18 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}
18 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}

Will his clickbank account be closed for this?

by Byron2k12
15 replies
I'm going to admit that i have bought some products through my own clickbank hop links before. But a friend of mine did this on a package where commission was 50%, the only difference is that when he was paying he put in his CLICKBANK registered email address instead of a different one! He checked the account and got the commission, but clickbank will surely know that this happened when the purchase and commission email addresses are the same?
#account #clickbank #closed
  • Profile picture of the author DavePalermo
    I've done this on numerous occasions.
    Click bank doesn't care but they will not pay out unless you have sales from 3 or 4 different credit cards.
    You need to check their affiliate pay out policies.
    But I am pretty sure it isn't a problem.
    (I think)
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6698273].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Joseph Robinson
    Banned
    Clickbank doesn't seem to have an issue with buyers purchasing through their own affiliates. At least, they haven't voiced it or taken action if they do think it's wrong. You'll see affiliate marketers doing this with IM products all the time apparently, so just one more reason to not bother promoting from that niche.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6698320].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Paul Barrs
    It's an interesting topic of discussion; many affiliate managers will tell you NO WAY are you allowed to buy through your own affiliate link...

    But why?

    If an affiliate refers a sale, the product owner get 50% of the total price (on a 50% revenue share).

    So if one of my affiliates decides to buy access to my membership site I STILL only get the 50% - and they get a 50% discount.

    Because they are getting a discount they are more likely to stay a member. If they DON'T buy, I get nothing - which one makes better sense?

    Paul Barrs
    Signature
    **********
    It's Simple... I don't "sell" IM anymore, but still do lots of YouTube Videos
    **********
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6698414].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author R Hagel
      Originally Posted by Paul Barrs View Post

      It's an interesting topic of discussion; many affiliate managers will tell you NO WAY are you allowed to buy through your own affiliate link...

      But why?
      One potential problem is commission hijacking. So while the vendor may still get paid the same, some affiliate may be losing a commission.

      For example:

      You set up an affiliate program and offer 50% commissions.

      I join your affiliate program.

      I send my link to John Doe.

      John Doe decides to buy. Except John sees an "affiliates make money" link at the bottom of the sales letter and decides to buy through his own link instead of my affiliate link.

      John is happy. You're happy. But I didn't get anything out of the deal. I may have even lost money if I was using paid advertising to bring John in as a lead.

      That's one reason why vendors say "no using your own affiliate link."

      Cheers,
      Becky
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6698442].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author fin
        Originally Posted by R Hagel View Post

        One potential problem is commission hijacking. So while the vendor may still get paid the same, some affiliate may be losing a commission.

        For example:

        You set up an affiliate program and offer 50% commissions.

        I join your affiliate program.

        I send my link to John Doe.

        John Doe decides to buy. Except John sees an "affiliates make money" link at the bottom of the sales letter and decides to buy through his own link instead of my affiliate link.

        John is happy. You're happy. But I didn't get anything out of the deal. I may have even lost money if I was using paid advertising to bring John in as a lead.

        That's one reason why vendors say "no using your own affiliate link."

        Cheers,
        Becky
        I think that's just the price of being an affiliate marketer.
        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6698503].message }}
        • Profile picture of the author ravijayagopal
          I beg to differ. It's the price, only because you have accepted it.

          I have always refused to do so.

          This questionable practice has flourished only because many seem OK with it (beats me as to why!). If affiliates stop promoting products that blatantly promote the affiliate program itself, vendors will come to their senses in a hurry.

          Originally Posted by fin View Post

          I think that's just the price of being an affiliate marketer.
          - Ravi Jayagopal
          Signature
          Secure Video & Audio Player for S3 & CloudFront
          S3MediaVault.com
          {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6698572].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author Byron2k12
        Originally Posted by R Hagel View Post

        One potential problem is commission hijacking. So while the vendor may still get paid the same, some affiliate may be losing a commission.

        For example:

        You set up an affiliate program and offer 50% commissions.

        I join your affiliate program.

        I send my link to John Doe.

        John Doe decides to buy. Except John sees an "affiliates make money" link at the bottom of the sales letter and decides to buy through his own link instead of my affiliate link.

        John is happy. You're happy. But I didn't get anything out of the deal. I may have even lost money if I was using paid advertising to bring John in as a lead.

        That's one reason why vendors say "no using your own affiliate link."

        Cheers,
        Becky

        That's totally understandable,but, how many of your potential buyers would know how to do this? Unless they were familiar with affiliate marketing and the way clickbank or some other maybe private affiliate program works, it's very unlikely to happen (i assume).
        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6698675].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Chris Silvey
      Originally Posted by Paul Barrs View Post

      It's an interesting topic of discussion; many affiliate managers will tell you NO WAY are you allowed to buy through your own affiliate link...

