Clickbank is at it again!

[gcaine]

Originally Posted by bretski

What if I create a .htaccess file and do a 301 redirect to my uncloaked affiliate url? Would that work? Would the cookie still be accepted even if the end user's browser settings were still set not to accept third party cookies?

I'm just looking for solutions here. All I know is that I was on pace to be able to really get my life back together and all of the sudden sales just plummeted while traffic climbed....and I'm not talking about traffic. I'm talking about good targeted traffic.

I'd stand on my head and spit wooden nickels if that's what it takes. An afternoon creating a .htaccess file is well worth it if that might solve the problem.

Thanks in advance...perhaps there are others out there cloaking links and maybe this is what the issue is. Perhaps it's that simple and the villagers with their torches and pitchforks can go back to work here...

If you are a vendor this will hide the hoplink
<?php
$page="your sales page";


header("Location: $vender");

exit; /* Make sure that code below does not get executed when we redirect. */
?>




if you are an affiliate this will hide it in the status bar, but it will still show up in the location bar at the vendor's sale page.
<?php
$page="hoplink code";


header("Location: $vender");

exit; /* Make sure that code below does not get executed when we redirect. */
?>


A 301 redirect should work for a vendor as well, but I don't know for sure.

[gcaine]

Originally Posted by Harvey.Segal

Unfortunately, I've seen so much inaccuracy, speculation, hysteria and nonsense in this thread that I've lost the will to live.


Harvey

First I'm not getting hysterical about it, but don't you find it strange that it takes 100 order form impressions to get a sale when the customer knows up front what the price is?


Either the cookie is lost at the point of order form impression, or the customer is being prevented or discouraged from completing the sale.


Sure some people will click on the order button and change their mind, but 90% seems a bit high.


I thought about search engine spiders causing the problem, but there would be no cookie set in the first place with them so it shouldn't show up as an impression.


Another thing I had for a while is a lot of submit counts with no sales. I moved most of the hoplinks to one of my other accounts and started making sales. Once I finally got a sale I moved them back and that particular problem hasn't happened since.


I don't think Clickbank is up to anything dishonest, but I do think there is a problem somewhere in the actual sales process and they don't want to acknowledge it.


If the problem is the customer not being able to complete the purchase I'm sure they are working on it, if it's a tracking problem I'm not so sure, but it would be in their best interests to try to fix it, so they likely are.


They just refuse to make any comment at all about this other than everything is fine.

[pcpupil]

I wonder what would happen after December 1st if there was a bunch of complaints sent to the FTC.
That might waken them up.
How about a few people from each state making a complaint to the BBB or AG.
If this is such a big problem for a lot of people,might be worth checking into.
Heck,my post here will show up in google maybe,maybe they will read this and fix everything.
Im going to go check my CB stats again.
Matt

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by gcaine

I don't think Clickbank is up to anything dishonest, but I do think there is a problem somewhere in the actual sales process and they don't want to acknowledge it.

I regard that as factual, not opinion.

Originally Posted by gcaine

They just refuse to make any comment at all about this other than everything is fine.

And that, in essence, is the entire problem with Clickbank, in the sense that if it weren't so, anything else would ultimately be correctable. But these conversations have been going on for over a year to my knowledge (and probably a lot longer) without that major stumbling-block changing.

I do sympathise with Harvey's perspective here, too (and more than he realises, I suspect). Invariably, in such conversations, there is also a lot of hysteria and a lot of nonsense.

The original post of the original thread (actually it was this thread) that started off all our recent "Clickbank discussions", as on earlier occasions I've seen, was from someone who saw his own affiliate-link on the sales-page, bought the product, paid for it, got it, and wasn't credited with the affiliate commission. This happens too often. Unfortunately, all the people who join in the conversation with "general whingeing" about Clickbank without any evidence for it, are actually detracting from the concern over this scenario, not adding to it, by "devaluing the currency". There's a real problem here, and dragging in all these other, extraneous issues and accusing Clickbank of theft just conceal it, because (rightly, in my opinion) nobody will take them seriously at all and will (understandably, in my opinion) dismiss them as "hysteria and nonsense", as Harvey just has done. And that helps nobody at all.

