Ridiculous ClickBank Rule

[TiffanyDow]

Of all the topics they could ban...I just got declined for my eBook on FriendFeed and here's what they said:

"Thank you for your submission. Unfortunately ClickBank is not able to accept this product. ClickBank's forbidden activity policy does not allow for the sale of products about marketing through Craigslist or social networking sites like YouTube, MySpace, and Facebook."

Huh? They have tons of products on web 2.0 sites - Squidoo, MySpace included.

What a crock.
Glad we have PDC.

[Derek Pankaew]

****. I'm about to launch a YouTube product. Crap.

EDIT: Actually, I'm just gonna take out all references to YouTube and change it to vidoe marketing. I wonder if I'll get in trouble if I got approved and then changed it back later?

[Dan C. Rinnert]

If they won't accept my eBook, I've just wasted two weeks of my time. :-(

But, they have an eBook on selling on Craigslist, as well as eBooks for Twitter and MySpace marketing, plus YouTube and Facebook. Maybe those were all grandfathered in?

[Paul M]

Am surprised considering the other crap they allow on there, such as
paid surveys and other shady products.

I would guess some of these super sized web 2.0 sites could be pulling
clickbanks strings to cut down on the use of there sites for marketing purposes.

If they are, expect PDC and other networks to follow suit.




-paul

[TiffanyDow]

I'm having a REAL bad day and this was the cherry.

[Chris Lockwood]

They are very inconsistent.

Many products have been turned down because they were about listbuilding, or dared to mention the concept. Yet there is a product on there which is not only on that topic, but the domain name and product name have "listbuilding" in them.

They objected to one of mine because it mentioned MySpace. It didn't teach anything about MySpace, just had one sentence along the lines of "MySpace is a social networking site."

I guess it depends which color the monkey hits with the dart that day.

[nicholasb]

try click2sell for selling products they only charge you when an affiliate makes a sale, of course the downfall is you will have to recruit the affiliates your self, since they are still pretty small

[Chris Lockwood]

Originally Posted by Paul M

I would guess some of these super sized web 2.0 sites could be pulling click-
banks strings to cut down on the use of there sites for marketing purposes.

I really doubt that, because you can use any of a zillion other ways to sell a product on those topics... not to mention you can go to a regular bookstore and find books on Facebook and similar topics.

I'm sticking with the monkey.

[Willie Crawford]

They were basically asked by some of those sites, and
people who control them, not to allow the sale of
products that promote abusing them.

This happened long ago, but you're right it is
selectively enforced... and subject to seemingly
random interpretation.

There are a lot of forbidden topic... I think even
"list-building" is a topic that you can't technically
sell a product of Clickbank for.

That doesn't mean that you won't see these products
there, and I'm certain that there are people with
products on Clickbank who changed the product
AFTER it was approved.

I can understand your frustration though Tiffany.

Willie

[Derek Pankaew]

I'm certain that there are people with
products on Clickbank who changed the product
AFTER it was approved.

Is this common practice? Does it ever come back and bite you?

[Sheryl Polomka]

What about all the products they have for movie downloads and music downloads - I thought those sort of things weren't legal, yet they have products on Clickbank for them

[LB]

If you are promoting the use of said methods in ways that fully comply with those sites TOS and are additionally not infringing on their intellectual property then I would call Clickbank on the phone and discuss it with them. They are actually very easy to deal with.

They have to deal with thousands of product submissions so they can't fully examine each one. A little personal contact can make all the difference.

[Sipboy3000]

I also heard that Google is about ready to put the smack down on people promoting these products through Adwords. If they do it, everyone else will follow.

I believe this is why forums like this will flourish. The big players are trying to control the internet, but they don't know the resilience of the user.

We Shall Overcome!

[Derek Pankaew]

Originally Posted by LB

If you are promoting the use of said methods in ways that fully comply with those sites TOS and are additionally not infringing on their intellectual property then I would call Clickbank on the phone and discuss it with them. They are actually very easy to deal with.

