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Am I the only one that didn't know this?

by nimsy
17 replies

I emailed Clickbank because a vendor I was promoting had a link at the bottom of their salespage which took you to the Clickbank payment page, but another link near the top of their salespage that took you to a website that had a link that went through their own payment process, thus cutting out the affiliate. So you lose your commission.

I decided to look more closely at the salespage which incidently had changed since I first started promoting the product, because I was sending a lot of traffic to the salespage (hops) which was not converting.

This is what they had to say:
"ClickBank vendors are permitted to offer alternative payment options as long as
they still continue to offer payment through ClickBank as well. If this is a
concern for you, you may wish to consider promoting a different vendor that only
offers the ClickBank order form and no other."

Really!!! So I am sending my hard won traffic but not getting paid for it!
I had no idea that Clickbank vendors could do that. Needless to say I have stopped promoting that vendor and will look more closely at the links on the vendor's page in future!

Am I the only one that didn't know this?
#affiliate #clickbank #commission #traffic #vendor
  • Profile picture of the author webfighter
    No you were not. I've seen threads here with affiliates being duped by the vendor by this very mean. I always presumed that what those vendors are doing must be against the terms of service of clickbank.

    Guess I was wrong!
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    • Profile picture of the author nimsy
      Me too - I thought that it was against Clickbank's terms of service...can't believe it isn't!
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      • Profile picture of the author AnniePot
        Yes, I was caught like that a while back. Again, it was an "update" the vendor made to his website and it took me a while to catch on.

        These days I never even consider selling for a vendor if their sales page has any kind of leak, be it sign up for anything, join my mailing list, get a free chapter, popups, pop-unders, ANYTHING!

        I also check back again on a regular monthly schedule.

        Some vendors are very obliging and will offer you a clean landing page. These are the ones I trust and work with the most. So, if you especially like a product, but the sales page has leaks, contact the vendor and see if he will work with you.
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  • Profile picture of the author idreesfarooq
    Same here and I have also contacted with Clickbank on this issue and got almost same reply as you. Can't do anything except to promote other product.
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  • Profile picture of the author RevenueGal
    It definitely should be against their terms...or at least they should alert affiliates in some way...but then this could take hours of labor constantly monitoring all the merchant's sites.

    Some merchants even use more than one affiliate network...so affiliates who think they are at least getting their visitors "cookied" for future sales are losing out to other affiliates who are promoting them from another network.

    So, this really just shows that you must do your own homework thoroughly before choosing to promote any vendor. Period!
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    • Profile picture of the author 123cmaria
      Nimsy thanks. I hadn't noticed this yet byt I definitely will pay more attention. I agree this shouldn't be allowed by Clickbank it is not fair.
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  • Profile picture of the author bigwillstyle
    I've used clickbank personally and they have always paid me on time and there customer service has always been really great. I think that sometimes they don't catch all of the problems with their site though.
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  • Profile picture of the author Tsnyder
    Just one of the many reasons I refuse to do anything
    with CB. Your next email should be to the vendor...
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  • Profile picture of the author williamrs
    I always see how the payment process works before promoting a CB product (haven't been promoting many lately, though), and if you do it you will see that many vendors use this "strategy" to cut down on the affiliate.

    I don't care about CB terms, IMO, it's very unethical and unfair and I refuse to work with any vendor who uses this absurd practice.


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  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Originally Posted by nimsy View Post

    Am I the only one that didn't know this?
    Well, as you've seen from the replies, "some did - some didn't".

    It's just a "payment leak", as affiliates call it. They're quite common.

    This is why you must check the order page as well as the sales page (carefully!) before becoming an affiliate. Some vendors' "Add To Cart" or "Buy Now" buttons lead to a sandwich page setting out different payment options. :rolleyes: :p

    Originally Posted by williamrs View Post

    I refuse to work with any vendor who uses this absurd practice.
    Likewise.

    The affiliates who do promote these products are presumably doing so not having noticed what's going on.
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  • Profile picture of the author timpears
    If that isn't a blatant way for vendors to screw affiliates, I don't know what is. It amazes me that CB would allow such a thing.

    It is stuff like this that makes me shy away from promoting CB products.
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    • Profile picture of the author offline85
      Originally Posted by timpears View Post

      If that isn't a blatant way for vendors to screw affiliates, I don't know what is. It amazes me that CB would allow such a thing.

