Do You Have To Invest Money To Earn A Passive Income Online?

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I’ve recently had a lot of folks ask me if you need to invest money to earn a passive income online.

Well… there isn’t really a simple “yes” or “no” answer to that question, but I can explain some different opportunities available and what works best.

How I Started Earning A Passive Income Online

Passive IncomeSo I probably began with trying to make money online like anyone else… I was looking for a way to earn passive income so that I could build up my online business and have more time to do the things I love.

I started with Google AdSense and enabling ads on my YouTube videos. When I saw that I was actually making some money this way, I was ecstatic!

I mean… it was just a few cents per day if I was lucky, but it was passive income nonetheless. I started to become quite motivated and looked up ways to increase this residual income stream.

I Began With Free Ways To Increase My Passive Income

After adding more and more YouTube videos, I started seeing that I didn’t really know what I was doing… because my AdSense revenue didn’t seem to increase very much.

I watched other YouTube videos about how to make money online, but I was just overwhelmed with the spams and scams… However, I did find some useful videos.

I learned about setting up a Blogger blog (blogger.com) because it was free. It also made it really easy to integrate AdSense ads with just one click. The cool thing about Blogger blogs is that you start to get traffic pretty fast even if you don’t rank in Google.

Blogger blogs also seem to rank pretty fast in Google. Why? Well… for the same reason that YouTube videos rank really fast and high in Google… YouTube and Blogger are owned by Google!  Google claims to be unbiased with their organic (free) search engine results, but if you still believe that, you may want to want to open your eyes a bit further. The internet marketing industry is a cut-throat realm, and there is absolutely no such thing as “unbiased” (just search for any product review and you’ll see what I mean).

Does that mean I am biased? Heck yeah… Do you really think I blog, do SEO, build sites, and make YouTube videos for fun? I wish I had that much free time on my hands…

However, I’ve learned that you can make a lot more money online by providing people with the truth and just by being honest… You know? I mean so many people try to cheat and steal there way to riches these days not realizing that that road is much more difficult and filled with paranoia and frustration than just doing it legitimately…

Affiliate Marketing vs. AdSense

After learning about affiliate marketing with ClickBank and Amazon (and then all the other affiliate networks), I decided that AdSense was a crappy way to earn a passive income.

Promoting affiliate products online is definitely one of the best ways to make a significant passive income, especially when you sell information products. Info products (e-books, software, membership sites, etc) bring in HUGE commissions because there is no per-unit cost or shipping cost for the vendor like with tangible products. That’s why ClickBank products make you about 50-75% commission while Amazon products earn you about 3-10% (I believe it’s somewhere in there).

So I began to create Blogger blogs about topics I was interested, and I would incorporate relevant affiliate products into my posts and recommend them to my readers. After about 3 months, I had finally made a sale! Wow, $30 in ClickBank!

Yeah… that ain’t exactly a great opportunity for passive income… or was it?

I guess I just wasn’t quite doing it right… I mean, it just seems like there are so many technical details to making money online, and even if you get only one out of a hundred wrong… you ain’t making jack!

What Was The Missing Piece To My Online Income?

That’s when I finally got over my stubborn self and decided it was time to invest into something that would teach me how to make money online and earn a passive income.

the missing pieceI guess I got really lucky because I signed up with Bring The Fresh (read the details here), and it ended up not being a scam at all! It was the first thing that I bought, and it ended up being the only thing I ever needed!

I had been hearing about so many people that just kept getting ripped off by product after product. It seemed like nearly all internet marketing product vendors out there were just out to get your money and then run for the hills… I guess I got pretty lucky then.

Did I Have To Buy Anything Else?

So when I recommended Bring The Fresh to my friends, they always asked me, “Do we have to buy anything else?”

That is a great question because I know with a lot of products out there, they just offer a product for a low price, and then they keep making you buy other crap in order for it to “work”.

With Bring The Fresh, you don’t have to buy anything else except for the basic necessities.