[patchman]

I'm surprised with all the theories been throw up about how CB is ripping people off, most people doing the complaining are guys that only make 2 or 3 sales per day, this is hardly a big enough sample size to suggest that CB is doing something wrong, if you were making 500 + sales per day then it all of a sudden stopped then maybe you have a case, but you see the people that are making the "BIG" money in CB are not complaining, its just the average joes and newbies who think that 5 articles should be making them 100 + dollars a day, also having the same hops doesnt guarantee you will make the same sales per day, I have fluctuations, I can have 10 sales one day then 3 the next but I always average 30- 35 sales per week so it evens out.

I think too many people over analyze their stats and soon as an abnormality occurs there immediately think CB is doing something shady.

I don't blame CB for not responding coz all it will do is open a can of worms!!

I've always found that diversifying and constantly looking for new products to promote keeps things ticking over.

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by patchman

most people doing the complaining are guys that only make 2 or 3 sales per day, this is hardly a big enough sample size to suggest that CB is doing something wrong

A sample size of one is enough to suggest that something's wrong if it conforms to the facts set out in the original post in which the affiliate-link was shown on the order page without the affiliate being paid.

[Steven Rayne]

There is a problem, that's fact.

Now we need to be looking for a reason and solution.

[terryd]

Originally Posted by Steven Rayne

There is a problem, that's fact.

Now we need to be looking for a reason and solution.

No it's not a fact, again it's just opinion.....

Here's a solution, stop promoting clickbank products, simple!

[Steven Rayne]

Originally Posted by terryd

No it's not a fact, again it's just opinion.....

Here's a solution, stop promoting clickbank products, simple!

If someone KNOWS they should be credited...and isn't, why is it an opinion?

I don't understand

Please explain

Steven

[terryd]

Originally Posted by Steven Rayne

If someone KNOWS they should be credited...and isn't, why is it an opinion?

I don't understand

Please explain

Steven

If you have irrefutable proof then post it but the problem is that you haven't, it's just birds of a feather flocking together all complaining about clickbank.

With today's easily accessible technology it's funny how no one can even post a video of clickbank ripping them off.

There seems to be more conspiracy theories than man landing on the moon.

I for one am quite happy with clickbank dropping deposits into my bank account every week like clockwork.

[Steven Rayne]

Fair enough.

I haven't proof my self. (Not ashamed to admit it)

I have however, trusted that people wouldn't post that they have ordered through there own link and not been credited unless it were true.

Steven

[Alexa Smith]

Either it's factual, or a lot of people are confabulating for absolutely no reason at all, and the o.p. of this thread, and many others, are all liars. You decide for yourself which it is, Terry.

[terryd]

Originally Posted by Alexa Smith

Either it's factual, or a lot of people are confabulating for absolutely no reason at all, and the o.p. of this thread, and many others, are all liars. You decide for yourself which it is, Terry.

New conspiracy theories are born every day, and they are just that, conspiracies.

As I said Alexa, where is the irrefutable proof?

There is none and you know this topic has been going on for years. Yet still no one has brought irrefutable proof that clickbank is up to shady business, a simple video would have done it for me and yet nothing, nada, zilch......just more whining and bitching about clickbank.

For all I know you could all be right but as far as I can tell I've never had a problem with clickbank, however that does not mean there isn't one but I'm one of those suckers that like hard facts before I change my point of view.

I'd be quite happy to jump on the bandwagon if irrefutable proof was brought to the table if only to make clickbank even better than it is, but as of yet I haven't seen any.

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by terryd

There is none and you know this topic has been going on for years. Yet still no one has brought irrefutable proof that clickbank is up to shady business

I've never suggested that Clickbank is up to any shady business at all.

On the contrary, I'm always among the first to dismiss suggestions that they're stealing or deliberately doing anything improper or wrong at all. I just think their affiliate tracking isn't as reliable as it might be, and isn't as reliable as other people's, and their customer service sucks and they refuse ever to admit that they have a problem there.

You must have noticed (here and elsewhere) vendors saying openly that offering 75% commission there actually costs them only about 50% or 55% of affiliate sales takings because of the proportion of sales not accredited to their affiliates? Or do you think they're all making that up, too?!

