Let me guess.
You’ve already joined ClickBank, browsed through its marketplace, found a product you’d like to promote, got hold of its affiliate link, and you’re ready to start getting it in front of potential customers.
At that point, most people start randomly spamming their affiliate links to forums and social media, making no sales whatsoever, and ultimately calling affiliate marketing a scam.
If you’re one of those people, your chances of becoming a successful affiliate marketer are slim to none.
Making money online by promoting ClickBank products isn’t that different from promoting other affiliate merchants’ products.
It requires careful planning, tracking your metrics, constantly refining your approach towards maximizing revenue, and above all, ensuring that you steer clear of ineffective affiliate marketing promotion methods that yield no results.
In an attempt to point you in the right direction and increase your chances of achieving success as a ClickBank affiliate, in this article, I’ll be outlining the 12 Best Methods to Promote ClickBank Products.
But before we get right into it, let’s take a quick look at what ClickBank is and how it works.
What Is ClickBank?
ClickBank is a mix of a global e-commerce platform, a product marketplace, and an affiliate marketing network founded in San Diego, California, in 1998 by Tim and Eileen Barber.
With over 6 million clients worldwide, ClickBank is currently the 87th largest online retailer in North America.
ClickBank serves people in over 200 countries and has an annual turnover of $1 Billion.
Lastly, its marketplace consists of over 20,000 physical and digital products spanning 400+ categories.
Best Affiliate Marketing Courses
Best Affiliate Courses
How Does ClickBank Work?
ClickBank’s objective is to enable online merchants to list their products on its marketplace so that affiliate marketers start promoting them to their audience in exchange for commissions.
At the same time, it handles all transactions and technical aspects involved in the process, such as checkout, payments, refunds, affiliate links, affiliate commissions, tracking, support, etc.
Ultimately, ClickBank acts as the middleman between online merchants and affiliate marketers.
Affiliate marketers can join and start promoting ClickBank’s products for free without going through any screening processes.
How to Promote ClickBank Products
While there are dozens of digital marketing channels you can leverage to advertise your chosen ClickBank products, not all of them are equally effective.
Implementing the wrong ones could inhibit your progress and prolong your affiliate success journey for months or even years.
If you’d like to succeed in affiliate marketing sooner rather than later, I strongly suggest that you invest only in the highest performing online marketing channels, such as:
- Blog
- Content Publishing Platforms
- Social Media
- YouTube Channel
- PPC (Pay Per Click)
- Solo Ads
- Online Communities
- Email Marketing
- Digital Products
- Live Webinars
- Direct Banner Advertising
- Podcast
1. Blog
One of the most efficient methods of promoting ClickBank products is a blog.
A blog (short for “weblog”) is a website or part of a website that consists of regularly published content in the form of articles or else “blog posts” on one or multiple subjects.
Blog articles come in many different shapes and sizes, such as:
- Product Reviews
- Tutorials
- Roundups
- Case Studies
- Listicles
- Personal Stories
- & more
For example, what you’re reading right now is a listicle published on the Dear Boss I Quit blog that covers the subject of promoting ClickBank products.
Marketing your affiliate products on a blog can be achieved by strategically embedding your affiliate links in image banners, in-content hyperlinks, floating bars, popups, and more.
Nowadays, thanks to the enormous latest advancements in site-building technologies, starting an affiliate blog isn’t as complicated and pricey as it used to be a few years ago.
The 17-minute video right below outlines the process of launching a simple WordPress-based affiliate blog in just 30 seconds without spending a single dime, even if you’re the least tech-savvy person in the world.
Another way of promoting ClickBank products via blogging, but without actually launching a blog of your own, is by using content publishing platforms.
2. Content Publishing Platforms
Content publishing platforms are third-party blogs that allow you to leverage their existing infrastructure towards writing, publishing, and distributing blog posts without having to put together a blog of your own.
A few of the most widely used content publishing platforms include, but aren’t limited to:
- Medium
- Blogger
- LinkedIn Articles
- & Ezine Articles
The primary advantage of promoting your affiliate products on such platforms is that most of them have massive, well-established audiences. For example, Medium receives 85 – 100 million active readers per month.
Getting just a tiny fraction of such a large number of users interested in reading your content and purchasing some of the ClickBank products you promote could yield thousands of dollars in monthly affiliate commissions.
