Bought a Product With My Own Affiliate Link But Got No $$??

Ken,

Did you buy it through your own link you created on one of your web properties?

~Bill

LOL, then you didn't make any money - and you likely took a sale commission from someone else.

If everyone decided to buy products with their own affiliate links I think it would be fair to say this whole affiliate marketing thing is just a glorified coupon code system.

Perhaps it's time to stop buying and start selling.

@Ken Theriot

I'm sure you've just made an "honest mistake" by buying through your own link - as far as I know and avenuegirl pointed out - it is not allowed - although practiced frequently.

Clickbank has been acting weird lately anyway! If you're serious about making money online and being an affiliate most merchant's will be willing to give you a review copy as long as you don't abuse the trust they've put in you.

I've seen you around in the forum - so how is your "home brewing site" doing?

As far as I know it's not allowed through CB, and you could run into trouble with it. If I have to test an affiliate link, I'll usually get a friend or JV partner to test drive the scripts. I'll give them a full refund afterward, plus a 5% bonus to cover the deposit fees. Usually only needs one purchase per product to test it.

It's not against the rules to buy through your own link with Clickbank, but you do need
to make sales with at least 5 different credit card numbers before they will pay you a
commission. This is to discourage people signing up with Clickbank just to buy the products
for themselves at a discount. The commission should show up in real time so I would
think there was a problem with the link you used.

https://www.clickbank.com/accounting.html#A15

You could test the link again and see if your affiliate id shows on the bottom of the
order form, you don't need to complete the purchase. This way you will know if the
link you were using was correct or not. If you use the same link you used the first time,
and your affiliate id shows on the bottom of the order form, then something may be
shady. If it doesn't show, then there is a problem with the link you are using.

I'm always mystified when vendors object to affiliates buying through their own links. It's a sale after all, it helps their gravity and who knows, perhaps the affiliate will promote the product after the purchase. By the way, I could be wrong, but I don't think it's against the CB TOS.

Will

Most of the time it could be that you have visited the page before, and your cookies are still storing the affiliate ID of the vendor, or another affiliate. When you get to the actual order page, you must scroll down and make sure that the affiliate ID=Yourusername.

This is a common thing, because many times people do not check this. Another tip is to make sure that you check this frequently with any niche websites or blogs where you are selling affiliate products.

Don't sign up for my list though, don't want you taking my commissions.:p
JK.

This question has been brought up time and time again. I've purchased products through
Clickbank many times in the past using my own link with no problems, but I used to promote
Clickbank products in the past and usually found out about these products on my own. I've
moved on to physical products now, just didn't feel good about promoting most of the
Clickbank products anymore. Most people here will not agree with me on this, but I feel
like most products on Clickbank are way overpriced and so many of them are not of the
quality to be priced as high as they are. Don't get the refunds with physical products like
with ebooks.

Ken,

I certainly wouldn't buy a product just to test your hoplink out. Like others have said, just check to make sure your affiliate code [affiliate = xxxxxx] shows at the bottom of the order processing page.

In most cases, if you contact the product vendor and give them links to where you have half a dozen affiliate pre-sell pages set up, they will give you a copy of the product if you tell them you are going to set up a page and promote it.

I have bought a couple products I wanted to promote with my own affiliate link to get a discount. But only if I have asked for a review copy, sent them links to other pre-sell pages in the niche I have pre-sell pages set up for, and have never heard back from the vendor. I don't feel bad about doing that. But as a general way of doing business I wouldn't buy through my own links. --Mike

Clickbank is setting records for unreliable behavior. Bad tracking, shady sales and poor customer service could very well do them in within the near future. They have adopted Paypals customer service method and have one of the worst in industry tracking systems.
Do a side by side test on a product that is on CB and a alternative affiliate program and you will generally see a higher result on almost ANY other system. CB is dying. Scammy products, poor customer service and zealot fanboys have killed it.

Whenever I wish to buy something on-line and can do so through an affiliate program that I am on, I set-up the link on the appropriate domain of mine, then get a friend or member of the family to go through my link and make the purchase. I immediately reimburse them

The way I look at it is that when working for many industries you get perks (travel industry, retail, food, etc.), and this is a perk.

Is that allowed?

@mlord10
@mikemcmillian

I think that is a good solution - with my own sites I just test the aff link by going through to the cb page and see if my cb name appears at the bottom. Cookies is a different ball game and up until now I haven't figured out "how the cookie crumbles"!

mlord pointed out that the cookies is set for a certain period of time and when I bought through another aff link, the merchant got the credit. I then fiddled around with the cookie settings, but it was only when I was on the lookout to buy through a friend's aff link and his CB name and used Google Chrome the correct aff link showed up.

The vendor cannot determine whether a visitor should get a commission or not, that is
up to Clickbank, at least that is the way it used to be. I haven't promoted any Clickbank
products for a few years now, but there was a vendor that was using a script a few
years back that would change the id in the hoplink to another id of someone that was
registered with them, they would make you register with them on their site. This was
reported to Clickbank and they ruled that the vendor was not allowed to do this.
Clickbank said they needed to maintain control of the tracking and vendors were not
allowed to interfere with this.
Some vendors seem to think that affiliates are signing up with them when promoting
their products, when affiliates are actually signing up with Clickbank and not with the
vendor. Clickbank is the one actually selling the product using their merchant account,
and they make all the rules. The vendor cannot make up their own rules to satisfy their
own needs, they need to follow Clickbank's rules. In fact, Clickbank even has the right
to determine the price of the product if they wished to do so, although I don't know of
any instance where they have actually done so. But it is within their rights to do so.
The vendor can decide whether they want to use Clickbank or not, but if they use
Clickbank they need to go by Clickbank's rules.

Just wanted to add that I don't have a problem with Clickbank as a company. I made
my living with Clickbank for five years and always got my payment on time, never missed
a payment. I guess over time I just became discouraged with some of the products
being offered on Clickbank.

I can't see why any seller would have a problem with a legit affiliate using their own link to get a copy for review, etc. If they do have aproblem with it, well in my opinion they are bending over to pick up dimes, and ignoring the dollars.

a) I use a lot of ppc - which means I'll most likely be spending thousands of dollars on promotion (perhaps tens-of-thousands over the course of several months).
b) I often already have a list in the niche to promote a product to

anyone who would take issue with me using my own aff link to look over their product would only be shooting themselves in the foot

That's what I don't get about some WSO's. We can buy the same product much cheaper through our own link at clickbank...

Regards,
PCRoger.

WOW, just when I was about to start-up some new Clickbank campaigns.

Oh well... thanks for this thread!

Big affiliate networks are generally silent on the issue of buying products with your own affiliate link. It is the reason for not paying commission until an affiliate has referred 5 different buyers through his or her affiliate links. From the experience of most people with Commission Junction, you are even advised to buy with your affiliate link if you have not generated affiliate sales for 6 consecutive months. They advise you to do this in order to prevent your affiliate account from being deactivated for dormancy.