content and materials.

For vendors who list their product in the affiliate marketplace, there’s a spot for what is known as the affiliate tools page. The affiliates tools page is a website that vendors put together that showcases promotional copy, banner images, videos, icons, and any other digital asset that can help affiliates promote your offer and stay congruent with your branding. 

When vendors provide this for affiliates, it makes it easier for them to promote your product and helps both vendors and affiliates earn more and scale faster.  

3. Incentivize affiliates.

The affiliate/vendor relationship is what is known as a symbiotic relationship in the wild. Think clownfish and anemone, ants and aphids, or nitrogen fixing bacteria and legumes… these species all benefit from a relationship with the other. So, how do you make it worth it for affiliates to promote your product? By offering commission of course!

However, not all affiliates need the same amount of commission. Based on their ad spend and audience size, some may need a higher commission rate to incentivize them to promote your product. Others may not be interested in earning more than a standard commission rate from you because they promote many offers. Whatever the case, the best way to build a robust affiliate program is to be able to offer different commission rates to different affiliates. 

You’ll also want to consider what you can feasibly offer your affiliates without losing money yourself. Calculating commission can be tricky. One one hand, you want to make money; on the other, you want to attract industrious affiliates who know what they’re doing to promote your product. Take some time to do the math. There’s nothing worse than losing money over some poor calculations.

3. Speak to your niche.

One way to find people to promote your product is to do a little competitive snooping… er… research. What kind of commission rates are other vendors in your niche offering? What kind of promotional assets do they give their affiliates? Now, “competitive research” does not mean “monkey see, monkey do.” Instead, treat competitive research like a window into what’s working for the top earners in your niche. This insight can help you better speak to your potential customers and price your product to sell.  

 4. Don’t slack on your copy. 

This is another thing I might be a little biased about… you have to make sure your copy is impeccable. I’m not saying it needs to be Pulitzer Prize winning, New York Times Best Seller copy, but it does need to be free of grammatical errors; compelling but also concise; and effective at getting your potential customers to buy. 

There’s one way to make sure you don’t mess this up:

Hire a professional copywriter. 

I know, I know, you’re a solopreneur! You can’t afford to be throwing fat stacks around for some words! Hear me out though. The copy a professional copywriter will create through their ingenuity and raw talent will pay dividends. It’s an investment in your success and one you shouldn’t take lightly. 

How will hiring a copywriter help you attract people to promote your product, you ask? Because you will be able to sell more and pay more if you can convert more. Simple as that.

5. Optimize your offer content.

This step goes hand in hand with step number two. You’ll want to make sure you provide affiliates with content they can use for all platforms. This means preparing video for social media websites and YouTube as well as making sure you have copy and images ready for LinkedIn and Quora. If you cover all of the content bases, all your affiliates have to do is promote. 

This step might be a big of a lift for you and it may take some learning, but it will ensure brand consistency and will attract affiliates to promote your product. There are plenty of resources out there to create the best content you can including one of our favorites, HubSpot’s annual State of Marketing Report. This report provides quality insights for a high level content plan. Again, keep in mind that the work you do to better understand content will pay dividends when it comes to finding people to promote your product. 

6. Go to events.

Events, in person or virtual, are a great way to find people to promote your product. Affiliates of all types gather at Affiliate Summit and Affiliate World Conferences every year to find offers that would be a good fit for them. There’s truly no better way to network than in-person, so take the time to plan for attending at least one event a year.

The best way to network at events, according to Forbes, is pretty simple: just smile. People are genuinely attracted to warm vibes and smiling can open the door for a conversation. If you’re a bit introverted, and even smiling can be hard, just set a goal for yourself to make one connection. It’s likely you’ll surprise yourself with your efforts and end up making more. 

7. Make sure your webpage converts.

If you’re having a hard time keeping affiliates, the problem could very likely be your pitch page. Affiliates can drive traffic all day, but if customers can’t figure out how to buy the product, then conversions simply won’t happen.

Even little changes to the layout, whitespace balance, and button placement can make a big difference in conversion rates. If you’re unfamiliar with design best practices, take some time to brush up and do a thorough audit of your pitch page to make sure it’s clean and easy to navigate. One of the main culprits of low converting pitch pages is an indirect call to action. If you want people to buy, make sure your CTAs make that evident. If you want to direct people to a free trial, indicate that through clear language. User experience is a highly important element of a pitch page, but is often overlooked when it should be the first priority when it comes to deducing why your pitch page conversions are low. 

Of course, all of these steps may not be relevant to your personal hunt for affiliates. Regardless, make sure you double check that you’ve put effort into each and done your due diligence to finding people to promote your product. Performance based marketing is the number one way to grow your product online and cultivating an excellent affiliate community is quintessential to that process.

Are you ready to harness the power of ClickBank’s affiliate marketplace? Create an account today! (It’s free!)

