Forum Moderators: buckworks
Clickbank [CB] has its own built in affiliate program [they say over 100,000] and over 50% of the sales made through CB come from this affiliate sales base. They charge 7.5% of each sale plus $1.00 and holdback for potential chargebacks, another 90 days of 10% of each payment made to us.
They do, however, take care of any and all affitilate payments due. So we don't have to...
While being able to enjoy the possible sales from the built in sales force, they seem high in their charges. Plus there has been some slightly negative news on them regarding their recent testing of not allowing for Ezine links, etc.
PayPal [PP] doesn't seem to have a built in affiliate sales force but charges way less at 2.9% plus 30 cents and no holdbacks. I've heard if PP receives any small amount of complaints, I would lose my service with them.
Now I'm not intending to induce complaints, this new web site I'm building is focused around selling an eCourse and I've heard that returns on those types of buyers [is high] in that they will order, download, read and then ask for a refund. So I'm a bit wary of PP for that reason.
I also have my own Merchant Account since 1998 [at 2.68% plus fees] with less than 5 charge backs in that time, but that was also tied to website subscriptions, a tad different situation.
Also considering joining WebAssured.com for some Customer Buying Security and seller creditability, besides being a verified PP merchant since 2001. I won't join the BBB, they are guilty of what they say they will protect us from...
eCourse is being priced at $149.95 as an introductory price from what we assume will be our normal of $294.95, FYI.
Which do you think is the best way to go and why?
What are your thoughts on my dilemma?
All comments appreciated, thank you in advance.
What the heck?
Putz
I personally find the look and feel of PayPal's shopping cart, for lack of a better word, a bit cheesy. I would either use your own merchant account or Clickbank.
The Clickbank fees are not insignificant, and the holdback can amount to some very real $$$ with a successful product, but I have usually been happy with Clickbank. The only sites where I will not consider Clickbank is where I want to sell a physically-delivered version, since they do not allow that.
Here are the most important advantages of Clickbank in my mind:
1) Accounting and recordkeeping - I don't really have the time to handle this, and I don't trust someone else to do this for affiliates
2) Credibility - there are lots of affiliates who have been burned by self-managed affiliate programs run by people they know are underpaying them, but in most there is almost no way to prove it. Your potential super affiliates will be much happier with third-party, neutral tracking and payments
3) Just being on Clickbank will get you many affiliates, without having to go recruit them
If I am introducing a new, electronically-delivered product, I will always have it on Clickbank. One way to save some fees is to also offer it elsewhere with your merchant account, so you still get the benefits of #3 without losing the fees on sales you generate from non-affiliate traffic.
Mike
If you can live with the financial constraints imposed by CB, they seem to offer a good service, quite "hands-off". However, I see your point about the e-course, and it rendering you vunerable.
The key problem here is that d/loading the course, making a copy and then charging back is all too easy. The trick would be to change the focus from the course itself to bundling it with something of enduring value, such as site subscription as you mentioned earlier, or some other valuable, ongoing service.
Calcelling the payment for the course would then also invalidate membership, or otherwise invalidate the ongoing value of the transaction. Obviously, your conversions will drop, but so should your risk of chargeback should also drop, so overall, I don't think you'll lose much if anything.
Now, as to the BBB, whilst I agree that having accreditation by them and other similar schemes can be awkward, the lack of any such accreditation can hurt your credibility. Even the special offer price is a bit much for many people to risk on a "punt" over the Internet. If you have identified a scheme that you are happy to be associated with, I would be inclined to join up.
Does that help clarify your thinking?
Thanks so much for your input, opinion and foresight in your response. You present things I hadn't thought of. Also, I just answered your sticky email.
To TallTroll:
You wrote....
"The key problem here is that d/loading the course, making a copy and then charging back is all too easy..."
I have thought of that aspect and solved it this way:
#1) The eCourse cannot be printed.
#2) The eCourse cannot be copied.
#3) The eCourse will only open on one machine.
We have included a page within the eCourse which explains why the above three items are the way they are and then explain that if the owner wants to share the eCourse with their friends, then they should become an Affiliate and make $50 on the sale. All the information within our eCourse is under Copyright [when did that ever stop anyone huh?] and therefore proprietary. It is our effort to keep the 'honest' people honest and to prevent those who are not, as honest as we can.
We do offer an additional freebie that the new eCourse owner can request/order after their first 21 days has passed since their download was made. This offers them ALL the scan coding we use to locate ALL our trades, the best place to open their online Trading Accounts [and why] along with where to open a live real market paper trading account.
This order is made via a password protected page on our website, [where their IP address is monitored / compared to the their original IP address when they ordered] and if they don't match, they they don't receive. Except for an instant page notification and email that tells them why they cannot access the requested information.
You further said...
"Hmmm, the question here may be one of cashflow..."
Cashflow is not an issue for us, as we practice what we teach. We average a daily income of $100-$1000, using the same information contained within our eCourse.
But we are a tad uncertain [or were] of which enity to use to facilitate new customer/client acquisition along with a very good affiliate program.
Thanks to both of your responses, insight and learnings from those who know, once again.
[edited by: TallTroll at 8:41 am (utc) on April 15, 2003]
[edit reason] Self promo [/edit]
I bet you it can be printed/copied. The general rule is that what appears on the screen cannot be secured 100% (if it came to it, someone could get it by doing a direct memory dump from the video memory, or other sneaky methods). As there aren't all that many people who know how to do it or similar, it shouldn't be a big problem, but bear it in mind.
>> that if the owner wants to share the eCourse with their friends, then they should become an Affiliate and make $50 on the sale.
Good move. Appeal to their greed (why should someone else enjoy for free what cost you so much? And you make a little. Cool)
>> This order is made via a password protected page on our website, [where their IP address is monitored / compared to the their original IP address when they ordered] and if they don't match, they they don't receive. Except for an instant page notification and email that tells them why they cannot access the requested information.
Hmm, how do you handle AOL users, for instance, where their apparent IP can vary during a single session? Or other users coming out of a proxy bank? Or using rotating proxies? Or using a machine with more than 1 assigned IP?
1. Did you decide between clickbank and paypal? Did you explore any other 3rd-party packages, like ccnow and digibuy? What criteria did you use for your decision?
2. I notice you say that your eProduct will open on only one machine. We are exploring the possibility of such an option with our ebook. Do you know if Adobe Acrobat supports this? What package are you using?
Thank you.
