The Little Black Book of Online Business: 1001 Insider Resources Every Business Owner Needs

Chapter 10. ClickBank

ClickBank is such a popular affiliate network that it gets its own section. ClickBank is popular because it's easy for the merchant to set up and easy for the affiliate to promote. Here's how it works:

Anyone can sign up for a ClickBank account free of charge. When you initially sign up, you are an affiliate. You can go to the ClickBank "Marketplace" and browse the various categories to see what's being sold. You can also see what the commission rate is for various "products," and how well they are selling.

Once you find something you want to promote, just grab the copy-and-paste code and add that to your site to create the product link. If someone clicks on the link and buys the product, you get a commission. ClickBank pays every two weeks and has a sterling reputation for prompt payment.

Now, if you want to sell products, the process is pretty simple. You set up your product sales and thank-you pages and enter some information in your account "product" screen. Then wait for ClickBank's approval (which usually comes back the same day).

ClickBank charges a one-time fee of $49.95 for the privilege of selling through its system, and for each sale it charges you $1.00 plus 7.5 percent, which may seem somewhat on the high side when you compare it to the 2 to 3 percent cost of processing credit cards with your own merchant account, but remember that the fee includes managing the affiliate payments, taxes, support, and so on. It's a great way for someone on a shoestring ...