[Theone24]

Originally Posted by terryd

New conspiracy theories are born every day, and they are just that, conspiracies..

Well maybe, but once upon a time the earth was flat.

Originally Posted by terryd

For all I know you could all be right but as far as I can tell I've never had a problem with clickbank, however that does not mean there isn't one but I'm one of those suckers that like hard facts before I change my point of view.

I'd be quite happy to jump on the bandwagon if irrefutable proof was brought to the table if only to make clickbank even better than it is, but as of yet I haven't seen any.

Anyone NOT have Trouble With ClickBank?

[terryd]

Originally Posted by Theone24

Well maybe, but once upon a time the earth was flat.

Exactly, and once upon a time people thought clickbank was repeatedly shafting them

Originally Posted by Theone24

Anyone NOT have Trouble With ClickBank?

Sorry haven't read the link, can't be bothered but I'll guess it's more bitching about clickbank....if there's any irrefutable proof in that thread I'll click it, let me know....otherwise I'll get back to work....

[cscarpero]

I find it really strange that the ones here complaining about their "lost" CB sales are the low volume affiliates. If it is really as bad as you guys claim it is, where is the outrage from the superaffiliates??

[Marc2008]

Originally Posted by Folusho Orokunle

In my opinion Clickbank should only be used for testing purposes. If you're making money for months with them then all of a sudden the sales stop, what should you do?

Create your own product in that market!

You'll make more money, and you'll be able to have affiliates promote your products.

I don't think any affiliate network has bullet proof tracking, but obviously Clickbank has it's share of problems.

Damn good point Orokunle!

[FaJeeb]

Originally Posted by cscarpero

I find it really strange that the ones here complaining about their "lost" CB sales are the low volume affiliates. If it is really as bad as you guys claim it is, where is the outrage from the superaffiliates??

You find it strange that someone with minimal sales volume would notice a fluctuation of decreasing sales before a super affiliate with large sales volume?

[rayray7]

I have come to believe, someone on the inside at clickbank is using sophisticated software to direct sales to other accounts. Call me paranoid but same stories from affiliates --- we are not all crazy. If it is done inside, it will be almost impossible to detect. I now concentrate on ADSENSE and i hide all my money sites deeply because of sabotage.

[zapseo]

In this VERY long thread, has anyone suggested the possibility -- rather than blaming CB -- that the problem MIGHT BE with cookie stuffers ?

Not that CB is stealing the commission, but other affiliates?

extensions and toolbars can be used to stuff cookies -- and you would never know.

In the case of the OP -- it might be interesting for him to contact the product owner and find out who got credit for the sale his father made... ?

Just a thought.

As someone who has spent a great deal of time as a troubleshooter, tracking down software problems, the most obvious "villain" often isn't. But sometimes it takes quite a bit of detective work to discover who is. I'd wager more incompetence, stuffed cookies, perturbations in the Internet of various sorts, bad software, etc -- than maliciousness on the part of CB.

Seriously -- if CB can be found to be the culprit -- they could lose their entire business. Do you honestly think it is worth it for them for a few sales? Ummmm...
Now, is it possible that there's someone within CB who is being a thief? Yah. Companies are a mixture of honest and dishonest people. Doesn't mean the company is of evil intent, itself.

Do I think there's something going on? Yah, there's been enough anecdotal evidence that suggests something is amiss.

Exactly what?

Hard to say.

Otherwise ... you might ALSO offer a bonus to the purchase, and that way, purchasers will contact you...

Live JoyFully!

Judy

[bretski]

I just spent the better part of my day uncloaking my affiliate links. If it is an issue with third party cookies not being accepted by an end user's browser then this should resolve the issue.

I know that I just pushed out IE8 domain wide at work and I think that most MS patches (for IE) might reset IE security settings (such as cookie handling etc). Patches come out the second Tuesday of every month...don't know if that coincides with anything for anyone.

I know that on CB's site they say that frames and such may screw up cookie tracking (not their words, but it's late for me here and I'm tired) so I'm wondering if the folks having issues are those that are using some sort of cloaking of their affiliate links. Plausible etc? I don't know yet...I'll see if things get back to normal for my account and I'll let you all know.

