1. How do I become a ClickBank affiliate?
You must first sign up for your FREE ClickBank account. If you have not yet signed up for a ClickBank account, please click HERE. During the signup process you will select your ClickBank nickname. Your nickname is your unique ID that allows us to accurately track and award the commissions you earn. You will use your nickname in all affiliate links (hoplinks) that you create.
2. How much can I earn?
Commissions range from 1% to 75% and are determined by the publisher of the product. The minimum commission for a single sale is $0.25, and the maximum is $100.00. If you are selling a recurring billing product as a subscription or as an installment, affiliates will earn commission for each rebill. The commission rate offered at the time of the initial payment remains the same for all rebills. If a recurring billing product is canceled, no future commissions will be awarded.
3. Can I use one ClickBank Account for all of my affiliate links?
Yes. You can promote any number of ClickBank products with your one ClickBank account.
4. How do I identify the most successful products to promote?
Some affiliates prefer to promote very popular products that attract lots of affiliates (high affiliate gravity), while others prefer to promote products with less advertising exposure (lower affiliate gravity). The Marketplace can be sorted, within each category and sub-category, by item gravity. Either way, your best bet is to promote products that are well presented and likely to appeal to the people who visit your website, or view your advertisements.
5. Can ClickBank generate my hoplink code for me?
Once you have your ClickBank nickname, you can go to our Marketplace and Clickbank will give you the code you need to add to your website. When you find a product you would like to promote, click on create hoplink. You will be prompted to enter your ClickBank nickname, and your hoplink code will be generated for you.
6. How do I add the tracking code to my hoplink?
For more information regarding the implementation of a tracking code, please refer to the Hoplink FAQ page. Note: The tracking code will not be passed to the publisher site during the hoplink process and will not be displayed in their publisher transaction detail.
7. Where can I view the tracking code on an order?
The tracking code information will be stored in a TID column located in the transaction detail report for each sale.
8. Rather than selecting specific products to promote, can I simply refer customers to the ClickBank Marketplace?
Yes. When you refer a potential customer to the ClickBank Marketplace, you will earn a commission when a customer follows a Marketplace link and purchases any product that is listed in the ClickBank Marketplace. The commission amount is calculated by the net sale amount and the commission rate of the product.
See Affiliate Tool #1 for information on how to set up a hoplink to the Marketplace.
9. What if I use an affiliate link that looks different than the standard ClickBank hoplink?
Please be aware that if you use a third party product that changes our hoplink format in ANY way, there is no way for us to verify that your commissions will be tracked properly. ClickBank can only provide our clients with technical support for our own authorized hoplink format.
10. Can I send customers directly to the URL that ends in "/?hop=nickname"?
No. The "?hop=..." is just information we pass along to the publisher's web site AFTER recording a legitimate referral via hop.clickbank.net. If you bypass hop.clickbank.net there is no way for us to track your referral.
11. How are commissions calculated for standard products?
For standard products, ClickBank purchases the product from the publisher at a wholesale price equal to 92.5% of retail, less a $1 stocking charge. For affiliate directed sales, the commission percentage is subtracted from the net sale price.
Here is an example of the commission calculation if you are promoting a product that offers a 55% commission:
Retail Price: $29.95
Subtract 7.5% + $1: -$3.25
Net Sale Amount: $26.70
55% of the remainder: $14.69
Therefore, as the referring affiliate for this sale, you would earn $14.69.
12. How are commissions calculated for recurring billing products?
For standard products, initial payments for recurring billing subscriptions, and all installment payments, ClickBank purchases the product from the publisher at a wholesale price equal to 92.5% of retail, less a $1 stocking charge. This is also true of rebills for recurring billing subscriptions when the rebill price is $40 or more. However, for recurring billing subscriptions where the rebill price is less than $40, ClickBank purchases the rebills for the subscription from the publisher at a wholesale price equal to 90.1% of retail. For affiliate directed sales, the commission percentage is subtracted from the net sale price.
Here is an example of how commissions are calculated if a publisher offered a 55% commission for a 12 month recurring billing subscription where the initial payment is $29.95, and the rebill payments are $9.95:
Initial Payment: $29.95
55% Commission on Net Sale (see calculation above): $14.69
Rebill Payments: $9.95/month for 11 months
Subtract 9.9% for each payment: -$0.99/month
Net Sale Amount: $8.96/month
55% of the remainder: $4.93/month for the life of the subscription
Total Earned by Affiliate for this Subscription: $14.69 + ($4.93 x 11) = $68.92
13. When I earn a commission, how soon will it be reflected in my account?
Any commissions you earn will be posted in your stats within two minutes of a successful purchase.
For recurring billing products, the commission you earn on the rebill payments will post to your account on the scheduled day according to the payment terms, within two minutes of ClickBank charging the customer.
Here's an example:
A customer clicks through your hoplink and purchases a recurring billing product on May 25th. The rebill schedule (initial payment + subsequent rebills) is for a duration of 4 months. Assuming the customer does not cancel, you will be paid commissions on May 25th, June 25th, July 25th, and August 25th.
14. What happens to the commissions I am scheduled to earn for a recurring billing product if a rebill attempt fails?
There may be cases where a customer's rebill attempt fails for some reason (e.g. insufficient funds, expired credit card, etc.). In these cases, ClickBank does reattempt to charge the credit card for the rebill or obtain new billing information up to four times over a one week period of time. In these cases, the affiliate commission is not earned until a successful rebill is made. The commission will post to the account on the day that the rebill goes through successfully. See the Recurring Billing FAQ for more information.
