Articles
Warning: Clickbank anything else than Customer friendly
by Rieke F. Consultant Hello Dear Reader here,are you involved in Affiliate Marketing? Are you using Clickbank?
Do you already fit the payment rules of Clicbank?
If not - stay alert!
If not - stay alert!
Some month ago Clickbank changed the rules, did you read this?
"
"
Dormant Accounts
Accounts with a positive balance but no earnings for an extended period of time are considered dormant. Dormant accounts are subject to a charge of $1 per pay period after 90 days of no earnings, $5 per pay period after 180 days of no earnings, and $50 per pay period after 365 days of no earnings."
So, in case you have an account which does not fit the payment rules because you don't have enough different clients or the amount of what you earned so far is beneath $500 than it can easily happen that you will be charged with $1 every two weeks!
To come to this explanation, you should have been reading a lot through all the changes Clickbank did on their Contract Terms.
To give you an example what happens to me on one account: Here I had a recurrent payment which stopped in May 2011. As it was only 1 payment from 1 client, I did not fit any payout rule.
1. I did not have 5 different credit card clients
2. my earnings are not above $500
When the client - which is his right and also understandable - for some reason stopped the membership of the program, I did not see any longer money coming in on this Clickbank account.
Now, thanks to the a.m. Contract Term, Clickbank is taking money from what I have earned. I call this simple "larceny".
My advice: When you are starting with affiliate marketing or not doing so well actually with Clickbank, go and have a look at other Marketplaces.
Think twice and have a look at the Terms before joining a place from where you can sell products. There are a lot of fair places out in this 'www'.
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About Rieke F. 
Consultant
304 connections, 9 recommendations, 859 honor points.Joined APSense since, November 17th, 2010, From Emilia Romagna, Italy.
Created on Dec 31st 1969 18:00. Viewed 0 times.
Comments
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Jean DAndrea
RetiredWell, I used to have a Clickbank account, but I closed it because they took all my earnings faster than I was making them. It's hard enough to make cash online sometimes, without this! Aug 11th 2011 17:39 |
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Ashish Desai
 Can we delete our dormant accounts and create a new one in order to avoid the penalty ? Aug 12th 2011 02:07 |
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Neville Dinning
 Independent ConsultantThanks, I just checked. My Clickbank balance is reducing by $1 each pay period. I was not aware of that before. Soon there will nothing in it! Aug 12th 2011 03:22 |
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Luis Figueroa
 Independent EntrepreneurFor me ClickBank is not affiliate friendly, as all our efforts seems to mean nothing to them. They are only after the money after all, either from vendors and of course us affiliates. That is why I moved to PayDotCom. Aug 12th 2011 07:31 |
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Cindy Bolley
  HHCTB?Thanks for posting this. It is very important that people know this. Also you have to jump through hoops to get your very FIRST paycheck from them. Cindy Aug 12th 2011 08:02 |
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Cindy Bolley
HHCTB?BTW.... I just checked mine and they have new rules for people who have products listed with them too. I would guess that if they don't comply they will be gone and if your promoting one of those products and not checking the links they may be going nowhere this is the message......Updated Promotional Guidelines: As of August 1, 2011, all ClickBank clients are required to comply with our updated Promotional Messaging Guidelines (Product Promotion Guidelines). All new products are immediately subject to these guidelines, and existing promotional materials such as Pitch Pages and affiliate sites must be brought into compliance by August 31, 2011 or may be subject to penalties including account termination. Aug 12th 2011 08:07 |
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Philippe Moisan
Tutorial videos, sci-fi writerUlrike, please top Cindy's comment, it adds info to your article and so is required reading too. Aug 12th 2011 08:53 |
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Arthur Webster
Just plain honestyI, and presumably every other Clickbank member, was asked to agree to the new terms and conditions because they represented a radical change (reason to read them, no?). I did not agree to the terms so I am now unable to log in to my Clickbank account - since I sell nothing, no great loss, but I am surprised that other Clickbank clients did not spot these terrible penalties for being unsuccessful (as if that wasn't bad enough!). It is disturbing that I was not given the option to refuse to accept the new terms and close my account. BY THE WAY - GREAT SPAM linaji. I'LL BET YOU ARE REALLY PLEASED WITH YOURSELF. Aug 12th 2011 11:54 |
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Rieke F.