The downside to such an approach is that your affiliate revenue will constantly be at the mercy of potentially unfavorable changes on the terms and conditions of the content publishing platforms you use.
For instance, for now, Medium allows affiliate links as long as you make an appropriate affiliate disclosure statement.
However, if someday Medium decides to prohibit affiliate links like Pinterest did a while back, all Medium-based affiliate businesses will vanish overnight.
3. Social Media
The second-best option for promoting affiliate products is social media.
According to statistics, social media is being used by 4.6 BILLION people for an average of 2.5 hours every day. Moreover, they’re free to join and operate, and they enable marketers to seamlessly get their affiliate products in front of potential buyers via dedicated, branded pages.
The five most used social media platforms among affiliate marketers are:
- TikTok
Picking the right social media platform for your affiliate endeavors boils down to two main factors.
- Your target audience – For instance, Gen Zers spend most of their time on Instagram and TikTok. On the other hand, millennials and baby boomers prefer hanging out on Facebook.
- The affiliate products you promote – For example, platforms that support long written copy like Facebook and LinkedIn are excellent for promoting B2B products and services. On the other hand, Instagram and Pinterest are better for promoting visually appealing B2C offers such as food, travel, clothes, cosmetics, and pastries.
Once you’ve determined which social media platform(s) you’re going to be advertising your affiliate products on, it’s time to start reaching out to your target audience by consistently posting niche-relevant content optimally 1-3 times per day.
To give you an example, the Instagram page “Best of Vegan” that targets people in the vegan niche focuses on publishing posts and videos about vegan-related subjects like vegan recipes and cooking tips for vegans.
If you decide to do affiliate marketing on social media, you’ll need to emulate a similar approach tailored to your target niche.
4. YouTube
Another approach to promoting affiliate products that could be as effective as running a blog is launching a YouTube channel.
YouTube is the second most populated social network after Facebook and the second most used search engine after Google, with 2.3 billion active users. On top of that, it’s popular across all current generations, from baby boomers to Gen Z.
Promoting ClickBank products on YouTube is very straightforward.
First, get your YouTube channel up and running. Then start consistently publishing videos that appeal to an audience in need of a solution to the problem the CB products you promote solve.
For example, as you can see in the image right below, The Tech Chap YouTube channel that targets the tech gadgets niche focuses on video content that revolves around subjects such as:
- Laptop reviews
- Smartphone unboxings
- Product comparisons
- Purchasing guides
- Device tips & hidden features
- & more
Lastly, start placing your ClickBank links in the description below each video.
Contrary to popular belief, building a decent income as a ClickBank affiliate on YouTube doesn’t involve having millions of viewers. For instance, if you’re promoting an affiliate product that pays a $50 commission per sale and converts at an average rate of 1%, you can be earning $10,000 per month with as few as 20,000 monthly viewers.
5. PPC (Pay Per Click)
Pay-per-click is an online advertising model that involves placing ads on dedicated advertising platforms in exchange for a small fee per end-user ad click.
PPC ads can be broken down into multiple different categories, such as:
- Display Ads: Banners, texts, or images placed on third-party websites
- Paid Search Ads: Displayed on search engines like Google & Yahoo
- Social Media Ads: Served on websites like Facebook & Instagram
- Instream Ads: Video promotions shown before or during video streaming
A few of the most popular platforms for conducting your affiliate promotions on a pay-per-click basis include, but aren’t limited to:
- Google Adwords
- Bing
- YouTube
- & more
Running PPC ads is one of the fastest methods to get the ClickBank products you promote before potential customers.
The downside to PPC is that the clicks you pay for might not generate any actual affiliate sales.
Typically, beginners to affiliate marketing tend to experience immense financial losses until they’ve gathered enough feedback to understand how to piece together a profitable PPC campaign.
6. Solo Ads
Solo ads are almost identical to PPC in terms of billing.
However, unlike PPC, solo ads are email-based promotions delivered by third-party marketers directly to their email list.
Since solo ads enable you to piggyback on the solid relationships between other marketers and their email subscribers, they’re usually considered much more efficient for generating affiliate sales than PPC.