Honestly, I'm kind of annoyed with the folks who are just saying that this is just a big b1tc4 session. I may not make thousands a day or even hundreds a day but for me that little bit that I do make has been the difference between keeping my home, buying some decent food for my gut and seeing my kid. Yeah...I'll be able to see my son this Thanksgiving thanks to the little bit of change I have made this year. If you want to help troubleshoot, that's great...I would appreciate your help. If you don't want to help...well, I don't know what you're doing here then. I know that I get my rocks off by offering to help new folks that know less than I do...I honestly do. It's not all about the money for me...not even close

[bretski]

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot! I'm going to sleep...

[Rhett]

From reading other folks' posts, it sounds like this seems to be the present problem(s):

1) Individual clicks the affiliate's link to the product page.

2) While in transit or on the sales page, tracking id disappears.

3) Order is placed. Due to some type of unknown tracking error, vendor receives all possible commissions.

Established Fact(s):

-CB receives a flat cut off of every sale. As such, whether or not a vendor versus affiliate makes a sale matters little in terms of CB's profitability off of said product.

Possible Hypothesis:

1) Clickbank's current tracking system, for whatever reason, cannot handle accurate tracking of sales. Due to browser restrictions or other technical changes, significant sales are being lost.

2) Vendors are now employing semi-random scripts on their sales pages to increase their profitability, yet keep their affiliates working.

3) Our black-hat marketing friends have learned a new cookie stuffing technique/method (or what have you) to leech sales.

Sure, it's pretty out there in left field. But it's all I got at the moment.

[Havenhood]

Originally Posted by bretski

I just spent the better part of my day uncloaking my affiliate links. If it is an issue with third party cookies not being accepted by an end user's browser then this should resolve the issue.

I know that I just pushed out IE8 domain wide at work and I think that most MS patches (for IE) might reset IE security settings (such as cookie handling etc). Patches come out the second Tuesday of every month...don't know if that coincides with anything for anyone.

I know that on CB's site they say that frames and such may screw up cookie tracking (not their words, but it's late for me here and I'm tired) so I'm wondering if the folks having issues are those that are using some sort of cloaking of their affiliate links. Plausible etc? I don't know yet...I'll see if things get back to normal for my account and I'll let you all know.

Honestly, I'm kind of annoyed with the folks who are just saying that this is just a big b1tc4 session. I may not make thousands a day or even hundreds a day but for me that little bit that I do make has been the difference between keeping my home, buying some decent food for my gut and seeing my kid. Yeah...I'll be able to see my son this Thanksgiving thanks to the little bit of change I have made this year. If you want to help troubleshoot, that's great...I would appreciate your help. If you don't want to help...well, I don't know what you're doing here then. I know that I get my rocks off by offering to help new folks that know less than I do...I honestly do. It's not all about the money for me...not even close

I feel for you.

I've been trying to bring this to affiliates attention since 2006 and it hasn't been easy. This thread is the closest thing to a real discussion (about this problem) since I began.

Over the past two years things have gotten worse. Seems to coincide with the new developments at Clickbank (all the new features that have taken place over the same time frame).

[patchman]

Originally Posted by cscarpero

I find it really strange that the ones here complaining about their "lost" CB sales are the low volume affiliates. If it is really as bad as you guys claim it is, where is the outrage from the superaffiliates??

Exactly my point!!!

All this complaining and whining are from affiliates that make a low volume of sales, NOT ENOUGH OF A SAMPLE SIZE to make accusations that CB is shaving sales!!

All it takes is one affiliate to start moaning and then you get all these other losers that come in and jump on the bandwagon.

As Terryd said- WHERE IS THE PROOF!!

WHERE IS A VIDEO SHOWING THAT CB IS SHAVING SALE!!

SHOW ME!!

I've been with CB for 2 years now and they have never let me down, I have had money from in my bank consistently for 2 years.

If there is a problem then why don't we said Mike Filesame or Ewen Chia posting these threads??

[Platinum Matt]

Originally Posted by Alexa Smith

You must have noticed (here and elsewhere) vendors saying openly that offering 75% commission there actually costs them only about 50% or 55% of affiliate sales takings because of the proportion of sales not accredited to their affiliates? Or do you think they're all making that up, too?!

Sorry... but this is absolutely incorrect and might be the opinion of some... But this is NOT factual.

