The Best Affiliate Marketing Directory Is...

At the outset, I must warn you that, this page will be a long one. The reason being, the topic itself, is pretty long. I am trying to squeeze in my +7 years experience and knowledge, on this page.

So bear with me. Take your time to read and understand the strategies, one step at a time.

An 'Affiliate Marketing Directory', like, Click bank, virtually acts as a middleman, bringing the merchants and the affiliates, together. They keep track of the conversions, and handles the affiliate payments. The merchant, of course, handles the customer service.

So that is pretty easy, right?

No. You see, there are a large number of affiliates and also affiliate marketing program(s) on Click bank. And, you also know that, not all affiliate programs are created equal.

You have read about the key elements to look for in a good affiliate marketing program.

Head over to "Affiliate Marketing-2", now, and understand the essential elements that will constitute, a good 'Affiliate Marketing Program'. 

So, you will apply those standards while selecting a good affiliate product to promote. But, when it comes to this affiliate marketing directory, Click bank, you will do it differently.

Based on my experience, promoting Click bank products, I will guide you through the steps to filter through the large number of affiliate products, systematically and effectively.

You see, many affiliates do not make it, as they either lack experience and expertise, or are quite lazy to follow a systematic procedure, while selecting the product to promote.

I use some strategies to identify the 'under exploited' products, hidden in this 'Affiliate Marketing Directory'.

So, are you ready for this?

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Strategies to Discover The Golden Nuggets In Click bank's Affiliate Marketing Directory

I learned these techniques from the “Affiliate Marketing” Guru, known to the world as ‘X’. I am really honoured to present here some of his must have eBooks:

• Affiliate Project X
• Day Job Killer – Google Assassin
• Project Black Mask

The affiliate marketing directory  in question is Click bank.

1 - Hot New Products On The Rise:

As the name suggests, do exactly what it states. The trick to do this, is, by looking for those products that are rising in popularity, but, has not yet caught up with the demand.

You see what I mean?

OK. To make it simple, the product has not reached the saturation point (too many affiliates promoting the product), and there are still plenty of buyers.

You cannot simply pick any new release in the 'New Products' category in Click bank, because, it could be a complete flop, or a tremendous success. You never know.

So, you see, you need to play this right.

How?

There is a small trick that you will apply, to identify the rising products.

Before I tell you the technique to spot the rising stars in, Click bank's 'Affiliate Marketing Directory', I will explain the process of doing a product search first.

---> Head over to Click bank marketplace

--> You will see a screen like this.

You will see to your left hand side of the screen, various categories listed. I have clicked on the business and marketing category.

--> Note the product keyword elite 2.0 and the stats.

You see, Click bank is a completely evolved affiliate marketing directory. You do not have to be confused with the various numbers and definitions.

I would like to explain 'gravity' here. In simple words, gravity refers to how popular a product is, and, is not an indication of the number of products sold or anything like that.

OK.

Here are a few things that you need to remember, about gravity:

A gravity < 10 = Product is either new or not very popular.

Gravity between 10 - 30 = The affiliate marketing program is fairly new or moderately popular.

Gravity between 30 - 60 = The product is popular.

Gravity > 60 = Very popular.

Gravity > 100 = Top product in the whole of this affiliate marketing directory.

> Click here to see the rest of the stats and its explanations, from Click bank. 

With Click bank’s affiliate marketing directory the above strategies will help you to pin down the winners!

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The very first thing that you will look for, when scanning for products, in this 'Affiliate Marketing Directory', is, the commission paid.

And, an affiliate marketing directory like, Click bank, has no dearth of products and ‘Affiliate Marketing Programs’. As this is a good thing, the bad part is that, you may pick a wrong product, that will end up in poor returns.   

To avoid that, here are some rules that I stick to, and, you should also do the same.:

The Unsung Rules of Click Bank

---> Do not promote anything that pays less than 50% in commission.

---> The avg $/sale, in the sample above is $46.37. This is the amount you will be paid on  each sale, less fees and refunds. As far as possible, do not promote anything that pays less than $25.00. Of course, this is just a pointer or a guide. Use your own discretion, when coming up with this number.

---> Pick the rising stars from this affiliate marketing directory. When I say rising stars, go for a gravity between 10 - 70. Now, if the product is a niche product, with a gravity close to 70, then, I generally avoid that item.

Reason? It's probably nearing saturation. Now, if the 'Affiliate Program' is say from a niche like, 'Make Money Online', with a gravity of 70, then it cannot be considered as nearing saturation.

Do you get my point?

Once you have filtered out thus, your products from Click bank's affiliate marketing directory, you will move on to the next step of analyzing the sales letter or the landing page.

2 - Sales letter/Landing page evaluation:

This is a very crucial step to your success with 'Affiliate Marketing', both as an affiliate, and as part of your 'Affiliate Marketing Program', if you are employing affiliate marketing, as part of your 'Internet Marketing Strategy'".

'Must Have' "Copywriting" training and coaching, to make tremendous difference to your landing page.

