CLICKBANK - How's This for Strange? | Warrior Forum - The #1 Digital Marketing Forum & Marketplace

Hamida Harland

16 years ago

A few of the sales I made today apparently didn't get any hops either. Very strange.

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lakelover

16 years ago

hi, I just read your report, and I have been doing exactly as you say but no sales yet. I have had over 1000 views of my articles, and nothing. I thought they were pretty good, because I read a bunch of articles on the niche and thought most of them did not say anything at all. just a bunch of words. I have 16 lives articles, and I actually went to the library and checked out books, so my articles would be a little different, and I put a boat load of time into it, and I have a blog with blogger, actually several of them targeting different words. What in the world am I doing wrong? I have worked my butt off, drinking coffee, getting 2-3 hours of sleep a night. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks
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tess47

16 years ago

Originally Posted by lakelover

hi, I just read your report, and I have been doing exactly as you say but no sales yet. I have had over 1000 views of my articles, and nothing. I thought they were pretty good, because I read a bunch of articles on the niche and thought most of them did not say anything at all. just a bunch of words. I have 16 lives articles, and I actually went to the library and checked out books, so my articles would be a little different, and I put a boat load of time into it, and I have a blog with blogger, actually several of them targeting different words. What in the world am I doing wrong? I have worked my butt off, drinking coffee, getting 2-3 hours of sleep a night. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Are your articles targeted directly toward a buying market? Also, what kind of content do you have on your blog? You need to really discuss your visitors problem, and how YOU can help them eliminate it, make it better, etc. Make sure it doesn't just sound like a sales ploy. Keep going - get at least 20 or more articles out there. Also, do you have several long tail keyword phrases chosen from your niche?

It just takes some work. In this economy, making sales is a little tougher (and I'm also not real sure about CB right now). Don't give up, it will come

Thanks
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lakelover 16 years ago

thanks for the input. It is in the relationship (breaking up) niche, and yes I feel like I am addressing their problems. I noticed one of my articles had way more views than the others, so, I thought perhaps write more on that subject. I personally do not feel that my articles and posts are spammy or selling. I just mainly try to get to the point with real info, and I have words sprinkled through out (the blog) that they can click on, and then I have pic's of the products that they can click on. I was proud of my work, and thought it was very professional with real content. Is there such a thing as giving too much info? Maybe the info is so good they don't feel the need to buy the product.
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lakelover

16 years ago

Originally Posted by tess47

Are your articles targeted directly toward a buying market? Also, what kind of content do you have on your blog? You need to really discuss your visitors problem, and how YOU can help them eliminate it, make it better, etc. Make sure it doesn't just sound like a sales ploy. Keep going - get at least 20 or more articles out there. Also, do you have several long tail keyword phrases chosen from your niche?

It just takes some work. In this economy, making sales is a little tougher (and I'm also not real sure about CB right now). Don't give up, it will come

Hi Tess,

How many articles do you write per e book that you are promoting? The one I am promoting is 67 pages, I have come up with 18 articles, and I am at a loss as to what to write about next. I have noticed that alot of people change the title and mix up the words a bit. Is this what I need to be doing?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

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talfighel

16 years ago

Tess,

You are not the only one. I have been doing well with them in the past but lately these sales are not showing up.

I really think that their tracking software is not doing its job so I decided to take it off my website.

I am not sure if they know about this.

Tal

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Eric Lorence 16 years ago

There has been an explosion of cookie stuffing sites recently.

Wonder what kind of impact that is having.

I've hit 3 or 4 this week, after clearing cookies and visiting a couple sites.

Then finding over 500 cookies in one instance.
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mdunn123

16 years ago

Yes, there has been some strange occurrences with clickbank as of late, but it's honestly nothing new. There might be more sites out there today jacking commissions than before, but there have always been problems with clickbank through it's history...pretty much the same ones too.

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richinca

16 years ago

Take a look in your analytics by hour of the day. I don't see any hops after 5am, although I had a sale at 7:30am. I have a feeling they are working on a problem right now.

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garyv

16 years ago

Sometimes a sale will take place without a hoplink showing up in your stats, if the person bookmarks the page, and comes back at a later date. Do you recognize the product you sold?

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tess47

16 years ago

Yes, I recognize the product because I sell alot of it. I also saw that these same sales came from Louisiana, yet my statcounter doesn't show any visitors from there today.

Maybe it's just as you said. But with my lack of sales with CB lately, I still believe they have a few "bugs" to iron out! Oh well, just keep on working. A company as big as CB isn't going to let things be screwy for long (hopefully)!

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cloudchaser22

16 years ago

this is strange, has anyone contacted or emailed CB about this prob?

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anonymous123567

16 years ago

Yup same thing here! consistancy went out the window last week, 5 days without and today 2??

Sucks....

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tess47

16 years ago

I don't know if anyone has contacted them, but I think I will email them.

I'll let everyone know what the reply is! I hope in a way that there IS a problem - otherwise I can't imagine why sales would change so drastically

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Nutrifitness

16 years ago

Originally Posted by tess47

I don't know if anyone has contacted them, but I think I will email them.

I'll let everyone know what the reply is! I hope in a way that there IS a problem - otherwise I can't imagine why sales would change so drastically

Have they replied yet?

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Hamida Harland 16 years ago

There's been alot of similar discussions on Digitalpoint about Clickbank problems. A few people over there have contacted them about it, and apparently the very same day got a huge boost in sales - now I don't know if that's a coincidence or not but it does sound a bit fishy.

My sales have more than halved in the last 2 months - even though I'm doing more work with Clickbank now than I ever have. I thought it might be the economy, but I'm not so sure since I changed a few of my promotions to non Clickbank products and the sales went back up to normal.

My account usually goes for weeks with hardly any sales (and NO refunds), and then I'll have a few days where my sales are in the mid $$$'s and all my refunds come on those few days as well - almost like they're 'catching up' or something.
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SingleMom

16 years ago

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Chris Lockwood

16 years ago

Originally Posted by SingleMom

The question would be why would one company (Clickbank) be affected by the economy but not the others?

It wouldn't.

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Richard Goldie

16 years ago

I think clickbank are having problems, but there may be something else to consider for folk that are having falling sales.

I have a product I sell on clickbank that sells 99% to UK customers.

Last week Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday I made a total of 6 sales.

Usually in that period I would sell between 50-75 copies. I have been selling this product for over 4 years so I have a pretty good idea.

The reason I think it happened was clickbank changed the way the price was shown.

Before it was shown in dollars but think around last Thursday they changed the way the price was shown and it displayed the price in £s for anyone that arrived at the site from the UK.

You might think that would up conversions but for me it didn't.

My product is priced at $32 and after the conversion the new price was shown was £20.40.

It has pushed the price over the £20 barrier which seems more.

I reckon when most people in UK see $32 the will guess it works out at around £16-£18 doing the conversion in their head. No scientific reason behind it but just with a small poll I carried out with friends.

I have since changed it back on Monday and sales are back to normal.

Just a thing to consider if people are having slowing sales. Tiny things made huge differences.

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jacstone193

16 years ago

Originally Posted by goose1234

I think clickbank are having problems, but there may be something else to consider for folk that are having falling sales.

