Clickbank is at it again!

[yves]

Hi guys,

It looks like it's my turn to get the clickbank curse or whatever it is. Up till 3 weeks ago I was getting around 1-2 sales a day with the 3 clickbank products I promote. Some days had no sales and some 3 but it always worked out a good few sales a week for the last 7 months or so.

Anyway, since 3 weeks ago I have had ZERO sales, absolutely nothing. A few days ago, I thought I'd check my links and they all had my affiliate code at the checkout so it couldn't be that. I went ahead and purchased one of the products through my link to see if it would register a sale and guess what?.... it didn't. So I sent an email to clickbank but haven't heard back so don't know what to do. Also I have actually been getting MORE traffic and hops in the last few weeks due to the work I've put in, so just can't get my head round it.

I've heard that some people open new accounts then the sales start coming in, but I don't think I can work with that kind of messing around. What, opening new accounts all the time and never really knowing what's actually going on? I think I'll just have to leave clickbank and maybe go for commission junction or something.

Has anybody heard of any updates on this kind of situation or if there are ways of protecting the links etc. (I really want to stay with clickbank) so if there are any measures I can take, then I'd go for it.

P.s I know there are a few threads on clickbank problems but they are like 400 posts long and I wanted to start a fresh one to save folk having to scroll through and actually see the new stuff.

Cheers,

Yves.

[Gerardas Norkus]

Hm,

I don't know why your sales are not properly tracked by Clickbank, but it is very strange that they don't answer your emails.

I have sent them an email several weeks ago and they did reply to me.

Hopefully, your situation will be resolved soon.

Gerardas

[yves]

Thanks Gerardas,

Yeah, I'm still holding out for them getting back to me, it's maybe just taking a bit of time. Just wish everything was a bit more transparent as to what is going on and why these problems arise. Surely it can't be that complicated. Oh well, we'll just have to see. I'll keep the thread updated if I hear anything.

Cheers.

[Steve36]

I haven't made a sale for about 3 weeks and am wondering why. It's ridiculous to think that a company with a reputation and profit like click bank could destroy their reputation and lose their customers.

Who knows. The question is, when will this be resolved? I don't feel like working for free in the months to come.

[yves]

Originally Posted by Steve36

I haven't made a sale for about 3 weeks and am wondering why. It's ridiculous to think that a company with a reputation and profit like click bank could destroy their reputation and lose their customers.

Who knows. The question is, when will this be resolved? I don't feel like working for free in the months to come.

You aswell!

I know it's so frustrating. Fair enough if it were down to sales just not being made but by purchasing through my own link and the sale not being registered proves that I am losing sales, quite a lot of cash now as some of the products I sell are $64 a pop. All that work for nothing. I think its' time to move out of the comfort blanket of clickbank (it aint so comfy anymore) and spread the wings.

[Imran Naseem]

What about PayDotCom?

They are pretty cool..

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by yves

A few days ago, I thought I'd check my links and they all had my affiliate code at the checkout so it couldn't be that. I went ahead and purchased one of the products through my link to see if it would register a sale and guess what?.... it didn't. So I sent an email to clickbank but haven't heard back

They really are a "piece of work", aren't they? Just shameless, and apparently no concern over their public image at all. People have been saying the same thing as Yves above, on and off, for over a year to my certain knowledge (and possibly longer).

The thing that really "gets" me about these ... gentleman ... (nearly said something else, there!) ... is the way they so habitually ignore emails when something's gone wrong. To me (and evidently to large numbers of others), that comes across as equivalent to saying "We don't give a damn".

Thanks for posting this, Yves. The more people who call these ... gentlemen ... out in public, the better. And good luck and good wishes for getting your situation resolved.

Originally Posted by yves

I've heard that some people open new accounts then the sales start coming in

Many, many, many, many people say this has often worked for them when Clickbank's tracking has apparently screwed up. The minute they open a new account the sales are back to normal.

I don't know. I just don't understand why that should work, at all.

At least here we're allowed to discuss it, unlike in some forums!

[Steve36]

Originally Posted by Imran Naseem

What about PayDotCom?

They are pretty cool..

No where else sells the product for the niche I'm in
But if I'm not selling it anyway-what's the point?

[bretski]

Originally Posted by yves

Anyway, since 3 weeks ago I have had ZERO sales, absolutely nothing. A few days ago, I thought I'd check my links and they all had my affiliate code at the checkout so it couldn't be that. I went ahead and purchased one of the products through my link to see if it would register a sale and guess what?.... it didn't. So I sent an email to clickbank but haven't heard back so don't know what to do. Also I have actually been getting MORE traffic and hops in the last few weeks due to the work I've put in, so just can't get my head round it.

