BANKCLICK - A great opportunity for the technically able

[kenj]

I am amazed at the number of times that people moan and doubt clickbank.

Why doesn't someone else set up with a similar operation? I would do it today if I knew how but I do not know how.

This is surely a great business opportunity for someone to make a huge amount of money.

I have a great product that I simply sell myself. No affiliates at all.
I am concerned about putting it on clickbank because of all the reported issues. I makes a few commissions for their products which is a nice add on to my own business.

So - is there anyone brave enough to step forward?

[Brad Gosse]

Big cash layout these days to become a merchant that does processing on that scale and for others.

Most banks want you to furnish them with millions in cash just to "insure" your accounts.

[AtticusBaker]

That's an excellent point. ARE there any competitors to Clickbank? Any market could benefit from competition, but I can't seem to think of one off the top of my head.

I'm afraid I don't have millions of dollars to set up an "alternative", either

[Harvey Segal]

Originally Posted by kenj

I would do it today if I knew how but I do not know how.

Don't let a trivial problem like that stop you

Harvey

[forous]

People are adding products to clickbank everyday so don't let other people problem stop you.
For all you know you might not have the same problem.
Follow the rules and you will be fine.
Nothing is perfect, but as long as you get the result you need.
Other have tried and they could not keep up with clickbank.
You can try other programs with use paypal, if you don't like click bank.
You can try Rapid Action Profits.

[terryd]

People love to bitch and moan about clickbank but they never do anything about it.

The reason no one sets up a similar situation is because it's not as easy as everyone thinks, if it were it would have been done long ago now.

There are people who easily earn six figures on this forum and even they don't take it on.....

[delac23]

I heard of

click2sell.eu

[LB]

Originally Posted by terryd

People love to bitch and moan about clickbank but they never do anything about it.

The reason no one sets up a similar situation is because it's not as easy as everyone thinks, if it were it would have been done long ago now.

There are people who easily earn six figures on this forum and even they don't take it on.....

You'd likely need a lot more than six-figures in the current political/economic climate to get a merchant account that allows what Clickbank does.

A lot of people don't remember what is was like in the late 90s early 2000s era. There were a ton of services like CB- most of them went bankrupt (and more than one of them owed me money when they did). Some just mismanaged things and many were brought down by organized crime/fraud. Others were closed by the merchant providers.

[terryd]

Originally Posted by LB

You'd likely need a lot more than six-figures in the current political/economic climate to get a merchant account that allows what Clickbank does.

A lot of people don't remember what is was like in the late 90s early 2000s era. There were a ton of services like CB- most of them went bankrupt (and more than one of them owed me money when they did). Some just mismanaged things and many were brought down by organized crime/fraud. Others were closed by the merchant providers.

Agreed, but for some reason some people seem to think that it would be so simple to set up something like clickbank when that is simply not the case at all.

[Lens Magician]

Paydotcom.com is a competitor of CB. There is also Plimus.com and e-Junkie.com. I have used all three sites as an affiliate. In terms of overall size and comparison to CB, I really do not know.

[Kay King]

Many use CB because they handle the affiliate payments. PDC has payments made from seller directly to affiliate - and sellers can disappear on occasion without paying.

My conclusion is that CB has no direct competition because it's not a high profit business. Slow to upgrade, bad search capabilities, $1 maintenance fees, etc don't indicate a business that reinvests profit in improvement.

kay

[terryd]

Originally Posted by Kay King

Many use CB because they handle the affiliate payments. PDC has payments made from seller directly to affiliate - and sellers can disappear on occasion without paying.

My conclusion is that CB has no direct competition because it's not a high profit business. Slow to upgrade, bad search capabilities, $1 maintenance fees, etc don't indicate a business that reinvests profit in improvement.

kay

I would disagree about it not being a high profit business.

Paydotcom makes over $3 million a year and they wouldn't do anywhere near the volume that clickbank does, I couldn't even imagine how much CB makes.

[GarrieWilson]

Originally Posted by Lens Magician

Paydotcom.com is a competitor of CB. There is also Plimus.com and e-Junkie.com. I have used all three sites as an affiliate. In terms of overall size and comparison to CB, I really do not know.

Paydotcom and e-junkie aren't CB competitors as they don't accept payments for you or handle affiliate payments. They are an affiliate tracking system that has a marketplace and a delivery/download "protection" system.

For services like CB:

eSellerate | Home
RegNow.com - Sell Software Online - Electronic Software & Shareware Marketing & Distribution
http://www.2checkout.com

Garrie

[Josh Anderson]

Why doesn't someone else set up with a similar operation? I would do it today if I knew how but I do not know how.

When you say "similar" what do you mean?

Do you mean both processing the payment and paying the affiliates and just sending people a check for doing so?

I have set up three different affiliate networks to not just compete with Clickbank but offer far more features and benefits at a more affordable price than the 7.5% +$1 per transaction clickbank discount rate.

But we are not payment processors. Our publishers get paid direct and they pay the affiliates direct.

To be able to do the kind of volume and handle the kind of risk that clickbank handles as a "reseller" for thousands of publisher's products can be challenging. It's not simple to get the backing to become a third party payment processor like clickbank is. 2checkout recently started doing it but they are already an established third party processor.

The networks we have setup are:

Mixiv.com - Podcasting, Digital Product Delivery & Relationship Marketing Made Easy
http://premiumcast.com
Nanacast

Our intention though is not so much to compete with clickbank... because we think we cater to a different more professional market.

Clickbank really only offers 3 main benefits that make it attractive:

1. Its a payment processor. They take the money and they pay you a percentage.
2. They have a large affiliate base in their network. Smart marketers take advantage of this... the majority of publishers do not get much benefit from it though.
3. They pay your affiliates for you.

Clickbank is like a convenience store... its not the best service, the food sucks, sometimes the bathroom is out of order, and its far more expensive than the others.

But its fast and convenient.

I just wonder why more people do not ask themselves why the Armand Morin's, Yanik Silvers, and John Reeses, and Frank Kerns of the IM world don't use clickbank ;-)

[AverageGuy]

be real, it takes lots $ and effort to be a clickbank competitor.

for example, paydotcom, after several years, even you have the resource like paydotcom has, it is still far away from being a real competitor to clickbank.


david

Originally Posted by kenj

So - is there anyone brave enough to step forward?

[ripsnorta2]

You don't have to start so big that you need millions.

Build your own CB work-a-like for your own products, and then slowly open it up to other producers. Be careful who you let in so that you can ensure quality products that convert well and reduce refunds/chargebacks.

Use Paypal business to start to process, or set up a small merchant account through authorize or the like.

It'll still be a huge amount of work, but if you set it up right, you could start small and work your way up to be a real competitor.

[jacktackett]

Kenj,
I started a similiar thread back in January:
What do you want to see in a clickbank/paypal competitor?

I think there is room in the market for a high end competitor, but as pointed out in both threads, one of the hard things to get around are the rules imposed by Visa/Master card etc. My thoughts around that was to purchase a small regional bank, get some of the bail out money and approach creating the competitor from that end.

There are lots of compliancy/regulation issues - and maybe that's why click bank and paypal can operate the way they do - since they're not bound by the same rules since they're not a banking institution.

As for the amount made - I could not get the proper reports to get an idea for clickbank (being a private company). I know they've sent out press releases about having a million dollar day before. Doubt that's a sustained rate, but if Mike F's paydotcom does 3MM/Year, then Clickbank has to be an order of magnitude above that.

cheers,
--Jack