ClickBank Cockroach Infestation – Warning to Affiliate Marketers and Consumers

ClickBank ’s policy of not permitting affiliates to list their products for sale is starting to crack and chinks are appearing in their armor. Recently after buying a product which I was researching for my website members I received a lot of free third party material. As it is hard for me to forget my former career as an investigative reporter I was intrigued by what I found in the treasure trove of freebies once I began digging in to the material. Regrettably or fortunately (as you may decide) I unearthed an infestation of cockroaches in plague proportions in the Clickbank marketplace.

What ClickBank will do about it is yet to be seen. In fact I do not know if they are even yet aware of the problem. Which is why it is appropriate that a warning be given to affiliate marketers who endeavor to resell other authors products. Also consumers – purchasers of the end products – might be warned that the cockroach marketing brigade are afoot.

Most affiliate marketers are aware of PLR (Private Label rights). It seems though that the marketing of PLR products has gotten out of control in the hottest of current internet marketing niches. One of the hottest niches at the moment is CPA (Cost Per Action or Cost per Acquisition). In case you are unfamiliar with that: CPA is an advertising system where affiliate marketers get paid without there being any required purchase by their website visitors. There are some most remarkable aspects of this style of marketing as affiliate marketers earn money from a “no selling” approach to entice potential customers of advertisers to either accept free gifts or simply opt-in to receive further information. Unlike the situation with ClickBank and PayPal purchases where affiliate marketers have a write back against their commissions when a purchaser asks for a cancellation of the sale and gets a refund – with CPA marketing affiliates never lose their earnings as they earn their money irrespective of whether a prospect purchases or not from the advertiser.

Now back to the debacle. In respect of one specific CPA information product targeting affiliate marketers there are PLR rights available in two forms. The cut down version is actually free – usually bundled as a thank you gift. The other version which has just a few more bells and whistles thrown in for a small fee sports a different name for marketing – but is essentially the same product. (Only the packaging is altered).

Both varieties can be observed but the more prevalent strain emanates from the ‘free” version of the product. Quite amusing in aspects as if you care to examine the bugs (I really wanted to insert 3 more letters to that word) you will notice that many have not included all the links to their websites and some have not yet even installed payment collection. The buttons are there but they are inactive. Some of the coding still has the original directions for the new owners to alter things like “YOUROWNDOMAIN”.

There are slight variations among the species of the cockroaches – displayed by differences in the commission rates being offered to affiliate marketers who promote their products for sale. The variations I noted ranged from just 50% up to 75% – for the same darn product. What does this say about cockroach marketing? There was little variance from the $37 product price set by the promulgator of the product – although in the outside market I have noticed some reselling at lower prices.

Obviously I am alarmed to see how the granting of Private Label Rights has bred cockroach marketers who now infest the principal place where internet marketers have been obtain products for their business. This degradation can only have a negative impact on internet marketing and the authors of products.

Maybe you disagree with me? As everyone is entitled to their opinions feel free to comment on my viewpoint. What is your take on the proliferation of PLR and the cockroach brigade?

Louise Lewis – previously an investigative journalist – is now a happily married full-time mother and part-time internet marketer; interested in assisting New Affiliate marketers make money, especially in the areas of CPA and Free Traffic generation.

Material on all sorts of Internet Affiliate Programs can be found on her website http://AffiliateNew.com – where you may enroll for a Free CPA Lessons Course and Newsletters on Affiliate Marketing