If you have used affiliate marketing for a few years now, you’ve probably heard of ClickBank. It used to be this less reliable network (especially when compared to the likes of ShareASale or Impact, for example) where people could find all sorts of dubious products such as courses and other digital extras.
Well, these days ClickBank is a lot better and there’s even a separate part of the platform called Spark.
This is not a service like the old ClickBank University you might have been acquainted with, so we thought we’d make a separate review of it so that you might know what you have to gain by joining it or by recommending it to other people.
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Spark Affiliate Program Review
What is Spark by ClickBank?
Before we describe what Spark is, let’s see for a bit what ClickBank is. It can be defined as an affiliate network, so you can join it and access several different programs from a single place, but the majority of those available are not in the actual physical product niche.
For something like that, you’d have to go to places such as Rakuten or Impact Radius, two other platforms that we have reviewed.
ClickBank used to have some courses designed by the company itself and their topics ranged from affiliate marketing to other ways of making money online. Now, they’ve developed a somewhat separate e-learning platform by the name of Spark and it is also geared toward people who want to learn as much as possible about affiliate marketing.
There are some stats that speak for themselves when it comes to Spark, such as the fact that Spark students have earned close to 3 million dollars with ClickBank or that there are more than 15,000 VIP community members on Spark.
So the main difference between Spark itself and what ClickBank had to offer was something called ClickBank University (CBU). This online education service had more or less mixed reviews, and it was for two reasons – the reputation that ClickBank used to have in a nutshell and the fact that it wasn’t managed by the brand itself, so they outsourced its creation and handling to a separate company.
Is Spark by ClickBank Legit?
So, is ClickBank Spark worth it? First of all, you should know that it doesn’t cost as much as other online educational services, which can be a good thing if you are recommending it to an audience that’s unwilling to spend the big bucks to learn about digital marketing.
While some of the reviews acquired by Spark over time seem to be mixed, we would say that it is mostly designed for complete newbies. And even though there are a plethora of experts that they have hired, the courses still better address the needs of people who are just starting out their adventure with making money online.
Spark by ClickBank cost
If you’re wondering how much affiliate Spark training costs, here are some things you should know. The courses can be bought individually and depending on what materials they contain, they are priced differently.
But there’s also the option of your audience choosing actual plans, and these tend to be a little more generous as they offer access to several different courses.
For example, the Side Hustle Courses cost $37 a pop while the Career Starter Courses can set one back as much as $87 per month. The Side Hustle Community feature is available for $23 per month and the Career Starter Community perks have the same price.
The tools, whether they be for side hustles or for career building, have the same price that we have mentioned for the first courses.
On the other hand, the plans basically offer discounts because they come with access to courses and community features for a subscription that’s usually lower than the value of the individual educational materials.
The Side Hustle plan is billed at $47 per month (normally, the price is $97 per month) and it comes with access to the Side Hustle Courses, the Side Hustle Community, and the Side Hustle Tools.
The Career Starter plan costs $97 (normally $197) per month and offers access to all of the courses, community features, and tools that we have mentioned, with the exception of the VIP coaching and mentorship group.
Finally, the Super Affiliate plan is the most expensive one currently sold by Spark by ClickBank and it is priced at $1,997 for a whole year (be aware that the normal price is $8,568 so that is a significant sale). This one comes with absolutely all of the perks, including access to the VIP community. If somebody chooses this plan, not only are you going to get a better commission, but they also get individual mentorship by the course creators and other professionals that teach them what to do in one-on-one sessions.
How to become a Spark affiliate
You do not become a Spark affiliate directly – in this case, you need to sign up for an account with ClickBank to be able to access any affiliate marketing perks.
And the information we found until now suggests that there isn’t even a separate program per se – you will have to do your own investigating to find out whether or not recommending these courses actually makes you any money or not.
If you are a complete beginner when it comes to this, we suggest trying out the most basic subscription first, especially since it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg and only then switching to ClickBank and applying the knowledge you’ve acquired in affiliate marketing.
In terms of what you can make by being a ClickBank affiliate, some of the programs have commission rates that go up to $150 per sale.
