Lots of people sell their products on ClickBank. And lots of people do affiliate marketing where they promote ClickBank products. In the world of Internet marketing, ClickBank is usually the place the latest “breakthroughs” are released. It’s also more or less synonymous products loaded with hype. But that’s about to change.
ClickBank announced new guidelines this week that are designed to tone down the level of hype. Or to put it another way, guidelines that are more in line with FTC requirements. Some aggressive marketers might not like this, but the fact is when a product is sold through ClickBank, the merchant in the transaction is ClickBank…not the product owner. That means it’s ClickBank’s neck that is on the line with Mastercard, Visa, etc…not the product owner’s.
It seems that ClickBank might be feeling some heat because of this arrangement, thus the new guidelines. There is nothing groundbreaking about these guidelines as they are basically in line with what the FTC requires. But specifically when using video in the marketing of ClickBank products, here are the highlights:
- Your videos must allow the user to exit or pause the video (that means no video players that force the viewer to watch a video from beginning to end)
- No fictionalized videos that make false claims (telling a false story about a made up person)
- No non-fiction videos that make false claims (telling a false story about yourself)
- No videos using actors unless it’s disclosed the person in the video is an actor
- If using video testimonials with real customers, you must have signed documentation of the customer’s claims
There are a number of non-video related guideline changes as well…from using scarcity and pricing tactics, to upsells, to price disclosures and more. It’s unclear how ClickBank will enforce these guidelines for existing products, but if they manage to do it, the ClickBank landscape is likely in for a big change.
To see the complete list of new ClickBank guidelines, click here.
It’s time to stop all that Clickbank nonsense of offers, upsells, faked screens and such. By permitting these vendors to sell through CB, clickbank is also lowering its reputation big time. That’s one on the reasons I stopped purchasing CB products as I used to, I got tired of it.
That doesn’t mean there aren’t wonderful products to purchase, because there are. It’s just that at this point you can’t tell which are actors and which are real people, the fake from the real. That’s the issue.
So cheers to CB for taking measures!
I’m glad CB is clamping down. I once bought a product and I had to go through and decline 3 upsells before I got to the download page. I complained to CB about it and they said that they allowed that. Out of disgust I didn’t download the product and instead immediately asked for a refund. Since then I haven’t bought a CB product. I hope all these hype and incessant upsells are eradicated from CB.
Oh this is great news! Thanks for sharing this news, Dave. I’ve bought a few things via Clickbank and can’t believe the hoops one has to jump through with up-sells to try and find the very small ‘download your purchase’ kind of link. Some sellers make it so hard to find what you’ve bought and it’s extremely annoying.
The hype and stories used are unbelievable to get people to buy, and I must admit I’ve asked for and received two refunds this month for products that were nothing like the ‘hype’ sales pages.
On the other hand I’ve purchased two other products which are fantastic, and the authenticity of the seller is evident in their non-salesy pitches, and great Support Desks.
This is excellent news all round – let’s weed out those bad eggs 🙂
I’ve wondered for a long time when Clickbank was going to get tired of refunds.I’ve asked and received a refund from every single purchase(i.e. as in EVERY purchase).It was all bullshit hype . Hopefully this recent move will clean house.
It’S a beautiful concept – they merely need to raise the bar.