Issue 1: Clickbank doesn’t pay some affiliates, although their commission earnings exceed minimum $100. Well, actually this is to avoid lots of affiliate from using Clickbank just to get rebate for every purchase they made. Yes, you can buy any Clickbank product from your own affiliate link and get paid for it, but they won’t pay you until these conditions are met:

• The transaction must be made from five different credit card numbers. Two of them must be from both Mastercard and VISA. Paypal is not counted here.
• Total earning must be at least $10. For more information, see their affiliate FAQs.

Issue 2: There are lots of low quality make money products sold via Clickbank. People buy this product with hope they will earn money by investing on these products. However, in the end, all they got is low quality products teaching methods that didn’t work. So, they consider that product, even Clickbank itself is a scam company. Well, you cannot blame one big organization just because of a few bad apples. Anyone can sell their digital products at Clickbank for $49 payment. With such low capital to start but a huge potential to be made, it’s normal to see some publishers take this advantage to get rich by scamming people. However, it doesn’t Clickbank itself is behind all these. In fact, Clickbank has refund policy which allows any customers to request for refund in case the product is defected or not as good as it sounds. You can always request for refund by filling this form.

http://www.clickbank.com/orderDetail.htm

I made this several times this year and always gets my money back in three days. Keep in mind that you shouldn’t ask refund from the product owner himself. Some publishers refuse to refund your money and won’t answer your support ticket. This is example of my purchase which had been refunded. I hide some information inside this screenshot for privacy and to protect credibility of product owner.

Issue 3: So many commission thefts that you sometimes could hardly sell products. People can register as Clickbank affiliate for free, hence they knew they are going to buy form your affiliate link. Unethical people can very easily place a cookie at the time of purchase that changes or adds their affiliate ID into the link. In the end, he buyer gets the rebate, but you’re not.

Issue 4: High refund rate. It’s easy to request refund from Clickbank. Some buyers even created same email copies asking refund from four different products. This is bad for both affiliate and merchant. As an affiliate, should the customer asked for refund, it means goodbye to your hard-earned commission.

Issue 5: Ugly hoplink at the address bar.Whenever visitors click your hoplink, they understand that you’ll get paid for their purchase. It’s not that hard, just look at the address bar. Compared to other network like Commission Junction, RegNow and Shareasale where people don’t see your ugly link at the address bar.

Conclusion: Clickbank itself is not a scam. Many marketers make good income, even quit their day job thanks to Clickbank. However, you need to be smart and think a way to avoid all these issues. One way is by looking for Clickbank alternatives like Paydotcom, Commission Junction or in house affiliate programs. If you still want to use Clickbank, don’t start by promoting internet marketing related products, unless if you use mailing list techniques.