Becoming a Top ClickBank Vendor: An Interview with Chris Fox
by Ashley Adamson, Account Specialist

Chris Fox, the President of WebSeeds Inc., has an extremely unique story within the ClickBank community. He created his first ClickBank account in December of 2007, and had his first product launch in January of 2008. By the time 2009 rolled around, he was in the top 1% of ClickBank vendors.

How does one rise to the top so quickly? I thought I'd have a chat with him to get to the bottom of his phenomenal growth.

One has to wonder, how does a client go from nothing to the top within a single year?

For me, it took a lot of hard work in the right areas. Early on I realized the importance of having high conversion rates. It's hard enough to attract affiliates, so when you have a new affiliate promoting your product you want to make sure they're successful. Our team is completely obsessed with split-testing. We need to ensure that if an affiliate promotes us over a competing product they'll experience an immediate improvement in profit.

Before you created your account with ClickBank, what were you doing?

Before I started with ClickBank, I was working for a small company selling eLearning services. We had a hard time attracting new clients so I spent the last couple of years there learning about direct marketing. I was so amazed by the flood of targeted prospects, I decided to quit and try things on my own.

Had you ever sold your own digital product before?

No.

What made you decide to pursue this venture?

Ever since my experience with that previous company, I've been fascinated by direct marketing. So when I started looking at what type of product I wanted to get into, it was instantly clear that digital products were the way to go. Digital products allow you to scale your business without having to jump through all the hoops that physical products require and have an infinitely lower start up cost.

How did you get started?

When I first began with this venture, I knew next to nothing about selling products through ClickBank. The few things that I did try completely failed. That was about the time I start attending seminars and watching DVD's about Internet Marketing.

The best piece of advice I could give to people would be to learn from those that are already successful in what you want to do. This applies to both vendors and affiliates, or anyone who is trying something they've never done before.

Why did you choose ClickBank?

ClickBank was the right choice for me. The set up process was extremely easy, plus, your network includes over 100,000 affiliates. This gives vendors the best possible chance to make money selling digital products online.

What were the biggest difficulties that you faced?

I think the hardest part of creating a successful product is the sales page, specifically the sales copy. Writing good copy is an art that few people are good at. This was by far the hardest skill to learn.

How did you overcome those obstacles?

As with everything in life, you just have to keep trying new things and learning from your mistakes. I think most people fail because they give up too early. You have to push through the difficulties and keep trying even when it seems like nothing works.

Do you use any particular tools, services, or software you use to assist your work?

We use at lot of different tools at WebSeeds to help us create and promote products. It's taken a long time for us to create our "secret" WebSeeds process that ensures repeatable product launch success.

How many products do you currently have on market today?

We currently have 5 different products available for affiliates to promote, with a few more in the final stages of testing. Our policy is to go through this process for every product that we sell to make sure that the site meets our quality and conversion standards. There are also a lot more exciting new products coming this summer.

What methods have you used in obtaining affiliates?

When we first began selling products, we didn't make a huge effort to try to recruit affiliates. Our priority instead was to have the best quality sales page and product that we could produce.

In retrospect, I think that this did a lot for building our affiliate network. We know that when affiliates have given our products a shot, they've found them to convert at a higher rate. Now we try to provide as many tools and marketing materials as possible to make getting started with us as easy as possible.

What sort of services do you provide to continue to grow your affiliate network?

We value our affiliates. We understand that every extra dollar affiliates make, the more they can invest in advertising our products. We like to reward their efforts with extra bonuses and promotions, on top of the commission they receive from ClickBank.

Chris Fox is a successful ClickBank vendor. Go to www.WebSeeds.com/aff to learn more about his affiliate program.