These basic necessities I’m talking about are web hosting and domain names. They are what you need to make the websites that earn you passive income, but all that is explained inside Bring The Fresh. Those are just fundamental things you need to make money online because you are building little online businesses that earn you affiliate commissions while you sleep or build your next one.

Are You Making A Passive Income Online?

Please leave a comment below! Let me know if you are making money online or not. If not, maybe I can help, but you do need to take action! Remember… you don’t get rich just by dreaming about it… you have to do something about it. If you have been making money online successfully, please just give us a brief description of what has worked for you in the comments! Also, please don’t forget to use my sharing buttons on the right. Thanks guys!

My Favorite SEO Tools/Strategies: Quality Link Building With Efficiency

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Let me just jump right to the point. When it comes to SEO, you can never stress enough the importance of keyword research. Yes, I know you’ve heard it before, but the thing is, keyword research is so critically important, it could be the 80% of your SEO campaign that leads to top Google rankings. We’re not talking about your standard keyword research with just using the Google AdWords Keyword tool (or even Market Samurai, etc) here…

Anyways, I wanted to write this post about some of my favorite quality link building strategies and SEO ranking tools outside of the keyword research process. So, if you’d like to read more about the 80% Law of SEO (keyword/niche domination without backlinks or content), check out my other post.

Link Building Strategies and SEO Tools

Automated Article Submission Software

Firstly, one of the most powerful automation tools I personally use for getting quality, contextual backlinks on a consistent basis is the Unique Article Wizard (UAW). It is highly intelligent software that allows me to write just three articles, input them into the server-based software, and have it produce hundreds of unique, quality articles (with contextual, anchor text backlinks) that are submitted to relevant directories.

It is so advanced that it actually allows you to create complete author profiles for pseudonyms that even tie into different social accounts. This means that you can create various pseudonyms that will appear as if they are real authors writing these articles for you and submitting them to directories for quality backlinks. If you’d like to read more about it, check out my other site.

High PageRank Profile Links

Another way to get ultra powerful anchor text backlinks is to create profiles on high PageRank domains. In these profiles, you have fields where you can place a link to your website. Sometimes these profile sites even have multiple website fields, or they have fields to link to your blog, Facebook page, Twitter page, Google+ page, etc.

Even if there isn’t a website field, many of the “About” or “Author Bio” fields allow html. This means you can input links with whatever anchor text you like. If you would like to learn more about how to appropriately create these high PR anchor text backlinks and where to do so, check out this post. You’ll have access to over 250 profile sites with a PR6 – PR9 (free), and you’ll learn how to optimally create them for the best possible rankings boost.

Instant Indexing Of Backlinks – BacklinksIndexer

You can have as many quality backlinks as possible, but if Google can’t find them (or takes a long time to do so), they do you no good! Sure, Google will find these links eventually, but we want to rank fast so we can start earning a passive income fast.

That’s why it is important to use a backlinks indexing tool. There are quite a few different ones out there, such as Linklicious, Lindexed, etc. However, none of them work as well as the Backlinks Indexer (free trial). Backlinks Indexer makes sure the URLs you submit are indexed instantly. Yes, they are literally indexed instantly, and all you do is just copy and paste or upload a .txt with your URLs – super quick and easy. This helps in more than one way. It helps your site get ranked very fast, but it also tells you which backlinks are good and which are bad. When using this tool, I usually just submit a handful at a time, wait for them to go through, and then I check my rankings. If my rankings go down, I’ll know to either delete those links or change the anchor text, etc. This is another extremely powerful tool for SEO! It allows you to literally manipulate your rankings link by link with changes occurring within minutes. You literally decipher Google’s algorithm (for backlinks at least) as you submit each URL individually and wait for the change in ranking!

The Backlinks Indexer also builds thousands of backlinks to the URLs you submit with RSS feeds, social bookmarking, micro blogging, etc. It is 100% safe to submit the URLs of your main website (i.e. posts, pages, etc), but they recommend you mainly use it for your tier 1 backlinks.

