I saw your Tweet about it the other day, and guessed what had happened. That is low! Presumably though they’re violating the clickbank TOS. Surely there’s something in there to stop people doing this?

You’re right, that kinda sucks…but I guess it’s a price you have to pay if you want to have affiliates doing the work for you. I wouldn’t mind an affiliate getting the product cheaper if he also referred 20 other people to buy it. And it would be fun to enter a shop and say “I referred myself”

How is this cheating when you got exactly what you wanted as a result of the sale? You lost NOTHING. You offered your product up for sale and agreed to pay a commission when someone sold it. Regardless of the details of the transaction, you got exactly what you wanted. And what if that douchebag goes on to become your greatest performing affiliate? Still pissed that they got a deal on their tryout?

I couldn’t disagree with you more on this. One of the worst parts of affiliate marketing is that there are a lot of people out there who are pedalling products that they’ve never used. I have no problem whatsoever with someone buying at a discount in this way, especially if their intention is to find good things to sell. Besides, knowing the rules of Clickbank, these people are not getting a discount unless they’ve SOLD something on Clickbank as well. These are exactly the people who you want trying your product because they just might try selling it on your behalf if it isn’t garbage.

Chris, I don’t believe that’s true and if I’m wrong please enlighten me. Anybody can sign up as a Clickbank affiliate. You don’t have to have sold something to come in and buy as your own referral.

Besides, I know that most people who do this aren’t buying to evaluate it for a sale. I’ve been around the block, man. I know people do this just to save $$.

Hey Dave, I have been dealing with this for years (I call them Clickbank Weenies) and it is annoying. When you have an internet marketing product on Clickbank, lots of people are going to know how to do it. All you can do is sell more copies and down the road raise your prices to make up for it

It’s not ok to do, and it’s a fast way to burn bridges with the product vendor. Any way to justify it makes you sound cheap, just look at Chris’s comment above.

When I sell a product for $100, it’s $100. If I wanted people to buy it for $50 I would have priced it at $50. You can’t get a job at a furniture store just to buy one couch and give yourself the commission on the sale, then quit.

Bottom line David it’s going to happen.

from the Clickbank terms of service:

“Unless an account contains sales from made with 5 or more different credit card numbers, including at least one Visa card, and one MasterCard, our system will not generate a check for that account (even if the balance has met or exceeded the payment preference)”

So essentially, you’re not getting any discount unless you’ve got some other sales going as well… or you’ve bought a lot of products and been careful to use five different cards to pay for them… unlikely, or at least rare.

Chris,

The average American owns 4 credit cards, and 1 in 7 Americans own 10 or more, so paying for 5 different products with 5 cards is easy, especially if you have a friend, wife, neighbor…

Robert, I can certainly appreciate your perspective on this (I’ve been subscribed to your RSS feed for a couple of months, so I’m somewhat familiar with your stuff). Let me ask you this: You’ve got a person who buys enough digital product that they’re willing to go to those lengths to buy more at a discount… to me that’s an awful lot of effort to save a few bucks… Given that the vast majority of the general public have never bought a digital product (less when taking music out of the equation) wouldn’t this repeat buyer of digital products be an ideal customer who you would love to have on your mailing list for your next big launch?

Seriously. It’s the ol’ prisoner and warden game, everywhere, all the time. Everyone’s just completely brainwashed into thinking the key to life is getting over, at any cost. It would be so nice to think that if you put your effort into creating something, that others would respect that and honor what you’d made. It’s not all about getting the most for the least, people.

Considering most of these systems consist of some kind of “gaming the system” aspect (pretend to be an expert, link cloaking/masking, PPC games, etc), I don’t think you can be surprised this happens. Seems like the cost of doing business with an affiliate network.

Maybe it’s time to just sell your products directly if it really bugs you.

Just to be clear–I’m not saying your program teaches some kind of system gaming methods. I haven’t used your course.

I’m just saying some of the others that you can buy via ClickBank have that type of angle.

Andrew, yes it is a cost of doing business. I’m not worried about losing money or anything. Perhaps I’m just naive, but I was a bit surprised to see it happen as much as it does.

I sell all my other stuff directly. This the first time I decided to use Clickbank.

Look, it violates most affiliate policies including (technically) Clickbanks.

David is right that it is a crappy tactic. But I guess it is the risk you take. Just like digital products, ebooks etc. They can be torrented and sent all over for free.

Chris is right that the person would have to have sold several other items first, not only is there a requirement on the sales with 5 different credit cards but they must also reach a minimum amount as well. But, chances are that if they know how to do this they are probably selling other things as well anyway and will most likely get the discount. This does not mean that David should not be able to vent about it. It is still technically a violation of Clickbanks rules.

From Clickbank”

“Can I purchase products through my own HopLink?

