Clickbank Explained – Affiliate & Vendor Pros and Cons
May 22nd, 2009 | 72 comments
(I am both an affiliate and a vendor with Clickbank (CB) and have been for several years. I receive payments from them twice a month, every month and have been for years, so I do have a great deal of experience dealing with the company.)
Clickbank is by far the largest marketplace for digital goods. If you’re looking for an ebook or report on any given subject, chances are you’ll find it in the clickbank marketplace. Clickbank definitely has it’s pros, but it certainly has it cons too!
This post will address both the pros and cons of using Clickbank, both as a vendor (product owner) and an affiliate.
Pros and Cons to Clickbank as a Vendor – The huge volume of affiliates who regularly monitor the marketplace is obviously the #1 benefit to Clickbank as a vendor. It IS Clickbank’s USP to vendors and without it there would be far less products at Clickbank. Clickbank also takes care of everything for you.
No need for affiliate software, no need for a payment processor, they do it all for you, which makes the entire process “seamless” and easy for the vendor.
As a vendor, there are very few cons, 3 actually. However, 2 of the 3 only apply to vendors who are selling Internet Marketing related products and although the 3rd is worse with Internet Marekting products, it’s kind of a pro AND a con.
The first 2 issues stem from one main problem — customers who have a Clickbank account can order products through their own affiliate link (hoplink.) Not only is it technically possible, Clickbank states in their TOS that it is allowed to do so as long as the account was not created for that sole purpose.
So why does that cause a problem for the vendor? It reduces your chances of super affiliates promoting your product for one. You’ll always have affiliates promoting it when it’s in the marketplace, well almost always, but many Super affiliates will pass it by because they know that they’re going to lose a good chunk of commissions.
And of course it reduces the income from your product(s) when your customers are taking an affiliate commission, even though they aren’t an affiliate.
The third issue is refunds. I said it’s a Pro and a Con because it’s obviously a good idea to make your customers happy! If someone is not pleased with your product they have a RIGHT to get their money back as far as I’m concerned.
I COMPLETELY agree with that! I’ve actually turned refunds into future sales because of how I treated refund requests! Alot of people are impressed when they’re actually treated right when requesting a refund!
However, just like issue 1 and 2, it is abused to an extent. The problem, which is a benefit too (weird isn’t it?) is that refunds are EXTREMELY easy to get with Clickbank. In other words, if you want one you get one and when you’re dealing with an ebook that basically means you get the product for free, which means anyone can get any product in Clickbank for free with the exception of software that can be locked after refunded.
I have 2 products on Clickbank right now. One – “Article Marketing Domination” has been in the marketplace for nearly 2 years now. I’ve had several big names promote that product.
All but one of them requested that I create a special page for them to bypass Clickbank They wanted the commissions they deserved and I completely understood that and set them up right away. Those few promotions resulted in multiple thousands of dollars earned by myself and the affiliates, but Clickbank was bypassed altogether!
BUT did they find my product in the Clickbank marketplace? I’m not sure, I didn’t ask although I should have. So, I may not have gotten those affiliates if it weren’t for CB, who knows.
* remember, these cons are specific to the Internet Marketing niche. They do not exist in other niches because those customers do not know about the Clickbank “loophole.”
Pros and Cons to Clickbank as an Affiliate – As an affiliate to a Clickbank Product there are several pros and one BIG con. We’ll start with the pros. It’s EASY to promote a Clickbank product. You search the marketplace and click a button where you can insert your Clickbank ID. You now have your link and you can begin to promote the product right away.
Commissions are usually VERY high. Some are as high as 75%! That’s CRAZY compared to most physical products, which are normally 10% or less. In many cases a Clickbank affiliate will earn more per sale than the actual vendor… that can be very enticing to an affiliate!
Payments are frequent and on time once you reach the threshold. But in order to TRY and prevent people from ordering through their own link, Clickbank will not pay you until you have something like 5 orders with 5 different Credit Card numbers. However, this only pisses off legitimate affiliates and doesn’t stop people from ordering through their own link.
As an affiliate the only con is what we’ve already discussed – Commission hijacking. Only one con, but it’s a BIG one! I personally will not promote a clickbank product because of it. If I REALLY like the product and I think it will REALLY help my clients I’ll request a special page for the promotion, but I won’t go through Clickbank!
