Guest post by Dush Ramachandran, Vice President Business Development and Marketing, ClickBank (originally posted on www.affilorama.com)

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As new entrepreneurs look to make a livelihood on the Internet, affiliate marketing always seems like a good starting point. Working with an affiliate network appears like the way to go. But which one? The choices are many and bewildering.

Here are the Top 5 reasons why ClickBank is your best choice for an affiliate network:

5. Low Barrier to entry:

ClickBank is free for affiliates to join, and unlike other affiliate networks, vendors do not have to approve you before you can promote their products. As an affiliate your contract is with ClickBank. All you need to do is sign up with ClickBank, pick a product to promote from the ClickBank Marketplace, make a Hoplink - and you’re ready to do business. That’s pretty much all there is to it.

4. Sophisticated fraud control:

ClickBank’s industry-leading fraud detection and control technology minimizes fraudulent charges that result in charge-backs and refunds. Also, ClickBank tracks chronic or repeat refunders and “blacklists” them so that they can’t continue to buy products and demand refunds, making it safer and more profitable to promote ClickBank products.

3. Large and varied selection of products:

The ClickBank Marketplace has over 35,000 products from more than 12,000 vendors in topic areas ranging from dog training to body building and from search engine optimization to guitar or language lessons. No matter what your passion, you’re likely to find a ClickBank product to promote. All these products are equally available to all affiliates to promote.

2. Reliable on-time payments:

Since its inception, ClickBank has issued more than 1.0 million checks and paid out more than $1.0 Billion (that’s right – billion with a ‘B’) to clients. We have never missed a payment. Our clients tell us that one of the most attractive things about ClickBank is that, as an affiliate you never have to wonder if you’re going to get paid for the sales you promote.

And the #1 reason ClickBank is your best choice for an affiliate network is:

ClickBank processes the transaction: Since the transaction is processed by ClickBank, a trusted 3rd party, and not the vendor, you as an affiliate do not have to worry about the ethics of the vendors whose products you choose to promote. Unlike other networks, you do not have to rely on the merchant reporting their sales accurately or the systems of the affiliate network and the vendor working efficiently together. The affiliate tracking, transaction processing, commission payout and affiliate management are all handled safely and securely by ClickBank. No slip-ups. No lost sales and commissions.

So what are you waiting for?

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Read the comments about Clickbank below:

By Mark Dulisse at 4:38 5 Feb 2009:

It is seldom that we hear from people that actually work at Clickbank. Very interesting. Thanks for the posting.

By Bryan Hee at 5:02 5 Feb 2009:

Clickbank provided real time statistics for the sales performance. It's easy, convenience and Free to register as many as account you like.

To Your Success
Bryan Hee

By malrencby at 5:08 5 Feb 2009:

Clickbank may have around 35,000 products but many are the same products in a different category. In truth Clickbank have around 8000 unique products, Sill a prodigious number however.

By roseanne at 7:18 5 Feb 2009:

Very new to this game, but I am relying on the recommendations to clickbank. I am setting up my website now. Fingers crossed that all the good things that are said about clickbank are true. Certainly sounds good.

Read more articles and watch video about making money online HERE

Step 1: Join ClickBank

Let's say you are ready to move beyond your day-to-day grind and start making money online.

You then decide to turn your entrepreneurial passion into profit and goes to ClickBank to sign up for a free account. Now you're ready to begin promoting digital products.

Step 2: Find Products to Promote

Then you visit the ClickBank Marketplace and has instant access to tens of thousands of products available for promotion. No contracts or waiting!

You love dogs and chooses the e-book "Dog Training 1,2,3" by Veronica Vendor. Within seconds you're created a personalized HopLink to promote.

Step 3: Promote the Affiliate HopLink

You goe to work online, posting your HopLink in search engine ads, on your pet-training blog, and in the e-book review you write for your favorite dog-training forum.

Step 4: ClickBank Tracks Each Sale

Your hard work pays off. ClickBank pays you your commission (up to 75% of the sale) for each time someone clicks on your HopLink and buys Veronica's e-book.

Step 5: Find and Promote More Products

Yo return to the Marketplace and chooses other products to promote (as many as you want).

You feel in control of your future and as you get better at promoting products you see your earnings grow.

There are at least 5 advantages using clickbank as one and the first affiliate program you should apply:

1. Up to 75% commission :

	Commissions of up to 75% — much higher than other affiliate networks
	Digital products mean instant delivery and faster commissions
	More reward for your efforts

2. Tens of Thousands of Products:

	Huge variety of product types not found on other networks
	Detailed sales statistics to guide your selection
	Promote any product immediately
	No individual contracts required — easy and fast to get started

3. Combined Earnings:

	Combined commissions from all your promotions
	ClickBank handles all the details
	Get paid more often — weekly payments and direct deposit available

4. Reliable Tracking & Payments:

	Detailed sales reporting
	Accurate commission tracking
	Get paid on time, every time
	Weekly payments and direct deposit available

5. Global Reach:

	Promote almost anywhere in the world
	Promote English, Spanish, French, and German products
	ClickBank accepts payment in 13 currencies

Moreover, ClickBank understands the importance of good customer service, and they have an enthusiastic team of representatives available to quickly and effectively reply to your email concerns. Their customer service representatives can help identify your order and assist you in contacting the vendor for technical support. In case there are any problems that cannot be resolved, ClickBank has a 60 day return policy to ensure your satisfaction.

