On one hand they purchase and then resell through affiliate marketing eBooks, software and any other 'non-physical' downloadable goods you can imagine. On the other hand they are an affiliate broker or service in that they allow marketing of the eBooks and goods they handle (or technically resale) from their list of products by anyone who wants to sign up, paying a commission on any and all sales made as detailed further down in the summary of their payment agreement.
ClickBank is a different type of affiliate network in that they are not just a broker and they are not really a normal vendor - ClickBank fulfills the best of both worlds by supplying a list of available vendors and electronic media goods broken down into various categories as well as handling the engines, link creation and tracking necessary to allow you to market and sell those goods on your pages.
In effect you can think of ClickBank as a broker who also handles much of the legalities, payment handling and tracking while providing you assistance and guidelines on how best to legally market and sell the service products that they have available. They also allow you to list and sale your own software, eBooks and other goods if approved and if they meet their strict guidelines and policies, without a huge contractual obligation or a minimum qty of sales as many other online vendors require. ClickBank is quite simply the future of ecommerce for the everyman.
SALES
ClickBank obtains products from publishers at a 7.5% discount plus a $1 stocking fee, and can also collect EU VAT taxes if required. If the sale is generated by an affiliate site then the wholesale price is split between the publisher and affiliate according to the percentage set by the publisher and credits are generated as appropriate at the moment of the sale. Should a return occur due to a customer dispute the customer received a 100% refund and the payouts are debited back from the accounts and the publisher will also be charged $1 for returned online check sales but not for credit card refunds. If a 'charge back' or revoked sale is caused by a customer's bank there will charges as appropriate and should any product generate more then 1% charge backs in any 90-day period a $35 penalty will be assessed and the product may be delisted.
PAYMENTS
No delivery service is perfect, and sometimes deposits are not made before a check is expired or a check may even be stolen - all of which can result in payments that have been issued not being received. ClickBank handles this in a fairly standard manner: should you wish to cancel a check and have it reissued there is a $20 cancellation fee and said check will be cut on the next twice-monthly issuance date. Requests received by the 10th of any month will be handled in the order they are received. Should a check grow 'stale' that is expire and need to be reissued marking it VOID and sending it to the Paycheck Department will allow a new check to be issued.
As required by US law ClickBank will withhold payments until sales made with five or more credit card numbers including at least one Visa and one MasterCard account have been made.
CLOSING OR MOVING AN ACCOUNT
Should you ever wish to close your account any balance less then ten USD ($10) will be forfeited, or if you wish to transfer or move your account to another name or payee this can be accomplished with a signed authorization statement via certified mail and a fifty ($50) fee. Accounts that have no earnings for an extended period may be deemed 'dormant' and a fee of $1 a pay period ($2 a month) or $10 a period ($20 a month) after 365 of dormancy may apply.
TAXES
It is recommended that you obtain an IRS issued Employer Identification Number (EIN) to use as your taxpayer ID number from the IRS site noted HERE. This will help simplify the 1099 reporting requirement and if you earn more then $600 you are required to have some form of Taxpayer ID affiliated with your account anyway, and your social security number is often considered too private to list.
This details most of what ClickBank is about, how it works and payment methods are determined, who is responsible for which elements of the sale and advertisements etc. - now only you can know if this particular affiliate is right for you and your business or what products you want to promote.
