Clickbank ripping of affiliates - Someone filing charges against clickbank

[entrepenerd]

Originally Posted by mikkosant

Is there software that will rotate your clickbank id's?

If you're driving traffic through PPC, the quickest way to do this would be using alternate ad variations. That way Google, Yahoo, etc... will be doing the rotation for you.

I just switched up one of my ads to go to a different CB account. I'll see if that brings my sales back up. If it does, then I'll try rotating between the 2 accounts to see if they both stay steady.

[WebScript]

Originally Posted by captivereef

well i had a sale today but it did not show what tracking ID it came from, why the tracking IDS do not work is beyond me???

If it is just one sale, then probably the customer "edited" the link (removing the tracking ID) before clicking it. Or, if they used a bookmark from a previous visit because the bookmark would not normally include the tracking ID. Also, I'm not sure if the tracking ID is saved in the cookies, so clearing cookies and then clicking a bookmark might have that effect ... of course in that case the sale would almost certainly show as affiliate=none, and if you are the affiliate, you would not have seen the sale/commission.

If it is MANY sales, it is probably a Clickbank glitch.

I guess another possibility is that on one or another of your campaigns/redirects, your affiliate link is improperly formed or missing the tracking ID.

[Ghalt]

I have never had a problem with CB. (knocks wood)

...er, at least I THINK I haven't. I still see TIDs with traffic, and the conversion rate is consistent with what it's always been. And the visits are consistent with the traffic to my pages, so...I'm hoping I've escaped somehow.

[BizBoost]

Originally Posted by garyv

Often times, if a merchant has several affiliates' google analytics codes on his thankyou page, it will cause false positives. If a buyer looks at several ads from different affiliates before buying, it will trigger all of their analytic codes. Then if he buys from one of them, it will trigger a conversion for every affiliate that he visited.

Point well taken, but that being said, if one is in contact with the program owner to put the code on the thank you page, then one can check with the owner to see whether, or not, there are any other Google Analytic codes there.

It shouldn't be that hard to ask the owner to help with the test. After all, it's in everyone's best interest to verify CB is working properly or else the program owner is going to lose affiliates eventually.

[jasonl70]

Originally Posted by grandstar

Why should he use his affiliate ID to buy? He does not deserve a cent!

Originally Posted by entrepenerd

If you're driving traffic through PPC, the quickest way to do this would be using alternate ad variations. That way Google, Yahoo, etc... will be doing the rotation for you.

I just switched up one of my ads to go to a different CB account. I'll see if that brings my sales back up. If it does, then I'll try rotating between the 2 accounts to see if they both stay steady.

now that's a clever to do it!

[Stallion]

Clickbank just changed it's terms of service today. https://www.clickbank.com/terms.html

Anyone see anything that was changed or that maybe important to know?

They also allowed users to close their accounts now. I suppose customer service was getting busy with the requests of people closing their accounts out of protest.

[1bad55]

Hi all,

I think people are getting off course here and I just want to add my two cents worth.

The way that I have read his comments and claims is that the Affiliate ID is on the Clickbank payment form and the VENDOR can see the affiliate link but the AFFILIATE is NOT being notified OR being credited/paid for the sale.

This is very alarming as since Clickbank is being paid the entire amount of the sale and NOT giving the 50%-75% commissions to the affiliate where is the money going?

Is it going into Clickbank's OVERDRAFT FUND?

He is claiming that he bought his own products as a VENDOR and an AFFILIATE and as the vendor it is showing an affiliate sale but as an affiliate he is not getting credit.

IF HIS CLAIMS ARE TRUE THEN THE MONEY IS GOING INTO CLICKBANKS POCKET.

Now I am new to affiliate marketing and I had high hopes about selling affiliate products but this scares the crap out of me as I first off can not afford to be scammed by the company that I am promoting whether intentional or not.

If these claims are true I would think it would be easy to prove by getting together with the vendor and affiliate and comparing sales for a specific time frame.

