10 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}
10 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}

This ClickBank Affiliate's Hop Overrides Everyone Else's Hop All The Time - BlackHat??!

by sashagilberg
8 replies
hey,

so now that I've finished my new landing page for a CB product I wanna promote, I go through my routine of testing the links to make sure I see my affiliate ID on the bottom of the merchant's payment page.

Funnily enough, the product I've reviewed in #3 has a different affiliate ID (even though I clicked through on my hoplink). So I click on MY affiliate ID AGAIN, I see http://www.merchantsite.com/?hop=myaffiliateid as the URL - looking pretty normal right?

But when I go to order, the affiliate ID isn't 'myaffiliateid', it's someone elses.

So I tested this further by clicking on other affiliates links and lo and behold, this same affiliate's ID is always the one at the bottom of the order page - and his hoplink wasn't clicked last.

So I did some more testing... I cleared my cookies and the affiliate ID was then 'none'. Then I went to this sneaky affiliates landing page and clicked through his link and the same thing happened. His affiliate ID was always at the order page, no matter which hoplink was used last.

Now this doesn't just happen for 1 product, the same thing happens for all 3 products in his review. So it's not a merchant issue.

All his links follow this format:
http://www.sneakyaffiliatessite.com/...oduct_001.html
So what is this guy doing? Looks like some form of blackhat to me, not sure what though.

I want to begin my adwords campaign for this, but how am I supposed to compete with this guy when he has this type of advantage?
Should I report him to ClickBank?

regards, Alex
#affiliate #blackhat #clickbank #hop #overrides #time
  • Profile picture of the author sashagilberg
    wierd - I just checked all this stuff again and its back to normal.

    Not sure what's going but it didn't look like a CB issue.

    I'll check his site again soon and if the dodgy stuff is still going on, i'll post it here
    Signature

    I'll help double your AARRR metrics 80% faster than you've projected.

    convertmore.co

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[244056].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author macknox
      Make sure you clear all cookies.

      Set up Firefox to clear your cache everytime you close down.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[244074].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Daniel Molano
      Originally Posted by alexgilberg View Post

      wierd - I just checked all this stuff again and its back to normal.

      Not sure what's going but it didn't look like a CB issue.

      I'll check his site again soon and if the dodgy stuff is still going on, i'll post it here
      It does sound like a CB issue to me, maybe that would explain the weird CB tracking that has been going on lately.
      Signature
      Como Ganar Dinero Por Internet - Spanish Make Money Online Site

      Daniel Molano       - LinkedIn Profile
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[244126].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author dexterc
        This can be a case of Black Hat of what we know as Cookie Stuffing. It's quite a normal practice whereby Black Hatters will permanently force their ID to be in your system for as long as can be.

        You can do a search on Cookie Stuffing to understand more.
        Signature
        Private Label Rights | Themes & Graphics |
        IM Releases
        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[244366].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Chris Lockwood
    Clearing cookies doesn't explain this. The last affiliate is supposed to get the sale.
    Signature
    Comprehensive membership site training
    My other blog
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[244115].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author HarveyJ
    Banned
    [DELETED]
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[244369].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Simon_Sezs
      Originally Posted by HarveyJ View Post

      Does this video replicate what your problem was?
      Clickbank Parasites and Adware
      Unlike the video though, they don't need to do the popup even. They can just force a cookie.

      I think it's like the 8th time I've posted this video here.
      FFS people, when are you going to learn that Clickbank is an unsecured piece of crud, and the only reason people make money off of it is because no one dares to rock the boat too hard?

      Gah, use a network that at least provides encrypted links!
      FYI, usually the biggest culprits to this are the PPV networks like Zango, not some random BH marketer. The person who downloads the software basically agrees to this in the long winded terms of service and policies.

      In fact, that looks exactly like something that Zango would do (the way it would work).
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[244581].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Simon_Sezs
    as an aside...so many people are way too paranoid about cookie stuffing because they don't really understand it.

    Let's get this straight. Right or wrong, most cookie stuffing is very targeted (much like any successful marketing) and the person stuffing usually casts a large net (not a small one like in the case of clickbank).

    For instance....a new Harry Potter book is about to come out. A black hat marketer would stuff in places where he/she thought people who may purchase the Harry Potter book may be. He/she would stuff the major retailers..ie. amazon, barnes and noble, ect.

    On the other end, the person interested in the new Harry Potter book may (may being the key word) decide to go online and purchase it. They type in their browser amazon.com and bam, because there is a cookie already there, the black hat marketer would get credit for the sale.

    The person buying has no idea anything happened.

    Now think about it this way. Most of the real world has no clue about clickbank and ebooks and such. And most people who do purchase a clickbank product will rarely type in the URL directly. Because of this, there is no reason why a BH would be interested in stuffing clickbank products. The payoff would not be good enough for the amount of people they would have to stuff to get the sale.

    So, in what case would a stuffer have a chance? Let's say that the person was stuffed via a forum, myspace page...whatever. Then let's say that by chance they found a link to the sales page of an offer that you are promoting that incidentally was already stuffed.

    They click through it. Guess what? Your cookie has replaced the stuffed cookie. The only way that this can change is IF there is some type of adware (like zango or a toolbar) that was doing something on the client side (ie...they can change things in your computer). That is the only way.

    Think about that for a second. Knowing this, the only way that a BH would get credit for the sale is if:

    • The person didn't pass through someone else's aff link.
    • OR if the person went direct to the sales page, bypassing all affiliate links.
    If you look at that reasonably, you would probably come to the realization that unless the clickbank product has hit the mainstream (like the rich jerk), most people are going to arrive to the sales page via an affiliate link.

    It is easy to blame cookie stuffing for your problems. The problem is that it isn't really practical, especially if you are selling clickbank products.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[244632].message }}

Trending Topics