Clickbank is finally tightening the rules for sales pages for Clickbank vendors. I am always browsing through click bank products for my affiliate websites and lately I have been shocked at some of the sales pages that have been approved. The silly thing is, that these pages are a high earners and this in itself made other vendor’s follow suit.

So finally Clickbank has pulled in the reins on these sales pages but I know from experience that vendors will find a way around all of these rules. More trends and tactics will come out and more people will follow the leader.

Clickbank updated their promotional guidelines

I logged into Clickbank to see this message at the top of the screen:

What has changed at Clickbank?

A lot has changed! I cannot believe they have come down in one fowl swoop and cleaned up the sales pages of the past.

Fake Endorsements

We all know you cannot ad fake testimonials to your sales pages, however it has extended into the video is now. Before putting a video on click bank sales page you will now have two submit a script of the video. I am not surprised as I have seen some crazy videos going around lately.

Here is an example of a video that I was bit suspect about:  Clickbank sales page breaking the rules. (Disclosure – I will receive commission if you are dumb enough to buy) Only joking, I have no idea if it is a good product but it is breaking the rules.

Sales Videos

There are even more rules for the videos that I think a fantastic!

• You are not allowed to have a video that a viewer cannot stop or pause. The above example was breaking this rule.
• You cannot have an endorsement in the video unless it can be proved. For an example if a Dr endorses your product there must be proof that he has tested it.
• A Clickbank vendor cannot make false claims about his earnings as part of the product pitch.

False scarcity

You know when people say, “quick buy it now because there is only one day left” and stuff like that, well they are not allowed any more. You can no longer say that there is only 100 copies available when there is really an endless supply.

If a genuine scarcity does apply, you will have two get approved with Clickbank and they will monitor the sales, making sure you close down the product when you say you will.

Accurate pricing

When you state that your product was previously priced at $100 and now you’re selling it for $50, that better be the truth or Clickbank will kick your product off their site. (Well maybe they will warn you first) This is one rule alone is going to change things as most sales pages seem to have some kind of discount on the page.

I do wonder if you can say that your product is worth $100 but sell it for $50? I could not see this mentioned anywhere.

I must admit that I have a few sales pages with the price crossed out and I will be changing them ASAP!

Upsells and Downsells

Having an upsell is a must, however people were taking this option to the extreme.

• You can only now have three upsells at the most with two exit offers for each sale. I am almost sure that people will work their way around this one.
• The “no thank you button” for the upsells must be clear and easy for the people to see.
• The upsell must also not be required to make the first product work.
• Decline link must be on the same page view as the “Accept” offer on a standard 1024 x 768 display (for example, no scrolling should be required if it is only to see the “No Thank You” link).

Strict promotional techniques

You can no longer use a brand name logo to promote your product. for example the pages that have as seen on TV, a Yahoo News logo, a Google logo, and so on. Of course the website is featured in Google when people search for it, that this is no longer allowed. Exceptions can be made when vendor has documented authorization from major brand or corporation.

If you are a Clickbank vendor, I highly recommend that you log into your account and see the new promotional guidelines for yourself.

Following the FTC guidelines

The time has come, affiliate disclosure requirements are getting strict and all the backyard affiliate’s will have to come out of the closet. It is exposure time and the affiliate disclosure requirements seem to be getting almost beyond a joke.

We all knew that we had to have a disclosure policy on our websites if we were making commissions, however now we have to have the disclosure policy on the page where the affiliate links are. Do you think this is going to put people off?

I received a few emails today each I thought were just simply reminding me of the affiliate disclosure requirements. The funny thing is, that they all say the same thing.

Here is an example of what Super Green Hosting wants me to do with my disclosure. ==>>Super Green Hosting Disclosure Policy

The FTC also offers a variety of resources to help make it easier for you to comply with the guidelines, including:

• Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising
• The FTC’s Revised Endorsement Guides: What People are Asking
• Dot Com Disclosures: Information About Online Advertising

What do you think about Clickbank pulling in the reins on sales pages?

Firstly let me explain Clickbank affiliate marketing and then we will get to recurring income. If you plan to promote digital products, the best place to start looking for quality products is through ClickBank, available at Clickbank.com. ClickBank is the largest online marketplace for digital products, and you’ll be able to quickly pinpoint hot sellers by browsing through their many categories. You simply need to create an account and start promoting Clickbank products. You can also become a Clickbank Vendor and sell your own products online.

What is recurring income on Clickbank mean?

Recurring income means the customer will be billed for more than just one sale. For example the customer might pay a trial free to test out a product and you will get a small amount of income from this. However if the customer continues to use the product they will be billed further, according to the terms of the sale. This could mean that they billed a monthly amount and you receive recurring income as long as they stay in the program.