I've heard that some people open new accounts then the sales start coming in, but I don't think I can work with that kind of messing around. What, opening new accounts all the time and never really knowing what's actually going on? I think I'll just have to leave clickbank and maybe go for commission junction or something.

Has anybody heard of any updates on this kind of situation or if there are ways of protecting the links etc. (I really want to stay with clickbank) so if there are any measures I can take, then I'd go for it.

Yves.

And I thought it was just me! I hate b1tc41ng but I was also cruising along and stuff was converting at the same pace for about a month and then the bottom just fell out. I figured it was a dip from the beginning of a new month and everyone had to pay their rent/mortgage. I still get a sale here and there but it's mostly from overseas...NZ, GB etc. I know that the new and improved analytics was hosed up for a few days so I don't know if that has anything to do with it.

Don't expect some sort of in depth email from CB though. I have always gotten the same form letter assuring me that they checked my account and everything seems fine and that their engineers keep a close eye on everything, blah blah blah...same one that everyone else always gets.

I hate to bash CB because I really do think that they pull the best products overall and I know that from my background in Information Technology that this stuff is really tricky. I work for a company that does something somewhat similar and commissions need to be calculated and it's not as easy as one might think. I'm not a programmer so my hat's off to them but I do know that when you're dealing with people's money they get really uptight and there is no room for error.

I just know that with how things WERE going my economic outlook was pretty good. If my hops keep on going up and my income keeps on going down from CB I might just have to ditch them and find another direction to go. Sad to say...

[ivana]

You know, my partner and I almost don't even promote products in clickbank. We have some of our own and we keep 100% commission, we bought RAP, and have our own affiliate platform, in addition, why go with clickbank, when there is so much more gold out there. Honestly, I wish some products that are great, were not on clickbank.

Ivana

[Colin Palfrey]

Ive had the same thing. I was getting good sales for awhile then it stopped.

Naturally I assumed I had done something wrong until a friend bought something from my aff link in front of my eyes and I didnt get credit.

I opened a new account and updated my redirects and got a day of sales then nothing.

So, I got my dad to open an account and got another 2 days of sales.

Bottom line is I cant be bothered with them any more.

It's not a tracking issue, quite clearly it's blatant theft by CB

[Harvey Segal]

Originally Posted by Colin Palfrey

It's not a tracking issue, quite clearly it's blatant theft by CB

A ridiculous accusation.

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

[M Thompson]

Originally Posted by Colin Palfrey

It's not a tracking issue, quite clearly it's blatant theft by CB

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.

[Mark Ross]

Yeah I am a little confused myself.

I've been promoting a couple of products myself with Google Adwords. A good amount of people are clicking on my ads but nobody is ordering. For example with one product 3 people went to the order form but none of them ordered it? I can't figure out why. I mean you know the price before you get to the order form, why bother clicking on the "Click Here to Order" form then not order? My links are correct so I'm concerned I am losing out on money here to.

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by Colin Palfrey

It's not a tracking issue, quite clearly it's blatant theft by CB

That's not the view I take, Colin. I can understand why so many affiliates and former affiliates believe this, because the kind of incompetence, unreliability and lack of customer service you'd have to impute to them (as an alternative explanation that might make sense, I mean) is admittedly fairly extreme and very longstanding. But for myself, I really don't think they're crooks at all. They just seem to have a very unreliable system and some problems that other similar companies don't seem to have at all, and no apparent interest in correcting the situation. That's my opinion, anyway.

I also agree with Mark Thompson's point above: it's not Clickbank who are themselves benefitting from this: it's vendors at the expense of affiliates. As we've seen several vendors commenting here over the last year, paying "75% commission" on the affiliate sales actually costs, overall, between 50% and 55% of the affiliate sales takings, because so often the affiliates are unaccredited by the software. Exactly as described in the OP. But Clickbank are not the beneficiaries of this, are they? So that doesn't make it "blatant theft", I think?

As I've said before, the thing that irritates me so much about it is actually their refusal ever to take the blame for anything, or to respond satisfactorily (or sometimes to respond at all) to inquiries when things have so clearly gone wrong.

[Colin Palfrey]

OK possibly its not blatant theft but gross incompetence.

