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Is Clickbank available for services or only products?

by erichammer
16 replies
Hi folks,

As I've said several times here, I'm in the process of building my two new businesses -- site building and SEO. I've been trying to think of ways to make the launch a success story and in addition to providing great sites at a a great price with a free initial SEO package, I was thinking of running a contest.

The idea is that the first 100 people to order a website development package from me will be entered into a contest for three months of free SEO services (It will be a $150-$200 value. I haven't firmed up what each of my three SEO packages will cost yet [I just know it will be "Silver, Gold and Platinum" levels and have a vague idea of what each package will get] but whatever it is, I plan to offer a prize worth $150-$200).

However, in order to further encourage customers to sign up and get their friends or clients to sign up, I want to offer an affiliate program and offer an additional entry into the contest for each referral. This way I can market it as both a chance to get a free SEO package plus you get a referral fee for each new client who orders a site from me (kind of a win and then win again deal).

Ideally, I'd rather use Clickbank because it gives me less to worry about vis a vis PayPal seeing some kind of unusual activity in my account. However, I'm not sure if Clickbank lets you do services like site development (or SEO for that matter).
#clickbank #products #services
  • Profile picture of the author erichammer
    -bump-

    Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?
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  • Profile picture of the author James.N
    I just scanned over the site - I don't see any reason you can't offer a service. There is a section labeled "Software and Services" and there are services such as background checks in there. The hoplink takes you to a page where you can sign up for their service.

    Also, a quick scan through prohibited products did not mention what you're looking to offer: Vendor and Products Requirements Policy - ClickBank
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  • Profile picture of the author Sitestomp
    Clickbank is for digital products only. I'm 99.99% sure on this.

    No services.
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    • Profile picture of the author dbarnum
      It's clear here that it needs to be a product :
      Vendor and Products Requirements Policy - ClickBank


      ...and see #25 in their prohibited list (also at that link above):

      Professional services


      You can ask them, to be clear on specific services:

      Contact Us - ClickBank


      A place I've used for quick affiliate service programs is Paydotcom, just a hint, if you need a place to turn. There's a 1-time set up fee, I believe, similar to Clickbank's program, so pretty cheap.
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      • Profile picture of the author Brandon Tanner
        Originally Posted by dbarnum View Post

        It's clear here that it needs to be a product :
        Vendor and Products Requirements Policy - ClickBank


        ...and see #25 in their prohibited list (also at that link above):

        Professional services
        As Alexa mentioned, there are several internet-based services that use CB as their payment processor. I believe #25 is in reference to professionally-licensed services rendered at a physical location.
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    • Profile picture of the author Brandon Tanner
      Originally Posted by Sitestomp View Post

      Clickbank is for digital products only. I'm 99.99% sure on this.

      No services.
      Clickbank most definitely allows services, as I have used them in the past for this (I'm 100.00% sure on this ).

      To the OP... I don't wan't to discourage you from using CB for a service-based business, but just keep in mind that anyone who purchases from you via CB can get a refund for any reason (or no reason at all) within 60 days of purchase.

      If you're selling a digital product, it's no big deal when you get an occasional refund. But what you don't want to do is spend hours doing a custom job for client, and then they turn around and refund you.

      Just something to consider.
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      • Profile picture of the author icegin
        Originally Posted by Brandon Tanner View Post

        Clickbank most definitely allows services, as I have used them in the past for this (I'm 100.00% sure on this ).

        To the OP... I don't wan't to discourage you from using CB for a service-based business, but just keep in mind that anyone who purchases from you via CB can get a refund for any reason (or no reason at all) within 60 days of purchase.

        If you're selling a digital product, it's no big deal when you get an occasional refund. But what you don't want to do is spend hours doing a custom job for client, and then they turn around and refund you.

        Just something to consider.
        I wasn't aware that people marketed services on CB. Since that's the case, I would listen to Brandon Tanner and perhaps reconsider offering services this way. Is there a reason you want to offer your services through CB? Why not just handle payments etc. yourself?
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  • Profile picture of the author jamesrich1
    Clickbank forces you to have a 60 day return. That might be why people don't offer services there. If you are ok with having a money back guarantee even after you perform the work then going with Clickbank should not be a problem.
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      There are hundreds of services for sale on ClickBank.
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  • Profile picture of the author toddr
    Best Way To Know Is contact tech support on CB . Your "Service" Will have to be 50% commissions in order to get super affliates and to do that you need to mark up your original price.
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  • Profile picture of the author dbarnum
    There is no need to mark up services 50% to get affiliates, just an FYI. Products maybe, but not services.
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  • Profile picture of the author erichammer
    Hi folks,

    Thanks to everyone for the advice. I just wanted to address some of the points folks brought up here.

    First of all, I found out that it's likely academic whether or not services can be offered on CB because they do mention that they want whatever you are selling delivered within 24 hours (and this is pretty much impossible with website development -- if I have five orders, I could do that, but if I have 50 orders, I can't possibly get them all done inside of 24 hours and I intend to make that clear in my marketing materials).

