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August 8th, 2011Written By: Guest Author, Miles Baker
When I first signed up with ClickBank back in 1999 I had no idea I would eventually build a successful online business using its services. I’m sure the founders of ClickBank didn’t realize how large and successful its business platform would become either. Thanks to ClickBank I was able to quit my job over a decade ago and have since worked from home part-time while making more than a typical full-time income. Looking at my experiences over the past 12 years it’s amazing how much I’ve learned and how much has changed. It’s given me some interesting insights and definitely a unique perspective.
I’d like to share with you 12 insights I’ve gained over the past 12 years. Things I wish I had known in the beginning but took time and experience to learn. Leverage my experience and use these insights to guide you as you build your own online business over the next 12 years and beyond!
Perseverance – Overall this has been the most important factor in my online success. If you’re going to succeed online, especially in the long-term, you have to stick with it. You have to try out new things, test out different methods and never give up. I’ve seen too many people give up and quit too soon. When I started out I was determined to make it, nothing was going to stop me from making an income online, and eventually I did. Even to this day I have to continually overcome obstacles, but that’s how you have to view them, and that’s all they are. I like to think of it as climbing a mountain; if you want to get to the top you have to crawl over rocks, take detours, and sometimes head back down the mountain and take another path up. If you want long-term success there’s just no way around it, you must have perseverance.
Think Big – A lot of people online talk about niches and seeking out small, unexploited niches. However, I’ve seen many people go into niches that are too small to replace a full-time income. Although people can and have done well with small niches. In my experience I’ve always been more successful with larger niches. I’ve always had better success when my product, service, or website has appealed to a very large audience.
Always Keep Learning – After you achieve some success online you begin to feel like you know it all. It’s an easy trap to fall into. However, if you can humble yourself and take the attitude that you should always be seeking out new information from others (even if they’re younger or less experienced than you) you’ll continually find yourself learning new things you didn’t know.
Bi-Winning – Why be an affiliate or vendor when you can be both? Like most people, I started out on ClickBank as an affiliate. Eventually I became a vendor too. I learned very quickly that not only do you diversify and stabilize your income by being both an affiliate and vendor, but you can make more money too. Being both an affiliate and vendor allows you to cross promote. You can promote your own products through your affiliate channels and you can promote affiliate products on the back-end of your own products. It also gives you the ability to make money off your competitors! For instance, whenever I get a refund on one of my products, I email that customer with a list of competitor products. And yes, they are all affiliate links.
Opportunity for Income– Every page of content, every affiliate link and every ad is an opportunity for income. The more opportunities for income you have, the more money you’ll make. This doesn’t mean you should fill up your blog with as many affiliate links and ads as you can, it means you should create more blogs, more products, more services and more content, etc. Most of these methods are low maintenance once they’re set up, so you should strive to create as many opportunities for income as you can.
Fill in the Gaps – As you create more opportunities for income, you should also be filling in all the gaps for income in your current sales process. If you have a product you should be offering up-sells, setting up cross-sells with other vendors, and offering additional items for sale on your thank-you page. If you’re an affiliate you should be following up with customers that purchase through your site, using auto-responders to follow up with prospects, and up-selling wherever you have the opportunity. Filling in all the gaps was something I neglected for years but once I started doing it my income increased immediately.
Don’t Take it Personally – Early in my Internet marketing career I was very defensive. I would get into long email battles with people I didn’t even know! Looking back it was such a waste of time and my productivity suffered. What I’ve learned is that no matter how good of a job you do, no matter how much you try to help someone, there will always be negative people out there that will tear you down, criticize you, and try to sabotage your success. It’s not worth your time wasting it on these types of people. Whether someone leaves a nasty comment on your blog, sends you an email rant, or makes rude comments in a forum, just ignore them. Sometimes people are looking for a fight, do yourself a favor by not giving them what they want and don’t take it personally.
