I am sure that this is not going to be a popular thread with some members here. I just am at a point where I can't really take the "Is clickbank shaving","Tracking issues are costing me sales", "Has anyone else not had sales today", "I have sent 50 hops with no sales.....whats wrong with clickbank" types of posts. They dominate the clickbank forum. You very rarely see useful post anymore. Now I realize that clickbank has some tracking issues at times. I also realize that their payment processor may have issues at times as well. You should expect this....clickbank handles a lot of transactions everyday. I have been to Mcdonalds before and they were only accepting cash because their credit system wasn't working. I know this is not the same thing but it does happen. Clickbank is not purposely shaving or stealing your money. Although I can not prove that, I am an extremely logical person and can fathom no scenario where it would make sense. They have built an empire. They are good at what they do. They would not risk that for your $33 portion of the commission. I plead to the gods of DP. Please create a subforum for clickbank. They can call it "Does Clickbank Suck?". Then all the post their can be these type of post and the clickbank forum can go back to being a community of people helping each other. I understand that it is frustrating when sales go south or when things seem weird. In these time, one should work harder (and smarter). Once you let yourself become a victim (its clickbank's fault), it is hard to overcome. I feel much better now and yes I do realize that I just created a worthless and time wasting post. Greg
This is true, and it's always better to assume that "the problem" is on your side, because in that case you try to do something else, you try to test things, etc. However, I'm sure everyone will agree that CB is strange sometimes....Actually too often, lol
Hi Greg - great post. But the subforum doesn't have to be called "clickbank sucks" - because not all of us that post the problems we're having w/ clickbank think that they suck. If you're having a problem w/ sales, it's always good to troubleshoot the problem. The only way you can rule out whether or not clickbank is the problem on any given day when you're having erratic sales, is to come to a clickbank forum and find out whether or not anyone else is having the same problem. - If not, then you work on troubleshooting the problem elsewhere, like your server, or google. But you'll never find the problem by sticking your head into the ground. If clickbank has a problem, then they have a problem, and it's best to root it out - for everyone including clickbank. Also - I'm not saying that clickbank is cheating - but you can never rule that out. There have been many cases where the cheats have been the "big companies" themselves. I can think right off hand of - Madoff, Enron, (hopefully this doesn't get me into trouble, but even dP has been part of a cookie stuffing scheme) At the same time you must be very careful of accusing CB of anything without having proof first. And I'll agree that these forums are filled w/ people making hard hitting accusations without proper evidence. - And besides if clickbank is cheating us, they're doing such a good job of it, that it would take a very educated behind the scenes job to ever catch them. Announcing your proof on an open forum isn't a good idea.
Clickbank could eliminate MOST of these questions if they were more TRANSPARENT about things. For the longest time, no information at all ever came out of Clickbank. Then, they started this blog, and everyone got all excited because they thought "Clickbank will finally tell us something." And by "something," I just mean "anything" - not necessarily related to shaving But the blog is a big dud...just a dull corporate mouthpiece. Have you ever seen how Azoogle's CEO sometimes posts on DP? How come CB doesn't even have a low-level staffer create a presense on DP?
Thats bever gonna happen, that guy will just get stick, and I am sure he'll get sick of every CB newbie asking him why his/her sales are low when they are only getting 20 hops a day lol
I mean its obvious CB does have some issues. I think more than likely you get that "cannot process the order at this time" which sucks.. that obviously will effect sales.
