Clickbank Affiliates - Am I missing something or getting ripped off?

Wow, that's interesting. I've always wondered if they really to promote your Clickbank ID in the followup emails, because it's a really good selling point to promote that product. I'm interested to find out what you learn.

If you didn't send the email, you are not entitled to the commission. If someone clicks on your link and buys you get paid.

You should write your problem to the cilckbank, you will definitely get response.

As someone else suggest above - write to CB about the vendor, but be sure to document the steps you have taken to reach the conclusion that they are circumventing your affiliate ID.

I had something similar to this occur a couple of years ago, I documented each step I took to reach the determination that I was not being credited and the vendor was ultimately removed from CB's marketplace.

I definitely want to follow this thread

Maybe there is details as to how the system works. Maybe this works for the people that bought the system. Ya I think I know the product and I think it works that way if you buy and use the system.

I don't know about tracking ClickBank affiliate sales but I know
a client of mine who has his own in-house autoresponder and tracking
system so that the affiliate sales through autoresponder messages
are credited to the correct affiliate. I'm yet to see a system that
works with popular third-party ESP in the same way.

But you should be able to test any system the way you did with
the expected results--you getting credit.

-Ray Edwards

As far I am aware your ID should have stuck regardless of going back to the sales page, it should have remained the same because of computer cookies.

The only way it would change is if someone elses' ClickBank ID was inside of the product owners email sequence. If it was a raw direct link to the sales page, which it appears it isn't, you would get the referral sale.

It definitely sounds fishy to me and hope you get it resolved.

I've actually never heard of that before to be quite honest.

I would probably personally get in contact with clickbank to try and resolve the issue.

Wow i have been using ClickBank for a while now and have not seen that before.

Contact Clickbank and alert them of the issue. If the problem persists... try a different affiliate marketplace to promote products from.

Are you indicating something nefarious like cookie stuffing?



Either way, it seems kinda shady.

I never trust when vendors email on my behalf.

Only a few vendors pull it off, and the BEST way to do it is when vendors send BLANK affiliate links.

That way, it's impossible to mess up and whichever affiliate happens to have a fresh cookie gets the spoils.

Just my $.02

PS: If I were you I'd try on 100% clean browser, and try again to see if cookies change at all.

Today I finally received an email back from the vendor. He stated that for the affiliate to receive proper credit, the affiliate would have to promote a specific landing page. That landing page was not disclosed in the "affiliate tools" section or anywhere else for that matter. To him I say "No Thanks". I don't need you and will graciously move on to more honest vendors. I am from the old school where we make an honest buck doing things the honest way. I sleep better when I know I truly helped someone. I am an Internet Marketer because I enjoy it, not because I need it to pay bills. I make a very decent living off my real estate investments. This particular vendor has a lot to learn about business. It's his loss not mine! Warriors beware!!!

I decided not to promote this particular vendor. However, I am still getting emails to my test email address. Each email still continues to have someone else's clickbank ID. I'm guessing the clickbank ID belongs to the vendor. I emailed the vendor again to see if there could be "glitch" or another valid reason for the incorrect clickbank affiliate ID. Initially he sent me a generic "We'll look into it...." response and now they have stopped responding altogether. I have gathered all my information including screenshots of the vendors affiliate tools page, emails containing the links with wrong affiliate ID, and emails from the "support" dept. I will be sending clickbank all information in the morning. Stay tuned. I will update this thread once I hear something definitive. This type of vendor just gets under my skin!!

As a further confirmation of my suspicions, I used a brand new computer to log in to my email. This computer had no previous cookies. I clicked on the links and navigated to the order page. Sure enough, the same incorrect ID showed up yet again!

Needless to say, I'm not promoting this particular vendor. However, I am certainly contemplating starting a new site to expose these unscrupulous vendors. What they don't realize is that some of us are retired and don't need their commissions to make a living. For some of us warriors, it is a matter of principal.

Interestingly, I tested another well known and long time clickbank vendor about a month ago. I continue to receive emails with links in the email from this vendor. This particular vendor seems to be very honest. I used the same 3 test emails. All three have my affiliate ID embedded in the links. I won't name and shame the unscrupulous vendor here on this forum but Ted's Woodworking plans passes the test with flying colours. That's not to say that I am promoting that offer, just to say the vendor is very honest. I will name and shame the other vendor on my own site once it is up and going. Stay tuned! It's showtime!!!

PS: I have notified clickbank and forwarded screenshots and emails. I will update once I hear back.

That's one hell of a horror story, wesawu.

Seriously, how could anyone go and blindly promote any Clickbank offer (with an optin) after reading this?

I'm not sure if I can call that greedy, it's more like plain stealing.

I have seen many Clickbank offers with an opt-in first, but never promoted them.
As AlisonM said, it sure does involve a lot of trust in the vendor before promoting.

What's even sadder is some people who promote online absolutely need the money and are depending on it to pay bills, expenses, and live off of, etc.
I'm sure some people promoting this very product you tested are depending on those sales.

Go get 'em Amy!

And keep us posted

This is really bad. Imagine now affiliates have to go through checking every product to see if it's legit. For all you know this unscrupulous seller is not the only one using this method.