      But why?

      If an affiliate refers a sale, the product owner get 50% of the total price (on a 50% revenue share).

      So if one of my affiliates decides to buy access to my membership site I STILL only get the 50% - and they get a 50% discount.

      Because they are getting a discount they are more likely to stay a member. If they DON'T buy, I get nothing - which one makes better sense?

      Paul Barrs
      The reason behind this is that there are more affiliates out there than just you. If a person had enough money, they could go out and dominate the affiliate sales on a product. The policy isn't for the Vendors but to protect the Affiliates from Monopolists.
      Signature
      WP Animate - Increases Conversions & Clicks!
      Create Amazing CSS3 Animations in just a few Clicks - New!
      WPHeadline.net - Create Blazing Headlines in just a few clicks. Updated to WordPress 4.1.1
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6698473].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Byron2k12
      Originally Posted by Paul Barrs View Post

      It's an interesting topic of discussion; many affiliate managers will tell you NO WAY are you allowed to buy through your own affiliate link...

      But why?

      If an affiliate refers a sale, the product owner get 50% of the total price (on a 50% revenue share).

      So if one of my affiliates decides to buy access to my membership site I STILL only get the 50% - and they get a 50% discount.

      Because they are getting a discount they are more likely to stay a member. If they DON'T buy, I get nothing - which one makes better sense?

      Paul Barrs
      I surely wouldn't mind if they purchased through their own affiliate link, as you said 50% is better than nothing at all.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6698690].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Adie
    I don't see any problem. Many people are doing this.... CB does not care as long as there are sales...
    Signature



    Moderator's Note: You're only allowed to put your own products or sites in your signature.

    Signature edited.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6698490].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Chris Silvey
      Well lets say I went out and slapped a ton of money and offered a huge discount on the product you are promoting? The word rebate is commonly added in the search bars. There you can see the problem with it overall.

      The IM industry is probably the only level playing field in commerce. Everything else is dominated by moneybags. This was proven to me when I went up against Newegg years back. It was a hard lesson, but I found out some sobering facts about Corporate America.
      Signature
      WP Animate - Increases Conversions & Clicks!
      Create Amazing CSS3 Animations in just a few Clicks - New!
      WPHeadline.net - Create Blazing Headlines in just a few clicks. Updated to WordPress 4.1.1
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6698510].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author ravijayagopal
    This is part of the reason we don't promote CB products in the IM niche. Waste of time, effort and resources. A lot of people will hijack your commissions and buy through their own link for the most part, as everyone in this niche knows about CB, and how to get to the hop link.

    And this is also the reason I stopped selling IM products through CB years ago (back when I had a software product that I initially started out selling through CB). And back then, I even developed a script on how to prevent CB hoplink hijacking :-)

    For our flagship product (DigitalAccessPass), we fiercely protect our affiliates by making our affiliate sign-up page private. Only users of our product can become affiliates - of course, barring the rare JV partner who has a big list and wants to become an affiliate.

    Did that result in fewer people promoting our products? Sure! We do see hundreds of junk affiliate promos for our competitors (and with most launches these days) who publicly display a "Affiliates" link on their web sites where anyone can sign up instantly - thus screwing their affiliates in broad daylight. Wonder how long that's gonna last.

    But I can tell you, that our current affiliates are insanely thrilled about this, as no one who finds out about us through their link, can ever hijack their commissions.

    Fewer new affiliates, bigger paychecks for current affiliates, and overall greater Karma for us :-)

    Just wanted to throw in my $0.02.

    Cheers!

    - Ravi Jayagopal
    Signature
    Secure Video & Audio Player for S3 & CloudFront
    S3MediaVault.com
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6698552].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Byron2k12
      Originally Posted by ravijayagopal View Post

      This is part of the reason we don't promote CB products in the IM niche. Waste of time, effort and resources. A lot of people will hijack your commissions and buy through their own link for the most part, as everyone in this niche knows about CB, and how to get to the hop link...
      That's very true, a great point there, but you still have the beginners who haven't got that far possibly. I guess you might want to make sure that the product you are promoting is not suitable for those who are already at the level where they know fully how easily that can be done.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6698655].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author zigzag007
    Clickbank doesn't seem to care as long as they are still getting their share.
    Signature
    http://www.datewealthypeople.com
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6698573].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author tmoby
    Usually networks have it in their terms, I never promoted clickbank so I didn't check it out.
    The norm is that you have to send a few sales (5-50) before you can purchase through your own link, thus hopefully avoiding the whole signing up as an affiliate just to get your own commission.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[6698728].message }}

Trending Topics