Serious Problem Clickbank Refunds have eaten all my commissions

[abdoue]

Hello warriors

I have tried to treat clickbank affiliate program seriously the last week

I have done all my homework from niche research to building the website to traffic (using web2.0 seo tactics)

2 days before I have made 3 sales that was pretty good for me as I'm total newbie to the clickbank game

this morning i was checking my stats I was very surprised

all the comissions was gone due to refunds

that was a little bit dissopointing!!

I'm really in need of fellow warriors?what to do to not loosing the clickbank comissions?every help is appreciated

[Chris Thompson]

FIrst, make sure you get a copy of the program you're promoting to make sure it is not a piece of junk. Then, don't conclude anything after only 3 sales. That's not enough. I admit 2 refunds out of 3 is crazy, but statistically not enough to gauge the real refund rate.

[Lindsay Brynn]

Definitely keep going to see if it was a fluke. But like Chris said, you should always buy a copy if it is something you are serious about promoting.

When I started out I was selling one of the diet products and I noticed that the refund rate was REALLY high. Some of the refunds would could out weeks later. It turned out to be a huge waste of time so I dropped promoting the product.

[yves]

It does sound like you did your homework in terms of buyers for your niche and traffic but like Chris said it could just be down to the affiliate product you have chosen. I wouldn't get defeated by this at all, in fact as a clickbank newbie you have done very well to have made sales right away, so just change your product and make sure the new one is a quality product. Try it out yourself or do research on it.

[steve39]

It could have been a fluke. Refunds just seem to have cycles like that. You can go for weeks without seeing one, and then get 3 in a day. Because you just started, you don't really know if it is a normal cycle (and you just happen to be on the bottom) or if the product is notorious for high refunds. Some niches have higher than average refunds.

Steve

[bryan85]

Never trust what is read or written online until you see it for yourself. Always try to get hold of a copy of the product you want to promote before attempting to promote it.

Why?

Because if it makes you wanna refund the damn thing, what makes you think your customers won't do the same?

Bryan

[Marhelper]

Let me guess, was it Forex or sat. tv?

[mikeyman120]

Originally Posted by Chris Thompson

FIrst, make sure you get a copy of the program you're promoting to make sure it is not a piece of junk. Then, don't conclude anything after only 3 sales. That's not enough. I admit 2 refunds out of 3 is crazy, but statistically not enough to gauge the real refund rate.

This is exactely what I would say. You need to give it a little longer before you decide. Is this product junk? is the sales page crap? Don't waste too much money on it but give it a few more sales at least before dropping it.

Mike

[32paul52]

Sometimes -its a market thing. A friend of mine does IM and niche area. IM can be as high as 40% while niche is much lower(less than 6%) but agree with above- not enough numbers to get a get a good picture.

[tommen]

Refunds always suck, but it´s a part of marketing.I try to do proper research and actually buy the product my self before I start planning a marketing campaign.Sometimes it helps, sometimes it does not.

[zapseo]

Actually, I usually do it the other way around...I get so excited about a product I've purchased that I want to promote it. John Ritz' Copywriter's Toolkit comes to mind. (I have a review of it on my blog at nextday-copy.com/blog if you're curious. But to tell you the truth...I'm always afraid he's stopped selling it...wait, he just had a b'day blowout, so I think I saw it for sale on his b'day blowout. (Maybe you can still get it from him at the b'day blowout prices....)

Live JoyFully!

Judy

PS -- yes, John is a friend. No, he did not put me up to this. No, I haven't even talked to him since I stopped hosting a free friday night chat (I think...things were a little crazy, literally, around that time...). Yes I REALLY DO love Ritz' product. And before I get accused of trying to pander to the WF to get commissions -- John does run some good sales for it from time to time (heck, check out Warrior's Plus wso tracker) -- or get on his list. I think his site is Marketing-Medic.com

[abdoue]

thank you everybody for your great response

all your helpful responses motivate me to give this money making method more time

I was schocked because the product is not one of those crappy ebooks out their it is registry cleaner software why someone ask for a refund if he didnt tried enough yet

and yes I have the soft on my pc and from my experience with computers as I am a programmer by profession I think that it is a great product

wish me good luck

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by abdoue

it is registry cleaner software why someone ask for a refund if he didnt tried enough yet

They presumably tried "enough" to discover that it didn't solve the problem for which they bought it.

One of the difficulties with this niche is that people buy the products (and sometimes entirely inappropriately, when what they have isn't a registry problem at all) for a specific problem they have. If the product doesn't solve their specific problem, however good a product it might be as a registry cleaner, then they're far more likely to ask for a refund than if it does.

[RhondaGiarraffa]

Unfortunately, there are some folks out there also that will buy product knowing they will return it.

I will agree this may have been a fluke so close together. As so many of the other Warriors have suggested, Check out the product yourself before you promote it. Make sure they have great customer service as well.

