How to Upsell Like a Pro

If you’re new here and you don’t know what an upsell is, here’s a scenario you might be familiar with:

You go to Chipotle (or whichever burrito venue you prefer), and you complete your order. While the skilled team behind the sneeze guard tenderly fills the tortilla, turning it into a vessel of delight, a war wages in your mind. You know they’re going to offer guacamole. Not FREE guacamole. Guacamole at a charge.

Oh the decision! You love it so, but it’s an extra $1.95! What’s a hungry person like you to do? Yes please, no thanks, yes please, no thanks—back and forth you go until… it’s time.

You already know how this ends. You get the guacamole. You get it every time. But why? Because Chipotle (or whichever burrito venue you prefer) knows how to upsell like a boss. 

The Upsell

According to me (not quite a famous online marketer… yet), upselling is dance of desire, will, and discount. According to Neil Patel (a seriously famous online marketer) the quick definition of upselling is this: “Upselling is getting your customer to make a higher cost purchase than he or she originally planned. The goal is compounding profit by using the momentum of the purchase.”

You can see this very phenomenon unfold in the burrito scenario… you’re already buying the burrito, heck… it’s in the very process of being made right in front of your eager eyes. For retailers—burrito makers, affiliate marketers, or otherwise—the moment when a sale is already en route is a prime opportunity for an upsell.

So, how is it done? What are the steps to this ornate and exquisite tango? Below, find some expert tips from those who know best.

Be Subtle

According to a Harvard Business Review study conducted over a seven year span, there are two essential qualities that ensure sales success for an individual: empathy and ego drive. In the article “What Makes a Good Salesman,” authors David Mayer and Herbert M. Greenberg outline the findings:

“A salesman with much drive but too little empathy will bulldoze his way through to some sales, but he will miss a great many and will hurt his employer through his lack of understanding people.”

While this data was sourced primarily in reference to auto and insurance sales, the findings truly still apply when developing your upsell content. Buyers can sense when you’re trying too hard to finagle an upsell… and they don’t like it. Behind the ego drive for success, there must be an authentic connection to the consumer. This connection is called empathy. Developing empathy is a slow and subtle process that creates a cozy den of trust. Trust is an essential for first time buyers, and–most importantly, for repeat buyers.

Let’s talk about how this can be done with online marketing:

Keep Brand Language Congruent

It’s easy to fall into the “But Wait! There’s more trap!” to encourage buyers to add additional items to their order. The “over eager salesman” is a well-known trope largely due to this kind of language. In your upsell content, don’t switch on the gimmicky verbiage if that’s not consistent with your regular sales content. 

Provide Helpful Quality Content for Free

Providing high quality and helpful content for free builds trust with your customers. Doing so demonstrates empathy and can help increase your upsell conversion because buyers have experienced your brand and product in a low risk arena. Thus, they have come to rely on a certain caliber of capability. Just make sure that your upsell products are on brand and as good as (or better) than your free content.

More is Not Always More

Most importantly, always keep in mind that more content does not always mean that more people will engage more often. In fact, in 2015, the amount of content rose an average of 35% per channel, but engagement declined by 17%.

If the goal is generating more upsells, sellers have to fine-tune content to reach customers where they’re going to feel it. This starts with defining your customers wants and needs and tailoring your language for the upsell moment.

…But Not Too Subtle

The same Harvard Business Review Study also pointed out that a salesman cannot be too subtle if they want to be successful. The overly empathetic approach to sales is ineffective due in part to a lack of actual desire for the sale. Again, Mayer and Greenburg write:

“A salesman with fine empathy but too little drive may be a splendid person but will be unable to close his deals effectively. This is the ‘nice guy.’ Everyone likes him, and from all appearances he should turn out to be one of the best men on the force. He somehow ‘doesn’t make it’… He will get along with the customer, understand him, and bring him near the close; be he does not have that inner hunger to move the customer that final one foot to the actual sale.”

This is all to say, if your upsell content has connecting ethos, but doesn’t possess the persuasion to compel the shopper to buy, you might need to realign your empathy/ego balance in your marketing strategy. Here’s some ways to do just that:

Use Urgency

Urgency is a tried and true method for converting the upsell and many people shy away from it because of its “salesy” tone (i.e. “For a limited time only!” or “Don’t miss out on this special offer!”). It doesn’t have to be this way though. A few choice words can add a bit of pressure to a buyer. Thinking using terms like “limited batch” to imply that the product won’t be around forever. Or, put a time limit on when an order must be placed to receive an upsell opportunity. 

Use Social Pressure

Encourage buyers to commit to an upsell by displaying the addons with words like: “Similar buyers also bought… ” or, “Similar shoppers also added… ” Just a small indication that people of a comparable social stature also committed to an additional purchase can be compelling enough to capture an upsell. 

Get Your Ratio Right

Neil Patel encourages sellers to keep their upsell at half the cost of the original purchase or less. This is the ratio at which a consumer can typically rationalizing spending more. If your upsell costs just as much as the product, the consumer won’t feel like they are getting any sort of “bonus.” If an upsell is too cheap, it may seem gimmicky and useless. Try out different ratios and see which ones work best with your products to optimize your conversions.

Eventually, All Things Must be Cleaned

Choose your upsell product based on something that will solve a problem that arises from the initial purchased item. Every single thing that someone buys will at some point or another require attention in some shape or form. For example, software will require updates or training; all books and e-books can be sold with a specialized workbook; and eventually, all things everywhere must be cleaned, or sharpened, or charged, or renewed somehow because that is the nature of stuff. Use this fact of life to your favor when tailoring your upsells to your products.

Most Importantly, Steal Ideas from Experts 

When it comes to a successful upsell, you don’t have to reinvent the burrito. There have been experts conducting psychological studies to figure this stuff out for decades. Tap into the collective genius of sales and marketing and try out some of these tried and true methods to optimize your upsell opportunity. 

If you want to get started on your affiliate marketing journey and you want ClickBank riding shotgun, sign up for an account here.

The Moneyshow is Guaranteed Insight and Entertainment

Becoming an affiliate marketer is moderately easy. Becoming a successful affiliate marketer is no small feat. Like anything worth doing, it takes trial and error, lots of learning, and some tips and tricks to get it right. So, if you have to ingest all of that information, we think you oughta be able to have a good time with it.

That’s why Team ClickBank is thrilled to announce the debut of our newest YouTube series… The ClickBank Moneyshow! Hosted by one of our all-star affiliate managers, Darcy Erickson, The Moneyshow is tailored to affiliates who are figuring out the best way to get the hang of building their online empire and those who want a little refresher on what’s happin’ in the performance marketing world. 

With each episode coming in under four minutes, keeping up to date on performance marketing trends, affiliate tools, and campaign best practices isn’t too much of a commitment. The rapid-fire style of these bite-sized episodes keeps the insights (and jokes) coming quick.

“We wanted to keep it short, sweet, and entertaining.” said Senior Content Manager, Taylor Utt, “There’s a lot of information out there for affiliates. The Moneyshow offers both industry insight and entertainment.”

Episodes will be released each week and provide information that is relevant and quick to implement. Episode One provides viewers with a quick rundown of the top five email service provider companies. In a little under four minutes, viewers will find out about what ESP may best for them. The fifth place “Best ESP” spot goes to ActiveCampaign. Known as “an all-in-one marketing platform,” ActiveCampaign is best for clean responsive themes and some of the best automation in the industry. 

Spot four goes to MailerLite. MailerLite is the best option for global email sends. The platform is optimized for international communication and makes connecting around the world easier. 

Want to find out what the top three ESPs are? Check out Episode One here. And don’t forget to hit the subscribe button to see new episodes of The Moneyshow released weekly!

How to do Email Marketing

Every morning, across the world, people wake up, roll over, tap an icon on their phone, and scroll past dozens of emails that they will never open. No matter how good the deals inside are, these emails will never see the light of day for a myriad of reasons. In fact, as of 2018, 82% of marketing emails were never opened. With all that wasted effort and all those emails marked as spam, one might think that the email marketing industry has become obsolete.

