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More Clickbank Weirdness

by golfswingsecret
16 replies
I sell a golf instruction video called The Golf Swing Secret through Clickbank.. thegolfswingsecret.com

For the last year, I've been in the top 2 spots in google for several competitive key-phrases.

Also during that time, I've been in competition with the same folks.

Yesterday, I was checking my rankings, I do this weekly, and found I was gone and in my place was a hop URL...www.thegolfswingsecret.com/?hop=e2001

Every where my page had been, it's now replaced with this hop link from some affiliate. Now I could see my page getting pushed down the page if someone were agressively targeting a keyphrase but to be replaced for every one of my target keyphrases.

Anybody have any ideas as to how this happens?


#clickbank #question
  • Profile picture of the author golfswingsecret
    bump.......
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  • Profile picture of the author Will Edwards
    The affiliate probably is using a redirect and has simply out-competed you with SEO tactics.

    Will
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  • Profile picture of the author vok
    It looks like you've been picked off to make some easy affiliate commissions, there's nothing you can really do about it.

    You're not alone though there's a few clickbank products that have had the same thing happen to them too.

    ?hop=e2001 - Google Search
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  • Profile picture of the author akbartv
    Have you tried marketing via Twitter? There may be great opportunities to catch people mid golf conversation.
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Originally Posted by golfswingsecret View Post

    Anybody have any ideas as to how this happens?
    Yes: one of your affiliates is good at SEO. A lot of vendors wish they had affiliates like that. (It's nothing to do with Clickbank).
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  • Profile picture of the author MisterMunch
    Your competition has probably reengineered your campaign. By looking at your website and the network of backlinks he has identified a set of keyword to work with.

    He has then outranked each of your pages. SEO is a bitch.
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  • Profile picture of the author golfswingsecret
    Wow... I'm rethinking SEO at this point... A redirect, literally in 2-3 days time can be made not only to take every slot where I rank in google but also completely erase my page from google completely.

    How does one site moving up completely move my url out of the rankings?

    The affiliate redirect? is showing up in google when I check site:The Golf Swing Secret | GolfSwing | Golf Swing Instruction That Delivers Real Results
    My URL doesn't even show?

    How does that happen?
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    • Profile picture of the author John Hocking
      Google sees www.thegolfswingsecret.com/?hop=e2001 and www.thegolfswingsecret.com as the same page and content.

      For whatever reason, google picked the other link to show in the index. My guess is that your link has been pushed to the supplimental index.

      The net result does not really matter, Unless Google is indexing the hop link, I do not think the affiliate will get credit for the link anyway.
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      • Profile picture of the author bretski
        I'm not an SEO expert but I think that the affiliate link will die before long and you'll probably get your spot back. I could be wrong but I know that I had a site that the main page was a redirect and it was around for a while and then was de-indexed.
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        ***Affordable Quality Content Written For You!***
        Experience Content Writer - PM Bretski!
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  • Profile picture of the author rondo
    1. That link ?hop=XXXX is not a proper CB affiliate link, so it shouldn't give any commission away.

    2.You seem to be using Paypal, not Clickbank. Did you just switch?


    Andrew
    Signature
    Online courses
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    • Profile picture of the author golfswingsecret
      Yes I just switched the links to Paypal until I figure out what's going on. That link is not a proper Clickbank affiliate link so I switched the links until I make certain my sales aren't going somewhere else.
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      • Profile picture of the author Nikhil V Nair
        Originally Posted by golfswingsecret View Post

        Yes I just switched the links to Paypal until I figure out what's going on. That link is not a proper Clickbank affiliate link so I switched the links until I make certain my sales aren't going somewhere else.

        I don't think it is a good practice. If I were promoting your product I would have consider it theft. What if some of your affiliates are still promoting your product through ppc without realizing you have switched to paypal.

        The affiliate is not going to get commission even if someone clicks on

        www.thegolfswingsecret.com/?hop=e2001

        Since you have changed to paypal let me explain it with another product sold through clickbank

        http://www.ultimategolffitnessguide.com

        Just visit

        http://www.ultimategolffitnessguide.com/?hop=e2001

        Click the instant access button at the bottom of the page. At the bottom of the clickbank secure order form you can see

        [affiliate = none]

        Now visit

        http://e2001.pedersenm1.hop.clickbank.net/

        Repeat the same procedure above and you can see

        [affiliate = e2001]

        The affiliate cookie will be placed only if someone click through the proper clickbank hop link (Eg : http://AFFILIATE.VENDOR.hop.clickbank.net/) or the new encrypted clickbank hop link

        http://b343f8bw7w0t0wckqbif06zb3l.hop.clickbank.net/

        No need to worry about giving commission to e2001

        Clickbank is not just a payment processor. When you sell your product through clickbank, you have a commitment towards clickbank and the affiliates promoting your product.

        Changing the payment processing from clikbank without the knowledge of your affiliates is really a bad practice. You can get help from clickbank or google if you need.

        The relationship between you and your affiliates is very important for your success.

        I hope you will change your payment processing back to clickbank as early as possible.

        Hope it helps

        Regards

        Nikhil
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  • Profile picture of the author Rus Sells
    I'd be looking at a way Not to have the Affiliate ID's in the end-result URL.
    Canonical Link elements would help inform G which URL you would prefer in the SERPs.

    If you use the server logs (or some other tracking method/script), you should beable to detect referers, and the affiliate IDs in the URLs - and have the links redirect to a prefered (clean) URL.

    Both solutions would help remove the Affiliate IDs from the SERPs, show the prefered clean URL, and still permit you to track.

    Source, Google web master forums.

    And yeah change back your links before you anger your affiliates!
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