Take Advantage of the ClickBank Marketplace

Tip 1: Take Advantage of the ClickBank Marketplace

ClickBank provides all new publishers the option of being listed within our ClickBank Marketplace: http://www.clickbank.com/marketplace

The question is, with the ClickBank Marketplace containing over 15,000 products, what can you do to obtain the most exposure and make your product attractive to affiliates?

The first thing that most new publishers don’t realize is that the majority of the Marketplace audience is comprised of affiliates, not consumers. So rather than have your Marketplace title and description tailored to consumers, you should use it to describe what makes your product appealing to affiliates.

Do you have a high commission percentage, a high payout or a Web site containing useful affiliate tools to help them promote your product? Be sure to list features like these in your Marketplace description so that affiliates can quickly see why they should promote your product.

To edit your Marketplace title/description, you’ll need to log in to your ClickBank account, click the “Account Settings” tab, the “My Site” link, and the “Edit” link under the “Marketplace Information” section, then modify your Marketplace description as needed.

Be sure to click “Save Changes” when finished!

Check back tomorrow for the second tip on becoming an affiliate magnet – creating an affiliate tools page.

Tip 2: Create an Affiliate Tools Page

Something that ClickBank doesn’t require, but that can make a huge difference in attracting affiliates, is setting up a Web page specifically to help affiliates promote your product.

The feedback we have received from affiliates indicates that they are more inclined to promote products that provide affiliates with assistance in their marketing campaigns. Some ideas for tools you could provide to affiliates include:

• Banner images
• Other product images
• Textual ads
• Keyword recommendations
• Cloaking scripts
• Ad content recommendations (such as features or benefits of your product)
• Customized email signature ads
• Suggestions of places where affiliates can advertise your product effectively

ClickBank also provides a method for you to recruit affiliates directly from your own Web site. This tool gives affiliates the ability to create an affiliate link for your product directly from your Web site, without having to visit the ClickBank Marketplace first. For more information on using this tool, please go to “Leveraging The Affiliate Network.”

If you decide to create a Web page for your affiliates, you should consider listing the Web address as part of your Marketplace description, for added affiliate attraction.

Tip 3: Get Your Site Right the First Time

When you’re sending in your first Product Approval Request, your top priority is probably getting your site active as quickly as possible. It certainly seems like a reasonable notion; the sooner you’re active, the sooner you can start receiving sales.

However, I strongly recommend that you take the time to perfect your site content, and to double-check that your Marketplace title and description are optimized to attract affiliates. You should make it clear what type of product you are selling and list the benefits affiliates receive by promoting your site.

There are third-party companies and sites on the Internet that feature newly-listed ClickBank products for a short period of time. If your site content is not optimum, you may be losing out on an opportunity for attracting affiliates right off the bat.

Tip 4: Offer High Commissions

A penny saved is a penny earned? You’ve heard it all your life, but the sound advice your mother gave you could actually be damaging in the affiliate marketing industry.

When affiliates are looking for a new publisher to promote, they have thousands of products to choose from. Searching through each pitch page for the perfect product and sales copy is not always practical. Of course, having a professional, great-looking pitch page is important, but for most affiliates, other factors take priority.

Advertising costs can be expensive for affiliates. An affiliate wants to be able to look at a product and, in a glance, be able to trust that they’ll receive a positive return on their advertising and promotional investment. One of the most important stats in the ClickBank Marketplace that affiliates look for is “% sale.” This is the average commission percentage earned per affiliate per referred sale on a particular product. With many of our top products offering the maximum commission of 75%, you really can’t afford to not be generous with your commissions.

Though it may seem that the maximum payout amount is high, remember that these are sales you would not have made otherwise.

For more information about this subject, and data that proves the advantages of being generous with your commissions, check out our Generosity as Business Strategy article by Bob Dunlap:

http://www.clickbank.com/blog/2008/04/17/generosity-as-business-strategy/

Tip 5: Advertise

To further increase exposure of your product to affiliates, ClickBank provides a means by which you can purchase ad space within the ClickBank Marketplace, highlighting your product to hundreds of thousands of affiliates.

The Marketplace ads are three-line advertisements found on the right-hand side of Marketplace pages, under ‘Sponsored Links.’ You can see some current ads here:

http://www.clickbank.com/marketplace.htm

The costs of Marketplace ads vary, depending upon how much traffic a particular page or category receives. More exposure means a higher priced advertisement.

All contracts are month-to-month, so clients may utilize the ad space as long as they wish without being locked into any long-term agreements. To check availability and add your name to a possible waiting list, visit https://www.clickbank.com/advertise.html. Select the location where you’d like to place an ad, fill out the form, and someone from ClickBank will contact you when a space becomes available.

Final Thoughts

Many publishers spend months, if not years, in product development. After so much arduous effort, why would you want to leave the success of your product to chance? No matter how great your product is, if you don’t do a good job of communicating that fact to the people who can help you promote it, it will never be as successful as it could be. So as you build the pitch page to sell your product, be sure that you work as hard on attracting affiliates as you do on attracting customers. By putting in the extra effort to make your product attractive to affiliates, you can become a serious affiliate magnet!