15. How can I tell which products are generating the most sales for my account?
The best way to tell which products are generating the most sales for your account is to use the "Affiliate Reporting" tool within your account. To find "Affiliate Reporting", log in to your account, go to the "Reporting" tab, and then select "Analytics". Under "Affiliate Reporting", select "Publishers" for the "Show" drop-down list, and then select the range of time that you want to research. Then, click "Go". Your analytics will show how many sales you earned a commission for referring to each publisher, the number of refunds, etc.
Keep in mind that if you are interested in a particular product sold by a publisher that offers multiple products through the same account, the "Analytics" section does not provide item number detail at this time. To get information about a particular item within an account, you will need to log into your account, click on the "Reporting" tab, and then select "Transactions". Select a date range (your date range must be less than three months), enter a specific item number, and click "Go". The nickname of the publisher from whom you earned each commission will be listed under the heading "Publisher", so if you have sold multiple products with the same item number, just click at the top of the "Publisher" column to sort the total list by individual publishers.
16. How will I be paid the commissions I earn?
ClickBank issues checks twice monthly to all qualified accounts. See Clickbank Accounting Policy for full details.
17. I've made a sale, why haven't I received a check?
There are two possible reasons:
1. You may not have reached your selected payment preference, which is the minimum amount of money that must be in your account before Clickbank sends you a check. In your account you may select an amount from $10 to $10,000 as your payment preference. The default setting is $100. Clickbank holds your check until your payable balance reaches this amount.
To change your payment preference, simply login to your account, click the "Account Settings" tab. Select the desired amount from the drop down menu for "Payment Threshold", and click the "Save Changes" button.
2. You may not have met the Customer Distribution Requirement:
ClickBank accounts cannot be used for the sole purpose of collecting rebates or otherwise extending credit to yourself or others. In compliance with US law, ClickBank will withhold payment of any account balance until it contains standing sales made with 5 or more different credit card numbers, including at least one Visa card, and one MasterCard. PayPal and eCheck purchases do not count toward the minimum.
For more details please see Clickbank Accounting Policy.
18. I have old hoplinks in a different format. Will they still work?
Yes. Any old ClickBank hoplinks you have will continue to work, however, the new format is likely to improve your conversion rates. This is because spyware and other hostile programs that hijack links and divert advertisements do not know your personalized hoplink domain name.
19. If I refer a customer to one publisher site, and they purchase several of their products, will I get a commission on each sale?
Yes.
20. If I refer a customer to one publisher site, but the customer ends up buying products offered by a different publisher, will I get a commission on the sale?
No.
21. Am I 100% guaranteed referral credit no matter what the customer does to avoid being tracked?
Tracking referrals is crucial to the success of Clickbank business, so you can be sure that Clickbank uses the best efforts to track customers within the constraints of the law and available technology. However, for the sake of legal correctness, Clickbank has to make the following disclaimer:
The affiliate (if any) Clickbank associates with any sale is determined by an automated tracking system. Any decision made by this system is final and not subject to petition or debate. Though Clickbank believes the tracking system to be more fair and accurate than any alternative, Clickbank makes no representation regarding the ability of the system to track any specific customer, for any specific length of time.
22. Can your system track the number of hits my hoplink gets?
In order to minimize response time, Clickbank hop server is not currently programmed to count hoplink hits explicitly. It is possible, however, to perform a count on your end by using a cgi counter script at your site to receive incoming hoplink hits.
23. How many products can I promote at one time?
As many as you want! ClickBank does not limit the number of products that affiliates can promote.
24. I misspelled my nickname in my hoplink and I know I've made sales! Can I get that money?
It depends. If the misspelled nickname you used belongs to someone else, then you are out of luck because there is no way for us to transfer that money to the correct account. However, if the nickname does not belong to someone else, you can contact customer service for access to that account. Any sales made under that nickname will be listed in the stats, even though the account did not exist when the sales were made. Clickbank cannot transfer money from one account to another, and each account is subject to the terms outlined in the Accounting Policy individually.
25. Can I purchase products through my own hoplink?
The short answer is yes, but ClickBank does not condone affiliates using their accounts for this sole purpose. As stated in the Accounting Policy, "ClickBank accounts cannot be used for the sole purpose of collecting rebates or otherwise extending credit to yourself or others." That is, affiliates should not be using their own hoplinks to purchase products for themselves and then collect a "rebate" check from ClickBank.
Unless an account contains sales from made with 5 or more different credit card numbers, including at least one Visa card, and one MasterCard, Clickbank system will not generate a check for that account (even if the balance has met or exceeded the payment preference). PayPal and eCheck purchases do not count toward the minimum.
26. Where can I advertise my links?
There are a variety of ways in which you may promote products. How many or how little of the available methods you choose to employ is purely up to your discretion. Be sure the ways you choose to promote your products is in compliance with the Client Contract.
27. I'm a beginner affiliate. Where can I go to find help?
Since your success as a affiliate is important to ClickBank, Clickbank has collected some resources that you might find helpful in understanding how to maximize your opportunities. For more information, please visit the Resources page. You may also want to check out the ClickBank Marketplace and search under the categories "Business to Business" and "Marketing and Advertising". There are several ClickBank publishers who offer assistance for beginner affiliates.
Also, please be sure to read over and familiarize yourself with the ClickBank Client Contract before you begin your first promotion.
28. Can publishers cheat affiliates by "undoing" the commission on a sale, or by pretending that a sale was returned?
No. Unlike other popular affiliate solutions, we handle both the sale and the awarding of commissions. The only way to undo a commission is to approve a return of the order.