Let Others Do the Work– Your only limited resource in your online business is time. The only way to have more time is to do less of something else. There’s no other way. Delegating work through outsourcing or hiring employees will be the only way to eventually grow your business. Start outsourcing anything you can have others do, such as graphic design, blog installation, programming, etc. Outsourcing is cheap, effective, and leverages your time so you can do other things. It may be a struggle for you to delegate work you know you can do best, but it’s something you’ll need to overcome if you want to take your business to its highest potential.
Ditch Your Inner Introvert– Working at home on the computer all day can definitely make you an introvert. One huge mistake I made for years was not reaching out and meeting other Internet marketers. Once I started getting out of my office and going to conferences and events everything changed. I made connections with like-minded marketers, learned more than I had in years, and made fantastic friends as well. Internet marketing is a people business and people are your most valuable resource. Get out from behind the PC and get social, you never know what connections you will make and how it may improve your business and life as well.
Automate – When I first started marketing online I used to email all my customers their download information manually. Yes, each time I made a sale I rushed to send an email to them with their download link as fast as I could. Eventually I discovered automated ways of doing this as well as many other tasks that saved me countless hours. The great power of the Internet lies in being able to let technology do the work for you. Many things can be done automatically, such as backing up your websites, customer follow-up, posting content to you website, and so much more. Whenever you find yourself doing any kind of repetitive task look to see if it can be automated in some way. Chances are it can.
Test For Success – I never ran an official split-test for probably the first 7 or 8 years I was marketing online. Mostly because it wasn’t easy to setup like it is now, but also because I was just lazy. After running numerous split-tests over the last 5 years, I’ve realized I must have left loads of money on the table by not split-testing. Split-testing gives you instant results to improve your website and it will provide you with definitive answers as to which versions to keep and which to get rid of. Just about every successful marketer I know split-tests and it’s available to anyone for free using Google Website Optimizer.
It’s No Secret – When I first started out with ClickBank I was convinced I had to either have some original amazing idea or know some secret marketing technique or loophole to make a lot of money. Eventually I realized none of that was true. You don’t have to promote the perfect ClickBank product, you don’t have to know special affiliate secrets and you don’t need a huge marketing budget to be successful. One thing I’ve seen over and over again is that taking consistent action leads to results and over time leads to success. There’s really no secret. I think Lyle Lovett says it best… “It’s funny, but the biggest secret to success is that those at the top just seem to work the hardest. The reason it’s a secret is because nobody wants to believe it.”
About the Author
Miles Baker has been marketing online since 1997 and has been a ClickBank client for over 12 years. He currently resides in Fort Collins, CO where he runs ClickScoop.com, an up and coming community for ClickBank Vendors and Affiliates.
Take a look at these related posts:
8 Key Differences Between Super Affiliates and Struggling AffiliatesMaking the Profitable Move From Affiliate to Vendor: Part 1Your ClickBank Freedom FormulaThe Ultimate Affiliate Marketing Split-Testing Guide
Posted in Affiliate Tips, Strategies for Success, Vendor Tips 15 Responses to “My Top 12 Insights from 12 Years on ClickBank” 
Heidi Schell says: August 8, 2011 at 1:18 pm I had to smile at the very first point you made – Perseverance! When I was in my early 40's I took a mountain hike with a good friend in Austria. This was not a little hill, this was a mountain! I thought I would die:) and wanted to quit several times but my faithful friend encouraged me on all the way to the top:)
I like what you write and I agree 100%, it is work, but it is rewarding:)
So, I started a blog, have no idea what I’m doing, asked for some help designing the thing, but I am looking for a mentor!!!!:) Have any ideas? My goal and desire really is to work from home and hopefully top my Social Security income:( but I truly want to help others, especially women to do the same. In my younger years I built a Stained Glass Studio with my hands from 0 – one hundred thousand a year within four years – even though I’m older now, I still have the desire to work, but lack the knowledge, but am willing to do what it takes:)
Thanks for your advice, it is very good!
Heidi, a grandma from Houston
Steve Hall says: August 8, 2011 at 5:29 pm I think this is a great post about the mindset and qualities that you require to be successful in online marketing. There are definitely a couple of things that I can take away from this post. Up until now I have just promoted other people’s products, so maybe it is time to think about my own product.