I pay 75% because I started as an affiliate (and I still am one), and I realize affiliates do great work, and should be paid appropriately.

I've just checked last weeks stats on one of my sites.

341 sales.

34 non-affiliate sales.

therefore it's about 10% of non-affiliate sales.

This is in line with my personal promotion expectations.

IF there's a problem, I'd like to see proof. I'll take that proof directly to my CB rep and ask for answers...

This kind of talk is damaging to CB's reputation and hurts us all.

CB is an awesome company, if they have problems, I want to know about them. I advise anybody who makes a purchase on CB to video it as stated previously in the thread.

I'm sorry to say it but from the looks of it, if there are affiliate commissions going missing, it's definitely not the vendor that's getting them IMHO.

[rockfuse]

I have been in the affiliate field for over 12 years and I honestly never met an affiliate programmer that did not skim well ok 1 or 2 . But, it is more rare that they dont than they do . I am sure if you talk to anyone who ran affiliate programs starting back around 1997 till now they will tell you lot of the process companies even showed you how to . Porn affiliate programs were bigggg back then at doing that and still are. These other afifliates do the same thing. Porn is free now so a lot of those guys are running different affiliate programs with the same schemes .

[mr2monster]

Originally Posted by M Thompson

No it's not if they haven't tracked your sale correctly the vendor still gets the sale, clickbank make no extra money so it's not theft.

Keep in mind that clickbank is using their own shopping cart... If they can skim on an affiliate and not show the purchase in that side of the tracking, my bet is that they can pocket the purchase from the shopping cart and still forward the customer to the thank you page.

[yves]

Someone posted about making video proof of the purchase of the product with my aff link. Well, when I was going through the purchase, it wasn't my intention for it to be a case that I would bring to the WF, it was just for my own benefit to see if my links were working.

To Harvey, I know you have been long suffering with the clickbank problem threads but my heart doesn't bleed for you. Those of us who are going through this dilema have seriously lost the will and more due to the fact that it is often noobs, post noobs and intermediates who have just found their feet and have put a LOT of work in, sweat and tears.

When I first saw the whole uproar about CB problems, I took it with a pinch of salt and it is only because it has happened to me that I actually have to take it seriously.

Yeah maybe I wasn't making a fortune with my sales but it was pretty comfortable. Plus it wasn't just a few days of no sales but 3 weeks with more traffic than before, I think that's a fair amount of time to be suspicious.
I've said before that I'm not blaming CB as such, but obviously there is something wrong with their tracking blah blah (I know, it's getting boring now) so that along with sheer frustration and wanting to find out if there were any updates to the situation, was why I opened the thread.

Personally, I am not hysterical but everyone reacts differently to stress etc. so there is bound to be a bit of that.

The superaffiliates have brought this up in other threads and said their sales went down to zero. They are the ones who can be bothered to keep changing accounts cos they are in too deep.

Anyway, it doesn't look like there is going to be an answer to this problem, phenomenon any time soon. But I don't think anybody can deny that there is a problem here.

All the best,

P.s I am female

[gcaine]

Let's do a test.


Everybody go to my site and buy something. Make sure you video tape the whole process or do a screen capture.


Email me after you made the purchase.


I'll keep a record of how many I got credited for and report back to here

[MaryT]

here is my take on clickbank theft, and it's not clickbank to blame for that

1. It may be possible that someone hacked your blogs, you must check if there is no new directories in your root folder

2. you bought this great Blackhat advanced cloaking script and installed, and you just opened the doors to thieves to get all your commissions

3.worse cas is the hacking script reside on the page you promote, this one ca hurt badly

what you can do about that:
1. you have to test each of your links and see if another affiliate id appear, in this case collect the information and contact clickbank
2. you have to test your blogs to see if everything work properly, no broken links, or excessive server/cpy load.


I am not talking about theory, I have a very efficient tracking and have seen crazy stuff when promoting clickbank products, like hoplinks of others products and one specific affiliates redirected to my blogs for weeks

anwyay, why not just create your own products for the 3 you promote, that's the best plan so far. you will not lose the work done and explode your income

my 22 cents
Mary

[johnsamuels]

Originally Posted by M Thompson

Colin I appreciate that you are upset about the loss in sales but comments like that one above are just plain wrong.

