Sell Multiple Products Through a Single ClickBank Account – Merchant Account
Sell Multiple Products Through a Single ClickBank Account
Tim Coulter
A ClickBank merchant account allows you to define and sell up to 50 separate products. If you have more than one product in your range, it makes sense to sell them from a shared ClickBank account. Here are three good reasons why:
Every active ClickBank account incurs a setup fee of $49.95. Why pay this more than once
Managing multiple ClickBank accounts adds unnecessarily to your administrative effort
The combined sales of multiple products through one account will significantly boost your Marketplace ranking
Unfortunately, the architecture of the ClickBank system has, historically, not been well suited to selling multiple products from a single account, especially for merchants who use affiliates to promote their products. The problem is that, although you can define 50 products within ClickBanks account control panel, you can only specify a single landing page URL - the destination page that your affiliates will refer their prospects to.
The result is that all referrals must arrive at your site via a common page. This forces you either to present all your products on a shared sales page or to create an intermediate page, from which your visitors must click through to see the product of their choice. Neither option is ideal as they both create obstacles that will distract your prospects and seriously reduce your conversion rate.
For optimum sales effectiveness, affiliate referrals should go directly to the sales page for the product of interest. This is known as deep linking and is widely acknowledged as the best way to convert affiliate referrals into buyers. But ClickBanks lack of support for this technique is a major barrier that inhibits effective use of its growing affiliate network.
To tackle this problem, a number of pioneering merchants have developed their own techniques to work around ClickBanks shortcomings. Some of these innovations have even evolved into successful commercial software products. Most implementations rely on intercepting the inbound referral and automatically redirecting it to the relevant product page, as indicated in URL parameters passed by the referring affiliate. There are several variations on this theme, but they share a common gambit - using scripts, installed on the merchants web server, to intercept and redirect requests.
However, the need for smoke and mirrors to fix ClickBanks limitations may soon be a relic of the past. In October 2003, ClickBank announced plans for major improvements to its hoplink system - improvements that will all but eliminate the need for workarounds or enhancement products.
The new architecture - known as the enhanced hoplink system - employs a more flexible referral URL format, in which affiliates are able to specify the numeric code of the product they are referring their prospects to. Using this code, ClickBanks server will look up the corresponding sales page URL and send referrals directly to it, handling cookie-tracking and other admin chores in the normal manner.
The main attraction of the enhanced hoplink system is its simplicity of implementation and maintenance. Whereas add-on products require at least a moderate understanding of script installation and configuration, the hoplink system is maintained entirely via the ClickBank account control panel. This means that a merchant selling multiple products even across multiple web domains can expose them for affiliate deep linking, simply by configuring the relevant sales page URLs in his account.
At the time of writing, ClickBank has published the format of the enhanced hoplink URL, but has not completed the database and control panel changes that will allow the configuration of multiple landing pages. So, although we can visualize the new architecture and dream of the benefits it will deliver, we remain in eager anticipation of its release.
About The Author
Copyright © Tim Coulter. All rights reserved.
Tim Coulter is a consultant and software developer who helps netpreneurs to harness marketing technologies.
He is also the author of "ClickBank - The Definitive Guide" The Ultimate ClickBank Tutorial & Reference Manual.
http://www.clickbankrevealed.com/
ClickBank Affiliate Woes: When Tracking Breaks Down – Affiliate Programs
ClickBank Affiliate Woes: When Tracking Breaks Down
Tim Coulter
Hardly a day goes by without a forum posting in which ClickBank is challenged about the reliability and integrity of its affiliate referral tracking mechanism - the hoplink system. It cannot be denied that ClickBanks technical infrastructures do not always inspire the greatest level of confidence. But this article sets out to demonstrate that a range of factors play a part in the integrity of affiliate tracking and any one of these can be the cause of those much-reviled commission losses.
Given the reliance of affiliate programs on cookie technology, it is important to understand the problems that may arise from this technology and what can be done to alleviate them.
The browser cookie is an essential ingredient in accurately and consistently allocating commission to the correct referring affiliate. If no referral cookie is present on a prospects computer when she makes a purchase, no affiliate will collect the commission. With ClickBanks hoplink system though not necessarily with other affiliate systems, this requirement holds true even if the prospect purchases immediately upon referral.
There are four reasons for missing cookies:
Deletion: Cookies can be deleted through a variety of computer maintenance operations. Some of these are explicit e.g. instructing the browser to clear all its temporary files and some are automatic e.g. software utilities that perform routine, scheduled computer housekeeping.
Expiration: Each affiliate program implements its own policy determining the time period referral cookies will remain valid. Once a cookie reaches its expiration date, it ceases to have any effect on the allocation of affiliate commission. ClickBanks affiliate tracking cookies are valid for 60 days.
