Wise Startup Blog

While I was working at Lycos.com, when we were actually mentioned in the same sentence as Google, Yahoo and MSN, I had the luxury of witnessing our clients’ PPC campaigns, where I would see various successful business models/websites hitting their metrics through search engine marketing.  This is where my passion for Internet Marketing was born.

10 Steps to Make Money with Clickbank

Coming soon…10 Steps to Launching a Clickbank Product – Part II

Guest Post: Patrick Burke – Internet Marketer

First, let me show you how (moderately) successful I have been selling products on Clickbank. The screenshot above shows some great sales numbers I did in March of this year, which netted me ~$1,000 that month, which isn’t anything spectacular, but I know a lot of you out there are wondering how you can make $1,000 month with Clickbank, hopefully this tutorial will be a good starting point.

First of all, I knew that the potential to become a successful internet entrepreneur was infinite, but the problem I was having was that I would think of a new business idea often without being able to design and develop my own websites.  It was much more difficult back then to have a website built for short money.  In addition, being able to work with many projects at once, and thus, moving forward with the winners.  In this day and age, having a website built is easier and cheaper than ever, if you have the right resources.

I have a voracious appetite for internet marketing knowledge, so I was buying every IM product that had a big launch. Finally, a light went off in my head that creating an information product mirroring this direct response marketing business model, was something I wanted to pursue.

Every product I was buying was displayed in Clickbank, the Internet’s leading retailer of digital products.  These are some of the steps I can recommend if you have an interest in creating a Clickbank product:

1) Think of an information product that can either provide a solution or prevent one:

In my situation, I thought of ‘basketball drills‘.  I had a few friends who had moved to suburbia, and one friend was taking over his son’s 8th grade basketball team as coach, and had no idea where to begin.  Another friend had his daughter at a pivotal age where the pressure was on to improve her game.  She had recently joined an AAU basketball travel team, but she desperately needed some direction to improve her game in her spare time.  I also had another friend join a Division III coaching staff, where he wanted to implement new basketball drills in practice to impress his head coach, and he was looking for ideas.

2) It’s not crucial, but if you select a product you’re passionate about, you will get better results:

I really wanted to launch a product where I could apply my two biggest passions, Internet Marketing and Basketball.  It will also certainly help if you have resources in your niche, and people you can network with who may be able to get behind the promotion of your product.

3) Make sure there is a market and demand for your content:

I have a tool that I can’t recommend highly enough – Market Samurai (this is not an affiliate link).  This software tool helps people to find keywords that receive enough searches to bring in traffic, but not so many that there is too much competition.  Along with keyword research, Market Samurai also helps people get backlinks to their websites and publish articles to different directories.  I was able to determine through pre-market research and analysis that I would be able to compete organically in the major search engines for my top 10 keyword phrases relevant to basketball drills.  Do this market research to ensure that your niche is not over-saturated, and check to make sure there is market demand.  I loved hearing about the success story of a Clickbank product which showed people how to build a chicken coop in their backyard.  It was a unique niche, there was market demand and the salesletter converted.  Thus, affiliates got behind it and promoted it.  Needless to say, this turned into a six-figure product.

4) Think of a domain name with brand recognition potential, but also has the ability to rank in the search engines for the phrase in the domain:

Market Samurai will help you with ideas for potential domains with daily searches and low competition.  If the keyword phrase has daily searches, there is 0% chance this phrase will be available as a domain.  Be creative, but keep it short and sweet.  Another idea is to buy an aged domain, which will have the abililty to rank quicker in the search engines if the previous site the domain was on was considered a ‘trusted’ site by the search engines.

5) If you are not an authority in the niche you are trying to pursue, explore options of contacting potential authorities in your niche and see if they have the ability to create a written ebook or a video series for a percentage of sales or just a flat fee upfront:

In my case, I have access to one of my closest friends who happens to be a Division I basketball coach, and a network of prominent Division I coaches who were willing to give me their testimonials for my salesletter.

6) Determine whether you want to charge a flat one-time fee or go with a membership site:

If you can over-deliver content, the continuity model is very promising.  I tried the monthly membership path, but quickly determined that I was not going to be able to consistently over-deliver content as my friend/coach is primarily focused on building a top 35 college program.

7) Create your product:

Whether you are writing content or creating videos, you will want to compile all of your content together and ensure that this content can warrant the price point that you have in mind.  I was able to create 50+ videos, and I am selling my product for a one-time fee at $97.  I am adding video content periodically, just so I can over-deliver.

8 ) Work on your sales copy for the salesletter:

Don’t hesitate to outsource steps that may not fall into your top 5%.  Your top 5% is what you are good at, and the other 95% is what you should outsource.  I follow a 7-Figure Fitness Info Marketer, and he has a blog post discussing your priority allocation here.  I didn’t have a clue about sales copy when I was creating the product, but I contacted a few copyrighters who had a #1 product listed in the competitive IM category of Clickbank.  I was able to hire a copyrighter who also had a passion for basketball, and really brought this passion to the project.  If your salesletter copy doesn’t convert, you are going to have a difficult time recruiting affiliates.  Affiliates will get behind any offer that converts and that can bring them a profit.

9) Find a solid graphic designer:

Again, this is not one of my skills.  I understand some of you may not have the budget to allocate, but if you want a product that is perceived as top notch, this is a very important piece to get right.  It is not like 10 years ago with costs; you can find incredible graphic designers like I found in my designer in Indonesia, for short money.  I also found him by tracking down designers who were involved in successful IM Clickbank products.

10) Find a reliable programmer:

You can find programmers on Elance.com, Guru.com, etc., but there is a lot of trial and error in finding a programmer who is responsive, efficient and reasonable.  I was fortunate to find a programmer who can do anything and everything, and I don’t think he sleeps, as he will respond to me at 3 am his time, within minutes.

One of the most appealing aspects to an information product is that it is an immediate downloadable solution.  I have had coaches from 8 different countries purchase the product.  I have coaches from all around the world, and this would not have been feasible if they were ordering a hardcopy DVD set being delivered in the mail.

Furthermore, don’t try to reinvent the wheel.  Network with successful people and emulate what is working
for them.  If Andrew recommends a hosting company, SEO Link Wheelers, Aweber, his design services, etc., I would listen to him.  He has been able to launch multiple successful online businesses and will continue being a rising star online.  Join his RSS blog feed, follow him on Twitter, connect with him on Facebook and absorb.

I hope this 10 step list can be of some help if you are exploring the Clickbank path.  In part II, I will get into the top 10 steps for launching your Clickbank product.

To your success,

Patrick Burke
http://ebasketballdrills.com/