Heard of ClickBank yet? If you haven’t, you eventually will. You can’t be an affiliate marketer and not know about ClickBank. So what is ClickBank affiliate marketing? And why should you care?
What is ClickBank, Exactly?
ClickBank is an Affiliate Marketing Network.
ClickBank is one of the many affiliate networks for you to find affiliate products to recommend. This network acts as a middle man between affiliates like you and companies with products.
With the help of ClickBank, you will be connected to 6 million products from one place. That is what an affiliate network does.
On ClickBank:
- Customers (i.e. buyers) can shop on ClickBank directly.
- Product creators can add products on ClickBank for these customers.
- Affiliate marketers can promote any ClickBank product for sales commissions.
So, What is ClickBank Affiliate Marketing?
ClickBank affiliate marketing is recommending products from the ClickBank marketplace and getting paid commissions for the sales you generate. This is affiliate marketing.
You become an affiliate of ClickBank and you promote the available products. And you just generate sales for the products. You do not own these products. You do not manage product creation or support. You recommend people buy products from other companies and then the companies do the rest.
ClickBank Affiliate Products to Promote
ClickBank connects you with millions of digital lifestyle products to promote. You will find products categorized into 24 different categories.
Some of the popular ClickBank product categories are:
- Health & Fitness – 1,278 products
- Self-Help – 831 products
- Business & E-Marketing – 502 products
- Business / Investing – 344 products
- Betting Systems – 157 products
Some lifestyle skills you can learn from buying ClickBank products are:
- Oil painting
- Dancing
- Playing Guitar
- Excel skills
- Survival Guides and Tips
- Making money as house sitters
And the list goes on and on.
The way you choose which products you promote as an affiliate is by recommending products that target your focused niche.
Related: What is a niche for affiliate marketing?
What Makes ClickBank Unique?
Every affiliate network is unique in its own way. Whether it is the types of products the network promotes or how high the affiliate commission rates are.
Here is what makes ClickBank affiliate marketing unique.
Sells Digital Lifestyle Products
What makes ClickBank unique is that they sell digital lifestyle products. Digital lifestyle products are products such as ebooks, software, and membership programs that focus on lifestyle niches such as getting fit, buying cooking healthy recipes or getting dating advice. You can find physical products too like healthy protein shake mix. But ClickBank is known for its large selection of digital products.
High Affiliate Commissions
ClickBank offers high affiliate commissions to you as the affiliate marketer. Commission rates average 50 – 75% of the total purchase price. Also, some ClickBank products are reoccurring with a monthly fee. Monthly subscription fees mean you get a percentage of the monthly revenue as well. The maximum commission you can earn on a single sale of a ClickBank product is $150.
Commission Rate Comparison
Affiliate commissions on ClickBank are high compared to other affiliate programs. With ClickBank products, you can make up to 75% maximum commission on a product sale. Compared to Amazon’s affiliate program which only offers up to 10% maximum affiliate commissions.
How Much Does it Cost to Join ClickBank?
If you are joining ClickBank as an affiliate, ClickBank is completely free to join. You will pay no fees to promote products from the ClickBank Marketplace of products.
Where do the ClickBank fees come in?
You only need to pay money if:
- You are adding a product to sell on ClickBank, as a product creator.
- Or you purchase a product from ClickBank, as a customer.
For product creators, you can leverage the ClickBank network to connect you with sales of your products. After some initial setup fees, you will pay ClickBank 7.5% of each product sale you incur through the network.
For customers, you just go to the ClickBank Marketplace and shop their products. When you buy a product, you will enter in your payment details like would buy from any other website.
Is ClickBank safe to use?
There is a bit of debate on whether ClickBank is safe to use or not. The answer depends on who you ask.
If ClickBank was an outright scam, then this network would not be around today. Our consumers do not tolerate businesses that do not deliver. So, ClickBank is not a scam.
But back to the original question, is ClickBank safe to use? Once again, it depends on who you listen to.
Poor Ranking on TrustPilot
ClickBank has a 2-star review (out of 5 stars) on TrustPilot.com. The latest reviews complain about unsatisfactory experiences with ClickBank. Out of 8 reviews, 88% give ClickBank a bad rating and only 13% give a good rating. Consumers complain about terrible customer service, bad website usability, and unexpected charges.
Poor Ranking on Consumer Affairs
ClickBank only has two 5-star reviews on ConsumerAffairs.com. Out of 145 reviews, ClickBank’s total rating is 2.5 stars. The latest reviews complain about unexpected charges and horrible customer service when buying products from ClickBank. You want to watch out for selling crappy products. This will hinder your brand and reputation.
Successful Affiliate Promoters
Then you have very successful affiliate marketers like Gael Breton of Authority Hacker and Mark Ling of Affilorama who highly recommend ClickBank affiliate products. However, they both will tell you there are crappy products on ClickBank. As with any product you promote as an affiliate, you need to thoroughly research every product you decide to recommend.
For finding good ClickBank products to promote, you will look for:
- Good product reviews.
- High gravity score (signifies products that convert well).
- And low refunds.
The reality is crappy products are everywhere. Not just ClickBank. Research every product you buy or promote!
Can You Make Money from ClickBank?
Yes. You can make money from ClickBank.
You can make money promoting any affiliate products. Regardless of whether the products are on ClickBank.com, Amazon.com, Walmart.com HomeDepot.com, Target.com,
Once again, the key is to only promote quality products. If you recommend good solutions to people’s problems and drive traffic to those products, you can absolutely make money. That is the beauty of affiliate marketing.
