by wesawu
9 replies
Hello Warriors!

I thought I would tell a "real life" experience I had a few days ago that might help some newbies avoid some of the non ethical clickbank vendors and subsequently save some time and money. I haven't been doing the clickbank thing for too long but have been in the IM business long enough to know to test everything including the vendor.

Here goes:

I was looking to add one more clickbank product in my niche and found two that had a decent sales page and some affiliate tools, although I rarely use the affiliate tools provided by the vendor. The first one appealed more to me but had a "leak" on the sales page. It asked for an email address from the viewer. I decided to test this vendor and placed the banner code (html) on my website. Once I did that I clicked on the banner from my site with included my clickbank ID. I was then directed to the vendors sales page. From there, I entered my "test" email address. Sure enough a few minutes later I received an email from the vendor. I went thru all the steps and hit the "Buy Now" button which took me to the clickbank checkout page. After I scrolled all the way to the bottom I actually saw my own affiliate id. So far the vendor looks legit and ethical. Not so fast, the next day I received 3 more email from the vendor with links within the email. I tested all 3 emails and guess what....all three emails had the vendors clickbank id. So much for "we will send emails on your behalf". I did email the vendor several times about this to give him a chance to give his side of the story but thus far no response. That's says a lot about the vendor. Needless to say, I ended up choosing the second clickbank product. At least that vendor didn't have a leak.
#clickbank #leaks
  • Profile picture of the author bgray
    Well, you are doing a lot more than most affiliates will do which is why so many get away with it. Leaks are the absolute bane of lead gen and affiliate marketing. You have to be very proactive to find them and ask that they be closed up. The smallest of leaks can cost tons of money.

    Good share.
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    Hebrews 12:11

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  • Profile picture of the author salegurus
    Im sure CB will like to know about it...
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    Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.

    ― George Carlin
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      Originally Posted by zuberr View Post

      If an affiliate is going to put so much effort in promoting a product, I think it is a must that he joins the mailing list first and make sure the vendor is not stealing his commissions.
      Unfortunately, it isn't possible for an affiliate to make sure of that, by joining the vendor's mailing list. He doesn't know what the vendor is sending to other people (this trick is usually done by sending different people different things: no vendor would do that to all his affiliates, all the time: they wouldn't have any affiliates left, would they?!). All explained here.

      Originally Posted by James Fame View Post

      I'm not sure how a vendor would send links straight as an "affiliate"
      As the saying goes, "It only happens all the time".

      This thread will help you, James.

      Originally Posted by salegurus View Post

      Im sure CB will like to know about it...
      I'm afraid not.

      ClickBank will have absolutely no interest in this, at all. Or perhaps I should say that they can't do anything about it. It's allowed. Don't be too shocked: they take the view that once a prospective customer has given the vendor his email address, that prospective customer "belongs" to the vendor. And don't blame them for taking that view, because it would be quite impossible for them to enforce anything other than that, so they can hardly try to impose any "rules" about it. :p

      The moral of the story, as the OP rightly concluded, is "Don't promote products with an opt-in on the sales page". It really is as simple as that. If the vendor won't produce/offer an alternative sales page without the opt-in (as so many wisely do), promote another's vendor's product instead and keep your affiliate earnings instead of losing a proportion of them.

      Independent research has shown that this, or something similar, will happen a high proportion of the time.

      This subject has been done to death in the Warrior Forum.

      Anyone wanting to know more about it need look no further than this fine thread, in which all perspectives (i.e. both the well-informed and the ill-informed, both the objective and logical and the biased and opinionated, too) are given a detailed airing: http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...oduct-opt.html
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      • Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

        ClickBank will have absolutely no interest in this, at all. It's allowed. They take the view that once a prospective customer has given the vendor his email address, that prospective customer "belongs" to the vendor.
        Obviously, we're not here to discuss Clickbank's ToS, even though I personally think that the affiliate commission should always be respected no matter if the sale happens immediately or after going through the vendor mail sequence. At the end of the day, the affiliate is an introductory agent or lead-generator, and thus the commission should still be his to keep.
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  • Profile picture of the author zuberr
    If an affiliate is going to put so much effort in promoting a product, I think it is a must that he joins the mailing list first and make sure the vendor is not stealing his commissions.

    As for me, I tend to promote CB products that do not ask for emails on the salespage.
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  • Profile picture of the author zuberr
    If an affiliate is going to put so much effort in promoting a product, I think it is a must that he joins the mailing list first and make sure the vendor is not stealing his commissions.

    As for me, I tend to promote CB products that do not ask for emails on the salespage.
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  • Profile picture of the author Brannigans
    Wow thanks for sharing. I definitely learnt something. I'm too trustworthy I guess I but I never thought to check that!
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    • Profile picture of the author James Fame
      Could it be a cookie problem? I'm not sure how a vendor would send links straight as an "affiliate" using an autoresponder through clickbank, if you know what i mean. Does he refer to himself in the url?

      James Fame
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      Fire me a pm if you have a question. I build businesses and provide consulting. I do not do finance/money/internet marketing niches. Fitness, self-improvement and various others are welcome.

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      • Profile picture of the author Will Edwards
        Originally Posted by James Fame View Post

        Could it be a cookie problem? I'm not sure how a vendor would send links straight as an "affiliate" using an autoresponder through clickbank, if you know what i mean. Does he refer to himself in the url?

        James Fame
        Yes - if you have cleared your cookies or used a different browser, this would happen. Might not be anything underhand at all.

        Will
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