Now, that may be a dismal way to start a blog about email marketing, but here’s some positive news: as of 2019, there are an estimated 5.6 billion active email accounts and 99% of consumers check their email every single day.

You might be wondering, what’s with the contradictory facts and polarizing rhetoric? Here’s the thing, I don’t want to lie to you; email marketing is a complex and difficult game. It takes all of the foundations of marketing and turns them up to 11. Some marketing methods stand the test of time (like the P.A.S. method), and others become outdated nearly as soon as they develop. Consumers are fast-evolving specimens and figuring out how to market to them via email can be daunting as heck—especially considering the fact that before you can email people, you have to amass a list of people to email.

How do I get started with email marketing?

Where’s an amateur to start? Well, right here, reading this blog, is a good place. A fair warning though: in addition to being tough at times, email marketing requires trial and error. The good thing is, there are 269 billion emails sent per day around the world. Don’t get discouraged. You will have plenty of opportunities to improve. So, without further ado, here’s a ten-step program to getting started in email marketing.

Step 1: Choose an email service provider (aka “ESP”).

Once you decide to get started on your email marketing adventure, the very first step is choosing an email service provider. Ideally, select one that can handle a lot of outgoing emails, offers quality analytics, and is optimized for global communication. HubSpot is a tried and true top -contender, but there are plenty of others that might serve your needs better. Shop around and find the one that works best for you.

Once you have selected your ESP, get comfortable with the interface and learn as much as you can about the analytics offered. Familiarize yourself with industry email marketing industry terms such as click-through rate, transactional email, and multivariate testing (aka “A/B testing”). 

Also, it’s very important that, as an email sender, you stay compliant with data protection regulations such as GDPR and CCPA. Violating these regulations can mean hefty fines for you and your business. Learn more about how you can avoid breaking these rules before you start ending emails. 

Step 2: Make a landing page.

This step will be important when you start to build your email list. You will want a link you can share via social media and online forums. A landing page will make growing your list much easier. It will also offer you web page real estate to promote who you are and what you do, which creates opportunities for search engine optimization (SEO). Most ESPs include a landing page builder in their features. Follow these rules when you create a landing page, or you run the risk of scaring people away before they add their email address to your list.

Speaking of promoting who you are and what you do, consider this step an opportunity to start defining your brand. Trust plays a huge factor in open rates and creating a congruent brand image plays a huge role in establishing consumer trust. 

Step 3: Automate. 

The next step is to create a “welcome email” and automate it to be sent to new subscribers.Experts agree that the first email should be sent the day of subscription. Email content for this message should include social icons, a warm greeting, and what subscribers can expect from you or your company.

Automating this welcome message will allow you to spend a lot of time making sure it’s a great email, which is important. This is the first interaction your new subscribers will have with your email communication, so making a good impression is critical. 

Step 4: Start growing your subscriber list.

Your email list may have started growing after completing steps one and two. Now, it’s time to really consider how to grow that list. Here are a few tactics that can help:

SEO

SEO can help grow your organic traffic. Consider adding content to your website to start ranking for key terms in search engine results.

Consider Facebook, YouTube, and Google Ads

Paid ads can help drive people to your website. Depending on your budget, you can go big or small with paid advertising. Even a little push will help you grow your email list. Getting into paid ads is an adventure in and of itself. So take your time learning the ropes. 

Promote Content, Not Just Your Website

If you do choose to run ads, promoting content that has a sign-up form in-line or as a pop-up (rather than just promoting a website or landing page) is a good way to engage with people and encourage them to subscribe. It’s important to note here that you should make sure your content is good (like, really good) before attempting to use it as a marketing tool. Writing is not everyone’s cup of tea, so if you know you’re no good at it, consider hiring a freelance copywriter to help create your web content.

Cross Promote

Do you know someone else in the email marketing industry? If not, that’s totally okay—don’t let that discourage you.

If you do, now’s the time to practice your networking skills. Depending on their marketing niche, you can work out a deal for a cross promotion. The first time networking with someone in your industry is always the hardest—especially for introverts. That being said, cross promoting is one of the fastest, most efficient ways to grow your email list. Like paid ads, you can start small and scale up from there.

Step 5: Make your content better (and relevant).

As your list grows, you may want to consider growing your online presence as well. Content is the number one way to improve your site’s rankings. Better content will also lead to more subscribers.

If you’re not a content writer, fear not. There are methods to upping the quality of your content no matter your experience level.

Know Your Audience

If you’re creating video or blog content for your website, keep in mind who you are speaking to. Tailor the content you create to be important and relevant to your key demographic. And, as the saying goes, “Love the one you’re with.” Yes, attracting new demographics is important, but you need to cater to your current audience first and foremost.

Include Lists

Fact: people love lists. There’s extensive neuroscience explaining this phenomenon that we just don’t have the time or space to go into, so trust me—throw a list in your content and see how it outperforms your other list-less content.

Include Easy to Understand Visuals

Too many words on a page is stressful. Including meaningful infographics or salient visuals can drive home a point and engage your audience. However, there’s a line. Don’t use graphic, emotionally triggering, or confusing visuals in your email or content copy. People are generally turned off by that kind of tactic.

Step 6: Promote wisely.

Now that you’re up and running, you’re in a good place to start really considering how you want to automate and grow your email marketing empire. Finding products to promote that have consistent commissions can be tricky and so can making sure you get your due commission check. Going through an affiliate marketplace like ClickBank can ease some of these growing pains and allow you to scale further and faster. With products to promote in over thirty different niches, most everybody with an email subscriber list can find something that will convert. 

Step 7: Keep growing your subscriber list.

By this step, you should start to feel the momentum of your email list. Perhaps you are seeing increased revenue from affiliate commissions or maybe you are noticing that your click-through rate is increasing. Whatever the case, now is a good time to tend to your subscriber list. Here are a few quick ways to keep on top of it:

Make sure that all of your content has an apparent subscribe form.

Try networking (again).

Sign up for an email marketing course.

Improve your CTA (aka “call to action”) buttons.

Make sure user experience is good. 

Step 8: Be social.

If you haven’t already, now’s the time to integrate your social presence into your email marketing adventure. Your emails should have social icons that prompt subscribers to follow you. Now, make sure your social content is on point to attract more email subscribers. Share your landing page or website link in your bio and highlight products with a clear and concise CTA.

Step 9: Improve your content more.

One sure fire wire to grow your subscriber list is to gate a premium piece of content. This means that, in order to access a helpful guide, an in-depth report, or an informative whitepaper, they must first subscribe to your email list. Now, the content you gate can’t be some run-of-the-mill mumbo jumbo. It needs to be meaningful, relevant, and insightful for your targeted audience. No, you cannot gate a blog post that you’re super proud of. Trust me on that one.

I know I’ve said it a lot, but this also might be a good time to hire a copywriter. Developing a quality piece of content is a big task, especially for people who a) don’t like writing or b) aren’t good at it. This piece of content will be important in growing your list and adding value to customers so whatever route you choose, take it seriously. 

Step 10: Test, test, and test some more.

By now, you’ve sent so many emails you’ve started saying “Send” in conversations. You’re basically a pro at picking salient subject lines. So, you might be wondering how you can improve your click-through rates or conversions. It’s time to ramp up your multivariate testing. The first step is creating some hypotheses and making a testing plan. The insights you gain through multi-variate testing will help you finetune your emails and increase metrics, but ultimately, improving the content you send to your list will add more value to your subscriber’s experience and build relationships between you and your readers. If that sounds like the “long game,” you’re right—it is. But the long game is where email marketing thrives. Making your emails better and better is a win for you, and a win for the recipient—less unopened emails in the inbox.

How to Build an Epic Offer

Nobody said building an offer was easy. In fact, creating an offer that consistently converts and attracts affiliates is straight up tricky. But, like baking a fancy and tasty cake, there’s tried and true methodology to the process that can help you achieve an epic offer. If you follow these steps, you’ll be on your way to perfecting the art of the offer build.

Step 1: Research and Identify a Primary Pain Point. 

