ClickBank Affiliate Marketing for Beginners

How to Start Affiliate Marketing with No Money

ClickBank is an affiliate network that provides some of the best affiliate marketing programs to both new affiliates and experienced marketers . The affiliate marketing business model is a simple, secure, and reliable way for anyone to start making money with an online business, such an online course. It works by allowing merchants to list their products on the ClickBank marketplace, where affiliates can promote them and earn affiliate commissions based on successful ClickBank product sales.

How Affiliate Marketing Works

Let’s look at a simple example. You are a business owner selling online courses and other digital products, and you are looking for salespeople to sell your products. You don’t need to hire anyone. Just set up an affiliate offer on an affiliate network that allows anybody to advertise your products at their own expense, and if they sell it, they will get a commission from you. You can leverage a large and cost-effective sales force by partnering with affiliates or affiliate marketers. These are online influencers who promote your products or services to their audiences using affiliate links. Whenever someone clicks on an affiliate link and makes a purchase on your platform, you pay a commission to the affiliate who referred them.

As an affiliate marketer, you can advertise other people’s products without the need for inventory, providing customer support, etc. Depending on the ClickBank products you select to promote, your conversion rates can vary dramatically. Just post these affiliate links on social media platforms and/or sales page on your blog or website, and you will get a commission when somebody completes the purchase. Affiliate marketing is 100% legit and it’s part of digital marketing. and a perfect side hustle and passive income for women entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, or mompreneurs.

If you are a beginner affiliate marketer, you can start affiliate marketing with no money today by following these simple steps to get set up with ClickBank.

ClickBank: Best Affiliate Marketplace

ClickBank is the perfect place for people just starting with affiliate marketing. With over 17 years in operation, Clickbank has a proven track record of helping individuals make money online. The best part is that it’s free.

In this ClickBank guide, I will show you how to get started with ClickBank and start earning money to become a successful affiliate marketer. Before promoting any product through ClickBank, the most important thing is to develop an effective strategy and decide what type of product will work for your niche and target audience. Many so-called gurus, say once you have selected your niche, it’s a good idea to filter results by their “gravity” for better results. Is this true? Read on to find out.

Once you’ve selected one or more products, it’s time to start promoting them. ClickBank has a wide range of marketing tools that you can use to promote products, from social media campaigns to email marketing. It’s important to consider which strategy will work best for you and your audience in order to maximize your ClickBank earnings.

ClickBank Application Process

There are four steps to the sign-up process:

1. Fill out the signing-up form
2. Complete your profile
3. Create an account
4. Add payment information

Regardless of whether you want to become a ClickBank Affiliate or ClickBank Seller (or both), the process is the same.

ClickBank Sign-Up Form

Step 1: Go to the www.ClickBank.com and click Start Here.

Step 2: Respond to the questions on the screen:

Step 3: Enter your email. You will receive an email to verify your email address. Follow the link in the email.

Step 4. Enter all the required information, including First and Last name, address, country, etc. Then create a password.

NOTE: Your password must contain at least two lowercase letters, at least two uppercase letters, at least 2 numbers, and at least 2 special characters (!@#$%^&* etc.). It cannot exceed 32 characters and it cannot contain any spaces.

Step 5. Click the Continue to Terms and Conditions button and read the Terms and Conditions. Click the Accept Terms and Conditions button. 

NOTE: You must scroll to the bottom of the terms and conditions to find the Accept Terms and Conditions button.

Step 6: Click the Join ClickBank! Button.

Step 7: Proceed to complete your ClickBank Client Profile.

How to Create Your ClickBank Client Profile 

Step 1: Log in to your ClickBank account. 

Step 2: Click the Profile tab or click the Complete My Profile button.

Step 3: Enter the required profile information. Some of the information is pre-populated based on what you provided in the sign-up form. NOTE: To prevent delays or failure to finalize your new ClickBank account, make sure you provide provide accurate information in each of these fields.

Address:
The address you provide must be the same as the one associated with your bank account.

You must provide an accurate street address that follows the format provided on the form. Your full address information is essential. 

Preferred Language 
Select the language you prefer to communicate in from the Preferred Language dropdown menu. 

Step 4: In the How would you like to be paid? section provide your Payee Name (your name or the name of your company) and your SSN or Tax ID. 

