Found 100 plus sites stuffing clickbank cookies.... is this a problem?

To start, I have been doing a ton of research on the use of clickbank and how affiliates are running there business. In this process I have found 100 plus site stuffing cookies.

Stuffing Cookies in my words.

I can understand if someone visited your site and didn't click on anything and they are stuck with a cookie they didn't request. Bad deal, they got something they didn't ask far.

On the other hand! What is the difference between me stuffing cookies and all of these clickbank vendors with 972 popup running so bad you can not hardly get out of there site. There is no telling what they are putting on you when you visit. I'm only trying to understand why it's good for vendors and not for affiliates.

I know there is a ton of activity I have no idea about going on in the background every where these days.

Oh and I still have not seen documentation from clickbank about this being againts TOS, so i don't thing it is.

This seems to be up to the vendor to cut you off when you get caught stuffing cookies.

The only reason a vendor would have you cut off is because you have stuffed cookies over THEM, They do not want competition against them stuffing cookies. Thats whats wrong with stuffing cookies.

I guess what i'm saying is, if I were a vendor I could care less who is selling or getting credit for the sale, as long as sales are going out.

I truthfully think these vendors should be happy and quiet for us doing all the work anyway. I have looked at tons of these vendors and have not found one that has some crazy sales amount anyway. It doesn't take much for there gravity to increase to 200 to 300 percent if you have only one item sold. All it takes is one more sale to generate 100 percent of what you had before. All gravity counts for is if your looking for a recently sold product in quantity. In the end it doesn;t mean a darn thing.

To close - cookie stuffing is not a bad practice if google can write a book about how to hack a server through a common search. If you choose to visit my site I have to right to stuff you with anything as long as it's legal. There is NO written law agains cookie stuffing.

Have a good day

Oh one more thing. The 100 plus site found stuffing cookies were vendor sites, not affiliates.

 

Nice post a little bit of a rant in places but it provides food for thought. However I do think cookie stuffing is illegal, maybe not actually illegal by law but most certainly illegal by the terms and conditions of clickbank

 

I thought I knew that this cookie stuffing was against terms of clickbank and if you reported people for doing it then they would get their accounts closed. I hope this is the case, as because you point out it should negatively affect other affiliates rather than the vendor directly, but imo if that is happening and affiliates are stealing sales off the affiliates who are putting in work then it does affect the whole program and the vendor and both the vendor and other affiliates should want to put a stop to it - I'm a vendor and I would report any affiliate of mine I saw stuffing cookies, or at least contact them to warn them.

I would think twice before you properly jump into doing this, and I would recommend that to anyone considering doing any kind of devious / black hat practices. If you do things legitimately and by the rules then your business will grow and you will get all the rewards for life. If you manipulate, cheat, take short cuts then you might get short term gains, but then you are gambling imo and giving someone else control over your future and the ability to just pull the plug on all of your work. I got into affiliate marketing for financial independance and independance from the traditional 9-5 and a "boss", imo, to work in this way is sort of like having a boss again, at least giving someone the power to take everything away from me and is not a risk I would be happy to take..

 

Would you mind showing us just a little list of vendors who are doing this? I personally don't have any idea about any affiliates or vendors doing this right now.

Give us an idea so we can stay away from them. A few examples will help a great deal.

 

The thing about cookie stuffing as I see it is this; if someone has heard of the product and decides to open a new tab in their browser and search for 'product name' review and finds my site all they are going to do is read the review and exit the new tab because why would they click the link if they already know where the site is and possibly have it open themselves?

In that circumstance I think it is only fair that I receive the sale because I made the guy buy the product with my review!

However I do understand why it is against their terms because people will use it in other unscrupulous methods which is a shame

 

Maybe because you offer them a discount? Or a limited time discount
Or a free bonus / An EXCLUSIVE bonus

Or basically some other way to add value to the product which they need to click from you for.

I still wouldnt recommend using cookie stuffing even in this situation though as if you do everything else above board and only stuff cookies when you "think it is fair", well I agree, but if it is "illegal" then clickbank might shut you down completely all the same and ruin all your legitimate efforts too...

 

Yup which is why I dont do it, just wish that I could for circumstances like that.

 

Ever consider sending clickbank a list of those 100 sites?

I know no-one likes being a grass but at the end of the day cookie stuffing is wrong and those using it should be punished.

 

Report, report, report! I've had several people shut down for either cookie stuffing when promoting my products or cookie stuffing products I was promoting. Clickbank shut them all down.

 

I like to see how Clickbank handles it. It seems that they are not really good at monitoring suspicious activities.

 

That is the problem. They won't do anything because they have no idea what is really happening and don't really care. They will wait till the vendor complains and shut down the account with very little research. I can't blame them for not caring about what is going on because no matter how the transaction happens they get paid.

 

They don't police their current affiliates but they will react if you complain and show them exactly what's happening.

 

What a sentence!! What is a synonymy for: stuffing cookies.

 

I prefer to call it

cookie raped

 

You know the worst part of all this is people like you have no more to say then BS. If your not going to properly comment on the post discussion. Please save your time and effort for something else useful.

I guess I will have to start putting this in my post for people who have off topic BS to add to the post.

I don't know, maybe I took it wrong or something? Anyway I'm still pissed over every thing i'm finding in the background, promoting CB.

 

Hi dude,

How can you tell what is useful to me and whats is not?

I had so much fun writing that post. It really helped relax my mind and made me laugh ..... so it was useful to me. I guess some few people here also enjoyed reading it as well. (even got a respond!: cookie raped)

Nothing against you man. Your thread is really instrumental and informative. Just that sentence made me laugh.

 

The only reason a poster would have you stop laughing at his sentence and at THEM, They want to laugh at their own sentence. Sentence laughing should be stopped. Thats whats wrong with sentence laughing.

Please don't laugh at this sentence.

 

Ok, this has now ended for all of us. There is no reason to continue with the laughing sentences. It is over and done and now we must move on and get back to the problem at hand from the original post. Thanks for your comments however lets move forward.

 

[agree]

Call me a noob but ive been using clickbank for a year and i dont know how to even cookie stuff and im making a few 100 a month with less than 5 site soooo maybe i should cookie stuff the product im selling :S need to learn how to first though....

 

@ Legendary11: ... erm did you read the thread... it is full of people telling you not to and to be careful as clickbank will ban you... be careful... keep it legit!