Thing I hate most as an affiliate

40 replies
there is one thing that I really really hate whenever an affiliate for a product and that is whenever the sales page has a link to become an affiliate on it. I mean, I worked so hard to get traffic there and when the traffic gets there they see a link at the bottom to become an affiliate and then they sign up to become an affiliate to buy it through their own link.

To me as an affiliate this is seen as a slap in the face. if you want someone to become an affiliate advertising on the affiliate network or asking them to sign up as an affiliate after they buy it is the way to do it.

this is most prevalent in Internet marketing products. Mainly because Internet marketers know about how to become an affiliate and what affiliate marketing is. So from here on out, I will never promote a product that has an affiliate link on the sales page because I feel like I'm losing sales almost every single time.

well that's the end of this rant. hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.
#affiliate #affiliate markerting #hate #infoproduct marketing #infoproduct or affiliate #thing
  • Profile picture of the author ladida
    Is this really a problem?

    I think there are measures in place to prevent this type of activity. I know this is true with Clickbank.
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    • Profile picture of the author Kevin Williams
      Originally Posted by ladida View Post

      Is this really a problem?

      I think there are measures in place to prevent this type of activity. I know this is true with Clickbank.
      To prevent what, buying through your own link? Because you can sure as heck still do that.
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      • Profile picture of the author ladida
        Hmmm... Really? Okay. I thought they had a system set up that wouldn't allow the purchasing account through Paypal (customer) to be the same as the one they send payments to (affiliate).

        I stand corrected.

        Seems like such an easy problem to solve...

        Originally Posted by Kevin Williams View Post

        To prevent what, buying through your own link? Because you can sure as heck still do that.
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      • Profile picture of the author Defunct
        This is part of the reason why some affiliates get custom landing pages, or give discounts and bonuses.

        To avoid people deleting affiliate cookies or replacing their own.
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        • Profile picture of the author ladida
          That's pretty interesting.

          Creating your own landing page and having the payment button link to the product creator's shopping cart/purchase page.

          I'm thinking through the pros and cons of this now... So far it seems like a potentially great solution for a number of reasons.


          Originally Posted by Defunct View Post

          This is part of the reason why some affiliates get custom landing pages, or give discounts and bonuses.

          To avoid people deleting affiliate cookies or replacing their own.
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        • Profile picture of the author Robert Puddy
          Originally Posted by Defunct View Post

          This is part of the reason why some affiliates get custom landing pages, or give discounts and bonuses.

          To avoid people deleting affiliate cookies or replacing their own.
          This here is the answer...

          Plus you get to build a list instead of just sending them to the sales pge
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    • Profile picture of the author dking88
      I think your right, in IM anyone can just order through their own affiliate link which is unfortunate about the IM market.

      It seems better for vendors/product publishers to not include it on their sales page because then the traffic that's being sent just rips the affiliates off.

      That's partially why i'm getting into other markets, there is none of that!

      Great point though, maybe a new market is an idea?

      Screw IM! lol
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    • Profile picture of the author brendanwenzel
      Originally Posted by ladida View Post

      Is this really a problem?

      I think there are measures in place to prevent this type of activity. I know this is true with Clickbank.
      Oh yeah. I've seen and heard about people doing it. Especially with Clickbank.
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    • Profile picture of the author LetsGoViral
      Originally Posted by ladida View Post

      Is this really a problem?

      I think there are measures in place to prevent this type of activity. I know this is true with Clickbank.
      Doesn't change anything, they will still buy the product through their link and steal you your commission.

      I don't think many people do this though.
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  • Profile picture of the author imkevintan
    True story mate...

    Although, I don't think that something like this happens very often... A small percentage perhaps.

    Still bad though...
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  • Profile picture of the author Slade556
    I know some will disagree with me on this but I don't worry about it all that much. If the person landing on the salespage is an internet marketer and they see it is a clickbank product (or whatever), do you really think they need to see an 'affiliates' button at the bottom to get the idea to use their own link? No. They'll just search for it in the marketplace and do it anyway.

    Which brings me to niches outside of internet marketing. The vast majority of customers will have no idea what affiliate marketing even is outside of the make money niche so do you really think they are going to click on it? Possible, but unlikely. I think back to the time before I knew what I.M. was and I wouldn't pay these links a second thought because they meant nothing to me. Most customers would be the same.
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    • Profile picture of the author Vanessa Reece
      Originally Posted by Slade556 View Post

      The vast majority of customers will have no idea what affiliate marketing even is outside of the make money niche so do you really think they are going to click on it? Possible, but unlikely. I think back to the time before I knew what I.M. was and I wouldn't pay these links a second thought because they meant nothing to me. Most customers would be the same.
      I totally agree, Slade. I think many IM-ers think that 'everyone' knows what an affiliate link is. I had a client ask me today actually 'what is an affiliate?' He almost said it with fear in his voice.
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    • Profile picture of the author BizzyBea
      Originally Posted by Slade556 View Post

      I know some will disagree with me on this but I don't worry about it all that much. If the person landing on the salespage is an internet marketer and they see it is a clickbank product (or whatever), do you really think they need to see an 'affiliates' button at the bottom to get the idea to use their own link? No. They'll just search for it in the marketplace and do it anyway.