Although you say the vendor gets the money, I'll check that out I think. I expect he will be told an affiliate made a sale and Ill be told I have not.

Also I thought I should point out that while the sales on those page suddenly go to zero, the tracking to the order form works fine throughout.

[Colin Palfrey]

Hi Alexa, you have good points there about the vendors actual %

I wish Clickbank were as willing to pass on info as people on the WF do.

[Edge88]

How about we do something?

I know no one wants to much additional work. But we could email them and threaten them that either they fix these problems and answer emails appropriately, or we will team up and write some bad reviews. Then with all of our IM power, they are screwed. imagine top results in google for affiliate program = a bad review of click bank collectively placed there by all of us?

That should be enough to get them going at it. idk about you, but I'd hate to be MAKING sales and not being compensated. Some of their commissions are significant income that they're losing for us, it could thousands of dollars for some people.

any thoughts?

[yves]

Hi,

I just want to say thanks for all the replies guys, a problem shared and all that, but it's a shame so many people are experiencing this.

Originally Posted by Harvey.Segal

A ridiculous accusation.

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

Personally, I am not accusing Clickbank per se but it's kinda hard for folk not to get angry and want to point the finger somewhere, after all, Clickbank are the only body involved in the transaction. When I discovered that the sales were definitely not being tracked/registered the feeling of helplessness after all the hard work, is pretty hard to take. Even if clickbank don't make a profit on the problem it doesn't change the fact we lose out big time.

Like I said, I am reticent to leave clickbank cos I like the format and the whole process (until now, obviously) but if clickbank don't have an answer then it look likes this phenomenon is not going to go away so I/ we are all forced to go somewhere else. I can't afford to spend my time on this kind of crap, regardless of whose fault it is.

Cheers

[Marhelper]

Originally Posted by yves

Thanks Gerardas,

Yeah, I'm still holding out for them getting back to me, it's maybe just taking a bit of time. Just wish everything was a bit more transparent as to what is going on and why these problems arise. Surely it can't be that complicated. Oh well, we'll just have to see. I'll keep the thread updated if I hear anything.

Cheers.

Why wait for email when you can just call them for FREE?

1-800-390-6035

[dollarware]

In a case where an affiliate makes a sale through CB:

CB reports to and pays the Vendor their share of the affiliate produced sale.

CB fails to report and pay the affiliate their share. Maybe the system just failed to find the affiliate, or their account or email or for some other reason.

Where would the money go? Wouldn't CB still have it?

John

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by Colin Palfrey

OK possibly its not blatant theft but gross incompetence.

Nobody's disputing that.

Originally Posted by Colin Palfrey

Although you say the vendor gets the money, I'll check that out I think. I expect he will be told an affiliate made a sale and Ill be told I have not.

Well, do report back, if you can, and then we'll all know! In my (rather repeated!) experience of checking these things, the affiliate's payment has always effectively gone to the vendor. If it hadn't, then indeed it would clearly raise grave questions about Clickbank's honesty (but I'm happy with their honesty, myself: I don't think they're crooks, just incompetent.)

Originally Posted by yves

Like I said, I am reticent to leave clickbank cos I like the format and the whole process (until now, obviously) but if clickbank don't have an answer then it look likes this phenomenon is not going to go away so I/ we are all forced to go somewhere else. I can't afford to spend my time on this kind of crap, regardless of whose fault it is.

I hear you there. That goes for me, too, normally.

I'm reluctant to leave because there are some really good products there that I can make good money promoting. It's a very attractive and clever system, on paper. If only it worked reliably! One keeps hoping these problems will eventually get sorted out.

[yves]

Originally Posted by Alexa Smith

They really are a "piece of work", aren't they? Just shameless, and apparently no concern over their public image at all. People have been saying the same thing as Yves above, on and off, for over a year to my certain knowledge (and possibly longer).

The thing that really "gets" me about these ... gentleman ... (nearly said something else, there!) ... is the way they so habitually ignore emails when something's gone wrong. To me (and evidently to large numbers of others), that comes across as equivalent to saying "We don't give a damn".

Thanks for posting this, Yves. The more people who call these ... gentlemen ... out in public, the better. And good luck and good wishes for getting your situation resolved.

Thanks Alexa, I appreciate the good wishes! .

[FSchmieder]

As soon as my CB account starts looking wonky, I just switch to a new one. The only downside is you have to wait 6 weeks for direct deposit again, but there's nothing wrong in switching as I've done it several times.