NOTE: A tax ID is either an Employer Identification Number (EIN) issued by the IRS for businesses or a Social Security Number (SSN) if you are operating as an individual. You are required to provide your tax ID because ClickBank issues 1099 tax forms to affiliates who make  over $600 USD. Your tax ID must match the payee name provided for the account.

Step 5: In the Let’s Optimize Your Performance section indicate what you want to do from the I want to… dropdown menu and select your annual revenue from the My company’s annual revenue is… dropdown menu. 

Step 6: Click Save. NOTE: If for any reason you want to take a break in your signup process, you can click Do Later. This will save your progress in the sign-up process. However, you cannot complete the sign-up process without completing your profile.

Step 7: Proceed to finalize your ClickBank Account. 

How to Create a ClickBank Account Nickname

You can create one account with many Nicknames to promote multiple sellers. This way, you’ll be able to reach the payment threshold and customer distribution requirement without delay! 

What is Link Account?

The Link Account button is intended only for users who have legacy accounts that they wish to link to their new primary ClickBank account. Once you create an account nickname, you are not required to link it.  

This guide is for brand-new affiliate associates. I will skip this Link Account section because it will not apply to you. It’s time now to create an Account Nickname. This is what you’ll use to get the affiliate link for selected products.

From the Dashboard, click Accounts from the left menu. Next, click the Create My Account Nickname button.

Provide the required information including selecting a role from the Account Type dropdown menu. 

NOTE: If you plan to operate as a ClickBank Seller, you must pay a one-time activation charge once your first product has been approved. This charge is $49.95 for your first account and $29.95 for any additional accounts

• Vendor:
  ClickBank Vendors (aka Sellers) sell ClickBank-approved, quality products ranging from e-books to health supplements. 
  
• Affiliate:
  Affiliates find products they are passionate about and promote them on their promotional platforms.
  
  Combination:
  ClickBank Clients can choose to be both a vendor (seller) and an affiliate. If this applies to you, select this option.
  
• Custom:
  If you are only planning on selling or promoting for a season, select this option.
  
• Test:
  If you’re just exploring ClickBank, check this option. You can always change this later.

Click the Sign-Up button.

The last step is to update your ClickBank account payment information. This step is necessary to receive a commission for sales and direct deposit.

How to Update Your ClickBank Payment Information 

Step 1: Log in to your ClickBank account.
NOTE: Proceed to Step 2 if you’re already logged in. 

Step 2: Click the Accounts tab and select the account nickname that you created from the Nickname column.

Step 3: Click on the Account Settings tab.

Step 4: Confirm the email address you used to sign up for your account in the same browser on a desktop.
NOTE: You must confirm your email address in the same browser window. 

Step 5: Locate the Payment Information box and click Edit.

Step 6: Provide the payment information for this account. Depending on your preferences, you can change your payment threshold, payment method (check or direct deposit), and payment frequency.

Step 7: Click Save Changes.

And that’s it. It will get you 15-20 minutes for the whole process.

Find Products to Promote on ClickBank

Congrats! The good news is you have created a ClickBank account. Now it’s time to find a product with high commissions to promote. In this article, I’ll go over the best ways to select the right product for you and get an affiliate link to promote on your social media platforms. I suggest focusing on Pinterest, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Youtube videos.

Next Step

Log into your ClickBank account and click Marketplace from the left menu. A list of categories will display.

Choose a Category

New Affiliate Marketers

Most topics fall into four different categories: things we’re passionate about, hobbies, problems/issues, and trends. 

What’s the difference between passions and interests?

Passions are things like fitness, causes, and lifestyles. They typically take up substantial emotional and physical energy from people’s lives. 

Hobbies are often seen as less intense than passions and may not receive the same degree of attention. They can include anything from crocheting to photography. These hobbies will likely remain on somebody’s mind even if they are neglected for too long or simply no longer offer an outlet that feels satisfying enough when life gets hectic.

Problems are things that people believe add pain points to their life or slow down their progress. 

Trends are things that are currently popular and gaining a lot of attention or traction.

Once you’ve decided what category you want to focus on, it’s time to go through the offers. Let’s say you selected Food as a category. A list of products will display. In the example below, you can see the name of the product (1) on the left, a brief description (2) with a Read More button (3), the Sort Results by drop-down list (4), and the average $/conversion amount with the Promote button below (5).

