Last December, while speaking at an affiliate convention in LA, I had the opportunity to share a panel with Dush Ramachandran, the vice president of sales, marketing, and business development for ClickBank. We talked about some of the challenges facing his organization. One of those challenges is the fact that after years of success, many affiliates lose their excitement for ClickBank, often feeling that they need to “graduate” to more challenging platforms.
I did not get started as an affiliate marketer by promoting information products on Clickbank, but I’m pretty sure the vast majority of affiliates got started this way. Clickbank accepts almost anybody, and their system is the simplest and most straight forward there is. When you notice that many of the “guru” affiliates who are teaching everyone how to get rich online often promote Clickbank products, you can see how so many people become Clickbank affiliates.
The more experience and success you get, the more sophisticated your marketing becomes. Your need for more powerful tools, more intelligence data, and more control grows as your business grows.
While sophisticated affiliate networks like MediaTrust, NeverBlue, and Clickbooth all provide advanced tools that can help you run very complex campaigns, their barrier to entry is very high. CPA networks won’t accept you unless you are a proven and ethical marketer. They don’t have time for newbies. I believe CPA networks are where most experienced affiliates go once they learn the ropes on sites like ClickBank and Commission Junction.
But there is a new alternative for experienced affiliates. I was lucky enough to be invited to see it in person, and I can confidently say it is the next step in the evolution of affiliate marketing. It is the new and highly innovative network known as TrendRevenue.
The People Behind Trend Revenue Are The Reason It Is So Unique And Exciting!
I worked with many TrendRevenue members back in my glorious pharmacy days. We made a LOT of money, money we didn’t even think it was possible to make (I talked about it in more detail in this interview). In fact, back in the day, they flew me and my beautiful wife to Maui for a week with all expenses paid just to convince me to drop my current affiliate relationship and work with them. They did a great job persuading me, and I am really glad I made the switch.
I managed to get top rankings in Google not only for hot pharmaceutical products, but also for other industries like mortgages, and life insurance. They all paid decently, but only the pharmacy marketing made a huge amount of money. Now that I think about it, the real reason for this is blatantly obvious.
I made most of my money from return customers. When you look at it, people who purchase pharmaceuticals are very likely to purchase them again and again. It doesn’t take a genius to realize that once you hook them with a single sale, you have them as a valuable customer for a very long time.
It also helps that you don’t have to create an aggressive sales pitch for pharmaceutical products that people already know they need. As soon as my pages made it to the top of Google, I just sat back and enjoyed the success. Customers wanted the products, and we happily provided them.
The vast majority of affiliate programs only pay for leads (or first sale), they don’t pay commissions on repeat sales. The backend, as it is commonly known, is where most merchants make their profits. Why would they share their lifetime customer value? The people at TrendRevenue did it in the past with huge success and are preparing to do it again.
They are aiming at replicating their past successes with this model. They have designed an affiliate program that takes all of the hassle out of being an affiliate, giving you more time to do your job as a marketer. You don’t have to setup a website, and you don’t have to install a thing. You simply pick a theme and decide which products you want to sell. You only need to focus on the marketing aspect.
The truly great thing about them is the fact that you can only sell products that have an excellent reputation for generating repeat business. You can select between Housewares, Ink & Toner, and Pet Products. Nobody who buys these products only buys them once. As soon as you make a single sale, you’ve got a customer for life.
TrendRevenue also offers a level of transparency that is yet to be seen in the online affiliate world. With TrendRevenue, you get to see the frontend and backend revenue for any of your affiliate projects. When most people see how much they are making compared to how much TrendRevenue gets, they usually can’t believe it. It’s actually a problem for TrendRevenue because so many potential affiliates believe it is too good to be true.
I want to take this opportunity to tell you that TrendRevenue is the real deal, and they are pretty serious and determined to make their platform the next big thing in the affiliate space. If you have read my blog for some time, you know I don’t give my endorsement easily. I need to really believe in something before I recommend it.
Last weekend, the TrendRevenue team provided me with a first class flight to Santa Monica, California. I got a chance to tour their offices and see their other successful businesses. Here are a few pictures I took on my trip.
Bill Appleyard, their CTO and someone who I have worked with in the past, went to pick me up at the airport 🙂
You can see the CEO of TrendRevenue in the middle of some pretty famous people!
A real state-of-the-art office. I have more pictures in my Facebook account.
They booked me on a suite in the Beverly Hilton. It’s five times the size of the studio I have in Manhattan right now!
We met on my hotel suite to brainstorm how they can get the word out about their system. I am really impressed with the TrendRevenue team.
If you are reading this blog, you probably have enough experience and intelligence to qualify for their system. There are no affiliate links on this post. If you decide to join them, apply to their program and when you talk to them, tell them you read about them on this blog. It will give you a better chance at getting accepted. It might even help you to negotiate a really nice deal 😉
Disclaimer: TrendRevenue paid for my trip to their offices, but they did not pay me to write this. There are no affiliate links on this post.
Harun İbişoğlu
August 2, 2010 at 2:59 am
Thanks for sharing...
Tøj Butik
October 13, 2010 at 12:59 am
Oh the offices are really really wonderful, I love them. They have really done a great job in a very little time and raised everything from the ground to the top. hats off...
Lisa
December 9, 2010 at 12:00 am
Affiliate Marketing is great when it comes to trusted partners and affiliate marketing companies. Great info about TrendRevenue
Ruth Murphy
January 28, 2011 at 5:54 pm
Yes I am ready... :) thanks for great Article.
Paul - Sharing Matte
February 4, 2011 at 3:40 am
Hamlet, I wish you updated your blog regularly. Many years ago it gave me great knowledge about SEO. Are you planning to back to blogging?
lherbik
February 5, 2011 at 6:07 am
I just started working with Neverblue after having primarily targeting Clickbank products for about 2 years. They have a wide variety of offers and it's nice to go for CPA offers after mucking it out in cost per sale. I'm really happy I got accepted into their network, and you're right it wasn't easy. I'm happy to look into TrendRevenue now. Looks like they rolled out the red carpet for you :)
Sefi
March 4, 2011 at 12:49 pm
Right, this is a pretty good analysis of actual affiliate marketing systems, spiced up with some more. It is true that ClickBank is a good start, but I personally only a few products on it, which was actually worth to sell - there are a few gems here-and-there. However, I strongly agree with you about making money from returning customers, the worst mistake someone can make in this business is to loose your customers. Anyway, thanks for sharing your expertise! Regards Sefi
Webperc
March 8, 2011 at 8:52 pm
Hamlet, How about doing a followup story on your buddies at Trend Revenue.
kingsley
March 24, 2011 at 11:33 pm
This really motivated me to continue the fight to make it bigger in affiliate marketing. I am currently on $10000 yearly, i hope to reach $20,000 yearly before the end of 2012.
Yeshua
November 22, 2011 at 3:12 pm
Would love to see a follow-up post on the topic of how affiliate marketers can build their own brand instead of the merchant's brand. Looks like TrendRevenue.com 'had' some good ideas.
darren tatch
May 26, 2012 at 6:43 am
what ever happened to these guys they disappeared one day and went out of business owing me money in commissions. Scumbags