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clickbank skullduggery

by alashton
9 replies
Over the past two years I have made a grand total of two sales on clickbank, so it's pretty obvious I'm absolute crap at all this, however I'm not posting to whinge about that.

What irritates me is that I can't take that money out until sales from 3 different sources are made and secondly every month I seem to get money deducted from it (not refunds) but a sort of commission or perhaps a penalty fee.

Is this normal or am I getting stitched up here?
#clickbank #skullduggery
  • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
    Originally Posted by alashton View Post

    Over the past two years I have made a grand total of two sales on clickbank, so it's pretty obvious I'm absolute crap at all this, however I'm not posting to whinge about that.

    What irritates me is that I can't take that money out until sales from 3 different sources are made and secondly every month I seem to get money deducted from it (not refunds) but a sort of commission or perhaps a penalty fee.

    Is this normal or am I getting stitched up here?
    It's normal.

    Getting sales from three different sources is Clickbank's response to people signing up for affiliate accounts in order to buy for personal use. Why pay full price when you can change the affiliate link and get up to 75% off?

    Don't blame Clickbank, blame the cheaters.

    As for the "inactive account" fee, I'm not sure where the origin lies, but it's been a part of the landscape for years.
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  • Profile picture of the author cjshu99
    Clickbank is a tough place to start for affiliate marketing, imo. Years ago it was pretty easy.

    Keep plugging away and expand your methods. There are lots of ways to market products online - free and paid.
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Originally Posted by alashton View Post

    What irritates me is that I can't take that money out until sales from 3 different sources are made and secondly every month I seem to get money deducted from it (not refunds) but a sort of commission or perhaps a penalty fee.
    It's normal. But you're getting slightly stitched up in one respect.

    You are, unfortunately, subject to both the very sensible and necessary Customer Distribution Requirement (which protects affiliates), and the Dormant Account Charges (which are an absolute disgrace and of questionable legality, as Clickbank knows, having had it pointed out to them unambiguously by lawyers on both sides of the Atlantic).

    To stop the dormant account charges, all you need to do is buy a $3 product yourself, through your own affiliate link, because they apply only to accounts that haven't had sale in 90 days.

    To get round the CDR and release your first payment, you'll need (at least) 2 further sales, with different credit-card numbers, as well (maybe friends/relatives who want to buy a chocolate-cake recipe e-book for $4 and get the commission back from you later? Just a suggestion). You can read the full details here, on Clickbank's site.

    Don't let anyone tell you that you have no right to complain about the dormant account charge: it's immoral and wrong, and people who are (sometimes) quick to say "Well, it's in the terms of service, you shouldn't have signed up for it in the first place if you didn't like it" are totally missing the point - because the fact that it's in the terms of service doesn't make it legal, and it certainly doesn't make it ethical or reasonable in any way, so you're fully entitled to feel "stitched up" by that part - but that part's easily prevented, and the sooner the better.
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    • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
      Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

      Don't let anyone tell you that you have no right to complain about the dormant account charge: it's immoral and wrong, and people who are (sometimes) quick to say "Well, it's in the terms of service, you shouldn't have signed up for it in the first place if you didn't like it" are totally missing the point - because the fact that it's in the terms of service doesn't make it legal, and it certainly doesn't make it ethical or reasonable in any way, so you're fully entitled to feel "stitched up" by that part - but that part's easily prevented, and the sooner the better.
      Thanks...

      I didn't mean to imply that the dormant account charge was fair or even legal.

      The only thing I meant to convey is that they've been doing it to a lot of people for a lot of years; they weren't stitching him up personally.

      [BTW, I like the phrase much better than what most Americans come up with - usually some reference to sodomy...]
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      • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
        Banned
        Originally Posted by JohnMcCabe View Post

        I didn't mean to imply that the dormant account charge was fair or even legal.
        I'm terribly sorry, John: I actually replied without having read your post properly, and I see only with hindsight that part of my remarks might have appeared to be in response to what you had said! They really weren't at all: please excuse me.
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        • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
          Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

          I'm terribly sorry, John: I actually replied without having read your post properly, and I see only with hindsight that part of my remarks might have appeared to be in response to what you had said! They really weren't at all: please excuse me.
          No harm, no foul, it's all good...

          You made a valid point and I just wanted to clarify things for anyone who might read.

          Nothing to excuse, so we're cool...
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    • Profile picture of the author Chris The Traffic Blogger
      I would stop worrying about the money you made and start working towards increasing your sales.

      Did you stop working at it? Do you need help improving or something? That's where I would look instead of worrying about getting the few dollars you earned in the beginning.
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      • Profile picture of the author alashton
        Originally Posted by Chris The Traffic Blogger View Post

        I would stop worrying about the money you made and start working towards increasing your sales.

        Did you stop working at it? Do you need help improving or something? That's where I would look instead of worrying about getting the few dollars you earned in the beginning.
        Yup moved on - but having my own money locked up is well out of order but now thanks to the advice given here by Alexa I know what to do about it.

        WF Rocks
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