I have a product I sell on clickbank that sells 99% to UK customers.

Last week Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday I made a total of 6 sales.

Usually in that period I would sell between 50-75 copies. I have been selling this product for over 4 years so I have a pretty good idea.

The reason I think it happened was clickbank changed the way the price was shown.

Before it was shown in dollars but think around last Thursday they changed the way the price was shown and it displayed the price in £s for anyone that arrived at the site from the UK.

You might think that would up conversions but for me it didn't.

My product is priced at $32 and after the conversion the new price was shown was £20.40.

It has pushed the price over the £20 barrier which seems more.

I reckon when most people in UK see $32 the will guess it works out at around £16-£18 doing the conversion in their head. No scientific reason behind it but just with a small poll I carried out with friends.

I have since changed it back on Monday and sales are back to normal.

Just a thing to consider if people are having slowing sales. Tiny things made huge differences.

Thanks for this - worth bearing in mind!

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edgandia

16 years ago

I'm about done with Clickbank. It's the vehicle I used for my first product, but now that I have others, I've moved to 1shoppingcart. Although 1SC is much more expensive, it's much more robust than Clickbank. And the more products I add to my store, the more I can spread my 1SC monthly cost.

Don't know if they changed it, but until recently, you couldn't even talk to a human at Clickbank. All email-based, and it could be 2 or 3 days before you got an answer.

That's unacceptable.

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tess47

16 years ago

Lakelover,

I would continue to write 2 or 3 articles per day until you decide if your product is going to sell. If it is The Magic of Making Up, it will sell. I know Travis Sagos products are genuine, and it is a high gravity product on Clickbank.

If you are running out of things to write about, I suggest you look at other authors articles on the same subject. Do a search on Google using your keywords, and see all the information you can come up with. Then just read until you feel like you have all the information you can absorb. This will help you write some more articles.

When looking at other articles on EZA, don't copy anyones work. Always write your own articles using your own words.

The way I have always done my business is this: I write 20 to 30 articles for a niche, and if I am getting a good number of click-thrus on the product and still no sales after say, 200 to 300 hops, I look for something else to promote (unless there is something wrong with your blog or how you are preselling).

It just takes times and practice. It is a game of trial and error when you first begin, but you will get it sorted out. Just keep working and trying new things!

Good luck

Thanks
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Steven Wagenheim 16 years ago

I have been selling a product through Clickbank for over 5 years now. Each
month I average between 15 and 20 sales for that product. I have been
doing this consistently for over 5 years. I know who the market is and I know
how to sell the product.

In October, my best sale month of the whole year elsewhere, I made all of
5 sales for this product.

I am not going to definitively say that there is something wrong with
Clickbank, but you can't say it's the economy when last month I nearly
cracked the 15K barrier for the month.

Take what you want from this, but something is most definitely wrong
somewhere.
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- affiliateppc 16 years ago
  
  Steven,
  
  Do most of your sales come via affiliates or your own marketing?
  
  The reason I ask is as a publisher, big sales fluctuations are normal. You might lose an affiliate who pushed large volumes, or gain a few good ones then you might get someone send a mailing to a targeted list and none the next few weeks and add to that you never know how affiliates are promoting the product.
  
  So from a publisher's point of view, it is difficualt to see where the problem is (and if there is one). For affiliates it's different however (especially ones using PPC).
  
  Yes, it's affected me too, but instead of complaining about it (not aiming it at anyone in particular), I changed all my presell landing pages that linked to the merchant to squezee pages.
  
  One theory is that Clickbank's cookies have a clitch, they only last for 1 visit (I'm not saying this is true). So if the visitor doesn't buy today, I'll send him an email again tomorrow. If it is a cookie problem and the visitor bookmarks the merchants page, I still have a good change to get the sale as I send my lists an email every day.
  
  Another theory is that Clickbank is not tracking affiliate links correctly. In this case, the visitor might buy from the merchant through my link in the email, but I won't get credited. But there's a good change that I'll get him on the backend with one of my other products that he/she is sure to get a couple of emails about :-)
  
  It's not perfect, but I'm still making money despite CBs current issues. Hopefully though they will sort it out quickly.
  
  AffiliatePPC
  
  Thanks
  
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lakelover

16 years ago

Originally Posted by tess47

Lakelover,

I would continue to write 2 or 3 articles per day until you decide if your product is going to sell. If it is The Magic of Making Up, it will sell. I know Travis Sagos products are genuine, and it is a high gravity product on Clickbank.

If you are running out of things to write about, I suggest you look at other authors articles on the same subject. Do a search on Google using your keywords, and see all the information you can come up with. Then just read until you feel like you have all the information you can absorb. This will help you write some more articles.

When looking at other articles on EZA, don't copy anyones work. Always write your own articles using your own words.

The way I have always done my business is this: I write 20 to 30 articles for a niche, and if I am getting a good number of click-thrus on the product and still no sales after say, 200 to 300 hops, I look for something else to promote (unless there is something wrong with your blog or how you are preselling).

It just takes times and practice. It is a game of trial and error when you first begin, but you will get it sorted out. Just keep working and trying new things!

Good luck

thanks for the advise, sometimes I feel like I am beating my head against a wall.:confused:

Thanks

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Chris Lockwood

16 years ago

Steven, that's interesting to hear since your experience makes it sound like it's not an affiliate tracking issue.

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tess47

16 years ago

I agree Steve. I have never had such an erratic sales month with CB as I have had in October. Too soon for me to tell about November yet, but something's rotten in Denmark.

If this keeps up, I will have to start seriously thinking about adding some different merchants and seeing what happens.

Thanks

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JayXtreme

16 years ago

I have talked about this until I am blue in the face..

Clickbank has major issues right now.. I am slowly drafting out all products in my pipeline that are CB..

Believe me..I am not the type to scream conspiracy..I used to laugh at those people screaming about CB issues.. but there is definitely a tracking issue..

And the currency converter has really screwed things up.

Peace

Jay

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Steven Wagenheim

16 years ago

Originally Posted by JayXtreme

I have talked about this until I am blue in the face..

Clickbank has major issues right now.. I am slowly drafting out all products in my pipeline that are CB..

Believe me..I am not the type to scream conspiracy..I used to laugh at those people screaming about CB issues.. but there is definitely a tracking issue..

And the currency converter has really screwed things up.

Peace

Jay

Jay, while I am in no way a conspiracy screamer myself, based on what I
have seen of my Clickbank sales too, I'd tend to think that maybe you're
not crazy here.

I just wish there was a way of knowing for certain.

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JayXtreme

16 years ago

Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim

Jay, while I am in no way a conspiracy screamer myself, based on what I
have seen of my Clickbank sales too, I'd tend to think that maybe you're
not crazy here.

I just wish there was a way of knowing for certain.

We have all we need to know... regardless of the reasons or problems.. our stats and figures are what counts here.. and my stats tell me that CB has issues..

I keep using this example..

Over 15 conduit method sites... guess which one under performs when the rest remain consistent?... yup.. the one with CB products.

I did a split test on a list:

Autoresponder messages fail miserably with a CB product.. the same message, same product but with an independent link... hits a home run.

