That title's a misnomer of sorts, because there is nothing ugly at ClickBank, only good; and very rarely does something bad happen, the latter being nothing of the company's own making.
The good about ClickBank is glaringly obvious to anyone who has ever sold their own product at the site or earned commissions from promoting other vendors' items.
Earnings and commissions are paid fortnightly, like clockwork, and they claim never to have missed a payment. I vouch for that for at least seven years of their existence.
The company smooth, straightforward, incredibly honest.
So hey, where's all this BAD stuff you'd be wise to steer clear of?
Actually there are just two problems I've personally encountered as a seller and affiliate, and neither has anything to do with the company per se.
One concerns affiliate commissions being stolen by unscrupulous fellow affiliates, the other is the problem of serial refunders.
Buyers getting refunds is not a problem for me, if they don't like the product, fair enough, they get their money back. What I really hate is people getting refunds day after day, week after week, and using writers, like myself, as a sort of unpaid lending library.
Unfortunately, sellers have no control over who gets a refund and they might be unaware of whatever problem, real or imaginary, prompted the refund request! And they have very little control over the number of refunds people can claim, even if someone buys daily and claims back daily.
People can buy, read, keep your product, mail the company for a refund, and get their money back.
The company does not contact the seller before giving the refund, they simply refund, take the money from your account, then email you to that effect. Only occasionally will the company bar a serial refunder from buying at their site, even if that does happen, the individual simply uses another computer and email address and continues his spree. That has to be wrong and thankfully there are ways to overcome the problem, even if just marginally.
I say 'marginally', because you can't stop people chancing upon your site featuring a ClickBank product, buying it and getting their money back. They can do this for everything you sell at their site, your own product, or someone else's. Where you can put the boot in, figuratively speaking, is by not adding these people to your mailing list so you don't actually invite them to scam you for life. Anyone already on your list who refunds more than twice, three times if you are forgiving, should be given his or her marching orders and removed from future mailings.
As to commissions being stolen, colloquially termed 'hijhacking', that happens where another affiliate recognises an affiliate nickname in the purchase link for a product they'd like to buy. But they don't want to pay full price, and they don't see why you should get a share of their hard-earned cash. So they substitute their nickname in place of yours, buy the product, and your commission goes directly to their account. You get nothing!
Seasoned sellers tell you to 'cloke' or otherwise disguise your affiliate links, but that doesn't deter the clever thief who recognises an affiliate link and, if he can't change yours to suit his evil needs, he'll simply go to the site, key in the name of the product, grab the affiliate link, and Bam! Gotcha!
There are two ways that work well at preventing affiliate hijacking, I know they work because I practice them myself. They go like this:
* You sell outside the arena of business and Internet opportunity seekers, to people who know very little about hijacking commissions. Such people are rarely affiliates themselves and won't benefit from hijacking the odd commission payment or two. This is because commissions are only paid once affiliate earnings reach $100. It's highly unlikely the average buyer of dog books, craftwork patterns, cures for warts and pimples, will amass that sort of money in affiliate commissions.
* You offer a free gift with anything and everything purchased through your affiliate link. The secret is to make the bonus item worth at least as much as the main offer and to forward the gift only when a sale has gone through. You won't deter the serial refunder, this person is still likely to buy something you recommend and get your bonus gift and still claim a refund. But thankfully those people are few and far between and once removed from your mailing list you can realistically promote your own and affiliate products on a regular basis, to your list and outside promotions, and generate a remarkable income based on bonus gifts created from resell rights and plr products.
There are rules preventing you from using bonuses to tempt sales of your own or affiliate products which boil down to not offering cashback or other monetary incentives to buyers. Genuine gifts, like eBooks and reports, are not a problem.
Avril Harper is a successful ClickBank vendor and affiliate and the author of A COMPLETE NEWBIES' GUIDE TO MAKING MONEY WITH CLICKBANK.
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