Overflow: To comply with the recommendations of the Netscape Cookie Specification, a web browser needs to support the storage of at least 300 cookies. Beyond this level, the browser is free to delete cookies in order to reclaim disk space, on a first-in-first-out basis. In theory, this means that referral cookies may be prematurely deleted if a large influx of new cookies causes the limit to be exceeded. In practice, this issue is no cause for concern, as disk space is now abundant and most modern browsers do not implement such limits.
Rejection: If the prospects browser is configured to reject cookies, or uses filtering criteria that reject cookies from the affiliate programs domain, a referral cookie will never be created for that user.
Little can be done by affiliates to directly protect against cookie deletion or expiration. Therefore, affiliates should be aware of the issue when selecting products, giving preference to products most likely to generate a prompt purchase. Any product that requires an extensive period of reflection prior to purchase represents an increased risk of commission losses to the affiliate.
Cookie rejection is also a serious issue for affiliates. The current versions of all major browsers are installed with cookies enabled, so it takes a conscious effort on the part of the user to disable support for cookies. However, inaccurate media coverage of cookies has increased the number of web consumers who do systematically reject them.
Fortunately, following a series of recent change to the ClickBank hoplink system, a referral will now only take place if the client computer accepts the ClickBank tracking cookie. This is great comfort to ClickBank affiliates, who can no longer be deprived of their commission because of cookie rejection. Merchants, in contrast, may not be so happy that willing prospects are being turned away because of an errant configuration in their computer.
ClickBank faces a difficult balancing act in attempting to implement systems that are fair to both the merchant and the affiliate. And whilst the companys technology may not always be perfect, it is reassuring to note that not every forum scare story is founded on fact.
About The Author
Copyright © Tim Coulter. All rights reserved.
Tim Coulter is a consultant and software developer who helps netpreneurs to harness marketing technologies.
He is also the author of "ClickBank - The Definitive Guide" The Ultimate ClickBank Tutorial & Reference Manual.
http://www.clickbankrevealed.com/
ClickBank Refunds – Hope for the Best but Prepare for the Worst – Merchant Account
ClickBank Refunds - Hope for the Best but Prepare for the Worst
Tim Coulter
When we launch a new product, we all hope its going to be a runaway bestseller. More than that, most of us aim to produce a product so remarkable that it generates rave reviews and achieves cult popularity. You may very well achieve all of these objectives with your product launches.
But, beware of a characteristic of the ClickBank system that may throw these aspirations into jeopardy - the 90-day refund rule.
Most merchants agree that ClickBanks rock-solid refund policy adds a great deal of credibility to their sales pitches, enabling them to make sales to even the most wary of online shoppers. The hassle-free refund procedure is also the key factor behind ClickBanks exceptionally low chargeback rate. ClickBank customers have no need to ask their banks for chargebacks, so ClickBank keeps its merchant account in good standing and we merchants all save money on chargeback penalties.
But, despite its attractions, the ClickBank refund rule is also a source of blatant abuse by a minority of dishonest buyers.
However good a product may be; however much your genuine buyers love it, there will always be a small percentage who ask for refunds. Dont be disheartened. In most cases, this is not a reflection on your product or your competence as a merchant. It is simply an exploitation of the ClickBank refund system to get something for nothing.
Around 5% of my ClickBank sales result in refunds and, judging by my discussions with other merchants, this figure appears to be about average. I have numerous glowing testimonials from satisfied customers, but there is still the occasional buyer who is, seemingly, impossible to please. Ironically, I have never yet issued a refund to a buyer who has offered a reason for being dissatisfied. Is this normal It suggests to me that the problem lies not with the product, but with the morals of the buyer.
With the purchase of a digital product you can, if you choose, keep the product and get your money back. Online theft just doesnt get any easier than this.
ClickBanks merchant community has suggested various ways to tackle this problem. The most popular idea seems to be that ClickBank should introduce a rogue customer list, identifying serial refunders by their prior purchasing activity. Of course, the list would be confidential - merchants would simply need the option to specify whether they accept purchases by buyers in this category. This solution is not without its own problems, especially the challenge of accurately identifying buyers from one purchase to the next. With multiple credit cards and multiple email addresses, it is relatively easy to bypass the banned list, simply by creating a new online persona. But, at least this initiative offers hope of a solution to the problem.
So far, ClickBank has not announced on any plans to update its refund policy or introduce controls to protect its merchants from this type of fraud. Until something changes, merchants need to adopt a pragmatic attitude to the dilemma of sham refunds. As frustrating as it may be to see our profits willingly handed over to fraudsters, we should remember that the reassurance offered by the refund system probably pays us dividends many times greater, in the form of increased sales.
About The Author
Copyright © Tim Coulter. All rights reserved.
Tim Coulter is a consultant and software developer who helps netpreneurs to harness marketing technologies.
He is also the author of "ClickBank - The Definitive Guide" The Ultimate ClickBank Tutorial & Reference Manual.
http://www.clickbankrevealed.com/