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Is It Okay To Give Buyers A Percentage Cashback For Purchasing Through Your Affiliate Link?

by jitsking
13 replies
What's up everybody,

I was wondering if it is okay to give an incentive to people to purchase through your affiliate link by giving them a percentage of your commission earnings as cashback for purchasing through you?

If that didn't make sense, I'll explain with an example. For example, I'm affiliate for the XYZ company and XYZ pays out 30% commission on the sale. If John Doe purchases a $100 product from XYZ by using my affiliate link then I get $30. As an incentive to John, I'd like to let him know that he will receive 15% (half of my commission) cashback when he purchases through me.

I see some websites out there where it looks like that is what they're doing. Is this something that people do? If yes, is there a Wordpress Plugin or something similar that lets you launch an app like this?
#affiliate #commissions #paying #percentage #shoppers
  • Profile picture of the author Frank Donovan
    Originally Posted by jitsking View Post

    I was wondering if it is okay to give an incentive to people to purchase through your affiliate link by giving them a percentage of your commission earnings as cashback for purchasing through you?
    It's fraught with problems. For a start, most affiliate networks don't allow the practice. But even if you went ahead, you'd have to wait until you received your commission before paying out in order to avoid the risk of refunds. How long would a potential buyer be willing to wait? Why would they trust you? And how would you pay them?

    If you want to offer your prospects an incentive, it's much more straightforward to strike a deal with the product vendor whereby you obtain a discount or other exclusive offer on the product for your subscribers when buying through your link. That way, there's a clear delineation of responsibility and everyone's happy. And you get to keep all your commission.
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    • Profile picture of the author jitsking
      If they don't allow the practice then how do sites like TopCashBack and eBates do it?
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      • Profile picture of the author Frank Donovan
        Originally Posted by jitsking View Post

        If they don't allow the practice then how do sites like TopCashBack and eBates do it?
        I was assuming you were asking as an individual affiliate, rather than as an international global brand. TopCashBack operates as a membership site and has struck deals with hundreds of retailers. However, they no longer offer cash back on Amazon purchases (at least in the UK) and Clickbank has never permitted cashback offers. From the current Clickbank guidelines:

        "Don't offer bonuses of cash or cash equivalents (such as gift cards) for customers who purchase a product through your HopLink.
        This is not allowed in ClickBank's Client Contract. You can, however, offer other types of bonuses, such as additional ebooks or related products, to customers who purchase through your HopLink."
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    • Profile picture of the author vedremo
      Banned
      Originally Posted by Frank Donovan View Post

      It's fraught with problems. For a start, most affiliate networks don't allow the practice. But even if you went ahead, you'd have to wait until you received your commission before paying out in order to avoid the risk of refunds. How long would a potential buyer be willing to wait? Why would they trust you? And how would you pay them?
      This is exactly what Cash Rewards is.

      Learn from the business model.

      It can work, but not an easy task and of course you need vendor sign off.
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  • Profile picture of the author Neal01
    Further to what Frank has added, if you have a product that gets a high refund rate, this may lead to arguments because you'd have to prove that there was a high refund rate an you wasn't just ripping them off.

    I'd honestly stay clear.
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  • Profile picture of the author discrat
    Just give a nice Bonus , that's what I do
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  • Profile picture of the author jitsking
    Appreciate the responses. This is pretty much what sites like ebates and TopCashBack do. I agree, I don't think I want the headache that can come along with even attempting something like that. Better to give a "bonus" offer for purchasing through me.
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  • Profile picture of the author Tsnyder
    Why don't you just shortcut the process and tell them straight
    up that what you're recommending they buy isn't really worth the
    price?

    OR....

    Learn how to build value in your offer.
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  • Profile picture of the author clairelynn23
    I agree with giving a bonus as being the better idea...
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  • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
    Originally Posted by jitsking View Post

    If they don't allow the practice then how do sites like TopCashBack and eBates do it?
    Like Frank said, those companies are not working through a mainstream affiliate network. They are big enough to strike their own deals.

    I wouldn't touch this with your ten foot pole. What happens when someone buys, keeps the product long enough to get the cash back, then refunds (thus costing your your commission)? You've just paid a scammer $15 (using your example) to take the vendor's product.

    It's one big reason I never got on the 100% instant commission bandwagon. Way too easy to take advantage of. All they have to do is refuse to honor the refund policy, and I'm on the hook for the refund. Or I tell the buyer to pursue the affiliate, in which case I look like the scammer and my reputation goes to Hell. It's a lose/lose proposition.

    The last thing I see wrong with offering a cash back bonus (when it's even allowed) is people looking to collect a discount at your expense. It trains them to never buy from you without the bonus.

    Far better to come up with a value-added bonus related to the product. You don't want to be one of those people who offers a chance at a free iPad for filling out a form. Unless, of course, you're building a list of people who want to win a free iPad...
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  • Profile picture of the author Brent Stangel
    You could always promote products that convert without incentives.
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  • Profile picture of the author benelijah
    eBates obviously has their own deals, as someone else pointed out. Even eBates, though, makes their customers wait a few months before their cashback is approved.

    I would suggest doing something different: Offering bonuses. If you don't have your own products you can offer as bonuses, join a PLR membership site that has PLR video courses you can give away.

    Of course, the PLR must be quality, have good graphics, etc. You don't want a low quality outdated PLR ebook that is floating all over the internet. Go for a video course package that comes with an ebook, cheet sheet, etc.

    Resell Rights Weekly and PLR Assassin are what I use. Many PLR products can not be given away for free, but can be offered as a bonus to a paid product.

    Even better is if you can rebrand the PLR package. See what's missing and add a short video or two of your own. If you can change the graphics, that's even better.
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    Is It Okay To Give Buyers A Percentage Cashback For Purchasing Through Your Affiliate Link?


    If it's the IM niche you're guaranteed to get screwed out of your money by repeat refunds.

    All they have to do is buy through your affiliate link, get payed from you (free money), then make a refund. Repeat until you're broke.
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