Payment processor and affiliate network changes guidelines for promoting products using its services.
I’ve had a ClickBank account for over a decade. In college I used Clickbank to sell thousands of dollars worth of product a month.
But over the past decade it seems there’s been a race to the bottom in info product pitches, especially in the “make money online” category. And ClickBank is home to a lot of them.
Today ClickBank announced new promotional guidelines, hinting that they’re in response to regulatory changes (e.g. FTC) and credit card processor requirements.
Among the changes that will stop some very commonly used sales pitches:
1. False Scarcity
You’ve undoubtedly seen pitches saying only 300 copies of an eBook will be sold. But then the seller keeps offering the product after 300 are sold.
You’ve also seen pitch pages that tell you that an offer is good for only the next 10 minutes.
Clickbank will no longer allow these claims. It will allow true scarcity claims if you really will only sell x copies of a product.
2. Discount pricing
Isn’t it amazing how every eBook is “regularly priced” at $197 but you can get it today for only $47?
ClickBank will no longer allow this unless you really did sell the product for $197 previously.
3. Unreasonable claims
This one is more of a grey area. But here’s an (all to common) example cited by ClickBank:
Statements that infer that the product is significantly easier to use than it really is (for example, “one push button to make money†or “three simple words will provide you incomeâ€). ClickBank requires that pitches make reasonable attempts to reflect the actual effort required to achieve typical results. It is generally unreasonable to assume that someone with little or no experience in internet marketing can achieve a 6-figure income with an hour or less of effort per day. It is more reasonable to assume that with attention, effort, and spare time, the average person with little or no internet marketing experience can achieve a supplemental income.
I applaud ClickBank for making these changes.
The company is also working to get domain names including its trademark. In addition to a previous UDRP win for Clickbank.co, it just won Clickbank.org.
Mansour says
I applaud ClickBank for their action. I wish Google would do the same to crack down on false domain name promotion. I searched for the keyword ‘Discount Domains’ on Google and the top search showed ‘GoDaddy $5.99 Domain Names’ and underneath it ‘$6.99 Domains Special – Network Solutions’ When you click on Godaddy’s advertisement, it gives you a page giving you the option to search for a domain name and when the result is successful it tells you that the price is $11.99. As to the $5.99 special offer, it says
SPECIAL OFFER! .COMs just $5.99* per year up to 3 domains!
Applies to new and transfer domains, up to ten registration years. Offer may not be used for renewals. $5.99* .COM offer limited to three domains per customer, additional .COMs just $7.49* per year. Promotion expires after 75,000 redemptions. Discount will be reflected in your shopping cart; cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer or promotion. Customers may not use gift cards, PayPal® or AliPay to redeem this offer. Your discount will be applied in your shopping cart. * Plus ICANN fee of $0.18 per domain year.
Kevin Murphy says
The sales tactics they’ve banned would likely be illegal in many jurisdictions anyway.
Frankly, I’m amazed they got away with it for so long.
Nwadima Bright says
Am an affiliate marketer and I have been marketing products from Clickbank since 2008 and I have notice that most times buyers do request for refund of your money which is absolutely a problem for we the marketer and Clickbank.
Most of these refund request are as a result of false pitch pages and I welcome Clickbank Idea on this.