Are you being scammed by Clickbank merchants?
I see affiliates from two perspectives.
First of all, as an affiliate, I consider myself a business partner of the merchants I promote. I send traffic to them, and if I do sales for them, I expect to get paid for my efforts in the form of a predefined percentage or a lump sum.
As a merchant, I see my affiliates as partners and I value the traffic they send me. My top priority is to make sure that any sale made is credited to the affiliate sending the traffic to me. This is essential if my affiliates are going to trust me and make an effort to promote my products. This is essential if I want my business to grow!
Most of my own products are related to internet marketing and webmaster tools. Due to the nature of these products, these visitors are likely familiar with affiliate programs and probably Clickbank as well.
Imagine this scenario:
Joe goes to Google and searches for “webmaster tools.” Something caught your eye in pay-per-click ads, an affiliate link to a product that promises to make it easy to exchange links.
“Hmmm” Joe thought. “That seems like a great tool.”
Joe clicks on the PPC link and is redirected to a sales page. Scrolling to the bottom of the page, Joe sees that the product costs $ 97.
I want this, Joe thought, but $ 97 is a little expensive.
Joe searches the website for that magic link and finds it easily.
“Great,” Joe says out loud. “A link to a Clickbank affiliate program, and this program pays 50%.”
After a few minutes, Joe signed up for the affiliate program, created his own affiliate link, typed it into his browser, and revisited the sales page.
Joe’s mouse clicks the buy link. Fill in your credit card details and click on the purchase button. Closing your browser, you check your email. Watch two emails download to your machine. The first is the download information for the new software you purchased, the second is an email with the subject “Congratulations Joe, you’ve made a sale.”
Joe reviews his statistics online for this new affiliate program and has indeed earned a commission of $ 48.50 for this purchase. In other words, you only paid $ 48.50 for the product.
Well, what is wrong with this scenario?
Is it fair that Joe used his own affiliate link to create a
purchase?
What about the affiliate who advertised this affiliate program on Google? That affiliate paid for the click that started the sales process, but did not receive the commission.
What goes through the minds of merchants who link to their affiliate programs on their sales page?
I imagine some traders think of these points:
* I want to earn at least $ 48.50 per sale.
* If I offer it for $ 97 and give a 50% commission to affiliates, I will make my goal of $ 48.50 per sale.
* By adding an affiliate sign up link to the sales page, I can encourage people to sign up for my affiliate program, buy through their own link, and get the software for the actual price of $ 48.50 , but the customer will be happy to think that they saved $ 48.50.
* Great plan!
I’m sure a lot of merchants don’t see things this way, they just don’t think enough of their affiliates.
A merchant using a link to their affiliate program on the sales page is using affiliate traffic as free traffic (intend it or not). After all, the merchant doesn’t need to waste time optimizing pages or buying traffic; Your affiliates will and send the traffic to the sales page for free. If an affiliate sends someone who becomes a customer, the merchant will earn their money.
The big problem here is that being an affiliate is hard work. You have to create content, buy and review products, possibly even pay for advertising. If YOU are doing these things as an affiliate, is your merchant doing their part to protect you? Unfortunately, most Clickbank merchants don’t, and affiliates waste their time creating pages and buying ads to promote undeserving merchants.
The bottom line
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If you are promoting products targeted to webmasters, the traffic you send will probably know how to “steal” your commission. In this situation, it is vital to only promote to merchants without the affiliate registration link.
If, on the other hand, you are promoting products to the general public, for example, weight loss products, dog training e-books, etc., this affiliate registration link represents less of a problem, since most of the traffic you generate will not be affiliates themselves (most won’t even know it). what an affiliate is) and you won’t have the skills to sign up with Clickbank, create a link, and buy through your link just to get commission.
What can you do?
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If you find a merchant you want to promote and they have an affiliate sign-up link on the sales page, please contact them. Tell them your concerns and that they should treat you as a partner, not the source of free traffic. Suggest that they remove this affiliate registration link.
The usual reaction I have
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Merchant: “I receive a lot of affiliate registrations from this link,
There is no way I will delete it! “
Ask the merchant how many of those affiliates ever make a sale or send traffic. This is exactly my point. The merchant is receiving a lot of registrations just to get a discount. For every person who signs up as an affiliate to get a discount, there is an affiliate somewhere who gets his or her commission stolen.
Most of the “affiliates” you get through a sign up link on the sales page only sign up to get a discount, they are unlikely to try to sell that product.
The only affiliates who will promote the product are those who buy the software, use it, and like it. They see the benefits and can sell it well to their visitors. These are the only affiliates worth getting, and you won’t get them through an affiliate sign-up link on the sales page.
The best way to get hard-working affiliates is to protect them from this type of link hijacking, earn their trust, and do everything you can to help them. Build a relationship with your affiliates and above all make sure they are rewarded for the traffic they send. To this end, remove the affiliate registration link, and when someone buys your product, send them an email describing the benefits of your affiliate program. Active affiliates respond well to knowing that their merchants protect their interests.
A final thought
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If there are two similar products, similar price, similar commission, a sales page with an affiliate sign-up link, another without, which one would you rather promote? If you want to make money online from affiliate programs, take it seriously and start communicating with merchants.