When it comes to making an income online, one thing I’ll tell anyone is that you should have a diverse portfolio. In other words, once you find one method that works for you, don’t just stick to it by itself.
Branch out. Invest in other business models after analyzing them. This keeps you from relying too heavily on one model that might not always be relevant.
One business model I’ve been experimenting with lately is Clickbank’s affiliate program. Today, I’m going to dive deep into it and show you how to build a Clickbank affiliate website.
This is going to be a really in-depth guide. Because of how much time I put into this, I’m including affiliate links to the services I personally use.
If you choose to use the same services, feel free to use my links to access them.
Let’s get started.
Don’t feel like reading? Click the play button below to watch my tutorial instead.
What is Clickbank?
The first thing I’m going to do is explain to you what exactly Clickbank is. In short, it’s a site where you can choose from a bunch of vendor products to promote.
In that way, it’s the same as being an affiliate for any other site, such as Amazon. You choose a product to promote, then link to it on your site. When someone clicks on your link and purchases the product in question, you make a commission.
With that in mind, you kind of have a Step 0 here: making your Clickbank account. It’s just like creating an account on any other site, so I won’t go into exhaustive detail describing it.
You can start by clicking on the sign-up button at the top of the page here.
How to Build a Clickbank Affiliate Website
Step One: Find the right offer to promote.
Searching for potential products.
After creating your Clickbank account, you’ll go to the affiliate marketplace. Right away, you’ll see categories on the left. These categories are where you will find the offer you’re going to promote.
Throughout this guide, I’m going to refer to a sample site called Vocal Helper. My pretend niche is going to be singing, and any supplies or products related to singing.
Just as an illustration, I’m going to go to the arts and entertainment section on Clickbank and show you what it looks like.
As you can see, there are a ton of different offers to choose from. Next to each, you’ll see an initial sale amount and an average total rebill figure near the bottom. I’ll run through what some of these numbers mean.
There’s a number on the side labelled “average $/sale.” That’s how much you’ll make on average when someone orders the product.
If the item has an average total rebill (and not all of them will), that means there’s a recurring fee. Not only will you make commission the first time someone buys the product, but you’ll make a portion each time the customer stays in the program and pays a renewal cost.
I generally stay away from anything where I’ll make under $20 per sale. However, that’s entirely up to you. If you’re particularly passionate about a niche, you may choose to promote products that don’t necessarily have a large commission.
Deciding which products are worth promoting.
Once you find a promotion you’re interested in, take a look at it to gauge whether or not other people would be interested in it, too. There’s no secret strategy to this part. Just use your intuition and common sense.
Here’s an example of something I would consider promoting. It’s called Singorama and at the time of writing, you can be an affiliate for it on Clickbank:
The seller clearly put an effort into their page. With the right time and place combined, I believe someone into singing would invest in this product.
Plus, you’ll make a decent commission on it and there’s an average rebill total, which means there’s a recurring fee.
It’s worth mentioning that there is a small percentage of vendors that will need you to get approved before you can promote them. Don’t worry – it’s not really an issue. Working with the vendor for approval generally isn’t difficult.
If this happens, you can certainly set up a site before approval, but that’s not really ideal. I’d recommend getting approved first.
How do you know if the vendor requires approval? If you click the “promote” button on the listing, you’ll get a warning message about needing to be pre-approved.
Step Two: Host your website (the right way).
Now that we have a product in mind, we need to decide who’s going to host our site. Picking a hosting service is essentially like picking a home for your website. It gives you access to a server that will house your site.
It’s critical that you have a quality hosting service. My service of choice is WPX hosting.
They’re fast, so your site won’t take long to load. On top of that, they have an amazing live chat with fantastic customer service. They’ve saved me so much time I would have otherwise spent trying to figure out technical issues.
As if that weren’t enough, they back up your site for free and will migrate sites you host elsewhere to their platform for you.
Other tutorials like this will offer you hosting deals that sound too good to be true…and that’s because they are. They’ll usually tack on all kinds of charges that jack up the price.
With WPX, you won’t be caught off guard by expensive upsells. Their pricing is all up-front.
You check them out by clicking here.
Step Three: Pick a domain name.