High PR Blog Comments (Easy Trick)

OK… so you’re familiar with leaving helpful and relevant blog comments with a link to your website to get a backlink. However, I’ve got some tricks you can use to help you get high PR backlinks, .edu links, and .gov links more easily.

SEOQuake Toolbar – Check PR, Domain Age, Alexa Ranking, Etc

Firstly, I use the SEOQuake toolbar (free) because it shows the PageRank of every website I visit, but it also shows the PageRank, domain age, Alexa ranking and much more for every search result on the SERPs page in Google, Yahoo, Bing, and other search engines.

Now, watch how easily we can find high PR .gov sites where we can leave a link! All we do is type this in Google search (link building being our contextual search term – substitute your relevant keyword):

site:.gov “leave a comment” + link building

And… check out the results we get and how easily we can then find sites to leave super power backlinks:

link building strategy - high PR blog comments

You can also use any other combination in Google search. For example:

site:.edu “leave a reply” + SEO

site:.com “post a comment” + affiliate marketing

… And so on and so forth.

If you keep finding only sites that allow comments but don’t have a website field or require you to register, etc, I’ve found another really powerful way to create backlinks Google loves.

Facebook Social Plugin – Auto-Approved Tier 2 Links (PR & .EDU/.GOV):

You’ll need to create a Facebook fan page with your keyword in the URL. Link that FB page to your main money site. Then, use the same technique as above, but instead type this (for example):

site:.gov “Facebook Social Plugin” + <substitute your keyword here>

There are millions of high PR websites out there that are using the Facebook Social Plugin to avoid comment spam by SEOs leaving comments with html backlinks. Sites that use the Facebook Social Plugin for comments will auto approve your comment, and you will get an anchor text backlink for your main keyword to your Facebook page. You may think, “well… that’s a tier 2 backlink”, but you’d be surprised at how incredibly powerful this type of tier 2 backlink is. Remember, Google loves Facebook pages and ranks them very easily, but this same rank juice will also pass on to your site. Whether your site or your FB page ranks for your keyword, you’re going to get targeted traffic either way (see my post on getting targeted website traffic without Google)!

So, when you are leaving a comment on a high PR site that uses the Facebook Social Plugin, make sure you change your “posting as” to the appropriate Facebook page:

Screenshot of Facebook Social Plugin

If you have anything to contribute, or you have any questions about the SEO tools here or the link building strategies, please leave a comment! Please don’t forget to use the social sharing buttons on the right!

Getting Tired Of SEO, Backlinking, Article Writing, Etc? Stop Fighting 99% of SEOs…

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So far in 2013, SEO has been undergoing some major changes. We’ve been facing some crazy updates from Google lately. Since Penguin 2.0 had recently begun, we’re now also facing Panda #24.

Well… don’t get discouraged! I found something that has completely changed the SEO game for me.

See, I was getting so fed up with Google rankings and SEO that I was mainly focused on other ways to get traffic.

However, I’ve discovered something I wish I would have a long time ago. Instead of fighting 99% of SEOs by doing boring and redundant backlinking, article writing, backlinking, and, oh yeah… backlinking (doesn’t it suck?), I realized there are billions of highly searched, highly lucrative keywords out there that get you a #1 spot in Google without backlinks and hardly any content!

I literally just found the keyword, bought the domain from Godaddy (.com, .net, or .org), installed WordPress, and I ranked on the first page in Google after just 2 days!

These aren’t just any old keywords…

I’ve been able to rank sites #1 for keywords that get 5K, 10K, and even 20K+ exact match searches per month for very lucrative keywords that have almost ZERO competition.

