How do I stop Clickbank merchants from...
 

...getting a discount on my products? I am a Clickbank merchant and sell products to other Clickbank merchants. The affiliate program pays 50%, but how do I ensure that only affiliates get this commission, and not the customer. And, I certainly don't want the customer to steal the commission from my affiliates by replacing the nickname. I know of affiliate cloakers for Clickbank, but these are in place to protect the affiliates. Is there something that protects the merchant from customers getting a discount by referring themselves? I don't know if this can be done, so I may just have to remove the affiliate program altogether, unfortunately.

Thanks!

Re: How do I stop Clickbank merchants from...
 

This doesn't really answer your question Shawn, but is this really such a significant problem? I mean, are you expecting or have you experienced a significant amount of type of transaction? I don't know if there is an easy way to prevent this, and the effort involved may very possibly not be worth the reduced amount of income you might be experiencing.

I agree that a certain amount of this might occur however you maybe overestimating the frequency. I might be wrong on this - but just a thought.

> ...getting a discount on my products? I am a
> Clickbank merchant and sell products to
> other Clickbank merchants. The affiliate
> program pays 50%, but how do I ensure that
> only affiliates get this commission, and not
> the customer. And, I certainly don't want
> the customer to steal the commission from my
> affiliates by replacing the nickname. I know
> of affiliate cloakers for Clickbank, but
> these are in place to protect the
> affiliates. Is there something that protects
> the merchant from customers getting a
> discount by referring themselves? I don't
> know if this can be done, so I may just have
> to remove the affiliate program altogether,
> unfortunately.

> Thanks!

Yes, I think so.
 

As far as I see it there are a limited number of Clickbank merchants so, unlike other products that promote to a wider audience, there is a finite amount of sales to be acquired. And if every sale is an affiliate sale (why wouldn't it be?) that means that on every single sale I'm only getting 50% revenue (50% affiliate payout, obviously).

The only other way around it that I can see is to bump up the price by the amount of the commission, thereby offsetting this practise. I don't really want to do this though, since it puts the price up at first glance. Most customers will realize that they won't actually be paying this price, but it still doesn't look as good. You see?

> This doesn't really answer your question
> Shawn, but is this really such a significant
> problem? I mean, are you expecting or have
> you experienced a significant amount of type
> of transaction? I don't know if there is an
> easy way to prevent this, and the effort
> involved may very possibly not be worth the
> reduced amount of income you might be
> experiencing.

> I agree that a certain amount of this might
> occur however you maybe overestimating the
> frequency. I might be wrong on this - but
> just a thought.

Shawn, your looking the wrong way
 

Hi Shawn

I am an affiliate marketer and think you are looking at it the wrong way, see the whole picture

you said...

And if every sale is an affiliate sale (why wouldn't it be?) that means that on every single sale I'm only getting 50% revenue (50% affiliate payout, obviously).

If that affiliate did not send you the customer, that ONLY 50% revenue would be zilch!

I don`t know how many affiliates you have who`ve sent you customers, but if they had not, would you have found those customers without them?

Would you even have any affiliates, if your product wasn`t on Clickbank?

If you want to stop people using their own links to purchase, take it off Clickbank and only allow people who have bought to be affiliates.

Shawn, your successful affiliates are working to sell your product, your customers sent from affiliates are not there by chance, they have cost time, effort and probably money i.e. pay per click on your affiliates part.It could well be costing them half or more of their 50% cut to get you a customer.

As for putting up the price, I don`t know the product, so I can`t really say. But I do know affiliates and those who are very good won`t work for less than 50%, please remember it costs them to send you customers.

yours

Roger

Why does it really matter?
 

There are people out here in cyber-land who encourage people to become an affiliate and then to buy through their own affiliate name. And these are well-known cyber-marketers.

Why?

Because it increases sales. More sales means more customers. More customers means a bigger customer list of people who have actually bought. And that bodes well for future back-end sales.

Your cost is effectively zero. So what if you don't make as much money per sale? You get something better... more customers! Besides... 50% of a sale is better than 100% of a no-sale.

Your post has a note of desperation in it (that is how it comes across to me). Something I would not expect from an experienced marketer or business owner, so I deduce you are relatively new to the world of business. Thus I am curious. What is it you sell to these other Clickbank merchants?