I’m not alone, I know of several others with big lists who do the same thing and that’s just from the network of people I deal with. I guarantee we’re not alone!
A Workaround
As an affiliate, one way to decrease the number of customers who order through their own link (taking your earned commission) is to offer a valuable bonus to those who order through your link. Since you make it clear that they must order through your link and you verify, they will be forced to order through your hoplink if they want the bonus.
I’ve done this in the past and it certainly helped, but I still lost several commissions that I deserved as an affiliate.
What about link cloakers? A link cloaker isn’t going to help you at all with Clickbank commission theft. The customer simply needs to know whether or not the product is going through Clickbank, which they know once they reach the order form. From then all they have to do is find the product’s affiliate page and generate their hoplink.
So there you go. This turned out to be an extremely long post, which is not normal for me, but I believe I’ve gone over every one of the pros and cons of Clickbank. I hope it has helped clear up some confusion for you. In my next post I’ll be going over how to run a flexible affiliate program, including how to set up specials for your affiliates and what options you have for payment processing.
image credit: michaelmolenda
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22nd May, 2009 at 2:09 pm
Josh what a great summary of ClickBank’s pros and cons!
As both a vendor and an affiliate I appreciate all the tips I can get to best manage the more challenging aspects of ClickBank, your workarounds were really helpful, thank you.
22nd May, 2009 at 2:27 pm
Great post, Josh!
I’d really appreciate a similar article on PayDotCom. I’ve looked at it but never used it. I know Mike Filsaime started it because of many of the reasons you list here, but I don’t know how well he succeeded (or if his solutions just created new problems).
Thanks!
22nd May, 2009 at 2:27 pm
Great advice! I’m naive enough that I didn’t even think of customers buying through their own made-up affiliate links.
Wow…. that is an issue!
I’ve been selling through Clickbank for awhile, and will probably continue to do so, since so many affiliates like to sell Clickbank products.
However, I also use alternatives such as E-Junkie, and about 95% of my sales don’t come from Clickbank at all.
It looks as if most of my affiliates prefer E-Junkie, as well.
22nd May, 2009 at 2:34 pm
Dead on Josh!
If you are a vendor on clickbank, I suggest you make it clear on your affiliate resource section (you have one right…) that you are willing to put up a special order page that bypasses CB for anyone with a list of xxxx or more. This will impress and get some bigger promotions just like you say.
22nd May, 2009 at 2:34 pm
Thanks Josh for another fantastic blog. I have not been having much success with Clickbank as an affiliate. wonder if that’s the reason.
Thanks again!
22nd May, 2009 at 2:36 pm
Excellent post Josh! I know when I first started promoting products offered on clickbank was shocked to know about the 5 credit card rule. I had over $200 in commissions but I couldn’t get the money because most of the transactions were through paypal (see, more than one sale using paypal doesn’t count toward reaching 5 cards).
Eventually it all worked out, I just had to wait a lot longer.
Thanks for the good info
Joe
22nd May, 2009 at 2:36 pm
Wow, this topic seem to be a hot one as of late. Jimmy Brown just dedicated a blog post to this very same topic yesterday.
I like the way you laid out both the pros and cons and find your position of not promoting Clickbank products due to this problem very interesting.
I have a fairly new blog and am in this dilemma as well. I have tried and had success with a few IM products but am reluctant to promote them to the IM crowd because of the self discounts.
Some have argued it’s better to have a small percent of something rather than 0% of nothing
when it comes to selling IM niche clickbank products.
This argument has teeth I believe only if you have a fairly large or decent list or blog readers in the IM market and can afford to lose some to affiliate hijacking to begin with.
Unfortunately, with a small one off sale or two this is a bigger gamble for folks without a list and who don’t have bonuses available to entice or sweeten the deal.
I’m certainly not complaining and do appreciate those who present both sides of this lively, ongoing debate.
22nd May, 2009 at 2:40 pm
Josh, interesting to hear you won’t promote CB products as an affiliate. Almost every bit of info you find on making money as an affiliate talks about using CB.
Do you think most vendors would be agreeable to setting up a separate page, especially for someone who’s not a super affiliate, and for a market outside of IM (would most non IM vendors even know how to do this?)
Kris
22nd May, 2009 at 2:40 pm
Excellent info as always Josh. I intended to point you towards Jimmy Brown’s post on this topic, but I see you are there before me!
