As an affiliate, which Affiliate Platforms do you trust? (Vendor asking)

9 replies
Hello there

So I am building a product I soon want to market, mostly through affiliates.

Now believe it or not, even though I have had blogs and sites with reasonable traffic for years, I never bothered monetizing them through other means than Google Ads. I know...

So with regard to the product I am building, I am now diving into this whole affiliate ecosystem. I created a Clickbank account today and all seems reasonably well explained. Then I stumbled on several articles about commission theft, and all these sneaky things some affiliates do to steal other affiliate's commissions, etc, then affiliates complaining about vendors that hijack visitors by guiding them through signup forms and Paypal payments, etc... Wow, it feels like rediscovering the Internet

But anyway, this made me wonder:

If I want to promote a product or series of products (all related and on the same site) and build/maintain a good and trustworthy relationship with my affiliates, what existing platform (e.g. Clickbank, etc) or self-hosted software (e.g. iDevAffiliate) do you trust the most?

Which system gives you the most reassurance that you are getting paid for your efforts?

As a vendor, I'd like to pick a platform affiliates trust.

I actually wouldn't mind getting a perspective from both affiliates and vendors.

Many thanks for your input
#affiliate #clickbank #idevaffiliate #platforms #trust #vendor
  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Serious, experienced affiliates (the ones you'd most like to attract?) tend to trust and prefer affiliate platforms which pay the affiliate directly, so that we're never dependent on the vendor for payment.

    So, for example, ClickBank, DigiResults, RAP Bank, and so on. (Not PayDotCom, which doesn't). ClickBank's been around longer than Google and paid out over $2 Billion in client earnings.

    Another consideration for you might be that you can end up with a bigger market if you use a platform which can process both credit-card and PayPal payments from retail customers (not all of them do).

    Be aware, in general, that as a vendor you can't please everyone (and it may even be a mistake to try: if your product's successful enough and has enough affiliates involved, 10% of your affiliates will probably make 90%+ of your affiliate-referred sales anyway).

    Good luck!
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  • Profile picture of the author Carol_A
    Simple One Click, JVZoo, ClickBank

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  • Profile picture of the author tpw
    Commission Theft is more prevalent on ClickBank than elsewhere.

    For those who are unsure what this means, people see the ClickBank affiliate link, then they go to the page using their own affiliate id and get the commission on items they want to purchase.

    This practice doesn't really take money away from vendors, but rather the affiliate who generated the sale.
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    Bill Platt, Oklahoma USA, PlattPublishing.com
    Publish Coloring Books for Profit (WSOTD 7-30-2015)
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    • Profile picture of the author gskesavan
      Originally Posted by tpw View Post

      Commission Theft is more prevalent on ClickBank than elsewhere.

      For those who are unsure what this means, people see the ClickBank affiliate link, then they go to the page using their own affiliate id and get the commission on items they want to purchase.

      This practice doesn't really take money away from vendors, but rather the affiliate who generated the sale.
      Bill that's gonna get them banned. It is not allowed as per the Clickbank rules.
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      • Profile picture of the author tpw
        Originally Posted by gskesavan View Post

        Bill that's gonna get them banned. It is not allowed as per the Clickbank rules.

        Doesn't stop 'em from trying. :rolleyes: :p
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        Bill Platt, Oklahoma USA, PlattPublishing.com
        Publish Coloring Books for Profit (WSOTD 7-30-2015)
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    • Profile picture of the author myob
      The cloaking feature for affiliates can prevent most of commission theft by other affiliates. However, I'm much more concerned about commission theft from vendors who typically use gimmicky, leaky sales pages.
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  • Profile picture of the author IJR112
    I only use Clickbank and Amazon at this point and they are definitely legitimate.
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  • Profile picture of the author NashRyker
    DigiResults is nice because its free to list products, and they allow you to integrate with 3 affiliate networks (Digiresults, Clickbank, Paydotcom). That way you can recruit affiliates from ALL THREE networks! Pretty nifty
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  • Profile picture of the author MsWanda
    Hi all
    Many thanks for all your responses. So everyone seems to favor third-party online services over vendor self-hosted, which makes sense to me since there is a 3rd neutral party involved.
    I appreciate your input
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