The post How to Find People to Promote Your Product appeared first on ClickBank.

Source: clickbank

Many credit the success of a business with product, prices, or innovation. While all of those do play a role in whether or not a business succeeds, there’s one factor of success that tends to get left out of the equation: the potentially toxic personality traits of the entrepreneurs in charge.

hbsptReady({
portalId: 5154711,
formId: “7642b9fe-5d46-49e7-aa54-737c33f9221c”,
target: “#hbspt-form-1601647204000-4586118638”,
shortcode: “wp”,

});

Coming up with a good idea is easy. Starting a business is relatively easy as well. But getting people to back up your vision, trust your goals, and execute tasks towards a planned objective? Now that’s the real trick. 

A business is no good without its teams and, with remote work becoming more accessible, people feel more mobile than ever to find a better company fit for them if toxic leadership is infringing on their quality of life. So how do you make sure that your personality qualities aren’t pushing away talent? 

Read on to find out if you have any of these toxic personality traits and see if you can implement any of the suggested antidotes into your day-to-day to become a better team member and leader. 

1. Low Emotional Intelligence

The definition of emotional intelligence is, ‘The capacity to be aware of, control, and express one’s emotions, and to handle interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically.” Emotional intelligence is a critical ingredient for success–especially for those higher up in the ranks. It is the mechanism by which bosses and supervisors relate to their cohort and provide motivational leadership. For someone with a low EQ, communicating effectively to a group is a challenge. Understanding the needs and nuances of an individual is next to impossible. Oftentimes people with low EQ act without thinking, offend others, and damage their credibility.

If you feel like you’re lacking in emotional intelligence, a good way to improve is to ask for open and honest feedback with the initial promise to not retaliate or hold grudges. The responses may not be what you want to hear, but they’re what you need to hear. 

2. Arrogance 

Oftentimes people who are arrogant claim to be confident. But anyone on the receiving end of their personality can tell the difference. Arrogance infers to those around that the individual is better than them and has nothing left to learn in the situation. Confidence is a mentality of optimism and self-assuredness.

An entrepreneur who is arrogant cannot learn from their mistakes because they inherently don’t believe that they make any. Any arrogant person blames others, shirks responsibility, and will quickly fail in a leadership role.

The cure for arrogance is humility. If you feel like arrogance is one of your toxic personality traits, try to take responsibility the next time you are wrong–even if it’s a nonconsequential error. Ownership of self and autonomy can help entrepreneurs build trust and connect with their team.

3. Viewing Everything as a Zero-Sum Game

The idea that there are “winners” and “losers” is quickly becoming an outdated concept in business. This goes for team members as well as ideas. Toxic entrepreneurs will tend to see everything through the lens of wins and losers, but healthy leadership understands that there are many different ways to accomplish a task and having varied personality types on the team is a good thing. 

Creating an overly competitive environment can poison a company culture and unnecessarily put co-workers against each other. To make sure you’re approaching things mindfully as an entrepreneur try shifting your focus to creating a cooperative work environment where coworkers feel inclined to work with each other and share ideas, even if they may not be what has traditionally been praised.

4. Giving in to Groupthink

Just because something has always been done the same way, doesn’t mean it should continue to be done that way. Entrepreneurs are innovative by nature but can sometimes slip into the ruts of groupthink. It’s good to second guess tradition and approach systems and habits with an air of skepticism.

According to Miranda Marquit, writer for Due and author of the blog “Avoid These 7 Toxic Business Behaviours,” questioning things a little bit is healthy: “There’s nothing wrong with looking to blaze a better pathway to the future. You won’t be a true leader if you’re always following the crowd.” 

5. Keeping Favorites 

Having preferences is acceptable if you’re a team member but if you’re an entrepreneurial leader, it’s one of the quickest ways to add toxicity to your team is to keep favorites. There are two types of favoritism: arbitrary favoritism and performance-based favoritism. Both can stoke resentment amongst teammates which oftentimes is taken out on the favorite. 

If you’re a leader and you suspect that you’re favoriting one of the team mates, the best way to make sure you’re leading judiciously is to keep a list of praise, promotions, and covetable job opportunities. This will allow you to notice any subtleties and make sure that everyone on your team is getting due credit.   

If toxicity is ignored, the consequences can be detrimental to the company culture and to the bottom line. Toxicity can be the root cause of employee turnover, burned time, conflict, and low engagement amongst team members. If you’re an entrepreneur who is seeking to grow their team and scale your company, providing a healthy, productive environment is quintessential to your growth. 

Whether you’re just starting out as an entrepreneur leader, or you want to grow your business online, ClickBank is a great path. To sign up and learn more, CLICK HERE.

The post Top Five Toxic Personality Traits of Entrepreneurs appeared first on ClickBank.

