Is ClickBank Affiliate Marketing Legit? | 3 Reasons People Think It’s a Scam

Is Clickbank affiliate marketing legit? Clickbank affiliate marketing is legit in the sense that many people earn money by promoting Clickbank affiliate products and the platform has been one of the most popular affiliate platforms through over 25 years of operation. In fact, affiliates like Robby Blanchard and John Crestani have made millions through Clickbank affiliate marketing.

However, a previous Clickbank platinum affiliate on Quora points out what many others express online about Clickbank, that the affiliate network hosts a large amount of spammy products. Despite having considerable success with Clickbank, the platinum affiliate quit the platform because of the dishonest marketing claims made by Clickbank vendors.

Promoting Clickbank products may also negatively impact your reputation as a digital marketer. For example, if you’re trying to build an online audience but are promoting Clickbank, some potential followers might see that as a red flag. 

Many people perceive Clickbank affiliates as willing to bypass ethics in pursuit of money because they often target susceptible audiences, like the elderly or those desperate to fix their health. Although Clickbank affiliates might simply use marketing materials provided by the affiliate product owner to promote these products, it’s often clear many of the claims these marketing materials make are probably illegitimate, and Clickbank does little to police this issue.

Instead of promoting poor quality affiliate offers, local lead generation is an alternative online business to consider where you help small business owners find more opportunities. Local lead generation entails building websites that attract customers for local service businesses and then selling those leads to real local business owners for $500 to $3,000 a month per website. 

In the following article, we discuss further whether Clickbank affiliate marketing is legit by looking at what rating agencies say about the platform and what kind of brands you can promote as a Clickbank affiliate. 

Is ClickBank safe and legit?

ClickBank is safe and legit. The affiliate marketing platform has been around for over 25 years, connecting thousands of brands with affiliate marketers looking to earn income by promoting products online. In fact, ClickBank affiliates have earned over $4.2 billion in commissions since inception.

ClickBank is a registered Delaware corporation that operates out of Boise, Idaho. The company is a subsidiary of Keynetics Inc., one of the largest privately held technology companies in Idaho. 

What do rating agencies say about ClickBank? 

Rating agencies say good things about ClickBank. 

• The Better Business Bureau gives ClickBank an A+ rating. 

• Trustpilot reviewers give ClickBank 3.9 out of 5 stars based on more than 3,600 ClickBank review counts.

• ScamAdviser gives ClickBank 3.9 out of 5 based on over 3,700 reviews and a 100 out of 100 ClickBank ScamAdviser trust score.

What are 3 common reasons people think ClickBank affiliate marketing is a scam?

1. There are many dissatisfied ClickBank customers

Although ClickBank has an A+ rating from the BBB, its actual customer reviews on the site tell a different story. ClickBank has many negative reviews from customers complaining about products they have ordered through the platform, leaving ClickBank with 1.6 out of 5 stars. It’s no surprise that it's very common for ClickBank customers to return their products and get a refund once they realize the product is not what they expected.

2. Many ClickBank products use overhyped sales pitches

When browsing through the offers section of the ClickBank Marketplace, you’ll notice that many products make outlandish claims, like extraordinary earning potential or guarantees of wealth generation. In the offers section, each product only has a few lines of copywriting to attract affiliates to their sales page, so you often see exaggerated claims. Affiliates that are persuaded into promoting these products can feel deceived when their results don't meet the expectations that were set by the brand.

3. ClickBank pitches its own affiliates on products

ClickBank gets new affiliates excited about making money with ClickBank affiliate marketing through a variety of promotional materials. The very first video you see when you sign up for the platform is a promotional video for their own affiliate marketing training program, called Spark, that basically just video montage of customer success stories. The purpose is to get you excited about ClickBank and interested in paying for the Spark program to learn affiliate marketing. If you elect to receive ClickBank’s promotional emails, you’ll receive a barrage of email marketing campaigns that typically showcase an affiliate who had incredible results with ClickBank. These emails are sent for the purpose of convincing you to join a webinar to learn their successful strategy, which eventually leads to you being pitched on some paid affiliate marketing course. 

What brands can you promote with ClickBank?

You can promote alternative, or niche brands with ClickBank. ClickBank does not have mainstream brands that most people are familiar with, like Nike or Ralph Lauren. Instead, most of the brands you’ll find on ClickBank to promote are small scale and lack brand name recognition.

