For Clickbank Affiliates: is it legal/moral to do this?

by 18 replies
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I found a product on CB and it's sales page looks good.
I will test the product as well before deciding to promote it but here's the problem with the sales page:

1. It has an some music put on autoplay or something;
2. It address the people with something like "Dear fat guy" (I've just made that up, it's not on the weight loss niche) which I believe offends some people.

I would like to make my own sales page to correct this issues, using his copy. I know someone from this forum does this, but he told me that I have to get the consent of the vendor.

What happens if I don't get it and go ahead and make my own page? The new page will look like the old one, but without the autoplay enable and a few words changed.

Also I could make it non index-able so the vendor won't notice it at all. This might not work because he probably sees his buyers' sources, but I don't know this yet (maybe a vendor could point this out? thanks!)

Something else: wouldn't it be a good practice to be openly allowed for affiliates to do make their own sales pages without having to ask for permission from the vendors? This way, the vendor might even learn something new because in some niches, they have no clue about how a sales page should look like or they blindly believe that a video sales page is better and don't offer the normal written alternative.


Later edit: I also found a payment leak. There are links to a testimonials page which has a CTAs to buy the product but the payment system is not CB anymore, is something else.
#main internet marketing discussion forum #affiliates #clickbank #legal or moral
  • Why don't you just create your own product since you want to redo the whole sales page. You would need to use the vendors full funnel in order to use that clickbank link. If you redo the sales page you wouldn't be able to link it to the product. You would be surprised on some of the language that works but might seem offensive to you.
    • [2] replies


    • It is against Clickbank's TOS, and you can lose your account if the vendor complains about you bypassing their sales page. However, it generally is not a problem to first obtain vendor's permission. If that isn't possible just find a similar product.
    • ^^ This is incorrect. It actually is quite common for affiliates to make their own custom sales page with a direct link to the payment page.
  • Banned
    Yes, this is correct.

    You'll be in big trouble if you get caught.

    The point is: there are ways of describing this to make it sound so innocuous that no vendor in his right mind would say "no" to it. So you'll most likely be able to get permission anyway. I wonder if it might help to stress that (a) you're using his copy, and (b) he's welcome to inspect your page for himself.

    In my opinion, it would be a terrible idea, and likely to increase refund-rates across the board. Bear in mind that most affiliates wouldn't re-write them as you and I would, to take away hype, leaks and stuff which will stop us from selling it successfully. Most affiliates have little idea what they're doing (as can be seen from the fact - as any major vendor will confirm - that about 95% of his affiliates make only 5% of the sales between them!) and would make them worse, not better! :rolleyes: :p

    Well, clearly you don't want to promote it with the sales page it has at the moment. :p

    Note    : if you get the vendor's permission to do this (likely) and link from it to his order page, you will NOT be setting the normal ClickBank affiliate cookie on your prospective customers' computers. I believe you'll still be credited with your affiliate commissions on the "immediate orders" but not - as you normally would - on any of your customers who subsequently return to the vendor's order-page via any other route.
    • [1] reply
    • What if I send the prospect via an affiliate link but to my new page? I suppose now the cookie will be installed in his computer.
      • [1] reply
  • Make your own product man, far easier that way you have total control of the sales process.
    • [1] reply
    • I don't know how to write copy and I definitely don't have the budget to hire a professional copywriter.

      Also, I would like first to promote something, see if the niche works and maybe then I could create my own product, but that takes lots of time if you want it to be presentable.
      • [2] replies
  • I see. Thanks both of you.

    However I think one can avoid losing commissions if:

    a) the product is not that popular so the prospect only knows about your sales page;
    b) you offer him a personal bonus if they buy through your page so he is more inclined to do so instead of going to the official sales page.

    Do you MYOB just hope that the prospect will buy at his first visit or if he doesn't, he comes back to your page instead of Google-ing it and finding the official sales page?
    • [1] reply
    • In my experience, prospects seldom buy on their first visit. All of my promotions are done through opt-in subscriber lists; sometimes with incentivized bonuses. In addition, all of the CB products I promote completely bypass the vendor sales page, but as mentioned it is essential to obtain explicit vendor permission before using this method.
  • Ask him for his permission first. It is unethical to use his sales page without his permission. It is also probably copyrighted which can lead to some legal trouble for you if you do copy it. All in all, contact him and ask him for his permission.
  • I would just create a landing page with all of the changes you want and then have it go through to the main sales page.

    Or the other thing you could do if you are confident of getting a lot of traffic is contact the vendor and ask for the changes in a separate page.

    Lastly just contact them and ask if it is ok to link through to the order form.

    Chris
  • Whenever I start to ask myself that question... I always stop.

    I remind myself that I just don't do things that cause me to question whether they are legal or moral.

    It doesn't matter in the end if they are barely legal or marginally moral. I just don't do those things.
  • First let me state that I am not an expert on clickbank products.
    In fact Clickbank has never made me much money.

    But, from experience from sales on other products---- autoplay sound increases conversions.
    It's spammy but it brings sales.

    Now, with all due respect... if by your own words you are not an expert copywriter---- it might not be in your best interest to change the wording on the salespage.

    Copywriters use different tactics to create high converting salespages.
    One of those tactics is.....near insulting the visitor to death.
    It's brutal at times, but it works.
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