From Middle-Class Freelancer to 4-Time ClickBank Platinum: Shaban Ehsan’s Affiliate Success Story

One of the best parts of my job as Senior Content Strategist here at ClickBank is learning about the amazing successes of our clients. It’s inspirational to discover how people from different backgrounds and walks of life are all able to find their way to ClickBank Platinum status.

One success story I wanted to share with you is Shaban Ehsan’s. Shaban hailed from a middle class family in Lahore, Pakistan – the son of a tailor master. (He now lives in Dubai.)

After beginning his career as an assistant at a local Pakistani chain store called Nirala Sweets that sold confectionaries, Shaban embarked on a freelance designer and digital marketer that would take him to the heights of affiliate marketing success!

From Humble Beginnings

Shaban Ehsan came of age around the time that online business started to become a viable career path. He began contemplating ways to earn online after 10th class in school, but he had no idea how far this journey would take him!

His first role at Nirala Sweets in 1998 launched him into a career in graphic design and web design, where he excelled due to his diligence and determination. He was there for seven years before the time came to branch out on his own.

Shaban’s Journey to Success

Within a few years of going out on his own, Shaban had amassed a substantial clientele. His focus was on helping clients make their products and brands popular across several digital channels. These achievements motivated him to launch his own venture, 36Colors, specializing in web design and web development.

Of course, once he saw the results he was able to achieve for his clients, Shaban decided to do it for himself! For the past five years, Shaban has been deeply engaged in SEO and affiliate marketing – and he has experienced massive success as a ClickBank affiliate, officially hitting Platinum status four years in a row.

Early on as an affiliate, Shaban found success primarily through SEO (roughly 80% of his total traffic). He hired one article writer to create review-based articles for him. Back then, SEO wasn’t so challenging, but today it’s much harder – that’s why he has been flexible and shifted over to paid traffic sources, mainly Google Ads.

First Pakistani ClickBank Platinum Winner

Today, Shaban stands tall as the first Pakistani national to have received the prestigious ClickBank Platinum award for four consecutive years! That means he’s generated at least $250K in revenue on ClickBank for four years in a row.

It’s quite a journey when you consider that Shaban’s first-ever affiliate sale was also on ClickBank! He operates primarily in the health niche, but branches out wherever he finds opportunity.

Skilled in SEO, Google Ads, Bing Ads, and Facebook Ads, Shaban has demonstrated a great deal of flexibility in his affiliate promotion strategies. His biggest move has been transitioning from organic SEO to paid traffic, with Google Ads being his primary platform today.

Shaban enjoys paid search ads because they allow him to appear at the top of the search results right away, rather than waiting months to see if his organic content will rank. (And it doesn’t hurt that he’s been able to make direct contacts with the team at Google along the way!)

A Strategy for Affiliate Marketing Success

Shaban’s affiliate strategy with paid search involves meticulously checking current affiliate marketing trends and monitoring vendors who have a proven track record. Once he identifies a promising affiliate offer, he creates a landing page and starts running paid traffic through it to the offer sales page.

Shaban is always focused on return on investment (ROI) in his ad campaigns, which helps him optimize to ensure he’s always as profitable as possible.

To determine which offer is worth promoting, he’ll usually spend an initial amount that’s equal to the average offer payout. For example, if the average $/conversion for Prostadine is $125 on ClickBank, Shaban will spend up to $125 with a Google Ads campaign to test the offer’s performance.

If he gets a sale in that initial run, he can be confident that the offer is worthy of sending more traffic to. From there, he keeps running and tracking which individual states are giving him the best ROI – then, he optimizes to and runs traffic to those states only, not the whole US.

This has helped him make excellent returns from his campaigns, which he says he runs through multiple ad accounts.

Quick Tips for Aspiring Marketers

Shaban has a few important tips for affiliates who want to pursue a similar paid search strategy.

First, ensure your landing page is eye-catching and mobile-friendly, as both of these factors can significantly boost your clickthrough rate (CTR) and lead to higher conversions.

Second, Shaban suggests running multiple ad creatives for an offer. After you identify the most successful ones, double down and stop spending on the the others to maximize your returns.

Why ClickBank?

With ClickBank as his preferred affiliate platform, Shaban has been able to maximize his affiliate earnings over the years.

Shaban is a testament to the idea that as a ClickBank affiliate marketer, it doesn’t matter where you started – all that matters is working hard to get where you want to go!

Here’s what Shaban says about his experience as an affiliate on ClickBank:

“As a ClickBank affiliate marketer, I have the freedom to work from anywhere in the world, set my own schedule, and earn passive income while doing what I love.”

What’s Next for Shaban?

The future is bright for Shaban! He has achieved what so many affiliates dream of: the ability to travel anywhere and continue to scale his business. He has two kids, a daughter and a son.

His son Azaan is already good at making landing pages and hopes to be an affiliate himself one day.

As for Shaban, he is continuing to find success with Google Ads, but is starting to test out new paid sources to scale his business, including TikTok. Ultimately, he has his sights set on reaching ClickBank Diamond status, which means $5M+ per year in ClickBank affiliate sales.

We’re petty sure he can do it!

Shaban Ehsan Success Story Wrap-up

Shaban Ehsan’s journey from a middle-class family in Lahore to becoming a Platinum ClickBank affiliate is a truly inspiring success story.

His hard work, perseverance, and innovative marketing strategies have paved the way for his huge success, making him a example for aspiring affiliate marketers all over the world to follow.

Shaban’s story also emphasizes the importance of being flexible in your own affiliate marketing and online business journey. In Shaban’s case, when the SEO landscape became more challenging, he was willing to pivot to paid traffic sources like Google Ads – and in doing so, he didn’t skip even a single year as a ClickBank Platinum. More importantly, he was determined not to let any obstacle keep him from his goals.

In the end, whatever your path is, we’re confident you can reach your affiliate goals faster with ClickBank – just like Shaban Ehsan did!

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For more ClickBank client success stories, here’s my interview with Jimmy Kim, CEO of Sendlane and Platinum seller on ClickBank. And if you’re ready to level up your affiliate marketing knowledge and skills, be sure to check out Spark by ClickBank. Happy scaling!