Is This an Affiliate Program that Guarantees You DON'T Get Paid?

[JustaWizard]

So, I'm looking around on ClickBank - checking some pitch pages... almost all of them have squeezes either as a popover or inline...

...doesn't that mean the ONLY way you'd get an affiliate sale is if the buyer purchases off of the pitch page right then?--

In other words, if they get into the email capture and start receiving an autoresponder string of messages, doesn't that pretty much guarantee that when they click thru the email message or download they get for signing onto the autoresponder that you are cut out of getting a commission??

Thanks!
David

[williamrs]

I think it's not this way. Clickbank sets a cookie to guarantee that the affiliate will actually get paid. I'm not sure, but I think that this cookie lasts for at least 30 days. So the only way you can lose your commission is if the customer deletes the cookie.

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by williamrs

I think it's not this way. Clickbank sets a cookie to guarantee that the affiliate will actually get paid. I'm not sure, but I think that this cookie lasts for at least 30 days. So the only way you can lose your commission is if the customer deletes the cookie.

I think it is very often this way.

Clickbank sets a cookie, and it's a 60-day cookie, but it doesn't guarantee that the affiliate will actually get paid at all.

There's a big number of different reasons why the affiliate might not get paid.

Perhaps the most common one is that if the vendor has an opt-in (or an exit pop-up opt-in, or whatever) on the sales page, then the potential customer found with the affiliate's time, effort, energy, skills and money is entirely in the hands of the vendor and his autoresponder sequence. If those emails include any affiliate-links to the product at all, they'll overwrite the affiliate' links, because the "most recent affiliate" is the one who earns the affiliate commission.

This is why so many of us won't become affiliates for any Clickbank products that have a vendor's opt-in. You can't tell what can happen. In theory, you can opt in yourself, follow the vendor's email sequence for 60 days (cookie-duration) and check for yourself, but who wants to have to do that when there are other products without "sales page leaks"?!

And of course, even if you do all that, you still don't know if that will ever change in future, or if just some of the vendor's emails will play these tricks which Clickbank allows.

From the affiliate's perspective, it's far better to have the opt-in on the affiliate's pre-sell page, of course. And for the affiliate to follow-up his own leads. This maximises, rather than minimises, the affiliate's chances of earning a commission on an eventual sale.

There are also other ways you can not get paid. If people use anti-spyware software of various types. If they delete cookies. If (as is often the case) Clickbank just has its "affiliate tracking problems". And so on.

As some vendor Warriors have been pointing out recently, even honest vendors not stealing any of their affiliates' leads can run their businesses on the principle that if they offer 75% commission, it will work out overall that they're paying something like 55% commission (some vendors say 50%), because of the proportion of affiliate sales made by affiliates but not actually accredited to affiliates simply because of Clickbank's inefficient affiliate-tracking.

Originally Posted by williamrs

So the only way you can lose your commission is if the customer deletes the cookie.

This is very far indeed from being accurate!

The point made by the OP is quite correct - this is a huge issue.

Originally Posted by JustaWizard

So, I'm looking around on ClickBank - checking some pitch pages... almost all of them have squeezes either as a popover or inline...

Many professional affiliate Warriors would tell you not to touch those. I certainly don't. We've discussed this a lot here over the last 4 or 5 weeks - in many threads, many affiliates explain their reasons for not doing so.

Fortunately, "almost all" is a considerable exaggeration - there are others without this problem!

[grumpyjacksa]

well.....

that's not quite a watertight guarantee.....

the best one is still from the one with the adsense ads on it.....

jjust my 0.02c

pj

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by grumpyjacksa

the best one is still from the one with the adsense ads on it.....

LOL - I'd forgotten about that one!

[InternetMarketingIQ]

And then they sell a different product to the backend. Lots of scams out there.

[JustaWizard]

@ Alexa - thank you for your very detailed and informative reply! I suppose I should have chosen my words more carefully when I said "almost all" pitch pages have an autoresponder squeeze - I was looking in a particular niche and of the perhaps 7-8 I looked at in actuality they all did indeed have a squeeze, but I'm sure there must be plenty in other niches without a squeeze.

Moreover, you have touched on a number of issues I wish we could discuss more - not the least of which is:

>>>From the affiliate's perspective, it's far better to have the opt-in on the affiliate's pre-sell page, of course. And for the affiliate to follow-up his own leads. This maximises, rather than minimises, the affiliate's chances of earning a commission on an eventual sale.<<<

I need to re-read your email several times because there are really a few gems in there, and I'm sure I have questions....

Thank again for your very thoughtful and insightful reply.

Best,
David

[rondo]

David you should opt-in and see how the seller does it. Follow-ups from honest sellers can increase your commissions, not cut you out.


Andrew

[JustaWizard]

Originally Posted by grumpyjacksa

well.....

that's not quite a watertight guarantee.....

the best one is still from the one with the adsense ads on it.....

jjust my 0.02c

pj

I don't understand what you're saying, could you kindly clarify?
Thanks!
David

[JustaWizard]

Originally Posted by rondo

David you should opt-in and see how the seller does it. Follow-ups from honest sellers can increase your commissions, not cut you out.

Andrew

Thanks Andrew - but how is that possible when the link in the seller's email will not be my affiliate link??

Thanks!
David

[rondo]

Originally Posted by JustaWizard

Thanks Andrew - but how is that possible when the link in the seller's email will not be my affiliate link??

Thanks!
David

If it's a plain link to the salespage the 60 day cookie will remember your referal.

[JustaWizard]

Originally Posted by rondo

If it's a plain link to the salespage the 60 day cookie will remember your referal.

Aha! Thanks!

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by rondo

If it's a plain link to the salespage the 60 day cookie will remember your referal.

And if all your potential future customers also get the same plain link from the vendor every single time, then you may not have too much to worry about. But (a) it takes 60 days to learn that, and (b) there's no way of knowing reliably what other people will receive in future anyway, and (c) there are plenty of other products to choose from that don't give rise to any of these problems in the first place.

And, of course, let's not forget (d) that sending your own autoresponder sequence instead refreshes your affiliate cookie each time, effectively prolonging the 60 days as well as protecting you to some extent against antispyware clearance, cookie deletion and so on.