If they're not going to be bothered to fix their tracking software, then I'm not going to be bothered to let the vendor keep my commissions.

[M Thompson]

Originally Posted by Colin Palfrey

Although you say the vendor gets the money, I'll check that out I think. I expect he will be told an affiliate made a sale and Ill be told I have not.

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

[Colin Palfrey]

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

Yes I can sort of see that now. I've been questioning people. lol.

But I still don't understand what is happening?

The excuse of tracking failure just doesn't wash with me.
I'll tell you why: It tracks people perfectly all the way to the order form but suddenly fails when they actually buy.

If it looks like sh*t and smells like sh*t then don't assume it's chocolate.

I'm also considering an alternate possibility. I don't believe the tracking failure thing but could someone have done something to a vendors page to cause this.

The redirects are fine and unaltered and the only thing that appears to work is opening a new account. This leads me to assume that whatever happens, requires somebody finding you have changed accounts, then redoing whatever it is that causes this action.

I'm not saying Clickbank are scamming people but I am saying that if this happens to you then you have been scammed by someone.

To qualify this I should point out: If you are told to do an action and you will be payed, you do the action and don't get payed, then you have been scammed. FACT

[cscarpero]

CB is working fine for me. Are you looking at the bottom of the page and seeing the affiliate= message?

I know a lot of tracking scrips conflict with certain CB products so that might be part of the problem.

As for shaving, that seems to happen a lot more in CPA than CB.

[Colin Palfrey]

CB works fine for most people.

I probably should state after my obvious rant, that my complaints are not the norm.
It's just a small % I believe that suffer from these problems.

[incredible_collectible]

Yes, I feel your pain. It's the same B.S. for me. You see the sale submit and there is no sale registered. In the last week I have had 15 submits and 6 sales. JUST BRUTAL. I am weighing options here. PayDotCom seems to be working just fine.

[terryrayburn]

Originally Posted by cscarpero

CB is working fine for me. Are you looking at the bottom of the page and seeing the affiliate= message?

I don't get what you mean. Could you elaborate?

[Steven Rayne]

Could it be a software conflict-the reason for not tracking?

Could it be a coincidence?

Could it be something the vendor is doing either purposely or accidently?


Could the vendor be using our id?


Just brainstorming

Steven

[Havenhood]

I went ahead and purchased one of the products through my link to see if it would register a sale and guess what?.... it didn't.

I know exactly what you're talking about.

I have a question for you guys: How many of you that are not experiencing a drop in sales or a stop in sales are Vendors?

Your input is appreciated.

[ramone_johnny]

Im a vendor and my accounts have been fine thus far. Infact I made another sale just a minute ago.

This issue however is a concern for me, as it would directly impact my business.

What exactly is clickbanks response to these claims? Are they at least acknowledging a problem???

[Okane]

What do you think about this observation:

I just glanced through some products on cb-analytics DOT com and they show graphs for several parameters for clickbank products.

There are many products that have...
...NO recurring billing
...no changes in commission percentage

and still there are variations in the "Earning per sale" graph.

Here is one example:
DTVFORPC - Digital Tv For PC. [ tv digital pc channels ]

The only explanation would be that some sales are not correctly accounted for, i.e. some affiliates are payed less (fewer sales) than they actually should.

Or am I wrong?


Marc

[realoptions]

Clickbank was having a technical issue that inhibited me from contacting them via their online support ticket system a couple of weeks ago. The error message stated that the problem wouldn't have an impact on the sales processing. Maybe it did. There are so many factors that could have resulted in the decrease in your sales.

[ForeignProfessor]

Originally Posted by Okane

What do you think about this observation:

I just glanced through some products on cb-analytics DOT com and they show graphs for several parameters for clickbank products.

There are many products that have...
...NO recurring billing
...no changes in commission percentage

and still there are variations in the "Earning per sale" graph.

Here is one example:
DTVFORPC - Digital Tv For PC. [ tv digital pc channels ]

The only explanation would be that some sales are not correctly accounted for, i.e. some affiliates are payed less (fewer sales) than they actually should.

Or am I wrong?


Marc

Would refunds be the answer? Perhaps some affiliates are receiving more refund requests than others due to the nature of their sales pages? If refunds are not included in this stat then I have no idea..

[Charann Miller]

Don't test your affiliate links by ordering, you just waste your own money. If it says [affiliate = none] at the bottom of the ordering page then you're pretty well assured that the sale's not going to show up in your back office sales stats.

