Is the Clickbank system prone to abuse?
I’ve never sold anything through Clickbank, so I don’t know the drawbacks to using their system as well as Clickbank merchants do. In his most recent newsletter, Dr Andy Williams has a bit of a rant about the ease with which people can steal the affiliate commissions for a product. Andy says that he sees (from the merchant’s point of view) people buying a product, then asking for a refund, then buying again through their own affiliate link and getting, effectively, a 50% rebate.
I’ve long suspected that some people circumvent my affiliate link when buying a Clickbank product I recommend, but it’s almost impossible to prove without the merchant’s data. This is the first time I’ve heard about it from a merchant’s point of view.
Andy says the situation is so bad, he’s going to run his own affiliate program using his own scripts. Read the full details here… EzSEO Newsletter # 169
Perhaps both merchants and affiliates should petition Clickbank to have a system less prone to “abuse”…?
July 2nd, 2007 at 2:37 pm
Hi Neil,
Thanks for highlighting this on your blog. The problem as I see it is that a lot of merchants dont care who gets the commission. They see affiliates as nothing more than free traffic. The proof of this, is the obvious affiliate sign up links on the sales pages of many merchants selling through Clickbank. These merchants are blatantly allowing YOUR referrals to sign up for their program, and buy through their own link. You referrals are stealing YOUR commissions.
I am not sure Clickbank care about this. A year or more ago, Adrian Ling built a feature into his easyClickMate software (which I use to handle multiple products through Clickbank), to allow the merchant to basically pick and choose his affiliates. If they were not signed up as an affiliate, they could not get the commission. This was a godsend, and I would have been happy to stay with Clickbank with Adrian’s script safeguarding my affiliates commissions, but Clickbank forced him to remove the feature. It looks like they dont want merchants controlling who can sell their products.
Its sad when merchants have so little control over their affiliate program, and even sadder that Clickbank *Merchants* dont seem to care.
July 2nd, 2007 at 3:01 pm
Hi Andy,
Thanks for your comments.
As an affiliate I always avoided promoting products where the sales letter said, “click here to become an affiliate”. For years and years I always said that the affiliate program should be separate from the sales letter.
I didn’t know that about ezClickmate. It’s a shame Clickbank wants such levels of control over both affiliates and merchants.
Neil.
July 3rd, 2007 at 8:59 am
Interesting that 2checkout.com is researching its own affiliate program and asking suppliers and the public for feedback …”We’d love to know exactly what you want from a 2CO affiliate program, so no detail is too small”.
Maybe if they get it right they can provide some real competition to ClickBank?
July 4th, 2007 at 6:14 pm
Hi Neil,
This really is a problem you’ve identified.
I’ve put together a free report that helps solve it, for both affiliates and vendors — it’s a short 8 page read with easy-to-follow instructions.
http://www.cbaccountmanager.com/cbguide
Best,
Mark Hendricks
July 4th, 2007 at 6:45 pm
I always get a bit annoyed when people refer to “stealing” commissions like this. If it’s stealing then call the police.
Of course it isn’t stealing at all. It’s not much different to walking to walking in a store and seeing something but actually buying it elsewhere.
If I get ten emails all promoting something then it’s hardly theft if I choose to buy it from someone other than the first person to promote it to me.
If, however, you have introduced someone whop then becomes an affiliate themselves then you certainly deserve a payment for that introduction but let’s use stealing in it’s proper sense. Not the way it is so misused in sales letters.
July 5th, 2007 at 12:22 am
Tim,
I agree with you. Stealing is a little strong. It may be extremely strong when you consider the facts.
If Andy is that upset why does he not contact the two offenders he mentions and tell them directly that he thinks they are thieves and demand that they pay his affiliate what they owe?
Or maybe Andy should give his affiliate the commission out of his own cut, after all isn’t is Andy who caused the refund by sending the customer an affiliate link immediately after the purchase? If Andy’s customer is a thief, isn’t Andy an accomplice.
This problem could be resolved by not sending anyone an affiliate link until 30 days after the purchase when they can no longer get a refund from Clickbank.
In the brick and mortar world this sort of thing happens all the time. A shopper buys a product and then finds it somewhere else at a significant discount and returns the item for a refund and buys the product at the cheaper price.
Many merchants offer customers a “You will not find it cheaper” guarantee and will refund the difference if they do.
They do this instead of calling their customers thieves!
Andy would do well to think about this. His IM buddies may agree with him but his potential customers may be hesitant to do business with someone who may end up calling them thieves!
July 5th, 2007 at 10:23 am
From the customer’s perspective refunds are always going to be sought because CB does not do enough to check the quality of a product. I have sought refunds on many ebooks because they were basically recycled rubbish, or just overpriced. Would you go into Borders and pay $97 dollars for a fifty page book in large print? Some of the authors need to get real with their pricing.
Poor after sales service is another source of complaint.
To be more positive I have bought everything Dr Andy Williams and have been delighted, a model for customer service.
July 5th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
Well, perhaps the word “theft” is too strong. Instead, I would use the word “hijack”. If someone clicks an affiliate link in an email or on a webpage and goes on to buy a product, the resulting commission should be due to that affiliate for making the sale. If someone buys, asks for a refund, deletes their cookies, uses their own affiliate link and re-buys, they’ve successfully hijacked the commissions due to the first affiliate. It may not be illegal, but it’s not very friendly.
Jim makes a good point about delaying any mention of the affiliate program for 30 days. That’s another step along the road of “don’t mention the affiliate program on the sales letter”.
July 14th, 2007 at 3:44 pm
Hi Neil,
I started to comment here and it got kinda long. So I linked to this post from my blog.
Your post is very interesting and on-point. There is no incentive for ClickBank to take action, as they get their commission no matter what.
Cheers,
Mitch
July 16th, 2007 at 11:37 am
Thanks Mitchell.
July 18th, 2007 at 7:16 pm
Andy -
Thanks for the note about easyClickMate!
- Dave
August 14th, 2007 at 12:29 am
I suppose that if you are promoting a product that is of interest to other webmasters you might lose some commissions.
The Clickbank system does prevent other types of fraud since they handle both the affiliate tracking and the sale.
March 11th, 2008 at 9:17 pm
I’ve always wondered if people do this, as a merchant on clickbank i often have refunds, I never thought to check up on if they just go and buy the same thing again. I will have to look into it!
March 15th, 2008 at 8:41 pm
I was a bit shocked at the discovery that Clickbank had mysteriously removed all of its data entry products without warning. I am sure that to many affiliate marketers, this unannounced removal not only was a shock, but cost this niche a whole lot of money.
March 20th, 2008 at 5:17 am
Well, it’s not a perfect system. I suspect I’ve lost quite a bit because of the flaws. The best thing you can do for yourself is just to cloak links.
May 8th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
Well People using ClickBank are being robbed…
Not By Hackers
Not By People
…. By Search Engines!!
So Im asking every body
Would you pay $3 Bucks to Protect $10000?
I know it sounds silly… but the truth is shocking:
http://www.clickbankprotection.com
Cheers
Sonny Mataka
www.sonnymataka.com