They have to deal with thousands of product submissions so they can't fully examine each one. A little personal contact can make all the difference.

Isn't the use of terms like "YouTube" or "MySpace" trademark infringement?

[~DesmondOwens]

Wow that kinda sucks do you have a backup plan?

Desmond

[ebooks4u]

Clickbank rejected a membership site from me where I wanted to sell Ebooks with resell rights every month, because they do not endorse the use of resell rights. But do a search and you'll find plenty of others who do just that via CB. What are they talking about anyway?

[Mike Hill]

Yeah it seems like it's a classic case of who you know... I was declined a few years ago of my product about List Building. There were tons of products on list building and email marketing and the funny thing is there are even more on their today.

Their rules are self serving that's for sure and it's a classic case of who you know!

Frustrating to say the least...

Mike Hill

[Chris Kent]

If you feel you deserve clarification just pick up the phone and call them.

[Emailrevealer]

They rejected me because they say they no longer allow investigative services. Yet they allow one of my competitors.

[Steven Wagenheim]

Folks, Clickbank gives you only 2 advantages that other marketplaces either
don't give you or don't do as well.

1. Exposure to affiliates.
2. Paying of commissions.

Now, let's look at the reality of the above.

Unless you really go all out on a campaign to attract affiliates, just having
Clickbank host your product isn't going to suddenly get you 300 plus
gravities. Trust me on this. I've been putting products through Clickbank
for years and have never had a gravity above 5 simply because I don't
actively go after affiliates. So if that's your sole reasoning for using Clickbank,
forget it. Go with a payment processor where you can make whatever
product you want.

As far as paying of commissions, no affiliates, no commissions to pay.

Plus, going through another processor, you can designate any refund
policy that you want. For all my new products, I offer 6 months. With
Clickbank, you're roped into 60 days...period.

So unless you know you're going to get tons of affiliates and don't want
the hassle of paying them yourself, going with Clickbank makes absolutely
NO sense. If I'm not mistaken, their fees are higher than PayPal and just
about every other processor I've seen.

So if you've got a product that Clickbank doesn't want, unless you can
really take advantage of those 2 points, you're not losing anything by
going with somebody else.

At least that's the way I look at it.

[Derek Pankaew]

Hey Steven -

How many affiliate sales did you get a month on a 5 Gravity product?

Best wishes,

- Derek

[LonNaylor]

Originally Posted by Derek Pankaew

****. I'm about to launch a YouTube product. Crap.

EDIT: Actually, I'm just gonna take out all references to YouTube and change it to vidoe marketing. I wonder if I'll get in trouble if I got approved and then changed it back later?

I see your edit but I was going to tell you from experience...

If it has to do with YouTube in the title...if it has the word YouTube on the Pitch or Thank You page...

It will be rejected.

[Steven Wagenheim]

Originally Posted by Derek Pankaew

Hey Steven -

How many affiliate sales did you get a month on a 5 Gravity product?

Best wishes,

- Derek

Not enough to sweat about Clickbank rejecting my product.

All kidding aside, there is no way to tell.

My first product had a gravity of 2.

I made 200 sales a month for a year.

Why?

I sold 100 a month and 1 affiliate of mine, good friend of mine too, sold
100 a month. He was something. If it weren't for him, that product would
have never taken off like it did.

But usually, with a gravity of 5, I'll get about 10 sales month. Maybe 20 if
it's a good month.

But I don't worry about that stuff because I don't rely on affiliates. If I
did, I'd be broke.

That's why I'm saying, if you aren't going to actively go after affiliates,
then using Clickbank makes very little sense.

[Steve Mount]

My first ever product was related to Craigslist. I found out this stupid Clickbank rule after I created the product too

Ah well, it still did very well through other affiliate programs

[Paul Myers]

Willie,

My understanding is that CB will approve list building products as long as they recommend using confirmed opt-in and CAN-SPAM compliance.