We hate to be the bearer of bad news, but your English teacher was right. The first step is always research. Conducting preliminary research is “square one” when it comes to identifying the needs and the pain points of your potential customer. The more you know about the niche you plan to enter, the more you can tailor your offer to satisfy buyers, create trust, and build a brand reputation. Here are a few ways to find out more about what you can bring to the table. 

Competitive Research 

One way to gather insights and information is to perform competitive research. Identify some key players in the niche you want to enter and find out what they’re doing to achieve their success. Figuring this out in the beginning can help you avoid certain pitfalls and help you get started in the right direction. 

Check out how your competitors are incentivizing affiliates. Are their offers compelling? Is their copy engaging? What about their brand? Who is their target demographic? Are they missing anyone they could be reaching? 

While this kind of research can be super enlightening, here’s the catch–don’t use what you find out to “rip and repeat” what your competitors are offering. Use your new insights to find and orient yourself in the niche you plan to enter. Not what you like, what you don’t like, and figure out how you can stand out from your competitors. 

Do you have time for a brief survey? 

The next way to get the scoop in your niche is to listen to your market. The best way to listen? Conduct a survey. 

There are many resources out there for making the survey, but the real trick to surveying is making sure you ask the right questions. For example, ask what factors survey-takers consider when making a purchase. Or, ask how often they tend to buy a certain product. You’ll want your questions to help in identifying the pain points your potential buyers encounter so that you can tailor your offer to soothe them. 

On top of questions, make sure you include the boilerplate demographic questions (age, gender, income, education, etc.). These will help with analytics once you’ve collected all of your data. Take your time with building your survey step. The information you get from surveying is invaluable in guiding you on your offer building journey. Fore more information on how to build a survey, check out this resource. 

Step 2: Craft a story and build a sales page. 

The ability to write an engaging brand story may seem like the easy and fun part of offer building. Fun? Yes. Easy? Absolutely not. Successful stories and sales pages effectively sell a product with a relatable narrative. This is where many sellers fail. A compelling story needs to do three things: identify a problem that the potential customer can relate to, highlight the future and current implications of this problem, and then parade in a solution like a knight in shining armor. Of course, all of this must be done in a way that keeps the customer along for the story time ride. So, how’s it done? Here are a few ways to complete this step successfully: 

Get the Story Right

You must illuminate your story as a solution by showing how it solves the pain point. It’s okay if copywriting just isn’t your thing. But, if that’s the case, you may want to invest the resources necessary to get your story right (i.e. hire a copywriter to do it for you). 

Or, if you want to do it yourself, check out some online resources before forging ahead. And, remember, have someone read it before you publish it to check for comprehension, grammar and spelling, and general appeal.

Build a Sales Page

If you’re wondering what differentiates a sales page from a landing page or a webpage or a bookpage, here’s the difference: a sales page is a specific type of landing page with one very specific goal–to get the visitor to make a purchase. This is where the story that you just crafted will live. It can vary in length, but the visitor will not have to leave this page to make the purchase.

The anatomy of a sales page is pretty consistent throughout the industry. Here are a few key parts you’ll want to include: 

A single page format.

All of the necessary parts of the story, the purchase process, and your brand must live on this page. 

Fast page load speed.

This is important especially if you have a video sales letter. Viewers need to see the information as quickly as possible to get them engaged and paying attention.

Plenty of white space. 

White space reduces clutter on the page and keeps the viewers attention where it needs to be: on the most important and compelling information.

Keep the “good stuff” above the fold. 

Make sure viewers can see what they need to see before they are forced to scroll down the page.

Clear, simple, and persuasive copy.

Again, we can’t stress this enough–make sure your copy is good, like really good.

Functionality over design.

Every element of the page needs to be there for functionality and making conversions. Don’t add too many elements lest you distract the viewer.

Consistent and pressing calls to action. 

Keep your CTAs consistent and pressing.

Scarcity. 

If your offer is limited, make sure to mention it on the sales page. Scarcity is a motivating factor for many buyers. 

Social proof. 

Social testimonials are very effective when it comes to getting customers to commit. Utilizing reviews and testimonials on your sales page can be very helpful. Make sure you follow the FTC guidelines for reviews though. 

For more information on building a quality sales page, check out this resource. 

Step 3: Optimize Your Conversion Rate

The metric that you will want to pay attention to as you start building your epic offer is the conversion rate. The conversion rate is verification that you’ve identified the problem; that you’re telling the right story; and that your sales are performing as they should. When affiliates seek offers to promote, this is the metric they most often pay attention to. If your offer doesn’t convert, affiliates don’t get paid and they will seek out other offers with higher conversion rates. So how do you keep your conversion rate attractive? Here’s our top suggestion: 

Split Test

When it comes to your copy and your sales page, there are a lot of factors that go into making sure it’s successful. You won’t be able to identify what’s working and what’s not without split testing (also known as A/B testing or multivariate testing). Spend the time to rest, re-test, and test some more until your sales page performs at the best level possible. The saying is absolutely true when it comes to copy and sales pages: “It’s the little things.” Small tweaks can make a big difference on conversion rate and testing can provide insights into what you should change. 

For more information on how to get started with split testing, check out this resource.

Step 4: Build an “Offer Flow.” 

The final step in building an epic offer is to build an offer flow. This step is all about increasing your average order volume (also known as “AOV”). When you increase your average order volume, you increase your margins. Higher margins can give you more f;exibility for affiliate commission payout. More commission payout will make your offer more attractive to affiliates and entice them to promote it. Sounds pretty great, right? 

Building an offer flow is all about building the experience your customers have after their initial purchase decision. The offer flow occurs once a customer clicks on the purchase CTA on the sales page. To capitalize on this moment, utilize the following tactics the increase the initial order amount: 

Order Bumps

Order bumps exist on the order form and the option to purchase is made before the final sale. Typically order bumps offer an additional product related to the initial product for an amount that is less than fifty percent the price of the initial product.

Upsells

Once a customer has completed a purchase, you can offer an upsell. An upsell is a product that naturally would be bought with the initial product that enhances the product experience. 

Minimum Cart Value

Setting a minimum cart value means that shoppers must reach a certain purchase value to unlock a bonus (like free shipping). 

Minimum Cart Discounts

Setting a minimum cart discount means that shoppers must reach a certain purchase value before they get a discount on their entire purchase value. 

Time Limit on Offer

Setting a limited time on an offer is a scarcity tactic that encourages shoppers to buy before the offer ends.

Package Deals

Package deals occur before the purchase has been complete. Shoppers are given the option to buy two or more items together as a bundle at a discounted price. 

Incentivize Purchase

To incentivize a purchase you can include a rewards program, cash back, or a discount on further products.

Including one or more of these options is a great way to create an offer flow that increases AOV thus attracts affiliates–which is an important factor in elevating your offer to epic status. 

Is my offer epic yet?

What if you do all of this and your offer is still less-than-epic? We recommend going back and reworking the steps. Do more research, improve your copy, split test some more, and try out new elements in your offer flow. Offers respond to the level of attention and work you put into them, so with a little more time and energy, your offer is sure to achieve epic status.

This blog was adapted from the ClickBank guide: “How to Take Your Business to the Next Level with an Affiliate Program. To read the full guide, CLICK HERE.

How Scientology Taught Me the #1 Reason Offers Fails

Praise be to L. Ron Hubbard! Not only did he teach us about Xenu and how his mass murder of the Teegeeack and their lost spirits are the cause of every bad feeling I ever had, but he was also a very skilled marketer.

Just in case people are not aware, I am not a follower of Scientology, but I am a fond observer of cults and the dark arts used to convince seemingly “normal” people to believe in very strange and radical things.

Before we talk about what I learned from one of the more accomplished cult leaders, I want to first tell you about a situation I have seen far too many times.

A driven entrepreneur comes to me with their next big winning offer. They uncovered a product so amazing that is is about to change the world. To be honest I am a sucker for a good idea and an amazing product and their excitement quickly is transferred to me as I excitedly ask… “What is it?! Tell me now. Now! TELL ME!”

