I recently started an affiliate website in order to understand how I could build the most awesome affiliate system in the world. My new membership site, Hardworking Millionaire, will be sold mostly by affiliates, so a key step before I opened the site was to become an affiliate of something. I needed to know features to look for if I decided to sell Hardworking Millionaire subscriptions through an affiliate marketplace.
After reading Steven Wagenheim’s Honest Income Program ebook, I signed up for ClickBank. ClickBank is essentially a marketplace for ebook authors and companies to advertise their products. It means you as a publisher don’t have to set up complicated affiliate referral scripts and manage billing of your product — it does it all for you and sends you checks in the mail, minus a small percentage cut.
While I certainly understand the draw of ClickBank to product sellers, it leaves a significant amount to be desired on the affiliate end. As an affiliate, I am seriously frustrated by it. As a product seller, it may be better — I don’t know; I haven’t sold any products on ClickBank — but I still wouldn’t use or recommend it based on my experience as an affiliate.
Let’s run down five reasons ClickBank stinks for affiliates:
- The big reason: I can’t track what happens after the person clicks off my site! I can track how many people click through to the publisher’s site, but I can’t track what happens after that. Do they download the software? The software I am promoting has a free trial period. Does the publisher send them a follow-up email after their trial has expired? How many people have I sent to their site who actually downloaded the software? I have no idea. That makes tracking conversions nearly impossible.
- Another huge one: I can’t “deep link” directly to the download page, FAQ, testimonials, etc. The ClickBank link goes to the software’s home page, which looks like any software’s home page would. It lists features and a few testimonials, but it doesn’t have strong sales copy. Since I wrote strong sales copy, I would prefer to link directly to the download page. But I can’t do that — I have to link to the home page and hope that the person finds the download link, clicks it, etc. I know as a marketer that every click someone has to take decreases my chance of a sale. This, along with my #1 “big reason”, makes sales a lot more difficult.
- There is no way for me to communicate directly with the publisher. Another almost deal-breaker for me. Every publisher should have a special communication method set up for their affiliates. At the very least, this would be an email address where I can ask questions. Even better: an entire affiliate FAQ with a supportive mailing list, text that converts well, graphics, etc. It’s a damn shame that ClickBank doesn’t allow for this. Believe me, after being bothered by this, I’ve made it a top priority to set up an affiliate section and separate email access for Hardworking Millionaire’s affiliates.
- I have to be paid by 5 different people to receive a check. This one is just plain weird. You have to make 5 different sales, with 1 being Visa and 1 being Mastercard, before you can get paid as an affiliate. So much for being a “small” affiliate and just using ClickBank to process a few sales a year. I understand that this was likely implemented due to fraud, but I have to think there would be a better way to do this.
- There seems to be no way for me as an affiliate to receive email notification of a sale. This one seems such a bizarre omission that I’m still not sure I am just missing it. However, I have looked through ClickBank’s FAQ and entire affiliate section, and I can’t find any way to have ClickBank email me when I make a sale. If this option is in the system, it needs to be made much more obvious.
What About Other Affiliate Systems (ClickBank Competitors?)
I saw a reference to PayDotCom in a thread about affiliate marketplaces over on the Warrior Forum. I have to say, it looks like they’ve taken some of the above to heart…especially the payment complaints I mentioned. As an affiliate, I couldn’t find very much I wanted to sell on PayDotCom — it seems to be mostly filled with junk ebooks. As a publisher, though, I’d be more willing to use it than ClickBank. Ultimately, I find it likely I will either buy or build my own affiliate system for Hardworking Millionaire. If I decide to just sell an ebook or two in the meantime, I will try PayDotCom. Perhaps I will then write another rant about them. Who knows? 
Valuable Lessons I Have Learned
This has certainly been an eye-opening experience for me. My number-one takeaway from all this is it doesn’t matter how great your keyword research, copywriting, and sales letter are if the website you’re linking to doesn’t convert. Publisher websites without strong sales copy — especially for tech-heavy products — will fail. As a corollary, if you are a publisher, don’t send your affiliates to your home page!
Likewise, affiliates would be wise to research publishers’ “pitch pages” before setting up keyword research to ensure that the publisher’s copy leads link-clickers quickly toward their destination (in this case, downloading the software.) Ultimately, you will also want a publisher who guarantees follow-up with anyone who signs up off the pitch page, particularly if they don’t have to buy the software right away. Otherwise, it’s very difficult to get even a single sale.
