Clickbank Vendor Lying About Affiliate Earnings

24 replies
Hey Warriors,

Just wanted to give everyone who works with CB in an affiliate capacity: Clickbank vendors may be lying to you about the earnings of other affiliates in order to get you to promote for them, and CB is (at least now) aware of this. (Proof below)

Here's how I discovered this: Under the "Parenting" category on Clickbank, the #1 product is called Pregnancy Miracle. This is their marketplace listing:



As you can see, it says "Top Affiliate Makes $9700+ Daily!"

Seems like a lot of money, even with media buys and PPC, so I was skeptical.

But since I'm in always interested in promoting great offers, I simply contacted Clickbank to ask if that figure was in fact true...

And Clickbank's Client Services responded saying those advertised affiliate earnings figures are not true. The exact wording was "It appears that the vendor's Marketplace Description may not be accurate. We will contact the vendor to correct this information."

Here is my support ticket (my email, ticket #, and Client Adviser's name blacked out for security):



So they ARE aware of this vendor's inflated earning claims to affiliates (at least they are now, if they weren't already).

Out of curiosity, I had a look at the Pregnancy Miracle vendor's company to see if they had any other offers and if these ones made outrageous earnings claims too...

Sure enough, this company (Higher Ways Publishing) has a BUNCH of other products on CB and they ALL have (no doubt false) outrageous earnings claims.

Here are a few with their affiliate earnings claims underlined:









And it goes on and on and on... every one of their programs has HUGE earnings claims.

I'll be contacting CB Client Services again tomorrow to show them all of this and see what they say, and I would encourage any of you who work with CB as an affiliate to contact client services and ask them to verify if the vendor's wild earnings claims are true (as you saw above a CB rep already confirms the affiliate earnings are false for Pregnancy Miracle)

Not only is it illegal to make false monetary claims like this company is doing (ask the FTC), but it puts affiliates at a disadvantage because there may be better-converting offers to promote, but the huge money claims this vendor is claiming may lead you to promote for them instead.

If you want to ask CB what they have to say or help make them aware of this, you can start a support ticket here: https://support.clickbank.com/anonymous_requests/new

I hope this helps at least a few of you choose to promote for reputable vendors who don't lie to you to try to get your traffic.
#affiliate #clickbank #earnings #lying #vendor
  • Profile picture of the author MilesBaker
    Welcome to Clickbank! LOL

    Not all vendors are like that however, and Clickbank has been working to make vendors more responsible, but as you've seen, there's still work to be done.
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  • Profile picture of the author Paul Myers
    So they ARE aware of this vendor's inflated earning claims to affiliates.
    They may not have become aware of it until you asked about the numbers. The real question is, do they do anything about it now that they've been alerted?

    That will probably depend on the rep that handled the ticket.


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    • Profile picture of the author Cool Hand Luke
      Originally Posted by Paul Myers View Post

      They may not have become aware of it until you asked about the numbers. The real question is, do they do anything about it now that they've been alerted?

      That will probably depend on the rep that handled the ticket.

      Paul
      That's actually a very fair point. I'm going to contact a different rep tomorrow to see what they have to say, although these products have been selling on CB for years and a bit of Googling showed that the earnings claims have been there for years as well so it's hard to believe Clickbank wouldn't be aware of these claims.

      Nonetheless, I'll edit my original post to make it a bit more clear that CB has not necessarily been aware for long.

      Either way, I hate this kind of blatant scamming by vendors or anyone in IM, it really damages the reputation of the community and what we do.
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      • Profile picture of the author BIG Mike
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        • Profile picture of the author Cool Hand Luke
          Originally Posted by BIG Mike View Post

          It's really not so hard to believe - getting eyes on every single bit of text posted on any website every day, especially one as active as CB is nearly impossible. Add to that the need to then cross-check any numbers claimed and you're into the realm of ain't gonna happen.
          Except that it's not "every single bit of text posted on any website every day", it's almost a dozen products all in the top 5 for their categories, which have been advertising these claims for years now... there is no probable way whatsoever that Clickbank representatives have not come across these fraudulent marketplace listings over and over and over... Anyone can do a bit of Google-ing and you'll find that people have raised this question with Clickbank and the vendor themselves before.

          This isn't even mentioning the fact that Clickbank is featuring "Pregnancy Miracle" on it's home page right now....

          All things considered, it is insanely unlikely that CB isn't aware of this publisher's fraudulent claims.

          It's not CB being intentionally derelict so much as it is the basic nature of the web. I think it's comparable to the same complaints members here express about the WSO forum - until the issue is brought to someone's attention, as you did, the chances of the vendor being caught out are slim.
          I completely understand what you're saying, but it is bizarre to think that CB has no responsibility whatsoever to prevent vendors from making such blatantly fraudulent claims, especially when CB themselves can look at these account's earnings and verify for themselves that the vendor has been lying to affiliates about earnings.

          Still, we know for fact that they know now, so we'll see what happens.
          What you did was the right thing to do and something every affiliate should learn to do - being diligent and not accepting everything at face value. In your case, you've protected your own interests and possibly helped CB eliminate another scamming vendor.
          Thanks Mike, I'm glad you understand. This vendor is taking advantage of a lot of people with dollar signs in their eyes with these blatant lies about affiliate earnings (and as SunilTanna mentions, probably the ridiculous conversion rates claimed as well).

          Either way, I'll be seeing what action CB decides to take and if they fail to act, I'll be lodging a formal complaint with the FTC. They don't take kindly to this kind of deception and BS in our industry and as affiliates, we shouldn't either.
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  • Profile picture of the author SunilTanna
    It's not just the money claims that I don't always believe, but also the conversion rate claims. Click bank should not allow them in product descriptions IMHO. If cb wanted to allow claims of how much top affiliates earn on each product, cb could calculate them themselves (maybe give vendors a checkbox option whether to display this number).