I am soon blown away by an extraordinary list of amazing things:
it will make it so your feet stop smelling bad;
you will stop snoring;
your hair will start growing back;
it will make you a professional level singer;
you will be able to finally understand David Lynch movies instead of just pretending you do;
And the list goes on and on and on…

We both high five in victory because in that moment we know. We know that his offer is going to be a winner, but… Come the highly anticipated launch day and soon anticipation and excitement soon turns to dread as the clock ticks… And you see the clicks…

But not one single purchase…

Gutted everyone stares at each other and asks the question “How did this happen?”

How to “Find the Ruin”

Imagine this scenario: a young, despondent, man is wandering the streets of England. It’s 1954 and a new movement has just started gaining attention. This young man is approached by stranger. He says a few sentences…

“You have a mind. Here is the guide book for it.”

The young man was hooked and with his interest peaked he asked to learn more. The stranger was happy to take him back to the local headquarters where they proceeded to do two things. First they explained who they are and made sure to diffuse any objections about the Church of Scientology (ya know like not being a cult, no we don’t harass and blackmail our members, just the little stuff).

Secondly, and more importantly, they uncovered the one biggest pain the young man was experiencing in his life right now. Once he shared his story of a troubled romance that was currently haunting him and leaving him seeking answers he was hooked. All the stranger had to do next was prove that Scientology was the answer to the question he had been seeking and that he was finally home, where his pain and suffering would be alleviated.

You might be wondering when the mention of aliens and spirits and Xenu comes in, but that is much later and nothing we will be discussing here. The stranger wasn’t a marketing or sales genius but in fact he was just following the basic 4 step recruitment process all recruiters followed.

Step 1: Make contact (handing him the book).

Step 2: Disarm (remove any “misconceptions” about Scientology).

Step 3: “Find the Ruin” (the bad relationship).

Step 4: Close the deal (Make Scientology THE answer).

In this simple and devious recruitment model lies the answer to why offers fail… Find the Ruin.

Solve One (Just one!) Problem

If we go back to the situation of the failed offer I mentioned above you can see how this step was painfully missing. I mentioned the offer creator came to me with a list of problems the offer COULD solve. The problem is a successful offer only promises to solve one.

When the stranger was recruiting, if he had began to speak of all the problems that could be solved with Scientology, he would have likely become bored and overwhelmed the man. This is because humans are inherently self-interested. When someone starts talking about problems that don’t apply to us, we lose interest. Uninterested people are not going to become buyers, and they are unlikely to give you a second chance to try to convince them otherwise.

Just the other day I was reviewing a video sales letter (commonly referred to as VSL) for a friend. This was an offer he had poured his heart and soul to. He felt like it would be his legacy. He wanted to help people start their own businesses online and change their lives in the same way it had done for him. He had so many ways and things he was going to do accomplish it. I thought the offer sounded amazing and I felt inspired by his passion he had to help people, but then I watched the VSL…

It started as a business opportunity offer, but then became personal development, then biz op, then health and fitness, and honestly I don’t know what it went to next because I was struggling to follow along.He had so much to say…

He had so many problems to solve… He tried to solve them all and didn’t solve anything.

Needless to say, I felt for my friend who had all the enthusiasm and passion in the world, but couldn’t marry it to the right pitch. Fortunately, it is an easy fix! He just needed to pick the ONE thing he wanted to fix for people and go from there.

But how do you pick what problem I want to solve? It is like picking my favorite child. Which, by the way, for the actual parents out there, isn’t hard to do it all. It’s always the youngest one–they have disappointed you the least so far. Anyways, I digress.

It’s not up to you to choose. Don’t be the one that decides, let your customers do it.

Collect the answers your product provides and start writing headlines for each one. Now start surveying. Compile the list of your pain headlines and ask your target demographic which one speaks to them the most. Collect the data and pick the winner. You now have found the ruin and you can write your sales page to provide the answer which is your product. You just made L. Ron Hubbard so proud.

Seek Out Expert Advise

You might say: “But Kyle, I don’t have an audience, I’m not an influencer, I don’t have an email list, what do I do?”

There is a ton of things you can do. Luckily people are everywhere so go find the ones that fit the demographic you wish to serve and talk to them. Go to some sub-reddit forums and ask the questions of what would you choose. Find Facebook groups and create a poll. Go old school and head down to a coffee shop and buy people some coffee if they answer your question. There is no short supply of people in pain you just need to find what pain your product targets best.

Once you get the target down to one simple pain point you will see a dramatic lift in your conversion rates. I can personally say going through this exercise on a failed offer more than doubled the conversions! Granted the first version of the offer was a certified stinker. This kind of work takes trial and error to get right. Don’t get discouraged. But before you launch your next big offer pause and think about the regal and dynamic L. Ron Hubbard and ask your self did I identify the ONE point of ruin for my customer?

If you can say yes, you are on the path to a great offer.

Affiliate Marketing Language Matters

We’ve changed our lingo for the better.

Affiliate marketing has been an ever-evolving sector of the ecommerce landscape since the beginning. In fact, the first affiliate marketing website, PC Flowers and Gifts, launched the same year as Amazon–1994. Only four years later, in 1998, ClickBank entered the scene. In the two and a half decades that affiliate marketing has existed, the language used to describe the process and the players has been decided by each individual company as they forge their way into a largely uncharted future. In fewer words, the industry has a lot of words, terms, definitions, and lingo.

Since many affiliate marketing companies are not the megalith that Amazon is, the industry has not had sufficient consumer involvement to enforce the rhetoric in the front-facing sector of the business. “Google it” became a verb because it was used externally, not just among Google employees and their clients. “HopLink,” “Gravity Score,” and “Pitch Page” will likely never become household names, but for ClickBank clients these terms mean something.

As affiliate marketing, performance marketing, and general ecommerce grow into the future with more sellers and affiliates choosing to pursue earning an income online, Clickbank acknowledges the weight of our influence in the industry and the importance of providing a more modern platform that is easier to use and employs consistent vernacular. This dedication to evolving, in tandem with the progress of the tech industry, has inspired us to retire the terms “whitelist” and “blacklist” from our rhetoric.

ClickBank previously used these terms in conversations and copy about our affiliate commission programs. Sellers had the option to hand-select affiliates based on their eligibility to promote. This feature was formerly referred to as “whitelisting.” If a seller wished to bar an affiliate from promoting their products, the seller could add the affiliate to a “blacklist,” which meant that the affiliate could no longer promote that seller’s products. While these terms are common across the industry, we’ve found that using them no longer aligns with our commitment to empower all entrepreneurs and help businesses automate and grow.

These terms will be replaced with more inclusive and straightforward language. A seller’s “whitelist” will now be known as “approved affiliates” and the “whitelist” setting will now be known as “Affiliate Require Approval.”

The term “blacklist” will be replaced with the phrase “blocked affiliates” and the verb “blacklisting” will be replaced with the phrase “blocked by ClickBank.”

Not only is this language indicative of an outdated era in the tech industry, our team has determined that the new language is more efficient, easier to translate, and consistent with our values. We look forward to evolving and bettering our company now and in the future, and we challenge our industry partners to do the same.

How to do Market Research for Affiliate Marketing Campaigns

For affiliate marketers everywhere, conducting effective market research (also known as “MR”) can be one of the hardest parts to gaining traction and momentum in their quest to make money online. Even with all the research, blogs, e-books, and mentors in the world, figuring out what to sell and how to sell it can be intimidating. Many affiliate marketers get stuck in the research phase. Or worse, they hurry through it, brush off their findings, and proceed when they should have returned to the drawing board.

To take some of the guesswork around market research for affiliate marketing campaigns, we’ve boiled down the process into five effective steps.

Step 1: Take a look at your market.

Before proceeding with market research, you will want to identify and select the market you are working in. Don’t let this decision alienate your audience or demographic though. You may have a problem or product in mind that fits into a certain sub-category, but keep in mind the fluidity of many demographics. In fewers words, don’t pigeonhole yourself right out the gate.

That all being said, the first step to conducting effective market research is to take a good look at the market, or niche, you are working in. Sit down for a long research session with these questions in mind:
What products exist that are similar to mine?
What are the top selling products in this niche?
Who is promoting products similar to mine?
Are people having problems with any of the products that are similar to mine?

