Clickbank "star" ratings are up... will you still promote "risky" products?

by Anton Louis

Posted: 11 years ago 30 replies

INTERNET MARKETING

I just logged into my CB account and as promised they have implemented the "star" ratings today in the marketplace.

These star ratings are calculated based on the risk of chargebacks and refunds from the publishers products.

I've actually been excited to see this change go into effect because I wanted to see what kind of ratings the most popular products would have. In the e-business subsection all the most popular products seems be have 2 or 3 stars (out of 5).

I'm just curious what type of effect this will have on the most popular products... are you, as an affiliate or potential affiliate, going to continue to promote products with 1 or 2 star ratings?

#clickbank #products #promote #ratings #risky #star

Alexa Smith Banned 11 years ago

Originally Posted by alksense

are you, as an affiliate or potential affiliate, going to continue to promote products with 1 or 2 star ratings?

No ... but those are all the ones I'd never have touched anyway.

Applying sensible product selection criteria has always circumvented most of these problems for the affiliate, really, but I see that this will be very helpful to some people, of course.
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- John Romaine 11 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Alexa Smith
  
  No ... but those are all the ones I'd never have touched anyway.
  
  This is a misguided assumption based upon an algorithm that is obviously inaccurate. One of my best selling products has a 2 star rating, which is just ridiculous.
  
  Clickbank is so far off the mark with this, its beyond a joke.
  
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  Alexa Smith Banned 11 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by John Romaine
  
  This is a misguided assumption based upon an algorithm that is obviously inaccurate.
  
  Far from being a misguided assumption, Johnny, it isn't actually an "assumption" at all: it's a simple, factual statement.
  
  Those are the the ones I would never have touched.
  
  You don't have to like it. You don't have to agree with my judgment. You don't have to agree with my product selection criteria.
  
  But please don't try to tell me that it's an "assumption"!!
  
  I'm sorry to hear that your product's been given a far lower star-rating than you feel is appropriate, but please don't try to take it out on me, ok?
  
  Thanks
  
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jpsween88 11 years ago

I think ClickBanks changes are useless honestly. When I look at clickbank products I always contact the owner and ask some questions about how the product is performing to decide whether i should promote it. Clickbank stats are useless imo.

*Just like everyone saying go after high gravity ... I make most of my sales from promoting low gravity products due to less comp*
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- Alexa Smith Banned 11 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by jpsween88
  
  *Just like everyone saying go after high gravity ... I make most of my sales from promoting low gravity products due to less comp*
  
  I agree. Same here.
  
  Well, the people saying "go after high gravity" are people who mistakenly imagine (a) that there's a correlation between gravity figures and numbers of sales, and (b) that that's somehow going to be good for them and make it easier for them to sell it. It's all nonsense, in other words. :p
  http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ml#post2495251
  http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ml#post7002369
  
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- alksense 11 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by jpsween88
  
  *Just like everyone saying go after high gravity ... I make most of my sales from promoting low gravity products due to less comp*
  
  I totally agree, I think people who use high gravity as a big determining factor in selecting what promote are typically new to Clickbank.
  
  I do however think there are A LOT of people that are new to CB who spend a combined amount of big $$$ promoting these products with high gravity and who send them A LOT of traffic.
  
  It will be interesting to watch how the popularity ratings change over the coming days/weeks/months as new affiliates use these star ratings when determining what to promote.
  
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wfhblueprints

11 years ago

Originally Posted by Chris Kent

These ratings are bizarre. I have some products that rarely get refunds and they show only 3 stars??

They may not have refunds from your traffic, but might be receiving a large number of refunds from other people...

Like every stat on Clickbank these new stats provide an indicator which I suppose adds a level of transparency to the marketplace.

However a cynical part of me wonders whether we might see vendors with different lower ratings attempting to sabotage other products ratings....

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Alexa Smith Banned 11 years ago

Originally Posted by Chris Kent

Clickbank ought to show overall average EPC like some other companies do.