Michael Ross


Ideas? We've got 'em. You can get 'em. Click here for details.

Protect Commissions Re: How do I stop Clickbank merchants from...
 

Shawn, I guess you have a good intention of protecting the commissions of your affiliates. However, I don't think there's a 100% solution for Clickbank merchants right now. Otherwise, it'd have been mentioned here ... since the many good people here know a lot.

If you find that almost everyone buys your product from their own Clickbank link and you want to reward the affiliates, maybe you can offer exclusive free bonuses that only customers who buy from another affiliate's link can receive (with their receipt to you as proof). That means, they have to pay more (not buying through their own link) for the exclusive bonuses.

Even with many other non-Clickbank affiliate programs, people can buy from their own affiliate link. Only a small number of companies have set it up in a way that you can't buy through your link.

All the best,
Alexander Teo
Markeitng Architect




A New Way to Turn JV Into Your Edge

Re: Why does it really matter?
 

I have said why it matters. There are a finite amount of sales to be had when marketing to Clickbank merchants and if every sale is only 50% of the revenue than that is not optimal. Of course, I cherish my affiliates and do not want to stop working with them, that is not my point. I simply do not want everyone to get a discount. If the price should be 50% less then that is the way I would market it. To get this 50% back by raising the price (if this is the only solution) is really not the way I want to approach it, which is why I made the post.

And, if a general inquiry that may benefit the masses to a board of fellow online marketers sounds desperate to you, then you must think us all a bunch of novice whiners. What's up with that? And I've been dabbling online for a few years now, ready to launch two new s/w apps. When these are ready I will be glad to share the info.

Thanks for all the insight so far everyone!

> There are people out here in cyber-land who
> encourage people to become an affiliate and
> then to buy through their own affiliate
> name. And these are well-known
> cyber-marketers.

> Why?

> Because it increases sales. More sales means
> more customers. More customers means a
> bigger customer list of people who have
> actually bought. And that bodes well for
> future back-end sales.

> Your cost is effectively zero. So what if
> you don't make as much money per sale? You
> get something better... more customers!
> Besides... 50% of a sale is better than 100%
> of a no-sale.

> Your post has a note of desperation in it
> (that is how it comes across to me).
> Something I would not expect from an
> experienced marketer or business owner, so I
> deduce you are relatively new to the world
> of business. Thus I am curious. What is it
> you sell to these other Clickbank merchants?

> Michael Ross

You're probably not "losing" as much as you think you are...
 

Hi Shawn,

It seems to me that there's no way of knowing if the buyer is taking the money away from you or from a genuine affiliate. For example, if the customer found out about your web site through an affiliate, then he's taking that 50% away from an affiliate - not from you.

I agree with everyone else here - just take it in stride. I think you're probably not "losing" as much as you think you are....

- Dien Rice

Change your outlook
 

You want your affiliates to pay full price so you get all the money - BUT - you are quite happy to get half of that for every sale your affiliates makes.

So if the total market is 10,000. And each of ten affiliates can sell 999, you are happy to only get half the money for 9,990 sales but want the full price of ten sales.

It doesn't make sense to want your affiliates to sell sell sell and be willing to only get half of their sales, but want full money for the initial sale to your affiliate.

You're trying to operate on double standards. You're better off diverting energy to increasing sales instead of stopping the few who will buy through their own affiliate link.

Michael Ross


If you are not a subscriber you are missing out on some great stuff

Re: Change your outlook
 

See below...

> You want your affiliates to pay full price
> so you get all the money - BUT - you are
> quite happy to get half of that for every
> sale your affiliates makes.

I think you're missing the point. I want my customers to pay full price. Sure my affiliates can buy it themselves and they are certainly entitled to getting the 50% off if they use their affiliate link - that's not my problem.

I guess what I need is a way to restrict this commission payout to only a select few joint venture partners, without them worrying about their commission being stolen also.

> So if the total market is 10,000. And each
> of ten affiliates can sell 999, you are
> happy to only get half the money for 9,990
> sales but want the full price of ten sales.

Your example only makes sense if I do no promoting myself and let my affiliates handle all of the marketing, which obviously won't be the case. I will be making the majority of sales myself so to sell the majority of my software at 50% off would be the same as if all sales were affiliate sales. If this is what I wanted I wouldn't do any promoting myself, would I? There would be no point. Which brings me back to my initial post.