According to Kyle Kostechka, a business development manager here at ClickBank, when it comes to this step of market research, you’re looking to see if there’s room for a product or for improvement:

“You want to ask yourself, ‘Can I do it better or good enough?’ or ‘I think this is a problem and nobody is doing anything about it.’ You want to survey the landscape to see where you can most effectively fit in.”

At this phase, if you are feeling discouraged by a lack of apparent need for your offer or an overabundance of products, don’t get discouraged yet. Proceed to the second phase to better understand consumer behavior.

MR Hack: Subscribe to bloggers who promote similar products to yours to get a good idea of their demographic, copy style, and marketing approach. Keeping up-to-date on similar products will keep your research grounded.

Step 2: Survey your audience.

Once you have a broad idea of what that market is currently offering, it’s time to drill down a little bit through surveying.The first step is to design a survey using a survey creator platform. We suggest Survey Monkey for sheer usability and convenience.

Design your survey with easy to answer questions that require little effort on the part of the survey-taker. If you are selling a digital product, come up with five to seven headlines for your product and ask whether or not the survey taker would buy the offer. If you are selling physical products, throw in some actual pictures of the physical product.

Once your survey is complete and reads professionally in an unbiased way, send it to your email list and give recipients about a week to complete it. According to SurveyMonkey, 80% of results are typically collected within seven days.

The goal of this survey is to obtain a general idea of what people would buy. When the survey is complete, look for the “would buy” percentage to be over 85%. That may seem like a high number, but since this survey is a hypothetical and there is no real cash on the table, you’ll want a commitment rate that is higher than average. Survey percentages are not indicative of what your actual conversion rates will be, so don’t get too excited if you have a product that polls particularly well.

If you receive your results back and they indicate that there isn’t a need or desire for your product, you can start the research process from the beginning to get a better idea of how to optimize your offer.

If the results show that there is an overwhelming need or desire for your offer, great! But there’s still more to do. Proceed to Step 3.

If you don’t have an email list yet, don’t fret. You have other research options. Step 3 will provide you with some relevant and meaningful feedback.

MR Hack: If you’ve already established other offers or products, offer a coupon at the end of the survey for a discount percentage off their next order. This will help the survey-taker feel appreciated and boost sales for you.

Step 3: Do some face-to-face research.

Now, we understand that “face-to-face” means something very different in 2020 than say, in 2019. But hear us out. Before you pull the trigger on scaling your offer, you’re going to want some real, live feedback about your offer. There are two really good options for getting this kind of feedback.

The first is The Coffee House Approach. This approach requires actually leaving your desk to go interact in the wild–following all applicable COVID-19 protocol, of course. Coffee houses historically have been places of interaction, communication, and idea-sharing, so you’re more prone to find someone willing to talk to you about your offer there than anywhere else. Catch someone in line and offer to buy their coffee for them if they can give you ten minutes of their time to take a look at your website. If they decline, hey–no worries, try again.

When someone does accept, get right to the point. Show them a headline or image of your product and ask them if they would hypothetically buy it. Because this in-human interaction is a bit more intimate than the internet, they will likely offer a reason why or why not out of courtesy. This information is market research gold. If you can keep these participants talking, they will reveal to you their opinions, their pain points, similar products they’ve used and liked or didn’t like, as well as information about them to help you better understand demographics. Not only that, but you may find invaluable networking opportunities that would have otherwise been inaccessible just over the internet.

The second is The Reddit/Facebook Approach. Both of these social media platforms tend to be less curated than LinkedIn or Instagram so people’s frustrations may be a bit more evident. Find groups who are dealing with issues that you believe your offer or product may solve. Offer a $5 Amazon gift card to anyone who is willing to hop on a Zoom (or Skype, or Slack) call and give you some feedback. It’s important to make this interaction feel intimate, so clean up your work space and turn on your camera.

Try for at least fifteen unique interaction sessions, either from The Coffeehouse Approach or the Reddit/Facebook approach. Use the information you find from this step to finetune your offer and product. While this data will not be scientific, it will be hugely helpful for you when you go to write sales copy around this offer or future, related offers.

Even if you get a lot of negative feedback, don’t throw out your idea just yet. There’s still a bit more research to complete. Proceed to Step 4.

Step 4: Do some paid media testing.

Paid media testing is the final step in your market research journey. Facebook ads are a good place to start. You can also work with any partners who operate in the same niche to test your offer on their email list and guarantee them earnings per click or pay them upfront. Either way, this step is where you’ll have to shell out some money to get the data. Budget your marketing funds for at least three iterations of testing to boil down what works and who it works with.

You should expect higher engagement and conversion rates because you’re targeting a hyper-specific audience. If you choose to scale your offer, expect those rates to dip a bit.

Even though you may feel inclined to go big in this step, we suggest keeping it small. Refine your offer through the iterations of these tests the best you can to get all the insight you can before making decisions.

The data you accrue in this step will come in the form of actual sales, which means this step may not feel as much like research as the other two. Trust us though, these sales are more than just money in the bank–they’re indicative of how well your product or offer is performing in a certain demographic with paid advertising. These are ideal conditions and if you’re not seeing positive engagement and conversion rates, that may be something you want to continue when you proceed to the fifth and final step.

MR Hack: Don’t use the same partner’s email list twice.

Step 5: Scale or start over.

If you get all the way to step five and your data is not instilling in you a founded and rational sense of confidence regarding the success of your offer, go back to Step 1.

I know. That seems harsh. But starting over isn’t a failure. Kostechka would argue that market research is more than worth it:

“Doing market research mitigates failure upfront. You’re going to work through the research and, even if you find out the offer is bunk, the information you’ve learned covers the energy and loss you’d experience if you pushed an offer that wasn’t ready.”

If you do find that all signals say go, it’s time to scale your offer and go big. For more on how ClickBank can help you with that step through automation and growth, sign up here.

Five Ways to Improve as an Entrepreneur

Deciding to go at it by yourself and put your idea out there for the world is generally one of the most difficult decisions anyone makes. It takes true grit and gumption to walk the path of the entrepreneur. Many don’t make it. For those who do, the journey is about constant improvement because, when it comes to figuring it all out, entrepreneurs call the shots. They’re the ones making the big decisions and steering that great ship of innovation into uncharted waters.

The internet is teeming with the top ways to become an entrepreneur, the best books to read for entrepreneurs, and the top things entrepreneurs didn’t know about becoming entrepreneurs. But finding ways to stay sharp and keep focus can be tricky. If you’re in the game already, how do you aim to be the greatest version of your entrepreneurial self?

Below, find a list of five ways that you can improve as an entrepreneur. These suggestions are just broad generalizations; they’re complete with action tips that you can do right now to up your game and stay sharp.


Five Ways to Improve as an Entrepreneur
Always keep an eye on the trends.
One of the most important things you can do to improve your business game is to always keep an eye on the trends. This doesn’t necessarily mean limiting your insight to just your niche though. Try to keep an ear to different happenings in a multitude of areas. When you open up your lens to different sectors of business and keep a finger on the pulse of the culture, you can start to notice places where you stretch your business and areas where you can pull back, depending on consumer attitudes. Staying up to date will keep you moving forward and enhance your skills.

Action Step You Can Do Right Now: Google “Top blogs in [insert your niche here].” Follow one you’ve never heard of. Then, Google “Top blogs in [a niche so outside of your typical scope you couldn’t even name a central player in it].” Subscribe to the one that catches your eye first.

Don’t pigeonhole your creative process.
Everyone works differently and, through trial and error, we all find the way that work works best for us. When we find that routine, we can enter that elusive flow state where productivity just happens. However, this same gift from the business gods can quickly turn into a curse. Routine can become the enemy of creativity, stifling new ideas and new ways of doing things. Instead of getting stuck, change things up. Throw in a new activity into your day to day. Don’t expect anything to happen at first. Just let yourself be present and the ideas and fresh thoughts will come to you when you least expect them.

Action Step You Can Do Right Now: Grab a notebook and a few colored pens. Date the top of the page and start writing, doodling, and coloring away. The goal isn’t to come up with a new idea or process. The goal is to make your brain work in a new way.

