You’ve probably heard of ClickBank even if you are new to the world of affiliate marketing. It’s been the leading online retailer of software and digital information products for a very long time now. Some marketers have earned full time incomes just from ClickBank sales alone.

Being an affiliate newbie, it’s very easy to think that by joining an affiliate program, you will be making huge commission checks just by spreading your affiliate link around the Internet. The reality, unfortunately, is that there are a lot of people not making even one sale let alone earning full time incomes. Some affiliates work very hard to make practically nothing, while others just seem to breeze by making sale after sale.

There are several reasons why this is the case. I can’t cover all the reasons in one article alone. It’s not the newbie marketer’s fault it’s the system of information and hype that is being spread throughout the Internet today. One thing that is very important to understand, you must have a system, and of course, a system that works. Systems can range from ClickBank portals, storefronts, contextual advertising, viral Ebooks, Pay Per Click campaigns (PPC) and many more including even mixtures of them all.

Let’s look at it closer and see what we come up with. We’ll start with PPC and the horror stories that I’ve heard. PPC works, but it takes a lot more effort to make it work than the way it’s presented over most of the Internet.

The ClickBank Affiliate can’t just pick out a bunch of keywords, place them into a campaign, put it up, and wake up to a million dollars. Sometimes product owners supply keywords for affiliates to use, and new marketers assume that they just plug those in, and the hard work is over.

Most of the time those keywords have high competition because, guess what, everyone other affiliate is using those same keywords as well. So the affiliate wakes up with no sales, or 1 sale, and is $100 dollars or more in the hole.

My suggestion here is that you get some material and study keyword research and then test these keywords in individual ads to see if they work. The key here is to move slowly, and learn and to test your market. My other suggestion would be to start out with Microsoft Ad Center, and bid low to get your feet wet. Once you get the testing done, then you can move on to Google Ad Words.

I think my point here is, no matter which method you use to start driving traffic to your affiliate offers, you need to test and be patient, because your main goal here is to develop a system that works for you.

We can’t deny that some ClickBank affiliates, have utilized this opportunity and generated good money by using PPC ads and links, but for many struggling entrepreneurs, the non-exact science and cost involved in Pay Per Click campaigns force them, unwillingly, to endeavor in crowded waters.

Analyzing various tips, software, and tools will help you be more effective as a ClickBank affiliate and help you make more money. I much prefer the free methods of generating traffic, such as article writing and web 2.0 sites.

The last thing I would like to add here is to make sure that no matter what niche you go into, build a list. I repeat, do not send the affiliates to a sales page, before you capture their email address.

Now that being said, I understand that you can make money off of Blogs and other sites going directly to the affiliate sales page. Do me a favor and put a very attractive free report or even a good a full Ebook free, and have them opt in to get the free product. Then you need to build a relationship with that list, nurture that list, and make sure they succeed because if they succeed you will too.

Chris Jenkins works hard at making sure that he promotes quality affiliate products, and if you really want to make money with affiliate marketing then use the free video’s at http://affiliatetoolexchange.com to accelerate your success.

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