Click on This: Clickbank Among Affiliate Programs

The proliferation of the Internet as a business tool has been a boon to millions of would-be entrepreneurs seeking to exploit a phenomenon many of them will never fully understand. But technological prowess in no longer necessary in a field that, to paraphrase an old camera commercial, is so advanced that it's simple. Opportunities that 10 years ago could never have been imagined have come to the attention of hordes of web surfers. Affiliate programs, which entice people with the concept of passive income, are the bellwethers of this Internet opportunity. Clickbank, although one of hundreds of affiliate programs, has rapidly risen to the top.

The basic idea is that by adding hypertext links which direct web surfers to products for sale, the affiliate earns commissions each time one of the sponsored products is purchased. In Clickbank's case, the products are generally e-books and other texts that can be downloaded for a fee. This virtually eliminates overhead, allowing retailers to offer affiliates from 50% to 75% commissions. Becoming a Clickbank affiliate is free, and the entire process takes less than five minutes.

Clickbank's marketplace lists products under nine categories -Business to Business, Health & Fitness, Home & Family, Computing & Internet, Money & Employment, Marketing & Ads, Fun & Entertainment, Sports & Recreation and Society & Culture. In addition, you can further break down your search into sub-categories, of which each main category has about six to eight. A general keyword search under "All Categories" is the most effective way to find a suitable product. Once you locate a product that you want to sponsor, you can "create a hoplink," which will direct readers to a web site where they can make a purchase. A typical hoplink will look like this

Click Here ,/a>

but like this to readers: Click Here!

You might opt for the "shotgun approach" to Clickbank. By creating a hoplink directly to the marketplace, you can earn commissions whenever someone purchases any product from Clickbank through your hoplink. This is kind of a crap shot, as you have no idea what the readers will buy or how much commission you will earn.

At Clickbank, you don't have to do any bookkeeping; they keep track of your daily sales and will mail you a check when your commission reaches an amount predetermined by you. The minimum payout amount is $10, and the maximum is as high as $10,000. Their accounting department cuts checks twice monthly.

As an affiliate, the best way to make Clickbank work to your advantage is to have a web site, particularly one that generates a lot of traffic. Alternately, you might instead look into the many web sites that allow you to publish articles for free, but be certain that they also permit you to post a link to the product or products that you are sponsoring. Some sites specifically prohibit this. A good, free web site for posting content is GoArticles.com, which offers numerous topic categories and enables you to publish your articles online immediately. The major drawback to this is that your article could be lost in a sea of content.

Another idea is to include your hoplink at the end of every e-mail that you send, much like the way that people sometimes include their business information, a daily quote, or even a favorite poem as a kind of post script.

On the other side of Clickbank are publishers, who pay $49.95 to have their product listed. For this price, you may list as many as 99 different products. If you are exceptionally prolific and have more than 99 products, you may set up an additional account for $29.95.

Publishers need to take an active role is overseeing their accounts, even though Clickbank greatly facilitates the process. Publishers' accounts are debited for returned sales, to the tune of $1, $5 or $15, depending on whether the original sale was through check, American Express or Discover, or any other credit card, respectively. Clickbank also penalizes publishers with excessive returns or those whose accounts do not generate sales for a specified period of time. Publishers are also required to design and set up their own web sites, or find someone capable of doing so.

You may have both a publisher's and an affiliate's account simultaneously through Clickbank. Although purchasing other publishers' products through your own hoplinks will give you a significant discount, Clickbank frowns upon this.

Clickbank also has a referral program, whereby you receive 20%, or $9.99, of new publishers' start-up fees, plus an additional 5% of sales that the said publisher generates.