For the purposes of this part of the walkthrough, I’m going to assume you’re using WPX as your host. I’ll show you screenshots on how to get started through their platform.
Once you’re on the WPX site, click the orange “start now” button at the top of the page.
You’ll be able to choose which plan you want. From the three options, it’s most likely you’ll pick the basic business plan, which is fine. When you know which plan you want, click the orange “get started” button at the bottom of your selected plan.
You’ll then choose which country you’re hosting in. For me, that’s the United States.
After that, you’ll choose if you want just hosting or if you want both a domain name and hosting. Because I’m working on the assumption that you’re starting from scratch, I’ve selected both.
This is also the part where you actually pick your domain name. I’m going to explain my thought process for picking a domain name.
There are a few main attributes I look for:
- A .com ending
- Easy spelling
- Simple pronunciation
- Not difficult to remember
- A maximum of two or three words long
In this example, I’m going to use vocalhelper.com. This is actually a domain I already own, so I’m just using it for this example.
Type your domain name in, then proceed through the checkout process by clicking the continue button on the bottom of the page.
After checking out, it’s only a few more simple clicks until you’ve got WordPress installed. If you’re having a hard time with this, remember that WPX’s live chat is there to help you.
Throughout this process, make sure you have SSL activated. You can tell if it’s activated because there will be a lock at the top of your Chrome browser.
It’s just a part of WPX’s installation process.
Step Four: Set up your WordPress website.
Ensuring SSL is activated on your site.
With your domain name picked, you can start building the foundations of your site. To get into the place where you’ll edit the site, type in your domain name, then add “/wp-admin” on the end.
Then, you’ll complete a Captcha and log in. Now you’ll be brought to your WordPress dashboard, which looks like this:
In my screenshot, you can see I have SSL activated already. If you’d like to activate it yourself without going through the live chat, you can install a plugin. To search for a plugin, click “Plugins” on the left and then “add new.”
The plugin to look for here is called Really Simple SSL. When it comes up, you’ll push the “install now” button.
With Really Simple SSL installed, go to your settings and update your WordPress address by adding an “s” to it in the beginning. It should begin with “https:” now instead.
Choosing a theme.
Your next step is to choose the theme for your site. In other words, this is the template your site will follow.
You can do this through the appearance option on the site of your WordPress dashboard. WordPress includes a bunch of free themes for you to choose from, but I prefer the premium version of GeneratePress.
If you want to try it, too, you’ll click “add new” and type “GeneratePress” in the search bar. You’ll see it come up in the search results. Click the “install” button at the bottom.
It’s important to note at this point that you’re installing the free version, not the premium version. However, I like the premium version because it has all kinds of extras and lets you add your own code anywhere on the site.
Pay for the license with a one-time fee, and you can apply it to more websites down the road. You can take a look at the premium version of GeneratePress here.
If you opt for the premium version, you have to add it as a plug-in through the “add new” option under “plugins” on the left.
You’ll then click the “upload plugin” at the top. There will be an option to upload a zip file that you’ve already downloaded when you paid for the premium version of GeneratePress.
Then you’ll click “install now” and “activate plugin.” After it’s been activated, select “appearance” again, then choose GeneratePress premium. Check the box at the top to mark all the attributes it comes with, then choose “activate” from the dropdown.
Before you apply your selections, you need to put in your license key on the right. Afterwards, you will click the “apply” button.
Step Five: Add additional free plugins.
GeneratePress isn’t the only plugin you’ll need to have installed. I have a couple others that I strongly recommend using for your Clickbank site.
The first one is Yoast, which I’ll show you how to install. Start by clicking the “plugins” option on the left of your dashboard, then enter in “Yoast SEO” in the searchbar.
A few plugins will pop up again. Yoast SEO should be your first one, so click the “install” button on it. As soon as it’s finished installing, click the blue “activate” button that comes up.
With Yoast installed, you’ll see it appearing on the left pane of your dashboard. Click on it and choose “search appearance.” You’ll need to put in your domain name in the “organization name” field and your logo in the “organization logo” field.
Of course, social media is critical nowadays, and Yoast gives you the opportunity to add yours. Click the “Social” button and add your URLs on various social media platforms.