I am both a vendor and an affiliate for both my own and other peoples products and I can tell you for certain what you are suggesting does not happen

The only people who could be certain about that would be people at Clickbank. You cannot.

Originally Posted by FSchmieder

Guys people have yelled at CB until they're blue in the face. CB is well aware they have tracking problems and they haven't done anything to fix it. All you have to do as an affiliate is just open a new account with all the same details. If the problem happens again, just open another account

Not a workable solution for anyone outside of the USA considering one has to receive 3 paper cheques before they will change your account to wire payment.

Originally Posted by Steve36

Can't this be solved simply by a tracking software?

Yes. If you are making reasonable sales, or can show you have the traffic to make those sales, then any vendor should be more than happy to put your tracking pixel on his thankyou/download page. Then independently track and verify each and every sale you generate.

[Ken Shorey]

If the affiliates correct CB ID is showing at the bottom of the order page when he makes a purchase and he dosen't receive credit, this eliminates all the cookie stuffing, redirect, iframe, spyware, etc. crap. It's either a tracking error on CB's end or some type of skimming on their end.
I hope it's a tracking error. You would thing if it's a tracking error they would have fixed it by now.

[holla22]

Guys, make sure when you buy something through your own link that you see this at the bottom? Please see the attachment for the picture!

If you do this and buy through your own affiliate link and this still fails, then I suggest you start a video recording of the whole sales process. Then post the video here and write to clickbank stating that you recorded the sales process and that you have made it public! this should give them a bit of a wake up call.

Up to date I have not witnessed the clickbank problem myself but have heard about it a lot.

[yves]

Originally Posted by holla22

Guys, make sure when you buy something through your own link that you see this at the bottom? Please see the attachment for the picture!

If you do this and buy through your own affiliate link and this still fails, then I suggest you start a video recording of the whole sales process. Then post the video here and write to clickbank stating that you recorded the sales process and that you have made it public! this should give them a bit of a wake up call.

Up to date I have not witnessed the clickbank problem myself but have heard about it a lot.

Sigh. I know you are just trying to help, but this has been said a good few times in the thread. My aff code was the first thing I checked.

Myself and others who purchased with their own link made sure that the aff ID was at the bottom of the checkout page so we can safely deduce from this fact that there is a tracking prob at CB end.

Also, I seem to remember from a thread wayyy back (when I was taking it with a pinch of salt) that someone DID video, or maybe it was a screen capture or something of a purchase with aff link and no sale credit and it didn't seem to get him/her anywhere. Not 100% sure but I think there were some accusations of trickery which makes me laugh. Why would anyone go to the bother of making it up.

[holla22]

Originally Posted by yves

Sigh. I know you are just trying to help, but this has been said a good few times in the thread. My aff code was the first thing I checked.

Myself and others who purchased with their own link made sure that the aff ID was at the bottom of the checkout page so we can safely deduce from this fact that there is a tracking prob at CB end.

Also, I seem to remember from a thread wayyy back (when I was taking it with a pinch of salt) that someone DID video, or maybe it was a screen capture or something of a purchase with aff link and no sale credit and it didn't seem to get him/her anywhere. Not 100% sure but I think there were some accusations of trickery which makes me laugh. Why would anyone go to the bother of making it up.

lol, ya sorry I didn't read everything before I replied.

Here is some of the whois details I found, hope this will help someone. There is a phone number there, but haven't tried it myself.

Registrant:
Click Sales Inc.
917 South Lusk St.
Boise, ID 83706
US

Registrar: DOTREGISTRAR
Domain Name: CLICKBANK.COM
Created on: 05-AUG-97
Expires on: 04-AUG-16
Last Updated on: 09-JUN-09

Administrative Contact:
Inc., Click Sales
Click Sales Inc.
917 South Lusk St.
Boise, ID 83706
US
208-345-4245

Technical Contact:
Inc., Click Sales
Click Sales Inc.
917 South Lusk St.
Boise, ID 83706
US
+001.2083454245

[kkchoon]

Originally Posted by Harvey.Segal

A ridiculous accusation.

ClickBank makes the same profit whether it's a vendor sale or an
affiliate sale.

