21 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}
21 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}

Using Clickbank as payment processor for a WSO - pros, cons, and how to do it?

by markowe
20 replies
This has been discussed before, but not especially recently so would appreciate advice.

I want to run a WSO for a new product of mine, but it's not meant to be a big launch, I don't even necessarily want affiliates (I might in the future), I just want to get some early customer feedback that way, iron out any kinks whilst keeping volume manageable, testing price points etc.

I am kind of leery of all the Paypal methods (W+, JVZoo etc.), I'd just rather it all went cleanly through CB so sales tax and all that stuff is taken care of and no warning flags on my PP account.

I have the product approved in CB (purposely not listed on the market for now), but the approved sales page is obviously on a site I own. How do you even use a WSO as a sales page for CB? Can you just duplicate the product in CB and replicate the sales page on your WSO thread, with the buy links going straight to the CB checkout, same as on your regular sales page (no additional CB approval needed, I don't think)? Or do you have to link your WSO page to your regular sales page (bad, as that's an extra click)? Or some other solution?

I realise if I want affiliates then I need to give them a link to some script of mine that will set the cookie for them before redirecting to the WSO page, but that's not my main concern right now.

Advice appreciated. Maybe you also have thoughts in general about how advisable it is to use CB for a WSO (price point would be somewhat higher than typical too) - I realise that is not how most WSOs make their money.
#clickbank #cons #payment #processor #pros #wso
  • Profile picture of the author agmccall
    Since you want to run a WSO I will assume that you are in the Make Money Online, Internet Marketing Niche. With that said, most affiliates will not touch this niche in clickbank because of the refund rate. It is the same reason most Vendors in this niche stay away.

    You should not worry about Paypal, if you have upgraded to a business account, and you contact them and let them know you are running a promo and your sales might spike.

    As for taxes. I really can't answer that for you

    al
    Signature

    "Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." Thomas Edison

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[11057195].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author markowe
      Originally Posted by agmccall View Post

      Since you want to run a WSO I will assume that you are in the Make Money Online, Internet Marketing Niche. With that said, most affiliates will not touch this niche in clickbank because of the refund rate. It is the same reason most Vendors in this niche stay away.
      Hmm, yes, it's an IM-related Wordpress plugin. I realise refund rates are quite high, I guess if my little "beta" test worked out I could consider switching to something more affiliate-friendly.

      You should not worry about Paypal, if you have upgraded to a business account, and you contact them and let them know you are running a promo and your sales might spike.

      As for taxes. I really can't answer that for you
      Yes, taxes are a tricky issue. My PP account is UK-based, customers can be anywhere in the world, I am actually resident in another European (non-EU) country - I wouldn't know where to start with getting that mess sorted out...
      Signature

      Who says you can't earn money as an eBay affiliate any more? My stats say otherwise

      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[11057256].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author San Kumar
    If you can get a Stripe account then you can add it to JVZoo and use that during checkout I think. They've only recently started doing this.
    Signature

    Coming Soon...

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[11057600].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author markowe
      Originally Posted by San Kumar View Post

      If you can get a Stripe account then you can add it to JVZoo and use that during checkout I think. They've only recently started doing this.
      How would that work, especially with affiliates? I can't get my head around where an intermediary payment processor would come into the process. Stripe seems like basically a Clickbank competitor?
      Signature

      Who says you can't earn money as an eBay affiliate any more? My stats say otherwise

      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[11057609].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author San Kumar
        Originally Posted by markowe View Post

        How would that work, especially with affiliates? I can't get my head around where an intermediary payment processor would come into the process. Stripe seems like basically a Clickbank competitor?
        Stripe is like Paypal. I think, though I'm not 100% sure but you basically setup Stripe as the payment processor, so instead of Paypal, the user enter his credit card details instead.

        Here is the video I could find for you:

        Signature

        Coming Soon...

        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[11057678].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author markowe
    I'm just not keen on the whole "rotating payments" thing with affiliates. I get that that is how a lot of the IM industry operates but it's just messy. I'm hoping to go more for quality than quantity with my product, hence why I am not so afraid of refunds through CB. I am still not clear how people do it, I know people HAVE used CB for WSOs in the past...
    Signature

    Who says you can't earn money as an eBay affiliate any more? My stats say otherwise

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[11057714].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Oziboomer
    Originally Posted by markowe View Post

    How do you even use a WSO as a sales page for CB? Can you just duplicate the product in CB and replicate the sales page on your WSO thread, with the buy links going straight to the CB checkout, same as on your regular sales page (no additional CB approval needed, I don't think)? Or do you have to link your WSO page to your regular sales page (bad, as that's an extra click)? Or some other solution?
    Recreate your sales page inside the WSO section of the forum using this link--->
    http://www.warriorforum.com/newthrea...newthread&f=17

    Add your "Buy Now" button and just link it to the ClickBank checkout page for your product.