Source: clickbank

There’s never been a better time to increase YouTube subscribers and optimize your video content. Don’t believe me? Take it from John Crestani. With over 400k YouTube subscribers, he knows a thing or two about leveraging video content in the digital marketing world.

hbsptReady({
portalId: 5154711,
formId: “7642b9fe-5d46-49e7-aa54-737c33f9221c”,
target: “#hbspt-form-1600956004000-6985906835”,
shortcode: “wp”,

});

 I recently had the opportunity to talk with John about his road to YouTube success and what it takes to get started, gain traction, and pivot when you have to. John got his start in digital marketing back in 2009. Inspired by The Four Hour Work Week, he decided that his current life trajectory towards stock trading and real estate wasn’t for him: 

“After reading that, I realized that I wanted to be an entrepreneur. I wanted to travel the world. I wanted to run my own business… So at that point in 2009, I kind of made up my mind. I was like, okay, I’m going to figure out how to run an internet business and make a lot of money.”

However, it wasn’t until 2011 that he joined ClickBank. Then, in 2016 that John tapped into the power of video content as a tool to run his business and make money. According to John, the recipe to increase YouTube subscribers requires four ingredients:

1. Consistency
2. A scientific approach
3. Content that informs
4. Empathy

Ingredient #1: Consistency – Post a Video Every Day 

John credits famed YouTube Casey Neistat for inspiring him with the advice, “Just keep uploading.”

Over two years, John posted 500 YouTube videos, amassed 400,000 YouTube subscribers, and had more than 1 million views per month. 

John says that success started with a commitment to posting: 

“Be consistent and give yourself six months with three uploads a week minimum. You have to be consistent and give yourself time. I just kept uploading. For the first year, I didn’t really see any traction or growth. I was posting a lot of motivational stuff. Then, in my second year, I started doing things differently. I focused my topics on keywords or questions that people search for. I took a scientific approach.” 

Ingredient #2: A Scientific Approach – Figure Out What Works 

Once you start consistently uploading videos, the next step is to dig in and see what’s resonating with viewers. You’ll start to see trends emerge and patterns will start to get more defined.

“Slowly but surely these videos would continue to get views and over the course of say a month, I would do five videos on one topic and another five videos on a different topic and another five videos on another and then I looked at which topics did best. It took about three months to figure out where people resonated.” 

After you figure out which topics are the most salient, it’s time to figure out which part of the videos people are most engaged with. Pinpointing engagement at an individual video level is how to improve your content–the third ingredient to increase YouTube subscribers. 

Ingredient #3: Content That Informs – Focus on the Information 

Everybody loves a joke, but timing is everything. Unfortunately, as John and many other marketers have figured out (myself included) the best places to inject humor is not always a YouTube video about achieving freedom and making money online.

“I noticed that engagement was dropping off when I was repeating myself too much, or going on tangents, or even being funny. I started to notice that people didn’t like me to be funny because learning how to make money online isn’t actually funny. It’s actually a serious subject for a lot of people.” 

In fact, John noticed that engagement was highest when he was demonstrating something on his computer. The best videos were the ones that focused on the information and helped people improve their skills. 

Ingredient #4: Empathy – Put Your Audience First 

Once he realized people were coming to view videos for the instructional content, not his jokes and stories, he started really striving to understand who his audience is, a part of video-making that he credits as the best part of his “job.” 

“My favorite thing about what I do is learning about people. I believe, at the end of the day marketing is about empathy and understanding–just talking to people and underdtsnding what their day is like.”

After you have enough videos posted to figure out what your viewers are sticking around for, the next step is turning that into empathy, letting go of your personal expectations for the videos, and making content that speaks directly to the people who need it the most. 

“That’s the most important thing in marketing… it’s not about you. It;s not about what you know, it’s not about what you want to talk to people about. It;s not what you want to sell. It’s not what ideas you want to come across to people. It’s about the audience always.”

To check out John’s videos and subscribe, check out his YouTube channel here.

Click here to join ClickBank and start your own journey to making money online.

The post How to Increase YouTube Subscribers appeared first on ClickBank.

Source: clickbank

The ClickBank Referral Program is back and better than ever.

hbsptReady({
portalId: 5154711,
formId: “7642b9fe-5d46-49e7-aa54-737c33f9221c”,
target: “#hbspt-form-1600351096000-5462711193”,
shortcode: “wp”,

});

Asking someone to refer you or your services can be uncomfortable. There’s a tactful time and place to make suggestions. Similarly, figuring out the perfect moment to tell someone they ought to join ClickBank so that their product can be promoted by thousands of affiliates all over the world is truly an art. It takes an opportune moment and the right words.

If you couldn’t tell by now, this is all to say that ClickBank has resurrected and revived its referral program and we’re so excited for you to tell your favorite product vendors about us. Of course, there’s something in it for you too; we’re offering $10 per account activation plus 1% of the referee’s earning amount for the first year.   

