[Alan Mater]

I was hoping Clickbank had a direct deposit option, which they do. Unfortunately, they have another stupid rule in place to prevent this option for many.

Here's what Clickbank has to say if the direct deposit option isn't available for you:

"You have not met the distribution requirements. An account must have first received three paper paychecks within any 12 week period before it is eligible to enroll in direct deposit"

Talk about a downer. I just made a sale, but it's less than the $10 minimum payout, and now I can't even have it direct deposited. Sheesh.

[VaultBoss]

I'd hate to be somehow off-topic here, as ppl seem to be interested how to find a work around solution, mostly...

And especially as I appreciate Harvey (Hello, Harvey!)
His SuperTip ebook was the first one I have ever bought online...

But if you have some money to invest, you should thoroughly consider RAP (Rapid Action profits) script by fellow warrior Sid Hale (another bow in front of a great guy here, again).
It is a very good sales-processor, working with PayPal and offering the nice feature of instant commissions paid to affiliates.

However, if you're not interested to promote your own products but affiliate offers, you should know that there are many marketers using this great script for their products.

You should run a search on Google for something like:
"Powered by Rapid Action Profits"
and the websites that will come up, will have, all of them, instant commission setup, on a most often encountered 50% split (but many have more, like 75% or sometimes even 100% to the front-end).
These websites will pay you directly into your PayPal account, INSTANTLY.

You will probably hate Clickbank after discovering this solution...

PS
If you think this tip was useful, I'd appreciate your forum thanks. I try to be of help.

[Emmanuel Betinis]

Originally Posted by Leon Bowes

Dormant Accounts

Accounts with a positive balance but no earnings for an extended period of time are considered dormant. Dormant accounts are subject to a charge of $1 per pay period after 90 days of no earnings, $5 per pay period after 180 days of no earnings, and $15 per pay period after 365 days of no earnings.

That one actually bit me.

I've been with Clickbank since 1997 and
literally had thousands of dollars in one account
while leaving it untouched for years.

Lesson learned.

[swissmark]

Sorry guys.. but I'm actually in love with clickbank :-D
Their support is good, their tracking seems to be reliable, the commission is awesome (50% to 75%), and the checks are on time every other week.

I buy products all the time with my own aff link to review them and never had any problems. They just don't want you to open an account to just buy products at a discounted price. It's actually to protect us affiliates. When you promote a product, it would be too easy for people to simply sign up as an affiliate and use their own aff link. With their strict rules, this doesn't happen as often.

However, I do agree that dormant accounts shouldn't be subject to a charge. It's probably their way to keep you promoting your aff links :-)

[Emmanuel Betinis]

Yep!

I do agree the commissions are good and the checks ARE on time.

[Alan Mater]

Originally Posted by anapest

Yep!

I do agree the commissions are good and the checks ARE on time.

I guess my check was one in a million!

Sent to an address 2,000 miles away, and the only reason I got it was because the person it was sent to was super nice and mailed it to me, even if it was two months later.

And yeah, Clickbank support for that issue was an absolute joke! All I can say is that better not happen with my next check.

[Best Affiliate]

Originally Posted by Suzanne Morrison

Hi Guys,

I agree - a lot of these requirements are unfair, especially the part where they deduct money from your account because it is dormant - it is not like they have to work extra hard to maintain dormant accounts is it? I am a vendor as well and have two vendor accounts and have never seen any money come back to the vendor as a result of this, so it must go right back into Clickbank's pocket.

I agree that there has to be some sort of rule about purchases from different credit cards/payment methods to prevent people opening accounts simply to purchase through there own aff links, but I think 5 different credit cards and 2 different purchase methods is quite excessive.

Clickbank is huge with a massive marketplace and set of products and affiliates so unfortunately I think that it is unlikely that any of us will be able to make them change their policy so I guess people have to make the decision either to stick with it until their sales are more regular, or promote something else in the meantime.

When I started and my traffic was low, I was barely making any sales with Clickbank, but now I usually sell a few different products per day, so I think it is worth sticking at.