I have too much of my own evidence to ignore this... I don't care what CB has to say about the issues.. I don't need them to be skimming off the top of my checks.... I allowed them to take a cut for a long time, and I put plenty on the table with them, i'm no half assed affiliate..

But now....I have successfully found replacement products/programs for my whole business, plenty of the products on RAP and independents which works even better for me... it's just a matter of slowly making the switch bit by bit

Peace

Jay

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prodozoan

16 years ago

Originally Posted by JayXtreme

We have all we need to know... regardless of the reasons or problems.. our stats and figures are what counts here.. and my stats tell me that CB has issues..

I keep using this example..

Over 15 conduit method sites... guess which one under performs when the rest remain consistent?... yup.. the one with CB products.

I did a split test on a list:

Autoresponder messages fail miserably with a CB product.. the same message, same product but with an independent link... hits a home run.

I have too much of my own evidence to ignore this... I don't care what CB has to say about the issues.. I don't need them to be skimming off the top of my checks.... I allowed them to take a cut for a long time, and I put plenty on the table with them, i'm no half assed affiliate..

But now....I have successfully found replacement products/programs for my whole business, plenty of the products on RAP and independents which works even better for me... it's just a matter of slowly making the switch bit by bit

Peace

Jay

Jay,

What are the other networks that you would recommend if I am looking for products to sell to the non IM niche?

Ajith

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Frank Bruno

16 years ago

Originally Posted by JayXtreme

I have talked about this until I am blue in the face..

Clickbank has major issues right now.. I am slowly drafting out all products in my pipeline that are CB..

Believe me..I am not the type to scream conspiracy..I used to laugh at those people screaming about CB issues.. but there is definitely a tracking issue..

And the currency converter has really screwed things up.

Peace

Jay

Jay I could'nt have said this better myself there is definitely some serious problems with ClickBank and their tracking for affiliates.

People seem to be under the assumption that just because the merchants are making money that the affiliates are too.

They can easily have affiliate tracking issues that aren't being registered for affiliates promoting merchants products.

Besides their unbelievably high refund rate, now they have serious tracking issues that can't be ignored.

I thought maybe all this was on my end but I have undisputable proof that points to ClickBank having some major issues.

I will be phasing out all my ClickBank products I promote as an affiliate and finding other products off the ClickBank network to promote.

Definitely something fishy going on....

Frank Bruno

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tess47

16 years ago

I contacted them a few days ago . . .

So far no reply. I think I will try again, see if I get anywhere. Maybe some of my missing sales will show up!

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James Schramko

16 years ago

I've never put my eggs in the Clickbank basket. Sell non clickbank products and you will find it easier.

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Adam Carn

16 years ago

I've noticed the same thing with my sales but I'm sure we don't have to worry. There are hundreds of thousands of affiliates and people selling their stuff on CB. I'm sure CB won't let them down.

(or maybe I'm just saying that cos I've got a launch coming soon?!)

Adam

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GeorgR.

16 years ago

10 days now and no SINGLE affiliate sale, despite the fact that i have/had massive campaigns, banners, PPC, squidoo lenses, article marketing, social bookmarking, new sites created for some new CB products where i am affiliate.
Now...overall sales a little sluggish right now...but this is still ODD.

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oortcloud

16 years ago

So, I am confused here, is the conspiracy that people are not completing their orders on the clickbank site or is cb not reporting or paying their publishers ?

Are people checking their download page traffic that would indicate if there is an incongruence with sales and downloads ?

How much money do you think CB would make in a week or two if they skimmed all sales and not paid any commissions or sales ?

Maybe they are going to take all of the sales revenue and not pay any money out and go out with a bang. Could score millions and then run off to the islands to retire.

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Steven Wagenheim

16 years ago

Originally Posted by oortcloud

So, I am confused here, is the conspiracy that people are not completing their orders on the clickbank site or is cb not reporting or paying their publishers ?

Are people checking their download page traffic that would indicate if there is an incongruence with sales and downloads ?

How much money do you think CB would make in a week or two if they skimmed all sales and not paid any commissions or sales ?

Maybe they are going to take all of the sales revenue and not pay any money out and go out with a bang. Could score millions and then run off to the islands to retire.

I guess your question is the same as mine, sort of.

If Clickbank IS having a problem, what is it?

Why is it happening? What is causing it? How can it be fixed? Can it be
fixed? Is this something that they are aware of but just aren't letting on?

The best way to find out is to get Clickbank merchants to weigh in here
and reveal if THEIR product sales have gone down.

If they have, then it's not a tracking issue.

If they haven't then it could be tracking or it could be something else.

If enough of us put our heads together, we could figure this out.

Problem is, not Clickbank merchant is going to reveal his sales stats are
tanking if in fact they are. So while this would zoom in on the problem, it
is not very practical to think it can actually happen.

Too bad. The data would be very interesting to say the least.

Me personally, my data doesn't matter because I don't have affiliates. So
I have no data to compare it to from previous months. I make all my sales
myself and last month was my best month of the year, so no help there.

We need somebody who makes most of his sales from affiliates.

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coreytucker

16 years ago

WOW! I thought something big time was going wrong with my sites. I mean im getting the same traffic but for the first time since I started making money I have had 5 $0 days in a row!! I mean one day I got 115 hoplink clicks for my highest converting product that almost always equals 1-4 sales and nothing.

Not to mention ive found it odd that my new conduit site is not convering with such specific product keywords. I honestly just did not know what was going on, ive been really confused lately and just thought maybe ive hit a dry spell and the sales will eventually even out. But now im really wondering, and my sales have been down with CB products for the last month now too yet my traffic is about the same.

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coreytucker

16 years ago

How long has this been going on Frank? Surely its something they are working on fixing right?

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Money on the Side

16 years ago

Interesting...I have a few clickbank products. One of them never fails to make at least a few sales each day. Today, I've had a weird feeling something was wrong because I had zero sales...this would be the first time since its launch.

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Hamida Harland 16 years ago

The best way to find out is to get Clickbank merchants to weigh in here and reveal if THEIR product sales have gone down.

I've talked to quite a few merchants about this, particularly those whose products I'm an affiliate for and basically what I'm told is that they're being contacted nearly every day by customers who were unable to make a payment - so there seems to be some sort of credit card issue anyway. I don't think that's the only issue though - there does seem to be an issue tracking affiliate sales as well.

I hate to keep going on about this because we all just seem to be going around in circles and getting nowhere. We KNOW there is a problem, but no one knows what it is or what to do about it, so as Jay said, the logical thing to do is go elsewhere - but I can't ignore that Clickbank is my main affiliate program and I'm losing $$$$'s.

For me, it's a terrible way to end the year when I was doing so well, and it's going to take me a while to replace that income because CB products normally are pretty easy to sell.
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clbnc

16 years ago

Sales are rather inconsistent with me as well. I hope they get things sorted out soon. I doubt that they would be up to something deliberate. In an open market it would be suicide. People like us will continue to take our converting traffic to other sellers.

I am already signing up for other affiliate programs in my growing niche site. I will not wait around for clickbank to get their crap together. I will do business with whoever makes the most business sense, and it does not appear to be clickbank at the moment.

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JayXtreme

16 years ago

I do think we have two completely seperate issues here too..