The main downside of solo ads is that you could end up wasting hundreds of dollars on subpar traffic purchased from vendors with poor-quality, low-converting email lists built by implementing shady techniques, such as:
- Purchasing subs from other marketers
- Using email scraping software
- Leveraging bot-filled lists
- Gathering niche-irrelevant subs
- & more
The best way to ensure that you won’t be falling into such time and money-wasting pitfalls is to always purchase your solo ads from nowhere but reputable providers like:
- Udimi
- TrafficForMe
- SmarterSoloAds
- & EasySoloAds
7. Online Communities
One of the simplest methods of promoting ClickBank products is on online communities, such as:
- Forums (e.g., Reddit)
- Social media groups (e.g., Facebook)
- Q&A platforms (e.g., Quora)
- Real-time chat apps (e.g., Discord)
- etc
Begin by using Google to find and join communities of people who are the most likely to be interested in purchasing the ClickBank products you promote.
For instance, if you promote yoga gear, head over to Google and search for “best yoga forums.”
Furthermore, you could also browse through multi-topic communities like Reddit and Quora for niche-relevant discussion boards, subreddits, spaces, etc.
Please note that you won’t be making any sales if you start promoting products that don’t resonate with a community’s overall topic.
Once you’ve found communities relevant to the ClickBank products you promote, check their respective user guidelines to determine whether, how, and where they allow affiliate promotions. For example, some communities don’t allow more than one affiliate link per post, while others permit affiliate links only on post signatures.
Lastly, start investing time and effort in gaining the trust of your chosen communities by actively interacting with their members, sharing valuable insights, answering questions, and providing solutions to problems.
If you start spamming affiliate promotions randomly before delivering any upfront value, you’ll be setting yourself up for failure. Nowadays, most communities have no tolerance for desperate affiliate spammers who care about nothing but making a quick sale.
8. Email Marketing
Despite its old origins, email marketing is still one of the most efficient methods for advertising ClickBank products.
The first step to leveraging email marketing towards conducting affiliate promotions is signing up for an email marketing platform, like:
- ConvertKit
- MailChimp
- SendinBlue
- MailerLite
- & GetResponse
Such platforms grant access to all the resources you’ll need to launch, maintain, and optimize your email marketing campaigns, such as:
- squeeze pages builders
- lead capturing forms
- automated email sequences
- mass email blasts
- campaign monitoring tools
- & more
After enrolling in an email marketing platform, you’ll need to create an automated email welcome sequence. That’s a series of emails distributed to your subscribers at predetermined intervals when they join your email list.
The key to creating a successful email welcome sequence is gearing at least 80% of your emails towards earning the trust of your subscribers by delivering valuable, informative pieces of content with no affiliate promotions.
Here’s what a typical email welcome sequence should look like:
- Upon subscription: Welcome email
- Day #2: About your business
- Day #3: Introduce yourself
- Day #4: The benefits of your business
- Day #6: Set expectations straight
- Day #8: Top pieces of content
- Day #11: Answers to FAQ
- Day #14: Affiliate promotion
Stuffing your email sequence with promotions will turn most subscribers off and hurt your affiliate conversions.
Once your automated email sequence is in place, start gathering email subscribers by creating a squeeze page and a lead magnet.
A squeeze page is a standalone page designed to collect email addresses via a lead capture form.
A lead magnet is a valuable resource (e.g., ebook, webinar, discount, case study, free trial, etc.) offered as an incentive to anyone who subscribes to your email list.
Here’s an example of a squeeze page using access to a free webinar as a lead magnet.
Lastly, start marketing your squeeze page via as many online marketing channels as possible (e.g., social media, PPC, blog, etc.)
9. Digital Products
Another excellent way of promoting ClickBank products is through other digital products like eBooks, online courses, and even lead magnets.
For instance, you can write a short eBook that narrates the story of a person who lost a lot of weight, within which you can then place affiliate links to some weight loss ClickBank products that could help readers achieve similar results.
Another example is promoting antivirus software by teaching a short online crash course on boosting digital security.
Whatever the case, always ensure that the digital products you create gear towards providing value to those who consume them.
Poor-quality, overly salesy digital products developed for the sole purpose of promoting ClickBank products will most likely damage your reputation, diminish your conversion rates, and ultimately yield zero return on your investment.
Lastly, start distributing your digital products for free by leveraging:
- Social media
- Online forums
- Amazon Kindle
- YouTube
- Squeeze Pages
- etc
But Harry, why would I want to give the digital products I’ve spent so much time creating away for free while I could instead start selling them?
Well, the process of making money by selling digital products is a whole other ball game. And since your primary goal here is to get your ClickBank links in front of as many potential customers as possible, your best bet is to hand them out for free.