There are also various things that you can do to try and increase your sales. One way is to concentrate your efforts on promoting just one or two products. Research these products well, write a review on them, perhaps even offer a couple of bonuses for people to buy through your link Optimize your review to try and get ranked for "Review of Product xyz" - people looking for reviews are usually ready to buy and this can help to increase your sales.

I also wrote a blog post a while back about Clickbank which may be of interest:
5 Ways to Increase your Clickbank Sales

Cheers,
Suzanne

always looking for ideas to market affiliate products and programs. Nice blog post

[AnniPotts]

I can't remember where I read it but one marketer i subscribe to suggested creating a cheap report, say $3-$7 dollars, and marketing it. For that price you should be able to get your five sales thereby activating your ClickBank account and preventing theses losses from occuring. Write your report on something that you can add other ClickBank products to, (e.g. The basics of puppy training with references to Sit Stay Fetch or other dog training manuals)and you should get a few sales from the report as well.

BTW, I too was the victim of losing over $100 in commisions.

And as another aside to CB policy, how many of you know you cannot now promote other peoples products with your own bonuses.

"You will not offer, suggest or imply the availability of any rebates, coupons, tickets, vouchers or similar incentives to induce or encourage the purchase of a Product."

[Harvey Segal]

Originally Posted by AnniPotts

And as another aside to CB policy, how many of you know you cannot now promote other peoples products with your own bonuses.

This is not correct.

Bonus products are allowed


ClickBank policy follows:

Affiliates may offer bonuses that are not cash or cash
equivalents if they adhere to the following:

1) Affiliate must state clearly and prominently that the
bonus offer is not the responsibility of ClickBank or of the
seller of the primary product.

2) Affiliate must state clearly and prominently that
ClickBank will not honor any refund requests that are based
on non- delivery, quality, or functionality of the bonus
materials.

3) Affiliate must provide their own direct contact
information (email address, etc.) and state clearly that any
issues regarding bonus delivery, bonus functionality, or
bonus quality must be addressed with the affiliate, not with
ClickBank or the seller.


Note from ClickBank:

It is not posted on the website yet, but our security team will be
using this policy from here on out unless we experience any additional
problems from affiliate bonuses.


Harvey


.

[Steven Heron]

Whilst Clickbank is a nuiscane and has many, many issues, it does nevertheless contain the largest amount of easy to acquire professional affiliates for merchants. Clickbank is nearly mandatory for digital product merchants. You won't find many other affiliate management sites which contain such a massive amount of affiliates who actually know what they're doing.

So whilst I can relate to your frustration, it's one of those things you just have to put up with until they get any serious competition.

[powerspike]

Originally Posted by Alan Mater

I was hoping Clickbank had a direct deposit option, which they do. Unfortunately, they have another stupid rule in place to prevent this option for many.

Here's what Clickbank has to say if the direct deposit option isn't available for you:

"You have not met the distribution requirements. An account must have first received three paper paychecks within any 12 week period before it is eligible to enroll in direct deposit"

Talk about a downer. I just made a sale, but it's less than the $10 minimum payout, and now I can't even have it direct deposited. Sheesh.

I got hit by this, i have put up my minimum payment because of bank fee's and conversion rates etc.

How ever, i emailed support, asking them if they could enable it because i have been getting regular sales for almost 2 years, and they sent back an email saying sure, and it was indeed enabled.

I think they are just trying to protect themselves in the end, cheque's can be cancelled incase of fraud. there was a thread somewhere on warrior forums where a guy was happy for getting like 10 sales in two days, and then they where all reverses for credit card fraud.

[VaultBoss]

Looks like ClickBank gives a lot of headaches to users, for different reasons, but much to many, IMHO...

As I said before, there are other options, too.
I strongly recommend Instant Commision programs,

BUT nevertheless,

there is also PayDotCom for digital products, plus many more like Commission Junction, Kolimbo, etc...

Have you experienced similar drawbacks with any other such service?

