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Should I Be Concerned About This......

by James401
17 replies
Hi

For the last 5 months I have been promoting 2 sites through Clickbank. I am doing article marketing and I purchased 2 X .info domains.

I have article readers redirected directly to the vendors sales page through my affiliate link which is masked with my .info domain ( I hope you understand what I mean there!!). This is how I have been doing things for the last 3 months.

However, for the last 3 weeks, I have seen no sales whatsoever. A couple of weeks ago I distributed another 10 articles via Ezine first and then another 15 after that. (In total I have about 41 live articles on Ezine which are all distributed to about 15 other article sites also.)

Yet according to Clickbank Analytics, my viewing stats are considerably reduced??

I have no recording on the order form submit column either - I have found it not uncommon to see for example order form submit 6 but sales 3!!

Something just aint right at all. The other day I received my first cheque and now - nothing. Big fat zero's all the way.

I have checked all of my links and they are fine. When I click on the order now buttons on the vendors sales pages, my affiliate name is at the bottom of them also so as far as I'm concerned, there is no problem there.

I just don't seem to be doing anything differently to before but yet for some reason everything has just died of death!! I know like everything there must be quiet times and up's and downs but should I be worried about this??

The other thing that concerns me is someone stealing my Clickbank sales. I don't understand how this can happen but I have read that it does occur??

If anyone can offer any advice it would be very greatly appreciated.

Regards

James
#concerned
  • Profile picture of the author bfairo
    I have heard of getting your affiliate links jacked, I would suggest you mask them. I don't know exactly how they do it but it is very possible that someone is hijacking your links. If it was me I would take the redirect off for a day or 2 to see if the traffic is hitting your site, if it is maybe look into the possibility that someone has someone cookie stuffed your .info with their aff. link, though again I don't know how they do that! I would be just as worried as you are my friend!
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  • Profile picture of the author James401
    Thanks for the reply....

    Only problem with getting rid of the .info domains is that Ezine and most other sites will probably have my for linking directly to an affiliate sales page - at the moment I'm going directly to the sales page but through the .info domains!!

    The only other thing I can think of is having to edit all of my articles but like I say, I have 41 articles X about 15 article sites!!
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    • Profile picture of the author James401
      Pete

      Can't PM as I'm at 48 posts

      Thanks for the reply though.

      I have only really been in IM for about 6 months but things started quite steadily - about 1 or 2 sales a week which for me was really pleasing.

      I have no idea where things have gone wrong - it's been over 3 weeks now and absolutely nothing.

      Always interesting to hear of your problems with Clickbank as for me, it's all part of the learning curve.

      Will be interesting to see what results the software produces but I'm going to have to change things sooner. I feel like I'm working my backside off and someone somewhere is profiting from my efforts!!!

      Would you suggest I visit Clickbank, create a new hoplink with my products to get and then change my .info redirect to the new link??

      Thanks again mate

      James
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  • Profile picture of the author TheNightOwl
    Heya, James

    If I understand bfairo correctly, he's saying to replace the redirect on your site with a landing page.

    Make a short pre-sell page and upload it to replace the redirect.

    Add some tracking code (Google Analytics, Woopra, StatCounter, etc) just to see if the traffic is hitting your page. (The pre-sell will at least go some way to mitigate against losing the traffic completely.)

    If you're getting traffic, get a tech-head to look at your site to find out if someone has hacked it and, say, put a redirect in your htaccess file with their affiliate link.

    Hope you sort it out, man; that blows.

    TheNightOwl
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    • Profile picture of the author James401
      Originally Posted by TheNightOwl View Post

      Heya, James

      If I understand bfairo correctly, he's saying to replace the redirect on your site with a landing page.

      Make a short pre-sell page and upload it to replace the redirect.

      Add some tracking code (Google Analytics, Woopra, StatCounter, etc) just to see if the traffic is hitting your page. (The pre-sell will at least go some way to mitigate against losing the traffic completely.)

      If you're getting traffic, get a tech-head to look at your site to find out if someone has hacked it and, say, put a redirect in your htaccess file with their affiliate link.

      Hope you sort it out, man; that blows.

      TheNightOwl
      Hi

      Thanks for taking the time to reply.

      I have actually had a review style site done now which is hosted by Hostgator and I am now redirecting traffic to that site from my articles. From there, they can then click onto my affiliate links etc to go to the sales page. This site is included with Google analytics.

      My main problem is that I have well over 400 articles out there which go to a sales page masked with a .info domain.

      I can't imagine having to change all of those and it feels like wasted effort completely - especially if it's someone else making money off my efforts

      Not that I can be sure 100% right now that someone is stealing my sales but if that turns out to be the case, god knows how much money I might have lost!!

      I know these things are never easy but I could seriously do with a "quick fix" right now!!

      James
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  • Profile picture of the author mostphere
    Hi,

    Is time to move from Clickbank?

    Affiliate get hijacked if a person who understand what affiliate link look like delete it.

    Not to worry about it, you can cloak it, but the problem is perhaps on Clickbank itself.

    I don't know if you use some kind of frame but Clickbank does not allowed and of course will not resulted in sales.

    My suggestion is, don't stuck with Clickbank, try other networks too.
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    • Profile picture of the author James401
      Originally Posted by mostphere View Post

      Hi,

      Is time to move from Clickbank?

      Affiliate get hijacked if a person who understand what affiliate link look like delete it.

      Not to worry about it, you can cloak it, but the problem is perhaps on Clickbank itself.

