Am i being paranoid, or is someone hijacking my sales?

by HCRoyo
20 replies
Hi Warriors,

Good day to all of you. I just want to ask if this is happening to you. Just a week ago, I was not able to sell anything and as the trend is going I think i am gonna hit the "zero" mark. Now, I am used to getting consistent sales before with just 20-40 hops I usually get a sale.

My sales started to plummet and I am not selling anything until now. The hops have somewhat decreased, but 20-40 hops was enough for me before to get a sale. Last Jan 20-24, I had the most number of hops (Almost 200+ combined. I checked CB Analytics and it pointed out I had almost 100+ order form impression), and it resulted to no sale.

I checked my webmaster tools to see if I am penalized or something. I am not. I am still ranking for my keywords in the 1st-3rd pages. Traffic is consistent. But I noticed one thing when I looked at my Webmaster Tools. A website (that i did not know) was linking to my site. That site had almost 20 links to me and I did not even know why. I checked that site as it was really weird. And when I went to the site it was full of malware and Avast kept saying "threat has been detected blah blah"... all of the pages of that site was like that and IT WAS LINKING to my money site.

Now, I already blocked that site from my Cpanel, but is it possible that my sales were stolen by someone or something? I just find it hard to believe I am not making any sales especially now that my niche is hot. I usually get 1-2 sales a day before last week (I remember now, I went to THAT MALICIOUS SITE last week because it looked familiar when I came back to check it after looking at google webmaster tools. It was a site that had some video uploads of a Japanese TV Series. Just made me curious, last week was when all of my sales started to go bye-bye...)

I also saw that some recent reports of sales hijacking was happening too...
Here is the link (clean link ClickBank Sales Getting Stolen)

Am i a victim of stolen commissions? Will i just wait for it to fix itself? I am getting much more anxious by the minute..... Just to let you know i cloak all my links through a PHP redirect on my own site
#clickbank #hijacking #paranoid #sales #stolen
  • Profile picture of the author RichardDean
    That's why you promote your own products...

    I have had over 8,000 in affiliate sales stolen from Mike Chen when he first opened up Make your own software. Computer Glitch he said but never paid... it stinks but happens everyday.

    Using a 3rd party system who wrote the program they could easily write into the program and hide the fact they are taking some off the top.

    I heard that CB was in a lawsuit already for not paying... not verified just heard.

    So best to promote your own products if you're worried about or can't afford to take the loss.

    Hope that helps
    Richard
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    • Profile picture of the author HCRoyo
      Originally Posted by RichardDean View Post

      That's why you promote your own products...

      I have had over 8,000 in affiliate sales stolen from Mike Chen when he first opened up Make your own software. Computer Glitch he said but never paid... it stinks but happens everyday.

      Using a 3rd party system who wrote the program they could easily write into the program and hide the fact they are taking some off the top.

      I heard that CB was in a lawsuit already for not paying... not verified just heard.

      So best to promote your own products if you're worried about or can't afford to take the loss.

      Hope that helps
      Richard
      Hi Dean,
      Yeah, that would be the most optimal thing to do.. but sadly I have no knack for creating my own products. The best things I know how to do are : play the guitar and write songs LOL
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  • Profile picture of the author richgrad
    Start a new cb account and swap your current links with the new affiliate id to test. I had a problem with a previous affiliate id in which sales weren't properly tracked as well. When I opened a new account and used the new affiliate id, the sales went back up again.

    Worth a try =)
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  • Profile picture of the author HCRoyo
    hmm but i still have some money left on my CB account... if I changed the links (maybe add some tracking number to my current affiliate links) will that change a thing? Or should i really just make another account? .. Still no sales for almost 10 days already ... weird =(

    EDIT: Weird, but after I posted this rant, Changed My Clickbank Password and blocked that stupid site, I GOT A SALE!

    Hmm... weird weird....
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  • Profile picture of the author MaryK
    You do have a product - you write songs and play guitar. I too play guitar and learned a lot from videos on the web (I also took lessons). So, create a video on basic guitar playing and upwards. Chord charts etc. etc. different styles of playing.

    Also, you could write or create a video on 'how to write your own songs/music'.

    There are some really easy to use video software programs on the web, if I can use them anyone can.