Consultant@The Old Coot - right when you don't agree to the changes you cannot access. In the meantime CB replied that they will payout the amount on this account. But I will leave CB as I don't trust them, although until now I don't know how I can quit. Have to study it again. :) As said before, I reported this to the "Internet Crime Complaint" and "eCommerce Complaint". I am also looking for s.th. else. Here's a quote of CB's answer: "We charge a Dormant Account Fee so that the earnings we are not able to send can be reconciled into our accounting books and reported for tax purposes. Because it is money that has been earned, it must eventually be claimed for tax purposes and cannot remain in the account indefinitely if the payment requirements are never met by that account. Once an account reaches $0.00, the Dormant Account Fees are no longer charged." ----> really generous. Thank you to all of you for your support. Aug 12th 2011 13:17 |
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Arthur Webster
Just plain honestyHi, Rieke, that reply by Clickbank makes no sense at all. If they are concerned about dormant accounts with balances below minimum payment, they only have to create a Journal entry to transfer the balances to an Unsecured Creditor's Contingency Account. Commissions due to affiliates, once recorded are ALREADY PART OF THE TAX RECORD. The only tax due on these commisions is payable by the affiliate and EVEN IF THE COMMISSION IS NOT PAID TO THE AFFILIATE, THE TAX OFFICE WILL ASSUME IT WAS AND LEVY TAX ACCORDINGLY. I wonder what breed of cockroach is being employed in the accounts department of Clickbank - they obviously know nothing of accountancy but lots about larceny. Not only does the affiliate not get paid, Clickbank makes a tax declaration as though they were and then uses the commissions for enhancing their own profits. I suppose the $0.00 balance is their warning that there is nothing else to steal. Aug 13th 2011 04:28 |
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Arthur Webster
Just plain honestyAderemi, the changes relating to penalties for not having enough money in your account were notified to me less than two months ago. Maybe they were applied over a long period, country by country? Aug 13th 2011 16:18 |
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Arthur Webster
Just plain honestyI see that the significance of my reply on the technicalities has not been acknowledged. Let's say you have a balance of $40. A>Clickbank inform the tax office B>A 30% tax payer sees his tax liability rise by $12 C>You are charged $40 by clickbank BUT you cannot claim against tax since it is a penalty - you lose $12 in tax relief. Your $40 balance will cost you $64 and you will have nothing to show for it. Clickbank have your original $40 and then charge you a further $40 - a nice little $80 earner with very little tax to pay because of this new wave of creative accounting. Aug 14th 2011 04:16 |
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Arthur Webster
Just plain honestyHi, Aderemi, I never doubted it which is why I sugested that the terms were applied country by country. In Spain, where I live, we can often have our affiliate commissions paid into PayPal rather than Clickbank, because it is a fully regulated bank. Many affiliate programmes will pay direct to PayPal so if you want to promote a Clickbank product, go to the original owner and become his affiliate. Aug 15th 2011 03:29 |
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Rieke F.
Consultant@The Old Coot - thanks a million for supporting my article. Point is, that someone who wants to sell his product does not like to have all the huzzle with payments, refunding etc. So for the seller it might be easier to sell the product throughout a place like CB. But there are other places, much more convenient for the seller and promoter too! BTW - as this behaviour of CB is criminal, I invite everyone here to report them at "The Internet Crime Complaints" and "eCommerce Complaints". I am not a lawyer and I am not able to engage one, but if you will help me in reporting them - you are more than welcome. A big THANK YOU and warmest regards. Aug 16th 2011 01:06 |
This article is required reading for everyone. Who doesn't have a Clickbank account ?
Aug 11th 2011 13:57