      It is stuff like this that makes me shy away from promoting CB products.
      It does boggle minds for large companies like CB not to regulate this......fo sho....
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      • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
        Banned
        With respect, guys, I really think you're slightly missing the point, here.

        Why should ClickBank have to "regulate" this?! :confused:

        They're only a retailer and a bookkeeper. Vendors can sell their products wherever they want. Their "ClickBank sales pages" are hosted on their own sites, not on ClickBank's site.

        It's none of ClickBank's business to tell a vendor where and how he can sell his products.

        Yes, some vendors who do this are deliberately preventing their affiliates from earning commissions, but so - equally clearly - are loads of other things that some vendors do, and when I comment about them (as I do, so regularly) people tell me that I'm a "conspiracy theorist"?! :p

        You can't have it both ways ...
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        • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
          Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

          With respect, guys, I really think you're slightly missing the point, here.

          Why should ClickBank have to "regulate" this?! :confused:

          They're only a retailer and a bookkeeper. Vendors can sell their products wherever they want. Their "ClickBank sales pages" are hosted on their own sites, not on ClickBank's site.

          It's none of ClickBank's business to tell a vendor where and how he can sell his products.

          Yes, some vendors who do this are deliberately preventing their affiliates from earning commissions, but so - equally clearly - are loads of other things that some vendors do, and when I comment about them (as I do, so regularly) people tell me that I'm a "conspiracy theorist"?! :p

          You can't have it both ways ...
          Alexa, you beat me to it.

          Read it again.

          CLICKBANK IS NOT A PAYMENT PROCESSOR.

          They are a retailer/reseller. The credit card processor works with Clickbank, not individual vendors. They exist because so many small vendors could not get merchant accounts, and/or could not afford to set up their own affiliate programs.

          There is nothing unethical about Clickbank "allowing" alternate payment paths. Unless they can put some kind of exclusive distribution clause in their vendor agreement, they have no choice in the matter.

          The best defense is to not waste time or money promoting products with leaky order processes.
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  • Profile picture of the author Bill_Z
    Clickbank vendors who do that are not bright. The whole purpose of using CB in the first place is the huge affiliate market. If I didn't want my product in front of the eyes of thousands of affiliates, I would never use them.

    By doing that vendors are just losing good affiliates who check that stuff carefully...and if they are are experienced they will surely check that stuff. And it's only the good affiliates that get you the majority of your affiliate sales anyway.
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    • Profile picture of the author nimsy
      The initial email from Clickbank really made me nervous about promoting other vendors.
      If it was not against Clickbank's TOS to cut out the affiliate, then what was the point of promoting products from their network, what about the vendor's who offered free reports, autoresponder courses etc.

      So I emailed them again to clarify. This is what they said:
      "If the vendor offers additional products, through a different payment method, we
      do allow that.
      As long as the initial sale is credited to the referring affiliate, the vendor
      is not in violation of our policies."

      OK, that I can live with, as long as the initial sale is credited to me. So the vendor I was promoting was clearly in violation of Clickbank's TOS.
      Although Clickbank have not yet investigated properly and don't seem inclined to...
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      • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
        Banned
        Originally Posted by nimsy View Post

        what was the point of promoting products from their network, what about the vendor's who offered free reports, autoresponder courses etc.
        Well, this thread will show you the answer to that question: very, very few serious affiliates who know what they're talking about and are actually making any real money out of it are willing to promote any of those products at all. For all the reasons given in such detail in the thread linked to.

        Originally Posted by nimsy View Post

        So the vendor I was promoting was clearly in violation of Clickbank's TOS.
        On the contrary. Clearly he wasn't.

        I can't find anything in their TOS that says that. And neither can you.

        And neither can ClickBank, evidently.

        Originally Posted by nimsy View Post

        Although Clickbank have not yet investigated properly and don't seem inclined to...
        They won't: there's nothing for them to "investigate".

        And that's exactly WHY it doesn't say in their TOS that this isn't allowed - because it would quite impossible, unreasonable, impractical and unmanageable for them to have to "investigate" it.

        With respect, I suggest that it may pay you to reconsider your thinking on this issue, because some of your current beliefs are mistaken ones and the reality is that they're probably going to do you no favours at all.

        If you make your product selections unwisely, as an affiliate, then it doesn't matter how well you do everything else, because you won't be earning the money that your work could have produced. If it helps at all, there are some product-selection suggestions here which seem to have been helpful to several other members.
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