    Good luck and so sorry to hear your sales are being hijacked.
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  • Profile picture of the author humbledmarket
    Banned
    I think it's pretty common to have such seasons. I've had times when 20 hops converted a product and then times where over couple weeks with 100 hops didn't work. IF you're suspicious why don't you send click bank or the merchant an email to see what's up. Try promoting a different product as well and see how it works.
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  • Profile picture of the author Glen1
    I would wait up to a week and consider changing cb accounts. You can also report sites to google - might be worth a try (linking to you with malware etc).
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  • Profile picture of the author HCRoyo
    Hmm, i got a sale now after i changed my old links and blocked that malicious website from my Cpanel... coincidence? That was almost a week of no sale ...
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  • Profile picture of the author Troy_Phillips
    You were being cookie stuffed my friend
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    • Profile picture of the author zaco
      Originally Posted by Troy_Phillips View Post

      You were being cookie stuffed my friend
      Hey Troy,

      I don't think that was cookie stuffing, from my understanding cookie stuffing happens on u r website so it's either you do it or someone who hacked u r site can do it.. so blocking a website won't effect.. unless I could be wrong tho..
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      • Profile picture of the author Troy_Phillips
        That used to be true but it is actually possible to even use a you tube vid to stuff now.

        Plus you mentioned a hacked site. Now just for the sake of conversation, what do you think would be the smartest way to profit from hacking a site?

        Doing as many of the hackers do and use a place holder proudly displaying their trophy (most of those are injecting things a lot lore dangerous than a cookie) or ...

        Hacking the site, wiring it to set cookies, and then leaving quietly, allowing you to continue business as usual?

        Then there is, the more than remote chance, I missed this by a mile and it is something completely different.





        Originally Posted by zaco View Post

        Hey Troy,

        I don't think that was cookie stuffing, from my understanding cookie stuffing happens on u r website so it's either you do it or someone who hacked u r site can do it.. so blocking a website won't effect.. unless I could be wrong tho..
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    • Profile picture of the author aaaa33030
      Originally Posted by Troy_Phillips View Post

      You were being cookie stuffed my friend
      Either you were being cookie stuffed by that malicious site and your cb affiliate id was being redirected to their cb affiliate id

      or they were simply redirecting your traffic to their site. This happened with one of my websites. When I checked google analytics all of my hits were 0 except for referral hits coming from this malicious site. They have such a software on blackhat forum
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  • Profile picture of the author Randall Magwood
    Are you a vendor or a Clickbank affiliate?
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  • Profile picture of the author HCRoyo
    Hi Randall,
    I am an affiliate... i hope i start to sell now... i already changed my password and i also checked my site for malware.. so far nothing is found ... hmm i have heard this thing happening to people since last december... scary if we can't find what is happening
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  • Profile picture of the author seowarriors
    Well......few month back i saw a software selling on different foum at price of $1K which was actually a toolbar install in browser which also have keylogger function. When any user type any keyword in google it shows click bank link at top of browser page. Also i could redirect any clickbank link to different link. I think this type of software is behind this scene.
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  • Profile picture of the author jeffreys
    Get a new clickbank account and start afresh. I agree that your affiliate sales being stolen. Other than CB, I don't encounter this problem so far.
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  • Profile picture of the author thetrafficguy
    anytime you see an big, immediate jump in stats (up or down) you need to look into it and never assume its natural.

    It rarely is. And I've had it happen to me dozens of times.

    There is a massive amount of shaving, stealing, and similar things that goes on in affiliate marketing.

    Gotta stay on your toes
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  • Profile picture of the author thetrafficguy
    anytime you see an big, immediate jump in stats (up or down) you need to look into it and never assume its natural.

    It rarely is. And I've had it happen to me dozens of times.

    There is a massive amount of shaving, stealing, and similar things that goes on in affiliate marketing.

    Gotta stay on your toes
    Signature
    "SUPER AFFILIATE EXPOSES Highly Profitable Traffic Source!"

    "Use This Trick To Make An Extra $50 - $500 Per DAY!"
    Click Here To Check It Out Before The Price Jumps Up AGAIN!
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  • Profile picture of the author Val Wilson
    I understand why you are suspicious, and how it seems that someone is stealing your commissions, but my guess is that you are just not getting any sales. When you are getting relatively few hops you can go for what seems like a long time & get no sales. Then you'll get half a dozen in one day - in my experience that is just the way Clickbank sales go. When I first started the same happened to me and I was sure something was wrong. I did nothing (because I did not know what I could do) but then sales started to come in again, and when I averaged sales out over a longer time (say a few weeks rather than a few days), everything was as should be.My advice - sit tight.
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  • Profile picture of the author HCRoyo
    Hi guys,
    thank you for all your suggestions. I tried checking my own aff links and I saw my name on the order page so that would be enough for me, i guess. I think i will just follow Val's advise and keep my head low and continue forward building the site.
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