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OK. Let's proceed with our evaluation of the sales letter. Your evaluation should be focused on the conversion of the sales letter. You can get an idea by reading the sales page.

Now, this will come from experience. As you read and evaluate sales letters, you will become better at spotting the sale letters, that convert well, with increasing accuracy.

Here are a few quick tips that you can employ to assess the sales letter's conversion capability:

---> Does the design of the page/site looks clean, professional and presentable? Amateurish design, will turn off buyers. Period.

---> Is the sales copy convincing enough?

A tough question. How to sort this one?

OK. Firstly, see if the sales copy is full of benefits, with the excitement flowing from it. Here is an example:

"I cannot believe this, that I have finally cracked the code for "Google Adwords", that enable me to bid on extremely high value keywords, by only paying pittance."

This kind of a sales letter, is a winner.

On the other hand, if you have a sales letter that is dull and dreary, then you should be better of not promoting that.

---> Does the sales letter have the following:

    -> Time sensitive offers. The sales letter has limited time pricing, and forces the buyer to act fast, by creating a sense of urgency.

    -> Exciting headline. If the headline really excites you, then it will probably excite others too.

    -> Testimonials. This is a psychological factor. Testimonials are proof of the effectiveness of a product, and instills a sense of social proofing into the buyer.

Picking the right affiliate program or product from Click bank's 'Affiliate Marketing Directory', has to be your number one priority for your success.

If you follow the guidelines on this page, then this could be your only affiliate marketing directory, required, to make a fulltime living. 

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3 - Is Your Click bank Product a Rising Star?

The idea is to pick a program from Click bank 'Affiliate Marketing Directory', that is relatively new, without much affiliates promoting the same. Ride it to the top of its popularity, and quit just in time, when, large number of affiliates, flock, to promote the product.

One way to do this, is to continuously, monitor the Click bank affiliate marketing directory, for the movements of the 'Affiliate Programs', up and down the ranking.

But, it will be a pain, to do this manually.

I want to direct you, to, one of the least used free tool called CB Trends.

Get CB Trends for free here.

Now with this tool, you just enter enter a Click bank product, and it will give you all kinds of analytics on the product; basically telling you, how the product has been selling for the past couple of weeks, whether the payouts are going up/down, and how its rankings are within the respective category.

Go back to Click bank marketplace. Select the product. I have chosen 'Keyword Elite 2.0', as the sample, from the 'Business and Marketing' category.

Do a right click on the product name. Then click on the properties.

This will come with a url like this:

http://zzzzz.bryxen4.hop.clickbank.net/

Now the piece on the above URL, that we are interested in is 'bryxen4'.

OK. Head back to the CB Trends Vendor page, and and enter the above merchant ID 'bryxen4'. You will see the screen as shown on the screen shot below: 

-> CB Trends Vendor Page Image For Keyword Elite 2.0

-> Click here to see the analytics

OK. Now, how to interpret and analyze this stuff?

Easy.

> Popularity: If popularity is declining on the graph, it means that, the product is gaining in popularity. No.1 indicates, the product is most popular.

> Gravity: A climbing graph indicates, that, more and more affiliates are promoting the product.

Now, mind you, we are actually looking for a product, that is, climbing the popularity chart, meaning, the popularity chart, you will see, is coming down, inwards rapidly.

This is how you are going to read it. You will find that the, gravity chart is also on the rise, continuously.

The CB Trend tool, is ideal to read the pulse of Click bank's "Affiliate Marketing Directory", so to speak. 

Here is the bottom line. If you notice, that, both the 'gravity' and 'popularity' graphs are moving upwards, for a certain "Affiliate Program", then, it is time to go to the next step of analyzing the vendor's "Web Traffic".

Since the Click bank affiliate marketing directory, is so huge, with a large number of affiliate program(s), the steps that I am providing you, will be a huge time saver. You will also pick the right product the first time, all the time.

4 - Analyzing the Site's Traffic:

Why should you analyze the site traffic?

Good question. Because, you want to determine, whether, your chosen affiliate program, is a new website. Is the site's traffic rising?

How to do this? Head over to Alexa tool

What is Alexa?

Alexa will provide you with a general idea about the website, like:

- How popular the site is.

- How long the site has been operational.

- How the affiliate product is being promoted, and, finally

- How much traffic the website has. Is it on the rise or fall? etc.

So when you go to alexa, click on the 'Site Info' tab on top. Then enter the URL of the ‘Affiliate Program' that, you have selected from, Click bank's 'Affiliate Marketing Directory'.

In our example, it is Keyword Elite 2.0. After you enter the URL, in the 'Site Info' page, you will get a screen like this.

You will see the traffic rank for Keyword Elite 2.0 is 17,740. In order to analyze more on the traffic, click on the 'Get Details' button.

--> You will see the details on alexa like this.

Looking at the above screen shot, we can say that, the site was launched in 2009, and the sudden spike in the graph, indicates affiliate promotions, by the super affiliates.

