Is This Against Clickbank Rules?

Alex

Here is my blog post on this topic

Can a ClickBank affiliate offer a bonus ? | SuperTips Blog

Harvey

Harvey, thanks a lot for that. I looked around on Clickbank, but failed to find this section!

I know you know your stuff when it comes to Clickbank, so am I right in thinking that my client can tell the angry affiliate that she is not doing anything wrong with this offer?

No, it's not. It's her product, and she can do what she wants with it.

The affiliate has a point. If you can get product X for free by purchasing product Y, why would you buy it?

Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should.

Let's do some math!

If you sell product X for $80 with a 75% commission, you get $20. So to you, that's a $20 product. That's what goes in your pocket. And when you can give away a $20 product to sell product Y - also for $80 with a 75% commission - you get $60 commission, and your economic profit is $40.

But what about your affiliate?

If you sell product X for $80 with a 75% commission, he gets $60. So to him, it's a $60 product, and when you give it away with product Y... he gets nothing.

Now let's play "what if" for a moment. Your affiliate wants his $60. How does he get it?

Well, there are two ways.

First, he can go out and tell everybody product Y sucks, and nobody should buy it. Then he can try to sell product X instead. Except this won't work, because he has to give product Y a negative value in the eye of the consumer - he has to convince them that simply having product Y will cost them money.

OR... he can just sell product Y himself, and compete with you. That's a lot easier; he just does what he's already doing, except for product Y instead of product X. And on top of that, he stops sending you traffic and leads, which makes it harder for you to compete with him.

So ultimately, if you do this, the most rational result is that you lose all your affiliates to the vendor of product Y.

But you can do it. You have every right to do it. There's no law against stupid. It's just generally inadvisable.

Alex:

We have been having issues like this come up on the forum over the last few days.

Here's my take on it: As long as you contact people who have been on the list for at least 60 days (by this time the cookie has expired) minimum, the affiliate has nothing to complain about IMHO.

If they haven't bought by now, they won't, so there is nothing wrong with salvaging the relationship by offering another product.

As long as you do what I outlined, it's totally stupid for any affiliate to complain about it.

It sounds good to me, I get emails like this all the time, Some give you the bouns frist some don`t, when I get a come on like, if you buy this I will give you this and together you will make ton`s of money, I don`t buy, it`s like a con... do this two things and in two weeks money will roll in, Ha, Ha . so much con`s and bull out there.. some member ships are wack out. But before I Go, signup for some stuff and see what it is like. take the ride with somebodys you don`t know about, ton`s of emails. I would say she is doing what is best to make money on line ( give and get )or ( get and give ) man o man, You have to be a CB Pirate, We are like Pirate`s online!!! GOOD LUCK! I need it. njguy55

Maybe there should be a system made whereby if you do a promotion like that then instead of your affiliate link going in the emails if they were reffered to the site by an affiliate then that email automatically inserts and creates a cloacked link with the affiliates clickbank id in it!

That way your customer base and affiliate base stay's happy!

Or even if instead they just get a % on all backend sales generated from your promotions which would keep everyone, even you happy!

Not sure how or if this is possible to impliment but it certainly would solve this problem!

Tom Brite

Bottom line, this may be fine with Clickbank, but it is unethical to say the least.

As an affiliate I generate leads to a product, and the vendor basically is telling these leads (that I might have spent a great deal of money in PPC ads), hey, don't buy this, I have something better you can buy. And then takes my leads and sells them something that I don't get a commission on, thus benefiting from my efforts and money to earn from, and I get left out in the cold, with an empty pocket.

It may not be stealing, but it is pretty damn close, and has the same effect. I can understand the need to try to build the list. But if you take that list and sell them something else and don't compensate me for my contribution, it is a little unethical. And the vendor is going to suffer because the affiliates will find out what is happening and desert her like rats off a sinking ship. And I don't blame them.