It’s foolish to rely on any of these “marketplaces” without building up your own affiliate list. I think it’s a terrible idea to rely on ClickBank as a publisher, because they refuse to release the email addresses of your affiliates. At the very least, ClickBank should allow you to send a batch email to your affiliates encouraging them to join the affiliate section of your site. Your affiliates, frankly, are at least as valuable an opt-in list as your “leads”, because your affiliates have a vested interest in bringing YOU sales. This is the biggest reason that I would never rely on ClickBank as a publisher.
Recommended Reading:
- Read the amazing true story of how one woman, with no previous business experience, earns $435,000+ per year … selling other people’s stuff online!
In her down-to-earth, sincere and humorous style, Rosalind Gardner guides you through the entire process of building an affiliate marketing business on the ‘Net. In 236 pages, and more than 68,000 words, you’ll learn how to pick the best programs, negotiate a commission raise and save time, money and effort on everything from affiliate software to web hosting. To learn exactly how she does it, click here. - PayDotCom. Sign up for PayDotCom!
- ClickBank. Sign up for Clickbank.
Like this entry? You will love getting my free business tips! No spam, and I won't give your email address to any other company.
16. February 2008 at 7:51 am
Excellent content.
Some partners and I are using plimus.com for handling royalties. Not sure I like it yet, but very few other systems handle royalties. Plimus also handles affiliates. Plimus does insist you conduct your business “the plimus way,” for example, requiring phone confirmation at times and delaying fulfillment. If you find any other system that can handle royalties, please post.
Here is an interesting link on evaluating blogs:
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/identify_top_blogs.php
16. February 2008 at 6:47 pm
Hey Erica,
My name is Will we met at HostingCon…we had spoken briefly about the possibility of buying up your Helm customers. Checked out your blog, good stuff.
Your thoughts about ClickBank are 100% dead on, especially #2. I’ve found that the key to ClickBank has almost nothing to do with your copy, it’s THEIR copy that matters. I did affiliate marketing for World of Warcraft guides through ClickBank for a while to two different affiliates. I had great copy on my site that sold the product well, and I was selling about two per day. I wasn’t satisfied with that though and started really analyzing ClickBank further. I found what you found, I couldn’t deep link or do anything to make sure my copy did the selling correctly, so I had to rely on their copy and streamline my content. So, I just made a simple page with some pretty graphics, two links and a sentence or two, and that’s it. My sales jumped to 5 per day. I think the key to success with ClickBank is straight forward:
1. Sell the right product. Do your research, evaluate their copy. (This is the most important!)
2. On your side, keep it simple!
18. February 2008 at 12:16 pm
Dave, Will: Glad you liked the article.
Dave: Thank you for the links. I will check out Plimus. The ReadWriteWeb article is good, too.
Will: I’m glad you’re reading! I may try affiliate marketing for another ClickBank product to see if it works better when they have excellent copy on their end.
I am glad for the positive feedback…I will continue posting about my foray into affiliate marketing.
24. February 2008 at 12:53 pm
I’m considering ending my relationship with clickbank as well. I may give them a few more weeks, but they haven’t produced very much so far.
19. March 2008 at 8:25 pm
You gave some pretty strong points and arguments against Clickbank there … which are all well and true.
But having said that, PDC is a bit problematic because you’ve got to depend on your publisher paying you.
20. August 2008 at 2:03 pm
I have used Clickbank and I have made the most money as an affiliate with paid surveys. I actually have made quite a bit. I suggest patience with Clickbank. It does work, just don’t quit your day job.
3. July 2010 at 5:20 pm
how did you make money on click bank i mean i have just signed up for it.i don’t have a huge budget to spend ($10).and i am underage and do not have anything to do all summer.so can you give me any tips on how to make money on click bank.
3. January 2009 at 10:58 pm
I just visited dollormonitor who asked me to get clickbank id for further work. As i am beginner i left and reviewing clickbank and now confused.
Is it is suited for a new blogger who wants to earn from blog.
9. March 2009 at 10:14 am
Thank you for your review of Clickbank. We appreciate you sharing your opinion and doing the research needed to fairly evaluate the service. We have seen fit to link to this article in our independent ClickBank Reviews section. Anyhow, keep up the good work spreading truth.
23. April 2009 at 7:29 am
hi verey nice job will u see if my web sight is on track im new at this maybe you can help me. thank you
13. June 2009 at 8:51 pm
Wow, very high points of comment about clickbank..but I heard it’s does work very well..I want to know actually it does work very well to you or not?