And ClickBank offers higher commission rates than other programs, which allow you to make more money on the sales you refer.
How do You Become a ClickBank affiliate?
To become a ClickBank affiliate, you just sign up! At no cost to you.
You will create an account and provide some information about yourself, your website and where they should send your affiliate commissions to.
Here is what the ClickBank signup process looks like:
- Sign up for a ClickBank account
- accounts are free for affiliate marketers
- Enter your personal information
- Your name, where you live, your language preference, etc.
- Enter in your banking information (and tax ID information if you live in the US)
- You need to tell ClickBank where to send your commissions
- Account information
- Your Clickbank username and password login info
- Start finding products to promote
And that’s it. The sign up process is quick, easy and straightforward.
How To Promote ClickBank Products
The way you promote products on ClickBank is by creating HopLinks. A HopLink is just a link with the product destination and your affiliate link. A HopLink is what tracks the sales from you vs. another affiliate marketer.
You use these ClickBank HopLinks to track your affiliate sales. When someone clicks on your HopLink, payment will be disbursed to the product creator and the commission will be paid to you as the affiliate.
To create HopLinks, you just:
- Choose a product you want to promote
- Use the HopLink to generate your specific HopLink
ClickBank Affiliate Resources
The good thing about ClickBank is their investment in resources. As an affiliate, ClickBank provides helpful guides for you.
Here are a handful of helpful resources to help you along your ClickBank affiliate marketing journey.
- Steps for signing up for a ClickBank affiliate account
- What you need to know for US affiliate Tax ID requirement
- How to navigate the ClickBank Marketplace
- How to create ClickBank Hoplinks
Got Questions?
Hopefully this helps answer the question, what is ClickBank affiliate marketing!
Feel free to leave comments or ask questions below.
Thanks for a great post! ClickBank is one of the best affiliate marketing networks for digital products. I really enjoy promoting digital products because they are easier to buy and review.
Are there any ways to know what products are best-selling on ClickBank?
Thanks!
Marios
Thanks for this informative post click bank is one of the best website I have come across In fact, Clickbank is the only website that has no restriction of demographics and geographics as you can earn from 50%-75% commissions per sale depending on the product you are promoting where you will be given a unique link which you can use to direct customers to the product page and make sales.
Firstly, affiliate marketing has many categories and it is one of the best ways of making money online. I am glad you brought this up, as to give internet users various options.
I am a member of Wealthy Affiliate and I can say ClickBank is also one of the best out there. Their system is unique and efficient. Moreover, this article is very informative because I never knew ClickBank basically acts like an escrow.
Thanks for chiming in Marios. I agree with that digital products are the best to promote. I certainly prefer to recommend and consume digital products myself : ) And for your question. Yes, you can find best selling products on ClickBank several ways. Choose a high gravity score (over 7) and filter your product search results by “popularity”. Good luck!
Appreciate you Kim for this unbiased review of ClickBank? You are right, ClickBank, Commission Junction, etc are well known in the affiliates marketing industry. With this your post, I have a better understanding of ClickBank. it is great that ClickBank offers up to 75 percent on commission on some products compared to the 10 percent offered by Amazon. However, the negative review most users have about them are scaring and discouraging especially for people who are just venturing into affiliate marketing.
Hello Kim, Yeah, I have heard of clickbank and I must say that clickbank affiliate marketing is a great way of making a side income. One thing I love about clickbank is the number of unlimited products one can market and make great profit from the commission. I quite agree with you that affiliate commission on Clickbank are high when compared to other affiliate programs. It is great to know that one can actually join clickbank as an affiliate marketer for free. Thanks for sharing this great post, the signup process is quite easy to follow.
Thanks for writing this article on ClickBank. There are so many things I have heard about ClickBank and how many programs are been market and sold on it. There seems to many ways to generate revenue from ClickBank affiliate marketing. I find this useful as a newbie in affiliate marketing. Thank you for posting info.
Hey Gracen. Yea, the high affiliate commissions and free sign up for affiliates are what make ClickBank good for affiliate marketers. Even if some people give ClickBank negative reviews. There will always be someone that doesn’t like some product. Thanks for chiming in here.
You are right Tolu. I intentionally included the negative reviews but I like to inform people of the good, the bad and even the ugly. After all, I am the affiliate marketing informant : ) But in spite of the negative customer reviews, affiliate marketers are successfully making affiliate commissions from ClickBank products. The key is to thoroughly research the product before you promote it.
Yea, every affiliate marketer should know about ClickBank. Whether are you just starting out or are a pro. The key is to research the products thoroughly before promoting. Best of luck along your affiliate marketing journey!
Great points about no demographic or geographic restrictions for affiliate marketers. That is always a plus! Thanks!
Unique view on ClickBank acting as an escrow. I like it! Thanks for chiming in Sammy!
I’ve heard a lot about click bank program. However, I haven’t fully been convinced about the effectiveness of this program. I enjoyed this review on click bank. I never knew to promote products on click bank is absolutely free. I’m surely interested in signing up. Can I run both click bank and Wealthy Affiliate accounts at the same time?
Great question Louis, and absolutely! As an affiliate marketer, you can have as many affiliate accounts as you want. (Although it is recommended to start out with just a few because of the time to learn the program, manage it, etc.) A great way to promote similiar products to review them (and include your affiliate links of course : ) For example, you can promote Wealthy Affiliate’s training program (like I do because it’s AWESOME) and compare similiar affiliate marketing training products from ClickBank. So you review the affiliate marketing training programs on ClickBank and in your review, recommend people check out your #1 training instead. Thanks for chiming in!