      Which brings me to niches outside of internet marketing. The vast majority of customers will have no idea what affiliate marketing even is outside of the make money niche so do you really think they are going to click on it? Possible, but unlikely. I think back to the time before I knew what I.M. was and I wouldn't pay these links a second thought because they meant nothing to me. Most customers would be the same.

      My thoughts exactly. Most regular internet surfers / buyers don't even know about affiliate marketing, I wouldn't have known even a few months ago.

      Maybe that is why Amazon pays such a low commission rate on the first few products sold - to stop people purchasing high ticket items through their own link?
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  • Profile picture of the author DireStraits
    This is quite a big problem, I suspect, if the niche within which the product you're promoting resides is "making money online", or any other niche where people are likely to themselves be affiliates (at Clickbank, anyway - where this practise of purchasing through your own link is allowed).

    Then again, if the people buying the product are themselves Clickbank affiliates (or know about it), I don't think they need an "affiliates link" on the page to remind them of their ability to do this: they'll already know, surely? So they'll do it anyway.

    I think it's probably less of a problem in other non-IM / non-web-focused niches, anyway.
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  • Profile picture of the author brendanwenzel
    creating landing page of your own is something that Joe Lavery teaches in his affiliate course. I usually do this whenever promoting something long-term.
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      I agree that this is less than optimal.

      This alone won't stop me from promoting a product I otherwise like, though.

      At Clickbank, in my opinion (and I know others disagree with parts of it), this really isn't a significant problem at all.

      Nobody can realistically become an affiliate and do you out of your commission that way, because of the Customer Distribution Requirement, which is there precisely to protect affiliates from this very scenario, and works as well as anything can, to do so.

      It's true, of course, that if someone's already a Clickbank affiliate, then you more or less can't earn an affiliate commission on a sale to them, but there's no surprise there, and that's not Clickbank's fault, and anyway there's a very simple answer to that: don't become an affiliate for products for which any proportion of the potential customers are themselves existing Clickbank affiliates.

      When I see affiliates promoting all the "make money on Clickbank" products which are sold on Clickbank and clearly targeted at existing affiliates, I do instinctively wonder what on earth they think they're doing and why they're doing it. Presumably there's a big turnover of those people, as they all gradually realise that they're rarely getting paid? :confused: :rolleyes:

      A little digression: a year or so ago, in another forum, I saw a new vendor promoting his product to affiliates, giving details of the sales page, commissions, and so on (this sort of promotion is allowed there) and it seemed to me that the product was targeted more or less exclusively at existing Clickbank affiliates (as customers, I mean). I posted, as politely and discreetly as I could, in the thread, asking whether this was in fact the case, wondering what I'd misunderstood. (Because as it stood, nobody in their right mind was going to promote it, obviously). But to my astonishment, the vendor just replied saying "Yes, the product's customers will all be existing Clickbank affiliates"!! So I tactfully dropped it and didn't reply again. But this was a vendor who clearly just hadn't thought it through at all!
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      • Profile picture of the author Lloyd Buchinski
        Originally Posted by ladida View Post

        I thought they had a system set up that wouldn't allow the purchasing account through Paypal (customer) to be the same as the one they send payments to (affiliate).
        If you buy it through Paypal instead of with a credit card, you could very well be right. (I'm not interested enough to check.) But there is nothing in CB to prevent an affiliate from buying through her (or his ) own link. In fact when Jeff Mulligan was in charge (hundreds of internet years ago) he used to send out emails to his special list (including me ) mentioning something he recommended 'and don't forget you can buy through your own affiliate link.'

        Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

        When I see affiliates promoting all the "make money on Clickbank" products which are sold on Clickbank and clearly targeted at existing affiliates, I do instinctively wonder what on earth they think they're doing and why they're doing it. Presumably there's a big turnover of those people, as they all gradually realize that they're rarely getting paid? :confused: :rolleyes:
        Actually there are a lot of products aimed squarely at CB affiliates. 'How to make money with CB' and that sort of stuff. (I'm not interested enough to look up exact titles and products right now.) No reason not to, since the vendor still gets paid exactly the same amount as if the affiliate did not buy it through their own link. Only the rare (more brilliant ) people will notice the affiliate handicap.