To join the network, you simply have to fill out a form with how you want to use the platform per se, how you’ve heard of it, your number of followers, and other data that the company needs in the same vein. So, there are no surprises in this respect – and there are a lot of other platforms that require you to provide much more information off the bat.
Payment methods
There are four main options when it comes to receiving your earnings, no matter what ClickBank product you’ve managed to sell in the past. The first thing is that you need to fill in your personal info and provide your bank details.
Even if you opt for the cheque payment method, the company still needs to know the country you are based in, for example, at least for income tax purposes if not for anything else.
Besides the cheque that we have already mentioned, the other payment options available right now are direct deposit, wire transfer, and Payoneer. As you might have noticed, there’s no PayPal to be found anywhere, but there are other networks that don’t work with the service (including ShareASale).
Spark profit affiliate alternatives
Coursera
There is a pretty good reason why we noted this one as the first alternative to Spark. It is one of the most massive platforms for online education in the world and it was designed by professionals at Stanford University, so all the courses you’ll find here are checked and vetted by actual teachers.
As an affiliate, you can earn anything between 10% to 45% depending on the exact products that your referrals pick from the site. The 10% one is for the Coursera Plus program, the 20% rate is for guided projects, while the 45% commission you can expect to receive for courses and degrees.
The cookie lasts for 30 days, so there are no surprises in that respect.
Read our review of the Coursera affiliate program here.
Smart Marketer
As its name already suggests, Smart Marketer is designed for people who want to learn all the works of digital marketing and online shopping and how they can make some side income sources, too. It is a good alternative to the Spark networks affiliate program because of the niche.
The nice thing is that the courses have costs ranging from $1,500 and your commission rate as an affiliate for Smart Marketer is up to 30%. Therefore, you can at least make something out of the percentage.
From the information that we have gathered, it seems like the cookie duration for this program is 60 days instead of the 30 of most other programs. Apparently, it is self-managed and in order to get your application considered, you need to fill out a form on SurveyMonkey about how to you plan to market the courses and more.
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Amazing Selling Machine
This one is definitely similar to some extent to Spark by ClickBank because the educational materials found here are specifically designed for people interested in topics such as Amazon FBA, dropshipping, and some other eCommerce systems.
As an affiliate you can make up to 40% out of the value of the courses bought by your audience – and do keep in mind that the cost of some of these educational materials is higher than $1,000, so there’s pretty good money to be made.
Furthermore, the cookie lasts for two months instead of one, so that’s another reason to consider this one. This one works through Post Affiliate Pro, though, so it’s not on the same Impact Radius platform you might be used to.
Read more: ClickSEO Review
LinkedIn Learning
We wrote about LinkedIn Premium plans before and even put together an in-depth review of the service, complete with whether regular professionals should invest in LinkedIn Premium or not, but there’s also a way for you to recommend the learning platform by the same company.
Compared to some of the other programs we have mentioned, this one also works through the Impact network. There are a few differences between this one and Spark, such as the fact that LinkedIn subscriptions for the learning courses start at just $27 per month.
As an affiliate for LinkedIn Learning, you can make up to 35% out of the value of every course sold through your links. The cookie lasts for the typical 30 days that you can expect from most networks and programs. All in all, just because the brand is so well-known, we’d say that this one is worth considering.
edX
This is yet another well-known education platform where people can study anything ranging from medicine to tech and business. The cost of the courses is individual and most are priced within the range of $50 and $300 depending on the topic and level.
As an affiliate for edX, you’ll make 10% out of whatever educational materials your referrals end up purchasing through your affiliate link. The nice thing about this program is that the cookie lasts for 60 days instead of the 30 days that we’re already accustomed to from so many other opportunities.
This one works through the Impact Radius platform, an affiliate network that we have reviewed – read the review here.
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Final thoughts
So, while none of the information we have found suggests that there’s an affiliate program for Spark by ClickBank right now, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t plenty of other educational materials that you can promote through the platform.
If you would like to try out the courses for yourself, we suggest getting the basic subscription to see if they offer any value.
Once again, from all the Spark reviews we’ve gone through, they seem to be quite good for complete beginners – but maybe not so much for seasoned affiliates, especially those that have had dozens of websites in the past.
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