I don't think so...

Something fishy on clickbank site. I can smell it...

I had a customer asking for the affiliate bonus, and I ask him if he buy it from my site and he confirm that, but I can't find it anywhere in my report.

Later I try it myself, and guest what? The link doesn't show my affiliate id! This is very strange... when I re-click the link, the affiliate id came back!

My clickbank sales dropped to the lowest as compared to previous years, I am slowly moving away from affiliate with clickbank, may be try to be vendor.

[captivereef]

OK, i just had a $101 dollar day so far so who the heck knows whats going on!!!

[googlerankingexpert]

What I've seemed to notice is most url shorteners such as offto.net and others don't work well for tracking, because I've had campaigns with url shorteners being used and it always said 'affiliate=none' on the bottom of the order page, so I wouldn't be getting credit for the sale.

I recommend purchasing a domain or making a free website to promote products on. I've never had problems with Clickbank other than using most url shorteners. Budurl is the only url shortener I've seen work so far.

[francof]

I've noticed really weird trends as well, like I have decent amount of hops to one offer, I'll have a couple of sales in a week then NONE at all for MONTHS. Just weird but of course proving anything would be hard so whatever it is, I hope it gets sorted out

[johnsamuels]

Originally Posted by Travelingboy

yeah they finally fixed mine...after 3 darn emails...i hate clickbank... sigh.

Fixed what?

Clickbank has never admitted a problem even exists.

[Nicholas William]

Looks like a heated topic going on here! My advice, would be to step up your game and stop doing things as an affiliate and evolve into a product publisher. I've got absolutely no issues with tracking and payments of my products that are sold through CB. I dont do anything there as an affiliate so I cant offer any opinion on the issues mentioned above, but if you really are encountering problems as a downline just make the move up the food chain because it's something that's in your control! Changing the culture and customer response times at CB is something that isnt

[Christian Fox]

I am having problems also since the 21st. Started another thread before I found this one, so here is what is going on w me..

My CB analytics stopped being in snc (old analytics vs new) around 22 Oct. I am getting more hits to my sites than ever ( statcounter stats verified ). Strangely my sales have gone in the toilet since then as well. I have verified my affiliate link is showing on the order page on all of my higher traffic sites. affiliate = me is visibvle on the bottom of the order pages.

Maybe I am paranoid but I have gone from at least one sale a day and often two or more to one sale total since the 21st of October. I have not had 2 consecutive days without a sale in over 2 weeks prior to this and my traffic has increased significantly since then.

Anyone else having issue?

Should I just get a new aff ID and see what happens? I have a bunch of sites so it would be a little work...Like I said my aff ID is there on the order pages...

As you can see the top stats are sowing roughly 11 hops on the 25th while the bottom (original analytics) is showing 65 hops for the same date 25 Oct. Like I said My sites are getting more hits than ever I have been link building lately and my traffic has almost doubled.

Anyone else having issue?

[SEO Training Alliance]

I think clickbank's analytics software is terrible, but I don't know whether i've lost sales.

I have sent over 100 hops of product name keyword traffic and not gotten a sale on a few occasions, I chalked it up to poor copy but I'm beginning to wonder!

[captivereef]

if my sales disappear i send CB an email asking them to check my account, they have always replied to me. I always get a sale that same day after days of nothing. It has happened at least 5 times.

[Christian Fox]

Originally Posted by daedalus1

I think clickbank's analytics software is terrible, but I don't know whether i've lost sales.

I have sent over 100 hops of product name keyword traffic and not gotten a sale on a few occasions, I chalked it up to poor copy but I'm beginning to wonder!

Got you beat I have had over 1250 hops to a product with a gravity of over 400 without a sale. I'm not kidding...Funny you mention that captive I bitched and got a sale on that product same day.

Captive I am going to try that will report back...

[Zach Booker]

I read the first few replies to this thread - before it became giant - and read the last page or so.

This reminds me of the telephone game in which a once simple problem turns into a whole conspiracy theory in which Clickbank is stealing all your sales. (Even though you got 30 whole hops today?!)

In the CPA world networks float 6 and 7 figures every day. Affiliates run the risk of not being paid, advertisers run away, and advertisers even sue affiliates and the opposite is also true.

