ClickBank: the new account issue

[Harvey Segal]

For some time affiliates have claimed that when they see
their sales decline they open a new account and the sales
start again.

This implies that affiliate sales are failing to be
registered with an old account.

Now when a sales order is made the ClickBank system
handles the transaction, bills the customer, delivers the
product and as the final step credits the vendor and the
affiliate.


Although we don't know the inner workings of the
ClickBank system it would appear unlikely that failure to
credit an old affiliate account would occur for the
following reasons

- crediting the affiliate and vendor is a basic part of
the system that has been working since day one

- it's a basic programming task

- if ClickBank were to make any change in this area then
immediate analysis on the huge number of transactions
they process (one every 3 seconds) should quickly show up
the problem

- there would seem to be nothing special about an old
account as opposed to a new account which could mean that
the system is unable to locate it and credit it

- there is no similar problem reported with old vendor
accounts



NOTE:

A representative from ClickBank has confirmed the following:

* Old accounts are treated exactly the same as new
accounts. Any sales that occur from opening a new account
are nothing more than a coincidence.

* Affiliates who say they contacted the Account
department and got a sale the same day should know that
there is no mechanism, automated or otherwise, that could
"turn on" sales for accounts



Harvey

[Kevin Barnes]

Nice post Harvey. Had no idea this was even an issue.. I have had my CB acount for over two years now and still receive check in the mail.

Must be a job for the Myth Busters!!

[tecHead]

Thanks, Harvey... esp. the reference to the CB rep.

Like I've said before, I've not witnessed this myself but needed/wanted a logical representation of an accurate answer from a reputable source in order to lay my concerns to rest.

You have fit this bill and I appreciate it.

PLP,
tecHead

[Steven Wagenheim]

I have had my main CB account for over 6 years now and continue to get
regular sales both as a vendor and as an affiliate.

When there are slumps (we all get them) it is just a natural course in this
business. I'm not going to get into all the reasons why you will see periods
with no sales because quite honestly, the explanations would take too long
and nobody gives a hoot anyway.

The conspiracy hounds will believe what they want to believe no matter
who comes here and shows proof to the contrary, which I would do but
then again, who cares?

Having said that, I DO have my issues with CB...their way too tolerant
refund policy for one. But that's another issue and has nothing to do with
whether or not you get credited with a sale because you have an old
account, new account or whatever.

If I changed accounts every time I hit a little slump, I'd have 50 CB
accounts right now.

And yet, over the course of time, when the year ends, I have the same
number of dollars that came into my CB account as the year before.

Going into my 7th year in June of 2010.

Take that for whatever it means to you.

[garyv]

I think that people get spooked by some of the numbers they see, and automatically chalk it up to a conspiracy. However, I've been marketing online for over a decade, and can tell you that strange numbers are just a part of the beast that is Internet Marketing. And it happens with whatever vendor you use, not just clickbank. I've used ClickBank, CJ, Amazon, ebay/paypal, google checkout, and several other of my own merchant accounts, and the strange numbers happen everywhere.

For instance, this last week I have a product that I'm selling through paypal that didn't get a sale the entire week, then all of a sudden on Friday it got like 15 sales in a matter of an hour, then the sales stopped again. These weird type of number fluctuations could be caused by just about anything. A flash in the pan news release, a keyword that gets ranking for a few days, a link in your signature that unexpectedly gets some ranking w/ whatever post it's in. There's a plethora of things that could effect the amount and quality of your traffic. There's also a plethora of ways to absolutely know whether or not a conspiracy is going down. And so far I have not seen sufficient enough evidence to prove a conspiracy.

[Dan C. Rinnert]

I remember one of the discussions on this earlier this year.

I had a period where I was getting a lot of hops, but no sales.

So, I decided to try the "new account fix". I opened a new account and changed over all the links on one site (one that was generating a good portion of the hops) to the new account ID.

The new account generated no new sales. After about a month of using this new account ID, I switched back to my original account.

The problem, I surmised, wasn't with the account IDs, but rather that people just weren't buying.

I have subsequently gotten sales on that old account ID.

There are ups and downs. That's just the way it is. I have another site where I sell a physical product. Sometimes, there will be periods where no orders come in. Then, there will be a spurt of orders. Since the order system is all mine--and not dependent on a third-party for determining whether a sale has been made--I can be certain that there is no conspiracy somewhere trying to hide orders from me and keep the money.