10. Live Webinars
An additional superb way of advertising affiliate products is hosting live webinars on platforms, such as:
- YouTube
- Adobe Connect
- Zoom
- Livestorm
- & more
According to RingCentral, live webinars have higher conversion rates than other marketing channels, converting between 5% and 20% of viewers into buyers.
The first step to leveraging live webinars towards promoting your affiliate products is determining your marketing angle.
For example, your marketing angle could revolve around outlining the benefits of the ClickBank product you promote, revealing how it’s better than its competitors, explaining how it helped you or someone else overcome a problem or achieve a goal, etc.
Whatever your marketing angle is, you need to ensure that your live webinar is:
- educational
- valuable
- engaging
- & media-rich
Next, write your webinar’s script. Keep in mind that 1000 words correspond to 6 minutes of speaking time.
Once the script is ready, turn its most essential elements into a PowerPoint presentation. That’s going to be the focal point of your entire webinar, so make it look professional.
After that, start spreading the word about your live webinar via any other marketing channel you see fit (e.g., social media, PPC, blog, etc.)
Lastly, place your CB affiliate links at distinct spots, such as:
- The webinar’s description
- Live chat (if applicable)
- Your profile
- Inside the presentation
- etc
Here are three tips that could help you significantly boost the conversion rates of your live webinars:
- Focus on delivering value. Avoid making your webinar sound like a lengthy sales pitch.
- Start by introducing yourself. Most viewers won’t know who you are, so make sure to provide some info about yourself, explain what your webinar is about, and why they should listen to you.
- Activate your webcam. Place its feed at the left or right bottom corner of the webinar so that attendees can watch you making the presentation live.
11. Direct Banner Advertising
Direct banner advertising is yet another decent way of promoting ClickBank products.
The process involves paying a fixed monthly fee for placing affiliate banner ads on websites with relevant audiences.
Direct banner advertising falls into the “paid ads” category, just like PPC.
However, contrary to PPC, direct banner advertising:
- can be less lucrative
- runs on a fixed monthly fee, not on a pay-per-click basis
- is more cumbersome and time-consuming
- involves a lot of manual outreach
- is more challenging to track, monitor, and optimize
Lastly, some websites might not permit banner ads linking straight to affiliate products. In such cases, you’ll have to link them to a website or landing page that, in turn, contains your ClickBank affiliate links.
12. Podcast
Last but not least, you can advertise ClickBank products via a podcast.
A podcast is a series of live or recorded audio broadcasts around a particular subject. You can think of a podcast as the audible version of a blog.
The process of doing affiliate marketing on a podcast is relatively simple.
First, pick a topic that meshes perfectly with your selected ClickBank products. To give you an example, an ideal subject for promoting food blenders is cooking.
Secondly, sign up for a podcast hosting provider to store and serve your audio files as well as create and update your RSS feed, such as:
- Buzzsprout
- Captivate
- Transistor
- Podbean
- Resonate
- etc
Afterward, integrate your hosting service with as many popular podcasting directories as possible, like:
- Apple Podcasts
- Spotify
- Google Podcasts
- Stitcher
- & TuneIn
Once everything is in place, start producing high-quality podcast content.
Lastly, incorporate your CB affiliate links in the summary section of each podcast episode you publish.
Here’s an example of how one of the most successful affiliate marketers, Pat Flynn, markets affiliate products on his podcast.
The main downside of affiliate podcasting is that its average conversion rates (~1%) are lower than most other marketing channels.
That’s because most audiences consume podcast content on the go, usually while doing something else like driving, cooking, or jogging.
As a result, even if your podcast listeners are genuinely interested in purchasing the ClickBank products you promote, chances are most of them won’t be able to click on your affiliate links due to being preoccupied with other activities.
As such, I wouldn’t recommend using podcasting as a standalone promotional method but rather in conjunction with other higher converting marketing channels like a blog, a YouTube channel, or social media.
Affiliate marketing FAQs
Affiliate marketing is an online business model that involves promoting products or services created and distributed by third-party online merchants in exchange for getting paid a commission for each sale you refer.
In layman’s terms, affiliate marketing is the process of being compensated for helping businesses sell to more customers.
Here’s a bird’s eye view of how affiliate marketing works.