    Regarding the question of money back guarantee, I actually do plan to offer one with a caveat. The money back guarantee will say that I delete the content I created for you before I refund your money. Yes, I'll have to eat the cost of custom services, but like this, I should be able to weed out most of the scammers who are trying to grab freebies. I feel the benefit that I'll get (i.e. getting the fence sitters to commit) will outweigh the disadvantage of occasionally having to eat the cost of my time for custom work which is not useful for something else.

    Finally, regarding affiliates, I don't need super affiliates for something like this. Heck, I don't want super affiliates. It would be a disaster for me if I sold something like 500 sites inside of 24 hours. I need to be able to offer a reasonable turnaround time and I figure I can realistically do around 100 sites a month. Yes, I could hire more people to help me, but I definitely don't want to end up overwhelmed right from the get go and be rushing to find people on the fly to help me fill an unexpected rush of orders.

    I want to scale up slowly. And ironically, by the time I'm ready to handle 500 orders coming in within a day, I'll also be at the point where I'll likely be charging more and thus able to afford to offer the 50% commissions. I was thinking for my launch something more like 20% and if I get 5-10 referrals from one person, that would be great.

    Bottom line, if I can get 100 orders in within a week or two and be busy for the next month filling them, I'll be thrilled. I've even been considering a plan to stop accepting new orders whenever I have 100 orders in the queue since I don't want customers to have to wait more than one month to get their orders (still not 100% sure on this because I don't want to turn customers away -- I'm debating between that and sending out an automated notice letting them know that the wait will be especially long and offering a refund if they need it done sooner).

    Finally, regarding processing stuff myself, I plan to offer that as well. However, I need a service which will let me do affiliates and I'd rather not have to deal with manually setting that up. I also would prefer a service which pays me in a lump sum rather than with lots of individual payments because I don't want to risk headaches from PayPal (even though what I sell is more concrete and isn't exactly the pie in the sky info products that they tend to frown on).

    Thanks again folks for all the suggestions.

    Eric
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    • Profile picture of the author dbarnum
      Hi,

      So as to not mislead, I asked at Clickbank to help here.

      TIP - TIP - TIP

      Just an FYI - -because many people do something somewhere does not mean it's OK. Like at eBay, people started adding URLs to ebook covers because a well-known marketer said it was OK. It wasn't. Many get banned due to this, including the well-known marketer, as I understand.

      OK, back to Clickbank and services...

      So to play this safe, I asked Clickbank, to hopefully save mishaps down the road on this issue. And here is what Clickbank's reply is today, so you know it's current:

      My question to Clickbank:


      Can we sell services here, ie not professional ones like attorney services, but writing services, virtual assistant services, etc.?

      Thanks!
      Their reply today:


      Hello Diana,

      Thank you for your inquiry! I'm afraid only members of our Business Services Team are able to determine whether or not your product is acceptable to be sold by ClickBank.

      Once you have set the product up within your account (Get Started as a Vendor), please submit a product approval request.

      You will receive a response from the Business Services Team within 3-5 business days.

      For more information on what types of products are available to be sold by ClickBank, please see the following article:

      What Products Are Allowed?

      Please let me know if I can be of further assistance.


      Thank you,

      Shane
      ClickBank.com Client Support
      http://www.clkbank.com

      So just check with them, bottom line. You don't want to build your business on sand, but on a solid foundation.
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      • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
        Banned
        Originally Posted by dbarnum View Post

        Just an FYI - -because many people do something somewhere does not mean it's OK.
        Without wanting to detract from this observation (which is clearly right!), Diana, please appreciate that there are hundreds of services for sale at ClickBank.

        All of them have been approved by ClickBank.

        Many of them have been offered for sale there for many years.

        I'm a longstanding affiliate for some of them, myself.

        There are even classifications in ClickBank's Marketplace in which almost everything listed is actually a service.

        I realise, of course, that you're not suggesting that ClickBank isn't an appropriate place to sell services (that would be ridiculous!), but just to clarify this again, with no ambiguity, for anyone interested, especially after some of the factual misstatements higher up in the thread: the answer to the OP's question is Yes: hundreds of services have been sold at ClickBank for many years. Questions just don't come much more "black and white" than this one.
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        • Profile picture of the author dbarnum
          Totally understand, Alexa. I'm just advising people to "get it in writing." Better safe than sorry, as the saying goes.

          I really hate to see people have the rug pulled out from under their programs due to a wrong set up from the get-go. Just saying...
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          • Profile picture of the author celente
            Originally Posted by dbarnum View Post

            Totally understand, Alexa. I'm just advising people to "get it in writing." Better safe than sorry, as the saying goes.

            I really hate to see people have the rug pulled out from under their programs due to a wrong set up from the get-go. Just saying...
            we have several products and 1 service on clickbank.

            I make my living on there, and can say I know that clickbank is clamping down, but they have a set procedure for accepting a product or service first. They do not just see your email, and tick a box and send you an email saying you have been approved. no no. It doesnt work like that.
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