If they become aware of anything that involves what us old-timers call network abuse, they seem to stomp on it pretty heavily. They got on the guy from MMM, as I hear it, about his recommendation that customers go to forums and post a lot as a way to get advertising via sig files.

I don't know anything abou the 2.0 properties asking them to curtail those sales. I do know that selling anything that involves network abuse tends to draw the attention of some blocklist operators. It would not surprise me to discover that was a consideration.


Paul

[ildarius]

There were tons of products on list building and email marketing and the funny thing is there are even more on their today.

Did those ebooks say something like: "for affiliate marketing I would start with Clickbank which is probably the best place to start [...]"

TiffanyDow

Could it be that your disclaimer is not solid enough?

[TiffanyDow]

Originally Posted by ildarius

Did those ebooks say something like: "for affiliate marketing I would start with Clickbank which is probably the best place to start [...]"



Could it be that your disclaimer is not solid enough?

Well that's not the reason she gave me - she said they weren't taking products on social networks period.

[lavaleekathy]

Clickbank can be at times a little inconsistent. I think some products have been refused because they were solely about generating lists or even mentioned them in the submitted concept. I'm pretty sure though that there is a least one product in there that actually has the name listbuilding in both the title and topic. Strange one, that one!

[p2y]

It's an easy problem to get around, they just don't want you using the trademarks as a selling point in the product names. So instead of youtube, call it "video maketing", instead of "twitter", call it "micro blogging".

[TiffanyDow]

Originally Posted by p2y

It's an easy problem to get around, they just don't want you using the trademarks as a selling point in the product names. So instead of youtube, call it "video maketing", instead of "twitter", call it "micro blogging".

AHA!

So mine will be the aggregate RSS marketing system

[jacktackett]

Stupid question time - given that I've not put a new product up on clickbank in a while, but do they have to approve all new products in your account, or just new accounts?

Also, to point out a past thread of mine, what would folks like to see in a clickbank competitor? (Apologies Tiffany - don't mean to high jack the thread)
What do you want to see in a clickbank/paypal competitor?
thanks,
--Jack

[Dan C. Rinnert]

Originally Posted by p2y

It's an easy problem to get around, they just don't want you using the trademarks as a selling point in the product names. So instead of youtube, call it "video maketing", instead of "twitter", call it "micro blogging".

Not according to their "forbidden activity" list:

"j. The sale of products about marketing through Craigslist or social networking sites like YouTube, MySpace, and Facebook."

[spoiledpups]

wow that is a surprise, are they trying to push more business to daydotcom?

[TiffanyDow]

Originally Posted by jacktackett

Stupid question time - given that I've not put a new product up on clickbank in a while, but do they have to approve all new products in your account, or just new accounts?
--Jack

The products themselves

[Harvey Segal]

Originally Posted by jacktackett

Stupid question time - given that I've not put a new product up on clickbank in a while, but do they have to approve all new products in your account, or just new accounts?

The first product in each account

Harvey

[TiffanyDow]

Originally Posted by Harvey.Segal

The first product in each account

Harvey

But isn't it true that only the first one will show up in the marketplace for affiliates to promote? That's what they told me, hence the need to continue creating a ****load of accounts

[Harvey Segal]

Originally Posted by TiffanyDow

But isn't it true that only the first one will show up in the marketplace for affiliates to promote? That's what they told me, hence the need to continue creating a ****load of accounts

You can only have one landing page in an account - and
that's what shows in the Marketplace. Generally, but not
necessarily, it will be for your first item.

However the question asked was, I believe, whether items
after the first in an account need to be approved and the
answer is that they do not.

Harvey

[elliot]

Ahh crap!, and here is me just finished a ebook all about Twitter, that was all ready for CB!.

This is like getting to a birthday party after all the cake is gone!!.

I submitted a support request before I even attempted to submit my product, I'll let you know how that pans out, if not I'll call them up and ask them, man to overzealous new CB employee!.