Your next plugin will be Pretty Links. Follow the same steps to search for it that you used to find Yoast SEO. It will be the first plugin that pops up, and it will look like this:
Pretty Links, just like its name says, makes the Clickbank links more attractive.
Another plugin you’ll want to add to your toolbox is Classic Editor. Honestly, it’s optional – you can use the current WordPress editor, I just prefer the classic one. You can find it the same way you found Yoast and Pretty Links.
If you want to make editing your site even easier, with drag-and-drop mechanics like Wix, check out Thrive Architect. It’s simple to train your writers on, and it’s very user-friendly. You can click here to see it if that interests you.
One last plugin I suggest adding is Title and Nofollow. I’ll explain what we use that for at a later point in this article, when we discuss linking to the product you’re promoting.
Step Six: Add Google Analytics and Webmaster Console.
Adding Google Analytics to your site.
Now that we’ve installed all those plugins, you’ll want Google Analytics and Google WebMaster Console. You can find Google Analytics here.
Click the blue “set up for free” button.
Make sure that you are logged into your business’s Gmail account for this part. You’ll be taken to a page to create your account. We’re going to use our domain name, Vocal Helper, for our account name.
After you’ve entered in your domain name, click next. You’ll see three options: web, apps, and apps and web. Pick the web choice, because you’re making a website.
Finally, you’ll have to enter in your web property details. In the “website name” field, type in your domain name again. From the Website URL section, you’ll select https from the dropdown and enter in your full web address.
Then you’ll choose the category of your Clickbank site from Industry Category, and your time zone from the Reporting Time Zone part.
Click “create” and accept the terms of service that pop up.
Another screen will come up with a tracking ID on it. This is where being able to input your own code on any part of GeneratePress Premium will really come in handy.
You’ll be installing the Google Analytics site tag on your website. It sounds complicated, but don’t worry – I’ll walk you through this part, too. You’ll start by copying this code.
Go back to your website editor. If you have GeneratePress Premium, choose “Appearance,” then “Elements.”
It’s possible that other themes will allow you to input code like this, as well. There may also even be plugins that let you do so if you’re not using GeneratePress Premium like I am. However, because I do use GeneratePress Premium, I’ll have to show you how I do it.
On the elements page, click “add new” at the top.
Next, you’ll select an element type from the options.
Choose hook from the dropdown menu. Now, you’ll see a page where you can input and name your hook. I’m calling this one “WP_Head” because that’s what it is. Then I check the two boxes under “hook” near the bottom.
After checking the boxes, you’re going to paste the code you copied from Google Analytics in the blank box at the top.
Before you click “publish,” though, you have to set your own display rules. You’ll see the option below the blank box you just pasted the code in.
I recommend choosing “entire site” for the location because you don’t want this to be missing from any of the pages on your site. You want Google Analytics to be tracking every page.
Adding Webmaster Console.
Since you’ve got Google Analytics installed, let’s move on to Webmaster Console, which you can grab here. Sign in through the login at the top.
There will be two sections on the page. Enter your domain name in again in the domain half.
Choose continue, and a window will pop up with some code you’re going to put in WPX. All it does is verify your domain. You’ll have to put it as a txt record in your DNS.
With WPX, you can just copy the code, send it to them in a live chat, and tell them you need to add it as a txt record to your DNS. They’ll either do it for you or walk you through it.
Alternatively, you can choose the full details option and Google will explain to you how to do it yourself. I’m not going to get into it, because it’s pretty technical. That’s why I recommend using the live chat with WPX if you can.
On the other hand, if you’re technically inclined, you might know how to do it already.
When that’s all said and done, it will take around 24 hours for your domain name to get verified. Once it’s complete and you go to verify in the previous screen, you’ll come back to Search Console and select your site at the top. In this case, that’s Vocal Helper again.
At the time I did this myself, I was waiting the 24 hours for my domain to be verified, so I’m using the non-domain property. Find “Sitemaps” on the left and choose it.
This is where you’ll need to enter your sitemap. If you’re not sure how to get that, go back to your website editor and pick “general” under the Y SEO section. From there, you’ll choose features.
On the features tab, scroll down until you see something that says “XML Sitemaps.” There will be a tiny question mark icon beside it. Click on the option right underneath that says, “See XML sitemap.”
You’ll be brought to a largely blank page that has some text on it. Copy the URL.
