This short article is a response to a question by one of the readers, Peter Davies:
I have looked at Infusion and found it to be too expensive at this point in time. Do you think 1ShoppingCart is a decent enough product or if you are a first time launcher like me would you just use ClickBank?
Well, let’s see.
I personally don’t have a lot of experience with the vendor side of ClickBank. I am going to point out a few things that would work differently for you if you were launching your product with each solution. Also keep in mind that there are many other solutions available. However, both ClickBank and 1ShoppingCart are quite popular so it’s a good idea to compare them.
There are plenty of examples of successful launches done with either one. Either solution can work for you. It will depend on the launch model you chose and on the niche you are launching in.
1. Affiliate Management
I understand you don’t have access to the list of your affiliates from within ClickBank. You can overcome that issue by using some add-on software or by forcing your partners to register on your website first before you tell them how to set up their hop link.
1ShoppingCart has a rather elaborate affiliate management module that allows you to maintain a list of affiliates, set their commission percentages, send them emails, etc.
2. Creative / Template Management
If you use ClickBank, you need to find a way to deliver the email copy, banners, and text ads to your affiliates via your own website or email autoresponder.
1ShoppingCart Affiliate Center allows your affiliate to login and get access to all your campaign creative and template with their tracking links already built in.
3. Commission Tracking
Both ClickBank and 1ShoppingCart rely on cookies for commission tracking, which may not be the most reliable method. There are affiliate tracking solutions (e.g., Nanacast, Post Affiliate Pro, etc) that use both the cookie and the IP address to make sure your affiliates get the commissions they are entitled to.
4. Cookie Prospects For All Products (Not Just The One Being Promoted)
ClickBank will only cookie the prospect for the particular product being advertised by the affiliate. If the prospect decides to buy a different product offered by the same vendor that sale will not trigger the commission for the affiliate who referred that sale.
1ShoppingCart will cookie the prospect for all your products. I think it is only fair that affiliates get paid for all the sales they generate for you (including the products they have not directly promoted to their list).
5. 2-Tier Commissions
1ShoppingCart allows you to set up two levels of commissions. The second tier is for the commission you pay to the affiliates to refer other affiliates to you. The reason you may want this in place is because now you can bring in professional joint venture brokers (like yours truly) who will then, in a short time, connect you with the list you’d otherwise have no access to.
6. Solution Cost and ROI
1ShoppingCart would cost you at least $99/month for the package that has the shopping cart and the affiliate management module. There are no per-transaction fees other than those related to your merchant account.
ClickBank is “free” when you don’t use it but you end up paying a small fee for every transaction. Depending on the volume of sales you are about to generate, ClickBank can actually turn out to be a more expensive solution.
7. Affiliate Network
1ShoppingCart allows you to manage affiliates but doesn’t help new affiliates find you.
ClickBank is one of the oldest and largest affiliate networks around. If your product converts well, you’ll have new affiliates find you on ClickBank and start selling your products without you doing any work to recruit them.
8. Affiliate Payouts
Figuring out how much you owe each affiliate and sending them checks can be quite a hassle 1ShoppingCart and ClickBank address the issue differently. In 1ShoppingCart, you have the PayPal Mass Pay function to pay your affiliates with a click of a button. In ClickBank, you don’t even have to click the button because everything is handled by ClickBank on your behalf (and that is one of their biggest selling features).
9. Market Niche
1ShoppingCart seems to be more popular in the Personal Development / Self Help niche. ClickBank is the de facto standard in Internet marketing. To help your launch go smoothly, you want to give your affiliates a tool they are familiar with.
Hope this information will help you chose the right affiliate management software for your product launch.
Good post Alex. I read your previous email about the Cookie thing, I didn’t realise it was such an issue.
In the world of many marketers promoting the same thing I imagine many cookies go astray/pmnts to the wrong people etc.
I will speak to you separately about other stuff.
Thanks v much
Pete
Peter Davies recently posted..What Is Affiliate Marketing And What Are The Real Routes To Success
Twitter: alexmakarski
August 12, 2010 at 3:01 pm #
Yes, there are a lot of tricks you can do with that little cookie. And most affiliates just have not a foggiest idea about it.
Nice Post, your comments are really helpful.
thanks a lot
Hector Jayat
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Nice post, Alex, thank you. There are so many little details that go into a product launch that you are helping out with here, and I’m sure I’ll make use of them!
Cheers,
Michaela
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Hey Alex,
Thought I’d throw in Rapid Action Profits as another option.
I used Clickbank on my first product launch and although it is a really great plug-and-play solution – I’ve found that it also has it’s limitations as well.
Over the past couple weeks I’ve been comparing InfusionSoft, Nanacast, 1ShoppingCart, and Rapid Action Profits.
And I have to say – I’ve fallen in love with the RAP Platform.
It has many of the same plug-and-play features of Clickbank but with a TON more flexibility and features.
Here’s a quick overview…
Instant Commissions Paid through PayPal – Affiliates get paid instantly through PayPal. This can be a HUGE incentive for affiliates because they don’t have to wait weeks to get paid.
Plus, because affiliates receive their commission directly from the customer you don’t have to cut affiliate checks, do mass pays, or even send out 1099′s at the end of the year.
