Comments on: An Open Letter to ClickBank: Commission Theft and Affiliate Protection (Updated 2026)

By: Mark Mason

Mark Mason — Sat, 15 May 2010 18:55:30 +0000

In reply to Josh Spaulding. You know, this may very well play into there thinking. I know they have a ton of non-IM products, but I wonder what percentage of the revenue is non-IM. I am sure that the IM stuff sells better than the non-IM stuff.

By: Josh Spaulding

Josh Spaulding — Mon, 10 May 2010 11:42:50 +0000

I believe the reason they haven’t raised the issue or attempted to fix it is because the percentage of people who are affected by it is a tiny percentage. It only affects people who know about it, who are Internet marketers and then you also have to cut it down to the percentage of those who actually act on it.

Most clickbank products are not IM related, so it’s a minor issue to them.

By: Kat

Kat — Mon, 03 May 2010 14:51:56 +0000

Well-written article to Clickbank regarding the issue of stolen commissions. 🙂

By: Courtney

Courtney — Sat, 01 May 2010 23:57:36 +0000

Mark, Great Letter. I have’nt been in the business that long but I do make myself aware of all the places I promote and have seen exactly what you describe. As, a fairly new marketer the clickbank way of playing the numbers really makes you want top turn your back on them….kinda like they are doing. Thank again.

By: Kent F

Kent F — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 20:27:11 +0000

Thanks Mark – great letter. And, then there’s folks like me – I’ve got a few sites up and am getting some decent traffic, but I haven’t quite figured out how to bring in the onslaught of sales that I see all the gurus raving about – and I start asking “why would I think about promoting clickbank products if there’s so much thievery going on?”. We all know what that type of procrastination does.

Sadly – it almost becomes like MLM (gasp) at that point – the gurus are waving their huge checks around, while all the peons are wondering why their traffic does not convert into similar checks.

Kent F.

By: Andrew@BloggingGuide

Andrew@BloggingGuide — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 07:57:35 +0000

I am not usually this observant on my clickbank account. But, now that I know this. I will surely keep an eye on it. What if other affiliates are made to sign in your open letter too? Would really tell clickbank that a lot are already complaining.

By: John Paul Aguiar

John Paul Aguiar — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 15:30:44 +0000

I couldn’t agree with you more.. I let people know if I share a aff link, but I know people will still buy with there own link to save money before they will “support” you and your blog.

It sucks but the reality is CB won’t do much about this till enough affiliates complain. I think your reasoning for why CB hasn’t made a fix to this is right.

In the end they are not losing sales from stolen commissions.. only the affiliate is.

By: Rich Hill

Rich Hill — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 14:27:51 +0000

Mark,

This raises my eyebrows now to a point where it is hard to close my eyes.
I have been working on a different gripe with clickbank and have been logging my results over the past week.

In my opinion clickbank does not credit my account for hops and in that case most likely does not credit my account with at least some of those hops that might convert to a sale.

I called it to their attention a couple of months ago and they sent a lame excuse about not crediting java scrip hops. BS. Mine are not java script hops. I cloak all of my links behind a WP plugin called wp-125 which will let you place a banner in the widget and the affiliate link is not seen by the reader. This plugin has a counter on it.

So in just this past week I have had 199 clicks on my plugin counter that went out to three different CB products. Clickbank only reported 39 hops! WTF? There is no way a bot could generate a click from my site using the plugin. Why would they not report the right amount of clicks coming in as hops?

So the only think I can think of is that they are making sales of products to my readers without paying me the commission, or at least it would seem that is possible.

A few months ago when I got all twisted up with this same problem I had one case where one of my readers purchased an expensive product through my site, told me about it, and I did not get paid for it. When I asked clickbank about it they again gave me some lame excuse about they had some computer problems during that accounting period. Never did get paid for it and the worse part is it has a monthly recurring fee that I will never see either.

Now I have to be concerned with the points that you bring up and wonder if it is worthwhile giving them any more of my money.

By: Mark Mason

Mark Mason — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 13:20:26 +0000

In reply to Johan Idstam. I agree that they do this, and I like that rule (speaking as a person who wants to stop commission theft). Of course, they hold those commission until the accounting requirements are met. I suspect that they eventually keep the money if the affiliate never meets the requirements -- but I don't actually know.

By: Johan Idstam

Johan Idstam — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 06:56:35 +0000

They don’t pay the affiliate until he’s made a couple of sales paid with different credit cards. That will hinder most drive by affiliates, but:
What happens with all the money that Clickbank doesn’t pay the affiliate that don’t pass that threshold?