In this transcript from Episode 036, Mark covers the corn sheller site's remarkable traffic recovery, answers listener questions about mixing affiliate products with your own products, discusses forum implementation strategies, and shares practical advice about the Clickbank marketplace.
What You'll Learn in This Episode
- How the corn sheller site recovered from a Penguin hit and achieved record traffic
- Whether you can sell affiliate products alongside your own products
- When to add a forum to your website (and when not to)
- Three advantages and one disadvantage of the Clickbank marketplace
- The single best way to do affiliate marketing
Episode Summary
Corn Sheller Site Recovery
The corn sheller site came back from a Penguin-related traffic decline. Mark used Josh Spaulding's Deep Linker Pro 2.0 for directory links and a Fiverr gig that used SEnuke X to create backlinks in a tiered pyramid structure. The site hit a record 300 unique visitors on September 16th and was earning approximately $40 in the first half of the month at roughly $0.10-$0.12 per click.
Mark is transparent about the ethical tension: the link building methods involve spinning content and spamming the internet. As an experiment it is fine, but as a business practice it raises questions about the kind of marketer you want to be. He acknowledges this inner conflict openly.
Should You Add a Forum to Your Site?
Listener Andrew asks about adding a forum to the corn sheller site. Mark provides a thoughtful framework:
- User-generated content is powerful. Google, Facebook, and the Warrior Forum all thrive on it.
- Start a forum only when you consistently get 10-20 comments per post, indicating enough engaged visitors.
- Forums are not passive. You must moderate spam, encourage participation, and maintain an active presence.
- For fire-and-forget niche sites, forums are a poor fit. For authority sites where you genuinely engage with the community, they can be transformative.
For implementation, Mark recommends vBulletin (paid, best functionality), PHPbb (free, available through hosting control panels), or Ning (hosted community platform).
Mixing Affiliate Products with Your Own Products
Listener Deborah, a social media coach, asks whether promoting affiliate products will conflict with selling her own products. Mark's answer centers on one principle: always do what is best for your customers.
If you are aware of products you genuinely endorse that help your clients, affiliate marketing is absolutely fine. Mark offers specific guidelines: only recommend products you have tested yourself, do not promote products your clients do not actually need, and be careful not to cannibalize future sales of your own products by promoting a competitor's similar offering right before your own launch.
The best affiliate marketing strategy: Find a product that fills a hole in your offerings, analyze what the product is missing that your customers need, and provide that missing piece as a bonus. This increases conversions, helps customers, and positions you as someone who genuinely cares about their success.
Clickbank Marketplace Tips
Listener Danny mentions Clickbank for the first time after years in affiliate marketing, prompting Mark to outline three advantages: high commissions (50-75% on digital products), built-in customer service with automatic 60-day refund policy, and reliable payment. The main disadvantage: commission theft. Savvy buyers with their own Clickbank accounts can replace your affiliate ID with theirs and claim the discount. PayDotCom and JVZoo do better jobs of protecting affiliate links.
Key Takeaways
- Always put your customer's needs first when choosing affiliate products to promote
- Find the gap between what a product offers and what customers need, then fill it as your bonus
- Forums require active engagement; do not add one to a passive income site
- Start forums only when you have consistent comment engagement (10-20 per post)
- Expect some percentage of niche sites to fail; the cost of failure is low so iterate quickly
What's Changed Since This Episode
Mark recorded this in September 2012. The affiliate and niche site landscapes have evolved dramatically.
The tiered link building approach Mark describes is largely dead. Google's subsequent algorithm updates effectively neutralized SEnuke-style link pyramids. In 2026, artificial link building at this scale would likely result in a manual penalty rather than a ranking boost.
Clickbank still exists but faces more competition. Platforms like Gumroad, Teachable, Kajabi, and Whop have fragmented the digital product marketplace. Commission structures vary widely, and modern platforms generally provide better affiliate link protection than Clickbank did in 2012.
Community platforms have replaced traditional forums. vBulletin and PHPbb have been largely supplanted by Discord, Circle, Skool, and similar platforms that offer modern UX, mobile apps, and integrated payment for paid communities.
Resources Mentioned
- Clickbank — Digital product marketplace
- Pat Flynn — Smart Passive Income
- LNIM Podcast
Related Episodes
Listen and Subscribe
Listen to Late Night Internet Marketing on Apple Podcasts or subscribe at latenightim.com/internet-marketing-podcast/. Have a question for Mark? Call the digital recorder at 214-444-8655 or drop a comment below.