[Alan Mater]

Originally Posted by powerspike

I got hit by this, i have put up my minimum payment because of bank fee's and conversion rates etc.

How ever, i emailed support, asking them if they could enable it because i have been getting regular sales for almost 2 years, and they sent back an email saying sure, and it was indeed enabled.

I think they are just trying to protect themselves in the end, cheque's can be cancelled incase of fraud. there was a thread somewhere on warrior forums where a guy was happy for getting like 10 sales in two days, and then they where all reverses for credit card fraud.

Thanks for sharing that. I think I'll contact them and see if they can do the same for me.

[Alan Mater]

Originally Posted by VaultBoss

Looks like ClickBank gives a lot of headaches to users, for different reasons, but much to many, IMHO...

As I said before, there are other options, too.
I strongly recommend Instant Commision programs,

BUT nevertheless,

there is also PayDotCom for digital products, plus many more like Commission Junction, Kolimbo, etc...

Have you experienced similar drawbacks with any other such service?

PayDotCom is pretty good. The difference is that the owner pays you, so as long as they're good for it, you're okay. The advantage here is that the money is paid through PayPal.

I haven't made any sales through Commission Junction yet to give my opinion on them.

[kmjbrown]

I too was caught in this trap. I made a sale, but was not aware of the five sale minimum needed before the funds would be released. Needless to say I got real discouraged as I watched my commission dwindle down to zero only because I had not made any other sales. To help others not make the same mistakes I recommend everyone get a copy of this free Guide to Click Bank called Click Bank for Newbies. It will provide the necessary steps to avoid pitfalls most encounter when they start using Click Bank.

[AnniPotts]

Originally Posted by Harvey.Segal

This is not correct.

Bonus products are allowed


ClickBank policy follows:

Affiliates may offer bonuses that are not cash or cash
equivalents if they adhere to the following:

1) Affiliate must state clearly and prominently that the
bonus offer is not the responsibility of ClickBank or of the
seller of the primary product.

2) Affiliate must state clearly and prominently that
ClickBank will not honor any refund requests that are based
on non- delivery, quality, or functionality of the bonus
materials.

3) Affiliate must provide their own direct contact
information (email address, etc.) and state clearly that any
issues regarding bonus delivery, bonus functionality, or
bonus quality must be addressed with the affiliate, not with
ClickBank or the seller.


Note from ClickBank:

It is not posted on the website yet, but our security team will be
using this policy from here on out unless we experience any additional
problems from affiliate bonuses.


Harvey


.

My apologies for getting this bit wrong. Just another instance of how confusing policies can be. Can I ask how you found out if it's not on the website, Harvey? Thank you

[Harvey Segal]

Originally Posted by AnniPotts

Can I ask how you found out if it's not on the website, Harvey? Thank you

Anni

The offering of bonuses by affiliates was a subject of
contention a while ago so we asked ClickBank for a ruling on
the situation.

Harvey



.

[stevenh512]

Originally Posted by Alan Mater

I would really doubt that the Postal Service would botch up that bad; sending an envelope to Idaho that's suppose to go to Pennsylvania. Very unlikely.

You'd be surprised.

My dad was a postal supervisor for many years in the city of Norwalk, California. I remember him telling me one time that he had a letter come through is office that was addressed from an address in China to another address in China, with Chinese postage and a Chinese postmark. That seems like a much bigger screwup (not only of our own postal service, but also China's) than sending an envelope to Idaho that's supposed to go to Pennsylvania.. lol

[VaultBoss]

He, he...

That's more than weird. So, what's the end of the story?
What happened with the letter? Was it re-sent back to China, or what?

[stevenh512]

Unfortunately I don't know the rest of the story, all I know is that the letter from one address in China to another address in China somehow ended up passing through a U.S. Postal Service office in Norwalk, CA and was sent back out to the main "regional" office for that area (which I believe was Long Beach at the time, now it's Santa Ana). Beyond that, I have no way of knowing what else happened or where it ended up.. lol

[VaultBoss]

Actually, that is what I was asking...

