Can you buy your own clickbank product?

It isn't a stupid question at all. There are times when you might need to check your sales process is working the way you expected and you don't have a friendly test-buyer available.

As far as I know there is nothing against doing this in the ToS, providing you just make one purchase. Multiple purchases might be seen as trying to game the gravity stats, or get round the five credit card rule.

Remember that you can't buy through your own PayPal account.

Martin

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Warrior Simon

15 years ago

Originally Posted by Martin.Avis

It isn't a stupid question at all. There are times when you might need to check your sales process is working the way you expected and you don't have a friendly test-buyer available.

As far as I know there is nothing against doing this in the ToS, providing you just make one purchase. Multiple purchases might be seen as trying to game the gravity stats, or get round the five credit card rule.

Remember that you can't buy through your own PayPal account.

Martin

btw you can switch to 'test'-mode to purchase your own product to check the sales process

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Harvey Segal 15 years ago

Originally Posted by Garrett Aren

No offense, but that is the stupidest thing I've ever heard.

No, what would be really stupid is if Mike then
asked himself for a refund and refused to give it.

Harvey
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- Trader54 15 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Harvey.Segal
  
  No, what would be really stupid is if Mike then
  asked himself for a refund and refused to give it.
  
  Harvey
  
  ... and then did a chargeback .... lol
  
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- Chri5123 15 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Harvey.Segal
  
  No, what would be really stupid is if Mike then
  asked himself for a refund and refused to give it.
  
  Harvey
  
  LOL This made me chuckle!
  
  That would be taking things too far!
  
  Chris
  
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- Harvey Segal 15 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by NathanFalkner
  
  ...and then proceeded to call his credit card company
  to begin the chargeback process since he was denied
  a refund.
  
  While simultaneously naming and shaming himself at the Warrior forum.
  
  .
  
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jazzyjeff

15 years ago

Mike,

I've heard of people buying products on their own affiliate link. They seem to want to get the difference in price just to check out the product and see if it is worth writing a product review or promoting.

Well, I haven't heard that it is illegal so there's nothing wrong with it. It's similar to getting a super discount at the store.

Jeff

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Jared Alberghini 15 years ago

Originally Posted by jazzyjeff

Well, I haven't heard that it is illegal so there's nothing wrong with it. It's similar to getting a super discount at the store.

Jeff

Sure it's not illegal, the cops aren't going to come arrest you for it, but it's against their TOS... so you can get banned for doing this...

There are ways to test your purchases, and CB frowns upon buying products through your own affiliate link, and doing so can get you banned... so be very careful...

it's just like clicking your own adsense ads to see if they are working... do that and google will ban you as quick as you can click!!!

- Jared
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godisgood

15 years ago

Hi,

Martin is right. It's like having your own grocery store, if you need a particular food why would you get it from others when you can have it from your own grocery store. And i am pretty sure that those people buying products from their own affiliate links buys for the purpose of testing and to to know if it's really worth promoting ( value to the customer and relevant commission to the seller)

Jennifer

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Martin Avis

15 years ago

Jennifer and Jeff - Mike wasn't asking about buying other people's products through his own affiliate link. That's a different matter entirely. He was asking if he can buy his own products.

Jared - I'm not sure if you are saying buying your own product is against ClickBank's Tos (if so, I can't find any evidence of that) or that using your affiliate link to buy other peoples' products is against the rules. If the latter, you are wrong. Here is the relevent ToS entry:

25. Can I purchase products through my own hoplink?

The short answer is yes, but ClickBank does not condone affiliates using their accounts for this sole purpose. As stated in our Accounting Policy, "ClickBank accounts cannot be used for the sole purpose of collecting rebates or otherwise extending credit to yourself or others." That is, affiliates should not be using their own hoplinks to purchase products for themselves and then collect a "rebate" check from ClickBank.

In other words, you can do it, but not if that's all you do.

Martin

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mdunn123

15 years ago

Guys,

You're awesome! Thank you so much for the insight on this!

Mike

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calebjor1

15 years ago

Hi Mdunn123,

I think it is ok to buy your own ClickBank product through your own link. But if you created the product yourself then I don't think you need to purchase the product from your own website because you are the founder of this product and business.

Regards,
Caleb

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joefission

15 years ago

Mike,

That's most definitely not a stupid question. In fact, it's a common practice. No, there is no TOS violation. You just forfeit the processing fee to Clickbank!

Many folks do this to pad their gravity numbers. There's even a script -- Centrifuge -- that will plug in one of your random affiliate accounts if someone purchases through a non-affiliate link. I've even seen well-known Warriors sell their CB products with this Centrifuge script to bulk up their product's gravity.

I don't know your reasoning behind the question, but the answer is a simple yes. It's okay to buy your own product.

Shaun

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clemco

15 years ago

Mike,
I Googled "clickbank rules . There was nothing stating you could not buy your own product. You might want to check it out yourself for peace of mind.
Jeff

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Dave Everett 15 years ago

Not only can you buy your own product to test the sales process, you can also drop the price on it to save paying too much!
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Can you buy your own clickbank product?

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