The first thing I always do before promoting anyone, is either email or call their support team. If they do not get back to me quickly, I will walk and not think twice about promoting them.

There is a lot of junk out there but there is also a lot of really good stuff as well. Sift through it and only sell what you would give to your mother or best friend with 100% confidence.

Stay Well!

Rhonda Giarraffa

[learningstuff]

Don't let the scammers who created this product make you into a scammer too. You participate in the scam when you promote the scam. I have come to realise a lot of internet marketers simply pick something that pays a high commission without verifying the quality or veracity of the product. If you're guilty of this, then please cut it out. It just makes it more difficult for the next person to make a sale because it becomes so hard to trust any product being marketed out there.

[steve39]

Just because he's getting refunds doesn't mean the vendor is a scammer.

Originally Posted by learningstuff

Don't let the scammers who created this product make you into a scammer too. You participate in the scam when you promote the scam. I have come to realise a lot of internet marketers simply pick something that pays a high commission without verifying the quality or veracity of the product. If you're guilty of this, then please cut it out. It just makes it more difficult for the next person to make a sale because it becomes so hard to trust any product being marketed out there.

[Kevin Williams]

Originally Posted by steve39

Just because he's getting refunds doesn't mean the vendor is a scammer.

I agree but I also know that almost every single piece of registry cleaning software on clickbank uses false positives to make you think you need to buy it when you don't.

[Killer Joe]

The first thing that came to my mind is that either your presell page is over selling the product, or your traffic source is not as compatible for that niche as you hoped.

Just give it more time, and monitor every stat you can get your hands on to see if you can isolate the cause if this continues.

KJ

[deanfz]

I am not the kind of guy that buys stuff he wants to promote You can simply contact the owner of the product and tell him that you are an affiliate marketer and want to review the product since you want to promote it on a review type site.

They will ask you for some details sometimes but you don't need to buy it. At least it worked for me. Just a little advice here

Greetings
D.

[abdoue]

today was a good day in sales more 4 items sold lets see what will happen tommorow

I agree with you all warriors traffic quality+presell+testing product is key i figured that since day one

*-* my traffic source is search engines for long tail keywords
*-* the presell page is a video walking thro the problem solving steps (cleaning registry)and than redirect them directly to the sales page so no hyping or overselling here also because I had to do a video i have purchased my own license of the products

I need now to see if the vendor has fast reliable customer service I understand that very well from my experience selling my own products if you ignore the new customer the first thing they think of is REFUND I hope thats not my case because i spent a lot of time and effort on the compaign

thanks for everybody who have replied

[Jason_V]

I think Alexa nailed it perfectly.

I wholeheartedly agree with her. As I myself have purchased software that claimed to do something to fix my computer and it didn't. Therefore, I asked for a refund.

The other side to that coin may be after they purchase the software they realize there are a ton of quality free register cleaners out there.

[jonhel]

A lot of those sorts of products have a bad reputation for malware/spyware etc. which may also impact the refund rate.

Jonathan

[InternetMarketingIQ]

You can calculate Click Bank refunds... they used to tell you and now they don't before you jump on board. Could be a fluke could be a junk offer with a good sales page.

I created my own spreadsheet to do this... but this is pretty much the same thing

ClickBank Refund Rate Calculator - CbHelper Portal Watch out for the never ending popup! This is not my site.

[abdoue]

Originally Posted by InternetMarketingIQ

You can calculate Click Bank refunds... they used to tell you and now they don't before you jump on board. Could be a fluke could be a junk offer with a good sales page.

I created my own spreadsheet to do this... but this is pretty much the same thing

ClickBank Refund Rate Calculator - CbHelper Portal Watch out for the never ending popup! This is not my site.

great tool bro thanks a ton

[Collette]

Here's another thought...

I once returned a piece of software because it had been written before my (latest) OS was developed. Consequently it wasn't compatible with my OS, and it turned out there was no way to get it to run.

Maybe check to see when your software was written? And if the sales letter specifically states that it's compatible with Macs AND PCs? And the latest OS as well?

If the sales letter doesn's specify, people could be buying it assuming it will be compatible. And then having to return it because it's not.

[Joseph Park]

Good for you. I was going to suggest you to change the product
if you can. But it seems to be working..

That's great! Keep up the good work.

[P.Sharma]

CB refund policy is really killing affiliate commisions. What we as affiliates can do is to see that the product we a re promoting is not BS material. Also make sure that you see the refund rate, send an email to the vendor and they will reply. 9/10 times it is accurate but some vendors are also ready to lie about the refund rates.

The best we can do is to check the material

[Jason_V]

Originally Posted by Prashant Sharma

CB refund policy is really killing affiliate commisions.

That's one way of looking at it.

I look at their refund policy as the reason why more sales are made than if it wasn't there. I, as a consumer of electronic products refuse to purchase if there's no clearly labeled money back guarantee.