One is a CB affiliate link tracking issue.. and the other is a CB payment page issue, one being the currency converter and the other being a credit card acceptance problem..

Either way affiliate are losing out big time and merchants are having to fight against the payment page changes...

Peace

Jay

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Richard Goldie

16 years ago

Originally Posted by JayXtreme

I do think we have two completely seperate issues here too..

One is a CB affiliate link tracking issue.. and the other is a CB payment page issue, one being the currency converter and the other being a credit card acceptance problem..

Either way affiliate are losing out big time and merchants are having to fight against the payment page changes...

Peace

Jay

Merchants can ask to have the sales page returned to the way it was. i.e dollars.

I did and sales have recovered.

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Steven Wagenheim

16 years ago

Okay, I have a personal contact at Clickbank. I've known her for over 5
years now. I am going to email her on Monday when they reopen. I am
also going to direct her to this thread. Don't worry, I know her well and
she'll want to read this. We have a very open and no BS relationship because
I have bitched to her about things before that she has taken care of.

She is one of the VPs of the company. She may not admit to me in the
email that there is a problem (she never does) but oddly, every time I
write to her about something, the problem gets taken care of shortly after.

We'll see if this helps because it's clear that this problem is widespread.

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Adam Carn

16 years ago

Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim

Okay, I have a personal contact at Clickbank. I've known her for over 5
years now. I am going to email her on Monday when they reopen. I am
also going to direct her to this thread. Don't worry, I know her well and
she'll want to read this. We have a very open and no BS relationship because
I have bitched to her about things before that she has taken care of.

She is one of the VPs of the company. She may not admit to me in the
email that there is a problem (she never does) but oddly, every time I
write to her about something, the problem gets taken care of shortly after.

We'll see if this helps because it's clear that this problem is widespread.

As it seems many people are facing this problem, it's hard to imagine Clickbank not knowing about this issue already.

Adam

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markph

16 years ago

my sales with clickbank collapsed in October. So what I did was this.I offered customers buying through my site a 10% discount. The reason for this was so I could track what was going on. If anyone bought it they would have to email me directly for the 10% and I would know if there was missing sales. Were there missing sales..After the 4th email asking me for the discount on non existent sales I confronted clickbank with the evidence. They turned round and said there had been no sales! I don't know if they are just plain incompetent or just a bunch of thieves and I'm not hanging around to find out. I'm done with them.

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Chris Lockwood

16 years ago

Originally Posted by markph

my sales with clickbank collapsed in October. So what I did was this.I offered customers buying through my site a 10% discount. The reason for this was so I could track what was going on. If anyone bought it they would have to email me directly for the 10% and I would know if there was missing sales. Were there missing sales..After the 4th email asking me for the discount on non existent sales I confronted clickbank with the evidence. They turned round and said there had been no sales! I don't know if they are just plain incompetent or just a bunch of thieves and I'm not hanging around to find out. I'm done with them.

First, offering rebates violates CB's rules.

You seem to be assuming everyone claiming your rebate actually bought the product. Did they send you receipts? Some people will claim rebates or bonuses without buying the product.

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markph

16 years ago

Originally Posted by Chris Lockwood

First, offering rebates violates CB's rules.

You seem to be assuming everyone claiming your rebate actually bought the product. Did they send you receipts? Some people will claim rebates or bonuses without buying the product.

yes I know and accept offering rebates violates clickbanks rules, Not getting paid for sales I know I have made though violates mine. So I ran this for a very short time to prove the fact that sales were being made and not registered, after repeatedly being told there were no problems.Even though it was becoming clear there was a big problem.

you are right, people will claim anything to get something for nothing, so I specifically requested and received proof of purchase from each person,and clickbank still denied that any sale had been made at all. I'm done with them.

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TheNightOwl 16 years ago

There certainly does seem to be a lot of conflicting anecdotal evidence in this thread.

The key word there being anecdotal.

For example, in Mr Wagenheim's response, he mentions the ClickBank VP of Ops' reply that after checking people's accounts, they found that monthly averages were not erratic.

It could certainly be the case that people just think there's something wrong when in fact there's not. That people are having some kind of mass delusional episode that their sales have fallen sharply when in fact they have not.

Or it could be that ClickBank is trying to pull some lame Jedi mind trick on everyone: "These are not the slumping sales figures you're looking for..."

Jay and markph present empirical information (evidence?) based on testing and actual stats.

This bit is particularly worrying in my opinion:

Originally Posted by markph

I specifically requested and received proof of purchase from each person,and clickbank still denied that any sale had been made

To be fair(-ish) to ClickBank, there may be no hanky-panky at all and people really do just think their sales have gone down when they haven't.

(I ain't buyin' it, though, if so many people are saying "I've been getting X sales a day for the last 400 years and then suddenly in the last month few or none". Sorry. To quote Mr Horse from Ren & Stimpy "No, Sir, I don't like it at all".)

But let's face it, as if(!) ClickBank is going to just admit that they have a problem. Do you think that their folks don't read all the significant threads in forums like this?

They know that if they were to admit there was a problem, IMers would drop them like a hot potato.

Now, Mr Waggenheim, I'm certainly not saying that what you did was bad. And I think a lot of people appreciated hearing at least something from ClickBank on the issue. So that was nice of you to contact them.

But it was, in my opinion, a bit pointless, really. There is no way in Hell--no matter how good your relationship is with Jen--that she is authorised to openly confirm a problem with their system should it exist.

Yeah, I know you said that her saying so doesn't mean there isn't a problem... I know; I read it.

But no one at ClickBank is going to admit there is (or was) a problem for the hot potato reason I mentioned a moment ago.

That's not to say, incidentally, that I automatically believe there's a problem just coz Jay and markph have some stats that lean in that direction and because a bunch of folks are all saying sales are down. As has been pointed out, this could be for all sorts of reasons.

But I still find markph's story pretty concerning, frankly.

TheNightOwl
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Chiayee

16 years ago

Thanks Steven, much appreciated.

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Daniel Scott

16 years ago

My CB sales have been very flat lately too, but then again I am not good enough or have consistent enough evidence to really be certain that it's CB.

What does everyone use for an alternative? PDC is of course a possibility but I have heard that a lot of people are having major problems with them as well, so...?

And by the way I am a publisher. My product is fairly new so not many affiliates (certainly no powerful ones) so this is just going on my ~50 uniques a day (mainly from articles).

-Dan

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Chris Lockwood

16 years ago

Originally Posted by Daniel Scott

What does everyone use for an alternative? PDC is of course a possibility but I have heard that a lot of people are having major problems with them as well, so...?

And by the way I am a publisher. My product is fairly new so not many affiliates (certainly no powerful ones) so this is just going on my ~50 uniques a day (mainly from articles).

-Dan

What problems? Their system works. The only thing I've heard is complaints about a few people not paying their affiliates on time, no problems making or tracking sales.

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Daniel Scott

16 years ago

Originally Posted by Chris Lockwood

What problems? Their system works. The only thing I've heard is complaints about a few people not paying their affiliates on time, no problems making or tracking sales.

Chris,

Do you use PayPal with them, or a different system? I have heard from some marketers (such as Paul Myers) that PayPal's order pages really aren't conductive to sales, but this was probably 6 months ago, and he is still using it, so maybe the issue was short lived or he found a way around it.