    However, before I jump on this particular vendor, I suppose it is possible maybe he is also counting affiliate earnings thru a non-cb program or something. An explanation would certainly be interesting...
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    • Profile picture of the author Paul Myers
      Luke,
      I'm going to contact a different rep tomorrow to see what they have to say
      A different rep may not have a clue what's going on, especially if there's only a day or so in the gap.

      Clickbank is much larger than this forum, and the reps are unlikely to have the discretion the mods here do to act independently. We can sometimes take more than a day to get things done, especially if we have to contact a member for information. They may have longer processing times.

      On the flip side, they have a much larger group, and they're responsible in ways the forum isn't, since they are the actual sellers of the products in their marketplace. So, maybe they'll be faster.

      It'll be interesting to see how this one shakes out.


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  • Profile picture of the author Anish
    Prime reason I stay away from Clickbank. More than half of the 'product makers' there are the best bullsh!tters you can ever find. A decent book on Amazon on pretty much any topic would cost about $10 on average, and be lot more helpful than the BS these greedy 'product makers' offer.

    Information, speaking from a consumer's perspective, is genuinely worth $40-$90+ only in SOME niches like I.M., public speaking, solid business education, etc. but stuff like, for instance, stopping snoring? Heck, promoting a snoring pillow is FAR more .. moral (for lack of better word) than a $47 'ebook' that claims "WANT TO STOP SNORING AND TURN YOUR LIFE AROUND AND FEEL LIKE JOHNNY DEPP?", which just teaches "sleep on your side and you'll stop snoring, go to market and buy a mouthpiece, lose weight, " etc. "Information" like that is supposed to be free, real helpful tools are worth $$$'s.
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  • Profile picture of the author PerformanceMan
    I figured it doesn't matter what claims they make.

    You still have to test their offer with your traffic and tactics. Then you have to see how bad refunds are etc.

    I've tested 20 or so vendors this year and only one really produces. That one - though - is a doozy of a performer!
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  • Profile picture of the author drewfioravanti
    Thanks for the info. Also, rlet's not overlook the fact that the Clickabk rep asked "what kind of marketing campaign are you were planning"...perhaps they are also affiliate managers willing to help you with your marketing campaign. I could be wrong, but it appears that way.

    See if they'll give you some bonus tips.
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  • Profile picture of the author khooster1
    Clickbank standard has drop tremulously over the years. Try other digital vendors. You will get better sales results.
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  • Profile picture of the author Alex Blades
    Money talks and B.S walks when it comes to Clickbank, they could careless if vendors are lying.
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  • Profile picture of the author kencalhn
    Performance claims are regulated by the FTC, if I ran a site that had performance numbers I'd want to make sure they were accurate. Just sayin.
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  • Profile picture of the author PPC-Coach
    You mean a clickbank vendor made false statements to attract affiliates?

    Sounds like making ridiculous income claims in headlines is what affiliates want to see. So who is to blame? The vendor or the person who believes the vendor even though the vendor is CLEARLY lying.

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  • Profile picture of the author Josh Monroe
    I don't think they are lying with the claims, I think what they mean is one of their top affiliates HAD a $9,700 day at some point (possibly during the time of launch).

    Again with the $127k per month, that probably happened at some point (again perhaps during the product launch) but not an actual "monthly thing" that happens every month.

    With that being said, $127k per month is $1.5 mill/year so if that affiliate was some sort of niche expert/leader or with a giant list, I'm sure that would be more than achievable, right?

    Not likely, but most of the big gurus pulling in millions a year do come from sending out email blasts. I personally know a "guru" that made just short of two mill last year NET from sending out emails to his huge list.
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    • Profile picture of the author Cool Hand Luke
      Originally Posted by Josh Monroe View Post

      I don't think they are lying with the claims, I think what they mean is one of their top affiliates HAD a $9,700 day at some point (possibly during the time of launch).

      Again with the $127k per month, that probably happened at some point (again perhaps during the product launch) but not an actual "monthly thing" that happens every month.
      Even if this was true, the vendor is STILL LYING.

      Saying "Top affiliate makes 9,700+ day" is a lot different than saying "top affiliate HAD a $9,700+ day once".

      Saying "top Affil Makes $127k/month" is a lot different than "top Affil made $127k in a month once".

      You get the idea...

      Either way, the wording is dishonest and the vendor is lying. You can make excuses for the vendor's dishonesty if you want, but it doesn't change anything about the situation.
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      • Profile picture of the author mike_king123
        I just visited the CB marketplace and searched for the listing of Pregnancy Miracle and I don't see any of the claims that you quoted, Luke.

        Could it be that they have updated their listing?
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      • Profile picture of the author Cool Hand Luke
        UPDATE: Clickbank has actually delivered!

        Apparently my rep did actually contact the vendor and tell them to get rid of the false earnings claims in the marketplace listing for "Pregnancy Miracle".

        See below:



        A quick look through the marketplace shows that most of this vendor's wild affiliate earnings claims have been deleted from the OTHER products they have, which no doubt means those were false as well.

        The ridiculously exaggerated conversion claims are still there for some of them, but hey, it's a work in progress I guess.

        Good job CB!
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        • Profile picture of the author Cool Hand Luke
          Update for anyone else who is an affiliate in the niche: Clickbank informed me today that the product with the next-highest gravity in the "Parenting" section of CB has false affiliate earnings claims in their marketplace listing as well.

          Turns out that the "Plan My Baby" vendor's claims that "top Aff Makes Over $1800+ Daily" is false. Surprise, surprise. :rolleyes:

          Where are the honest vendors in this niche at?

          Screenshots of the email from Clickbank's Client Services and the B.S. marketplace listing:



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