What kind of products can you promote with ClickBank?

You can promote both digital and physical products with ClickBank. ClickBank has a wide range of products that span across many product categories and subcategories. ClickBank product categories include:

Most of the top selling products on ClickBank are dietary and weight loss supplements.

How can you weed out the bad products as a ClickBank affiliate?

You can weed out the bad products as a ClickBank affiliate by looking at the Gravity Score of the affiliate program. The Gravity Score on the ClickBank platform is a performance metric that measures sales momentum. It calculates how many affiliates are making money on a particular offer and is measured over a 12-week rolling period, meaning more recent product sales are given a higher weight in the calculation. By looking at an affiliate program’s gravity score, you can determine whether a product is getting sales. High sales are typically a good indicator that a product is good quality.

What is a good Gravity Score on ClickBank?

A good Gravity Score on ClickBank is anything over 50, according to affiliate marketer and YouTuber Garret Barry. However, it’s important to note that the higher the Gravity Score, the more competitive for selling the product. Therefore, many affiliates recommend looking for ClickBank products with a Gravity Score between 15 and 70 or so to find a product with good sales potential but low competition. 

How do ClickBank affiliates get paid?

The method in which you get paid as a ClickBank affiliate depends on how the product creator decides to pay affiliates for their performance. ClickBank affiliates get paid through either a revenue share or cost-per-action (CPA) model. The revshare model pays a percentage of the sale, while the CPA model pays you a flat rate set by the seller for driving specific actions, such as sales or downloads.

What commission rate can you earn by promoting ClickBank products?

You can earn between a 10% to 90% commission rate by promoting ClickBank products. In fact, most products on the platform will pay you between 50% to 70% ClickBank affiliate commission rate on average, according to Oberlo. The highest commission on ClickBank is a 90% commission payout. However, this is reserved for high-performing affiliates who are whitelisted by the brand to better compensate them for their exceptional performance with high commissions.

How often does ClickBank pay you?

ClickBank pays you either weekly or bi-weekly, depending on your payment preferences and chosen withdrawal method. ClickBank pays very quickly. The payment period ends at 12am Pacific time on Wednesdays and payments are distributed to affiliate accounts just two days later.

How do you withdraw money from ClickBank?

You withdraw money from ClickBank through either direct deposit, wire transfer, or paper check. ClickBank does not pay to PayPal as an affiliate payment method.

What are some ClickBank affiliate marketing success stories?

Real Money Strategies made $13,000 in 30 days

22 year old ClickBank Super Affiliate has made over $1M

Is ClickBank the best affiliate program?

ClickBank is not the best affiliate program. However, Clickbank can be worth it in 2023. There are just too many affiliates competing for a limited number of quality products, making it incredibly difficult to be successful on the platform. However, ClickBank legit is one of the best affiliate marketing network options for beginners. Pretty much anyone can get approved to join the ClickBank Marketplace. Therefore, it’s a good stepping stone to start gaining the experience and necessary digital marketing skills to get your first affiliate sale and start on the path to becoming a successful affiliate marketer. Besides ClickBank, Amazon Associate is another good affiliate platform option for a beginner to consider. 

Can you really make money with ClickBank?

You can really make money with ClickBank. In fact, some affiliates, like Robby Blanchard, make over $5 million per year with ClickBank affiliate marketing. However, ClickBank affiliate marketing can be intensely competitive because of the affiliate industry’s low entry barriers and ClickBank's reputation for accepting nearly anyone who applies. Many new affiliates end up quitting ClickBank because learning affiliate marketing requires a lot of time, effort, and cash before you start making money. 

An alternative online business model I can’t recommend enough is local lead generation. With your own local lead generation agency, your income potential is virtually uncapped. Local lead generation works by building websites to rank on Google to attract leads for local businesses, like roofers or lawn maintenance businesses. Then, you sell the leads your websites generate to those businesses to actually perform the work for the leads you find. Each local lead generation website you set up has the potential to generate $500 to $3,000 in passive income each month. Once you set up one website, you can begin to focus on another one. Over time, your websites can compound into a passive income machine. Regardless of which business model you choose, the most important thing is to be an action taker and start taking the steps to achieve your goals.