Great post. +rep. flip, What would you want ClickBank to be transparent about? Post their tax returns online? They are as transparent as they can possibly be: marketplace => publisher id + affiliate id => hoplink => hops => conversions => refunds => paycheck. It doesn't get much more simple than that - that is why they are so successful. "The ball is round, the game lasts 90 minutes, everything else is pure theory,"
I don't think Clickbank is being malicious and intentionally stealing money from affiliates. However, there is no doubt in my mind that there is something horribly wrong with their system. As an affiliate, I am promoting a product that makes 2-5 sales every day just like clockwork. It has been that way for months now - converting around 120 hops per sale. Around March 1, my sales dropped off to nothing. I had 10 days of 0 sales. I created another account after getting some advice from another marketer and my sales magically started coming through again within hours. Back to the old reliable level. I am not writing this to bash CB, but there is no way that could be coincidental. What really ticks me off is that any answers you get from these guys is your typical canned response saying that sales will fluctuate and that the economy is impacting business. While that may be true, no one is going to convince me that there is not something wrong with their system. Frustrating to say the least. But is there a real alternative? Paydotcom may be more reliable, but they don't seem to have the quality products that CB does. Just check out a few sales pages and you'll see what I mean. Most are not great. Unfortunately, I can't see any alternatives at the moment. All we can do is hope that CB gets their act together before we are all out of business. Stephen White
Well, the funniest part of Clickbank's behavior is how when you email them to complain about weird tracking issues, within an hour you suddenly get sales to your account. This has happened to me twice. After weeks of 0 sales. It has happened to many other of the folks who are finally voicing their concerns at various blogs and forums. Where they, too, send a complaint to Clickbank and within an hour to a few hours they suddenly get a cluster of sales credited to their account. After days or weeks of 0 sales. Tell me that isn't suspicious behavior? Where are they pulling those "magical" sales from? La la land? Stuff like this is the reason why we're not willing to stomach the old "You're just not driving enough traffic" or "You're not promoting the right product" or "It's the recession." All of those things are potential factors in sales being erratic - but why does CLickbank always seem to come up with some magic sales for you after you send them a complaint? It's like they act like some dysfunctional parent withholding affection from you until you really beg for it. That's not how a business partner behaves. The fact is, based on their lack of transparency and honesty alone, they do not deserve our business. Would you in the offline world want to have a business partner who doesn't talk to you on the phone, purposefully obscures their phone info to discourage contact, posts lame updates about system outages at their site but hides the page, never admits to ANY potential problem, doesn't respond to the vast array of complaints being displayed at multiple forums, and worst yet NEVER FIXES THINGS? It's like the ultimate dysfunctional relationship. And people keep giving them money. Dan
I understand your frustrations. However..... 1. You nor I nor anyone here or on any other forum is a business partner of Clickbank. We are independent contractors who work for ourselves through them. They have no responsibility to us for transparency. I doubt the cashier (or manager for that point) at Walmart has any idea about the true direction or issues of the company. 2. Sticking with the Walmart example, there are multiple forums where people accuse them of all sorts of things. I doubt highly that the CEO or board of directors at Walmart even know what these post say let alone address them. 3. A lot of people say a lot of things online. I learned a long time ago to look for proof and not what someone says is true. I would suggest making a video of the no sales - email complaint - then sales phenomenon. I really didn't start this thread to discuss the validity of all the complaints. I started it because I am tired of seeing the clickbank forum at DP monopolized with the comments. It is accepted by many members here that it is true without any tangible proof.
It is a good idea, but you might as well be asking for hell to freeze over! I am pretty sure DP mods never ever come into the CB section, let alone actually doing any moderating!
yeah i agree but honestly a billion dollar company should have tracking in order 999 days out of 1000 and there system is messed up 1 out of 10 days
Or is it ? I once used to believe that it might be just "a messy system"..."a bug" .... NOT ANYMORE. This crap has been going on for so long now (since around Oct of last year). There is just no way they could have missed it and not fix the problem, NO WAY. And yes i too have seen the mysterious reappearance of sales in my account after sending a compliant. A number of times!! ....makes one wounder BIG TIME. It looks like CB has found a not too cleaver way of paying for all them "upgrades", i no longer have a doubt. Simply put, they are shaving affiliate commissions in broad day light!...affiliates beware. P.S. Did you know? Up to about 2 years ago, a hop link using a non existent affiliate name would not work. There used to be a message informing you of the fact and the hoplink simply didn't work. (message given by the system, "incorrect aff name" or "aff name does not exist" or something like that). Well not anymore.....any aff name, real or not, works and you even get to see the non existent aff name listed at the bottom of the CB ordering form. For me, this alone rises a lot of questions. Only CB (and God) know how many sales an affiliate REALY has on any given day. Belive their reports or not it is your choice. I however no longer do! and i no longer think there are any tracking issues....this thing whatever it is, is intentional.
Thats an improvement, why shall someone be prevented from buying a product simply because the affiliate mistyped his affiliateID? Yes its not a good thing that the affiliate dont get the commission but frankly its his faulth and neither is fair that the buyer is prevented from buying the product and neither the publisher loosing his commission. ......
Because it is an affiliate hoplink! if an affiliate mistyped his affiliateID then he/she should be informed. If there is no commission aworded (invalid affiliate) then there should not be a redirect to the vendor site via an "affiliate hop link". How can the product vendor (which in most cases has to cut a commission of up to 75%) could possibly tell if this was a legit affiliate sale or not? Do you see my point ? FYI, Affiliate links on amazon, commission junction and many other affiliate networks DO NOT work if the affiliate nick is invalid. It is the only honest responsible way of doing things unless there is somthing to hide.