They're too easily manipulated.

It's trivially easy to send tens of thousands of "clicks" to a competitor's sales page. Those figures don't really mean anything.
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- Alexa Smith Banned 11 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Chris Kent
  
  I'd love to see a stat based on the best affiliates or something.
  
  Yes; something like this could be interesting and helpful.
  
  Originally Posted by Chris Kent
  
  Most CB vendors have 90% crap affiliates who haven't a clue how to drive traffic and 10% good affiliates.
  
  Yes, certainly. I think maybe even 95%/5%.
  
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wfhblueprints

11 years ago

Originally Posted by Chris Kent

You misunderstand, I own these products. I see everything.

Thanks, this must be it. The accounts are aged, not new, but they make few sales.

Clickbank ought to show overall average EPC like some other companies do.

Sorry Chris, thought you were talking about products that you promote yourself as an affiliate.....my bad!

Perhaps what clickbank should consider is placing a "new" sign next to the rating to indicate that the current rating is as a result if the product being new rather than other issues.

Seems that the initial rating given may deter some affiliates from jumping on board IF they use the ratings as a way of gauging product quality....

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alksense 11 years ago

Originally Posted by Chris Kent

These ratings are bizarre. I have some products that rarely get refunds and they show only 3 stars??

Are the accounts new? This is from CBs help center:

Star Ratings

Can I have my star rating hidden in the Marketplace?
No. All accounts listed in the Marketplace must have a star rating.

How can I boost my star rating?
What determines my star rating?Your vendor sales, refunds, chargebacks and customer experience determine your star rating. If those factors improve, then your star rating will improve.

My account is new. Why do I only have 3 stars?New vendors with little history or sales will receive a 3 star rating. As sales increase, your rating may either increase or decrease depending on your overall customer experience, refund and chargeback rates.
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kindsvater

11 years ago

Originally Posted by alksense

I'm just curious what type of effect this will have on the most popular products... are you, as an affiliate or potential affiliate, going to continue to promote products with 1 or 2 star ratings?

Nope. Someone else can take the risk of promoting a low-star product with a high refund rate.

.

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Michael Ten 11 years ago

This is great. It doesn't look like it says how many ratings each star rating is based on, though. That is unfortunate.
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justinshaw 11 years ago

The ratings are pretty much pointless, at least to me.

I work mainly in major niches like weight loss. A lot of the products I promote have 2-3 stars. Why? Because every idiot and his dog decides to throw traffic at weight loss products, and as a result a lot of the quality is crap. More so than in more minor niches, I imagine, though I might be wrong about that.

I have products with return rates of 1-2% that I've been promoting for years that have 2 stars. My quality is great. I'm not going to avoid a product because a bunch of newbies thought they'd make their riches with Truth About Abs and sent terrible traffic their way.
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kingrich21470 11 years ago

clickbank should add buyer feedback, like they have on ebay.
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- Cool Hand Luke 11 years ago
  
  Wow, it's actually kind of fascinating to go through the star systems and see what has been rated well and what hasn't been. It's also crazy to see products that were doing so well get pulled by the vendor or see products that I know have immense value and support having 1 or 2 star ratings... I don't know how CB's algorithm works, but there are definitely a few surprises in the ratings today.
  
  Also, congrats to one of our fellow Warriors; his awesome product is now the top-rated 5 star fitness product and has already started climbing the gravity charts... I guess CB is doing something right.
  
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letsmakeamillion 11 years ago

So I guess I should only promote products with five stars? But what about the ones with three stars that have medium to high gravity.? I am totally confused. This rating system is a not transparent enough.
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vendor 11 years ago

I see some major vendors on clickbank do not show on the marketplace
while their CB account is still active(CB payment gateway still active).
One can only assume that these were removed from the marketplace
on the vendor's own initiative in order to avoid the embarrassment of showing
as a less quality product vs their competitors with higher rating.
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ragstworiches 11 years ago

Just going off the star ratings to promote products would be unwise, they can change every day after all, and there is no way of knowing if the low star rating is caused by a chargeback, which may make an otherwise good product look like its got a high refund rate.