    You're done.

    Best regards,

    Ozi
    Signature
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[11057920].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author markowe
      Originally Posted by Oziboomer View Post

      Recreate your sales page inside the WSO section of the forum using this link--->
      http://www.warriorforum.com/newthrea...newthread&f=17

      Add your "Buy Now" button and just link it to the ClickBank checkout page for your product.

      You're done.

      Best regards,

      Ozi
      Ahhh, thanks. So you are basically creating a new sales page - but I guess you don't need to get that approved by CB, right? I mean, because you are changing your landing page in CB, the one that you previously got approved?
      Signature

      Who says you can't earn money as an eBay affiliate any more? My stats say otherwise

      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[11058121].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author Oziboomer
        Originally Posted by markowe View Post

        Ahhh, thanks. So you are basically creating a new sales page - but I guess you don't need to get that approved by CB, right? I mean, because you are changing your landing page in CB, the one that you previously got approved?
        That's right.

        It can be a carbon copy. It is just like as if an affiliate had created a landing page for your product and sent the prospect straight to the checkout rather than the sales page.

        The product is approved so all you need to do is use the payment processing aspect of CB.

        Best regards,

        Ozi
        Signature
        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[11058126].message }}
        • Profile picture of the author markowe
          Originally Posted by Oziboomer View Post

          That's right.

          It can be a carbon copy. It is just like as if an affiliate had created a landing page for your product and sent the prospect straight to the checkout rather than the sales page.

          The product is approved so all you need to do is use the payment processing aspect of CB.

          Best regards,

          Ozi
          Gotcha - thanks. That simplifies things a lot. If I ever decide to pile 'em high and sell 'em cheap then I will go with W+ or whatever.
          Signature

          Who says you can't earn money as an eBay affiliate any more? My stats say otherwise

          {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[11058127].message }}
        • Profile picture of the author agmccall
          Originally Posted by Oziboomer View Post

          That's right.

          It can be a carbon copy. It is just like as if an affiliate had created a landing page for your product and sent the prospect straight to the checkout rather than the sales page.

          The product is approved so all you need to do is use the payment processing aspect of CB.

          Best regards,

          Ozi
          Will he need to have the clickbank badge on the wso page?

          al
          Signature

          "Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." Thomas Edison

          {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[11058258].message }}
          • Profile picture of the author markowe
            Originally Posted by agmccall View Post

            Will he need to have the clickbank badge on the wso page?

            al
            See, that's a good question too - the Trust Badge thingummy you have to have on the page, and the footer blurb thing as well (both of which are adde via a JS snippet, I seem to recall) - the "ClickBank is the retailer of products on this site. CLICKBANK is a registered trademark of Click Sales, Inc...." thing. Or maybe that second one is added manually, I forget now, but either way...
            Signature

            Who says you can't earn money as an eBay affiliate any more? My stats say otherwise

            {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[11058265].message }}
          • Profile picture of the author Oziboomer
            Originally Posted by agmccall View Post

            Will he need to have the clickbank badge on the wso page?

            al
            I wouldn't expect so because they will see CLICKBANK and the Symantec and McAfee trust badges when they get to the checkout page along with the terms of sales and CB's address etc and as the item is being promoted on WF and is not inside the CB network at that stage I couldn't see any conflict.

            If you wanted to you could include the 60 day guarantee and checkout with CB info as per their terms.

            If you wanted to add the badge you could always do it as a graphic with link but why would you?

            The CB badge was apparently to assure the purchaser they were buying from CB as the retailer of the product.

            When they hit the checkout page on CB it is going to be pretty obvious but you could always run it past CB support to clarify.

            With the product already being approved and I'm assuming Trust Bar in place I wouldn't think CB would worry if you sold via a direct link to a checkout page.

            It would be the same as if you ran an email campaign and direct link to the payment page.

            You reckon CB is going to say "NO! Go back and read the sales page and then come back to pay"??

            Don't think so and I've never had an issue with sending people interested in products I've listed straight to the checkout.