Check out for yourself, it's free! Click Here. You can't go wrong with clickbank.

It is totally possible to make money on-line, there are all kinds of articles and stories about people who have been successful making money through affiliate programs. A great example is Affiliate Super Star Rosalind Gardner who makes over $ 400,000 a year.

There are also lots of "little guys" doing well selling affiliate products.

It has nothing to do with getting in on the ground floor in a particular program. It has nothing to do with having loads of money to market your program. Yes, you do need to have to have a marketing budget, but that is just the cost of doing business.

What it boils down to is knowing what to look for in an Affiliate Program.

More specifically, you look at programs which provide:

1. Products/Services that are in demand. This is pretty obvious, right? If you don't have a market for your products/services then you aren't going to make any money. Now, you did your research already and found that your niche idea does have a demand...so what you are doing is looking for products/services to weave into your niche site.

The best product or service to weave in, of course, is one that you have used personally. Nothing works better than giving a personal recommendation. If you can, weave in testimonials from others who have used the same product or service. That way, there is more than one voice and that goes a long way to helping a customer make a well informed buying decision.

2. Look at the Commission Structure. The BEST commission structure is one that pays you on a recurring basis. Monthly income is the best way to go but, depending on your niche, might not always be an option for you. If that's the case then do a little investigative work and check out competitor commission structures, and then, go for the one that pays you the most for a one time sale.

3. Promote more than one product/service. Now this can get a little dicey for you because you don't want to confuse your customer but, you also want to have a few options available for making a sale. Let me explain this a little better for you, by explaining what I would do using the Golf example I referred to earlier in this course.

The niche site that I suggested I would build around the "golf" niche was 'used golf equipment'. I said that I would have had some sort of a membership board where people could post their buy/sell items. That membership site would, of course, be my own product, so that means I would get 100% of the money generated by it.

I also said I could incorporate some form of comparison chart for buying used versus new golf equipment. That way if, say a specific club was selling at $150 used and maybe $185 new, then the customer would be able to decide... new versus old. I would still make the commission on the new item. See where I am going with that???

Ok, now...in addition to the golf products, I would also want to have posted some good content on my web site, as to what to look for when buying used equipment etc. I would post articles that related specifically to my niche. I would then go and apply to the Google Adsense Program and would post little ads on the article pages. If a customer came and decided to clickoff into some other site, then at least I would see a commission from the click. I may then even decide to join Amazon.com or some other online book club and pick a few good golf books to recommend.

So...one niche site and I have created 4 income streams for myself. That is what I mean by promoting more than one product or service. Essentially what you are doing is giving yourself a good well-rounded product mix.

You can specialize if you want to. For example, I know of someone who is going to build a niche site around a specific coffee machine that they feel is going to take off. The machine is made from one specific company, which is ok. So they build a site around that machine, then they go a step further and weave in the coffee that you need to buy in order to use the machine. No other company's product/service is involved, just the one specific one.

See where I am going with this? and just how powerful affiliate programs can be...IF you know how to use them in the right manner.

Ok, so let's recap what we need to look for when deciding to participate in Affiliate Programs.

1. YOU WANT programs with products/services that are IN DEMAND.

2. YOU WANT programs that pay you MONTHLY COMMISSIONS if you can have the right affiliate product. Or, at the very least, you want to shop around and find the products with the best commission rate out there.

3. YOU WANT an arsenal of programs that link or tie into one another to give you MULTIPLE INCOME STREAMS.

That is what to look for in an Affiliate Program. Now, let's cover how to find an affiliate program for your niche.

The more obvious way to do this is to go directly to the web site of the merchant who you want to work with, and see if they offer an affiliate program. If they don't ... don't worry, we have a few other places to check out. We'll find an affiliate program for you.

Here is one great sites that you can use:


ClickBank

ClickBank is yet another affiliate directory. It is the most popular affilate directory for downloadable products. Actually they only handle downloadable affiliate products.

Here you can make anywhere from 10% - 75% commissions on products or services you sell. Acceptable affiliate commissions today range from 25% to 55%.

The neat thing about ClickBank is that their products are listed by popularity. So, it makes your job a little easier. You can go right for the related product/service that is making the good sales.

Of course these directories will help you find the right merchant program to weave into your site in order to make moneyFree Articles, BUT...do your homework! Find the one that is going to pay you top commissions.

Use the information you just read and apply it to ALL your niche sites and you can't go wrong!