I'm interested to hear Clickbank's reply on how they're going to close this loophole although I suspect there must be other ways sellers rip off affilates.

Thats why i never promote clickbank products with an optin on the page. Because i think most people will always download the free report before buying. I think its a way of them getting affiliates traffic, but not having to pay the affiliate a commision. Greedy and selfish in my opinion, but people are obviously starting to catch on, and hopefully vendors will then stop taking there affiliates for granted.

Sorry to hear about your problem, but it may not be the seller who is doing this to you. For all you know it is Clickbank itself.

A friend of mine made two sales via Clickbank – this is 1005 confirmed as she knew the people who were buying the products she was selling.

BUT – the sale did not show up – she waited for 24 hours and then contacted Clickbank.

They were not at all helpful and asked which affiliate link she had used. When she showed them the Hoplink – the one that is generated by the Clickbank software, she was told that she had used the wrong link and she had to use another one, that is why the sale was not credited to her.

It was clearly a case of cheating by Clickbank – what if my friend had not known that people had purchased her product via Clickbank???

Just imagine how many people are making sales via Clickbank and they do not even know about it as they are not getting any money from the sales and neither is any record of the sale being made!

All the best. Regards.

Be careful. There are some people who will always be 'corrupt' no matter how many personal development books they read. Yes you might be getting screwed.

And that is exactly why I use a system where you can not mess with the affiliate links or even 'skim' the link back to the original domain.

If you try this on the system I use by skimming the link back to the original domain without my affiliate ID, it just says members only.

The founder and creator of my 'system' does have integrity.

Ha lets you wonder. Seem that there allot of nasty people out there.

Clickbank don't cheat. They have absolutely nothing to gain by doing so. Either the vendor would get the full sale or the sale is split between the vendor and the affiliate.

Regardless, Clickbank get their commission.

Back on topic though: it's a shame that some vendors are shady with their practices but by the same token there's a lot of affiliates who run traffic the wrong way also.

Stay on your toes and as someone else says - it's always better to put prospects through your own funnel rather than anybody elses.

Here's what is probably happening...

The vendor is using a script to rotate affiliate IDs if no referring affiliate ID is present(his own affiliate accounts probably).

This boosts his gravity on clickbank and makes it appear as if the product is popular.

Again... The script is meant to actually detect whether there is a referring affiliate. If there isn't the script rotates one of the assigned IDs the vendor has set.

What probably happened is that you tested your affiliate URL with Browser A (i.e: Chrome). Forgot about it. Checked your email a day later and your email client fired off browser B (i.e: Firefox) which was not cookied.

Currently Clickbank doesn't have I.P tracking. Its all cookie based. Sooo...

With browser B you checked to see if your affiliate ID appeared and you seen one of the affiliate IDs that the script inputs in case there is no referring affiliate...

It's common practice on Clickbank and this kind of panic happens when vendors fail to tell their affiliates.

Hi All,

Good comments.

Here are good thoughts to go by...

1. Do not promote products without checking and buying the product yourself. Because you need to buy the product to be able to promote it don't you?

2. Get a buddy to buy products for each other so your ID is not showing up if you want to test another ID and see if your buddy gets the credit for the affiliate sale.

3. Only promote Clickbank products without an option page or an exit splash page check it out when you buy the product and you will know.

4. Do not promote offers which have optins or free gifts because the vendor is just skimming off your visitors for their own gain.

I build Clickbank sites and have created over 400 of them in the last 16 years as a marketer.

The SMARTEST THING TO DO IS CREATE YOUR OWN PRODUCT AND SELL IT.

Then you have control over everything including ALL THE PROFITS.

Good luck to all in 2014

Jennie Heckel
Sales Letter Copywriter

This looks really strange. It is always good to double check everything to make sure all works well.

You were most likely already cookied to that product, from the person who's ID you saw...

You might have been cookied by another affiliate, or it might be the affiliate himself cheating. Yeah, I guess it's possible, since it's not the first thread with similar problem I read about.

Anyway, your best bet is to contact ClickBank about this

Hello mate,
First if all So sorry to hear about your problem.I was heard this kind of issues many times you have two options here:
1.Contact ClickBank support team a nd tell oyur problem.
2.Choose another ClickBank product to promote.
Choice is yours!

It's been done before, but I decided to tried it anyway....
I tested 5 different cb products with optin forms and here are the results I got:
1 - All five sent me confirmation emails that when clicked took me back to the sales page.
2 - I tested each link on Chrome, Firefox and IE 11; only firefox showed my affiliate link at the bottom of the order form. Chrome & IE 11 had at the bottom of the order form - "Affiliate = none".
3 - After receiving the first follow up, I tested the links and got the same results as above. Only firefox worked.
4 - When I downloaded the free reports from all five, I clicked on the links within the pdfs and once again, only firefox worked - the rest would say: affiliate: none.

After a few follow ups, some of the vendors started bombarding me with other offers.
I.m pretty sure most of these vendors are aware of these problems and the correct thing to do would be to remove the optin forms until the issues can be solved; but something tells me that most of them will not as they are enjoying the mailing lists you are building for them - and the extra cash they get to keep from your effort.

Best Wishes during the new year, Frank

you should report them to clickbank with your evidence.