I mean, being sent back, maybe it arrived, in the end, hopefully.

But when and IF it did, I'm also wondering... the poor guy in China, receiving an envelope with so many US stamps on it... might have had some issues with his Government, don't you think?

[Alan Mater]

Originally Posted by stevenh512

You'd be surprised.

My dad was a postal supervisor for many years in the city of Norwalk, California. I remember him telling me one time that he had a letter come through is office that was addressed from an address in China to another address in China, with Chinese postage and a Chinese postmark. That seems like a much bigger screwup (not only of our own postal service, but also China's) than sending an envelope to Idaho that's supposed to go to Pennsylvania.. lol

Well, you beat me there... LOL.

That's just plain weird.

[netdepozyt]

Another related question about CB, when last I looked for products to promote and clicked on a couple of salespages to see if I liked them, I was directed to enter all of my information and join the site's affiliate program and they generated an affiliate link for me that doesn't look anything like CB's hoplinks so my question is: Are these both the same, in other words are you still going to be paid by CB or are you going to be paid by the vendor does anyone on here know?

[dclozen]

I have approximately 50 affiliate sites listed on my website as a alternate to Clickbank. Some are notorious for being slow pay and some have very tough requirements for joining. just do your homework on them and then join. Clickbank is not the only game in town...

[Pixulated]

Woah I actually never knew this so I'm grateful that you showed me thanks alot.

[RobinInTexas]

Originally Posted by netdepozyt

Another related question about CB, when last I looked for products to promote and clicked on a couple of salespages to see if I liked them, I was directed to enter all of my information and join the site's affiliate program and they generated an affiliate link for me that doesn't look anything like CB's hoplinks so my question is: Are these both the same, in other words are you still going to be paid by CB or are you going to be paid by the vendor does anyone on here know?

If you would like to promote the product, follow the publishers instructions and create a link.

Then test to make sure that when you follow the link that you end up on the clickbank payment page and make certain that at the bottom of the page it says:

[affiliate = yourclickbankID]

[Alan Mater]

I contacted ClickBank about allowing me to get direct deposit setup, and sure enough, they lifted the restriction for me. What a relief. Now if I could just get the email confirmation so that the change takes affect! At least I won't have to worry about another lost check.

[mistyone]

I was in the same boat as lot of the members who have posted in this thread where I was struggling to get to my 5 sales but I made it at the beginning of this year and now I am up to my 3rd pay check from them so I hope I will be able to switch to direct deposit as well but the reason why I am posting today is because I have been into my account and I am upset by another of their tactics

They take money from you to process your sales @2.50 they also hold a portion of your sale, so on a sale of $70.49 they take the allowance of $7.10. They have released that $7.10 but because it is only $7.10 it hasn't reached the threshhold amount so they let it wait for another payment, in this instance $30.49, to be released and they add it to that but then they take an allowance payment off the WHOLE amount which includes the $7.10. How BAD is that! I cannot believe they can treat people the way they do

I'll lay the sums out so that you can see for yoursleves:

sale: $70.49 allowance $7.10
below threshold so not not released $7.10
sale: $30.49 + threshold finally released $7.10 = $37.59 - $2.50 debit (their fee for processing the sale) - allowance $3.76
Payment to me ends up being $31.33
Where I reckon it should be:
Sale: $30.49 - $2.50 = $27.99 - allowance $2.80 = $25.19 + $7.10 = $32.29

I think it is time to pursue other affiliate programs, Clickbank is unethical

I'd be interested to know your thoughts

[Alan Mater]

Originally Posted by mistyone

I was in the same boat as lot of the members who have posted in this thread where I was struggling to get to my 5 sales but I made it at the beginning of this year and now I am up to my 3rd pay check from them so I hope I will be able to switch to direct deposit as well but the reason why I am posting today is because I have been into my account and I am upset by another of their tactics