Good luck, and thank you for choosing ClickBank!

Free Book For Affiliates

or a detailed explanation click to the affiliate section at the ClickBank site.

Free Book For Affiliates

ClickBank for Newbies This ebook is suitable for both ClickBank newbies - and veterans. No sign-up required. Click here

Top Beginner Affiliate Questions
1. I opened an affiliate account, now what do I do? What are Hoplinks and where do I put them?
2. As an affiliate, do I need to make a Thank You Page? Also, what is my Hoplink Target URL?
3. Where are the Hoplinks I created? Do you have a list of them?
4. As an affiliate, do I need to submit my Hoplinks for product approval?
5. What is the difference between the two Hoplinks automatically generated when you use the link “create
hoplink” in the Marketplace?

#1: I opened an affiliate account, now what do I do? What are Hoplinks and where do I put them?
Thank you for creating an affiliate account with ClickBank. ClickBank affiliates earn a commission for every
sale they successfully promote.
As an affiliate, your next steps are:
1. Choose which products you want to promote
2. Create correctly formatted Hoplinks
3. Place your Hoplinks to promote your chosen products

Step 1: Choose which products you want to promote
To choose which products you want to promote visit the ClickBank Marketplace. You can either use the
“Search the ClickBank Marketplace” box, click on a main category in the “List of Categories” box, or click on
the green arrows next to the main categories to browse the products by subcategories.

Step 2: Create correctly formatted Hoplinks
A ClickBank Hoplink is the method ClickBank uses to successfully track the sale and give the proper affiliate
credit. The Hoplink transfers (or links) potential customers from your promotion to a publisher’s website
while automatically crediting you, the affiliate, with the referral. If the customer then buys the publisher’s
product you will receive a commission for the sale.

After you choose a product in the Marketplace you want to promote, the next step is to create a correctly
formatted Hoplink. The simplest way to create Hoplinks is to visit the ClickBank Marketplace. ClickBank will
automatically generate the Hoplink necessary for you to promote any of the products listed.
Simply find a product you want to promote and click on "create hoplink." Upon clicking "create hoplink," a
window will open prompting you to enter in your ClickBank nickname.

Enter your nickname and hit "Submit."
After hitting “Submit” a window will appear with your properly formatted Hoplink created. The format for the
Hoplink is: http://AFFILIATE.PUBLISHER.hop.clickbank.net. When using the “create hoplink” feature in the
Marketplace, AFFILIATE will automatically be replaced with your affiliate nickname and PUBLISHER will
automatically be replaced with the nickname of the publisher of the product you are promoting.
In addition, below the properly formatted Hoplink an example of that same Hoplink in HTML is provided.
When using Hoplinks on your own web site you utilize HTML. Here is what a properly formatted ClickBank

Hoplink looks like in HTML (with no line breaks):
CLICK HERE
Again, when using the “create hoplink” feature in the Marketplace, AFFILIATE will automatically be replaced
with your affiliate nickname and PUBLISHER will automatically be replaced with the nickname of the
publisher of the product you are promoting. You must replace CLICK HERE with any promotional text or
image you prefer. Also, it’s important to make certain that the publisher’s web site either opens up
completely in the current window or in a new window. To ensure the publisher’s site completely fills the
current window regardless of whether you are using frames, keep target=”_top” in your HTML code. To open
the publisher’s site in a new window (or tab), include target=”_blank” instead.
For example, an affiliate with the nickname JANE1 wants to promote an e-book about dog training written by
a publisher with the nickname JOHN2. If JANE1 clicked on “create hoplink” in the Marketplace under
JOHN2’s listing the following Hoplink would be generated: http://JANE1.JOHN2.hop.clickbank.net
There are some methods of promoting Hoplinks, for example, paid search engine marketing, which require
inputting the Hoplink without HTML. However, if JANE1 wanted to promote the dog training e-book on her

personal website, she would mostly likely utilize HTML. JANE1 would then use the example provided of her
Hoplink in HTML, replacing CLICK HERE with promotional text of her choosing:
How to Train Your Dog
If customers clicked on the link How to Train Your Dog and purchased the e-book from JOHN2’s web site
then JANE1 would get a commission on the sale.

A common mistake new affiliates occasionally make, is using the target URL (or publisher’s pitch page) in
their promotions instead of a Hoplink. For example, the Hoplink from the example above
(http://JANE1.JOHN2.hop.clickbank.net) ultimately takes the customer to JOHN2’s target URL with the
affiliate nickname noted at the end (http://www.johnexamplesite.com/?hop= JANE1). If you use the target
URL instead of the Hoplink in your promotions the sale will not be tracked and you will not earn a
commission.

Additional mistakes new affiliates make include using misspelled or incorrect nicknames in the Hoplink,
promoting Hoplinks with typos (for example using htp:// instead of http://), and using clickbank.com instead
of clickbank.net. We strongly recommend that you test all of your Hoplinks before you start your promotions.

ClickBank can not transfer commissions from one account to another, and can not award commissions that
are not automatically tracked by the system.
For every product you choose to promote you must create a properly formatted Hoplink. Please save each
Hoplink upon creation, for example start a spreadsheet or other type of document that has a list of all the
Hoplinks you plan to use in different promotions. ClickBank does not store Hoplinks for affiliates.