Expect hard work.
Some entrepreneurs assume that, once they put in the grueling hours up front, they will be able to coast into wealth and riches. This is especially true about the troupe of passive income (which is a myth, by the way). Being an entrepreneur is hard work from day one. If you expect it to get easier, you will grow resentful of yourself and others. Always plan for the hustle and embrace the process. You chose the entrepreneur life, and now you must make the choice to live it to its fullest.

Action Step You Can Do Right Now: Cancel your vacation plans. Just kidding. But in all seriousness, cancel the most frivolous thing on your calendar right now and block out that time for some serious work.

Reframe the way you think about failure.
If you’ve established yourself as an entrepreneur, then you know sometimes things don’t always go as planned. On the spectrum of failure, there are minor setbacks and then there are The Big Ones–the failures so harrowing that you wonder if you’ll make it through them. Instead of choosing to let those things crush you, reframe the way you think about them. Failure happens to everyone. You can choose to see it as an important moment in your story when you learned to pivot and move in a new direction. When we reframe the way we think about failure, we take control of our own personal narratives and write the story of our success.

Action Step You Can Do Right Now: Think back to the last failure, big or small, that really got you down. Take five minutes to list five lessons you learned from that setback. Next time you fail, read that list and remember that you are in control of the way you think about your challenges, successes, and disappointments.

Challenge yourself.
Complacency is the worst thing that can happen to an entrepreneur. Complacency is an all-numbing force that starts small and grows over time. Entrepreneurs are most likely to become complacent when they plateau. Maybe you’re making enough money to live, or you achieved a big goal, and now you’re just… waiting. If you stay still too long in this intermittent period, you will fizzle out, no doubt about it. Before you get to your destination, have the next one planned. Stack your goals for success and celebrate your wins while planning for the next big one. Always be challenging yourself to do those hard things. Simultaneously keeping your focus on the here-and-now, as well as your “pie in the sky” aspirations is the perfect concoction for staying challenged.

Action Step You Can Do Right Now: Sign up for a class you think will be too hard. Just do it. Don’t think about it. Make the commitment and follow through. Push yourself into a new skill set without second guessing your dedication to yourself as an entrepreneur.

To find out more about how you can automate and grow with ClickBank and improve your business, SIGN UP here.

Five Surefire Things You Need For a Killer VSL

In giddy anticipation, I stand in front of the microwave, listening to the accelerating kernel pops as I wait for my buttery treat.

I’ve found the perfect bowl–the one that is rarely designated solely for popcorn, but is the perfect vessel for a movie-time snack.

Popcorn in hand, I sit down and get comfy. It’s time to watch another VSL.

Okay, okay… you caught me being a bit dramatic (more on that later). I don’t actually watch VSL marathons the way I would watch a movie marathon, but there are some similarities between the two art forms (yes–I referred to a VSL as an art form).

So today, we are going to add a little “movie magic” as we dive into the five biggest mistakes you can make when you are creating your VSL.

For those that aren’t aware a VSL stands for “Video Sales Letter.” A VSL is a great way to capture an audience’s attention–especially in the current world of content where consumers are blitzed with things and information to digest.

VSLs can engage and capture a consumer in a way that even the most snappy of headlines and most compelling of content cannot. VSLs open a door to more traffic channels and tend to do better with mobile audiences–which has become increasingly important as mobile continues to overtake the desktop market. (For reals though, does anyone even use a desktop if they aren’t at work anymore?)

VSLs come in many shapes and sizes. From 30 second pitches at the top of an ecommerce page to 90 minute epics selling you a course on how to make 8-figure VSLs… the limits are flexible. Today we are going to focus on the long from VSL. On ClickBank, we tend to see the most success for both sellers and affiliates who use long from VSLs.

Alright, let’s just into the five things every great VSL needs.

A Great Story
Just like every memorable movie, a VSL must have a great story. The first step to creating a great story is focusing on the VSL copy. Also similarly to the movies, even the best effects and production can’t save a script that is total garbage. (I’m looking at you Sucker Punch.) Yet, on the flip side, a great script shines even in the lowest of production environments. (Clerks cost Kevin Smith all of $27,000.)

VSLs, and really all things marketing, require good copy before impressive production. Otherwise, you’ll spend hours and hours in production (and likely a lot of money) on something that will never captivate an audience the way you want it to.

With your long form sales page, you will be able to easily test multiple headlines and CTAs. You’ll be able to optimize the copy without investing time and money into a VSL that will never convert.

Once you feel confident that you have winning copy, don’t overthink things. Create what Digital Marketer calls an “ugly VSL” using PowerPoint and your own voice over. Test this primitive VSL and do it cheaply so you can scale into a polished VSL.

Keep in mind that there is one thing that you must have in your script for it to capture conversions… drama.

A Dash of Drama
Can you imagine how bad Die Hard would have been without the terrorist? Or what if Harry met Sally and they got married in two months of uneventful dating and lived happily ever after? Or what if Forest Gump just stayed at home and mowed lawns?

These would be terrible movies. No one would watch them and they probably never would have been made (or in the case of Dances with Wolves would win tons of awards but still bore us all). We need the DRAMA to drive the story. Not just movies, but in VSLs as well.

However, unlike movies, there is little time to spend building tension in your VSL. In cinema, a good build up is applauded when executed well. Movies such as Blade Runner, There Will Be Blood, or–more recently–The Joker do an amazing job of building tension until the third and final act, leaving viewers with their jaws dropped and their butts still in their seats (even after 2+ hours).

The liberty to take one’s time in crafting a story is truly reserved for movies alone. Movies viewers are committed to watching one thing with a minimum of 80% attention for at least 90 minutes. They are buckled up and ready for the climb.

VSLs are different. When a customer gets to your landing page, they are being bombarded for their attention from all manner of sources. Family, work, friends, facebook, Farmville, bank account, the random question they had to answer about that serial killer from 20 years ago, a new email, other ads! The list is endless.

This means they are unlikely to give much patience to wait and see if a VSL is going to eventually get interesting. As a VSL creator, you have about five seconds to keep someone watching.

That is why you need to start every VSL at the peak of drama. Channel your inner Spielberg and start with boulder-chase-level of drama like he did in Raiders of the Lost Ark, or make it irresistibly action packed in the same way Christopher Nolan did to open the Dark Knight. Without a doubt, the best VSLs always start at the peak of the drama.

As I was falling to the floor I could see my life flash before me. Was this really it…”

“I could feel the cold steel of the .357 barrel on my temple. Quivering, crying, and feeling so lost I didn’t think I could go another day if something didn’t change in my life…”

“I woke up in the middle of the night to the blood-curdling sound of my daughter screaming. I knew something was wrong…”

These are all examples of high drama leads for a VSL. Make it intense and something that the viewer simply can’t turn away from.

Great! You have them hooked. But how long will they stay?…

VSL Length
The most common question I get asked when it comes to VSLs is, “How long should it be?”

Here’s my answer every time:

“As long as you need to sell the product.”

You can sell the features of a product in a stylish, simple video. Look no further than the “As Seen on TV” product line. Exhibit A: A charismatic pitch-man showing me how I can finally make arduous vegetable cutting a thing of the past with the Slap Chop!

The price point is low, the marketing is flashy, and the end goal is my commitment to an impulse buy. There are no upsells, the AOV (average order value) isn’t going to be that high, and–if they want to keep selling Slap Chops–the volume needs to be enormous.

This doesn’t work for digital products or high-end supplements.

You may be wondering, “But why?”

Because selling digital products and high-end supplements require the sales of a concept, not just a product. The concept of the paleo diet can’t really be explained in a 60-second video. Likewise, the concept of spending $200 a month for a 6-month supply of a fat burner cannot be done in a 5-minute video.

When you think about movies, this same concept applies. Movies with simple concepts like animated films and horror movies clock in around 90 minutes. The deeper the concept, the longer the movie. Dramas and blockbusters are on average 30 minutes longer, taking up about 120 minutes. These movies tend to win awards and make more money.

When it comes to selling concepts, there needs to be a deeper connection at work, which can only be done when a story meets education in a marriage unique to long form sales copy. And while sometimes you can sell a product without the long form VSL by using other tactics (such as adding a free-plus-shipping cookbook), you won’t get the same AOV when it comes to your upsells.