I like the points about reaching out to other im’ers, automating as much as possible, and also testing for success. I can definitely do more in these areas.
ayaz says: August 9, 2011 at 2:10 am Absolutely perfect post for the click bank affiliates, and it shows you that there is no rocket science behind promoting an product as an affiliate. Thanks for such a great post.
Karl May says: August 9, 2011 at 5:24 am Great post going to share, very helpful to anyone starting out!
Jim says: August 9, 2011 at 11:17 am Very useful tips.
I especially liked your tip about ditching your inner introvert. I definitely need to get out from behind my computer more often and start meeting and interacting with other internet marketers.
Leon says: August 9, 2011 at 1:14 pm You are well named, Miles, because you’ve certainly done the hard yards and earned success.
At 60-years-old, I sometimes wonder why I have decided to become an affiliate marketer.
But, at last, I have my first website up and running, promoting a worthwhile health product from Clickbank.
I came close to giving up as I struggled with the technical side of things.
Your guest post has made me more determined to press on and improve myself.
Cheers, Leon
David Dunsmore says: August 11, 2011 at 2:34 pm These are great tips, I have been struggling with SEO and a $0.00 income to help promote so any of the real tips that actually work have been helping our back-links and rankings grow.. Slow Process but what do you want for free right. As soon as I earn I am not going to forget the people that helped my pages get seen. Thanks always
flodeluna Cometa says: August 13, 2011 at 2:18 am Your blog is really helpful to me who really aspire to make business on line.
Barbara Fitchitt says: August 13, 2011 at 3:33 pm Well done! What great words to live by, even if you’re not trying to make an internet business. I have blockprinted the headline words on the front of bright 3X5 index cards with the explanations on the back of each. I posted them around the office – I want to know them so well that they are incorporated in all areas of my life. Thank you for putting this gift out for all of us. Barb
KurlyD says: August 14, 2011 at 2:11 pm Sometimes it takes a while to see a purchase, which is frustrating at times, but you just keep putting in good content on your site and you will see results.
I hope this helps
KurlyD
etoga says: August 15, 2011 at 3:08 am Very good post. Many things here i did not know of. Much to learn here.
I will look over what i have been doing and try to get it right.
Thanks a lot.
John says: August 16, 2011 at 9:49 pm Thanks Miles for sharing your hard earned experience. I am just starting out with ClickBank as a means of accessing passive income and I found your article very real and helpful.
Miles Baker says: August 20, 2011 at 4:00 am Hey everyone, thanks for the feedback, I’m glad you all like the post!
@Leon I suppose I have “ran the miles” so to speak, lol. Congrats on getting your product up and selling and best of luck!
@Jim Whenever you go to an event let me know, we’ll meet up!
@Steve Hall definitely having your own product not only increases your income, but it diversifies it at all, then you further diversify by having multiple affiliates, therefore your marketing is very diverse and not dependent on a single avenue.
@Heidi Schell I’d be glad to mentor you, but I can always do that through my sites, blog posts, video content etc. Shoot me an email at miles (at) clickscoop.com and I’ll be glad to check out your blog and give you a few pointers. 
Judy says: August 20, 2011 at 7:13 am Hi Miles,
Thank you for this post, I found it right after I was reading stuff about the Affiliate Tax stuff going on and my state was affected. I started to become discouraged because I am new to this and have been studying for quite a while now on the how to from square one.
Your post gave me encouragement again, so THANK YOU in big capital letters!!
Sincerely,
Judy
Bucee says: August 29, 2011 at 7:57 am I really enjoy your post and strongly suggest it for beginner affiliate marketers. I have just started to be a full time affiliate marketer and I know the ups and downs of it.
The most important factor – as it was mentioned – is to never give up and to always develop. My aim is to earn my living totally from home and I will reach it. 
Big thanks for your fantastically positive post.
Regards
Bucee
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