I sure hope there is a solution to this problem quickly or their may be no more Clickbank after the lawsuits.

Am I blowing this out of proportion?

[Mark Dulisse]

For some reason, my clickbank account for the past couple of months has been flooded with sales, and stuff that I don't even promote. I'm talking about $20,000 to $30,000 per day in commissions.

All your losses must be going into my account.







Just kidding

[stevenh512]

Originally Posted by GarrieWilson

The main reason I don't believe it's on purpose, if it's actually happening on CBs end, is because they wouldn't take someone making 1000s a day or even hundreds down to almost nothing.

They, a person, would take a small percent under 5% to keep it from being noticed. Think someone who makes 100 sales is going to notice 5 missing? I dont but they would notice going from 100 to 5.

They would also be doing false refunds if they wanted to scam people. Most vendors would never notice an extra refund or two and wouldn't notice a sale not credited.

That's a really good point. If someone is making thousands a day on clickbank, even by taking 1 out of every 100 sales someone would be skimming a boatload of cash off the top and it would probably go completely unnoticed.

As far as the "FBI investigation" thing, it might sound a little extreme, but like a few other people have said there are people making thousands a day on clickbank and spending money on pay-per-click ads to promote those products. Clickbank is engaging in "interstate commerce" so I'd think the FBI (and probably the FTC) would have the authority to investigate this kind of thing. What sounds a little bit wrong is the fact that he says he can't show the videos because of the FBI investigation, but he's still talking about it publically. If the FBI told him not to show the videos I'd imagine they would have probably told him not to talk about the investigation too.

[lacraiger]

i can only imagine how much they have stolen already

[GeorgR.]

Originally Posted by entrepenerd

If you're driving traffic through PPC, the quickest way to do this would be using alternate ad variations. That way Google, Yahoo, etc... will be doing the rotation for you.

I just switched up one of my ads to go to a different CB account. I'll see if that brings my sales back up. If it does, then I'll try rotating between the 2 accounts to see if they both stay steady.

wow...cheezzuss...you know that this is a method to "artificially" increase gravity for a product....you would just have X accounts and rotate them easily from withing adwords and sell through various own IDs.... .)

[GeorgR.]

Originally Posted by Mark Dulisse

I'm talking about $20,000 to $30,000 per day in commissions.

All your losses must be going into my account.

yep you *almost* had me there

G.

[P.Sharma]

I thought they were the best

[Ammar Zahar]

Originally Posted by Eswar

Ok,

Can any one tell me what other networks those provide digital prodcuts other than clickbank & paydotcom?

If we have a good network, why should we worry about clickbank?

I have very bitter experience with paydotcom. Here many sellers are not paying to the affiliates. They simply make money and run away.

I suggest share a sale dot com..But for sure, Pay dot com is among the best merchant..

[stevenh512]

Originally Posted by Razer Rage

Oh well...there's always paydotcom.com...or just use a custom affiliate program.

Sorry to double post, but just wanted to add.. paydotcom.com is great, but I have two problems with it.

1) It relies on PayPal, and we all know about the problems people have had with them.
2) It relies on the merchant to pay the affiliate. I'm sure most of the merchants there are honest people who pay their affiliates on time whenever possible, but one thing I like about clickbank is the fact that they take that little bit of extra work away from the merchant and handle it for you. Not to mention the fact that it relies on PayPal (oh, did I mention that already), so what happens if a merchant's PayPal account gets suspended with no explainiation and no way to quickly or easily get it back before they've paid their affiliates?

[WebScript]

Originally Posted by stevenh512

That's a really good point. If someone is making thousands a day on clickbank, even by taking 1 out of every 100 sales someone would be skimming a boatload of cash off the top and it would probably go completely unnoticed.

As far as the "FBI investigation" thing, it might sound a little extreme, but like a few other people have said there are people making thousands a day on clickbank and spending money on pay-per-click ads to promote those products. Clickbank is engaging in "interstate commerce" so I'd think the FBI (and probably the FTC) would have the authority to investigate this kind of thing. What sounds a little bit wrong is the fact that he says he can't show the videos because of the FBI investigation, but he's still talking about it publicly. If the FBI told him not to show the videos I'd imagine they would have probably told him not to talk about the investigation too.