With the URL in hand, return to your Webmaster Console and put in the section that says “add a new sitemap.”
Delete everything except the “sitemap_index.xml” part and click submit.
So what did all this do for you? Google will now have an easier time crawling your site. It will know when you update your site, so that new posts appear in the index more quickly.
That effects your rankings, which have a direct impact on your sales. Higher rankings mean more people see you, which means more clicks.
Step Seven: Get your logo designed.
This part is pretty easy. You’re going to need a professional-looking logo to put on your site. It rounds everything out, and adds an extra sleek touch.
When you look as if you’ve put more effort into your site, people will naturally be more inclined to stick around and read your posts. That doesn’t mean you have to design the logo yourself (unless you know how, in which case, more power to you).
What I do is hire someone through Fiverr. Fiverr is wonderful for finding people with the skills to help you for one-off tasks. If you do decide to go through them, you can use my Fiverr referral link here.
On Fiverr, all you need to do is type “logo” into the search field. Like with any other search, you’ll see a ton of options come up.
How do you know which one to hire? Truthfully, that’s your decision, but I’ll lay out my thought process for you.
I like to look for someone who says they can design a logo fast and affordably. My typical price parameters range from $15-30.
When you find one you like, click on them to view their offer page. Read through what they’ll give you. If it all sounds acceptable, click the “continue” button and check out.
Step Eight: Do keyword research for fast rankings.
Searching for your keywords.
Your logo could take a few days before it’s complete. You don’t need to put your entire business on hold while you’re waiting, though.
What I recommend doing at this point is getting started on your keyword research. This is going to be the most important part of your Clickbank site.
If you choose bad keywords, you won’t rank. That means people won’t find you as easily, and the fewer people who find your site, the less you’ll make in sales.
The kind of keywords I think are best are informational and long-tail keywords. Since our tutorial website, Vocal Helper, is about singing, I’ll start by going to Google and typing in “how to sing.”
I’m looking for the types of search results that come up. After entering “how to sing,” I won’t hit enter just yet, because I’ll be waiting to see what the suggestions are.
From the suggestions, look for things that are long-tail modifiers. These things will help you rank faster, because there will be less competition for them.
As an example, I’m going to go with, “how to sing in tune.” When I type that in, I get even more long-tail suggestions.
We’ll start checking out some of these ones. Your goal here is to see how many other sites come up on the first page with the same keyword as yours in their title.
As an illustration, I’m choosing “how to sing in tune for beginners.” A YouTube video comes up at the top. Below that, I find a few more articles that are kind of related to the topic, but not too closely.
The YouTube video was the only thing that discussed singing in tune for beginners. Because of that, I think this is a keyword worth pursuing.
In fact, I’d say a keyword is worth your time as long as it has 2 or less results with the exact same wording in their title. When it gets to 3 or more, that’s a red flag for me.
You can repeat these steps as many times as you like, until you build up a stock of keywords to write about. I would advise having maybe 20-30 at a time.
In our Vocal Helper example, I chose to go back and look at “how to sing with” and see what it brought up.
Keyword research tips.
By the way, if you have expertise in the niche you’ve chosen, making a YouTube video to go along with your blog post is a great tactic. It’s perfect for capturing the attention of people who don’t have time or don’t like to read.
Some SEO instructors will tell you that you need to start with shorter keywords and build links to rank. My findings, however, have shown that by using longer keywords like I showed you, Google will probably rank you faster.
Another quick trick you can use is allintitle. In the Google search bar, type in the “allintitle:” with your keyword after the colon, then hit enter.
You’ll see how many other articles have your exact keyword in their title. Some people will use a method called keyword golden ration (KGR), but I prefer to look at the front page along with the allintitle search.
Step Nine: Write SEO-friendly articles.
Where to write your post.
Those keywords you spent time researching and compiling are going to serve as prompts for your blog posts. Once you have 20-30 picked out, go back to your website editor and click “all posts.”
To start writing a new blog post, you’ll click the “add new” button at the top of the page.
Now is a good time to start writing your first blog post if you haven’t already. This will help you keep up the momentum.
If you already have a blog post already begun, you can click the edit button to resume writing it. I’ll show you how it looks as you’re formatting it.