21. June 2009 at 8:22 am
I purchased a book called Google Profits which mentioned Clickbank and a few other areas. So far I have made $88.00 in sales on Click bank but that is with only 3 sales. Not only does a person need 5 sales, 1 Master Card and one Visa, but hey must also make atleast $100.00 before a check is sent out for the first time. Considering the affiliate is more then likely paying a compay like Adsense for the key words this can be both costly and supprising. I had to stop my sales because at the time I had to direct the funds for the Pay Per Click to other places. The profit I would have made would have covered my costs but since I didn’t know about the delay, my fault for not reading all the fine print, I did some serious damage to my account. Short and sweet expect about 1 of 20 or so of your products to sell well. That is how my encounter with Clickbank went. Hope it goes better for everyone else.
28. June 2009 at 2:21 pm
FYI: I would not recommend, Plimus. I just had a horrible experience with them through one of the programs that I promote. I typically receive payment directly to Alertpay, though when they were changing credit card processors, I had to use the Plimus option through this company. They have held our money for months stating that they have an investigation processes for the 1st month that a vendor is with them … meanwhile, the company I represent has been with them since Oct 2008 and has had very few charge backs and no problems.
Not only did Plimus hold the affiliates earning, but also thousands of dollars they owed to the vendor. Each month they would issue an email stating that they were paying and then a recap that they were not a few days after. The live customer service is only for the customers – not affiliates or vendors. You have to play email tag for any explanation, and it is vague. After months of their holding our money with no valid explanation, they have just started releasing the money to the vendor. They paid only 10% for the first payment.
I would suggest that you go ahead and develop your own if not planning to use clickbank or paydotcom.
23. November 2009 at 4:23 pm
hello Erica ,
Very true words spoken above! I am UK based and there are some decent products on clickbank I would like to promote, however, having just logged back in after a brief absence, have found that the small amount of commission I earned has been eaten up by clickbanks dormant account charges, also never an email to say “You Got Funds” ! They say you can only have direct deposit account after you have made 5 different sales for different products!, and then only after your check has been sent to you and deposited in your account,! They provide no proof of postage or email that a cheque has ever been sent, or is going to be sent and who are you to be able to say that they didn’t send it, or it was not received….so when the imaginary cheque arrives..five times and clears..you then can have a real account, but there does not appear to be any way of tracking your hits or sales and most of the products for sale are with landing pages that redirect and want the potential customer to purchase a bigger package or register their email for the next big thing that you have no control over what so ever give them your bank details and begin promoting their products spending £100′s of pounds and getting hits,..but only to find that the customer has been redirected via an email link, that you can’t track ! I really think you will find that the very vast majority of products for sale actually are commissioned by the owners of clickbank, and thrives on the gullibility of new-comers and the honest intentions of most of us genuine people trying to sell a product to enhance our lives and other peoples lives, not just to line the pockets of these unscrupulous con men under the umbrella of paypal, I hope that their dubious practice is exposed before too long and that someone in the UK will develop the same type of program, and also that Paypal will listen to the complaints that should ALL be registered ..no matter how insignificant they may seem…so I lost about £34.. big deal..but even if you times that by a few thousand, it is still a lot of money. I like your website and please excuse my ramblings! John http://www.goldwriters.com
6. January 2010 at 12:06 am
To advertise a product on Clickbank, you have to pay ~$50 fee. I’m kind of hesitant because Clickbank dating manual advertisers number in the hundreds (there’s 149+ listed).
I’m currently researching PayDotCom, but the interface is a lot harder to use (from the advertiser side) than Clickbank
11. January 2010 at 3:42 am
Whenever I get around to writing an ebook I will use paypal and sell from my own website. You can advertise your own site I think from classified ads inside E-bay and also link from inside your ebay store. Then just promote your site as normal getting backlinks etc
24. January 2010 at 11:43 am
Excellent tips on Clickbank. I have similar concerns about them, but what are some CB alternatives?
25. January 2010 at 9:06 am
Please check out these CPA Networks. And tell me what you Think! These are all supposed to be guaranteed to pay on-time and you can trace all of your activities. Please tell me what you think. GOOD LUCK! Market Leverage
MaxBounty
NeverBlueAds
Advaliant
Copeac
As Seen On PC
Direct Leads
Clickbooth
CPA Empire
CX Digital
Pepperjam Network
Azoogle
MarketHealth
3. February 2010 at 9:13 am
Cheers for this post, I’ve learned a lot more now about wow! Your e-book was an huge aid. I hope you will post more of your guides!.
5. March 2010 at 9:18 pm
Very good points made in this post. New affiliate marketers often begin with Clickbank and if they are are lucky and or with a lot of hard work, make some sales only to run into Clickbank’s Policy re: dormant accounts.
Understood it is in place to protect against fraud, however to the new marketer who is likely struggling to learn, progress and make sales…it’s like a kick in the teeth to see hard earned money being zapped because of lack of sales. It takes a tremendous amount of faith in oneself not to get discouraged and quit.