Using a link cloaker will, I feel, deter all but the more determined commission thieves, especially where the hop link isn’t shown in the URL at the top of the page after clicking the cloaked link.
Look forward to the next post where you intend to answer these problems.
22nd May, 2009 at 2:44 pm
I have never understood why CB refuses to address this. PDC takes customers away from CB every day because of the commission theft issue. It seems so easy to reduce. I don’t get it. Thanks for the great post. .
22nd May, 2009 at 2:51 pm
Hi Josh,
Clickbank has made an effort to stem commission hijacking by encoding the hop link, http://www.clickbank.com/hoplink_encoding.htm
That combined with vendors who make the effort to hide the referrer, http://www.cbcharts.com/clickbank/clickbank-redirect.pdf makes it more difficult (not impossible) for commission hijacking.
Dave
22nd May, 2009 at 2:51 pm
Josh
Clickbank have recently introduced a hoplink shield encryption system whereby the hoplink nicknames are encrypted so nobody can see them.
Not sure that it will do much good though since for some odd reason, you can take the encrypted hoplink, go to clickbank and decode it to see the nickname and all without logging into CB.
With some of my affiliate links, I use a redirect in the link itself so that it looks like a link to another page on my site (which it is). That redirect page then instantly sends the person off to the affiliate site.
As you point out, the problem is mostly in the IM markets. All my sites are non IM niche markets where most folks don’t know the first thing about hoplinks etc.
Alan
22nd May, 2009 at 2:52 pm
Well I’ve always wondered about link cloaking with regarding to CB. I purposely created an ID that wasn’t recognizable (i.e., not my name). But from what you’ve said here, looks like it doesn’t make any difference since all they need to know is that it’s a CB product. Aaargh!
22nd May, 2009 at 2:58 pm
Hey Josh, good stuff. Yeah…Clickbank. Me no like it because I don’t trust the system for payments. Many complaints from folks who have weird stuff happening (check Warrior forum). I know for a fact too that stuff I bought from a friend who had a CB product saw zero payment to him.
Weird…no idea if it’s their system or someone very smart hijacking payments, but there’s a lot of ’smoke’ around CB. I’m not saying not to use them, but if I can go around them I always will.
Cheers,
Anthony
22nd May, 2009 at 2:59 pm
The easy access to being an affiliate on CB has always been a plus for me and since I am not a vendor I have liked the fact that I could purchase from my own affiliate link if I were so inclined to do so.
But for people just starting out trying to make it in internet marketing CB erases the issue of being a newbie with no list.
CB puts everyone on the same playing field, well, sorta; but it feels like it.
You have a great blog; you’ll be on my homepage from today on. Thanks for the great information you give.
22nd May, 2009 at 3:04 pm
Doesn’t link theft usually only concern those dedicated to the IM niche? Most folks who are, say, looking for a cure for acne don’t know about the affiliate thing anyway.
But you are right, CB really needs to fix that “hole”.
Yeah the “instant” refund thing is sort of a pain but speaking as a customer too, I don’t want to wait for a refund when I didn’t decide to use the information.
Let us not forget to “do unto others…” Sure there are folks who just want to read our stuff and then get a refund. Happens at Walmart and brick and mortar business (my hubby worked at Walmart and customers always returned a lawnmower with grass still in the bag saying it didn’t work! Yeah right!)
Oh well, don’t get hung up on the “little people” of this world. There are just so many others who we can help.
Thanks again Josh – good stuff as usual!
22nd May, 2009 at 3:06 pm
@ Michelle – Glad to help. See you in the forums
@ JT – My next post will go over that. It has it’s own pros and cons obviously… I do use PDC as well and also have a good understanding of it’s workings.
@ Aisling – I haven’t used E-Junkie yet, but I’ve heard good things… will be looking into that eventually.
@ Sunshine – Yeah, I wonder who that affiliate was?
“Some have argued it’s better to have a small percent of something rather than 0% of nothing when it comes to selling IM niche clickbank products.”
That would only be true if there were only one good product online and it was a CB product. Fortunately there are many more excellent products out there for affiliates to promote, where they get 100% of the commissions they deserve.
@ Kris – I don’t think, I know. 99% of them will and do if they want their affiliate to make them money.
Outside of the IM niche this isn’t an issue, so they wouldn’t need to set up a special page or know how to do it.