As you can see, the entire keyword is in the bar across the top. This will appear as a large H1 heading in your final blog post. I also chose to add “3 tips” to the end to make the article stick out a bit more.
Right beneath the title, there’s a permalink section. That’s the URL that will appear at the top of the page as someone views your site. This permalink should have your keyword in it, but not any extra numbers or words you added, if you chose to add anything like I did.
Writing and formatting your article with SEO in mind.
When it comes to actually writing your article, I suggest writing it in a way that feels natural to you. Write something that flows and is put together well.
Beyond that, there are some SEO factors you should take into consideration as you write.
The first one is headings. Dividing your articles into different headings is not only good for SEO, but it makes your articles much easier on the eyes. You can find the headings by choosing the dropdown in the bar above where you type the body of your article.
In the screenshot I’ve provided, you can see how the headings look and how I prefer to arrange them. I put tags on the end so you can see what kind of heading they are, but you shouldn’t include these tags when you’re writing your article.
The second thing you should do is sprinkle your keyword throughout your article as naturally as possible. Include the full keyword at least once, then include a variation of it here and there. You can even make one of the headings into your keyword.
I suggest including words from your keyword in your H3 subheadings. For instance, in the screenshot, I have a few H3 headings with the words “sing” and “singing” in them, which is part of the keyword.
Using Yoast to make your article more SEO-friendly.
Another SEO factor you should keep in mind as you write articles is the meta title and description. This has to do with the Yoast plugin I told you to install previously. If you have it installed, you’ll have another section underneath your article.
This is where you’ll put your meta title and description. In the SEO Title field, you’ll basically just copy/paste your title from the top. For your meta description, you’ll write a description of what the article is about that’s designed to get someone to click on it.
There are two bubbles above the SEO title field that say “mobile result” and “desktop result.” Once you’ve finished entering in your title and meta description, make sure you check both mobile and desktop to result to ensure it looks good for both.
One thing to pay attention to here is the colored bars below your SEO title and description. They’ll change colors as you add characters. When they turn green, you’ve put in enough for the perfect length.
You need to make sure your title and description both fit using this indicator.
Linking to your promoted products in your article.
The whole point of Clickbank affiliate sites is to promote products. Naturally, that means you’ll need to link to Clickbank products in your articles.
To do this, you’ll go back to Clickbank and the product you’ve selected. You’ll click the orange “promote” button on the right, so that this window will come up.
Enter your account nickname in, then press the “generate hoplinks” button. It generates an odd-looking encrypted link. You’re not going to just plug this into your site, because it doesn’t look sleek enough. I’ll circle back to that shortly, because I’m going to explain to you how you should incorporate the promotion in your post.
To actually fit the link into your article, you’ll need to weave it in so it looks natural. You’d write something like, “If you want to learn more about improving your singing, you can check out the Singorama.” Then you’d include a link to the Singorama product (or, in your case, whatever you chose to promote).
You’ll create the link by highlighting the text you want to be hyperlinked, then clicking the chain symbol at the top in your site editor.
Don’t just copy/paste the link you got from Clickbank. We’re going to make it pretty with Pretty Links first.
Using Pretty Links to beautify your Clickbank link.
Click on Pretty Links on the left, then “add new.”
At this part, you’ll be creating the modified link, which is what you’ll actually use in your post. Enter the title for the link at the top. In the “target URL” bar, paste the URL you got from Clickbank.
Below that, there’s a pretty link section that lets you turn the link into whatever you want. With that completed, you’ll click “publish.”
A much better-looking link will have been generated for you to use in your article. You can copy it from the page, then go back to your post and add it wherever you’d like.
As a side note, it’s best to make all your external affiliate links no follow. This is done by using one of the plugins I had you install, Title and Nofollow.
With Title and Nofollow, you’ll have two additional options you can check when you edit your link. I like to have all of them checked for my external affiliate links.
Choosing a featured image for the post.
Once you’ve got your article, meta title, and meta description written, there’s one more step to take before you can publish it: setting your featured image. This will be the image that shows at the top of your blog post.
Generally, I use Canva to make these featured images. There’s both a free and paid version, and I use the paid version so that I have access to more images.