Since you were kind enough to come pay a visit to my blog, let me just share with you what I sent to my list:

20K+ exact searches per month… Rank #1 In Google 2 days after WP installation? No
Backlinks?
Is that even possible? Yes, and it is because of the 80% Law of SEO.
Friend, I don’t recommend things I don’t profit from myself:
STOP FIGHTING 99% OF YOUR SEO COMPETITION!
Stop wasting hours, days, weeks, or longer on the 20% of SEO when
80% of SEO is in highly specialized keyword research…
Stop building countless backlinks, writing dozens of posts, etc.
You can rank at the top of Google for HIGHLY searched and profitable
keywords with TERRIBLE on page SEO and NO backlinks in just
days after registering the domain!
Yes, 80% of your SEO and rankings domination can be done in just
minutes <— AND… this is actually the FUN part of SEO… NOT the
boring, tedious, redundant backlinking, article writing, forum posting,
blah, blah, blah..
I just picked this up on a whim and with skepticism… but I AM
SUPER GLAD I checked it out:
Seriously, you don’t want to miss out. It’s REALLY CHEAP because
they just want to get you into their sales funnel. But take it from me,
just get the 80% Law of SEO and skip their OTO’s and upsells, and
you’re golden :)
Regards,
Jeroen
P.S. You ARE going to $$$ LOVE $$$ this – I DO
Find the super awesome keyword, get the domain, install WordPress, post a relevant picture and add in an affiliate link, CPA offer, or AdSense, and BOOM… you’re getting exposure to your offers with hundreds of visitors per day…

Imagine expanding on that… Imagine selling that site for $1000 EASILY after just a few days and a few minutes of work…

I couldn’t believe it, but this method is now at the top of my daily “to do” list because ultimately what makes me the most money the fastest… wins… in my book…

Let me know if you guys pick it up and whether you’re having the same success. Just leave a comment below, or leave some questions if you need help. This was so easy for me, I really think you guys will love it too.

1 Hour Traffic To Passive Income Formula

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Hey again guys. It’s been a while since I’ve posted here, but I’ve had a lot of awesome stuff going on. Firstly, I’d like to share a video I made that I think will really help a lot of newbies out there that haven’t made their first sale yet.

Getting traffic is usually the big brick wall standing in the way of getting that initial payday, no? Sure, conversions is a big part of the equation too, and I touch on that as well. I wanted to share the exact formula I use to get traffic in as little as 1 hour. Yes, it is very targeted traffic. It works just like ranking in Google search for major keywords, and we take advantage of that as well, but… we start out with a technique that gets you traffic MUCH faster.

OK… just watch the whole video (46 minutes), but you can ignore the Internet Sales Machine review part and the sales pitch. You’ll be really impressed at how this technique is so simple, and you can implement it right away with great success. And… you don’t have to buy anything… I mean, it helps to have a hosting account and domain name, but you don’t need it… You can do all of this with free blogs (Squidoo.com, WordPress.com, Blogger.com, or whatevs).

Let’s check out my strategy (it’s so simple, but it works!):

UPDATE/NOTE: Never add you affiliate offers before you’re getting traffic (it doesn’t help any ways). If you put up a bunch of affiliate ads on a brand new site before you rank on page 1, Google will know you’re strictly making your website for money. They want to see that you are an authority on the subject matter – not just another spammer looking to make a quick buck. You will get slapped with a penalty from which your site will highly likely never recover (in my experience). Google doesn’t care if you make money, but they want to see you work for it first by providing value.

So how can you start to convert that traffic right away? Put the affiliate offers in your video description and on your FB page right away. That doesn’t hurt a thing! That’s how you’re going to get traffic within 1 hour AND sales within the week (if you’re doing it right). Remember, it’s all in what products you pick and how well you follow the instructions in the video above (particularly keyword research and pre-selling).

OK… Once you get passed the fact that this is a launch jacking review video, you begin to see how incredible effective this method for getting your first affiliate sale is. And of course this isn’t just for your first affiliate sale, but once you get the first one, you’ll know exactly what to do over and over again.

