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As the economy in 2011 and internet conventions and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) rules change all around us, there is still one strong, enduring way to make an income off the net… and that is by creating a review blog. It’s also one of the easiest methods – if you know what to do, how to do it – and why you’re doing it that way.

The key to this incredibly low-cost way to start a lucrative online business lies in simplifying each step to its ultimate degree. One of the simplest ways to do this lies in focusing exclusively on ClickBank products.

You’re probably familiar with ClickBank. With over 714,000 visits per month, it’s one of the largest affiliate marketplaces. Everything is right there, in one place. No hunting around, Googling products and wondering about the reputation and deliverability of the site owner and the safety of your commission checks. Clickbank pays out commissions regularly, twice a month, like clockwork.
But, of course, you do have to know a few small but important details…

ClickBank Review Blogging Overview

Let’s take a clear look at the good, bad and ugly. We’ll go through a quick overview, then zero in on each point you need to know in more depth. But first, let’s zero in on why you shouldn’t become a ClickBank review blogger…

The Bad – It’s competitive! With thousands of products and even more affiliate marketers cruising the ClickBank marketplace like hungry raccoons, day in, day out, you’ve got a lot of competition.

The Good – I’d guesstimate about 82% of your competition are newbies. If you read this report and find out exactly what to do, you’ll jump up towards the head of the crowd – and it is an easy way to create a solid business out of shoestring finances.

A little later, we’ll uncover the secrets to choosing products with high returns – even within over-saturated niches.

Affiliate Marketing

What are you, when you make your money from ClickBank review blogging? You’re an affiliate marketer. Plain and simple.

You’re going to create sites reviewing products, memberships or services, and you’re going to present them to your list and to the public, through the search engines.

People interested in your subject will find and read your reviews. Some of them will decide to click through, and purchase the product being reviewed. When that sale is made, you make a commission. Simple as that.

But the one thing you want to concentrate on as quickly as possible is becoming an authority reviewer. We’re going to position you for that, too.

The Set Up Mechanics

You can review the products you want to promote in the pages of static websites, and in blogs. We’re going to concentrate on using a blog format. It’s easier than static site reviews by far, because it takes only minutes to add a new post – and you don’t have to use HTML or CSS.

Most people prefer WordPress as their content management system (CMS) for blog setup and maintenance – but a word of caution: Don’t host your blog on a “free” site – and particularly not at WordPress.com! Not only will you find you can’t install any tracking metrics on WordPress.com, but their rules ban blogging for the purposes of cash generation.

Blogger.com will allow limited commercial use, but you really don’t want to invest time and energy in your Blogger blog, building up a following only to discover that it has disappeared off the face of the earth, one morning! (That’s the risk you take, with free hosting where you are not ultimately in control of your site.)

Besides, if you want to be known as a fine dining establishment, for example, you wouldn’t dream of serving your gourmet meal on cheap paper plates, with paper napkins and condiments in plastic bottles, would you? Yet when you choose to use free hosting for your main review site or sites, that’s basically what you’re allowing yourself to do.

And there’s a final, far more important reason: You want your domain name to be either a strong, targeted keyword or something relating to your brand (especially if you already have a “name” and a list).

Once you’ve chosen your niche and primary keyword and registered your domain, point your name servers (if the registrar is different from your web hosting company) to your server. If you don’t know your name server addresses, ask your web host company tech support to tell you or check your “Welcome letter” from your original hosting information. The name servers will look like this:

ns1.yourwebhost.com
ns2.yourwebhost.com

Go to your cPanel, and set up a new WordPress blog through Fantastico. If you don’t know how to do this, there are a multitude of books and courses easily available, providing step-by-step video or illustrated tutorials on how to do this – you’re sure to find one that “clicks” with your preferred learning method.

Another easy alternative is to buy hosting with Reliable Webs. Their support staff will actually set up review blogs for you (but not customized – already pre-loaded) – or blank blogs, if you prefer. And if you get the business account (currently around $12.95 a month) you can host unlimited blogs in their own separate domains – and even sell them (another reason for registering a separate domain name for each blog, rather than using add-on directories.)

How Many Blogs?

Some people set up multiple blogs, often using pen names. Others have a select few blogs (or only one blog) they focus on. But the good news is… you don’t have to set up dozens of blogs.

One solid way to work towards success: Create a generic review site that allows you to review multiple products in related areas of your main niche.

For example, if your niche involves garden water fountains and decorative pools, you could register a domain based on the keyword “garden water fountains” – gardenwaterfountains.com. On that blog, you could review everything from books on water iris, low-energy pond pumps, algae-clearing chemical solutions, natural water plant management videos, “How To” manuals on creating a pond, unique garden sculpture lines and just about everything to do with garden water fountains and decorative pools.

However, if you came across a wonderful Clickbank video series on keeping chickens, you wouldn’t squeeze a review and Clickbank link right into your water garden site – you’d be better to invest the time in creating a whole new blog around chickens, livestock or self-sufficient farming.

You might also want to use a pen name, so that people searching for information on unclogging pond pumps don’t find your name linked to dozens of chicken posts, first.

If you’re really uncomfortable with the idea of pen names, you don’t have to create a whole secret identity, either – just a variation of your own name will work well. Like so…

• Stephen P. Marketer
• Steve Marketer
• S. P. Marketer
• Stevo
• Stevie P.
• S. Paul Marketer
• Stephen Paul

(NB: Also a good principle to follow when article marketing!)