[With the experience that some members had of renewed sales after contacting CB, I sent an email to CB in early November 08 detailing my sales-on, sales-off experience and overall major loss of sales. I received a personal reply stating that the system was working perfectly and my campaigns' problems must be due to "market demand, customer interest, holidays and seasons" as well as "the current distress of the American economy". After several more weeks of effort, here is my response.] Hello, Since your reply of 2008-11-06, I have continued to persevere with ClickBank promotions, even starting and developing some new ones. I am sorry to say that I have found no consistent improvement taking place. I do understand that there is currently an economic downturn, and that this is reflected particularly in reduced US sales. However, since I have started promoting products on other networks I have been able to generate consistent and reliable sales to the point that the income I had been receiving from ClickBank in the earlier part of 2008 has now been entirely replaced, and continuing to grow - and this despite the economic difficulties. After generating well over $50,000 in commissions on ClickBank this year (much of it before the summer), I am forced to accept that CB is now finished for me as a means of income generation. I like the ease with which hoplinks can be set up and the reliable TID and payment systems, but loss of confidence in CB's sales capture and the affiliate tracking thereof, coupled with my own experience of decimated commissions, have meant that I have finally had no choice but to discontinue all of my CB promotions. I have heard several theories as to why CB commissions have collapsed for many affiliates. The three which make most sense to me, and which fit with own observations and experience, are: - faulty tracking: the sale goes through but the affiliate is not credited; I know this happens because several vendors who do not do their own promotions have reported no-affiliate sales; - overzealous credit card fraud detection: many reports of false positives thrown up by the system resulting in lost sales, reported both by vendors who have received complaints from customers and affiliates who have tested the system for themselves; - account blocking: connected with the above fraud detection, an affiliate account where the system has detected an attempted credit card fraud (correctly or incorrectly) is blocked from receiving further affiliate sales for a period of time; this would explain at least some of the occasions when I observed sales going well but suddenly stopping for an inordinate length of time. If my experience with other networks were currently the same as that with ClickBank, I would be the first to take the above three contentions with a pinch of salt. But the fact remains that my campaigns on other networks are generating consistent sales and at a much lower campaign cost. I can be profitable elsewhere, despite the current economic situation, but I can't be profitable on ClickBank. I realise that the loss of my promotional efforts will not make much of a dent in ClickBank's business overall, but I believe that there are many other affiliates and vendors who are close to reaching this point, if they haven't already. I certainly know of several who are researching alternative networks. Meanwhile, being able to unload the frustration and distraction caused by the ongoing failure of my CB campaigns latterly will enable me to put more time and energy into the successful campaigns I am running elsewhere. I do not wish to see ClickBank fail. I sincerely hope that CB can reverse this downward spiral and continue to be the foremost affiliate network for digital products. Certainly, if CB makes material changes in its system which results in accurate affiliate tracking, minimised credit card rejection and discontinuation of any affiliate account blocking or capping, I would be very happy to hear from you. I would be delighted to try again with a cleaned-up ClickBank system. Yours sincerely, Iain
Hmmm, No network out there is perfect. Therefore you can try anything there will always be downtimes and bugs.
Dang Im sorry to hear this Iainvw...I know clickbank has its flaws, but they are flaws I can deal with...as long as Im profitable. but the most important part, is if you are no longer profitable, and it would require too much time tweaking those campaigns to profitability versus spending time on your profitable campaigns..it only make sense that you stop doing business with them.
Got to go where the money is. I have no allegiance to Clickbank and if my sales were to dry up overnight, I'd be gone too. I'll stay as long as I'm making good money. If I run into problems, like yourself or other affiliates that have campaigns die overnight... I'm gone too. Would be interested to know which networks you found to be the most reliable.
I suggest someone post this also on Warrior Forum and Clickbanksuccessforum. 50,000 a year is a superaffiliate, people will notice.
I have already posted it on the Warrior forum. I don't believe it will be allowed on the ClickBankSuccess forum, as it might be seen as critical of Clickbank and suggests that there might be a problem with tracking.
Great post man. I too have stopped actively promoting ClickBank as I am just fed up with their bullshit. Hopefully this will get the recognition it deserves.
Great Post. Maybe a good idea would be to get that letter, modify it a little and set it up as a petition on a site like : http://www.petitionspot.com/ If we spreading the word about these issues we will sure have a much better chance to grap clickbank attention. After all, clickbank support are just employees - trained to reply to such email by saying that thers no problem and so forth. However, if we build enough momentium, clickbank will be more likely to rethink how their system is set up....
Good letter and I think your points have a lot of merit to them. I'm still holding out hope that CB will turn things around but these problems definitely have held me back as far as I end up spending more time working on other things because of CB's problems.
Good letter. There are definitely some issues that Clickbank needs to address, and I honestly think the CC fraud system is one of them.
You're right about this, certainly. And the very fact that "suggesting that there might be a problem" gets censored there speaks volumes, doesn't it?! Very well written and most suitable letter, Iain; well done indeed.
I'm through the ones that totally disagrees with a possible 'Problematic Clickbank System'. I mean the CB is too old now, they would have revised their issues until now. If they hadn't why would they do it now ? I see more and more people earning from CB thousands every single month and they aren't complaining at all. I had some drops in sales over the last month but it's all due to the holidays and all that. Less traffic = Less sales. It's obvious. Peace
Looks like you have been away from the forums in the recent months mate I see only an ever increasing number of people complaining for clickbank inconsistent sales(and customers complaining that cant buy) while other networks are more than consistent. This alone should raise a red flag even if you are earning very good money with clickbank right now, just think of the possibility that you could be banking much more sales with the same efforts that you are currently doing...
Because it's now that people in forums have got together and discussed it and realised that Clickbank have had affiliate tracking problems for months and still have them now and have been lying about them when people ask, and that's why so many CB affiliates are dropping out now. Good enough?
There is absolutely no question Clickbank has been having issues. If your product is offered on another network then change now! You will be shocked by how much better your conversions will be.
Good letter, but I don't think they care. I've already tried to put their attention to this forum, but they seem to ignore all their problems.
It's a well known fact that clickbank has approx 100,000 affiliates and no matter what amount of complaints would be sent they would not give it too much importance unless it's something big. Losing a few affiliates here and there would not mean much to them.