Listen UP!! Response from VP of Clickbank

What was this regarding?

That's the typical non-answer I've come to expect from them. It's possible they know something is wrong, but not why, in which case I wouldn't expect them to say anything.

Something is definitely up, that's for sure.....I've had issues since they've switched payment platforms.

A lot of affiliate marketers are already switching merchant providers because of the obvious "buzz" this is generating throughout all the forums from tracking issues.

Frank Bruno

So what's the best alternative to CB as a merchant?

2CO and PayPal come to mind... 2CO has a pretty "difficult" checkout process so you might lose some sales because of it. I'd say these are the most reputable 3rd party payment processors today - ClickBank, PayPal, 2CO.

Anyone know others?

Well, what should we expect? Should they say this: "Well, we've noticed that many transactions are not completed due to some stupid coding that frustrates customers and causes 10x the cart abandonment than our previous system. We also have no idea how to fix it so the problem will continue indefinitely. If you don't like it, leave and don't let the door hit you on the a.. on the way out." Now that would be a refreshing email, wouldn't it?

TomG.

http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ng-answer.html Wonder if they could explain this.

Agreed, they aren't likely to admit to a problem. Rest assured if there is a problem they'll be working on it. They can't afford to loose their affiliate base.

I have a client that we were looking at a Clickbank product launch, but now......I guess I will look for other affiliate program providers for now.

At least you got an answer! I hate when I have to contact a company 3 or 4 times just to establish a dialog. I have to admit Clickbank has always been timely in responding to me.

I'm not sure what to look for when checking my account for missing sales. What is the first indication sales may be missing?

I'm a big Clickbank fan - I've been using them for about 7 years now, and won't be stopping anytime soon.

The biggest strength, as I see it, is that they offer a built in affiliate program, and they also take care of all taxes. Makes my life MUCH easier.

Has there been a downturn in sales? Yes. I see this as two issues:

1) Economy scares - some countries are worse than others, but there is a general unsettling worldwide.

2) The addition of the automatic currency conversion. I'm not sure if this was a fluke (I don't have enough data to prove one way or the other), but my sales seemed to drop when this was implemented. I asked Clickbank to remove it from my account, which they happily did. Jennifer is very helpful. My sales then seemed to rise again.


If you're an affiliate, check the order form for the product you're promoting. Does it autoconvert the currency (perhaps US buyers can use an international proxy to test this)?. If so, perhaps emails the vendor and see if they can request the autocurrency conversion to be removed.


What I DO know for sure is that Clickbank isn't stealing my sales. Each sale I make needs to be registered on my server for the software to work. Without the customer's being registered, I'd end up with a tonne of complaints.

That, to me, is proof that Clickbank aren't taking a few of my sales for themselves.


And if we think about it: it would hurt Clickbank more to "skim" than it would not to skim. If people stop making money through them, they leave. So the best business move for them is to make sure affiliates and vendors make money using their system.

cheers
Sam

If there is a problem then there is a slim chance at this stage the ClickBank in house team is going to find a problem after going over it several times already.

Having been inside on several code reviews I know that getting a group of like minded people together who have already worked closely together on a project may reveal nothing.

If there indeed may be a problem ClickBank would benefit from having an independent audit performed by a team who has no interest in their business and no personal relationship with them whatsoever. This is the same reason a music album project will be handed to different recording, mixing, and mastering engineers. Fresh ears, no foreknowledge, nothing to gain but success and reputation.

Just an idea - why don't we all setup test payments and start testing each other's checkouts and see what happens?

It might not be all Clickbank's fault as some have posted the same thing about Paypal and other payment options. The facts are, and I hate to state the obvious, that the economy is at a low ebb. People who do not publish the price of goods on their sales page are getting this problem because, like me, you click over to discover the price.

If you are an international customer this can be quite horrifying. What is $5 is now around $aus9 so work out the price of something around $40 its almost $aus100. Us merchants need to change their prices if they are going to survive.

How can we be so stupid as too miss the fact our sales are actually up!

I just got this email from Clickbank:

---------------------------------
Dear Publisher,

Yesterday, we announced a partial Hoplink disruption on our System Log. The issue was resolved quickly and did not affect sales. However, there were some affiliates that were not credited immediately for a portion of their sales. Those affiliates were matched to the appropriate orders, and we have made the necessary adjustments to each account.

Since you were a publisher with at least one order affected by this, your sales total between 10:00 a.m. PT on 2008-11-12 to 7:30 a.m. PT on 2008-11-13 were changed to reflect the commissions we have now awarded to the appropriate affiliate(s).

If you have any questions regarding which orders were changed, please contact our Customer Service Department (Contact Us - ClickBank).

Thank you for your patience!

Best Regards,

ClickBank Customer Service
accounts@clickbank.com
Digital Products Retailer: Affiliate Program & Sell Online - ClickBank
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Dunno if that helps.

Adam

Is this the result of bad economy?

Typical kind of response you would expect from a company that size. It seems a bit coincidental that many others noticed a deduction in sales at the same time as I did for no apparant reason.

Ho hum!