@ David, Dave Wooding Alan & Mark Sierra – I’ve tested it. It seems to help a little, but VERY little. So little that it’s not even worth doing in my opinion.
@ Mark – Yep, I guess it’s because IM products are such a smart part of their overall marketplace and income that they don’t think it’s necessary. They should though!
22nd May, 2009 at 3:06 pm
I still promote the better Clickbank products for the reason stated in the other post mentioned in the comments above. If I get 10 sales but lose three due to commission theft, I’m still ahead by 7 sales.
The commission theft issue just tends to make me be more selective in what I spend my marketing time on.
Any system based on cookies can be rigged or gotten around by those with bad intentions. I am more worried about the increasing number of spyware prevention programs that are now blocking cookies.
22nd May, 2009 at 3:07 pm
Hi Josh -
Thanks for this! We’ve been using amember to manage affiliates, but it has the same drawback as pdc in that you also have to personally manage payouts :-/
Would appreciate a ‘how to’ for the payment processing of stand alone pages for super affiliates. Really really like the bookkeeping hat that CB takes care of.
Sure would be handy if CB made branding of the checkout page available to the vendor – that might help lessen the similarity of checkout pages.
I guess in the end, it’s about value adding first so people are HAPPY to be paying us. Doesn’t work across the board though does it :-/
Appreciate you,
Andrea
22nd May, 2009 at 3:07 pm
@ Cheryl – “Doesn’t link theft usually only concern those dedicated to the IM niche? ” Yep, just like I said in the post
@ Carl – True, but if that vendor would just take 10 minutes to set up another option for you, you would get 100% of the sales, which you absolutely deserve as an affiliate.
22nd May, 2009 at 3:11 pm
An interesting post Josh,
Offering an enticing bonus sounds like a good idea to encourage the sale and have the customer buy through your link.
It sounds like anyone signing up with Clickbank just to get a commission back through their affiliate ID, will have to make another four sales before they get any return? It sounds like more trouble than it’s worth for a one off purchase.
Presumably affiliate highjacking is carried out by established affiliates who have already sold at least five products, but then purchase a product they don’t intend to promote through their affiliate ID? Have I understood that correctly?
I’ve heard a lot of tales of woe lately about Clickbank, particularly in the Warrior forum.
Clickbank is on my list of things to look at in the coming weeks, so thanks again for the information.
22nd May, 2009 at 3:12 pm
Thanks for the excellent post, Josh but the comments are also really informative.
Sandra
22nd May, 2009 at 3:13 pm
Thanks for the informative post comrade.
Right now with affiliate marketing it’s kind of like six in one, half dozen in the other. Competition is growing in IM but if you’re willing to put a little extra backbone into it, it can work.
Jimmy’s post highlights this well and although I agree with your argument, getting caught up with this stuff can be unproductive or even counter productive for newbies and intermediate affiliates alike.
The bottom line is to be proactive taking into account the crap that goes on behind the scenes and making it happen anyway.
My 1/2 cent.
Cheers,
Nando
22nd May, 2009 at 3:16 pm
Is it possible to set up Clickbank on the main site and have an addition page just for PayDotcom? This way you get the exposure of CB but have the PDC option for those who want to use it?
22nd May, 2009 at 3:16 pm
I guess the main incentive here as an affiliate is to promote non IM products. Clickbank has an ever growing variety of niches to choose from.
22nd May, 2009 at 3:17 pm
Josh,
The loophole is crazy and I can’t see why CB just does not close it! Normally I use their HopAd Builder and stick it in a widget on my niche sites. I wouldn’t have any idea if someone rips off my commissions would I. Seems that could be fixed some way.
22nd May, 2009 at 3:20 pm
@ Myles – Yep, it seems like more trouble than it’s worth. Unfortunately it still happens, alot!
@ Courtney – Yep it’s a good idea too. That’s one of the options I’ll be going over in my next post.
22nd May, 2009 at 3:29 pm
I just have one question about clickbank
when I buy the activation of my product (I think it is 50$ or something) whatever,
Can I do something like split testing,
what I mean is making more than one price for the product to see which one converts more without having to pay 50$ for every split test?
Thanks Josh
22nd May, 2009 at 3:31 pm
@ Mohammed – You wouldn’t have to pay twice. You could set up a second product under the same account, which would actually be the same product with a different price. You could use Google Website Optimizer to split test.