That is because when someone commits to buying your concept rather than just a tangible good, they are trusting your ability to deliver to them a solution to their problem. They will want more of it. And they are also willing to pay more for it.

I don’t want to leave you without some specifics, so I will say that the most successful VSLs that I have seen range from 45-80 minutes in length. It doesn’t mean you can’t do more or less, this is just the spot that I see the highest conversions at.

Now that you have the perfect story, with the fight amount of drama, at the right length, you want to make sure that your VSL and sales page look good.

Bad Production Will Destroy Your VSL

When I say bad production I don’t mean that you need to spend a lot of money to produce your VSL. In fact, a high budget doesn’t mean good production–a phenomenon we see in cinema all the time. (John Carter anyone?) Your dollars need to fit the feel of the sales letter and the page.

If you are going to go simple, commit to a VSL that will highlight the text and story. This is where a really good voice actor and copywriter can do wonders. If you want to invest in lots of stock footage, a real actor with live shoots, go all in. Don’t cut corners with obvious or corny-looking stock images that are repetitive or look low budget. Essentially, don’t let your production fall somewhere in the middle.

Middling production is a no man’s land that will hurt conversions every time. I truly cannot think of a top-performing VSL that lived in the middle. As a famous sage of cinema once said, “Do. Or do not. There is no try.”

A Busy Page Doesn’t Convert, It Distracts
The most important lesson I can leave you with is this:

Consider where you want the viewers eyes to be at all times during your VSL.

Naturally you want your viewers to be watching the actual VSL until you present the CTA. So it would make sense that the more you add to the page around the video, the more you fracture your viewer’s attention. Fractured attention is bad because you need as much attention as you can get from them on your VSL. With too much going on on the page, they won’t be as bought in and they won’t be as likely to convert.

Don’t show the CTA. Don’t add testimonials. And, please for the love of Frodo, don’t fill the margins around the video with text or images. There is a time and a place to show them more and it isn’t until you present the CTA. If you are worried about keeping people on the page, spend time on your video not the content around it.

I had the pleasure of attending a training session at the YouTube Offices earlier this year. During the training, YouTube had a presentation from their in-house conversion optimization and testing team and they shared some interesting information about the production of ads that worked.

First, ads that have more frame changes convert better. Look at every successful Harmon Brothers offer and you will see how often they change frames in their videos. They keep you on your toes to keep their viewers engaged. Remember all those competing attention grabbers I mentioned? This is how you combat those.

Second, focus on the face and speed up the pace. Make sure you have tight shots that focus on people’s facial expressions to enhance the intimate feel of video. This is especially important for small screens. Then, the fast pace (literally talking and moving faster) will capture and keep attention.

Finally, add in superimposed text! If you want to emphasize a point, you need to display text on the video. When text is put in front of us that only offers a limited time to read it, the viewer must read it as it is presented.This is one of the reasons I remember so much more from foreign films that are subtitled. I am forced to read the captions and fully immerse myself in the conversation. The commitment it takes to reading alone keeps my attention more than standard dialog.


Speaking of attention, if you’ve made it this far, I must have kept yours. As we roll to the credits, let me recap on what you need to make a killer VSL:
You need great copy first.
You need to start your video at the peak of a dramatic story.
You need to spend around 45-80 minutes selling a concept.
You need to avoid bad production and pick either high-concept or low-concept production. but not the middle ground.
You need to avoid making your page busy and distracting so viewers can focus on your video.

When you want more examples, or if you are curious where to find the best VSLs use the ClickBank Marketplace to find them.

We automatically sort the top offers in REAL TIME and put them to the top so you don’t have to search. Look at them, understand them, and create your own high-converting VSL.

How to Hire a Copywriter

Learning to read and write is critical for the function of society. In fact, at about five years of age, the vast majority of us head off to a highly effective institution to become acquainted with our ABCs. School, as it is otherwise known, is where we all encounter our first frustration or elation regarding writing.

Now, depending on if you found absolute joy in words or if you struggled to get them from your brain to the paper may be an indicator as to whether or not you enjoy doing your own copywriting. If you know writing is not your cup of tea, then you may be wondering how to hire a copywriter.

Or, it could be that there is just too much to do and, even though you love writing, you know that it must be delegated to a professional. Or maybe you’re writing some of your content and copy, but you know there needs to be more.

Whatever the case is, you’ve decided that you need to call in a professional. Below, find a step-by-step guide to hire a copyright the right way.

How to Hire a Copywriter
Step 1: Determine if you actually need a copywriter or if maybe your product isn’t that great.

According to Abbey Woodcock, a six-figure copywriter and contributor to Growthlab, who has seen her fair share of copywriting requests, many people who believe they desperately need a copywriter actually just have a product or a marketing problem.

“Here’s a secret: copy can’t save a bad product or bad marketing. If you don’t have a good list or a marketing strategy, I could channel all the Eugene Schwartz and David Ogilvy I can muster and you won’t get any more sales,” says Woodcock.

In this case she recommends revealing your offer and taking a look at your refund rates. A surefire sign is marketing or product-related, rather than copy-related, is a high refund rate. This indicates that people have committed to buying the product but have been disappointed.

Once you know for sure that you actually need a copywriter, the next step is to figure out what exactly you need written.

Step 2: Figure out what you want written.

If you’re new to e-commerce, the amount of writing required may have just floored you (hence you seeking and finding this article). But if you’re a seasoned pro, you know how much writing goes into online business. Blogs, ads, emails, landing pages, sales pages, video scripts… it all takes writing. So before you reach out to hire a copywriter, you need to figure out what you want written. Then you need to determine if it will be an ongoing need or if the copy is static.

The copywriter ideally will ask a lot of questions about your current copy and your brand so that they can stay congruent in their style and tone. If you are starting with nothing, make sure you at least have a brand guide that you can share with your copywriter in your initial conversation.

Figuring out what you need (and what you currently have) is going to help you in the next step.

Step 3: Determine the kind of writer you need.

Once you determine what you need written, you will be able to identify what kind of copywriter you need. Some copywriters have a lot of experience in direct response copy which is worlds different than technical writing or content writing. Some copywriters are particularly good at writing ads, while others may have an extensive background in SEO. Of course, finding a writer who can do it all is ideal, but you’ll have to pay them for their skill set.

Before looking for a copywriter, write down what you want the copy to achieve. Be realistic in your expectations. One good blog won’t put your company at the top of a Google search, but hiring a copywriter with keyword experience can help you optimize your content for ranking purposes.

Step 4: Understand that you get what you pay for.

There are many factors that influence a copywriter’s rate including location, expertise, years of experience, confidence, affiliation, and skill set. While some freelancers may be a bit self-assured in their knowledge and overcharge, you typically get what you pay for when it comes to copywriting.

It might not look like a lot, but there’s a ton of work that goes into curating little chunks of text. A copywriter with experience and education is going to be better at it than someone claiming copywriting as their side hustle. If you’re serious about getting your copy right, you’re not going to have time to edit and re-edit copy that you’ve already paid for.

All of this being said, before you agree on a contract or a price, make sure you see some work samples and make sure you’re prepared to articulate the full breadth of the story to the writer you choose.

Step 5: Find a writer.

While this step sounds simple, it’s actually quite difficult if you don’t know where to look. Websites like Upwork and Fiverr seemingly make finding freelancers easy, it’s not uncommon to run into people who claim copywriting skills but may not actually have the skills you are looking for. So where does one find a copywriter?

There are a few ways to go about this. Next time you read some copy you like, reach out to that person or company and ask who their copywriter or marketing agency is. Or, take a look on LinkedIn. Copywriters use LinkedIn to self-advertise and promote their work.

This is an important step to take seriously. You don’t want to spend months shopping for a copywriter, so be proactive in finding one that you think will be a good fit for your writing needs.

Step 6: Be clear and concise about your writing needs.

