Could you be making money with a ClickBank super blog?
Many have monetized their blogs with Adsense but few are aware that Clickbank now offers a similar service. ClickBank HopAd Builder features rotating ads which can be displayed on a website, like Adsense, by simply inserting code into a page.
The ClickBank account homepage prominently features a link to the Ad creator pages (see Figure 1, below)
Figure 1
The main difference between the income stream from ClickBank HopAd Builder and Adsense is that for the latter the advertiser is paid a fee which is usually a few cents per ad clicked on, whereas with the former the affiliate takes a commisssion which is usually several dollars for product sales which result directly from ad clicks on the affiliates website. In both cases the idea is that the ads and associated products are confined to a narrow niche which targets the site visitor precisely.
In my opinion, one downside of the ClickBank HopAd Builder system, is that the associated search facility is desperately wanting. The idea is that the affiliate does an initial search for Clckbank products to sell which would appeal to their niche market. The system then automatically selects ads which are meant to represent this niche and displays a handful of rotating ads on the affiliate's blog or website.
The problem lies with the fact that, in my experience, the majority of ads end up being wildly unrelated to the niche in question. In my case, for this business website, in addition to a couple of suitable products, the search brought up ads for products related to social services and social advice and there was no option to exclude these ads from my webpage. However, in the Clickbank marketplace, used for selecting products individually and promoting them via links, when I used identical search terms, I found lots of products that were infinately more closely related to my chosen keywords.
I searched for a feeedback or suggestions communicaton link on the clickbank website but could only find one for asking mostly set questions about how the system works. I used this to politely register my concerns with Clickbank, with the aim of helping them optimize their returns. I suggested that affiliates might be more predisposed to using the system if there was an option to select rotating ads manually themselves. That was nearly a week ago and, to date, I have received no acknowledgement. Yes, I guess ClickBank have made their millions over the years by selling us the dream of a clickbank super blog. Yet, now, in this age of social networking where the need to actively solicit participation in product development from customers is undisputed, it seems they are still in control and command mode. I'm thinking the time may be ripe for another outfit to clean up and give the publc what they want.
Sandra Charan
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