22nd May, 2009 at 3:35 pm
A great post and thought provoking views no doubt.
For those with great product enhancing bonuses, there’s little worry and I feel they should continue to promote cb products. The newbies to this market should look to learn how to make their offers more attractive by learning how to rework plr ebooks or software to offer as a bonus.
Another point is if you have a list that you give a lot of value free, some would happily order through your link as a returned favour.
But i do market some IM cb products and try my best to offer a good complimentary bonus and that helps some what.
The main fact is I’d rather earn some money through those who dont hijack my link than not earning a thing by not taking part. Also not everyone buying IM cb products knows about link stealing so I just wage my bets.
Having your own products and sales processing system is great if you can generate enough traffic or are well known so you can still make sales.
Thanks for the post
Susan
22nd May, 2009 at 3:37 pm
WOW…. What a speedy response
Thanks so much Josh
22nd May, 2009 at 3:39 pm
Hi Josh,
Just interested to ask you about the high level JVs you mentioned. You said you didn’t send the orders thru CB so what did you use instead? Paypal? Or a dedicated merchant account?
Many thanks,
Richard
22nd May, 2009 at 3:40 pm
I guess I won’t be using clickbank anymore…..affiliates should not be allowed to purchase something from their own hoplink…..that is just like clicking on your own Adsense ads. Why do they allow this? It seems pointless to me.
22nd May, 2009 at 3:43 pm
Great post Josh,
Now I need an offer to promote. I got an email that somebody was losing up to 30% from hijacking. Anyway, thanks for the info.
Spencer
22nd May, 2009 at 3:57 pm
Josh,
One other thing about Clickbank I’d like your opinion on…
Recently I’ve read about Clickbank “shaving” sales from affiliates. In other words, if my product sells 10 times, I will only be credited with 9. I have no way of knowing that they’ve not paid me for that tenth sale.
What say you!
Cheers!
FLY NAVY!
22nd May, 2009 at 4:22 pm
From a vendors perspective there are 2 pros of people who hijack the commission to themselves.
1. The products are 75 discount. It makes it much easier to buy. Many CB affiliates will buy just because they know the dirty little trick. More sales. The vendor get the same money anyhow. If you sell a good IM products, more IM’ers will have access to the book and though like to promote and reccomend it.
2. When more pepole are buying through their own link the gravity increases and the product is much easier found in the marketplace.
And…
You can always download the torrent if you feel like
22nd May, 2009 at 4:56 pm
Great article! I loved reading the pros & cons.
Although I didn’t really care for Clickbank in the past, I’ve become a real fan. The pros seem to outweigh the cons. And, looking on the brighter side, if I find a product of high quality and worth promoting, I’m not going to miss the opportunity just because I’m afraid of losing a few commissions.
22nd May, 2009 at 5:05 pm
I am going to give you a slightly different perspective.
1. I have been known to purchase products through my own affiliate link
The reasons are many
a) I probably found out about the product weeks before it actually launched, yet I am not on the buddy lists to get offered a free sample for review – when the product launches, I am not in the position of retail customers to wait around for the best offer (the bonuses often are of more interest sometimes than the product) – I have to grab it straight away to be in a position to review.
b) I might skimp someone of $40, but I am still a confirmed buyer, and I have only asked for a refund on one product in over 4 years, plus 1 subscription cancellation after 5 months. I am a high ticket item buyer – lifetime customer value.
c) Most of the time I buy products knowing I would most likely not learn much from them personally
d) If I find something interesting to review, sure I use an affiliate link, but that is more to measure interest in the product than anything else
e) the alternative to buying with my affiliate link, is buying through someone else’s – if I buy direct, ultimately the product owner has not lost any money.
None of the affiliates have “lost” money, because to be frank most of them just email a promo and had no influence on my buying decision.
f) I know the JV Manager will still receive his percentage because he insists on a new Clickbank account for anything he deals with.
Ok now some things missing in your review
2. Clickbank support subid tracking – it is a big deal with anyone doing PPC or doing extensive list segregation.
3. There are a whole bunch of scripts that support running a private affiliate program using Clickbank, such as EasyClickmate
4. The reporting is easy to understand, export etc
5. They don’t send monthly rebilling information if a customer uses a credit card – that little nudge “yeah you are paying for this still” possibly reduces subscription duration by 25% or more
6. If you are using a 3rd party script, you have double confirmation of the sales stats
7. Deep linking – some Clickbank scripts allow for deep linking, thus for instance a link to a blog post – it is not perfect (e.g. for trackbacks or Technorati), but it does work. There are ways to make it work better.