So how come all people in CPA, doing any real volume, aren't up in arms?

Simply because they take matters into their own hands and take it upon themselves to change id's, track, change networks, change offers and constantly test.

Who's forcing you to use Clickbank?

Is Clickbank pissing you off?

• Then move to PayDotCom
• Then start doing CPA
• Then hit up someone with a RAP script

Originally Posted by cscarpero

I find it really strange that the ones here complaining about their "lost" CB sales are the low volume affiliates. If it is really as bad as you guys claim it is, where is the outrage from the superaffiliates??

As with ANYTHING bigger members get treated better.

Some guys are running re-bills on Adwords even though their "supposed" to be banned - hell some are even running flogs.

This is because their budgets are big enough and Google turns the other check at the million a week + spending budget.

Where as people with lower spending budgets, that are just spamming to make a buck, get turned away.

I'm sure Clickbank gets thousands of e-mails a day saying, "Where are my monies? I get 10 hops to acne cream offer today from traffic xchange??"

What are they supposed to say, "Get decent traffic then come talk to us."?

Because I guarantee that's what their thinking...

With a site as huge as Clickbank they run on different servers, I believe that's the right termionology.

As I understand it those who push a sale every now and then are on the lower, piece of ****, busy, server.

Those who do a few sales maybe are on a different, less busy server, that only drops a few sales here and there. (Because it can handle the volume better?)

And those pushing 10+ sales a day are on a different server that's more sercure and closely watched.

And finally those "super affiliates" running 100+ sales a day and who DEMAND attention never miss a sale.

...

It's the 80/20 rule, or more likely the 90/10 rule. 10% of Clickbank affiliates make up 90% of the sales - these are the super affilaites.

And chances are the other 10% of sales are all from dude's spamming Yahoo! Answers saying, "Dude, your dog sounds like a bad ass. Fix it up with this great dog e-book."

(Not putting down the method - that's how I started. ;-)

The thing is it's pointless in Clickbank's opinion i'm sure to bother trying to help so many people who simply don't make them enough money and don't have any valid points.

Sure everyone driving a few sales a week may leave - but one or two super affiliates could make up the difference and I guarentee refunds, percentage wise, would drop like a stone.

...

Of course there's no real solution, at least that i'm aware of.

Just DEMAND attention and DEMAND an answer to what your trying to solve. (But please think reasonably and offer proof - some guys, by the sounds of it, are having messed up tracking **** going on here.)

Everyone starts out making a few sales a week and works their way up - so maybe the solution is to suck up the terrible tracking knowing that the upper affiliates don't have that problem. (And DEMAND to be answered.)

...or switch to doing something else - like I listed above.

Hope this helps,

Zach

P.S - Remember how much money your making Clickbank. If your pushing a few sales a week you may only be making them 10 bucks a week - it simply doesn't matter to them.

P.P.S - Take what i've said with a grain of salt. I'm not a lawyer, nor a super computer nerd worker. I don't know if the server, still not sure if that's the right terminology, is in fact a problem or if what i've said is even the true case.(I have never talked to Clickbank.)
But I believe George, on here, said that and a few other people i've talked to recently brang it up briefly.

[bretski]

"
With a site as huge as Clickbank they run on different servers, I believe that's the right termionology.

As I understand it those who push a sale every now and then are on the lower, piece of ****, busy, server.

Those who do a few sales maybe are on a different, less busy server, that only drops a few sales here and there. (Because it can handle the volume better?)

And those pushing 10+ sales a day are on a different server that's more sercure and closely watched.

And finally those "super affiliates" running 100+ sales a day and who DEMAND attention never miss a sale."


REALLY NOW?

[Christian Fox]

Who's forcing you to use Clickbank?

Good point, I am moving everything over to Paydot com. The ones I can't I will use DL Guard or RAP and try to fill the gap w some PLR...

I refuse to believe sales fluctuate this much...
Not saying CB is even doing it someone may be cookie stuffing or whatever on a huge scale but they seem to be after after CB products if this is the case...I don't see all of these threads about Paydotcom...

I am tired of this crap. Maybe it will force me to get serious and develop my own products. Already branching into physical products and at least there my numbers make sense.