Someone else also mentioned something similar a while back, about the FTC.

As far as I know (I am not a lawyer), the FTC would not be involved (at least directly) in any Criminal investigation of a company. The FBI investigates interstate criminal activities. The FTC would be involved in cases of the nature of Administrative-infractions, such as a company not following rules or guidelines or reporting requirements. I think the most the FTC can do is impose fines and to ask the courts to impose injunctions or similar remedies.

[Samuel Lee]

An interesting read, and certainly clickbank has a lot of explaining to do. Personally speaking, I haven't had any bad experiences with clickbank yet (touch wood), because I tend to create multiple accounts. Hopefully they will offer an explaination at the very least, quite coincidental that many have had the same problems though...

[calvinaj]

Originally Posted by Jeremy Kelsall

Someone in our coaching program is claiming the same thing...

He bought a product that he was promoting with his own affiliate ID and has not been credited with a sale and it has been 2 days.

This really scary - I just bought a clickbank product on how to use clickbank ... I'm a newbie at Clickbank

[GeorgR.]

in all fairness,

we should NOT come to premature conclusions.

The validity of whatever the OP wrote on ripoffreport is still undetermined, it could very well be that this person is indeed only ranting and nothing more.

Recommend clickbank?

I do. Especially right now with a new approach selling products i make really good money....and i see sales...so it looks like its working.

[tedmauro]

I just checked my ClickBank account. I had sales 7 days in a row and have now gone 2 days with no sales.

[adam123]

Don't worry Calvinaj you will make sales

[adam123]

This guy should contact the publisher and check the publisher's stats too. Because if the publisher's stats show no sales from this affiliate CB is cheating the publisher too. Or if the stats show that x sales was made trough this affiliate link and the publisher get only 25% (or 50% etc.) and the affiliate gets nothing. That would be really "interesting" too.

[Eswar]

Originally Posted by GeorgR.

in all fairness,

we should NOT come to premature conclusions.

The validity of whatever the OP wrote on ripoffreport is still undetermined, it could very well be that this person is indeed only ranting and nothing more.

Recommend clickbank?

I do. Especially right now with a new approach selling products i make really good money....and i see sales...so it looks like its working.

Hi GeorgR,

Did you get the normal sales back again for the past few days?

I ran a PPC campaign one week back for a high converting offer. I was not ablet to get single sale after 100 clicks with good tracking system in place.

I hope the tracking issues in the last week must have become normal.

[Stallion]

I hope the tracking issues in the last week must have become normal.

Yes. The tracking issues are a norm now. My account has been butchered. The fact that I can go from sales every single day to one day of sales a week is a joke.

[BizBoost]

How much of this fluctuation is from customers arriving via PPC?

Just wondering, could any of this be the fact that X number of people are going to get "outbid" or even "outclassed" by better constructed ads?

Also wonder if this is where it pays to have those AFFILIATE LEAD CAPTURE pages which will, in the very least, capture info pre-sale so then you can follow-up to see how many bought...

...even offering some kind of bonus if the person buys through your link. State it simply, "I need to know if Clickbank is working properly, so, if you buy through my link, send me a copy of the receipt and I will give you X, Y and Z as a bonus..."

[danih2o]

hi - I'm new to all this and have set up a clickbank account but not used it yet. I was planning to set up a subscription based area on my site and use clickbank for affiliates but now i'm not sure. Is there another alternative?

[The 13th Warrior]

Is it simply a dip in sales or other explanation?

When people aren't buying, what do you consider a normal , average low or normal lowest ever in sales, whether in cycles in days, weeks, months or years?

If 10 or 20 established clickbank affiliates here opened 1 new account everyday for 2-3 weeks straight, and compared those new accounts numbers to their already established accounts, would something be amiss?

