clickbank or wealthy affiliate head to headThere are a million and one ways to make money online, but as a new internet marketer it can be extremely difficult to know where to start, since there are so many different approaches out there.

In this post I’ll show you a side by side glimpse of Wealthy Affiliate vs. Clickbank, two of the most popular platforms out there for making money online.

To begin, we’ll look at what’s included with each program, and then look at how to decide which one is right for you.

Two Platforms, Two Philosophies

The first thing to understand about these programs is that each provides completely different options for making money online.

Wealthy Affiliate is my top recommendation for an affiliate training course (read more on this here), while Clickbank provides a platform for product owners. Their course teaches you how to develop a product, and is a resource for affiliate marketers looking for digital products to promote.

The Wealthy Affiliate Approach

wealthy affiliate logoFirst, let’s look in a little more detail about the Wealthy Affiliate approach.

This platform is designed to teach you the fundamental skills necessary to become a successful internet marketer.

The program starts from the beginning, so even if you’ve never had a blog or website before, you’ll be able to follow the instructions and have your own site live before the end of the first course.

The courses teach you not only the basics of affiliate marketing, but how affiliate marketing fits into the online ecosystem. In the process, you learn key skills that will help you market any product online: niche and keyword research, industry competition, content marketing, social media marketing, paid advertising, etc.

Each lesson ends with suggestions for steps you should take to implement your new knowledge and augment your business. There’s also a great community available to help in case you run into any problems.

The Clickbank Approach

clickbank vs wealthy affiliateClickbank takes a different approach. Their focus is on teaching you how to build your own product, not on how to market that product.

You’ll cover topics like how to choose a topic and refine a product idea, and how to get that product setup with their affiliate network.

Surprisingly, the course doesn’t cover some of the other basics of online marketing. Because you’re starting from scratch, that means that it’s unlikely you’ll be able to make any significant progress selling your product, because you’ve just built the product, not the audience and user base to market the product to.

The biggest downside of the Clickbank University platform, however, is their pricing model, which has a number of fairly hefty upsells:

clickbank university pricing model

Wealthy Affiliate vs. Clickbank: Which Is Better?

To be honest, these two programs are more difficult to compare than some of the other options, because they are both completely different. I’d even hesitate to call them competitors.

Instead, the question really becomes about which direction you want to take with your internet marketing business: should you build a product first, or an audience?

Pros and Cons of the Product Mindset

If you decide to build a product right out of the gate, then Clickbank University can be a good choice. They offer you easy website building tools, though to be honest I personally find the Clickbank website tools limited, and you can do anything they offer just as easily with free WordPress plugins.

The other main benefit is the immediate access to their affiliate network. If you’re interested in promoting a product, this can be a huge boost to get you out of the gate. But, Clickbank’s system isn’t as rosy as it seems. There are very few ways to promote your new product to affiliates, which means that even though they include the tracking tools, finding affiliate partners isn’t always easy.

Additionally, you’ll have to battle a lot of bias that exists against Clickbank. Many affiliates view it as a source for low quality products, one page offers, and scams. Finding truly great programs is like looking for a needle in the haystack.

So, while the allure of having a product that other marketers will sell for you is appealing, the reality is that it’s not an easy road to follow starting out.

Pros and Cons of the Affiliate Mindset

The Wealthy Affiliate training, on the other hand, teaches you how to be a successful marketer.

Their courses run the gamut of the major internet marketing channels, and include information on SEO, content marketing, social media marketing, and paid advertising and PPC campaigns.

This means that if you opt for this route, you’re going to be getting a well-rounded education that will serve as the foundation for building a success, long term business online.

While all of the information presented is done within the context of affiliate marketing, it’s applicable to marketing a wide range of online products.

This means that you’ll develop the knowledge and skill set to build an audience first. Then, when the time is right, you can turn to developing your own product if you want, and you’ll already have access to your seed group to promote it to, and even to find your own affiliates to work for you.

Conclusion: Should You Buy Clickbank or Wealthy Affiliate?

If you break down the details, even though the two programs aren’t direct competitors, it’s clear that the value and quality of the program provided by Wealthy Affiliate far outweighs that of Clickbank University.

So, if you’re looking to start your internet marketing career off on the right foot, you can get access to the free Wealthy Affiliate starter course by signing up below. I’ll send you access to their platform, and you’ll get my free companion course that will walk you through those crucial early days.