> It doesn't make sense to want your
> affiliates to sell sell sell and be willing
> to only get half of their sales, but want
> full money for the initial sale to your
> affiliate.

And yes, it makes perfect sense for the affiliates to promote for 50%, why is that confusing? And why shouldn't I get the full 100% on sales I make myself. I'm sorry but it is you that is making no sense.

> You're trying to operate on double
> standards. You're better off diverting
> energy to increasing sales instead of
> stopping the few who will buy through their
> own affiliate link.

> Michael Ross

Re: You're probably not "losing" as much as you think you are...
 

Thanks, that's probably what I'll have to do...take it in stride.

> Hi Shawn,

> It seems to me that there's no way of
> knowing if the buyer is taking the money
> away from you or from a genuine affiliate.
> For example, if the customer found out about
> your web site through an affiliate, then
> he's taking that 50% away from an affiliate
> - not from you.

> I agree with everyone else here - just take
> it in stride. I think you're probably not
> "losing" as much as you think you
> are....

> - Dien Rice

Now we are starting to get to the REAL issue
 

> I want my
> customers to pay full price. Sure my
> affiliates can buy it themselves and they
> are certainly entitled to getting the 50%
> off if they use their affiliate link -
> that's not my problem.

> I guess what I need is a way to restrict
> this commission payout to only a select few
> joint venture partners, without them
> worrying about their commission being stolen
> also.

Ok. I take all this to mean...

Someone who signs up as an affiliate can buy your product through their own link - and thus get 50% off - and that is ok with you. After all, they will also generate sales at which you will get 50%.

What you don't want to do is give a 50% discount to someone who only wants to buy your product and not resell it. And especially if they buy directly from you.

And you want your reselling affiliates to be a select few which you have chosen yourself because you will be selling this via Joint Venture.

If Clickbank does not have the facility to allow you to restrict WHO you want as an affiliate, or the number of affiliates (like an authorized affiliates thing), then go with Alexander's suggestion... have an exclusive bonus that the customer only gets when they buy through your selected JV affiliates. And they have to send a copy of their clickbank receipt to you - which you can double check through clickbank anyways.

Now for the third time in this thread... what, besides the general term "software," are you selling? What does your software DO?

Michael Ross


Yes

Here's what I did and why
 

I decided to find another affiliate program besides Clickbank because I wanted to screen my affiliates. I did not want illiterate people and get-rick-quick outfits hawking my products. That is not to my benefit.

I decided also not to make my affiliate program easy to find at my web site, to avoid the problem being discussed here - people joining the affiliate program just to get a discount.

People who are in my affiliate program are either subscribers to my newsletter, in which I mention it from time to time, or folks who have specifically asked me, or people with whom I've set up a joint venture.

I'm not making huge amounts of money from affiliates, but this is fine with me as I do have considerable control over the process and can thereby protect my reputation.

I use FusionQuest.com for my affiliate program, and as an additional benefit, they do not take any commissions from purchases. They charge only a low monthly fee.

This setup works for me.

Marcia Yudkin


http://www.yudkin.com/affiliate.htm

Re: Now we are starting to get to the REAL issue
 

There are actually two pieces of software, both for Clickbank merchants:

One allows merchants to "lock" their products so they can only be accessed by a customer using a valid Clickbank receipt number, and this receipt number can only be used once. Once unlocked for use, your product cannot be copied or emailed. It also allows the merchant to re-lock the file if a refund is ever issued to a customer...as well as some other neat things. Unlike download page protection which only hides your product location, this stops all types of theft of your product, even after the sale.

The second one is a reporting tool for your Clickbank sales. It allows you to quickly and easily create customer databases, email lists, affiliate reports, geographic sales reports, profit reports, payout reports, custom reports, and all sorts of other very useful information using your sales data. Among the many benefits it saves me a great deal of time and effort.

These two products are in the final pre-launch stages and will be ready for market in about one week's time. It is for this reason that I neglected to mention details, but since you asked again...

Thanks everyone for your insight!

Shawn

> what, besides the general term
> "software," are you selling? What
> does your software DO?

> Michael Ross