Hi Everyone I have been reading some of the posts about sales potentially being stolen and I am starting to feel something wrong with my situation. I do have a affiliate account with about 300 hops and no sales but more disturbing to me is my publisher account that has gotten over 500 hops so far and no sales. When I talk to people about my page they tell me it looks good and that it should convert well, but our conversion rate is 0.00% so far. I am not sure if we just need to put more work into the page to make it convert better or if it is just still very new and the sales are coming or if it is possible that someone could be stealing from me. ( I don't think there is a way but I am new to this so some insight from more senior players in this field would help lots). This is my page: Golf Pro Lessons
As a publisher, you get the sale anyway. If you don't have any sales in your publisher account, it means you don't have any sales there at all. No sales are stolen. nadavs
Smoothcall6, I think you have your affiliate links wrong. Check out the affiliate program link on the bottom of the page. Look at the affiliate link it recommends (yourid.smoothcall.hop.clickbank.net) Now hover over your buy button on your page it says [pay] instead of [hop] I hope this helps John
Hey, John! There is absolutely nothing wrong with his links. He is not an affiliate but a publisher of the product - so the link you see there is the link to the payment form. Go to any CB product website and you will see they all have PAY in the ORDER link. Smoothcall6, Now about the product - maybe it is not marketed correctly? Maybe it is not marketed to the right crowd? Think about it - people who play golf spend 1000's of Dollar$ on equipment, membership fees and so on... so they DO have the money and they DO spend it. I would test the price. You haven't had any sales at 37$ - maybe try at $67? Cheaper does not always mean easier to sell. These guys have money - and maybe seeing the low price they assume that your product is really worth only $37? You won't lose anything if you test a higher price. Also, no pro golfer will buy this guide - so you have to make sure it is targeted to beginners. Try to hang out on "NEWBIE Golf Player" forums and online communities... Don't spam - but just read. Find out what kind of problems they have - make sure your sales page let's them know that you have a solution for THESE exact problems. Knowing your "hungry crowd" matters a lot... I hope this helps a bit. Alex
Thanks Alex for pointing that out. I have learned something new to day, I hope Alex's advise works out for you Smoothcall6 John
Well as publisher even if somebody steals a tracking code you would still see a sale, no way to take that away, and for the affiliate account you should just work on conversions. Commissions do get stolen but not often enough that you should be converting at that low a rate.
Also, you could check your server log to see if the product is being delivered. Cause if it is, and you're not seeing the sale on either the publisher or affiliate side, some conspiracy theories regarding CB could be investigated further.
Thanks for all the help on this matter. I am starting to think something is wrong but I haven't figured it out yet. We have over 700 hops on the publisher side with no sales yet and 300 hops from one of my pages as a affiliate for other products that are not my own. I have signed up at paydot today and also shareasale and CJ. I will compare results with those sites and see what happens. I have made changes to the page as suggested by CB members but it still is not converting. At a bit of a lose on this one. We have joined some new forum boards that are golf related. We have our own software for hosting an affiliate program and tons of banners and text, not to mention other products such as videos so I think we will also set up our own affiliate program away from the big ones, thing is it's doesn't work for anything but the book when giving away 75% or the sale. We could look at 40% as a maximum on the videos with the shipping aside. Does this sound reasonable to those of you that have affiliate programs away from CB? Thanks again, Keith
I don't think this can happen as we manually send the file to the purchaser after we get the sale, but I will have our tech guy look into it for me. Afraid it's above my head.
Heya, just thought i would pop in vendor to vendor.... 1. Only 1-2 out of 10 products a vendor launches will be successfull. 2. ALL the networks work the same - they offer a) tracking capabilities b) affiliate pools. There is nothing 'wrong' or better one network to the next (well, yes there is but technically speaking CB has all you need and killer analytics). What I'm trying to say is that before jumping into a ton of other networks, you should only do that when you can prove it does in fact convert. It's sad but true, i myself have launched a few products that were prime, should have converted but didn't... instead of kicking a dead horse, perhaps try to approach a second product in the golf niche, or have a pro totally revamp yours. 3. Creating in-house programs - Not recommended if you are new to the game, fraud/refunds/mass purchasing, you pay your own affiliates, but what's worse - you must recruit your own affiliates and it's NOT as easy as CB. Most will never trust a brand new publisher with one product and an internal program - that's why the bigger affiliates will only promote bigger reputable networks because they pay on time (or pay period). Not saying you won't pay, just that you must respect affiliates views on independantly run programs and the risks/leaks involved compared to best practice networks (did i just say best practice networks?)... 4. When I launched my first CB product, it kinda bombed, the second one was better, but only after hiring a pro copywriter (even though I think i'm 'not bad' at writing responsive copy), and I really took time with branding, then it started converting better, but still plateaud... I thought it was a surefire millionaire idea but others didn't... Anyway don't give up but don't go panicing about the CB platform either, a converting page will convert for anyone on any network, master THAT art first. 5. Your video turorials - I've seen golf videos floating around, good idea - you can do both digital downloads through CB and real tangibles through CPA's etc. BUT try to keep commission the same accross the board (otherwise you start network and affiliate wars). I've done this with 3 different video series now, and one even has a call center to take phone support and orders 24hrs a day (great way to minimize refunds and deal with support when doing volume)... Best of luck - my recommendation would be to stop for a moment, go back and make sure you yourself can convert the product, do whatever you have to - add books, add bonuses, get better copy/graphics, all of the above, but make sure YOU convert, only then go after affiliates, and provide them with the campaign you used to convert with... NC.