-Dan

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gdwebs

16 years ago

Good to let everyone know, it would be bad to think some one so high up in the chain is messing up.

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naruq 16 years ago

My clickbank sales have been consistently going up each month for the last 7 months!
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tamtu 16 years ago

I did have a similar problem, I had 3 sales of the same product to the same person on the same day, I did not have a clue as to what that person was going to do with the same product, but with in a week 2 of the sales got canceled, yes something should be wrong with click bank.
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Chris Thompson

16 years ago

I just launched my product and had one sale after about 500 PPC clicks. the page should convert a lot better than that. I was thinking it was my page, but this thread has me thinking something is screwed up.

I use DLGuard so the tracking allows me to know if downloads have occurred. They have NOT ... so either there have been no customers wanting to buy (other than one) or the payment page is causing problems and customers are abandoning it.

Steven - interested in what your CB contact tells you for sure!

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ecdavis

16 years ago

Hi. I've also been experiencing a similar problem. In fact, I was just going to post about it when I found this thread. I've been tracking clickthroughs from my sites and TIDs to Clickbank and have found that the hops go unrecorded. In addition, sales have gone to zero. I've sent 4 polite emails explaining the problem and asking for assistance but so far have received no reply.

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getmorebuyers

16 years ago

I thought I was the only one who was thinking like all of you. I am so glad i found this thread because like you I have been having the same experience. I work up to 16 hour days getting articles out, doing product launches, etc. and only 1 sale at launch time! This is not good.

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oortcloud

16 years ago

Has anyone checked their sales funnel ?

Meaning, are people hitting your thank you/download page
despite not having any sales ?

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Adam Carn

16 years ago

I wonder what Harvey Segal's views are on this issue.

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Eric Lorence 16 years ago

Originally Posted by Adam Carn

I wonder what Harvey Segal's view are on this issue.

True, funny he hasn't been in this one.

But he is so established, this probably hasn't affected him much.
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websitemoneynow

16 years ago

I heard they are having problems with people purchasing with credit cards , that even good credit cards are being turned down .

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Margaret Arumugam

16 years ago

Check out the sales graph from CB Analytics (attached file).

Look at the sharp rise in sales over the past few days indicating that "someone" is still making sales -- probably publishers themselves. That spike seems to be around and after the US elections, or an indication that maybe CB is tinkering with something in its systems.

Bottom line is, my own sales as an affiliate are as dead as a dodo (sorry for the cliche but a little upset with the 'downturn')

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WilsonA

16 years ago

Originally Posted by Margaret Arumugam

Check out the sales graph from CB Analytics (attached file).

Look at the sharp rise in sales over the past few days indicating that "someone" is still making sales -- probably publishers themselves. That spike seems to be around and after the US elections, or an indication that maybe CB is tinkering with something in its systems.

Bottom line is, my own sales as an affiliate are as dead as a dodo (sorry for the cliche but a little upset with the 'downturn')

Yeah, it is because of the two recent lauches in the im niche - the blogging book and the ranking book. When the 2 start going down you would start to see what it is really going on

Wilson

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Martin Avis

16 years ago

I'm not saying that ClickBank are perfect, but I do know that they monitor sales and conversions very closely. So any systemic failure would be picked up very quickly.

Folks, the last couple of months have been crazy for anyone selling anything. Online and offline.

Since early August the threat (and now the reality) of impending recession has made many people much more cautious about spending money. So any downturns in sales that people may be seeing with ClickBank are probably just a reflection of market conditions.

Remember we just had a banking system crash, a credit crunch, a plummet in house prices - and for those in the US, an election. None of those things encourage people to spend.

But - and here is the marketing reality - if you have a first class presell and a top rate sales page for a product that presses people's buttons, sales will still flow just fine, thanks very much.

Just this last week or so I've been promoting a ClickBank product. If I were to believe the doomsayers here, I may not have bothered. I would have expected a complete failure.

Luckily I didn't read this before promoting this very hot ClickBank product because so far I've converted one in every 6.5 hops to a sale.

ClickBank not tracking things properly? I don't see any evidence.
ClickBank's new currency policy on the order page putting people off buying? Not in my experience.

Similarly, as a vendor, I see no particular variation in my day-to-day sales. Of course, the 'normal' sales pattern is pretty chaotic, but I expect that and haven't seen any overall longterm decline beyond what I'd expect in a downturning economy.

Is ClickBank broken? I don't know, but judging from the size of my checks right now I'm not in any hurry for them to fix it if it is.

Martin

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JayXtreme

16 years ago

Originally Posted by Martin.Avis

If I were to believe the doomsayers here,

I take exception to this statement Martin.. I appreciate your point of view.. but my thoughts and conclusion were based on my stats... comparisons between clickbank and non clickbank product conversions...

So if you would do me the courtesy of respecting my opinion without branding me a "doomsayer" it would be much appreciated..

In the midst of all this I do have some products still converting on CB.. but the majority are not looking bright...

Kindest

Jay

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Martin Avis

16 years ago

Jay,

Why do you take exception to anything I say?

A lot of people have commented in this thread and I didn't single out any of them in my response.

People are always writing about how bad ClickBank is. Their have been threads bemoaning the fact that Clickbank is 'broken' for as many years as I've been online.

The fact is that business is cyclical. Sales are rarely as consistent as some people like to think. One day is good, and another is bad.

My point is that people are awlways very quick to blame ClickBank when the reality may simply be that tastes change, customers's cash flow may change and the economy certainly has a big influence.

I really don't know if ClickBank have a problem - my own sales suggest not, but I'm not a statistically significant sample. All I'm saying is that it is probably better to look for other influences rather than always jump to blaming ClickBank.

No personal attack was intended on you Jay - or on anyone else.

Martin

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JayXtreme

16 years ago

Originally Posted by Martin.Avis

Jay,

Why do you take exception to anything I say?

A lot of people have commented in this thread and I didn't single out any of them in my response.

People are always writing about how bad ClickBank is. Their have been threads bemoaning the fact that Clickbank is 'broken' for as many years as I've been online.

The fact is that business is cyclical. Sales are rarely as consistent as some people like to think. One day is good, and another is bad.

My point is that people are awlways very quick to blame ClickBank when the reality may simply be that tastes change, customers's cash flow may change and the economy certainly has a big influence.

I really don't know if ClickBank have a problem - my own sales suggest not, but I'm not a statistically significant sample. All I'm saying is that it is probably better to look for other influences rather than always jump to blaming ClickBank.

No personal attack was intended on you Jay - or on anyone else.

Martin

Like I said Martin.. I appreciate your opinion...

But like I mentioned already.. I'm usually in your shoes telling people to look at their own funnel before blaming the payment processor, but this time the evidence stacks up against Clickbank... and you were very broad in your doomsayer statement applying it to all in the thread who had something to say against clickbank... no offence taken Martin, just exception to your broad tarring with one brush...

No hard feelings, I just wanted you to know that my perspective comes from one of calculated analysis and not some crazy ramblings of someone who doesn't have a clue..

