Experience with Clickbank or similar sites

I looked closely at click bank but most of their products didn't match what I wanted to offer. I think you are better served identifying the products you want then contacting the business owner

Re: Experience with Clickbank or similar sites

I agree plus it is far more profitable selling your own product. Many of the affiliate products are not the highest quality and could damage your brand by selling them.

Re: Experience with Clickbank or similar sites

I have never used click bank, but I did some research and found a lot of complaints about thier products. I have personally never used them though. But with every product, I guess someone somewhere will have complaints.

Re: Experience with Clickbank or similar sites

We have heard a lot of complaints about clickbank as well.

Re: Experience with Clickbank or similar sites

I found this article that was written by Ryan Adams that I thought you would be interested in:

What to Look for Before Joining an Affiliate Program

Article written by Ryan Adams of ClickQuick

Affiliate programs (also frequently called referral or associate programs) have grown today to become one of the most popular ways for you to earn an income from your web site's traffic. Most affiliate programs are designed to allow you to simply set up and begin earning commissions on visitors and sales you refer. However, the quality of the programs, and the results you will see, very greatly from program to program, making it important to choose wisely which are best for you and your site. It is the purpose of this article to help sort through many of the programs, and offer assistance in determining what to look for.
My personal experience with affiliate programs goes back over a year and a half, pretty long in Internet terms, when I started a program for my current employer (which is not one of the programs discussed below, or listed anywhere on my web site). Over this period, I researched many of the affiliate programs available on the Internet, experimented with my company's own, and tried to best determine what works best not only for us, but also for the webmasters who partner with us. From my experiences, here are several of the top factors you should take into consideration:

1- Stability of the company and program
What I found to be the one of highest priorities for most webmasters is the stability of the affiliate program, and the company. This should be one of your top considerations when evaluating programs. Is the company stable and financially sound? Do they offer assistance with promoting the opportunity? And, do they pay in a timely fashion? Often, webmasters have been lured in by offers of high commissions, only to find out they will never see a paycheck, despite referring hundreds, or even thousands, of visitors.
2- Synergies with your site
I am a big proponent of this. All too often, I see sites sign up for every affiliate program they can, figuring if they make a few bucks on each, that they will be profitable. For a select few, this may very well work. However, for most sites it will not, and many cases you will turn off your audience because of the 'over-commercialization' of your site. As you are considering the various affiliate programs available, be sure to consider what exactly your audience, your visitors, might be interested in clicking on, and eventually buying.
For example, if your site caters to a general audience, then perhaps general affiliate programs such as Amazon, CDNow, or Reel.com (movies) will be effective. Or perhaps Spree, which allows you to sell books, CDs, music, flowers, and gifts all through one program. If your site only caters to auto enthusiasts, programs such as AutoWeb and Carprices.com might be excellent money-makers. If your audience is comprised of hardcore techies, then software.net may be your best choice. The key is to not just think of the affiliate program as a way for you to make some easy money, but rather an extension of your web site--a service you offer your visitors to help them find the products or services they are interested in, at good prices, and with a merchant they can trust.

3- Commission Tracking
An important aspect to consider is whether or not the affiliate program offers some way for you to track your sales, and even the number of visitors you refer. There are several ways this can be accomplished, such as real-time, online reports showing you sales and your commissions. Or perhaps sales can be tracked through a simple email each time you receive a new customer. This can be very important for allowing you to test and evaluate the effectiveness of the program, make comparisons with other programs or advertising opportunities, and give you piece of mind that you are receiving what is fairly do.
Virtualis, a web hosting service, offers excellent online reports that tell you the date of sale, what you sold, and what your share is. software.net sends out weekly reports by email detailing the sales and commissions you made. Spree, on the other hand, recently has come under fire for their lack of reports. To rectify this they are now working to add full commission tracking for all members in the near future.

4- Opportunity for Repeat Business
As any business person knows, a business can not generally survive on one-time purchases. Instead you have to find ways to not only attract new customers, but also keep the ones you have. This is also very true with affiliate programs. One of the largest complaints many webmasters have had with programs such as Amazon and CDNow, is that they refer a customer once, see their $1-2 commission, but in the process the customer bookmarked the Amazon or CDNow home page. The next time the customer is interested in buying a book, they return to the home page through the bookmark, and the webmaster never sees another penny.
Several programs have tried to alleviate this. Programs such as Virtualis and Freedomstarr (FCI) avoid this problem by offering services (web hosting and long distance telecom, respectively) which customers, once signed up for, use month after month. This allows Virtualis and FCI to pay residual commissions. This helps turn average programs into exceptional opportunities, because you can earn for months, perhaps even years, on referrals you made in your first, and subsequent months.

Spree has also combated this problem creatively. Using cookie technology, they track all sales, and, assuming the customers you refer visit Spree at least once per year and don't delete the cookie somehow, give commissions on any purchases the customers make FOR LIFE. So, even if they link from your site to Spree just once, you will earn commissions on their purchases, even if they bookmarked the Spree home page and never visit your site again.

Other Factors
In summary, it is important to look at all of these main factors and several others, including the commission rates they pay (I didn't discuss this because they are generally easily comparable), the frequency of payment checks (they generally range from weekly to quarterly), and/or the minimum dollar value you must accumulate before receiving a check (they range from nothing to $100). A couple of other important factors: be VERY wary of any program the requires a payment or 'membership fee' for you to join or act as an affiliate. And, be sure to check what method they use to track sales themselves. Programs that require the visitor to remember your name, or your site's name, and enter it in when ordering, will result in many lost commissions.
So, where do you find more information on these programs? Begin by checking out the Top Opportunities section. These are select programs for which I have provided detailed, in-depth reviews. Next, click on over to the Affiliate and Referral Opportunities directory which lists and reviews an ever-expanding number of affiliate programs. Then, you might want to stop by the ClickQuick discussion board to see what other visitors have to say about their experiences. If you are interested in pay-per-click opportunities, be sure to check out our reviews of some of the major banner advertising networks. Lastly, don't miss our in-depth search engine guide; after all if people aren't finding your site, you aren't going to make much from affiliate programs.