Ok, I'm going to make this short! I Believe that there are programs out there that scrape the top of google search results looking for certain affiliate networks easily identifiable links. This is either done inside google itself or by a crafty group of hackers. Once they have certain affiliate identities in hand they do the old swap at the last minute.....I know this sounds far fetched...but just think if you were a tech guy at google and you figured out a way to siphon commissions from all the top advertisers on the google network...and really i don't think it would be that hard to do for someone at google! I just had to get that out there because I've had to change my clickbank Id everyweek because it's always the same....hot sales at first with a new nickname...then it dies out...anyone don't believe me just try it! Really Looking for here! thanks, carnano
Then I guess I'm lucky for not appearing in the first page or advertising on the content network... Seriously, this claim sounds so ridiculous it's hard to believe. If Google did that, they'll be out of business in no-time. Last time I checked, their value is about $167B, so I guess they aren't doing this. If you're so concerned, make your own landing pages and cloak your links. This way the "Google Hack" won't happen. (And use the "Enter" key. It helps. Really). (Reminder to myself: create an ebook with funny excuses for slow sales) nadavs
maybe your right, and you probbably are. I am sure there is occasions when affiliate sales are stolen. Its something you have to deal with though if your going to be in the affiliate business. Especially if your advertising on the internet. Hackers/affiliate thieves are always a step ahead of you. Its your responsibility to take care of it, and figure out how to avoid them as much as possible. You have to be on guard a lot yes... but thats the best way for you to prevent these things
read digg too much? this story was front paged a few times (and I only use digg for seo so I rarely read it). <edit> only read the title. After reading your post i think youre crazy.
Dude, I have been succesfully marketing a couple of products with clickbank for like 6 months now and 3 times my sales suddenly stopped for like 4 or 5 days in a row........all 3 times they resumed immediately after changing my nickname...is this coincidence?? By the By I have the number one position for one of the six pack abs products you are promoting and was averaging 3.5 sales a day with just that product until...the sudden stop
Your observations I believe are right - I've also had it happen to me where I would change Clickbank ID and my sales would immediately increase. But I think that your conspiracy theory is wrong. What I think that is actually happening is that it takes a few weeks for your hop link to build up it's own "quality score". Then once your link gets it's own established quality score, google starts treating it differently - Possibly funneling their crappy traffic in your direction. To me google's adwords traffic is like the slot machines at the casino. The casinos always put their more frequent paying slot machines near the door to get you in and hooked. I think google does the same thing. They push their quality traffic to your new campaigns to keep you spending, then after a while they start pushing the crap.