ClickBank Review – not what you think
This story is about the newbie affiliate marketer and your first sale of a ClickBank product. It is not about how ClickBank is good for doing affiliate marketing or reviewing a product for promotion, which it is. This story is story of the first sale and the dream of riches and wealth and the dance of sugar plums.
Your first sale on ClickBank is so exciting. You just know you are going to make it. You also figure that in 15 to 17 days from the sale you will receive a check. When it does not come you give the benefit of the doubt and figure that you have missed the processing cutoff date. 30 days pass from the notice of the sale and still no check from ClickBank. Now you start to wonder.
You quickly check your account on ClickBank and sure enough the record of your sale exists but you have a status of CDR attached to the record. What does that mean? According to ClickBank’s records it means that you have not met the Cash Distribution Requirements.
So you begin to read the requirements and your excitement begins to fade. Have you read the requirements lately? Here is what they say:
“ClickBank will withhold payment of any account balance until the following criteria is met:
Sales made with 5 or more different credit card numbers; and,
Sales made with two different payment methods (either Visa, MasterCard, or PayPal). Note: PayPal purchases do not count toward the minimum 5 different credit card numbers.This requirement is in place to help prevent Affiliates from abusing the ClickBank Affiliate program by using their accounts for the sole purpose of fraudulently collecting rebates and/or discounts on their own purchases.
Once you have met the Customer Distribution Requirement, your account will begin issuing payments normally, in accordance with our Accounting Policy, beginning on the next payment issuing date.”
What does this mean for you, the newbie affiliate marketer?
It means the following:
- You must make at least 5 more sales, 4 of them must be made with a different credit card number
- The 5th sale must be a sale through PayPal. The PayPal sale cannot count toward the 5 credit card sales
No doubt you can understand why a vendor does not mention this in their sales letter. No vendor wants to give the impression that you will sell only 1 copy of their program. The sales letter is about how many sales you will make in a month and surely you will make at least 6 sales, or will you?
What happens to the money in your ClickBank account if you do not make another sale?
You could eventually end up losing it. ClickBank begins to track your account and if you do not make another sale in 90 days (your account is considered Dormant) they begin to charge you. Eventually, the entire positive amount (your commission) could be eaten up in fees.
ClickBank’s Accounting policy is as follows:
“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.”
This is not a complaint against ClickBank. They have every right to handle their accounting like this and we as users have agreed to their rules. However, this is reality and a reminder for a first time affiliate marketer.