There are other resources you can use, too, but for the time being, I’ll demonstrate how Canva works to you. When you first log in, it will look like this:
Click the “Create a Design” button at the upper left hand side of the screen and enter in the dimensions for the image. I’m going to use 1200 x 800 for the dimensions.
You’ll now be on a screen with a blank image. There are all kinds of templates and free attributes you can use on the left.
To find a picture for our featured image, I went to photos and looked for “singing,” which brings up all kinds of high-quality singing pictures. I chose one and made it full-size so it took up the entire blank space.
Besides the picture, though, I like to add other elements. You can do that with the elements button on the left.
I chose a rectangle to put over the bottom of the image, and that’s where I’m going to put the title of the blog post. Afterwards, I clicked the “text” button and added in the title.
When it comes to text, try to make sure it’s evenly spaced and looks good. You can play around with the font, size, and line spacing until you come up with something that looks appealing.
In the end, I also chose to change the color and edit the transparency of my text box so that you could see the image behind it better.
When you’re satisfied with how your image looks, download it. Next, you’ll be uploading it onto your WordPress site.
Back in your site editing dashboard, you’ll click on the “add featured image” option again. You’ll have a popup with a tab at the top that says “upload files.”
You can find the image you just made and upload it through there. Then you’ll get a page like this, where you can enter in a title, alt text, and caption for your image.
The alt text is used by visually impaired people who are using readers. I make the alt text the same thing as the title.
However, you could add something to the alt text that describes what’s in the image. In this case, it would be a singing girl with the text, “How to sing with your stomach and not your throat.”
You can also use the alt text to sprinkle in your keyword even more in images throughout your article to break up the paragraphs a little bit.
Step Ten: Set up lead gen for more sales.
Creating an email sign-up form for your site.
Now that you’ve hopefully got an idea on how to set up your site, let’s talk about generating future leads.
Ideally, you don’t want someone just reading one article on your site and then never coming back. Although you want new visitors, your goal should also be to cultivate an old audience, too. You’ll have future chances to email them and get them to return to your site.
An email list should be integrated in your site from the very beginning, so you’re gathering contact information from the get-go. I use a service called Aweber for that. In a nutshell, it helps you send out messages and campaigns to anyone who signs up down the line.
I’m not going to go through the signup process now, because it’s pretty easy. It’s just like signing up for any other site.
After you’ve created an account and you’re ready to create your list, you’ll go to “sign up forms” at the top, then click the green “Create a sign up form” button. There will be plenty of designs to choose for the sign-up form that will appear on your site.
I chose a template that looked like this:
You can easily edit different parts of the template. For this example, I’ve added some text about singing.
Feel free to mess around with the design until you get something you like. After that, you’ll click the green “save” button at the bottom. Then you’ll go to step two, where you enter your form name.
In step three, you’ll have a few different options. I always use the first one, “I will install my form.” It opens a code for you to copy.
Installing the sign-up form on your site.
Copy that code, then go back to the GeneratePress elements part of your site dashboard. Click the “add new” button at the top.
From the dropdown, choose “hook” again. Don’t forget to check the two boxes beneath it, too.
Once again, you’ll see a page where you can enter in a title and add your code. First, though, choose “after_content” from the hook dropdown towards the bottom.
Then you’ll paste your code in and name your form. Following that, click on “display rules.”
In the location dropdown, you’ll choose where you want the email signup form to show up on your site. I’m choosing post, because I want it to appear on all my posts.
With that completed, you can click “publish” and go check out how it looks on your post. Because I chose post, it shows up right after my article.
My Assignments for You
Yes, like a teacher, I’m going to give you some assignments. You’ll remember nothing from this tutorial if you don’t get in there and apply what I showed you.
That being said, here are the steps you should take to really get your Clickbank site off the ground:
Get your logo and incorporate it into your site.
Part of this will be waiting. If you chose to hire someone to design your logo, it will take them time to send you a finished product.
Once you get your new logo, work it into your site. Start by adjusting the colors and typography to get a look you like.
Go back to WordPress for this part, then go to any page and click “customize” at the top.
You’ll have several options to use for playing with the look of your site, like Site Identity, Colors, or Typography. I’m starting with Site Identity.
After selecting it, you can click where the logo would go at the top. To make space for the logo, I clicked “hide site title” and “hide site tagline.” Then, under the logo section, you can click the box to upload your logo.
