Comments on: Don’t Be a Clickbank Douchebag

By: Joe Lavery

Joe Lavery — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 22:58:00 +0000

I love people who buy through their hop link because they never refund. And it’s way better than all the people downloading your product for free on torrent sites.

By: Jamie

Jamie — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 01:59:00 +0000

Truth is, if you dont use your own affiliate id, chances are you’re going to use someone elses id at some point. Before i buy a product I read through reviews thoroughly and what are the chances of me clicking the product page squeeze link just before buying?

High.

I’m actually going to use my own affiliate id to buy a product right now, and without this generous 50% discount, I probably wouldn’t have bought the product.

By: Guest

Guest — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 18:57:00 +0000

exactly! anyone with common sense would instantly recognize that the intent of his article is to promote his product.

By: Guest

Guest — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 18:57:00 +0000

exactly! anyone with common sense would instantly recognize that the intent of his article is to promote his product.

By: Busy

Busy — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 18:39:00 +0000

ok so how do you know when someone does this to you? Don’t you get paid the same whether it was an affiliate or a referral that made the purchase?

By: Andrew

Andrew — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 08:27:00 +0000

I disagree strongly that everyone who is using their affiliate link to buy products at reduced prices are cheating. My argument is, I too have worked hard to earn my money, and if I am looking for a good product to promote, that will earn its creator even more money, why should I pay full price for that product that I haven’t reviewed yet, that might end up being junk ?

By: Scott Nassans

Scott Nassans — Sat, 29 May 2010 00:43:59 +0000

Come to think of it, I got myself confused. What I was wondering is if we can buy products through our own hoplinks? It's common sense not to abuse other affiliates' hoplinks. I've often heard clickbank affiliates say that it's best to buy the product and test it out before writing articles and that makes sense, however at least when getting started out as a new affiliate with little or no money, it's difficult to go that route. Thanks for this article, David.

By: Scott Nassans

Scott Nassans — Fri, 28 May 2010 14:40:59 +0000

Thanks, David! You answered my question about this very topic. I was just sitting here wondering if it was allowed by Clickbank or if it's even ethical. You made it very clear. I am basically a newbie and just wanting to make sure I'm not doing anything that would make me look bad or take advantage of other internet marketers, etc. I am considering on writing articles about various products from Clickbank, but doing research before I start anything to be sure I am doing everything the right way. All good advice is very much appreciated.

By: TechnoLogic

TechnoLogic — Sat, 22 May 2010 16:36:32 +0000

Heck, this post seems too old but I would still add my two cents here...

I didn't bother to go through all the comments so pardon if already stated.

Clickbank does a good job scraping out these douchebags... An affiliate must have had at least 5 sales with 5 different credit cards and two different payment methods before being able to request a cheque. So the only people left to be able to actually benifit from signing up through own affiliate link would be active clickbank affiliates only.

Unfortunately however, there may be instances that the interested consumer doesn't know about this clickbank policy and signs up anyways just to find that they didin't save anything at all. In this manner, clickbank comes out to be the winner because they don't have to pay anything to the affiliate, they can just keep charging $1 fees for every no-sale-pay-period until the "douchebag's" balance goes zero.

Hope it makes more sense.

Lokesh Sharma
TechnoLogic.in

By: Nonsensical Biz Model

Nonsensical Biz Model — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 19:36:06 +0000

Actually your point goes to moot. When anything goes online, it becomes 100 times more valuable than its offline equivalent? Come on!

Let's take valuable "information" as an example.

I have this great insider tip of Warren Buffet's trading secrets that I would like to capitalize on. I go to a publisher, got them intrigued, and they publish my book and have it sold at all major bookstores for $23.99. That appears fair enough for most accomplished authors of traditional books all over the world.

BUT, if I convert my Word document into PDF and paddle it as an e-Book, then abracadabra! With the magic "e" attached to my product, it becomes 100 times more valuable than in its printed form. My book, or "course" is now sold online for $69.95!

BUT I want to sell more even though I do not have access to the distributing network offered by traditional publishing houses. So, I hook up with Clickbank to sell my product.

And as Clickbank recommends, I should try to UP my COMMISSION so that more people will be interested in promoting my product. $69.95 suddenly seems not enough! Therefore, I up my asking price to $199.95, and pass on $130 as commission to my affiliates. Now, that is a sure-fire way to sell more courses!

Come to think about it, most online e-products are superbly inflated in value. A book which can be sold at $23.99 gets inflated 3 times for its intangible digital edition? Then to sell more, I further inflate it so that I can offer a hefty commission to my affiliates?

This doesn't sound right. Are we ripping our customers off? As a consumer, I would rather just pay what the author think his products' are worth, rather than pay some extra $130 for a heads up. In the end, the customer is paying an inflated price for the very same product.

This is also the reason why e-books are not taking off as much as anticipated. Only exception is Amazon's Kindle. But that again, is books sold at traditional publishers' rates and not "e-books" which may be many times over the sense of logic.