Peace

Jay

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Margaret Arumugam 16 years ago

Both Jay and Martin have valid points, but I'm hoping Steven W can get us a more objective (insider) view of the situation from his source.
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Anbelle

16 years ago

To me that doesn't seem like a coinsidence, so many of you having problems. Why don't ALL OF YOU write to Clickbank....? Tess, did you get an answer yet... Also the fact there is no answer in several days, tells me something is not right. I am just starting and this is actually scary...

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BizBooks

16 years ago

In the past week, i have had zero sales.

today.... several!

maybe their system is backed up...?

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ste25

Banned 16 years ago

[DELETED]

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Wayne 16 years ago

It might be the anti fraud measures being used for credit card processing. I received an email from another affiliate program that said their sales dropped considerably in late September. After investigating, they found that the anti-fraul tool, Verified by Visa, was declining many more sales than it used to. They turned it off and right away their sales increased by more than 50%. Then after talking to some of the top people in the industry found out that it was happening to many others also. There have been many reports of affiliates saying people are emailing them saying their credit card is declined, so I think this could be something to be concerned about.
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deedgrabber

16 years ago

I will just chip in to say that my Clickbank product is sold 95% through myself and abou 5% from affiliates. I have noticed a nasty drop in sales the last month or two and have been wracking my brain to figure out why.

After reading this thread it doesn't seem to be Clickbank's fault, I am still getting a few affiliate sales as normal, and they don't seem to be skimming sales without reporting to me. For some of us it might just be a natural business cycle.

Rick Dawson

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Adam Carn

16 years ago

It's all those million dollar launches that broke the Clickbank tracking system!

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rickyou

16 years ago

I sometimes do receive some emails from my list saying that they can't buy the product. So I think the payment processor is one of the problems.

My sales have dropped considerably a lot recently because of my falling traffic. However, the strange thing is my traffic only fall half, but my sales drop by 70-80%. If the sales only drop by half, I supposed to get 1-2 sales a day. But now, I get only 1-2 sales a week. It is really quite sad when I log into my account and see zero sales, or maybe only one or two rebills.

The strange thing is my sales recover in the past few days, making about 1-2 sales a day instead of zero sales.

I wonder whether this is really the market preference problem because I have been promoting the product since April, things are pretty consistent before September.
------
Edit : I just checked my bro's CB account too, it seems that he get 2 sales for the past 2 days after a dreadful period of zero sales.

Rick

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Tenzo

16 years ago

It seems that more and more CB sales pages are using virtual agent type software. Is it possible that affiliates are not being credited because of this?

Regards,
Kevin

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NickMarks

16 years ago

I never really had a problem with CB in regards to tracking or payout..

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GeorgR.

16 years ago

guys,

we can easily test this. Ironically, i remember exactly the same problem about year ago.

I had people telling me that they bought products respective watched someone physically buying a product via some clickbank link, but never got credited the affiliate commission.

So..if you wonder whether things work..buy "something" as an affiliate and check whether you get credit from CB.

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Daniel Scott

16 years ago

Georg,

The problem with your theory is that the problem may be sporadic, or only accepting certain CC #'s based on an unknown marker, or other possibilities (including that there is nothing wrong with CB at all).

I'm not trying to knock your theory, just saying that it would need to be pretty-large scale to be a scientifically accurate test.

-Dan

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Greg Cooksley 16 years ago

I've been following this thread with interest....

Does anyone have any concrete updates?

Regards

Greg
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freelikehell

16 years ago

I just put up a tracking code in my clickbank redirection page for payment.
Now, if anyone clicks on the 'order now' button, then first, my database will store the click and then the visitor will be taken to clickbank page. That way, ill know if any screw up is happening or not.. i get a stream of visitors everyday, so ill get to know within a day or two..

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Ryan_Taylor

16 years ago

I have a theory...

How successful do you think Google Chrome is? And how many people do you think use it in incognito mode?

From Google:

If you use Google Chrome in incognito mode, it will not transmit any pre-existing cookies to sites that you visit. Sites may deposit new cookies on your machine while you are in incognito mode, however. These cookies will be temporarily stored and transmitted to sites while you remain in incognito mode. They will be deleted when you close the browser or return to normal browsing mode.

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Adam Carn

16 years ago

Originally Posted by Ryan_Taylor

I have a theory...

How successful do you think Google Chrome is? And how many people do you think use it in incognito mode?

From Google:

If you use Google Chrome in incognito mode, it will not transmit any pre-existing cookies to sites that you visit. Sites may deposit new cookies on your machine while you are in incognito mode, however. These cookies will be temporarily stored and transmitted to sites while you remain in incognito mode. They will be deleted when you close the browser or return to normal browsing mode.

That's quite scary stuff! Hmm as long as someone clicks on our affiliate links and purchase before closing the Chrome browser we should be ok.

Adam

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affiliateppc

16 years ago

Ryan,

Don't know how responsible Chrome is yet, but that is going to be a problem in the future.

One of the theories floating around is that CB cookies only last for 1 session. I don't know how true it is, but looking at the info from Google, it is possible.

Visitor gos through your aff link to merchant page. Bookmarks for later reference. Closes browser and BAM, no comission for you if he returns later through the bookmark

AffiliatePPC

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maverick80

16 years ago

I wanted to throw my two cents in here as well.......

I have had a product going for almost a year.

Payment period ending October 1st. I had my best two weeks ever, and received my largest check from Clickbank to date.

Payment period ending October 15th. My sales dropped roughly 45%.

Payment period ending October 29th. My sales dropped an ADDITIONAL 50%.

I contacted Clickbank and they told me it was most likely due to economic conditions. We currently have no concrete evidence to rule this out. However I find it extremely strange that I had my BEST two weeks of sales ever, only to watch them drop to the LOWEST levels ever. It's like someone turned off a light switch. Currently I find it more likely that something has changed with the processing of credit cards. Either some business or technical process seems to have changed over at Clickbank.

Steven, please do reply to this thread with any information you get from your source. It would be much appreciated.

Regards,
Mike

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naruq 16 years ago

My clickbank sales have been consistent for the last 8 months!
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tess47

16 years ago

I will be glad when someone hears back from Clickbank. I know I have emailed them again, and I hope Steve W gets a response from his contact as well.

I have a product I've been marketing for months that normally converted at about 1/60 for me, as of today I have over 400 hops with not ONE SINGLE SALE. It's really discouraging.

The sad thing is, I market many products that I just can't find a good replacement for. I have looked at PayDotCom, but most of their products just lack the quality I like.

Maybe things will straighten out soon!

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Steven Wagenheim

16 years ago

Originally Posted by tess47

I will be glad when someone hears back from Clickbank. I know I have emailed them again, and I hope Steve W gets a response from his contact as well.

I have a product I've been marketing for months that normally converted at about 1/60 for me, as of today I have over 400 hops with not ONE SINGLE SALE. It's really discouraging.

The sad thing is, I market many products that I just can't find a good replacement for. I have looked at PayDotCom, but most of their products just lack the quality I like.

Maybe things will straighten out soon!

Tess, I heard back from Jen. I won't post the whole email here but
essentially what she said was that they had been contacted by quite a
few people, which tells me there is a widespread problem somewhere,
but in researching, she says they haven't been able to find a system
problem.

