I am newer to this so I have a question I hope someone can explain to me. When I visit the site of the ebook I am promoting and click on the purchase link it takes me to Paypal shopping cart. But if I click through my affiliate link it takes me to the clickbank shopping cart. But then if I open a new window it goes back to Paypal. So I was thinking, is the only way to earn from this site as an affiliate if the customer clicks through and buys immediately?? If they come back later I wont get credit since it will then go to Paypal?? This means there is no cookie timeframe? Or is this just me and I don't get it? Has anyone seen this before? is that legit? Should I not be promoting this product? I can PM you the link but I would rather not post it here. Thanks!
This is not "illegal", essentially it is the vendors choice to do this or not, but I agree with you that it shouldn't be done and if this really is what is happening then it will be costing you sales for sure. If I were you I would either contact the vendor to ask about it,,, or just contact the vendor to tell them you are not happy about it and will be sending your traffic elsewhere.. and then do so
Thanks for your post. That does stink and is not a smart way of doing business by the vendor. I had emailed them just before I made this post asking them about the Paypal. We will see if I get an email back. Thanks!
This is pretty rare to be honest, most vendors do run honest programs, but imo it is short sighted and foolish really - the short term gain of extra sales "stolen" from affiliates like this just surely isn't worth losing a relationship with an affiliate who could provide long term traffic, I just can't get my head round why anyone would do it, unless it is just inexperience / lack of knowledge on how to run an effective program on the part of the vendor
Can you tell us who the vendor is ? If he/she does so, then that only mean they're shaving sales. Al.
I've never seen that done before. But that is pretty ignorant. Any intelligent affiliate that sees that will immediately switch to another product of equal value to ensure they get the sales that they work hard to get. Shame on this vendor. But, there will always be a select few. That's why you gotta do your research before you bust your ass for them.
actually is not that rare..I am promoting a similar product and when I contacted the vendor, she just said is something normal..which of course is not, for me as an affiliate
When you think about it, the vendor is smart. Certainly not ethical since you will not get paid commission on the paypal sales, as they'll make more money on affiliate traffics. Either use a different product/vendor who only use clickbank, or you're taking a risk.
No, the vendor isn't smart. Affiliates will find out and stop promoting the product. Sure, the vendor might make a few extra bucks this week, but it will cost him dearly in the long run.
I heard back from the vendor and this is what they said. "Clicks from the main Home page (.com) rout to Paypal. Clicks from the secondary Home page (.com/indexCB.html) rout to the clickbank payment form" Does that mean everything that was said here is true? That my cookie will be lost if they don't buy right away and come back later since they will go to the main homepage and I will lose sales?
This is not unheard of. One of my competitors in the acne niche does it. It definitely burns some affiliates.
your cookie isn't lost, just that you won't be credited for the sale if they return on the home page..which is very likely
I've just checked the website yesterday .. Seemingly the vendor prefers his payment via paypal only on his sales i.e if one lands on his website without accessing an affiliate link, so since it's his money then he can request them via Paypal. No affiliate is being highjacked. However, I don't think Clickbank is happy with it. Al.
But is there an opt in? And are affiliates being sent to the main homepage without a clickbank checkout on it through the newsletter? Even if not if the visitor just remembers the url and comes back the affiliate will lose the sale and this is bad enough. Name and shame them, maybe this will teach vendors this is not acceptable if they lose affiliates and sales, and perhaps even raise the standard of vendors on clickbank overall and put a stop to the many threads that accuse vendors when there isn't actually anything wrong too.
The only one that is really loosing is BIG C. (Clickbank) lol Who cares about opt-in on vendor's page? We want quick sales .. and there's cheesy stuff going around in those opt-in forms as well. Al.
true as it may be, a potential buyer may go to the site today via an affiliate link but decides to buy tomorrow... you cant expect them to remember the entire url (if they did not bookmark it). at most, they would remember the xxx.com, which they would type in and the affiliate would lose out on their sale. no doubt its a grey area, but thought had been put into this to maximise the vendor's profit at the expense of the affiliate.
Only clickbank can take actions against this particular vendor, since they're losing money/commissions. But as I've said the affiliate is not hurt in any way. His hoplinks/and tracking system is working properly. Al.