The Sales Page Survival Guide

If you’ve spent any time in internet affiliate marketing, you’ll notice that sales pages – particularly those for Clickbank products – have a very distinct formula. What’s important is that you don’t get lost with and just press “buy now.”

You may some variations every now and then but most times, the sales page will use this format.

The first part of the sales page is a bold, brash headline with the claim that you are about to learn how to make $XX,XXX.XX dollars rapidly. It’s important that the dollar amount be expressed right down to the cents decimal places – after all, the marketer is giving you real authentic claim. And of course you will be able to make this money quickly without spending a penny on traffic!

This is usually followed by a video that may or may not start playing automatically. During the video, particularly the longer ones, you will shown undeniable proof of Clickbank earnings because the presenter will log into his account.

Just how did the Clickbank marketer get this amazing secret? Ah, that’s the next thing you will find out. Breathless copy will talk about secret meetings or drunk programmers spilling secret algorithms that tap into mysterious sources of traffic not known to mere mortals. This copy is interwoven with screen shots showing more big payouts; sometimes an “Audited” stamp will be used, along with arrows, circles, Xs, Os and any other symbology that will point you to the undeniable proof that this is the real deal!

A series of testimonials then assures you the dozens of other people – people just like you! – have made a killing using this product. Strangely no one simply reports a little success… no. All of these people have gone from essentially living in doorways to buying mansions weeks after putting this amazing Clickbank system to work. Links pointing you to ADD TO CART start to appear; sometimes the marketer will sugest that only a limited number of these products are available. Right.

Finally will come the call to action. ACT NOW! The price may be marked down from $197 to $97 to $67 to $47. Someday I’ll figure out why everything you buy on Clickbank ends in a “7.” By this time, you’re probably hyperventilating and you’re ready to order IMMEDIATELY! So here’s an important tip: don’t order. Click off of the page. Amazingly – you’ll see a pop-up message offering you a better price or maybe even a free trial. Be careful of free trials though – these Internet Marketers are a shrewd bunch and your price after the free trial invariably will be higher.

If you still don’t want to order, that’s fine. Close the page and you’ll be offered a free gift. Clever – that way the marketer gets your name on a mailing and can market to you through autoresponders. Of course you can always unsubscribe.

The best advice I can give about sales pages is that you don’t have to rush. Try to hold back the irresistible urge to offer because you can always bookmark the original splash page and then get the “second offer” again. Rushing into an order is a mistake. While it is absolutely true that there is a 60-day money back guarantee and I will tell you that Clickbank is awesome about customer service and refunds (so is Plimus by the way), you don’t want to have to commit your funds if you’re not absolutely ready. Remember; the rent may be due before you make your amazing earnings!

Richard Teich offers useful information, including how to create Clickbank product sales pages on his blog. He enjoys working with affiliate marketers to show them how to make money on the internet.. This article, The Sales Page Survival Guide is released under a creative commons attribution license.