Sure if its got 1 star I would probably give it a miss, but if its 2 stars and upwards I would consider it and use my own judgement to see if I think its a worthwhile product. I can see a lot two star products that make a lot of money for affiliates, and a lot of 4/5 star products that I know make next to nothing.

I think its time for the high converting product owners to step up, they have the marketing down, they just need to up their game and deliver a better product/service with improved customer support.

I've also seen some people using shippable media (dvds) so maybe this will be a tactic will see more of for products with high refund rates.
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GeorgR. 11 years ago

I don't need a rating from others, a look at the product/vendor page is often enough to know whether its worth promoting or not. That being said, I am with the others who prefer lower gravity products.
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- SunilTanna 11 years ago
  
  I've got one 3 star account, and one 5 star.
  
  I've just given a refund on the 5 star account. I wonder if that will affect next week's rating.
  
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tmauto 11 years ago

Anyway, this rating is a great help for affiliates. We used to promote blindly. At least now I don't go for anything less than 4. However, the items that give me a good income at present are rated 3. For some niches like forex, the refund will always be high.
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Alex Blades 11 years ago

Clickbank "star" ratings are up... will you still promote "risky" products?

People will always promote anything that makes money, the product being trash or risky, does not mean a thing...

It is a great feature, since I see vendors claim to have the lowest refund rate on clickbank, but have a two star rating

I think after two billion dollars have crossed Clickbanks hands, they are trying to put space between themselves and the vendors...
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- SunilTanna 11 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Alex Blades
  
  It is a great feature, since I see vendors claim to have the lowest refund rate on clickbank, but have a two star rating
  
  How would any vendor know whether they had the best or worst refund rate on ClickBank?
  
  Until the implementation of the star system, ClickBank published no information about different vendors' refund rates. And even the new star system, is as others have mentioned, pretty opaque.
  
  It is true that some websites sort-of-estimated refund rates by looking at commission rates per sale, but since such estimated rates could be thrown completely off by vendors simply having multiple products, changing prices, changing commission rates, etc., these estimates were not much better than guesses. For my own accounts, rhe estimates were so far off as to be laughable.
  
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- cpadualcore 11 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Alex Blades
  
  People will always promote anything that makes money, the product being trash or risky, does not mean a thing...
  
  I think that depends on their experience level on internet marketing. Someone who is starting out with affiliate marketing is probably not gonna spend much time with selecting products. They try to promote as much products as they can whether they are bad or not because all they are looking for is to make some sales. Thats what I did too when I started with CB because I was desperate.
  
  Then the things have changed when the sales become consistent. I went for quality traffic sources and products than promoting anything for a buck. Afterall whats the point of making lot of sales if a good percentage of them is going to end up as refund because of bad product, poor customer support from vendor, cheap traffic sources etc.
  
  And now with the new risk tier, there's more reasons to choose products wisely for promotion
  
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djleon1 11 years ago

Once again more data from Clickbank with no real idea of how the data is weighted and calculated. Whats the difference between a 3 and 4 star product? What do they mean by "Customer Experience"?

Stars could be useful if you knew how they got them.
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Andy Money 11 years ago

Slowly phasing out ClickBank as we speak, feels awesome.
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PerformanceMan 11 years ago

I'm going to stick with 3 stars or above.

I noticed an enlargement product was rated 1 star. Apparently not too many customers feel enlarged after reading it.
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clintmyers 11 years ago

Yeah, they will need to refine this star rating before I will worry too much about it.
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marco005 11 years ago

Hi,

How I prevent from clickbak vendors who has an high chargeback rate?
How I select them in clickbank to stay away from them ?

Has anyone a tip or tutorial for this?

marco005
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Clickbank "star" ratings are up... will you still promote "risky" products?

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