8. How many different private affiliate programs have you joined?
9. XACH payment to many countries
10. You know if & when you are going to be paid – sure they hang onto a percentage, but if you are doing PPC, the ability to leverage cashflow is important.
22nd May, 2009 at 5:21 pm
Great points about Clickbank. As an affiliate I find that it’s very easy to promote and get payed on a regular basis. I’m still unclear on how the hijack thing works – is that from people who find a product from your CB ID and then go buy it with their own affiliate account?
I have not yet bought through my account but have been tempted so I can have the product to do a proper review.
I would not do it for all products. I’ve purchased from marketers that I trust – actually checked out the product first then cleared my cookies and gone back to that persons link and bought from them.
Do onto other as……..
There are bad apples in every bunch
22nd May, 2009 at 6:26 pm
Josh,
Is this how it is on Commission Junction and ShareaSale as well?
I need to start creating my own stuff and promoting just that!! Of course that is the ultimate goal afterall, isn’t it…
22nd May, 2009 at 6:56 pm
@ Richard – It depends on what the vendor and affiliate agree upon. This will be the subject of my next blog post, stay tuned.
@ Ray – Clickbank can still be a great service… these are just points we should be aware of in the IM niche. They allow it because they still profit from it and to fix it would mean a total rework of their system.
@ Mike – I seriously doubt that is happening. I’ve never experienced it.
@ Andy – Nothing wrong with ordering through your own link if you’re considering promoting it… I do to. I’m not saying it should NEVER happen, I’m just saying it does indeed happen. More of an FYI than anything.
Thanks for the additional points. You’re right, I missed some. To answer your questions in #8 More than I can count. At least 50 in the 6 years I’ve been in affiliate marketing… possibly more. I prefer them.
Thanks for the in-depth comment, I appreciate you stopping by.
@ Luca – Yes, that’s exactly what happens. For that reason I don’t see a problem with it at all. I’ve done it myself.
@ No, CJ doesn’t allow it and I don’t believe ShareaSale does either.
22nd May, 2009 at 6:59 pm
Great post Josh,
Do you have any suggestions on how to quickly get a new product on Clickbank out of “obscurity” and into the “spotlight”?
Ray
22nd May, 2009 at 7:07 pm
Extremely useful info Josh. Though I am an active affiliate of Clickbank, I never read such a comprehensive summary of pros/cons of being a CB Merchant/affiliate. The only opinion I have of you is that: you simply overdeliver !
Keep enlightening us with your knowledge.
22nd May, 2009 at 7:09 pm
Hey Josh,
Long time since I’ve commented and it’s a thorough post as usual. You’ve pretty much covered all the pros and cons, but it is from a very IM related perspective.
Cloaking links is extremely worthwhile IMO and I agree that once people land on a Clickbank order page they may just clear their cookies and buy through their own link.
However, that is assuming they
1) have a Clickbank account,
2) even know about affiliate marketing.
For non IM products the likelihood of this happening is slim.
There are around 100,000 CB affiliates? Pretty small in comparison with the number of potential customers cruising the web looking for information.
CB is still a good earner for me and I don’t have the clout for JV’s nor a huge PPC budget. I know they are far from perfect and by no means would I say that they are the best/only choice for IM’ers, but as you say, they always pay on time and the commissions are ridiculously high
Enjoy your holiday weekend.
Mo
22nd May, 2009 at 7:14 pm
@ Ray – Build that list!
@ Mo – Glad to see you stopping by Re: cloaking links… not worthless, but doesn’t help much. Good way to track though if your cloaker has that capability. Is that my opinion? Nope, that’s a little fact I’ve found from testing. You’re absolutely right about non IM products and I think you’ll notice I covered/stated that in this post as well
Thanks, you too. Some day we’re going to visit you in the Caymans!
22nd May, 2009 at 7:17 pm
Sure thing – don’t forget your sunscreen!
One day I promise I’ll sell a copy of AMD for you too LOL! I keep putting it out there and I know it’s a good product seems I’m a useless affiliate when it comes to your stuff.
22nd May, 2009 at 7:20 pm
@ Mo – I won’t… NO affiliate is a worthless affiliate! I appreciate the support! If you ever need anything from me just let me know!