      I don't know if you use some kind of frame but Clickbank does not allowed and of course will not resulted in sales.

      My suggestion is, don't stuck with Clickbank, try other networks too.
      Hi

      I appreciate what you are saying but I would much rather try and get any issues I have sorted and carry on.

      I really like these products and they are (or were), selling well for me. I have read on here about many people having great success with CB products so I would really prefer to continue.

      I do not have high expectations in IM - just a few dollars extra every week will make a difference to me and then anything after that is a bonus!!

      I've only been going for about 5 months and a couple of sales a week meets my needs

      James
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  • Profile picture of the author Profit-smart
    Download a URL encryption script, so the url looks like an onsite link.

    Ie: Http://www.yoursite.com/2344

    While in reality it leads straight to your affiliate link.
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  • Profile picture of the author Shawn Mason
    I know some of you are going to call me crazy.. But I had an account sitting dormant for a long time. I just figured it was because I wasn't promoting anything heavily at the time.

    At the beginning of the month I started a review site, and there was talk here of "new accounts" getting sales while old ones lay dormant..

    I decided to open a 2nd clickbank account to test it out.

    After a day or so I thought "this is silly" and changed it back.

    200+ hops to my old ID and nothing...
    42 hops to the new ID and 3 sales...

    Now I don't want to start this whole topic again but honestly something seems strange.
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    • Profile picture of the author bretski
      How have you been cloaking your affiliate links? Or, more specifically, are you using frames or iframes? I know that this was how I USED to cloak my stuff and my sales dropped off to nothing about a month ago. I changed to 301 redirects (which would allow me to keep my folder structure on my domain) and sales picked back up again. Coincidence? Probably not.

      I know that CB says that frames don't work but I think that for a while they may have worked to an extent although maybe not reliably. Try 301 redirects and see if that helps. Also, I'd test some of my links. Go through to the payment page; see if your affid shows up at the bottom of the payment page and also see if the hop and order page impression shows up in the "new and improved" CB analytics. I know that the new analytics has been hinkey at best lately since they removed the old analytics. Mine is stuck at like 5:29 yesterday and it's almost 6:00 PST here now.

      Yeah, when the sales are coming in CB rocks and when stuff like this happens you feel like pulling your hair out.
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      • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
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        • Profile picture of the author James401
          Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

          The OP has already explained that.

          Mind you, he's also explained many other things which have been similarly ignored by people who have totally missed the point rushing in with "information".

          Nobody is necessarily stealing anything from you, James. That isn't necessarily the problem at all, here.

          It's not possible to say with 100% confidence what the problem is, but undoubtedly a big part of it is that you're trying to make Clickbank sales by "direct-linking" from the resource-box of articles. (Ok, I appreciate that you're doing so through forwarded ".info" domains, to comply with EZA's regulations on the subject, but from the prospective customer's point of view, he's going directly from the end of your article to a Clickbank vendor's sales-page. This will get only very low conversion-rates.)

          The bottom line is that this just isn't a good way to do affiliate marketing. You're missing out on the two most important things you need, to make money out of it: (i) a pre-sell, and (ii) building a list.

          You did well to make the original sales, and get your first check, however. How many of them were there, and was the difference between that number and the last few weeks necessarily statistically significant, or might it be innocent/unlucky?

          Do the products you're promoting have an opt-in on their sales-pages, where your prospects can be put in touch directly with the products' vendors?
          Hi

          Thanks for the reply.

          No, there is no opt-in on the sales pages at all.

          Like I say, I have started redirecting to a review style page now rather than directly to the vendors sales page via a .info domain. The problem is I have probably well over 400 articles out there that do go direct to the sales page via .info domains so it's not something I can change easily!!

          I hear what you are saying Alexa but am just really struggling to believe the sudden drop in sales and visits. No order form impression counts, more articles yet much lower visits to the vendors sales page.........whilst I know I am a complete beginner, I just can't believe that all is well. I still maintain that something is wrong!!

          Not happy and very de-motivating!!

          James
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  • Profile picture of the author Branlan17
    I have a penis enlargement site which made me $700 within abou 2 weeks of one of my articles hitting number one on google. That article fell off, and I went a full month of nothing. The other day, I sold one with no problems whatsoever... Honestly, low traffic, fluctuations and good old randomness ensure that unless you're netting in hundreds to thousands of uniques per day, anomalies like this don't seem to uncommon.

    Just keep swimming...
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  • Profile picture of the author Colin Palfrey
    Don't alter all of your article links, thats a waste of time.

    Upload your review style website at the domain name you already have.
    That way all your articles will already be pointing at it.

    Colin
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  • Profile picture of the author mmcqueen
    Not trying to highjack the thread, but is there a way to check your site to see if somebody has messed with it?

    I have a .info with a redirect to the affiliate page and a wordpress blog set up on the same .info.

    I appreciate any help.

    Michael
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    • Profile picture of the author James401
      Originally Posted by mmcqueen View Post

      Not trying to highjack the thread, but is there a way to check your site to see if somebody has messed with it?

      I have a .info with a redirect to the affiliate page and a wordpress blog set up on the same .info.

      I appreciate any help.

      Michael
      No problem, it's a fair enough question!!
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  • Profile picture of the author James401
    Okay, stats are dropping off rather alarmingly now - this aint funny!!

    If I go into Clickbank and create new hoplinks would this solve my problem if my account has been hacked??

    I need to do something urgently - I get the feeling someone is without doubt cashing in on my efforts.

    James
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