ClickBank Raises the Bar – Promotes “White Hat” Sales Techniques & Cracks Down on “Black Hat”
I just finished reading the update to Clickbank’s terms of services for vendors, and WOW!
They’re taking real steps to help unsuspecting customers remain safe from unscrupulous vendors.
Here’s a short list of the changes:
- No “fake” testimonials or “fake” sellers.
I love this one – I recently saw a product sold on clickbank where the sales page described a “normal” person – actually, a hobo – who climbed from living off the streets to riches within a year of using the traffic methods being advertised in the product. It made me sick, though, when I found out shortly later that the entire “story” was a made up fairy tale – the person didn’t exist, it hadn’t necessarily transform anyone’s life – it was all a crock of s*%#
No more of that.
Also of personal interest to me is no more “video only” web pages that you can’t stop or pause.
- No fake scarcity
No more countdowns saying “only 13 minutes left to buy”. No more “Only 60 37 12 3 remaining. Buy Now!” Unless it’s real. If you write something like that, Clickbank will count how many sales are made, and when that “3″ hits “0″ they won’t let you sell your product any more for another week! Note that “one time offers” which only really do display once, are still allowed – they’re not banning scarcity, justblatantly made-up scarcity.
- No more fake discounts
No more saying “This product normally sells for $997, but TODAY ONLY you can get it for just $97!” – again, not unless it’s true. Clickbank will check the prices, and if you’ve sold the product for a while at $997, you can write it… But you can’t just plug in a $997 price tag for the sake of offering the discount.
- Limits on One-Time-Offers / Upsells
There’s nothing wrong with an honest upsell! But no more days of buying a cheap product only to be slammed with tens of offers to confuse and frighten you. There are now firm limits of how many upsells can be offered, as well as how many “wait one second!” exit offers are allowed
There are a few more, and you can view the full details at Clickbank’s website.
My favorite part of these new rules is that my products already comply with every single one of them! (Go me!) How’s that for honest marketing?
Do you know of products that do or don’t comply? Let me know by commenting!
I’m glad something is being done about the fake testimonials. It only takes being on line for a bit to realize that its around us and it isn’t going to stop unless we speak up. There is no over night miracle just taking action with a plan is fine by me.
This is a new one in my email for “Affilliate Marketing”. There seems to be a new one every week. I was going to check into this one until I saw your Blog. Is it on the level or not? They are doing one thing that you said is not supposed to be allowed. That is showing the price they could charge and then lowering it several times. One other thing I wished Clickbank would stop; charging one price for a so called product and then once you get the product you are”offered” to buy more and more to make the product “work better”. I really am so sick of all the hipe and lies. If there really are any honest ones out there offering their product, its gotten to the point that no one will believe them.