I have a campaign that advertises on a certain trademark keyword, but I don't use their trademark in my ad, and in no way am I going against google TOS. The exact quote from them "I will go ahead with the reactivation. However, please avoid this term as Clickbank would like a avoid further legal action from this company, whether substantiated or not. Thank you." Not only iare they letting this company extort me and them out of a keyword they don't own. They are backing down just because of idle threats? This keyword is 70% of the profit I make, and I can't let them win. Any Ideas? Ideas?
I'm sympathetic to your frustration, I truly am... but the dilemma that arises is that you're essentially going up against internal policy decisions being made that are likely to be legally defensible. That's a tough nut to crack. And even if you were able to crack it, the emotional and psychological cost to you, as well as the financial cost, might not make it worthwhile. There's no easy answer here, and as glib and flippant as it might initially seem, advice suggesting that you consult with an attorney is actually a good idea because I think it will help give you a more realistic sense of what legal options are truly available to you in this case. EDIT: I should also point out that concurrent with investigating what options you can pursue to freely use this critical keyword as you'd like without interference, you should probably also start attempting to diversify away from being overly reliant on that one keyword. Anyway, good luck with this!
Yes, it is very depressing. But I appreciate your help. What should my formal response to Tom at Clickbank be, maybe It would be possible to work this out before I talk to a lawyer, or should I not say anything before I talk to a lawyer. Thanks
NathanFalkner, are you a www (dot) Clickbank.com employee or associated with www (dot) Clickbank.com in any way?
I think you are sending directly to clickbank hop link from adwords. I would say try making a high pitch page and then send it to clickbank. Than clickbank will be out of loop.
May I ask what word you were using and which company are moaning at you. I'm very interested into why they don't want you to use it?
I would get another few CB ids, have any adwords ads going to landing page, then links going to their sales page through a meta refresh/php redirect or using CBlink Shield. The product owners must be using google to target you by looking at the CPC ads, so alternatively, if the word definitely is not against google TOS, find a similar product (their biggest competitor) and promote them instead! I would even consider getting another 2 or 3 CB ids, then each time they find out, use another. It will be so time consuming for them to continually email CB and make the same request again and again The seller will not know it's you either, he'll just think someone else is doing it. Fight fire with fire. If they're being bastards, use your click throughs to sell someone elses product. Maybe even let them know as well!
Maybe leave Clickwank and join a better service, such as PayDotCom.com Clickbank are idiots at the best of times. Also, you can't blame the guy trying to protect his company name. I'd do the same. It's Clickbank who should think more about the people who pay their wages, and not themseles for a change. I see this time and time again.
Thanks for advice guys, Now I don't want to go shooting the place up yet, I went for the compromise with Clickbank. Now yes the people with money are allowed to be extortionists(RIAA for ex.), but I'm going to see If clickbank has the balls to stick up for me to these people(probably not). I kindly replied and asked could you see what "exactly" I'm doing thats illegal, and If it is, I will happily stop. Go Jennifer! Will keep updated.
Advertise the keyword evenings or weekends when the company's employees are not at their office. Setup Geographical targeting at Adwords and exclude the US or US state where the company is located so that the ads can't be seen by the company.
if the company is big, you cannot help it bully you either get a good lawyer or just think of some other keyword
Dunno how many took that seriously. I did and started one product promotion. Well results so far look pretty good, I am definitely planning to move away from clickbank slowly.