Clickbank Killer on the Horizon?

Written by Joe Lloyd


Rumor has been milling onrepparttar various marketing-related forums that a long-needed competitor to Clickbank is soon to be launched torepparttar 108693 public. At this point, not much information has been leaked, but from what it seems we could have a real big showdown on our hands coming up.

Onrepparttar 108694 one hand we have Clickbank,repparttar 108695 colossal giant inrepparttar 108696 digital marketplace, backed by thousands of affiliates and firmly entrenched intorepparttar 108697 status-quo ofrepparttar 108698 online marketing community. Onrepparttar 108699 other hand, we are looking atrepparttar 108700 new guy onrepparttar 108701 block, who stands to make inroads and long-needed improvements in what has become a stagnant market due to Clickbank’s massive, monopoly-like presence.

Like many internet marketers, I’ve had something of a love-hate relationship with Clickbank. The first time I logged into a Clickbank account several years ago, I remember thinking, “This is it?” It seemed too simple, like there was nothing to it. Frankly,repparttar 108702 site was unimpressive in many ways. But what impressed me isrepparttar 108703 way that Clickbank became such a great vehicle for digital commerce.

Clickbank revolutionizedrepparttar 108704 market of selling e-products online through one simple thing:repparttar 108705 combination of an affiliate network with third-party payment processing. This made it so that affiliates could be creditedrepparttar 108706 moment a sale was made – which was beneficial to bothrepparttar 108707 affiliate andrepparttar 108708 merchant. No longer wouldrepparttar 108709 affiliate have to trust thatrepparttar 108710 merchant would pay out on sales that were being privately tracked and privately processed. And it made life a heck of a lot easier for a merchant who was just getting started to acquire both a captive affiliate base and a means to process credit cards all in one fell swoop.

Overrepparttar 108711 years however, people started getting more and more irritated with Clickbank’s shortcomings, and started longing for more. But it seemed too difficult for a newcomer to break intorepparttar 108712 market – Clickbank was just too dominant, it seemed.

If you’re reading this, you are probably familiar with what Clickbank has to offer and why they’ve been so great torepparttar 108713 online marketing community since they broke ontorepparttar 108714 scene several years ago. In this article, I am going to point out just a few of many possible improvements to Clickbank, many of which are being embraced by those who are poised to steal Clickbank’s grown.

1. Recurring Billing

Recurring billing is when your customer signs up for a continuous service, and gets billed repeatedly on a regular basis (such as weekly, monthly, or yearly). This form of billing is very popular with membership-based websites as well as services such as web hosting or email hosting. To this day, Clickbank has not includedrepparttar 108715 capability for this.

But why is recurring billing important? Very simply, because it allows a marketer to build a passive income that pays out month after month with no extra work. As long as you are promoting a good service whererepparttar 108716 customer will stay on for a significant period of time, you’re building up a regular income that could last years intorepparttar 108717 future. Building a passive income is one ofrepparttar 108718 most powerful ways an online marketer can build a great, low maintenance, business online.

Some merchant processors (such as 2checkout or Paypal) do support recurring billing options, but they lack one key ingredient: they don’t support affiliate programs. This is whyrepparttar 108719 addition of recurring billing to a Clickbank-style system would be so revolutionary forrepparttar 108720 sale of e-products online. It would allow not only merchants to begin building a passive income, but also for them to providerepparttar 108721 opportunity for affiliates to earn a passive income with virtually no upfront costs or cash-flow concerns. It’s truly something that I look forward to. But there’s one thing that could make things even better:

How to Waste Money and Annoy Potential Customers

Written by Barry Harrison


Why do some companies bid on keywords for products they don’t even sell? Or fail to providerepparttar basic information people need to makerepparttar 108692 decision to buy? Here’s a cautionary tale-- with a happy ending.

Has this ever happened to you? I’m looking online for lamp shades. I go to Google and click onrepparttar 108693 top Sponsored Link inrepparttar 108694 right column: Expo.com. I’m taken to their “Lighting and Fans” page. There are 29 links inrepparttar 108695 left navigation, but no lamp shades. So I do a keyword search.

Products Found = 0.

All I can do is wonder why they wasted my time and their money, and move on torepparttar 108696 next ad.

Close, but no cigar. Clicking onrepparttar 108697 second ad takes me to a home page with a “Shades” tab. I click on that and arrive on a page with information about sizes and a link torepparttar 108698 lamp shade collection.

I start browsing and find one I’m interested in. The text instructs me to “Click on lamp image for detail.” I guess they mean lamp shade image. I click, and to my surprise, I seerepparttar 108699 exact same thumbnail I was looking at, but now I have four color choices and an “ad to cart” button.

OK, I’m a designer. I can appreciate subtlety. But what’srepparttar 108700 difference between White, Off-White, Beige and Coffee? All this site shows me is a little grey photo-- but “Dirty” isn’t one ofrepparttar 108701 color choices.

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