[kenwarrior]

Over the years I have bought many clickbank items throught my own CBmall site and have always gotten the affiliate credit, I always check, hard to say what the truth is.

[halyda]

Originally Posted by danih2o

hi - I'm new to all this and have set up a clickbank account but not used it yet. I was planning to set up a subscription based area on my site and use clickbank for affiliates but now i'm not sure. Is there another alternative?

I'm also same with you danih2o...if there any alternative way, lets share with us.

I'm a newbie and willing to learn..

[OmarNegron]

this is scary stuff....I noticed my sales dip for weeks now... I thought I was going crazy....

I cant believe I found this thread...

why clickbank....WHY!!!!!

[CraigJones]

ClickBank Alternative: Click2Sell.eu

I have not tried them, but they may be worth looking into.

[Eswar]

Today i got a sale after complete absense of 2weeks without sale. I think the tracking is normal now.

[yoshiko]

Eswar,

This is such a pain. It seems like we as affiliates are like sitting ducks everyday, hoping for the CB tracking to be back in place.

My tracking systems tells me that I have click throughs to the landing pages but there are times when CB tracking does not reflect that. This is across a few niches.

Wonder how long we have to be sitting ducks to wait this out.

[Charles E. White]

So far, the only thing I see is someone claiming they were ripped off by Clickbank with no proof. Of course, there are those who are going to jump on the band wagon and say how they have been ripped off too, always happens! I have used Clickbank for years and did intensive tracking and never had any problem personally.

I have had problems with Commission Junction though, I was with three people who ordered from my link on my website, got the products and I never got paid a penny from them. We all have our own stories...don't we?

Test and Track!

[Paule123]

As far as I am aware CB has changed it tracking of late
so that may be the cause?

But if these incidents happened before the change
in tracking systems then who knows?

I think this is a case of wait and see!

However if it is happening constantly then
something should be done about it!

[charlesburke]

The thing I keep wondering -- Clickbank's a big company with a LOT of people, and there is of course some employee turnover.

So how do you keep a thing like this from leaking out?

I don't doubt the claims posted here. I've also had some strange fluctuations in sales with Clickbank. But I do wonder why no one who has ever been on the inside has ever blown a whistle.

[WebScript]

Originally Posted by Stallion

Clickbank just changed it's terms of service today. https://www.clickbank.com/terms.html

Anyone see anything that was changed or that maybe important to know?

They also allowed users to close their accounts now. I suppose customer service was getting busy with the requests of people closing their accounts out of protest.

I did notice they have discontinued offering installment sales (I didn't see any changes to subscriptions).

https://www.clickbank.com/account/news.htm#2009-03-10

Decommissioning Installments

For accounting reasons, as well as other issues, ClickBank no longer offers installment products for sale. The ClickBank order form for installment products is no longer available to customers. Any outstanding installment payments owed for products already sold are automatically processing on schedule.

If you have any questions or comments, please contact Customer Service.

Kevin

[tedmauro]

I had a sale yesterday. I thought it was going to be 2 blank days in a row but I guess not. That makes at least one sale per day and most days more than one for the past 8 out of 9 days. I did go 6 days in a row with no sales late in Feb. however.

[Wayne]

I came across these links on another forum, don't know if they have been posted
here yet, I got tired of reading this thread and seeing many people read the report on
the other site and then post misleading information here about what the report said.
But to report the other side of the story, check out these links:

SEOmoz | Accusations that Rip-Off Report just an Extortion Business

Ripoff Report Ripping Off Those Reported?

Bad Business Bureau badbusinessbureau.com Founder Ed Magedson

[LB]

I saw Clickbank on the grassy knoll.

[Joshua N. Rabon]

Originally Posted by X

As a Clickbank merchant, I can say
that roughly 1/3 of all sales that SHOULD
be credited to an affiliate are NOT.

This is not unique to CB - although their
tracking performs the worst. Most
affiliate tracking loses 1/4 of sales.

