I hate the name. I really hate the name. And I don’t like those Caribbean movies. In fact I nearly missed out on this opportunity because I thought this is just too gimmicky, too over-the-top, or as we say in this country, too wanky. In this Clickbank Pirate Review I will give my honest opinion on the good, the bad the ugly about this program. So the name is ugly – but, hey, I have built a bridge and got over it – enough to purchase this program, any way.

A little about me first: I have been marketing online for a couple of years. At first it was a dabble, then I really got serious over the last 18 months, and so far this year I was doing between 5 and 9k a month with Ebay Partner Network, with a keyword targeted, article based approach in a couple of profitable niches. EPN is now the Name which should never be spoken in my household as a result of their unfathomable decision to get rid of vast swathes of successful affiliates in July 2009. It is still a bit sore as that decision cost me big-time, and for such a poorly articulated reason, and no avenue for recourse. Nothing dodgy happening in my marketing methods, I assure you. Anyway, I was in the process of investigating alternative business models when the crunch came. (That reminds me, I have to get EPN off all my hubs.)

I had never been a big fan of Clickbank, so I haven’t really learned the ropes. I assumed all vendors were snake oil salesman, so I tended to stay away. I have changed my view on Clickbank now – there is certainly a raft of products that are super hyped, but as with all things, the buyer must be cautious and do the due diligence. There are some good quality products on Clickbank that I feel quite comfortable to promote.

One of the things that I have learned in affiliate marketing is that building a list and following up the list with useful information is the key to making more sales. And this is what I didn’t do very well. I never really mastered how to make squeeze pages, write enticing copy, and follow up customers with further information – in fact I probably could do it ok, it is just my time is so limited, working my normal jobs 7 days a week. I always look for the automated or outsourced method of getting the job done.

So when I finally opened up one of those follow-up emails from a list I was on about Clickbank Pirate and saw that the killer application was ready-made squeeze pages coupled with an integrated ready-made auto responder campaign, I had a closer look. I did my due diligence, and dived in headfirst into Clickbank Pirate. 

The business model is quite simple- you offer free reports on selected topics….that is all it is….providing free and useful information on selected niches, in return for an email address. The free report may be on SEO, or PC cleaning, or weight loss, or blogging or acne, or many other popular and profitable niches. The customer is provided a report that is useful, informative, well written and (partly) solves their problem. For the full solution to your problem please click here!!

I now hire Soren Jordansen and Cindy Battye to write and code my squeeze pages, write and set-out my free information product, write my auto responder messages, and manage the follow-up all the contact with customers who have landed on my pages and requested their free report

This is an amazing fully integrated system. As a full-time worker, and a full time father of four kids, I do not have the time or expertise to do all of the tasks involved is setting up a fully functional marketing system, and then replicate it over again. I do have the time and the nous to send people to the squeeze pages and the system does all the follow up. All follow up emails have your affiliate link embedded in them – so any future sales are yours! It is very, very powerful. All this for $37 a month. Unreal!

What about saturation? The program managers randomly assign 5 turn-key businesses to each member, and ensure not more than 200 people will be working on any one business. I took the platinum upgrade option for a few extra bucks and so I get 2 new turn-key programs a month. (If you are going to go in…go in hard!! Platinum has a few extra traffic generating options as well that I thought was worthwhile.)

What about traffic? They have got this covered really well, with comprehensive training on the most common methods of getting traffic to your squeeze pages, and a few incredible tools that I had not come across before. So if you don’t know how to drive traffic, then all that is explained in incredible detail in the members area.

Training. Excellent video and audio training, as well as articles and ebooks – the site is so full of this stuff you will have to AVOID accessing it all, otherwise you will not get started. My view is to work with what you know – don’t waste time learning too much – get on with doing it. But the training is excellent.

Bonuses. This is one of those programs that offer so many bonuses you will hardly get through them all. There are blogs, training options, free entry to programs and a host of useful and not so useful bonuses. The blog is really well designed and optimised for Clickbank products. However, if you are a wordpress freak like me, you will be disappointed by the lack of customisation available there. Clickbank Pirate review, gratuitous keyword placement, sorry.

My plan. I have a detailed plan that uses my strengths to take good advantage of the automation that this tool offers. A central wordpress site will be the hub that will be keyword targeted content rich and be the focus of my efforts and become an authority site. From there the 7, 9, 11 and growing squeeze pages will receive traffic. The article and Web 2.0 keyword targeted campaign will be assisted by SENuke. Quality articles will be directed to Hub, Squid, Wetpaint, Ezinearticles and blogger, all pointing to my home site and squeeze pages. All this can be done for no cost.

If you check out the first post on my Stepbystep-biz.com site, you will see a zero, zero, zero report from Clickbank up to 24^th August 2009. As time goes by, I will post screenshots of my Clickbank account, showing how this has been impacted by the Clickbank pirate review system. Check back in and see how it is going.

There is more I could go on with, but that will be the topic of future articles – after all that is my primary promotion method. Look out for more hubs on this topic.

Clickbank Pirate does not suit the internet marketer who:

• Has sufficient time to build and manage a list and all the relevant technical requirements
• Is competent at building squeeze pages
• Is an excellent copywriter
• Has an auto responder
• Has an auto responder campaign for a growing number of products
• Has the time and capacity to do it all himself.

In summary, this program is suitable for anyone who has wanted to get into internet marketing but has never known where to start – this is the turn-key solution for you. So newbies, this is very suitable.

It is also suitable for people like me who are experienced, but require a fully outsourced and integrated system for lead capture and follow up. If you are time-poor and want to build a business, this is excellent.

I said I would do the good the bad the ugly:

Good – superb high quality sales pages and follow-up system that is second to none. I do not have the capability to do this myself on this scale. The ongoing follow-up with customer is ad infinitum, and capacity to scale up is extraordinary.

Bad – un-customisable blog is the only beef, I have so far. The list is centrally managed, so you can’t get access the database, but that is what you are paying for, if you wanted your own list, then you can build your own list, and Clickbank Pirate is not for you. I am still looking for a few “bads” to give credibility to my Clickbank Pirate Review, when I find some, I will update this article.

Ugly – I don’t like the name, it demeans a high quality fully integrated Clickbank customer management and sales system. A better title would be Superb Clickbank Customer Sales, Marketing and Follow up System…..or...

Premium Integrated Responder and Automated sales Tracking Excellence …ok we’ll stick with CB Pirate!

How much can you make? I don’t want to get into outlandish claims that many others are happy to make. I honestly believe that I can do $100 a day by February 2010. I am not doing this to earn less. From there it will continue to build, as each new prospect will keep getting more information about products that may be of interested in.

The open seas for me…you never know what treasure lies beyond the horizon!!! If you want to check out some more information about Clickbank Pirate, click here.