ClickBank Affiliate Tip: Direct Link To Checkout

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Be careful, this method kind of works. For example, if customer A clicks on the affiliate link provided by SAM, then comes to your site and clicks on the link to the order page the affiliate that shows up is SAM. This method works if no affiliate is registered for the product.
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In today’s Affiliate Marketing Webinar, I shared a tip on how to get around bad sales copy when you want to promote a great product through ClickBank. The trick is to write your own sales copy for the product, and then link an order button directly to the checkout page.

Typically, when you are promoting a ClickBank product as an affiliate you will use what they call a “hoplink” to the merchant’s sales copy. That hoplink tracks the click-through’s and you get credit for every sale in the form of commission.

In the rare case that you want to bypass the merchant’s sales copy, you can set up a direct link to the checkout page that will still track your referrals. Here’s how you do that…

The following hoplink is all on one line with no spaces:

http://clickbank.net/sell.cgi?YOURID_MERCHANTID/ ProductNumber/ProductName

Make sure the link comes out all on one line. You want to make sure to create the link with no spaces or breaks.

There are 4 things you need to edit in that link:

• YOURID which is your ClickBank ID
• MERCHANTID the merchant’s ClickBank ID
• ProductNumber
• ProductName

The product name and product number can be found in the merchant’s original checkout link. What I usually do is view the merchant’s sales copy page, then click View > Source in my browser. This brings up the source code for the page, and you can locate the order button and analyze their order link.

Obviously it is best to get the merchant’s permission to link directly to the checkout from your own sales copy for their product. ;)

You’ll also want to test your link once you create it…

Put the order link on your web page, and then click on it to make sure that it works correctly. Once you get to the ClickBank checkout page, put in your zip code and then scroll down to the bottom of the payment page to make sure that your affiliate ID shows up at the very bottom. This is how you know that the link works correctly, and and that it tracks you as the affiliate referrer.