Give them a call, so much quicker to sort things via phone than to wait for days just to get a standard default reply.

[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

[Slin]

Yeah this happens to me too, clickbank is good, but i wouldn't just trust them.

[yves]

Originally Posted by Charann Miller

Don't test your affiliate links by ordering, you just waste your own money. If it says [affiliate = none] at the bottom of the ordering page then you're pretty well assured that the sale's not going to show up in your back office sales stats.

Give them a call, so much quicker to sort things via phone than to wait for days just to get a standard default reply.

That's the point I'm trying to make, my affiliate link WAS at the bottom of the page when I purchased yet no sale was registered, hence the feelings of helplessness. I felt I had to check the link by purchasing to confirm my suspicions.

The other thing is, why is it the links all work fine at the beginning then go wonky after a period of time??? I mean what is that all about, does the tracking suddenly deteriorate with age?

[Colin Palfrey]

Originally Posted by yves

That's the point I'm trying to make, my affiliate link WAS at the bottom of the page when I purchased yet no sale was registered, hence the feelings of helplessness. I felt I had to check the link by purchasing to confirm my suspicions.

The other thing is, why is it the links all work fine at the beginning then go wonky after a period of time??? I mean what is that all about, does the tracking suddenly deteriorate with age?

That was what got me so irritated to.
You see it's their but you still have "tracking issues" Strangely appearing only when money is involved

[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.

[DAS_Matt]

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

That leaves WAY too much money on the table and can be a real pain in the arse if you have a great many sites/pages promoting a product. No system is perfect and catches 100% of all sales but that should be a very, very small percentage and CB seems to be WAYYY outside that norm

[Edge88]

The fact that the link is usually working fine and then suddenly stops reporting sales makes me thing a third party is up to some mischief...

A friend of mine told me about people who hijack affiliate links. Basically through their technology, everytime someone clicks on your link they get the sale? I'm guessing they are able to post a link on top of your link or something like that. I'll ask him more about it.

Yves, try clicking on your link again, and when you get to the payment page, go all the way to the bottom and see if your affiliate name is there.

also, to the people saying Clickbank doesnt know these sales happened to begin with... isn't the payment page a clickbank.net page? maybe they don't know who the affiliate was, or that it came from an affiliate marketer, but the sale goes through their system right? I may be wrong here, I don't know hwo that aspect works

[Edge88]

Originally Posted by yves

...The other thing is, why is it the links all work fine at the beginning then go wonky after a period of time??? I mean what is that all about, does the tracking suddenly deteriorate with age?

That's what im referring to above. I dont think they would deteriorate with age. if they are working they should continue to work until someone screws with it.

[Tony X]

Over the past few days, my stats have been so f'ed up. I emailed CB yesterday to talk to them about it.

They always start out with giving the whole BS about maybe the economy is effecting it and blah blah blah.

There's no way my sales are going to be steadily coming in for weeks and months on in and then right when the tracking system starts to mess up, it's the "economy's" fault.

From the looks of it, after I told emailed the guy back after the BS email he sent, my stats seem to have gotten better. Now, I'm not sure if my email was the cause of it, or if the system just so happen to start back working correctly.

But it's seems to be working ok now.

I honestly believe it's the price of doing business with CB. There's no one else out there that really comes close CB in terms of products to promote and their dependable payout system.

[Steve36]

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

[Sour]

Originally Posted by Steve36

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

You mean third party analytics to track whether or not we're making sales? I think that would be a little difficult since the order page is hosted by CB, and we have no control over it.

The only way that I could see it being possible is if we ran everything through an iframe, much like Digg's toolbar, but then customers may worry about security if they see suspicious iframes.

[FSchmieder]

Originally Posted by DAS_Matt

That leaves WAY too much money on the table and can be a real pain in the arse if you have a great many sites/pages promoting a product. No system is perfect and catches 100% of all sales but that should be a very, very small percentage and CB seems to be WAYYY outside that norm

Oh I agree, but if you just do a php redirect, you can change all of your aff links in minutes.

Like I promote in 3 niches in CB. Every link to the "vendor" is first a link to a page on my site. That page just has 1 string of php code that simply redirects to the vendor with my code. When my cb account looks weird, I just make a new account and change those pages and I'm done.

Is it perfect? No. But I haven't ventured outside of CB yet and it works well enough

[Branlan17]

Wow. So am I really screwed by putting all of this time into promoting clickbank products? This is so discouraging if my links are bound to stop working.