            From CB support page--->
            https://support.clickbank.com/hc/en-us/articles/220364087-Creating-a-Payment-Link


            Q: Where can I place the payment link? Can I only put it on my HopLink Target URL?

            A: No, you can use your payment link anywhere on your site, or even other sites if they allow it.
            Might want to check if WF allows checkout via CB - can't see why not but ask the mods

            Best regards,

            Ozi
            Signature
            {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[11058402].message }}
            • Profile picture of the author markowe
              Originally Posted by Oziboomer View Post




              Might want to check if WF allows checkout via CB - can't see why not but ask the mods

              Best regards,

              Ozi
              That's actually probably the best advice so far . Thanks for your other comments too!
              Signature

              Who says you can't earn money as an eBay affiliate any more? My stats say otherwise

              {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[11058439].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Regional Warrior
    Mark

    I have read this thread and one question on the sales page is that the WSO rules is that you have a price lower then what you can buy for on the normal sales page , so you would have to have two sales pages or am i missing something here ?

    Jason
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[11058429].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author markowe
      Originally Posted by Regional Warrior View Post

      Mark

      I have read this thread and one question on the sales page is that the WSO rules is that you have a price lower then what you can buy for on the normal sales page , so you would have to have two sales pages or am i missing something here ?

      Jason
      Well, I would have two sales pages, the one on my website and the WSO thread. I would duplicate the product, so on my "regular" sales page the full price would continue to be the full price, but the duplicate product would be the lower, WSO price - and that is not deceptive, the product would indeed regularly sell for that full price and I would remove the duplicate product at the lower price once the WSO was over. The full price product might not even need to go through CB necessarily. I do take the "special offer" part seriously.
      Signature

      Who says you can't earn money as an eBay affiliate any more? My stats say otherwise

      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[11058438].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Jesus Perez
    I recommend staying far away from Clickbank.

    -Refund rates are extremely high. Affiliate fraud is rampant.
    -Fees are very high.
    -Affiliate quality is atrocious. Get ready for low quality clicks, "cloned" duplicate content affiliate sites and scraping.

    Everyone I know moved away from Clickbank years ago to control their funnel and increase profits. I recommend not starting with them. There are much better platforms but if I mention them, this post will quickly disappear.
    Signature

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[11058441].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author markowe
      Originally Posted by Jesus Perez View Post

      I recommend staying far away from Clickbank.

      -Refund rates are extremely high. Affiliate fraud is rampant.
      -Fees are very high.
      -Affiliate quality is atrocious. Get ready for low quality clicks, "cloned" duplicate content affiliate sites and scraping.

      Everyone I know moved away from Clickbank years ago to control their funnel and increase profits. I recommend not starting with them. There are much better platforms but if I mention them, this post will quickly disappear.
      Thanks for the advice, I have some older products chugging along on CB doing OK, but I don't really rely on affiliates that much and also haven't launched anything new in a fair while. I didn't realise things had gone downhill that much. I am always open to other suggestions (via PM, of course ). CB integrates with DAP, which I have been using for years, keen to stick with something that DAP supports if at all possible... I don't want to reinvent the wheel as regards my product/content delivery system etc.
      Signature

      Who says you can't earn money as an eBay affiliate any more? My stats say otherwise

      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[11058549].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Harvey Segal
    Why do you need to show a (modified) sales page on the WSO page ?

    Why not have a brief blurb about your product followed by

    - Click here for full details (link to the real sales page)

    - Click here for the reduced WSO price (link to a ClickBank order form for a duplicate item at the reduced price )

    .



    .
    Signature
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[11058609].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author markowe
      Originally Posted by Harvey Segal View Post

      Why do you need to show a (modified) sales page on the WSO page ?

      Why not have a brief blurb about your product followed by

      - Click here for full details (link to the real sales page)

      - Click here for the reduced WSO price (link to a ClickBank order form for a duplicate item at the reduced price )


      .
      I've definitely considered that, but of course you realise most marketers would advise against something like that since it gives the buyer too many options to click away, get lost etc. Though I will definitely consider it. As I said, this is just a little test run to make sure the funnel is working and everything. In fact I don't want to sell hundreds of a software product overnight, it's just not ethical for me, since I won't be able to scale up support properly.
      Signature

      Who says you can't earn money as an eBay affiliate any more? My stats say otherwise

      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[11059105].message }}

Trending Topics