Step 3: Place your Hoplinks to promote your chosen products
The next step is getting your Hoplinks in front of customers who are interested in the products you have
chosen to promote. Affiliates use primarily web-based marketing methods to target potential customers and
direct them to products.
There are a variety of internet marketing methods used by affiliates to get their Hoplinks in front of potential
customers. The list of possible options is too exhaustive to be covered here. Some popular methods include
paid search engine marketing, content and niche sites (for example product review sites), personal web
sites or blogs, and email marketing. Be sure the ways you choose to promote products is in compliance with
our Client Contract and our Network Abuse Policy. All ClickBank clients are prohibited from using our
services in conjunction with any form of network abuse, spamming, spyware, denial of service, or other
illegal activity. Sending any email to purchased lists or lists obtained by any other method (such as
harvesting) is not acceptable. Clients may only send email to recipients who have joined mailing lists directly
from their own web site.
If you are new to affiliate marketing and are unfamiliar with the above internet marketing methods there are
numerous web sites with content (both free and paid) that focus on how to get started in affiliate marketing.
The best way to find these sites is to do a search on “affiliate marketing” or any of the other terms above, for
example “search engine marketing.”
Since your success as an affiliate is important to ClickBank, we have also collected some resources that you
might find helpful in understanding how to maximize your opportunities. For more information, please visit
our Affiliate Resources page.
You can also browse the ClickBank Marketplace for help. Under the category "Business to Business" and
"Marketing and Ads," there are several ClickBank publishers who offer products you can purchase that
provide assistance to beginner affiliates.

#2: As an affiliate, do I need to make a Thank You Page? Also, what is my Hoplink Target URL?
Affiliates do not need to make a Thank You Page or set up a Hoplink Target URL. A ClickBank account is
set up to be used by both a publisher and an affiliate. As such, there are some settings within the account
that are only relevant to the publisher. Specifically, clients who wish to be affiliates only do not need to fill out
the information requested on the “My Site” and “My Products” links under the “Account Settings” tab.
As an affiliate, you only need to create your Hoplinks and start promoting them.

Please note, a “Hoplink” is different than a “Hoplink Target URL.” A Hoplink is the method ClickBank uses to
successfully track a sale and give the proper affiliate credit. A Hoplink Target URL is the pitch page, or sales
page, for the publisher’s product. When a customer clicks on an affiliate’s Hoplink they are taken to the
publisher’s Hoplink Target URL.
For more information about how to create and promote Hoplinks see the answer to question number 1
and/or visit the ClickBank Affiliate FAQ and the Hoplink FAQ.

#3: Where are the Hoplinks I created? Do you have a list of them?
ClickBank does not keep a list of the Hoplinks affiliates create. As such, you are not able to view your
Hoplinks within your ClickBank account. When you create Hoplinks, we recommend that you save them
somewhere you can reference them, for example in a document file on your computer.

#4: As an affiliate, do I need to submit my Hoplinks for product approval?
As an affiliate you do not need to submit your Hoplinks for product approval.
Since there is no approval process for Hoplinks, you must be certain that your Hoplinks are formatted
properly before you start your promotions.
You can verify that your links are set up correctly by following the steps outlined below:

1. Enter your Hoplink into a new browser window, and hit ""Enter.”

2. Click on one of the publisher's ClickBank order buttons.

3. Scroll to the bottom of the ClickBank order form. You should see your account nickname listed as
the affiliate. For example, [affiliate = jane1].
This test proves that your link is set up correctly. It also ensures that your account will be credited with any
commissions earned from customers who order as a direct result of your referral.
Remember, ClickBank does not keep a list of all Hoplinks affiliates create. As such, you are not able to view
your Hoplinks within your ClickBank account. When you create Hoplinks we recommend that you save them,
for example in a document file on your computer.

#5: What is the difference between the two Hoplinks automatically generated when you use the link
“create hoplink” in the Marketplace?
When generating a Hoplink via the ClickBank Marketplace, you are presented with seemingly two options.
However, the Hoplinks are both the same. The one on top is simply your properly formatted Hoplink in the
following format: http://AFFILIATE.PUBLISHER.hop.clickbank.net.
The one below is an example of that same Hoplink in HTML. You must utilize HTML when using Hoplinks on
your own web site. The ClickBank Hoplink in HTML looks like this (with no line breaks):
CLICK HERE

How ClickBank Works?

For ClickBank clients.

How ClickBank Works?

Anyone can join ClickBank as an affiliate - it's free. When you find a product that you wish to promote, either at a vendor's website or by searching through the ClickBank Marketplace, you will be given a unique link which you use to bring customers to the product page.

* Let the customer know that product is backed by ClickBank's guarantee of quality customer service and that ClickBank will be happy to help them if there is any problem with their purchase*

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For ClickBank clients.

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* Let the customer know that product is backed by ClickBank's guarantee of quality customer service and that ClickBank will be happy to help them if there is any problem with their purchase*

An Easy Way to Convert More Sales!

An Easy Way to Convert More Sales!