I know Jen a long time and one thing I can tell you is this. If she says
she can't find a problem, she can't. That doesn't mean there isn't one. It
just means it's not something that is obvious or going to be easy to find.

She did add this. She said that many of the people who contacted them,
when they checked their accounts, their sales "averages" really haven't
changed over a significant time frame.

What this tells me is this.

Either the downturn hasn't been going on long enough to determine an
actual problem or, the sales "blips" have been so intermittent that if you
were to look at it long term, even for months, nothing significant would
show up.

In other words, if you haven't made any sales for a few days or even a
couple of weeks, that could simply be the economy. I've seen this happen
before in my 5 years, though not to this degree. However, this is the
worst our economy has been in 70 plus years.

Those of you reporting no change in sales, look at your niche. Most likely
it's in an area that isn't going to be as affected as others. People looking
for debt relief right now are probably still buying as opposed to people
looking to get back with their ex, maybe not so much since they probably
don't have the money to spend on them anyway.

The economy can't be ignored and I'm inclined to believe that this has as
much an effect, if not more so, than Clickbank problems.

My gut tells me that this downturn is going to end after the New Year, if
not sooner.

Like I said, I've lived through this before.

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carik42

16 years ago

Steven:

Many thanks for the update.

I just don't know what to say here as what I see in this thread makes no sense to me at all.

Last month was a really good month for me across all my promotions, so to see people have these issues really is baffling.

Hopefully you're right about things improving in the New Year...got a feeling it's going to be a tough couple of months for a lot of affiliates.

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TheNightOwl

16 years ago

Just found this in another thread:

More stats. Hmmm...

Okay, "Too small a sample size" you might say.

But the OP has a good point about 32 clicks for people who were on the page for 3-4 minutes. They read for this long and then clicked and not one of 'em bought?

Possible? Sure.

Weird? You do the math.

"Well maybe he doesn't have the price on the page and people are clicking through just to find out the price" you say...

Fair enough.

So I asked. Let's see what he says.

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freelikehell

16 years ago

Just updated the thread TheNightOwl :http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ome-facts.html
Even replied to your query... take a look

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Daniel Scott

16 years ago

For a bit more info...

Had a sale today that wasn't processed. At the very least, someone landed on my thankyou page, which should not be indexed by the SE's and has a nonsensical string of letters. So it is possible, although unlikely, they got there on their own.

Through CB too.

-Dan

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TheNightOwl

16 years ago

Hmmm... the plot thickens.

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ste25

Banned 16 years ago

[DELETED]

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Nutrifitness

16 years ago

Originally Posted by ste25

Its not the economy thats causing drop in sales. Try ordering a CB product using Paypal. Sometimes you get to the product download page but you arent charged. No money leaves your Paypal account.

Happened to me last week. Whatever is wrong needs identifying and fixing fast.

Did ou notify cb of this asap? what was their response?

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tess47

16 years ago

Here is the response I got from Jennifer at Clickbank:

Hi Tess,

I appreciate you contacting me! I saw on the forum that you had not gotten a response from ClickBank yet -- so I'm glad Steven passed my email address along to you (by the way -- where did you send your initial email to us? Was it through one of our forms, or to a particular email address? I'd like to research why you didn't get an answer before now!).

We have seen the forums and we have had people contact us directly, and we have researched for potential problems on our side in depth. We can not find a systemwide problem anywhere. In fact, many of the people that have contacted us about a decrease in conversions or in sales, once we have researched it, have actually not had a decrease in their average -- or in some cases, their average has gone up during the time they state they have noticed a decline.

I'd be happy to research any accounts individually -- and have our IT team look at any individual account, as well, to see if we can find anything specific. What is your ClickBank nickname?

Also -- I will be sure to go over this thread in detail, and see if it brings to light anything that we have not already tested! We certainly take these concerns seriously, and want to make sure everything is okay!

Best regards,

Jennifer

V.P. Operations

Digital Products Retailer: Affiliate Program & Sell Online - ClickBank

Thanks

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trippmarxx

16 years ago

I was planning on publishing a few products on ClickBank. While I still might do this, I plan to do many of my own products via PayPal and setup my own affiliate tracking software and do it that way. Seems much, much easier than dealing with all of the issues that CB has had lately....

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spudzz

16 years ago

Absolutely trippmarxx - it's a shame more marketers don't take full control over their own affiliate sales. It really is easy to set up and once you've done it the first time it's just a case of rolling it out the same each time.

Thanks

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Stallion

16 years ago

It could certainly be the case that people just think there's something wrong when in fact there's not. That people are having some kind of mass delusional episode that their sales have fallen sharply when in fact they have not.

Well put. I must be having delusions because my pay checks just appear to be much smaller. Like, it has to be a delusion, clickbank said so. It's getting harder for me to scrape up money to pay the bills, I guess that's a delusion too. The money is in my bank account, I'm just so delusional, I can't seem to see it or withdraw it.

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stevaxx

16 years ago

I've been having some real problems. Sales every day then stopped, nothing for 2 weeks despite a huge increase in traffic. I contacted Clickbank and received the reply below. I don't know what to think.

Hello John,

Thank you for your inquiry! I have checked your account and confirmed that it is active and working properly. Please rest assured that ClickBank is not currently experiencing any issues in tracking your referrals. Our technical team is constantly checking our system to ensure that every aspect of ClickBank is functioning correctly.

It is normal to experience fluctuations in sales. Even our most successful publishers and affiliates go through periods of seemingly unusual activity. In order to understand the inconsistency of sales it is important to recognize your success as a ClickBank client is dependent upon your consumers. Several factors, such as market demand, customer interest, holidays and seasons all affect the volume of sales that your account receives. Sometimes these factors combine favorably with your marketing campaign, but sometimes they do not.

Also, please keep in mind that the current distress of the American economy is having large impact on not only Internet sales, but all sales in general.

If you are concerned that there is indeed an issue, I would recommend that you double check your advertising campaigns to make sure that everything is functioning correctly. You can verify that your links are functioning correctly by following the steps outlined below:

1. Enter your hoplink into your Internet address bar.

2. Click through the publisher's ordering process until you reach the ClickBank order form.

3. Scroll to the bottom of the ClickBank order form. You should see your account nickname listed as the affiliate.

This proves that your link is set up correctly and ensures your account will be credited with any commissions earned by referring paying customers to this publisher.

Please let me know if I can be of any further assistance!

Thank you.

Kylee G.
ClickBank Client Service
jaj@clickbank.com@clickbank.com

Thanks
2 replies

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eikliw 16 years ago

what I don't like is every time I want to start leaning away form clickbank, I have a good $100+ day squeeze in, making me want to stick around.

I'd like to have my own affiliate system set up, but theres just so many affiliates already using clickbank...
- Thanks
- 1 reply
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- Dixiebelle 16 years ago
  
  You all need to check the other threads about the Clickbank problem. It seems that sales are being made, but affiliates aren't getting credit for them.
  
  Check your hop links on your affiliate products. When you go to the checkout page, and scroll to the bottom of the page, a lot of people are finding that it says "affiliate=none". People are buying, but the affiliate links are missing.
  
  I haven't made a single sale on my 2 Clickbank products in the last 2 months, because my affiliate link is missing. I have sent them an email, but haven't heard back as yet.
  