22nd May, 2009 at 7:32 pm
The primary reason I pass most links through a tracking script is so they can be changed at a later date.
I have one affiliate program with more than 3000 syndicated links out there, that are going to change shortly.
22nd May, 2009 at 11:16 pm
Buying through your own affiliate link is useful if a review copy isn’t available. I don’t like setting up review pages on a product without actually reviewing it myself.
22nd May, 2009 at 11:36 pm
Hi Josh,
Thanks for providing a heads up on the pros and cons of using Clickbank. I’m sure that many newbies who are just now seriously looking at becoming involved with affiliate marketing will benefit from this post. Others of us who have been around for a while are more familiar with what you are pointing out.
While CB can be called out for more than a few inconsistencies with how it operates its business, still there is no one else out there who are more reliable than CB when it comes to the important matters that all of us involved in online marketing expect of a professional organization. They pay on time and and pay regularly. And, like you mentioned, many of the vendors offer over 50% commissions rates, which is what has me coming back again and again to find good products to promote.
As far as the commission hijacking issue is concerned, I mostly try to work with non-Internet Marketing products, and so far have seemed to have fairly good results.
As always, your commentators have brought up some additional good points to consider. It’s always good to be able to gather more info on a subject when the people commenting are so well informed about the subject also. Just one more plus that goes with reading your blog!
23rd May, 2009 at 1:38 am
Thanks for the insight, Josh. I’ve been an affiliate with CB for a while, and have recently considered becoming a vendor. I’ve wondered about the pros and cons, and your article makes things a little clearer for me in making a decision.
Regards,
Angie
23rd May, 2009 at 8:39 am
I honestly didn’t think that it was such a big problem that people were buying the products through their own affiliate links. But I can see why it would be. However even though you’re making less money it would still assume that you’re profiting from it just not as much, right?
24th May, 2009 at 1:38 am
I agree with your points, which is why I NEVER promote an MMO product from clikcbank. I promote health products and such to Google searchers and do very well.
AL
24th May, 2009 at 12:58 pm
Great summary and as others have noted Jimmy Brown just posted on his blog also about the same thing. Both of you have suggested using “incentives” yet according to Clickbank’s Client Contract when promoting products and I quote —
“You will not offer, suggest or imply the availability of any rebates, coupons, tickets, vouchers or similar incentives to induce or encourage the purchase of a Product.”
I find this rather confusing and would love to hear your thoughts on this… especially since Clickbank states that it will cancel any account offering incentives with loss of commissions…
Linda
24th May, 2009 at 3:00 pm
Hey Josh,
Great overview of the challenges at Clickbank. I’ve read may threads at the Warrior Forum where this has been discussed as well.
Perhaps you can give the names of other reputable sites like CB that we can investigate as options…..
Thanks
Greg
24th May, 2009 at 3:25 pm
Re. Linda’s point – those seem like ‘discounting incentives’ which would devalue the price point vs. offering a value added incentive/bonus.
Seems like that would stay in the spirit of the ‘let’s all make money and retail sales’ idea.
Maybe?
Andrea
24th May, 2009 at 3:59 pm
Linda those are price incentives.
Affiliates frequently break the Clickbank terms of service by offering some form of cashback after a qualifying period.
This isn’t exclusive to Clickbank, many private programs also police this extensively, because it effectively devalues the product in the marketplace.
They also have specific terms when offering other incentives on the wording of the bonus offers, responsibility etc.
24th May, 2009 at 4:34 pm
RE Andrea and Andy… you may be right and that does sound right, altho I do find the Clickbank statement rather ambiguous and they could easily enforce it as they see fit as a result… the words “or similar incentives” is not clearly defined… just a thought… =)
24th May, 2009 at 4:54 pm
Previously any and all bonus offers were against the Clickbank ToS.
Affiliates however were just ignoring the rules, so eventually Clickbank offered a clarification, as otherwise it was a very specific reason why people wouldn’t use Clickbank.
Harvey Segal was the first to get the info online Nov 2006
http://www.clickbanksuccessforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=29748&sid=fad362848ff728f43d6d1642d4db82ba#29748
As to the ambiguous nature, that is legalese for you – there will always be circumstances that are not taken into account.
25th May, 2009 at 11:39 am
I’ll talk as a vendor first, it’s crazy but I get way more sales from the products I sell with paypal than those I sell with clickbank.