15. March 2010 at 6:54 pm
Nice post. You can actually create your own sales page and direct link it to the merchant’s order page. You can get notified through your email but this will depend on your merchant. I just use a firefox plugin called CB Notify to know if I got any sales.
31. March 2010 at 10:41 am
Raymond – Are you saying that you can “deep link” in CB? “You can actually create your own sales page and direct link it to the merchant’s order page.” If so, how do you create the hop link? What you say here goes against the OP’s #2 point. I’m trying to figure out how to deep link for a while now.
18. April 2010 at 10:31 pm
Hi, just read the comment from Raymond. I really would like to learn, how to deep link to the order page… Can you please explain further.
26. May 2010 at 6:03 pm
I’m really dissapointed with Clickbank. Like, as if they don’t know 90% of the crap on their website is simply that, crap. How can they not expect affiliates to buy a product before they advertise it then ask for a refund when it doesn’t work as advertised. Let’s face it, sales pages don’t generally tell all the truth, so us affiliates need to do some research to avoid complications with loyal customers down the line and of course if the product isn’t worth our dollar, it won’t be worth our customer’s dollars either.
Like a hardware store, if you purchase an air hammer for a specific job, the salesman might not steer you on the right product or literally feed you a line of crock to get your to buy the more expensive product. You can get an air hammer that you can set the pressure or will simply drive the nails too far for what you are looking to “fix”.
Same thing applies in the online world. If I am sold a tool that doesn’t do the job I want it to do, I’ll keep going back until I get the tool that does EXACTLY what I want it to do.
Clickbank is turning into the next Facebook. The blame should fall on vendors and not affiliates/consumers. Clickbank pretty much allows anyone to sell their crap. Would be smart to ban vendors who have a high % of refunds than banning customer credit cards, let the good vendors stick around or completely change their refund policy.
Clickbank better smarten up or someone will come out with a similar website without the hassle.
4. June 2010 at 1:20 pm
I agree with many of the comments that say Clickbank should ban vendors with high refund rates. However, I also want to commend clickbank for refunding those customers that truly were misled or ripped off by those vendors. As a consumer that just received my refund for a digital product I never received I am very thankful clickbank has the policies in place that they do.
7. August 2010 at 3:11 pm
Informative article! I’m new to the whole affiliate concept and have made a few sales via my Amazon store, but the commissions are very low. ClickBank is being promoted by many (with obvious agendas) as the high commission white knight in the internet affiliate jungle. Googling them landed me here, so maybe I’ll reconsider and not waste my time and effort.
11. August 2010 at 2:48 pm
Thanks for this article and those with excellent comments. I came to learn more because I teach how to make and sell ebooks, especially in ways that are free. Still researching Clickbank and Google Affiliate Network (which is free for producers) as options for ebook authors. At this point it appears the best ways are still to sell through your own sites and major retailers like Amazon, all of which can be done entirely for free. What concerns me about allowing affiliates to sell my ebooks is the lack of control which might increase piracy. As things are now, I have stats on how many people purchased with PayPal then download from my site, and therefore know if an imbalance shows and I need to change the download URL, PayPal code and Stat-monitoring code. Could I make those changes in the future if Clickbank or Google Affiliates plus several dozen other advertisers are pushing my ebooks and the download information? If not, then I’d be setting myself up for a lot of complaints from customers who reached a “page not found.” I don’t want to invest in DRM methods for other reasons, but that seems to be the main stickler with affiliate programs to get past.
Other ebook sellers who know more on this… I’m all ears.
12. August 2010 at 7:06 pm
Thanks for the blog posts everyone. I just completed a 200+ page e-book on self improvement for individuals and business people. I have been debating within myself on Clicbank (CB). I plan to offer 50% affiliate commission on a $57 e-book (a going market rate for my material).
My gut feeling on CB hasn’t been good. I’m right almost 100% of the time when I follow my gut feeling. CB charges a $49 sign-up fee. If you know anything about finance service fees they are how companies make their profit margins. Service fees are a first sign of profiteering in the wrong ways.
I haven’t seen any tracking and reporting benefits from CB in their website which makes my stomach queezy. The first thing they should stress is how affiliates get paid, and how to track earnings and sales. After all that’s their service. How do we know what’s going on in their back room?
I read a post elsewhere asking who owns CB anyway? And, how do we know we can trust them. The author resigned himself to the attitude, “In Clickbank we trust.” That post got my attention big time.
I am pretty much resigned to doing my own affilate sales program. It’s more work, but I know I can trust myself, others can trust me as well.
Regards,
Terris