X

That's a freaking insane amount. I have a hard time believing that the biggest affiliate network can't afford to fix this problem. Sounds like they got a bad case of "I'm the biggest game in town, so what are you going to do about it"

[Trader54]

Originally Posted by X

As a Clickbank merchant, I can say
that roughly 1/3 of all sales that SHOULD
be credited to an affiliate are NOT.

X

Must be some kind of new math involved.

So many clickbank products have a reffered rate in the 80 to 90 percent range. I even see some at 96%

[spires]

hmmm, interesting.

Maybe it's time that the promoters started storing the buyers details, along with the affiliate ID that they came in on. Then giving each affiliate a backend section where they can see exactly how many sales that they have made, and on what date.

This way, if CB is ripping you off, you'll know instantly.

Something maybe I should add in to my own product.

[James Trewavas]

If Clickbank is guilty of some dodgy practices as claimed, are similar companies we rely on for income doing the same thing??

[MainStreetMarketing]

Interesting how those darn gremlins always seem to create an error IN FAVOR OF the affiliate network...

If it were a true bug, seems like getting a new 2nd affiliate ID and having sales immediately, etc. wouldn't work and that there might be instances where the error would be in favor of the affiliate.

Has anyone ever gotten credit for a sale twice? I've never heard of anyone regularly admitting it, anyway. The lost sales game seems to go on constantly.

Originally Posted by Tim Whiston

Anything is possible. And some of CB's policies are a little off center anyway so it wouldn't shock me.

Another possibility of course is just a gremlin in the software, so to speak. Affiliate tracking is pretty far from perfected even today so it's possible no intended foul play was involved.

Definitely will be interesting if this turns out to be the real thing and CB gets reamed in a legal battle. They'll have people coming out of the woodwork filing claims - this could actually make some waves in the affiliate marketing world.

[X]

My friend, that's because gravity
tends to attract affiliates and many of
us are using scripts that assign an
affiliate ID of our own if no affiliate
ID is otherwise associated with the sale -
it's a secret little way of boosting that
gravity right on up there.

Bought the very script I use in a WSO.

So no, 80-90% doesn't mean anything.

I have my system setup to NOT assign
an affiliate ID to 20% that don't have
an ID to keep things looking natural - ie,
I don't want a 100% referral rate either.

It's OK - you just learned something you
never knew.

X

Originally Posted by Trader54

Must be some kind of new math involved.

So many clickbank products have a reffered rate in the 80 to 90 percent range. I even see some at 96%

[X]

Joshua -

It's not just Clickbank. When I sold the
Adwords Black Book through PDC I paid
out 35% of gross revenue to affiliates.

Since I had no list, paid for no ads, etc,
etc, nearly 100% of my sales SHOULD have
been credited to an affiliate - or 50%
of my revenue (I was paying a 50%
commission). By my math that's 30%
of sales not properly tracked.

And it's not just CB and PDC - I've managed
programs through CJ and Kowabunga in the
past - similar numbers, especially if you start
counting phone in orders, etc.

X

Originally Posted by Joshua N. Rabon

That's a freaking insane amount. I have a hard time believing that the biggest affiliate network can't afford to fix this problem. Sounds like they got a bad case of "I'm the biggest game in town, so what are you going to do about it"

[hbsjcd3]

I don't believe its a Clickbank problem. I believe it the unscrupulous black hatters using cooking stuffing scripts. I think Clickbank should look into that, as I have been ripped off too.

[heidigroleau]

I think it probably has to do with the number of products sold under someone's account, typically its a good idea to open multiple accounts with clickbank to prevent this sort of thing from happening. A good point made that if clickbank perceives you to making a lot of money all in the one acccount, they may do what happened that was mentioned in the OP. Spread your accounts far and wide to avoid this!

[Trader54]

Originally Posted by X

It's OK - you just learned something you
never knew.

X

I have had that rate and I don't use a script.

You just learned something new to, not everybody does that.

It's good to never stop learning.