        I just saw you mention that a couple of times and in the interests of 'more communication' thought I should mention that. I do have an extensive experience of being wrong though, so I'm totally happy to apologize and take everything back if it's happened again. (sigh)

        Personally I don't worry at all about someone buying through their own CB aff link. The chances of me doing it are about 10000000000 to one. (I did not keep track of the zeros while I held the key down, but it still stands.) If I am interested in something like 'how to learn php' I'm totally familiar with the CB search and might look it up there. The amount of random surfing I do online is almost none. Running into an affiliate site advertising a product and me being interested in it has never happened yet, and I don't expect it to happen.
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        • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
          Banned
          Originally Posted by Lloyd Buchinski View Post

          Actually there are a lot of products aimed squarely at CB affiliates. 'How to make money with CB' and that sort of stuff. (I'm not interested enough to look up exact titles and products right now.) No reason not to, since the vendor still gets paid exactly the same amount as if the affiliate did not buy it through their own link.
          Of course ... indeed. There are loads of them. I'm not suggesting otherwise.

          They're probably, collectively, pretty high gravity products, too, because they'll have an enormous number of affiliates making exactly one sale each, to themselves, and that's a huge gravity-booster (about the biggest you can get)!

          But they may not make too many other affiliate-referred sales!

          (This is, of course, one part of the reason why very high gravity figures can accompany dreadfully low conversion rates - to some people's surprise, apparently).
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  • Profile picture of the author commonjoe
    This is a problem in the IM industry. You can do two things.

    1. Contact Site owner and request the affiliate link be removed.
    2. Do not promote the site.

    If you are promoting a none IM niche this shouldn't be a problem.

    Choose your niche and audience wisely.
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  • Profile picture of the author mad.hat
    This is why I always offer huge bonuses. Even if you are an affiliate its worth buying through my link because the value of bonus is of equal or greater value than what I am promoting.

    It may take some time and resources but putting together a killer bonus packages is essential for any niche but especially internet marketing.
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  • Profile picture of the author jazzboy90
    Well, I got a solution for ya. Why not promoting products other than making money online related? If you promote something like losing weight or building solar panels, they wouldn't know if you're promoting as an affiliate. Makes sense?

    Jazzy
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  • Profile picture of the author Ryan Even
    There are some shopping carts (such as Nanacast) that prevent people from buying from their own affiliate links. That is one of the reasons I started using it for many of my IM products.
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  • Profile picture of the author brendanwenzel
    I understand that most people don't know what affiliate links are. I was just referring to Internet marketers who use this tactic in order to get back some of their money for the purchase instead of giving the person who showed them the credit. I do promote products in other markets, and I do not have this problem.
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  • Profile picture of the author Greg D
    I understand the concern. I am with most people in the thread here. Most people I speak to in the world haven't a stinkin clue what affiliate marketing is.

    If I go beyond 2 sentences, they assume banners on sites are 'rented' by the site owner.

    If a vendor has a small link that is not too obvious, I am willing to bet that 9/10 people not involved in IM never notice it, and out of the 1/10 that do, I bet out of 100 of those maybe 1 may follow through and buy it on their own link.

    I seriously doubt it is a major issue. I remember in the beginning for me, I hadn't a clue what that was and would skip that and when I checked it out, I was overwhelmed and ditched the affiliate page.

    I understand not wanting to lose potential sales from affiliate links. It is however aprt of the business. You cannot guarantee a sale.

    What if you owned a retail store, another business, selling other people's products. An affiliate of sorts. You will have walk ins that will browse and then leave and buy the product across the street from the competitor.

    What would you do here, stop selling said product? What if there was a call for it in the area you had the store open?
    It is the same in IM when promoting other products. You will not close every sale from every referral.

    I agree 'leaks' are an issue, however a line must be drawn.

    Vendors who have a sign up on their sales page - I'm gone
    Vendors who blatantly advertise CB or affiliates on their sales page - bye, bye
    Vendors who MAKE you sign up to 'see more' - gone too

    Now a small link to an affiliate page in one spot off the standard 'eye path', no problem. If I am going to worry so much about the 'possibility' of that becoming a gigantic hole in the fabric of my affiliate livelihood, then I am in the wrong business.

    There is a huge difference between possibility and probability.
    Will a small affiliate link on a sales page lead to lost sales? It is possible but not probable.

    Is the likelihood greater if you are marketing a product that is on CB, blatantly advertised on the sales page, with the vendor getting an email sign up and you are marketing to a list of people in the IM niche? hell yes!

    Use your head.

    If your list is in the photography niche and you market a well laid out CB sales page, with only a small affiliate link on it, is the possibility still there you could leak the sale?
    Yes.
    Is it probable?
    NO!

    There are software programs that are available to vendors to preserve affiliate commissions, such as nanacast (I think mentioned above), and doesn't DAP do it also?

