Saw this initially on Clickbank.com. MSNBC.com article about affiliate marketing.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30601292/

Looks like the mainstream media is picking up what many of us have known a long while. Affiliate marketing is the greatest business on the planet.

As some of you know, in addition to CBengine, I am an entertainment webmaster. I even wrote a how-to e-book about entertainment webmastering: http://www.viralmediacash.com

I used to sell quite a few CB products on my network of entertainment sites. They were usually what I call 'impulse products' with broad appeal (I'll explain in more detail below).

I've tried every form of monetization on my entertainment sites and one of them was selling ads through text ad networks. Because of time restraints, I never tried this, but text ad networks are a source of abundant, dirt cheap traffic and I often wondered if I could buy ads on these networks for CB products and turn a profit.  I've actually seen a few CB affiliates doing this.

I hate to give untested advice, but for those adventurous marketers looking for another potential marketing channel, you may want to experiment with this. I can tell you I have had decent conversion rates off my entertainment traffic, so I know Clickbank affiliate sales can be made this way. It comes down to finding the right product and the right site to advertise on. You're going to need to experiment.   

These networks usually are comprised of entertainment sites and adult sites attracting the 18-35 year old demographic.  So it's wise to find products that appeal to this age group and that have impulse appeal. 

More on impulse appeal from Wikipedia.org:  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impulse_purchase

The product should produce an emotional reaction in the user. Products found in the Love & Romance category or Fun & Entertainment category tend to fall under this broad and impulsive umbrella. Even broad appeal 'Make Money' products have potential. Who doesn't want to make more money? 

But look around CBengine yourself. For the adult sites on these networks I would try products like this:

http://www.cbengine.com/res/stat.cfm?v=mwebb

http://www.cbengine.com/res/stat.cfm?v=jasonking2

These are the text ad networks I like. You buy ads on a flat weekly basis. You can select a particular site or purchase a package. There are a lot of these networks, but some are geared to large corporate advertisers and are spendy. I would stay away from those.

http://www.adengage.com/

http://www.etology.com/

http://www.adbrite.com

Adengage is by far my favorite. So, let's take a look at a potentially decent site and ad buy. This one looks like it has promise.

http://www.adengage.com/create_ad.cfm?site_id=9384

.04 cent clicks and most of the traffic is U.S.-based. No offense to other countries, but Canadian, Australian, U.K. and US traffic tends to convert the best. I think it comes down to the residents of these countries having more disposable income.

Another: http://www.adengage.com/create_ad.cfm?site_id=21275

I would try to keep my average CPC under .06 to start and if you're making a profit allow up to .10 clicks.  Anything more than that is too much for broad-based entertainment traffic.

Remember, you're paying by the week so write a KILLER AD. Have a title and description that stands out on the page. Really work at this. Have a hook. An enticement. Pique curiosity. Make the user click the ad so they can satisfy the curiosity you created.  With a good ad it's very possible to get your average Cost-Per-Click down to one or two cents.

If you try this, let me know how you did via the comments on this blog or through my contact page:

You can also contact entertainment webmasters and negotiate custom ads/traffic purchases. I can't link to the site because it's not safe for work, but I once did this for a 'male enhancement' product sold through Clickbank and I turned a modest profit off a one month graphical ad. I will write more in depth about purchasing custom ads on a later blog post.  

Clickbank is viciously competitive. Lots of affiliates fighting for a slice of the pie. A lot of new marketers pick the top products in the marketplace and dive in only to find they're sharing that niche with hundreds of other hardworking affiliates. Doesn't mean that an affiliate can't carve out a decent revenue stream from a crowded space, but oftentimes it's tough going.

Consider this formula for finding less-competitive CB products.

Gravity: 10-40.
Percent of sale: 40% or more.
Minimum Commission: $20

Gravity is the important number in this formula. Over 10 means a product is selling reasonably well, but hasn't caught on yet. Over 40 you start to see hyper-competitivness. 20-30 is the perfect gravity range.

Upsells: See if you can find products that have upsells. I'm a huge fan of vendors that provide this... It's a great suprise to see a sale and then a greater charge to see you've made a second commission with an upsell product. Upsell products can bolster your earnings substantially.

In no way is the definitive way to pick Clickbank products. It's just another approach to finding and promoting products. I've promoted top 10 products and done well. I've also picked products with 0 gravity and done well on those.

Writing articles for EzineArticles.com or GoArticles.com is how many people start in this business. There are two approaches. Hammer out hundreds of articles and try to write an article for every keyphrase in your niche. Lots of people do this successfully, but it takes a lot of work and requires almost daily output. It can also be draining and lead to burn out because many shotgun article writers simply repurpose their articles and write the same thing in different ways over and over and over... and over.

But what about writing one KILLER article and spending more time promoting it?  I'm talking about doing research, finding quality information and truly providing an article that is valuable to people. Not just a well-disguised sales letter as most articles are. It doesn't necessarily need to be long, but it should be loaded with useful substance. It should be a great article.

Heck, maybe even consider running the article through a copyediting service or a trusted friend to make sure it's error free and reads smoothly.

Then spend time promoting it on forums, directories, blogs, social bookmarking networks, Myspace, Twitter. Get backlinks to it. Try to to push it to the point where it becomes somewhat viral. Takes on a life of it's own. Ranks high in the search engines. The more popular an article becomes the more popular an article becomes. I know folks that have single articles that earn them 5-10k a year.

I've become a huge fan of this link service. They'll let you buy a hundred backlinks to an article. I bought 100 links the other day to a Myspace profile. I've seen increased results in the search engines. These links are just one facet of a multi-faceted backlink stategy.

http://www.cbengine.com/cbe/web.cfm?hop=pooketss

If you go the killer article route, I'd pick a medium to hot keyphrase and go for it. Ezine articles still tend to rank high, but the ones that do the best have link promotion behind them and provide truly useful information. It's important to make sure all your links don't just come from Web 2.0 social media sites as Google is now devaluing sites with only social media backlinks. You need a diversity of inbound links.

Try the killer article approach and let me know how it goes in the comments.  

Question: One thing that confuses me is that on a few products, the refund rate says 'na', while on the rest it always shows a percentage (even when it's a new product, and the rate is 0%)

What does the 'na' signify?

Answer: NA signifies NOT AVAILABLE. We are unable to calculate return rates for recurring products and vendors with multiple product IDs. Keep in mind, refund rates are not an exact science. We simply subtract the payout from the average earned to get a percentage. Occasionally vendors change product prices which will skew return rate percentages.  We're hoping in the future Clickbank makes precise return rate data available.

Matt