Easy Affiliate Management – Affiliates can get signed up quickly and easily using their PayPal email. Inside the affiliate area they have full access to their stats, tracking, and plug-and-play affiliate tools.
Up to 100% Commissions – You can pay up to 100% commissions to
your JV’s and affiliates. Another HUGE incentive for attracting affiliates. You can use this to create a front-end lead machine that then funnels people into your backend.
2nd Teir Commissions – Incentivize your affiliates even further with 2nd Teir Commissions – allowing them to earn a percentage of the profits from affiliates they refer into your program.
One-Time Offers, Upsells, & Downsells – Easily build out a complete
sales funnel with related offers while your customers are in the buying mood. (Quick Note: These aren’t one-click upsells because
PayPal does not currently have true one-click upsells where the customer is automatically charged for the first sale and then moves on to customize their order. With RAP, they customize their order first and then complete the sale at the end of the process.)
Split-Testing – RAP has built-in split testing that allows you to test different versions of your sales page.
Integrates directly with your autoresponder.
Plus, the ability to broadcast email to “front-end” customers and OTO customers separately.
Affiliate Protection – All of the affiliates receive a cloaked link in order to protect their commissions.
They’ve also made it impossible for customers to purchase through
their own link – again protecting the affiliate’s commissions.
Custom Commission Rates – You can set custom commission rates for your affiliate and JV Partners. This allows you to give a higher
percentage to your top JV’s and super affiliates.
1-Year Cookie. Also, if you want to help ensure against the customer
deleting their cookies, you can capture the affiliate nickname to your autoresponder list (from the squeeze page) so that the affiliate gets cookied again, every time you send out a mailing to that list.
Affiliate gets credit for ALL of the products within your affiliate center. So if a customer buys another product, the affiliate will get credit for that sale as well. This allows affiliates to get credit on the backend. (However, keep in mind that you can also set it up to where the affiliate only gets cookied for the particular product being promoted by the affiliate. The RAP Platform allows you to choose either option.)
However, you have full control over the commission level of each
product – whether it be the main front-end product, upsell, downsell, etc…
Plus, there are a TON of add-ons available for adding a number of different features – including a Kunaki Add On, PayPal Mass Payment (If you want to pay affiliates yourself.), Membership Plus, Cookie Jar Add On (Allows your affiliates to send traffic to any page on your website and still get credit for the sale.) Dime Sales, and many others.
Price: In comparison to other sales platforms, RAP is extremely affordable with just a one-time payment of $197. Can be installed on unlimited domains.
The downsides of Rapid Action Profits include:
Only accepts PayPal payments.
Affiliates are responsible for refunding customers.
Overall though, RAP is one of the most flexible and robust sales systems of it’s kind on the market.
Plus, we now have the added benefit of RapBank.com. A digital product marketplace similar to that of Clickbank (but exclusively created for products with instant commissions). Of course, RapBank is smaller than Clickbank but it’s growing extremely quickly.
RapBank.com allows you to track any and all of your RAP Bank listed products, all from one location. Exposure to 6,900+ affiliates. Plus, with RapBank you get an extra layer of insightful tracking and statistics on all of your products and your affiliates.
Overall, the RAP platform has all of the advanced features of other popular platforms for a fraction of the price.
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Twitter: alexmakarski
October 18, 2010 at 10:20 pm #
Michaela,
Very true: There are a lot of details you need to keep track of during a product launch.
Alex
Twitter: alexmakarski
October 18, 2010 at 10:26 pm #
Hi Kim,
Thank you for this detailed review of RAP. Just for the record, I’m familiar with RAP and I had no intention of excluding it from my reviews. One of the readers asked me to compare ClickBank and 1ShoppingCart, which I did.
RAP offers a number of unique features. I’m not a big fan of handling commissions by alternating payments between the affiliate and the vendor. It’s a model that is somewhat popular in the Internet Marketing / Make Money Online niche. However, I think vendors and affiliate in other niches aren’t as familiar with it and many may (and do) think it’s sort of “weird”. Again, it has its place and works well in some niches. The refund situation is another reason I’d be hesitant to use this model.
What we all need to agree on is that there is really no one-size-fits-all solution possible. Different businesses required different affiliate management systems.
Alex
Hey Alex,
Great points!
I’ve been reviewing different shopping carts and sales systems for the past couple weeks and there are definitely pros and cons to ALL of them. I think a lot of it depends on your particular business model and how you’re wanting to run you’re business.
By the way – LOVE your blog. I’ll definitely be stopping by more often
Cheers,
Kim
Twitter: alexmakarski
November 22, 2010 at 2:16 pm #
Kim, you hit it square on the head: The reason there are so many shopping cart options available out there is because each one has something unique to offer. Your business model should be the main driver when you pick a shopping cart to build your site with. And thank you for your kind words.
-Alex
Twitter: yearn2earncash
November 28, 2010 at 4:12 pm #
I had not even heard of 1ShoppingCart until now when I read your post. In fact I had considered ClickBank to be the only viable service to use when launching a digital product, so you have taught me a thing or two! I have my own free guide to using Clickbank on my website, if its of interest to anyone still considering their options.
Twitter: jbode
February 13, 2011 at 9:53 am #
There are some good new options as well because they are extremely easy to use also they’re growing in popularity these 2 sites are digiresults and payspree
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