ok, first the story...i was starting with CB 1 1/2year+ ago...and i had a phase 7-8 months where i was an absolute marketing noob and i actually thought that CB was all junk products. I also had very pathetic sites, well..you make mistakes So...many months later i have many more sites and i am more experienced and my earnings with CB are pretty "ok". What i don't like about clickbank: 1) CB literally "advertises" it's "great" refund policy with every payment-confirmation email they send. Basically, with one click on their link anyone can refund withing a minute. And many DO and totally take advantage of this. 2) See 2. Refunds suck 3) CB checks actually DO arrive on time and fast here, BUT they take 4,5,6 WEEKS to fricking post at my bank. Ok, this is not CB's fault, rather my bank's. But makes me very angry. G.
You are correct. CB awards refunds lavishly! And since all are digital products, vendors will be at loss
The thing I do not like about them is you cannot even try to resolve the issue for the refund at least with paypal there is a resolution center. leading to people making silly excuses for refunds, but that is how things are what can we do
Given that a lot of the products on CB are 'mostly harmless' BBB and the like would have eaten CB alive long time ago should refunds be more complicated.
there's somethig else i forgot to add: that the TWO MONTHS refund period is incredible long!! Eg. i have some campaigns running now where i used my own tool Affiliate Hijacker to add bonuses like 25% off Affiliate Elite - i am actually paying every customer 25% out of my own pocket! The problem is i can only refund after 2 months since i cant risk to pay people and then i get refunds. IMHO even a 14 days clickbank refund courtesy would be plenty since in my opinion customers can very well get an opinion whether a product is good or not in 14 days..and not in TWO MONTHS.
Clickbanks refund policy simply follows PayPal (for those that don't know, CB is all PayPal transactions in the end), the reason they make you put 56 days or 8 weeks is because they are forced to do so. None the less I feel your pain as well, digital products don't need 56 days to be quantified. What I don't like about CB, from a publishers or aff's view: * One Tier * Can't seperate commissions per affiliate * They discourage vendor/aff communication * They feed off their own database rather then end consumers outside the family. * They don't do tangible goods * They don't offer multi-tracking nor use of your own payment gateway, you have to duplicate your site to put it on CB and use their checkout if you want your offer on more than one network. * Recruitment is somewhat easy, however most marketers in CB are new to market, and still trapped in a versioned learning curve that is flawed with BS and tricks in books/systems/hype instead of focusing on consumer marketing as a whole. * Too many tools made to cheat the CB system, and then sold right through it (All the elite software, CB university, theDen, and any tools giving you unfair advantage), other networks would freak if you circumvented them like that, here it is praised and used to monetize their own DB... * New accounts for new marketplace listings. * Aff's don't get notified of making a successful sale, you have to buy plugs if you want this. * Poor security of their payment pages and mandatory must haves/processes. Things I like about CB - *I'm still making money, and to date have had over 1000 aff's come/go, great testing for 2008's rollout Happy HoHo NC.
although it might not seem so at first glance, the liberal return policy is a good thing. #1 - People are skeptical and a good refund policy significantly reduces skepticism and increases sales. #2 - People typically forget or are to lazy to request a refund even if they intend to. #3 - The return policy allows clickbank to allow for a greater variety of products. Without a good return policy, their CC processors would be hit up with many more charge backs, and Clickbank would be forced to increase restrictions on products to help minimize the cost of higher charge-backs. In a nutshell, the return policy builds better buyer confidence, much more freedom for publishers to sell whatever snake-oil they want, and allows Clickbank to provide lower transaction fees via better negotiations with their CC processors.
yeah this guy has a point right here There's something thrilling to the sales page when it says: "We promise you, that you'll be satisfied with this product!" if not, you'll instantly have your money back - no questions asked! and you say: "sure - why not?" What would you rather do? Ask for a refund? Or have the customer slander the name of the product - warning people not to buy it all across the internet? I rather one customer ask for a refund, then for the product to develop a horrible reputation of stealing people's money - therefore instead of losing one sale, i can lose 100? ya diigggg.
seschesta, its all up on the vendors. its NOT CB's fault .) Lot of garbage, YES...but then you can cherry pick....there ARE some good things on there. As said, the biggest gripe i have is their return policy...but then this IS a good thing also, from a certain point of view.
What I dont like about CB... It Doesn't Accept Malaysian Publisher! After asking them, they said it was all because the high fraudulent rate from Malaysia publisher..that is bull!
this is simple, they need to advertise refunds because most of their products is pure scam and someone would sue them sooner or later. when you products suck, you need to pay back somewhere else. and unluckily for all affils, we are their victims...
There's no reason to hate clickbank: 1. The refund policy makes people buy more 2. The 2 month policy is good, since people tend to leave things to the last moment and then forget them. 3. The inability to give separate commissions to affiliates guarantees a level playing field. 4. the 10% reserve is to protect CB from cheats.
I feel they don't give affiliates enough contact to publishers, that I've found, to help them optimise they're sales page.