The traffic is stabilized, for the most part in 2010.

Although this sample is not a brand new site, but the traffic is indicative of steadiness, and therefore, somewhat, a rising star, that, we are after.

But, you get the point. Right?

Moving on to the next stage, will confirm, whether, this is, a rising star, from Click bank's 'Affiliate Marketing Directory'.

I see that this page is getting longer and longer. But, you see, I must explain to your the entire process, for you to become an expert, in dishing out, unfailing affiliate products, from, one of the largest affiliate marketing directory.

I appreciate your patience. I will ask you to give a good read of this page, once or twice.

OK. Moving on to the last strategy, which will be testing. This will establish the profitability of your selected 'Affiliate Program'.

5 - Testing:

Having chosen 'Click bank' as your 'Affiliate Marketing Directory' of choice, the very last thing. and also the most important and least applied strategy, to identify 'THE' affiliate product from Click bank's 'Affiliate Marketing Directory' is testing.

You may wonder, testing what for?

Let's accept the fact, that, any amount of due diligence, in selecting your product, will not guarantee the performance of an affiliate program, from any 'Affiliate Directory'. You will need to test the product.

Now, testing will require, sending traffic to a site through your affiliate link, and then track the performance.

What I generally do, is to split-test, three different products, that are, rising on the charts. So, you will pit these products against each other.

The product that gives back the best Return on Investment (ROI), I continue to promote vigorously.

You may ask, "Why three products?"

You see, this keeps you ahead of the game. You may catch a star product from the three. You will always have one star performer, all the time. You will have future promotions mapped out, as you skim through your three products, at any given time. 

With the three products testing, you will promote product 'A' for a week, product 'B' for another week, and product 'C' for your third week. In this way, you will be going from one product to the other and so on.

Click bank 'Affiliate Marketing Directory' is so huge that you will never run out of products to test.  

The way you will test these products, is by using "PPC Advertising" and "Google Adwords".

You may wonder, why this has to tested in this manner.

You see from my experience, what I have seen is that, a product may perform very well initially, and then tend to slow down, after a couple of weeks.

You see this idea came to me after seeing that people buy different things at different times. So there is a huge demand for some products at different times. My idea is to simply catch a product that is on its rise, and promote it till it reaches the crest and then comes down.

That's why three products being tested. You never know, which one is the star performer, unless you test it.

Here are some guidelines to pick your products for testing from Click bank affiliate marketing directory:

---> Make sure that, the products are not promoted on 'Google Adwords' by any one. You will hit on many such products, as, most of the Click bank affiliates, usually go after the well established products, while ignoring the so called 'low hanging fruits'.

Now this gives you a golden opportunity to promote the early risers, and, if done well, you can enjoy the low competition and long abd steady income from products that are not yet in the lime light.   

---> Make a list of products from the Click bank marketplace, with a gravity between 8 - 30. The payouts should at 50% with a $25 in the minimum. Head over to CB Trends,as, shown above. Check for the stability.

---> Analyze the competition in 'Google Adwords'.

Tools to Make Your Life Easy & Profitable

---> Test the profitability in Google adwords. For this, you need to be relatively experienced with Google adwords. Go to the "Google Adwords" and "Google Adwords Tips" page, to get a good handle of this "CPC Advertising" process.

You should run your adwords campaigns till you get a minimum of 100 clicks. You then track and monitor your returns. If you see very good return, then you continue promoting this affiliate product, till such time, you see the return starting to come down.

---> Use lateral keywords to promote your product. Lateral thinking is a crucial part of "keyword Research". Now for example, the Keyword elite product, can also be promoted on 'Google Adwords', using lateral keywords, like, 'Affiliate Marketing Directory', 'Affiliate Directory', 'Click bank" etc.

Tools to Make Your Life Easy & Profitable

Doing this, will ensure the following:

    -> Low "CPC" or 'Cost per Click'

    -> Higher returns

    -> More opportunities to 'Make Money Online'

But, I must also caution you here. If you are not familiar with google adwords or you are new to it, then you must exercise caution, as you can bleed money with Google adwords.

I have provided more strategies and cool tips on 'Google Adwords Tips' in my coming updates.

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Choosing a star performer from Click bank's 'Affiliate Marketing Directory' is not that hard. With training and practice, you will be very comfortable with this.

It was indeed very hard for me initially, with my utter failure at 'Google Adwords'. But, over time, through learning and practice, I am able to spot the money makers in Click bank's 'Affiliate Directory', and then make a killing with Google adwords.

It is possible, through, willingness, hardwork and appropriate training.

I have provided an in-depth write-up on "Keyword Research" and "Google Adwords" tips and techniques, for you to 'Make Money Online' with 'Affiliate Marketing' and 'Click bank'.

Visit this website as often as you need, and, make judicious efforts to succeed with affiliate marketing.

Here is wishing you all success,

CHEERS!!!

Contact Vat Thilek for Questions & Suggestions

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