ClickBank hasn't changed a bit...

by 11 replies
14
Wow, I thought ClickBank was cracking down on all those obvious and misleading advertising practices a lot of vendors have adopted but I see they haven't at all.

And why does PayPal allow ClickBank to accept payments through PayPal? Anyone of us would have been shut down by now...
#main internet marketing discussion forum #bit #changed #clickbank
  • You didn't honestly think much would change did you? It was all a show for the FTC.

    If you were processing millions of dollars worth of payments every week I am sure Paypal would also be willing to sit down and talk with you.

    Money talks and bulls*it walks.


  • -Chris
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  • I agree with you Clickbank sent out warnings about certain things are going to change but its the same old hype stuff allowed,countdown timers load of nonsense hype creating garbage as before, guess its up to the individual to decide but I bet you try and do something similar for a product launch and they will nip it in the butt.
  • What kind of misleading advertising practices?
  • Banned
    I think they've changed a little. For the better.

    It's been kind of "too little, too late", I agree. But they seem to be a lot stricter about representations made on new sales pages (while, admittedly, not apparently doing anything yet to clean up some of the appalling misrepresentations on many older ones).

    I think the jury's still out on whether they're trying seriously to clean up their act.

    I admit I'm slightly less optimistic about that now than I was 3/4 months ago, when I did see some genuine signs of change and was a little more willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. Just my own perspective.

    It may be worth a $5 charge, in this case, Chris ... I have it on fairly reliable authority that ClickBank does take some notice of some things said in this forum about their service and their business.

    For that reason, my own feeling is that we should all be encouraging and supporting them, and acknowledging that there are some signs of change, even though far more is clearly needed, especially on the regulatory compliance and ethical fronts regarding sales pages.

    At the moment, they're losing some business, because so many well-established and successful ClickBank affiliates are looking outside ClickBank for new items/niches to add to their range/repertoire.
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    • [1] reply
    • I will never use Clickbank without protecting my books or software. They have the most me first screw the vendor return policy I've ever seen. I communicated with a Clickbank rep when they were starting their beta postal products vendors could sell through Clickbank. Vendor's did not get to keep the shipping and handling fees AND Clickbank and no system to allow the vendor to state the product was indeed returned.

      Rick
  • I do wonder why ClickBank is the specific focus of our animus on this subject. I'm sure there are similar sales pitches sending money through every other venue and payment gateway as well. If a sales pitch is in violation of FTC guidelines, then the FTC has remedies for that. I don't think we should forget that ClickBank is, first and foremost, a venue and a payment gateway.
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    • Yes, but you also need to remember that Clickbank is one of very few payment gateways that has always and continues to allow those types of products we are talking about here.

      There are very few payment gateways out there who are willing to go anywhere near the sorts of sales pages and products that are the backbone of the Clickbank marketplace.
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    • Banned
      I think it's because they're one of the biggest and oldest-established online retailers, and they do seem (mysteriously) to pay significantly less attention to FTC regulations and other laws than any of their competitors.

      It may also - to a small extent - be because "whining about ClickBank" is fashionable, but there are also some long-term/historical reasons for that, which ClickBank has done very little, over the years, to diminish - in circumstances in which one would really have thought they might want to. They have, to some degree, brought it on themselves, you know? By having displayed for so many years the attitudes and behaviors they did, back in the days when they had almost no direct competition.

      Well, I hear you ... but maybe ClickBank is responsible for more of them than others? And let's not forget that ClickBank (unlike some of these companies/networks) is actually a retailer, not just a venue or a payment gateway or a credit-card processor or an affiliate network. When a customer buys a "ClickBank product", they're actually buying it from ClickBank, not from the "vendor" at all. And that gives them higher responsibilities than many others.

      It does, but unfortunately (for all of us, you and me, too, even though neither of us ever does anything shady, shabby, questionable or unethical at all), their enforcement seems, sometimes, to be a terribly slow-moving, unreliable and inconsistent process, doesn't it?
  • I can't speak to what does or doesn't constitute the backbone of ClickBank. I am a vendor myself, and, as for my products, they are as advertised. I don't use any of the tactics I have seen mentioned as being legally/morally questionable.

    My only other comment is that, as someone who has a history with ClickBank and has been "treated right" by them, I am strongly biased when it comes to this subject. :p
    • [1] reply
    • Jon, I have no doubt there are a lot of honest vendors over on Clickbank, no doubt about it. They just aren't the ones who seem to do the big product launches we all hear about.

      Where's there's bad there's always good and vice versa. But Clickbank is renowned for having a lot of those hyped up make money online products. If any of those vendors tried to do a similar launch using any other payment processor they would probably last a few minutes before they were shut down -- way too much risk for any normal payment gateway but those offers are the bread and butter of Clickbank.
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    ClickBank hasn't changed a bit...

    Wow, I thought ClickBank was cracking down on all those obvious and misleading advertising practices a lot of vendors have adopted but I see they haven't at all. And why does PayPal allow ClickBank to accept payments through PayPal? Anyone of us would have been shut down by now...