Remember the importance of having a domain name with your keyword in it. If you can get an exact match domain, then that will make it perfect. It will also make it extremely easy to rank on page one in Google for that keyword (even without any back links sometimes), or at worst page 2. However, if you cannot find an exact match, just find the closest thing possible because this will still work wonders when ranking in the YouTube search engine. As an example, let’s say you want to rank for the keyword “whoopsy daisy” or whatever… If whoopsydaisy.com, whoopsydaisy.net, or whoopsydaisy.org aren’t available, you still have options to rank in YouTube just as easily and in Google with a little bit of extra link building. What I do is, I go for plural things (or singular if the keyword is already plural). You can check whoopsydaisies.com, and you’ll be surprised at what will be available (or .net or .org).

Note that the top three sites for traffic are (in order of Alexa rank):

  • Google.com
  • Facebook.com
  • YouTube.com

We start with setting up a basic blog or site where we offer an affiliate product. However, we don’t go for the Google traffic right away like most people do because this will come naturally over time anyways. Google takes time to rank and index sites and thus provide you with targeted traffic.

We start by getting traffic from YouTube within the first hour for your targeted keyword. That is why it is important to embed your YouTube video on the domain with your keyword in it (preferable an EMD) and also on your Facebook page with your keyword in the URL (i.e. facebook.com/keyword).

Don’t forget about using Vagex.com, Fiverr.com, and all the other tools mentioned in the video to give you the total unfair advantage. Vagex helps you get a ton of YouTube views and shares right away, and I’ve even made many affiliate sales from this cold (non-targeted) traffic. Once YouTube sees your video is watched, liked, subbed, favorite’d, etc, you’ll shoot up the YouTube rankings and start receiving warm traffic.

Let me reiterate one super important factor in this formula for success: embed your video on your website (EMD domain or close) and on your Facebook page!

Guess what? You’ll also be getting targeted traffic from Facebook search! Yes, Facebook has a built-in search function that hundreds of millions of people use. If you have a Facebook page with your keyword in your URL, title, etc, you will rank very easily in the Facebook search, but also… Facebook pages rank very easily in Google search! Facebook.com has a PR10 and your fan pages will get some of that PageRank juice! Use Fiverr.com to get likes and comments to help boost your page up the SERPs, etc. Embed your YouTube video on that Facebook page with the keyword in the URL! If you have your video embedded on an EMD website (with enough content and decent on-page SEO) and embedded on your Facebook page with your exact keyword in the URL, you have an EXTREMELY high chance of your video ranking high on the first page in Google. Remember, Google owns YouTube. For an extra boost, create a Blogger blog with your keyword in the URL and title, etc and embed the video there. Google owns Blogger too!

Now, you have also built awesomely powerful back links to your site! Make sure you link from your YouTube video description to your site or one of the inner pages. What I do is I use the  free “redirection” WordPress plugin to create super simple redirects to my affiliate links. When you put that redirect link in your YouTube video description (at the top of course), you get some YouTube link juice passed on to your site as well because your site’s page is redirecting to your affiliate link.

You are also getting links from your Facebook page. Setting up Facebook fan pages is EXTREMELY simple. Don’t be intimidated by any of this stuff. Just take it all one step at a time. Don’t forget to provide your website/redirected affiliate link in your FB page’s about section, or in some of the posts. Create a “money post” with your affiliate link and “pin to top”.

Voila! Super simple traffic technique, right? If you want to see whether you are actually getting hops to your affiliate link, just go the the “redirection” plugin under “plugin” in your WP dashboard and you’ll see how many clicks you’re getting. Or, if you are using ClickBank to promote products, just go to the “reporting” tab after you click on one of your trend bars next to the dates (that probably now has a $0.00 next to it).

Good luck! Please comment for help :)

Mouse In The House – Beyond Cyberspace

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OK… here’s just some random stuff going on in my life outside of cyberspace…

We had a mouse come in our house a few weeks ago… exciting… right?

Well… Animal Planet and Nat Geo Wild are normally as thrilling as it gets

for me outside of my work life online.

So we caught it with a waste bin, and let him go outside…

BUT…

Guess who came back?