    Greg
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  • Profile picture of the author tpw
    This is really only an issue when you are selling IM products to Internet Marketers...

    Not an issue at all with consumers...

    The thing I hate is the frequent lack of reliable statistics to measure my successes and failures...
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    • Profile picture of the author paulie888
      Originally Posted by tpw View Post

      This is really only an issue when you are selling IM products to Internet Marketers...

      Not an issue at all with consumers...

      The thing I hate is the frequent lack of reliable statistics to measure my successes and failures...
      Bill, I definitely concur on this point. Many of the IM products on Clickbank are aimed at newbies anyway, and they are basically clueless about what an affiliate program is, and how they can game the system for their benefit.

      The affiliate system at Clickbank isn't perfect, but unless you're promoting a product that is primarily aimed at experienced internet marketers, I wouldn't lose too much sleep over your affiliate commissions being stolen by others.

      Paul
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    • Profile picture of the author brendanwenzel
      Originally Posted by tpw View Post

      This is really only an issue when you are selling IM products to Internet Marketers...

      Not an issue at all with consumers...

      The thing I hate is the frequent lack of reliable statistics to measure my successes and failures...
      and that's the exact market I'm talking about the Internet marketers who are experienced. I've never experienced a problem outside of Internet marketing niche, but have multiple occasions that I have actually referred people to talk to on Skype. And given my link to them to buy with, for them just to go and get their own link.

      I agree too about the lack of reliable statistics.
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  • Profile picture of the author mostphere
    In my experience, depend on your niche, those buyers are not really understand if they could buy from their own affiliate link. Too many buyers are not techinals enough to understand affiliate links.

    What I want to focus is, does the product really convert. Sometimes, when I have no sales but my affiliate site is in first page, it simply just because the product not convert, not because they buy through their affiliate link. I know this because no second tier commission I got from that sale if exist.
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    • Profile picture of the author David Maler
      My biggest "peeve" with being an affiliate is lack of control over the sales process.

      But then again, I'm not good at creating products so who am I to complain
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  • Profile picture of the author miklanderson2
    Try offering up bonuses the buyer can only get from buying from your site. I've noticed that most of the sites pushing high-dollar Clickbank items offer up pretty good bonuses for buying from them. If you offer enough good stuff, it may convince people to buy from your link instead of their own Clickbank account.
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  • Profile picture of the author Stylo
    yeah interesting, loop hole
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  • Profile picture of the author Vero44
    Ahhh, very clever! Note to self, must get into list management!
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  • Profile picture of the author celente
    yeah i hate when you sort it all out, and send to your affiliate page, then they change that to an optin page, to steal traffic you sent to get names and emails.

    I think some do it on purpose after they start getting good traffic, and other no so much. It is damn well annoying. As they get 100% of the sale and the funnel optin as well. Buggers!
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      [DELETED]
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      • Profile picture of the author buxnut
        there is one thing that I really really hate whenever an affiliate for a product and that is whenever the sales page has a link to become an affiliate on it. I mean, I worked so hard to get traffic there and when the traffic gets there they see a link at the bottom to become an affiliate and then they sign up to become an affiliate to buy it through their own link.
        I think you'll find this practice happening mostly in the IM niche. If you market to other niches, your purchasers are not likely to know what an affiliate is. If its still a concern for you, perhaps you could talk to your affiliate manager about deep-linking to a page that doesn't include a link where others can sign up as an affiliate.
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        • Profile picture of the author The Great Gordino
          Go to amazon home page and at the bottom there is a 'join associates' link.
          Same with ebay.

          They are promoting their business - it's the same with clickbank vendors.
          It's *their* product, the design of their sales page is their business - anyone can *choose* to promote it or not, no-one is forced.

          I agree that using or switching to an opt-in page is a different thing, but a link on how to be an affiliate? Fair enough in my view,
          Gordon
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          • Profile picture of the author Apollo-Articles
            Originally Posted by The Great Gordino View Post

            Go to amazon home page and at the bottom there is a 'join associates' link.
            Same with ebay.

            They are promoting their business - it's the same with clickbank vendors.
            It's *their* product, the design of their sales page is their business - anyone can *choose* to promote it or not, no-one is forced.

            I agree that using or switching to an opt-in page is a different thing, but a link on how to be an affiliate? Fair enough in my view,
            Gordon
            This is true, you also have to remember many visitors to your sites may not even understand what an affiliate is!

            Personally I don't think your find much problems with a small link at the bottom of the page. If its, its mentioned in the body or with a page style link, you may want to contact the owner!

            Sam

            Apollo Articles
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  • Profile picture of the author sap?
    Its very basically universal problem, i am even facing the same situation but i am with same efforts as far as now
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  • Profile picture of the author JackPowers
    That is isolated to the IM niche.
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