- You join a merchant’s affiliate program
- The merchant gives you a unique affiliate link that points to their e-shop
- You promote your unique affiliate link online (blog, forums, social media, paid ads, etc.)
- Every time someone clicks on your unique affiliate link and makes a purchase on the merchant’s e-shop, the merchant pays you a commission
There are thousands of successful affiliate marketers all around the world. Some of the most well-known ones are:
- Pat Flynn
- Matt Diggity
- Matthew Woodward
- Doug Cunnington
- & more
You can check out a roundup of my 17 favorite examples of affiliate success and their backstories right here.
- Billion-dollar industry
- Very low startup & operational expenses
- Huge income potential
- Flexible & versatile
- Passive income
- Simple to implement
- No technical background
- No customer support
- No physical setup
Affiliate marketers can be divided into five main income groups:
- Total beginners: $0 – $20,000 per year
- Low-level affiliates: $20,000 – $50,000 per year
- Intermediate affiliates: $50,000 – $100,000 per year
- High-level affiliates: $100,000 – $500,000 per year
- Super affiliates: $500,000+ per year
According to PayScale, the average annual income for affiliate marketers in the US is over $54,000 per year. Statistics reveal that 13% of affiliates earn more than $75,000 per year.
Some of the factors that influence how much you earn as an affiliate marketer include:
- seniority
- target niche
- available resources
- previous experience
- marketing efforts
- & overall mindset
Here’s a rough income growth timeline of a typical affiliate marketing business:
- months (0-3): no earnings
- months (3-6): first affiliate sale
- months (6-12): $100-$500 monthly
- months (12-18): $1000 monthly
- months (18-24): $3000+ monthly
This timeline isn’t a guarantee of future performance but rather a mere approximation of the income growth of an average affiliate business. Your own timeline could be shorter or longer than projected.
Over the years, I’ve seen aspiring affiliates striking a gold vein just a few months into the industry. On the other hand, I personally know people who’ve been struggling to grow their affiliate revenue to $1000 per month for several years.
Affiliate marketing is one of the most affordable money-making models out there.
Here’s a breakdown of everything you need to get started as an affiliate marketer along with their associated costs:
- web hosting & domain name: $2.95/month (Bluehost)
- keyword research tool: $49/month (Jaaxy)
- expert guidance: $49/month (Wealthy Affiliate)
- email autoresponder: Free for up to 1000 subs (MailerLite)
Please note that on top of expert guidance, Wealthy Affiliate also provides free access to hosting and a keyword research tool so you don’t have to purchase them separately.
Yes, you can do affiliate marketing without a website by promoting your affiliate links on other marketing channels, such as:
- Social Media
- Paid Ads
- YouTube
- Podcast
- etc.
The process of getting started with affiliate marketing can be broken down into the following four simple steps:
- Pick a niche
- Launch a blog
- Build an audience
- Promote affiliate products
No, you don’t.
Affiliate marketing is very simple to get started with by virtually anyone regardless of age, education, background, available capital, tech-savviness, professional network, etc.
In fact, most 6-figure affiliate marketers were no more experienced than you currently are when they first ventured into the affiliate marketing industry.
Nonetheless, being knowledgeable in fields like marketing, sales, content production, business management, etc., could help you reach your financial goals somewhat faster.
Conclusion
The 12 ClickBank product promotion methods discussed in this article have helped millions of people go from zero to running highly profitable affiliate businesses.
Now that I’ve set you on the right track, the only thing standing between you and affiliate success is taking action.
If you’re a beginner, try not to overwhelm yourself by doing everything and being everywhere at once. Instead, ensure that you focus on the one marketing channel you feel the most comfortable with until you’ve mastered its basics.
At that point, start experimenting with additional ones. Track their metrics and performance, and once you’ve determined which ones produce the best results, combine them into a powerful, high-converting affiliate marketing funnel.
For instance, you could combine an affiliate blog with email marketing or a YouTube channel with PPC and digital products.
Regardless of which methods you decide to leverage towards advertising your ClickBank products, never forget that constantly forcing affiliate promotions down your audience’s throat is a surefire way to failure.
Affiliate marketing is a game of value, not sales. The more value you deliver, the more affiliate sales you’ll be making.
If you have any questions or require further help, I encourage you to leave a comment right below or contact me right here, and I’ll do my best to get back to you as soon as possible.
Best of luck in your affiliate endeavors!
Harry, Founder & Creative Director at dearboss-iquit.com