As an affiliate, as you said, not problems in non IM niches, since people don’t know, but if you are in the IM niche, the trick is to pile on the bonus. Usually, I give $2000 or more in Bonus value for the products I promote to my subscribers.
You want to add a lot of bonuses because many of your subscribers will buy for ONE of your bonuses.
It’s crazy, but I actually saw a customer buy the same product twice… just because he wanted to get 2 different bonuses from 2 marketers.
Bottom line: Use Bonuses.
Franck
The Body Guard Marketer
26th May, 2009 at 11:08 am
No wonder I did not make any ClickBank affiliate sales…LOL
26th May, 2009 at 12:21 pm
Most of the things in this post were familiar to me. However, as usual, I got two good ideas: 1. to offer gift, if someone order through my link and 2. to start to promote “Article Marketing Domination” through on my blog.
26th May, 2009 at 10:21 pm
As a CB affiliate
“Cookie stuff” the product you promote, link cloaking won’t help without offering bonuses.
As a CB vendor – from my experience you have 2 choices to avoid those freebieseekers-without-reason
1.) Yes, switch to Paypal or whatever
2.) Offer them additional Very valuable bonuses which will be delivered Only if they stay your customer. I have it setup as an automatic 8 weeks delivery.
And guys, don’t kid yourself! It is NOT only IM products you get screwed by customers. I am in the very – supposedly – computer-illiterate market, yes I still get these refunds I Know they are scams. – Like 20 minutes After purchase they ask for a refund? and I see they Did download everything? However How could they read 6-7 ebooks and watch over 80 mins of videos in 20 minutes can anybody explain to me…?
These days it seems even the aunt Milly Knows how to get things for free on the Net!
They wouldn’t dare to do it offline
27th May, 2009 at 3:13 am
I only promote one internet marketing offer from Clickbank because I really believe in it. So I’ll live with people buying it with their own hoplink.
As for other products I enjoy promoting them because of the high commissions and fewer people bypassing my commissions.
28th May, 2009 at 6:11 pm
Josh,
we all are seeking for best-sellers, also from CB-products. Does CB list products in different categories along their sales-results. That would help a lot.
30th May, 2009 at 9:17 am
Andy Beard,
Thanks. I appreciate your post. But:
9. XACH payment to many countries
Isn’t XACH something that only US banks support? Unfortunately, Clickbank doesn’t support a lot of the countries, they support less than some other affiliate programs. Many people need to lie to use Clickbank as affiliates.
2. Clickbank support subid tracking – it is a big deal with anyone doing PPC or doing extensive list segregation
I think every payment processor and affiliate network supports the equivalent of that.
30th May, 2009 at 2:23 pm
What about clickbank vendors who receive traffic from your affiliate link only to request an email address from your traffic in exchange for a free chapter from their click bank product.
Once they sign up, the vendor sends email promotions and if they bite, they are sent to a non clickbank page and you get no commissions.
30th May, 2009 at 9:38 pm
@milan
I use XACH in the UK and I believe they support most of Europe – I need to check whether they will support Poland for my wife’s account
With subids, it is a shame but no
I don’t think PayDotCom supports it
Infusionsoft does, even on the fly if you know what you are doing, but you can’t easily export the data into anything, and there are often bugs in the data in sales allocation to a subid
1shopping cart doesn’t support it
I haven’t used eJunkie other than glance around, but last time I looked if they had support it wasn’t obvious.
There are plenty of other solutions which also don’t support it.
For me those are the major platforms for Digital products.
Saving grace for 1shoppingcart is that it supports deep linking even on the fly, though it is impossible to track effectively.
2nd June, 2009 at 7:39 am
I have never tried clickbank before because of this reason and although I have heard good things about them my aim is to make money with affiliate programs not do all the hard work for someone else. I think it can be hard to find a good affiliate network but with reviews like this it definately makes it easier.
2nd June, 2009 at 3:36 pm
It sounds rather complicated to someone like me, who has only done blogging and Google ads, but it also sounds intriguing. I think it might be worth trying. Pot Pie Girl also seems to do well with Clickbank, so that’s two votes.
2nd June, 2009 at 3:42 pm
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7th June, 2009 at 4:27 pm
Fantastic post. Id never thought of asking the vendor to set up another page. Useful info, Cheers