On the other hand, Google is kind of a shady character...

[John Dales]

The VERY SCARY issue here is that MANY affiliates have experiences of having their friends bought from Clickbank through their affiliate links and nothing was credited to their affiliate account. I read somewhere from a fellow Warrior's post that he was just beside his friend when his friend bought from Clickbank using his affiliate link and LO and BEHOLD...CLICKBANK DID NOT CREDIT HIS AFFILIATE ACCOUNT. I have read countless testimonies like this and I am scared now of promoting Clickbak products.

[Harvey Segal]

Originally Posted by John Dales

The VERY SCARY issue here is that MANY affiliates have experiences of having their friends bought from Clickbank through their affiliate links and nothing was credited to their affiliate account. I read somewhere from a fellow Warrior's post that he was just beside his friend when his friend bought from Clickbank using his affiliate link and LO and BEHOLD...CLICKBANK DID NOT CREDIT HIS AFFILIATE ACCOUNT. I have read countless testimonies like this and I am scared now of promoting Clickbak products.

John

This is a completely different issue which I have discussed here
ClickBank: tracking issues explained

Harvey


.

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by John Dales

The VERY SCARY issue here is that MANY affiliates have experiences of having their friends bought from Clickbank through their affiliate links and nothing was credited to their affiliate account. I read somewhere from a fellow Warrior's post that he was just beside his friend when his friend bought from Clickbank using his affiliate link and LO and BEHOLD...CLICKBANK DID NOT CREDIT HIS AFFILIATE ACCOUNT. I have read countless testimonies like this and I am scared now of promoting Clickbak products.

Many are, John.

The same has happened to me, and to some of my clients, too.

I'm not a Clickbank vendor, but vendors who post here sometimes say that offering 75% commission at Clickbank costs them, overall, only about 50% - 55% of the affiliate sales takings, because of the proportion of unaccredited affiliate sales for which the money just goes to the vendor.

The system's widely known to be lamentably unreliable, but I still think it's important to be clear that it doesn't appear to be Clickbank that's benefitting from it, just vendors at the expense of affiliates.

[hometutor]

Thanks for the info Hav

I never even considered old accounts would have a problem as compared to new, but if the queistion comes up I can now direct them to here

Rick

[Branlan17]

Here's a theory... Maybe it's the VENDOR? Now, I know nothing about scripts but what if a vendor sees an affiliate is making a lot of sales and somehow siphons this to get more money per sale. When the affiliate makes a new accounts the vendor doesn't see this new one as profitable yet (because they don't know it's the same person) and voila, you see your sales again : /

[Harvey Segal]

Originally Posted by Branlan17

Here's a theory... Maybe it's the VENDOR? Now, I know nothing about scripts but what if a vendor sees an affiliate is making a lot of sales and somehow siphons this to get more money per sale. When the affiliate makes a new accounts the vendor doesn't see this new one as profitable yet (because they don't know it's the same person) and voila, you see your sales again : /

Yes - that's a possibility.

If an affiliate suspects this he can check where the commission is going
from the order page [affiliate =] entry.

Harvey


.

[GeorgR.]

I *think* there might be delays sometimes since i see some of those "3 days no sale" periods...which are usually followed be a day with more sales than usual.

Also, i learned not to track CB sales "on a day" basis....but overall sales ARE consistent, the empty days and the spikes might really just be a normal thing.

Yes, i also read some accounts of people buying and never gotten credited - but then there are MANY factors like browser settings, antivirus programs (cookies blocked etc..)...so it could be a other reasons and they all need to be taken into account when making such assumptions.

[mikeyman120]

Originally Posted by Harvey.Segal

Yes - that's a possibility.

Harvey

Your losing me Harvey! If you are saying - "Yes - That's a possibility" to Branlan17 then maybe all these people complaining about Clickbank sales picking up after opening a new account are actually on to something only they keep blaming Clickbank when they should be blaming shady vendors. What do you think?

Mike

[Harvey Segal]

Originally Posted by mikeyman120

Your losing me Harvey! If you are saying - "Yes - That's a possibility" to Branlan17 then maybe all these people complaining about Clickbank sales picking up after opening a new account are actually on to something only they keep blaming Clickbank when they should be blaming shady vendors. What do you think?

It can happen but I would have expected affiliates to check links
where sales are declining that (a) they are active (b) they contain
their affiliate id before switching to a new account.

Harvey