Inline image 4
OK… not him, but…

Inline image 2Inline image 3

Lucky and Jinx are my two cats.

Apparently Lucky is better at bringing mice into the basement

than keeping them away…

She came down with it in her mouth… I thought it was a toy mouse as she

held it for a few seconds…

“Whatever…”

I just went back to drinking my beer and watching Animal Planet…

Then… Lucky just lets the mouse go, and…

It’s like I’m actually inside Animal Planet!

It was like a lion chasing an antelope.

I set a two traps and got more than I asked for…

The mouse hid in the corner under my desk for the night,

but Lucky and I couldn’t get it to come out.

I have one of those “sticky roller” things for all that cat hair

that’s EVERYWHERE (including on all my clothes)…

I put a perimeter of “sticky roller” sheets around the mouse’s hiding spot,

and I set a mousetrap between the fridge and wall (his backup hiding spot).

I covered it, and I had the trigger face

backwards so the hammer couldn’t snap on Lucky’s foot.

I used some of those chocolate Whopper candy ball things

as bait, and just put a few in front of the mousetrap.

I positioned everything so the ideal spot to for the mouse

to eat would be if he sat right on the trigger.

I also blocked off everything so he had only one way in.

I woke up today and caught a mouse and a lizard (bonus).

Somehow the mouse was still positioned the other way

I had planned… but… at least he won’t be coming back.

I Didn’t Want To Kill Him… But…

Killing him sucked, and it wasn’t ideal, but either he came back

and didn’t learn his lesson, or we have a mouse problem…

ClickBank Risk Tiers Update – Potential Account Termination No Longer Imminent?

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So I think we can all breathe a sigh of relief at the moment as it seems there are some things pointing to a minor positive change in ClickBank’s Risk Tiers. Let me just show you what I mean, so please take a look at this message (below) as opposed to the one in the previous post:

CB Risk Tiers Update

Sure, my account still seems to be “Unacceptable”, but the point I’m trying to make is:

It appears affiliates are not in jeopardy of having their ClickBank accounts terminated when it comes to refund rates and risk management tiers.

Now, there is no way that I can be certain of this, and this is strictly my opinion and my personal analysis, but I believe ClickBank has found it to be a bit overly dramatic to terminate affiliates’ accounts strictly based on their refund rate and associated risk tier.

My Idea For ClickBank About Risk Tiers

So I’d been going back and forth with the ClickBank support reps about the new risk tiers and everything, and they’ve been very prompt to respond and very helpful.

I submitted an idea for them through their support ticket system about the risk management tiers, and a ClickBank representative, Josh, told me he would escalate it to this idea to his superiors:

“[...] is there a way ClickBank could reward/not terminate affiliates if their refund rate is better or the same as the vendors? I find that would be a fair parameter for your algorithm, no? I think it would be nice for us affiliates to see whether our refund rates are higher/lower/same compared to the vendor average. [...] 

[...] if an affiliate’s refund rate is lower or the same as a vendor, they could be charged fees, but possibly not be terminated and given extra time to take corrective action? [...]“

So after I logged into my account and read the details of my “Unacceptable” risk status, I noticed they had removed the part that inferred potential “account termination”.

Please keep in mind that my main ClickBank account (in discussion here) is strictly an affiliate account, and I have not yet become a ClickBank vendor.

In conclusion, I strongly believe that ClickBank has either taken my idea into consideration (or perhaps many others have proposed something similar), and that affiliates shouldn’t need to worry as much about having their account unfairly terminated (strictly based on their risk tier).

My Plans For Improving My Risk Tier

As being part of the #1 IM community, it won’t take me long to set up new affiliate promotional campaigns that sell products in other niches (which will have a much lower refund rate and thus lower my risk tier).

I have already started with one new product launch site that’s selling a product in the “mobile app development” niche, and after only 4 days, I rank #2 for several major keywords. I would like to share that site, but since it is so young, it is still very vulnerable to sabotage by a link bomb from my competition.