They take money from you to process your sales @2.50 they also hold a portion of your sale, so on a sale of $70.49 they take the allowance of $7.10. They have released that $7.10 but because it is only $7.10 it hasn't reached the threshhold amount so they let it wait for another payment, in this instance $30.49, to be released and they add it to that but then they take an allowance payment off the WHOLE amount which includes the $7.10. How BAD is that! I cannot believe they can treat people the way they do

I'll lay the sums out so that you can see for yoursleves:

sale: $70.49 allowance $7.10
below threshold so not not released $7.10
sale: $30.49 + threshold finally released $7.10 = $37.59 - $2.50 debit (their fee for processing the sale) - allowance $3.76
Payment to me ends up being $31.33
Where I reckon it should be:
Sale: $30.49 - $2.50 = $27.99 - allowance $2.80 = $25.19 + $7.10 = $32.29

I think it is time to pursue other affiliate programs, Clickbank is unethical

I'd be interested to know your thoughts

Yeah, I forgot they do this. It's pretty pathetic. I guess the people selling a lot of products each day have nothing to complain about. I can understand how hard it is for people just starting out to have to deal with all of this. PayDotCom is good, and you can check out Commission Junction. I haven't made sales through CJ yet, so I'm not sure what they're like as I haven't read their policies yet.

[Harvey Segal]

Originally Posted by mistyone

I was in the same boat as lot of the members who have posted in this thread where I was struggling to get to my 5 sales but I made it at the beginning of this year and now I am up to my 3rd pay check from them so I hope I will be able to switch to direct deposit as well but the reason why I am posting today is because I have been into my account and I am upset by another of their tactics

They take money from you to process your sales @2.50 they also hold a portion of your sale, so on a sale of $70.49 they take the allowance of $7.10. They have released that $7.10 but because it is only $7.10 it hasn't reached the threshhold amount so they let it wait for another payment, in this instance $30.49, to be released and they add it to that but then they take an allowance payment off the WHOLE amount which includes the $7.10. How BAD is that! I cannot believe they can treat people the way they do

I'll lay the sums out so that you can see for yoursleves:

sale: $70.49 allowance $7.10
below threshold so not not released $7.10
sale: $30.49 + threshold finally released $7.10 = $37.59 - $2.50 debit (their fee for processing the sale) - allowance $3.76
Payment to me ends up being $31.33
Where I reckon it should be:
Sale: $30.49 - $2.50 = $27.99 - allowance $2.80 = $25.19 + $7.10 = $32.29

I think it is time to pursue other affiliate programs, Clickbank is unethical

I'd be interested to know your thoughts

So you are saying

How BAD is that!

and

Clickbank is unethical

because ClickBank have taken a larger allowance than you
reckon they should - despite the fact that an allowance is
just a temporary deduction which will get paid back to you
later - and the extra amount they have taken is
..
..
..
wait for it
..
..
..
32.29 - 31.33 = 96 cents

Harvey



.

[mistyone]

because ClickBank have taken a larger allowance than you
reckon they should - despite the fact that an allowance is
just a temporary deduction which will get paid back to you
later - and the extra amount they have taken is
..
..
..
wait for it
..
..
..
32.29 - 31.33 = 96 cents

Harvey.

Hi Harvey

Thank you for your view on my post.

The point for me is not so much that it is 96c but more the manner in which they have the payment structure geared.

You have the allowance taken out of a sale, fair enough, that person could want a refund or whatever.... but they not only have the use of your money while you wait for the period they take before release of the allowance but they also have the use of the money such as from the sales made, but the requirement of CDR not met. For some people this can be more than a year or as others have said in this post 2 years and they still haven't reached that point, and then they take $2.50 for administration but they also take $2.50 to send you your allowance which for me didn't coincide with another sale, so it is more about all these unfor seen things that will happen to your sale amount that the newbie to Clickbank won't be aware of and that is what this thread was all about the title of which is: Newbies BEWARE of Clickbank.