  Dixie
  
  Thanks
  
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TheNightOwl

16 years ago

Originally Posted by stevaxx

Hello John,

Thank you for your inquiry! I have checked your account and confirmed that it is active and working properly. Please rest assured that ClickBank is not currently experiencing any issues in tracking your referrals. Our technical team is constantly checking our system to ensure that every aspect of ClickBank is functioning correctly.

It is normal to experience fluctuations in sales. Even our most successful publishers and affiliates go through periods of seemingly unusual activity. In order to understand the inconsistency of sales it is important to recognize your success as a ClickBank client is dependent upon your consumers. Several factors, such as market demand, customer interest, holidays and seasons all affect the volume of sales that your account receives. Sometimes these factors combine favorably with your marketing campaign, but sometimes they do not.

Also, please keep in mind that the current distress of the American economy is having large impact on not only Internet sales, but all sales in general.

If you are concerned that there is indeed an issue, I would recommend that you double check your advertising campaigns to make sure that everything is functioning correctly.

etceteraaaaaaaa......

Man, if that don't sound like regurgitated, copy'n'paste spin-doctoring, I dunno what is.

Hey? Am I being cynical again?:p

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Steven Wagenheim 16 years ago

Originally Posted by TheNightOwl

etceteraaaaaaaa......

Man, if that don't sound like regurgitated, copy'n'paste spin-doctoring, I dunno what is.

Hey? Am I being cynical again?:p

Unfortunately, everybody is getting the same response. I find that at little
sad, but yet it's understandable. They must be getting hundreds if not
thousands of complaints. Since they're basically going to stick to the same
story, what's the point of writing a person response.

So while it is kind of sad, it's understandable.

The flip side is this...if there was a problem and they gave you a copy
and paste response detailing it, I don't think you'd be as upset.
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- TheNightOwl 16 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim
  
  So while it is kind of sad, it's understandable.
  
  I agree. I don't know if it was in this thread or the other, related one (or whether it was just in the chasms of my mind) that I said it's a bit of a double-bind for the old ClickBank.
  
  I mean, if they say "There's no problem", people like me don't believe 'em. [Qualifier: Not just as a matter of course, incidentally; because people have run their tests and they still say all A-OK].
  
  On the other hand, they say "Yep, there's a problem", they go out of business before next weekend.
  
  Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim
  
  The flip side is this...if there was a problem and they gave you a copy
  and paste response detailing it, I don't think you'd be as upset.
  
  Actually. Steven, I'm not particularly upset at all. I'm just cynical. There are several people who've posted recently saying they've done empirical tests and presented ClickBank with evidence that suggests something is out of order only to be told that everything's hunky-dory.
  
  Clearly this is for the double-bind-a-licious mentioned a moment ago.
  
  I'm not upset. Just doubting.
  
  And, on the contrary, if they said, yes, there's a problem (cut'n'paste or no) and we've been denying it all along, I'd be much more upset. Thieves and liars.
  
  But what can they do? If they come out and say "Hey, affiliates... hey merchants... we're currently experiencing a problem which may mean you don't get paid correctly...uh... hang about a bit while we look into, eh?" then we both know the result.
  
  :confused:
  
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Nicola Lane

16 years ago

I think this is becoming an excellent reason to use something like DLguard.

Clickbank will have to process sales correctly in order for people to get thier products - and if merchants can then match up thier non-affiliate sales with the affiliates then there will be some concrete evidence.

It will also mean that no-one can simply hijack the whole sale (affiliate and merchant).

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TheNightOwl 16 years ago

Originally Posted by Nicola Lane

if merchants can then match up thier non-affiliate sales with the affiliates then there will be some concrete evidence.

Didn't markph say he'd already done that and they denied it was true?
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kwaldron

16 years ago

Is there only one alternative (PDC) to Clickbank as a supplier of digital products ?
If there was true competition in this area, that would be best incentive for them to sort out their problems.

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zerofill

16 years ago

Gee wonder who gets the affiliate commission when the affiliate ID isn't there...{sarcasm intended}

I just went through and tested a bunch of mine too...but I didn't have any issues.

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Stallion

16 years ago

I hate being lied too. I feel like answering their replies with "Okay. That's enough. Close my account. I can't do business with people that have no intention of being honest with me."

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TheNightOwl

16 years ago

Just found this thread, hot off the press...

This is the kind of thing that makes me cynical Mr Wagenheim.

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malik92

16 years ago

why don't you buy from your affiliate link to test it , then ask for a refund and ask some of your friends to do this too , then see if the commission show up .

I once had this problem but with a cpa network , then i sent 7 leads (all friends) to a cpa offer but only 3 leads recorded

they were basically shaving my leads, i changed them and it's all good now .

I don't know if it's clickbank's fault or yours but you can always test .

Malik

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Stallion

16 years ago

I don't know if it's clickbank's fault or yours but you can always test .

It's being tested. You look at the bottom of the order page and see [affiliate = none]. You're not getting commission.

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ecdavis

16 years ago

Aside from the issue of sales, I track my clickthroughs to Clickbank by TID, and I'd say that at the time of this writing, only about 1 in 7 are being recorded by their Analyzer tool. As I mentioned earlier, I have sent four inquiry emails but received no replies. I'm not sure what the correct course of action is. I will send another report in tomorrow, but after that I'll start considering other channels of communication, though I'm not sure what my options are.

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anomaly

16 years ago

Originally Posted by ecdavis

Aside from the issue of sales, I track my clickthroughs to Clickbank by TID, and I'd say that at the time of this writing, only about 1 in 7 are being recorded by their Analyzer tool. As I mentioned earlier, I have sent four inquiry emails but received no replies. I'm not sure what the correct course of action is. I will send another report in tomorrow, but after that I'll start considering other channels of communication, though I'm not sure what my options are.

i've noticed about 2 - 3 in 10 of my TIDS are coming through as no tid, even though they definitely have tids ... most annoying!

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ecdavis

16 years ago

Jay,

Hi. If you are willing to divulge some of your affiliate resources, I'm sure many here could benefit from that information. I've also been looking for other programs to switch to that can accomodate my niche areas. Clickbank is just so potentially convenient that it is incredibly frustrating to have to drop them because of something so transparently absurd. I still tend to think that this is a tech issue that will, at some point, stabilize, but waiting it out may not be an option.

Evan

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Vikram73

14 years ago

Well. I had problems with my affiliate sales with CB a year ago. They denied anything was wrong so i created a new account and changed my hop links.

Voila!! I started making sales again.

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James Blair

14 years ago

Just another reason I primarily like to stick to creating my own products. It just seems like when major aspects or even your entire business is not entirely in your control, then things start going wrong and you have a lot less control over figuring out what the problem is and fixing it.

I'm not downing affiliate marketing or anything like that at all, for me it's place is a supplemental income from time to time..

I just like knowing that if something DOES go wrong, then it's my fault, and I can figure out exactly what it is right then and work on fixing it.

Clickbank is generally reputable and they've paid me on time every time and they have their good uses, but you just never know what may happen or what's going on. Their tracking could be all jacked up, could be anything.

Maybe I'm just a control freak or something lol but that's how I feel about it.

James

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