Since the launch of Amazon.com in 1995, the number of affiliate marketing programs offered on the internet has grown enormously. Although Amazon.com was one of the pioneers with their affiliate program, other affiliate providers such as eBay and Clickbank now arguably offer a more diverse and profitable affiliate program.



The eBay Affiliate Program

Put simply, eBay launched their affiliate program to obtain more targeted traffic to their site. Originally many webmasters used the eBay affiliate program simply to make additional revenue from their existing web site. This has changed recently with an advancement in the quality of RSS feeds leading to a number of different affiliate store scripts flooding the market. These affiliate store scripts have created a new phenomenon where new eBay affiliates establish an affiliate store as the primary purpose of their web site and then add relevant content. EBay affiliates are now creating web sites that are established primarily to make affiliate commissions and not necessarily to provide useful and relevant content for the visitor.

My eBay Affiliate Store

I have an interest in golf and established my own eBay affiliate golf store called davesgolfstore.com using an eBay affiliate store script called Build A Niche Store. I provide my own web site content and have a direct feed of products from eBay. Every product listed on eBay under the golf category is displayed on my site in real time. When somebody clicks on a set of golf clubs listed on my site they are taken directly to eBay. If they place a successful bid I receive a commission from eBay ranging from 20-65% of eBays income. When I refer a new customer to eBay who makes a successful bid I receive a commission up to $24. The one downside of being an eBay affiliate is that you rely heavily on generating organic traffic from top listings on the search engines. The average commission I receive per sale is between $1-2. These commissions are quite small and it makes it difficult to use other traffic generating methods such as pay per click advertising. Given the search engines constantly update their page ranking algorithms, the inherent risk is it becomes difficult to generate consistent traffic as you rely heavily on organic searches.

Clickbank Affiliate Program

Clickbank offers an affiliate program that is primarily associated with promoting digital products that are predominantly ebooks. Similar to eBay, ClickBank has a diverse range of products to promote over a number of different categories across a range of interests and hobbies. The primary difference between Clickbank and eBay relates to the commissions paid per sale. Clickbank affiliates can earn between 25% to 75% per sale price while eBay commissions are based solely on eBay's revenue per sale and not the total sale price of the item. The majority of eBooks available on Clickbank are "How To" type ebooks. Historically these types of ebooks sell in high volumes and suit the internet given buyers generally have instant download access to the ebook they purchase. Given the digital nature of Clickbank products , promotion does involve providing more content rich web sites as potential buyers generally require more information before they make a purchase. Buyers take a different approach to eBay where generally the majority of goods purchased are still "hard goods" and most buyers already have an understanding of what they are purchasing.

Clickbank or eBay - You Decide?

There are more resources online when it comes to making money on Clickbank as opposed to making money with eBay affiliate marketing. Wealthy Affiliate.com is one of the more popular making money with Clickbank resources available on the internet while Build A Niche Store is now commonly used amongst eBay affiliate marketers. If you are willing to provide a content rich site, promoting Clickbank products can be very profitable given the higher commissions received where as eBay affiliate marketing is more suitable for those who don't necessarily wish to develop content rich sites and prefer to promote traditional type "hard goods".

Running a web site that is established primarily to make affiliate commissions is some what a floored concept. A web site should be created for the purpose of providing relevant and useful content to the visitor, and then relevant affiliate and non affiliate links can be provided to the visitor to help them further with their search.