Maybe it should have been titled "Newbies be AWARE of Clickbank"

While I don't know your circumstance, I have deduced you are very successful with making an income from affiliate sales of which Clickbank administer some of those sales so I presume you have nothing like this happening to you because of the volume of sales you produce but unfortunately we don't all start out that way and it can take a while for sales to start to occur so I felt that it was worth sharing my experience and yes also my opinion, as I do feel that their system is not geared towards the under achiever, why would it be! They are making a nice income from client sales 1,271,053,009 at time of writing this post so their income won't be small but the newbies is, so these little things mean a lot to those who have only a little

I hope that this has explained my position more clearly

Cheers
Viv

[Harvey Segal]

Viv

Originally Posted by mistyone

they take $2.50 for administration but they also take $2.50
to send you your allowance which for me didn't coincide with
another sale

They don't 'send' an allowance, the $2.50 is the fee to
send you a cheque.

Originally Posted by mistyone

so I presume you have nothing like this happening to you
because of the volume of sales you produce but unfortunately
we don't all start out that way

Yes - I did start that way.

Originally Posted by mistyone

as I do feel that their system is not geared towards the
under achiever, why would it be!

Why would it not be ?
The more affiliate sales the better for ClickBank

Originally Posted by mistyone

I hope that this has explained my position more clearly

Yes, and that's why I wrote my book as a solution to these
problems.
ClickBank for Newbies
http://www.supertips.com/r/cbn.htm


Harvey

[AidenChong]

As a newbie for CB, I don't know that existed.

Thanks for the info, Leon.

[Alan Mater]

Originally Posted by sndas

Thanks for your guidance . I have earlier set the payout to $100. But I want to set to $10. Today one sale has made of $12. how I can change the setting so that I can receive my cheque from Click Bank.

Thanks
Satya Das

Hi Satya,

Login to your account, go to Account Settings, scroll to the bottom where it has your Payment Information, then click on the Edit link. You can change your payment threshold from there.

[Jeff Casmer]

Hi Folks,

I know that Clickbank can be an issue but sometimes we are beating a dead horse here.......LOL

A misconception that people might have about "losing checks".....I have been with Clickbank for over 8 years...and not once have I lost a check or one been late, or not sent at all....

Just wanted to set the record straight.....LOL

Now lets get this thread to page 2...LOL

Take care
Jeff Casmer

[Alan Mater]

Originally Posted by Jeff Casmer

A misconception that people might have about "losing checks".....I have been with Clickbank for over 8 years...and not once have I lost a check or one been late, or not sent at all....

Just wanted to set the record straight.....LOL

Hi Jeff,

My check was sent to the wrong address. Not saying it was Clickbank's fault, but I only got it because whoever it was sent to was nice enough to mail it to me, which was 2 months later.

All that aside, I'm setup for direct deposit, which i just got yesterday. So, no more check issues.

I would say Clickbank is one of the best and well known companies to deal with. I'd recommend them before anyone else.

[glencumbie]

Thank you Leon,

I sure didn't know that. Great information. I have a question for you guys if you don't mind. I just got an email from Paypal suspending my account because I had 5 $4 payments come through. Apparently they shut you down if they suspect MLM, etc. Incredible. I am still somewhat new to this was news to me. But anyway, I have an AlertPay account. Do you guys know if they are any better, or any other payment processors that are easier to work with than PayPal?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Glen

[Jeff Casmer]

Hi,

What does that have to do with this "old" thread on Clickbank?

Must be me..LOL

Take care
Jeff

[Justin DSP]

Originally Posted by marquisvdm

Watch out for Slaps on Google..

Slaps on Google because of having outbound links to CB ?

I can see that if you just use the hoplinks, but the same goes with any AFF company if you use the links they provide and you do not cloak them.

Google HATES affiliates. PERIOD.

Your best bet to avoid this is to just cloak your links using a php redirect or some free software like tracking101/prosper101.

[Jeff Casmer]

Hi,

Got ya! Now I understand...thanks so much for clarifying...

Take care
Jeff Casmer

[Matt Belock]

You can also use a double meta refresh. I have been working on a script in which you can show the actual website url but once someone clicks on it, it gets redirected to the affiliate link. It will make the link look so natural and no affiliate nonsense at the end..