We are looking for Clickbank products with recurring commissions and a high gravity.

What are the advantages to promoting products that provide recurring income?

Obviously it is of greater percentage to you to promote products that provide recurring income. The best part about this is that you can make the sale once and then receive the recurring income over and over. This is really depends on what program you choose and how they run their sales process. You might look at a small income on Clickbank and wonder if it is worth it or not? However when you find out that there is re-billing and you will get recurring income from it, of course it is all worth it then.

In the screen shot below it shows the “sale-RB” which means there is a re-bill to follow this payment. When it says “Rebill” it means this is a re-bill payment and you can click on it to see if there are any more payments still to come. If it says the rebill is active it will give you the date of the next recurring income. If it says that it is “completed” it has finished billing, and if it says “canceled” then the buyer canceled the rebill. It is even better when you can adding a recurring product into a viral marketing campaign like a free report.

How to find products that have recurring income on Clickbank?

When you are searching for products in the Clickbank marketplace you will notice some icons under every product listing. If you are looking for a recurring income product on click bank you will need to see a little icon that looks like two arrows going around in a circle.

See the screen shot below. The top product has no recurring billing icon below it…Although it has a high gravity and sells well, it is only has one sale to make. The product below has recurring billing and the average re-bill total is $45.65 and that’s after the initial sale of $28.07.

To find out what the recurring income involves, you will need to research and find more details on the products affiliate information page.

How to do more research on the products you find?

Some products look like they are popular when they are not. For example a product with high Gravity has a lot of sales but what if it has a high refund rate? What’s the point of making a sale then? With a bit of research you will find out these details. You can usually go to the sales page of the product and see if it is a quality product. I also like to go to CBEngine.com and find out the refund rate.You will have to sign up for a free trial to see the refund rates for the products.

You might also noticed other webmasters promoting the product you are researching and this is a good sign. See this article on how to create a Clickbank hoplink in order to promote a product.

The best research of all is if you actually buy the product yourself. I usually do this after researching it and confirming it is right for me to promote. This way you get to see the back end offers and recurring billing going on behind the scenes. If you are serious about affiliate marketing then this is the best way to become an expert at the product.

Watch the video below to see how to find recurring income affiliate products.

Notes:

• If you are going to be a successful affiliate marketer you will need to know these top 10 Onpage SEO techniques. After all, targeted traffic equals higher sales.
• What about making money even after your WordPress website has been sold?

If you are going to become a Clickbank affiliate marketer then you really should be promoting top products the provide recurring income.

When you sign up to Clickbank and become an affiliate, in order to promote a product you will need to get a hoplink. Yes it sounds a bit silly but that’s what it is called. It’s really quite simple. If you find a product you want to promote on Clickbank you have to grab the hoplink, which is the link with your affiliate name in it. Therefore if someone clicks on this hoplink and buys the product, you will get an agreed commission amount.

How to create a Hoplink in Clickbank?

1.  Sign into your Clickbank account.

2.  Click on the marketplace link in the top menu. See the screen shot below.

3.  Now you have two options here..To search in the search bar or browse the categories in the far left column.

4.  Once you have found a product you like (see tips at the end of post) click on promote. See the screen shot below.

5.  Another window will open. Type in your account nickname.

6.  You can also type in a tracking id. This could be anything that reminds you what the link is because it will be hard to tell later.

7.  Press on the create button.

8.  See the screen shot below, the arrows are pointing to the hoplink. You need to copy this link.

9.  It should look something link this http://283eca26un7o9u2ushlqcd0nf5.hop.clickbank.net/ You can use this link on your website.

10.  The second link <a href=”http://a5e8dgu4vp7zcwbhqjqvc50n5l.hop.clickbank.net/” target=”_top”>Click Here!</a> has anchor text included and needs to be pasted into the html of your wordpress website.

Watch the video below to see how to use this hoplink in comjunction with a banner from the product you are promoting.

Tips for making a hoplink in clickbank:

1. The more gravity a products has the more popular it is.
2. Average $/sale is what you will get if someone buys the product.
3. Average re-bill total means that there is a reoccurring payment like a membership website.

This video shows how to search for a Clickbank product, however one day after I uploaded this video, Clickbank re-arranged their website. Now the process of creating a hoplink is different. Now I will have to do another video.

The new way to get hoplink is to signin to Clickbank and go to the promote tab. Then search by categories or in the search bar at the top…I like the old way though. You could pick different features like the most popular and standard billing etc. This new system even confused me for a second, but I am sure I will get used to it.

When you are finding hoplinks to promote it is better to choose products that have recurring income. That way you can possibly still make money even after your website no longer exists as the money will keep rolling in.

You can still go to Clickbank and find a product that you want to sell and then create a hoplink.