Backwards Marketing Strategy

I have read numerous Clickbank guides and many of them layout the same method for getting started with Clickbank:

1. Set up your account at Clickbank
2. Choose a product to promote
3. Market your product

With so many products available at Clickbank, I am not surprised at the high failure rate among affiliates.

It is not the fault of the product, nor of the affiliate, but the plan of action given is really missing a crucial component:  The target audience.

So what if we chose our audience first?

Example 1:

Lets just say you are a fan of World of Warcraft (we have all heard of that right?).  You are active in a forum, a member of a guild, etc.  Wouldn’t it be a natural extension of that hobby to monetize your posts with your Clickbank links for WoW related products?  (I didn’t think they would exist either, but go ahead and search the Clickbank Marketplace for WoW)  So you have a target audience of WoW fanatics seeing your ads.  It costs you nothing and does not require you to change your habits.

Remember, if the forum does not allow links in your signature you are out of luck.  Choose wisely.  Also don’t spam ads e.g. making useless posts or having numerous links in your sig.

Example 2:

Now that you have made a sale or two you want to apply this concept further.  You decide to join a Traffic Exchange like Traffic Addiction.  The people using these exchanges are looking for two things:

1. Traffic to their website
2. Money in the form of sales to their affiliate programs

A quick search at Clickbank will turn up several items that would be of interest to this crowd.  You simply put your hoplink into rotation. 

Remember to abide by the rules of the exchange.  Many exchanges will not allow popups or automatic media on the site.  Choose wisely.

Once again this method can be free.  If you don’t want to surf for credits you can always purchase them.

With some imagination this method can be applied sucessfully with just about every free method of marketing available.  Just find out who your audience is.

Anyone using this method, please comment and let us know how you are doing