ClickBank and the State of the Economy

There are many measures as to the state of the US and the Global economy. Financial measures, opinion polls, economic measures... statistics and analysis are published almost daily now. And this obsession with how the economy is behaving and how people think about the economy is, itself, a good indication that something is really wrong.

The sharply-rising cost of gas, food and power means that almost every one is feeling the pinch and the general economic downturn means a pervasive gloom that has most people tightening their belts.

Over the past few weeks I've been examining a rather unusual source of information about the state of the economy. What I've been looking at is the ClickBank marketplace. Now, ClickBank is the largest marketplace of products that are available for electronic download. ClickBank themselves effectively act as brokers putting the creators of the products in contact with affiliates who will promote and market their products on the web.

There are over 10 000 products in the ClickBank marketplace covering just about every topic imaginable (you can browse the entire ClickBank maketplace here). ClickBank orders their products in categories and the products are ranked in terms of how well they sell. Typically, the best selling products are all clustered in the Internet Marketing and Make Money On-line categories. This is hardly surprising, as this is the most competitive area of marketing, with the most affiliates and 'super affiliates'. In fact, if you want to make any money as an affiliate selling electronic products this is the one section of the market you should avoid at all costs... there's simply too much competition.

Which brings us back to my analysis of the products sold through ClickBank... Over the past few weeks there's been a very dramatic change to the new products climbing to the top spots. No longer does the internet marketing niche dominate. Indeed, the following niches are the ones now making the most waves:


Run your car on water (conversion kits to increase your mileage with hydrogen)
Make your own electricity (how to 'live off the grid' by generating your own power)
Electric car conversion (how to convert your gas car to run on electricity)
Weight loss
Make Money with ForEx (How to use Foreign Exchange trades to make money)

These all represent the 'movers and shakers', those products and product categories that have climbed into ClickBank's top 10 during the past two weeks. Now this is a truly fascinatin phenomenon. After all, the majority of affiliates are promoting products in the 'Internat Marketing' niche. In terms of sheer marketing effort other products simply shouldn't get a look-in. But it's products relating to the pocket of ordinary people which are climbing the ClickBank rankings.

The ClickBank marketplace is being skewed by economics. People are actively looking for products that will have a direct impact on their pocketbook. And it's the high prices of gasoline and energy that are directly affecting people and it's solutions to these problems that they're actively seeking.

The rise in the purchase of ForEx products isn't so surprising either, given the volatility of the money markets. If you know what you're doing and have some seed capital then it's an opportunity to make some money. What is surprising is the rise in the popularity of diet and weight loss products. Part of this may be down to economics. If you eat less, you spend less, but part of it may be a re-focusing of efforts on self rather than buying things for the house. If you're fitter and healthier then you will be happier... So it may be a symptom of economic gloom.

As you can see, the changes in peoples' buying practices can reveal a lot about what people think, how they behave and what they believe the economic outlook to be!

If you want a deeper insight about what's hot in ClickBank and the details of the current movers and shakers then you should visit the ClickBank Marketplace Digest.