STOP promoting ClickBank until you read this!

Sure - this is one of the ways they do it, whatever letter you file them under!

Anything with a "free e-book", "free trial", "free anything that gives me your email address" ... be very careful indeed!

 

And this is why these subscription services exist to inform affiliates which products have these "leaky" sales pages and which ones are worth looking at.

CAn you divulge an example or two of these subscription services?

 

@alexa_s : your posts are informative. learned a lot from you than from any paid IM forums

 

now I think I have had such an experience then.. tsk.. Thanks for the reminder dan

 

nice tips...tq

 

I usually do this. There are a lot of vendors who try to trick their affiliates in one way or the other.....but we're smarter than them!!
Thanks for the info anyway.

 

Thanks for your openess Alexa. You have been most helpful. I have now gone back to my affiliate vendor for an explanation.

 

You know how they say..

If you don't have a proof don't even think about blaming someone.

Al./

 

This is why I only select Clickbank products with a high popularity and gravity rating.

 

Funnily enough, for me it seems to be related to why I tend to select products with low gravity and popularity.

For myself, I have plenty of proof. It turned out on investigation that six out of the seven higher gravity products with vendors' opt-ins that I started off promoting were products of "dishonest" vendors: I opted in myself at their sales pages, using a different name and email address, and six out of seven of them (over a period of time) actually sent autoresponder email containing cloaked links to the products which overwrote my own affiliate links. Pretty irrefutible evidence, I think?

People always refer to this as "dishonest", and it feels "dishonest", but Clickbank does actually allow it, so strictly speaking these vendors (and clearly there are very large numbers of them) are doing nothing "wrong". I just prefer not to promote their products. That decision has boosted my income enormously.

 

I don't know that the vendor is actually intentionally trying to screw you out of your commissions as I haven't had time to test the emails yet. However, why not simply send your visitors to his alternative page that does NOT have the Opt-In form on it? The vendor is giving you the option of using either page, so I'm not so sure he's trying to screw you over.

Just a thought.

smiles

 

I suspected this before too. I found out about it when I started noticing that one of the products I was promoting didn't convert like others. since then I don't promote websites with opt-in forms any more

 

Vendors who look after their affiliates get mountains of traffic

 

Alexa, would you please name those vendors?

Send me a PM if you don't like to make them public. I would be amazed honestly.

And since this is happening to you, don't you think it's time to email Clickbank and let know in details what is happening?

I'd like to know some of those vendors and test a few things myself.

I'd like to explain something, maybe you just don't understand Alexa..

Vendor's cannot, and I repeat myself they cannot overwrite the cookies in the customers browsers. There is no way to do that. It is the cookies that carry the tracking ID so no matter what happens those customers that came through your links will still get you a commission. Vendors can overwrite the aff. links at will and still not make any difference, if you understand what I mean.

Thanks
Al.

 

No, I won't. And you wouldn't either, if it were the other way round.

If you'd actually read my posts on this subject, Al, you'd know that I did that at the time. And you'd know what they said, too. And you'd know how I reacted to it.

Al, the most recent affiliate (that's often the vendor's wife or brother or just the vendor under another name) is the one who gets credited for the sale. This is how Clickbank has always worked. It's all explained very openly on their site. There's no mystery about this at all (apart from to you, apparently!).

 

I don't use PPC only Article Marketing. However, this is still good to know as one could end up wasting a lot of time promoting products like this. In this business, time is money!

 

Interesting warning to people, and it is a shame if a lot of vendors are taking advantage of affiliates in this way, however if the vendor runs a clean list and doesn't overwrite your cookie then you can bet that conversions will increase.

I currently run a large traffic website on another affiliate network and the visits we get from our newsletter autoresponders convert at 6-7% (compared to 4% average on visitors just arriving on the site from google / natural sources). One off campaigns that we run - i.e. a one off Thanksgiving sale perhaps, usually convert even higher.

If someone joins an opt in list they are basically saying "I'm interested and I'd like more information (or a free sample)" - they are close to being a buyer, and through joining the opt in they gain a better education in the product, perhaps a sample, or free trial, not to mention offers, and discounts.

On our other webstore our best affiliates are ones who have sent traffic to us recommending people try our free gifts and samples. They are our best affiliates in terms of conversion rate, and their conversion rate steadily rises from 1-2% initially to 3-4% within a month as people go through our autoresponder, learn more about our products and receive discounts.

We don't steal sales or wipe off people's cookies, I'm not saying other vendors don't, but if you can find a vendor who runs an honest email list like this then it can be gold.

 

i know that and i have try it, but we have anther solution, giveaway something to your visitor before see the sale page of vendor, create your own opt-in page and give something more intersting than vendor or give the same stuff!
when you do that the visitor JOIN your list and can't join 2 list in the same time!!!
this is much aff do!

 

You say that, and I take your point completely and I look at it that way myself, too, but at the same time you have to appreciate that in their mind, they're not "taking advantage of anyone", they're doing something which Clickbank allows them to do, and they regard it as perfectly legitimate.

As an affiliate, it doesn't suit me, so I have resolved that problem simply by no longer promoting any product with a vendor's opt-in on the sales page. The day I made that decision was the day I started making a living at this, after many months of not making a living at it. And for me it really was as simple as that.

But you can't really talk about these vendors as "criminals", because they are actually allowed to do what they're doing.

In their mind, if your prospect doesn't buy at his first visit to the sales page, but opts in, then he doesn't "belong" to you any more, he "belongs" to the vendor.

Fortunately, the solution is really easy. There are 10,000+ products there. Just avoid the ones you don't like. (I don't like the ones with an opt-in).

 

lol,

i first wanted to ask alexa because i didnt understand what you all are talking about, but..now i do.

WELL OF COURSE - if you promote a site with an opt-in page, the vendor will build a list and send "irresistable" offers to the visitor - and he will care *** about your affiliate commission. Its as clear as chicken soup.

That being said, i will check a few of my sales pages....