To help you refer people, we’ve put together a list of ten clever ways you can ask product vendors to sign up at ClickBank so they can start leveraging the power of our global affiliate marketplace and make money online–plus get you those awesome referral rewards.   

1. Refer them via skywriter. 
   Nothing gets the point across quite like a skywriter. Picture this: You’re strolling along with the vendor you want to refer. The air is autumnally crisp. Was that a leaf that just floated to the ground? All of a sudden you hear the telling roar of a prop plane. You both look to the sky. He’s spelling something… what could it be?! C… L… I… C… 

   How exciting and novel! Seeing ClickBank spelled across the picturesque blue yonder will create the perfect moment to tell the vendor about ClickBank’s incredible affiliate marketplace and about the 1% of the earning amount you receive if they join.   

2. Leave them a note in their lunchbox.
   Lunch box notes are undoubtedly the sweetest communication channel known to humans. It’s a message sent with food! Nothing can top that. Write the vendor a quick little note about how they can reach a global audience in more than 200 countries if they join ClickBank. You could even include a ClickBank-inspired doodle!

3. Hire a quartet to deliver the referral suggestion via song.
   There’s something sweetly nostalgic about a barbershop quartet. Personally, nobody has ever sang to me while I was getting my haircut and I’ve always been a little bitter about it. Next time the vendor you want to refer sits down to get a trim, surprise them with four singers dressed in matching straw-hats. Between the four of them, I’m sure they’ll come up with some witty way to let the potential vendor know about ClickBank’s supremely efficient product onboarding process.   

4. Spell “ClickBank” in a hearty bowl of alphabet soup.
   Everybody loves when someone cooks soup for them. In my opinion, soup is a love language–especially if it can communicate an important message. Put together your favorite minestrone or chicken noodle and throw in some alphabet pasta. Painstakingly coordinate the little letters to spell, “Have you thought about signing up for ClickBank?” Carefully bring the bowl to the vendor you want to refer and let them admire your culinary skills as well as your business savvy suggestions.  

5. Send them a dozen roses and on the card write, “Have you thought about being a ClickBank Vendor?” 
   Nothing speaks louder than roses. Roses practically yell, “I want you to know something that I don’t know how to say with words!” Have a dozen roses delivered to the potential vendor with a message attached. Some might say this is a bit too romantic for affiliate marketing… but romance is persuasive, so why not make a bold statement to show the referee how much you think they’ll benefit from having their product promoted by professional affiliates and showcased on ClickBank.com? 

6. Bribe your local sign spinner to spin your referral message. 
   We’ve all seen them… the zealous and energetic sign spinners that grace our street corners (and hearts) with their zany dance moves and sign-spinning enthusiasm. Next time you want to refer someone to sign up for ClickBank, seek out a sign spinner and slip ‘em a $20 and your message. Make sure the potential vendor is the area because $20 doesn’t buy a lot of sign spinning time these days and you don’t want them to miss out on ClickBank’s vendor features that empower them to scale their business. 

7. Put a sticky note on their bathroom mirror. 
   Some think the ol’ “sticky note on the bathroom mirror” is only for passive aggressive roommates. I beg to differ. A lot can be said on a 3 inch x 3 inch paper square including, “Have you thought about joining ClickBank and taking advantage of their commission setting tools that make building an affiliate program easy and efficient?” Pro Tip: Try to get into their bathroom in a nonchalant way, or you’ll end up seeming creepy.

8. Add “ClickBank” to the bottom of their grocery list. 
   Carrots? Check. Worchestire sauce? Check. Sign up for ClickBank and onboard my product to be promoted by the best affiliates in the business to nearly 200 countries? Don’t mind if I do! 

9. Subscribe them to the ClickBank Blog.
   Want them to get industry insights and affiliate marketing tips and tricks delivered straight to their inbox once a week? Sign them up for the ClickBank blog! They’ll be delighted by the entertaining and informative content and delve into the lucrative and efficient world of the ClickBank Vendor. 

   (For reals though, don’t actually sign your friends up for email lists without their consent. That’s just rude.)

10. Just say it.
    If all else fails, just say: “Hey, I think your product has a lot of potential. Have you thought about signing up for ClickBank? They’re an online retailer with an affiliate program that has affiliates in almost 200 countries. They’re been around for over twenty years and are a leader in the affiliate marketing and internet retailer industry. I seriously think you should check it out. If you sign up, I get a $10 referral bonus and cash rewards for your sales.” If being straightforward  doesn’t work, we suggest trying the skywriter approach again.

Want to learn more about the ClickBank Referral Program? Check it out HERE.

Thinking about signing up yourself? Here’s a link for that. 

The post How to Use the ClickBank Referral Program appeared first on ClickBank.

Source: clickbank