Let’s go over each one of these items to understand what they mean:

1. Name of the product. Each product advertised on Clickbank has a title and subtitle.
2. Product description. You may want to click the Read more button to learn the details about the product – what it is, what it does, and some analytics.
3. Read More. Click this button to learn more about the product.
4. Sort Results by. One of the options here is “Gravity.” Many people on YouTube and elsewhere say this is the main factor to consider when selecting a product. A high gravity score is a winning ticket. Or is it?
5.  
6. The Clickbank Gravity Score is a performance metric unique to Clickbank. It measures the sales momentum of offers on the Clickbank affiliate marketplace – this means that over a 12-week rolling period, the ClickBank Gravity Score calculates how many unique affiliates are making commissions on a particular offer, with a higher emphasis on more recent product sales. This number is important for both sellers and affiliates, but in different ways:
7. For sellers, the ClickBank Gravity Score is evidence that your products can get more than just (recent!) sales.
8. For affiliates, the ClickBank Gravity Score reveals promising offers that *actively* make commissions for affiliates!

Gravity Score Examples

In the following example, let’s say you’re trying to decide between two products to promote.

Gravity Score Comparison

Offer A has a score of 170, and Offer B has a score of 132. What does this mean? This means that there are more unique affiliates sales promoted for Offer A than there are promoting Offer B – at least when weighed against how recent the sales were. As an affiliate marketer, you need this information because you want to promote something proven to sell!

However, products with high gravity are likely promoted by many affiliates, and some likely have large ad budgets. Fierce competition! This can be difficult (and discouraging) for affiliates just starting out.

According to Thomas McMahon, the reason these products have lower Gravity Scores truly has to do with one big 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 fewer affiliates have picked them up, but they’re still running big volumes because big affiliates have promoted them… 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.”

Higher Gravity Means Higher Competition for Affiliates

What you have just learned, therefore, is that 1) competition is a major concern for both sellers and affiliates; and 2) Gravity Score ONLY reflects those affiliates who successfully make a sale!

When you’re considering entering a crowded marketplace, it pays to take an extra look. Despite the high gravity of an offer indicating its success – with 400 affiliates earning commissions in 12 weeks – there could be hordes of other players lurking behind the scenes who have yet to make their mark but are still shelling out money for paid ads or stuffing search results with organic links! So don’t underestimate your competition: chances are, they may be closer than you think.

With the gravity score, it can be easy to underestimate just how competitive an offer is. Don’t forget that hundreds or thousands of other affiliates may have already given it a go and failed – so don’t travel blindly into this promotion without being fully aware!

Gravity Score vs. Rank

Besides Gravity, another filter factor is Rank. What’s the difference between gravity and rank?

With Gravity Score, you’re getting a sense of what’s popular, including, but not limited to, total sales.

With a Rank Score, you don’t get the whole picture – it’s like judging a book by its cover. While big affiliates can bring in piles of cash with large advertising spends, their success may not always be shared equally among smaller afilliates who are at a disadvantage financially. That’s why Gravity Score exists to level the playing field and help identify products without so much competition which makes more sense for those on tight budgets.

What is a Good Gravity for ClickBank?

Clickbank says there IS no “good” Gravity Score since it’s all arbitrary and relative.

But… If there had to be a number that represents a good gravity, ClickBank says an offer with a Gravity Score between 50 and 200. This range tends to be the sweet spot for many affiliates, where a product is getting enough sales to prove that it can convert but isn’t so stratospherically high that you must compete with the largest affiliates.

Promote Button: Hoplink

Once you have decided what product you want to promote, click the Promote button (#5).

A window will open. Enter your nickname, and then click Create HopLink:

The hoplink will be generated. Click copy, and then paste this URL where you plan on promoting this product:

Recap

ClickBank is a popular and user-friendly platform for affiliate marketers. It offers a wealth of information to help you choose and promote the right products for your niche. While there are other platforms like ClickBank, it is a good place to start if you are new to affiliate marketing.

However, choosing a Clickbank product is not as simple as looking at the Gravity score, which measures how many affiliates are making sales with that product. Gravity is not a reliable indicator of your potential success as an affiliate, as it depends on many factors beyond your control. Instead, you should focus on your own skills and strategies to market the product effectively. You should also consider products from pages 5 to 9 in the ClickBank marketplace, as they may have lower competition but still high conversion rates. A lower score does not mean a lower quality product, but rather a less crowded market.

To sum up, promoting affiliate products successfully requires more than just picking the ones with high gravity. It requires research, planning, and testing. The more you know, the better you can do.