I actually threw together a quick logo in Canva to use as an example. I’m not a graphic designer, so it may not look professional, but I’m just using it for the sake of this tutorial. Anyway, I uploaded the logo in two places: the logo section and the retina logo section.
Beneath retina logo, you can also play with the width of the logo and select an icon for the site. You can take a little snip of your logo or the icon part of it and upload it to the “select site icon” section.
It will then appear in the tab at the top of your browser.
Familiarize yourself and play with site settings to design a look you like.
Aside from the logo, GeneratePress gives you so many options for customizing your site. I recommend clicking through all of them and playing around to see what you think looks best.
Don’t get too crazy here, though. Your main objectives are to change some colors and your typography so your site looks good.
One important thing is to also work on adding other pages to your site. You can do this through your menus section.
You’ll click “create new menu” and then enter in a name for the menu. In Vocal Helper, I made a main menu that I can add new content under.
As you can see, under the main menu, I can add posts, categories, tags, and formats.
Follow all the steps I outlined here and create your first blog post.
This is pretty self-explanatory. As a Clickbank affiliate, you need to have posts linking to products on Clickbank.
Take some time to polish up your first blog post so you have content on your site. Repeat that process, and you’ll slowly build a library of blog posts with affiliate links in them.
Make an affiliate disclaimer and link it near your featured image before your blog post.
It’s imperative that you have a disclaimer before your blog posts. You can do this with Elements and WP hooks like I showed you earlier for adding Google Analytics.
Instead of putting in a code, you can just put the text for your disclaimer in there. If you don’t remember how to add hooks, scroll up to our section about adding Google Analytics to your site.
Make a Privacy Policy/Terms of Service and add it to the footer menu.
Next, you absolutely need to have pages dedicated to a privacy policy and terms of service. You can’t just make posts for them, because they’ll need to be accessible through a menu on the bottom of your site.
Create 20-30 more blog posts.
Clearly, the goal is to create a bunch of blog posts that link to products you’re promoting. Remember to weave in those SEO article elements I taught you.
Pepper in your links to promoted products, but try to avoid looking as if you’re spamming them. Readers will get turned off by this and stop reading if every other word is a link to a product. It should look natural and make sense when you add a link.
Make categories, if appropriate, and link them on your main menu.
As the number of your blog posts grows, you might need to start adding categories to your site to put them in. I’ll run you through how to do that quickly.
Back in your site editing dashboard, you’ll go to posts, then choose “categories.”
Once you’ve selected categories, you’ll be able to name the category, as well as determine if it’s linked to another parent category.
By default, you’ll start with only one category: uncategorized. I think this looks a little weird, so I usually add another one right away. Because I’m using Vocal Helper as illustration, I added one called Singing, then clicked the “add new category” button at the bottom.
Since you’ll have them now, you want to make sure your posts are in the correct categories. Go back to your post or posts and check the categories on the right side in the editor. Uncheck “uncategorized” and check the boxes for the appropriate categories.
You’ll also want to check that your new categories show up in the site’s menu. You can go to “appearance” and then “customize” to confirm this.
Then you’ll choose “menus,” “create a new menu,” and name the menu you want your category to be attached to. I want it to be attached to the main menu, so I created that menu again and opened up the categories beside it.
That’s also where you’ll be adding your About Us page or any other categories you create in the future.
Wrap Up
Follow all the steps in this guide, and you’ll be on your way to having a solid Clickbank site.
Keep in mind, though, that Google won’t start ranking your site instantly. It takes a little time, so you’ll need to be patient.
For the first few months, you can check your Google Analytics maybe once a month or so. After several months, move up to checking your analytics weekly. Eventually, you could even check them daily.
You can make this a bit faster by having social network pages to combine with your Clickbank site. For instance, you could have a Facebook page or a Pinterest profile. This would be an especially good idea once you’ve hit that 20-30 articles mark.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, take a deep breath and relax. There are tons of resources out there to help you, including us.
You can join our Elite Fleet here. If you’re a member, you’ll get a private channel with me and my brother, so we can answer any questions when you’re stumped.
We’ll also teach you how to set up your online business portfolio for free in the Online Assets Playbook.