The short answer is yes, but ClickBank does not condone affiliates using their accounts for this sole purpose. As stated in our Accounting Policy, “ClickBank accounts cannot be used for the sole purpose of collecting rebates or otherwise extending credit to yourself or others.” That is, affiliates should not be using their own HopLinks to purchase products for themselves and then collect a “rebate” check from ClickBank.”

It is not technically a violation unless you are using clickbank for that sole purpose which is what David was complaining about.

The title of this post is awesome. It’s so much better than all this “How to do this…”" “How to get that…” BS I see 50 times a day.

Thanks for the good title David.

Hey Chris, don’t let it get to you. In EVERY walk of life, no matter the product or opportunity someone ALWAYS finds a way to beat the system. It’s the nature of the beast. Find the positive in this. Bless those that found the “opportunity” and hope the best for them. I’m sure you know that animosity only keeps you from your further reward.

Old jungle saying: “Never complain, never explain!” I think you may be on a hiding to nothing, my friend.

The targets of your complaint probably did not even read your post. And among those who did, how many sent you back their illegitimate commission with an apology?

On the other hand, you may have just planted an unhelpful seed in the minds of those who are mostly honest because they lack the imagination to think of such a dastardly deed for themselves.

What you could do is offer your affiliates the discount if they will post a review on their website. Sometimes the advertising can be worth more to you than the price of the package. That is how viral marketing works is it not?

“How is this cheating when you got exactly what you wanted as a result of the sale? You lost NOTHING. You offered your product up for sale and agreed to pay a commission when someone sold it. Regardless of the details of the transaction, you got exactly what you wanted. And what if that douchebag goes on to become your greatest performing affiliate? Still pissed that they got a deal on their tryout?”

I agree with Chris! A sale is a sale, what are you moaning about. I’m happy for people to do this to me!

My personal opinion is that people will do whatever it takes to make a sale because we have all become so greedy it doesn’t matter what people have to do to get it, even if that means cheating or not.

Sounds like the clickbank aff. would be something I wouldn’t want to get involved with. They are always spamming my inbox with link after link.

I too have been frustrated with this phenomenon. I have chalked it up to human nature.

I will say that it was refreshing and almost cathartic to read David’s post and all the accompanying comments. Somehow I’m not as pissed about it as I was before.

I guess David can add another adjective to describe this excellent blog…perhaps “theraputic”?

I’d just like to say, I agree with you it’s a bit shady if someone signs up to clickbank just to get half off.. But really, if they want to go to that extra trouble to save 10-20 dollars, I say more power to them..

On the other hand, I would fully expect affiliates of clickbank to get a discount rate. Free demo’s are a norm in the sales industry… You think Gizmodo pays for all those gizmo’s they blog about?

My feeling is a salesman would have to be pretty shady to sell something he had no experience with. I would fully expect to give my salesmen (affiliates) a discount price if not a free demo.

Your agree is to not set up an account for the primary purpose of supplying your own needs. If someone sets up a Risley “affiliate” for the purpose of selling one book to themself, they are abusing the system. Maybe affiliate systems should not pay until you have sold more than one of a product? Obviously, this would be an additional barrier to those starting out, something clickbank doesn’t want to do, for obvious reasons. Clickbank wants to be the simple, entry level solution.

Not only have I suffered from the same situation but I have also given out products to affiliates to use as bonuses for promoting a new launch…. Only to find them being sold without any payment to me at all?

#hit happens, sometimes good, sometimes not so good.

David, a few years ago I would have definitely agreed with you. But there’s a slightly different way of looking at things that serves me well, and prevents the thoughts of “loss”.

I would view my “sales price” as the amount left after paying clickbank commission.
Therefore, if something sold at the full price I would regard it as a “bonus”.

So, regardless of the reason, I’ll be happy for the sale to take place at the “after commission” price.

Cheers, Eric G.

I for one can’t agree total on your CBD description. Firstly as stated previously you still get the exact money you asked for the product when selling via clickbank so the effect on you is absolutely zero. I myself do buy products via clickbank with my own id but only if I intend to promote them as an affiliate. That way you, if I buy yours, you will be getting additional sales from me and my efforts. I know that many vendors say that after you have sold one or more of their items they will give you a copy free anyway. The clickbank system is set up so that you can’t just buy cheap items for yourself but once you have proved yourself as an affiliate with a reasonable number of sales I think it’s entirely reasonable to do this as long as you do it in the spirit of promoting the item and supporting the vendor.

i don't know dude. I mean i do that all the time. And yes of course i say that i referred myself when seeking a referall finders fee. I'm sure your ebook was nothing more than a 5 page pamphlet of nosense that you are way over-charging for… so to me it kind of sounds like you're the douche.