Speaking of writing needs, just like how you get what you pay for, you get what you ask for. Any good copywriter will come prepared with their own list of questions to ask you before they get started, however, you need to come prepared with an itemized list of writing you want completed. According to Big Star Copywriting the following are questions you must be clear and concise about with your chosen copywriter:
What do you need the copywriter to produce?
What do you want the content to do?
What does your target audience like and what do they want?
What are the key messages about your brand you want to convey?
What style and tone should the writer adopt?
Will there be dependencies on others including designers?
When will the project start and finish?
What is your budget?

Identifying the answers to these questions will allow the copywriter to do a couple of things. First, they will be able to tell up front if they are the right person for the job. They will also be able to get a feel for the culture of your product and company as well as the kind of materials they will need to provide. They can also use this list for guidance and inspiration. They are responsible for creating the words for your product, not the brand–unless of course they are qualified and you pay them to do that.

Step 7: Agree on payment.

Before any actual writing is done, make sure you agree on a payment with the copywriter. Determining cost expectations upfront will alleviate any awkward or uncomfortable discussions when the work is complete.

According to data collected by Abbey Woodcock, the hourly rate for copywriters can range from $67 to $298, depending on experience. If you are hiring a copywriter by the hour, make sure that they provide you with a detailed invoice for their time.

If you are paying by project, make sure you have agreed to what a specific project entails and how much it costs.

You can also choose to keep a copywriter on retainer if you plan to have ongoing copy work. To do so, draft up a retainer letter agreeing on a retainer to be replenished as work is completed.

Step 8: Develop a relationship with the copywriter you’ve selected.

If you’ve gone through all of the work of identifying what you want written, selecting a copywriter, communicating your needs, and agreeing on a price, it would be silly to have to do all of that work every time you needed copy.

It would be beneficial for you to develop a relationship with the copywriter you’ve selected. Once this copywriter has worked on a few projects for you, they can start to anticipate what the voice of your company is and how they can build off of their previous copy.

To build a relationship, respect the copywriter’s time and rates. Don’t try to squeeze them for extra work. Trust their copy decisions and speak highly of them to your peers. You hired them because you needed their skill set, so respect their work as well.

Investing in good copy is one of the best things you can do for your business. If you’re hiring a copywriter, do it the right way so you don’t have to do it again.

Three of the Fastest Ways to Make Money on ClickBank in 2020

In this article, I’m going to show you 3 easy ways to find affiliate products on ClickBank and earn your first $1,000 without paying for advertising or building websites.

Believe it or not, it can be done.

In fact, what I’m about to share with you is exactly how I got started many years ago, and today, as a product owner, this is what thousands of my own affiliates are doing to quit their day jobs and earn a solid income from home with ClickBank.

First off, let’s go over the most important part:

You MUST find a red-hot category and choose a product that’s proven to sell on ClickBank. With thousands of products to choose from on ClickBank, it can feel overwhelming deciding which ones to promote. For me, the best products have always been anything to do with health, wealth, or relationships. When it comes to promotable categories, these are known as “The Big Three.” It’s where most people spend their money. Plus, “The Big Three” offer solutions to problems that people want solved fast. People want to save their marriage. They want to lose weight before their wedding. They want to make an extra $500 in a weekend. You get the idea.

So, let’s start with the wealth industry.

To find products in the wealth niche, search the e-business or e-marketing category on ClickBank and you’re sure to find an array of products that help people make money by starting or growing their own business. Within these categories, you can use the filter to show products that have a high gravity score. The gravity score is a ClickBank-exclusive formula that determines how hot a product is at any given moment. The higher the score, the better, because a high score means other affiliates are making cash with this offer, and you can too.

Some other things to keep in mind when searching for a product are:
Does the product vendor have an affiliate page?
The affiliate page is a page that product vendors create to provide affiliates with resources to promote their product. This page is essential for making money fast with ClickBank. It saves time and energy when it comes to product promotion.
Does the product sales page look good and does it include a video?
Video sales letters (aka VSLs) often convert better than text-only pages. Take the time to check out the video and ask yourself, “Would I buy this?” Read the sales page too. Does it have a compelling message that grabs your attention? Are you excited about the product after experiencing the content? If not, chances are other people will feel the same way and you won’t make any sales.

Once you’ve found a product that ticks these boxes, head over to the vendor’s affiliate page. This is where you’ll get your special affiliate link and the tools and resources to begin promoting the product and making money.

OK, now you’ve got a product to promote, this is where the real fun begins!


Here are 3 steps to start making money with ClickBank fast and free.
1. Create a Reddit post.

Reddit is jam-packed with potential buyers. Let’s say you’re promoting an eBook creator tool, like Sqribble (which ticks all the boxes we mentioned earlier.) This is a tool that almost every online marketer and business owner can use to quickly create free reports, eBooks, and other formatted content they can sell, or give away to people in order to build their list. In Reddit, simply search for a subreddit related to online marketing, list building, email marketing, or even something more general, like starting or growing a business.

Next, visit the vendor’s affiliate page and grab a ready-made article to use. Top vendors (like SqribbleJV.com,for example) will have completed articles you can use to promote their products.

Then, reword the article so that it’s in your own voice. Perhaps you could add a few thoughts of your own.

When you create your post, make sure it sounds personal and friendly. You don’t want your post to sound too much like a sales pitch. Try starting the article with, “Hi guys. I know a lot of people struggle with creating and designing ebooks. Here are a few tips that might help.”

Then post the article to Reddit. Reddit doesn’t allow direct promotion of products so you can’t include your affiliate link directly inside the post. Instead, see who engages with your post (i.e leaves a positive comment or asks a question) and then simply reach out to them via DM. In your DM, you can answer their question, ask them if they have any other questions, then send them your affiliate link as a suggested tool to make it even easier to get the job done.

For more sales, consider offering them some kind of bonus to encourage them to buy through your affiliate link. A lot of product vendors will even provide you with these free bonuses you can offer!

2. Do a YouTube video review.

This is one of my favorite methods. These days, it’s so easy to create a 5-minute video that talks about the product, what you love about it, and what you don’t like.

I recommend that you actually buy and use the product to be able to provide an honest review. This will allow you to walk viewers through the tool directly on the screen, which builds trust and shows your review is genuine.

Be sure to optimize your video title, description, and keywords so that it shows up alongside other related videos and when people search for that product on Google and YouTube. And don’t forget to include your affiliate link in the description!

3. Reach out and answer people.

This is another classic approach that can make you sales for free. Answer sites like Quora have thousands of people who have a problem that your chosen ClickBank product can solve. For example, let’s say we’re promoting Sqribble.com (a tool that allows you to create eBooks and Reports in minutes without writing a single word).

Check out Quora and search for people who are asking questions about how to create free reports and eBooks. These people clearly are looking for a tool to help them. You’ll also find lots of people on Reddit and social media looking for answers to a specific question. By answering their question and showing them how to get results fast with the product you’re promoting, you’ve provided value and guided them to their solution. And, if they don’t buy, there’s a good chance someone else will after reading your answer too. Over time, your answer can become a steady source of clicks and commissions for you.

And finally, don’t overcomplicate this!

As you can see, there are plenty of ways to promote ClickBank products for free, without any paid advertising or a website. It doesn’t have to be complicated. What matters is that you stick with it. Show up every day and follow these methods until you’re making regular sales, day after day. This is how some of the most successful affiliates get started and are now earning thousands of dollars a day. As you begin to make sales, it’s a good idea to reinvest some or all of your earnings into paid advertising and building your own website to capture emails. This way, you create a tribe of subscribers that you can promote other products to month after month, providing you with a predictable and lasting income.

Making your first ClickBank sale is a real rush of excitement. With these 3 methods, you can soon feel that buzz and be well on your way to earning your first $1,000 on ClickBank sooner than you think!

Again, I have to stress, don’t give up. If you consistently use these methods to promote proven, high-quality ClickBank products that solve real problems for people, you’ll be setting yourself up for a fantastic new lifestyle for you and your family.

Interested in joining ClickBank as an affiliate? Get started by signing up for an account. Want to make your next affiliate commission with a high converting product? Checkout the affiliate page for Sqribble here and get the best affiliate tools and resources to help you! https://sqribblejv.com/invitation/

Adeel Chowdhry
Sqribble | ClickBank Platinum Vendor

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