I’ve been using those same techniques to make money online on autopilot for a while, and they just continue to work. I’ve tested other techniques, and I got screwed after the Google EMD Update, but when I just stick to what works, I bring in a decent automated affiliate income. When I continue to use those same techniques, I have no doubt that I can become the next “guru”.

You guys can check out more information about this on the Make Money Online Facebook page, and see how other people are doing (and even how newbies start earning pretty quickly).

Anyways, I’m brainstorming creating my own IM product that will help newbies start to earn affiliate commissions (in ClickBank, etc) as fast as possible. I would like for you guys to help me design this!

Help me help you start earning [more]!Will you guys please leave comments below about what you’d like to see in the ClickBank product I’ll be creating? You guys will get a free copy of course before it is released on the ClickBank marketplace. My product will go hand-in-hand with Bring the Fresh, but it will teach you techniques to get you to start earning fast. It will work completely as a stand-alone course too, but if you’re wanting to start earning now, I would do what I did: check out  Bring the Fresh.

I’m working on another e-book too, and I’ll share it with you guys (for free of course) soon! It’ll be MUCH better than the previous one, and it will be the basic quick start guide for my product. I will also have a membership site here, and those who help me in the design process with suggestions will get free access to this “newbies make money online fast” training. It will include a detailed and clear-cut video series, full step-by-step guide, and hopefully even a support forum. I mean… that’s the ambition right now anyways, but I will have that for you guys eventually. It’s high on my priority list, and I’ve already started, but I need your suggestions please!

I want to design a “make money online” product that TRULY works… and works FAST. In all honesty, the more successful you guys become with it, the better off I’ll be. That’s why I need your help, and I need you to tell me what you’d like to see (i.e. getting traffic, increasing conversions, or even where the heck to start)!

Please leave a comment and use the sharing buttons (on the right), and I will take care of you in the near future with free stuff!

 

ClickBank Risk Management Tiers? Is It The Death Of IM Products In CB?

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Warrior Forum Message

(Click image to read Warrior Forum thread)

Yes… I’m Clickmerchant on the Warrior Forum.

Well… I figured it was time to bring up some news that’s taking all ClickBank vendors and affiliates by storm.

Here’s how my day started… I check my ClickBank account… and:

ClickBank Risk Management Tiers

Apparently ClickBank is getting sick of processing so many refunds. Well… what do you expect when you have a 60-day no-questions-asked refund policy on your digital products…

So ClickBank has decided to categorize vendors and affiliates into color-coded risk management tiers.

It’s all based on the number of refunds and chargebacks you have, but ClickBank claims it is incorporated into some sophisticated algorithm they’ve come up with (learn more – CB help page).

I’m a programmer… and any way you look at this… it doesn’t require any “sophisticated” algorithm to do this simple number-crunchin’.

I’m in the internet marketing niche… this means that the affiliate products I promote inherently come with an extremely high refund rate. This is because people just buy them up by handful, take in as much as they can, and get a refund… I mean, it’s the newbies that buy these products because they’re wanting to learn, and they’re likely to get a refund because they’re the ones who are still strapped for cash.

Anyways… I’ve been promoting products in the internet marketing niche, and now my ClickBank account is in the “Unacceptable” risk management tier (previously known as “High Risk”) because of the high refund rates.

As an affiliate using sound and ethical promotional practices, I absolutely feel that it is by no means my responsibility to attempt to lower the refund rate for these products that are now jeopardizing my account status.

I don’t mind paying a fee for high refunds because that would be a good motivator… but… is it really fair to threaten my account (among thousands of highly-regarded affiliates) of termination?!

Either way, the good news today that kept me from holding up a sign that says “Will work for food” is that today is the best day I’ve had (thanks to Bring the Fresh) since the previous Google EMD update regarding my ClickBank earnings:

Bring the Fresh Earnings

Please leave your comments! What do you guys think about this ClickBank risk management tiers system?