I like promoting affiliate products on Clickbank, I have been doing that for years, in this post, I am going to share with you some of the hidden Clickbank drawbacks I found during that time.
Hidden Clickbank drawbacks
I am a big believer that affiliate marketing is the easiest way to start making money online and to this day I think Clickbank is the best place you can start promoting affiliate products, however not everything is. perfect with Clickbank, here are some of the hidden Clickbank drawbacks.
Not everyone can promote affiliate products
For me this is the biggest one, it does not matter if you are the best affiliate marketer on the planet, if you are located in a country that is on their banned list you will not be allowed to promote their products.
Their reason for doing this is that those countries are considered high fraud risks or are low-income countries, you can read the full list of banned countries list here.
Direct deposit is available in some countries only
Even if you are located in an allowed country to promote affiliate products, not all of them have an option for direct deposit.
You see you can get paid your affiliate commission either by direct deposit or by receiving a check, personally I prefer direct deposit, as they will deposit your commission directly to your bank account in your local currency, but if they send you a check, you will have personally to deposit the check on your account and the check might take few days to arrive.
you can read the full list of direct deposit countries here.
Customer Distribution Requirement
Most people will not tell you this, but you will not get paid after you make your sale, you have to meet what they call customer distribution requirements, basically, you will have to make 5 sales from 5 different geographical locations using at least two different payment methods.
ClickBank will withhold payment of any balance until an account shows a minimum of 5 sales using at least two of the following payment methods:
- American Express
- Carte Bleue
- Diners Club
- Discover
- Maestro
- MasterCard
- PayPal
- Visa
They will take 7.5%
One day my friend make his first Clickbank sale, he was excited to make his first sale but confused because the amount shown in the account was less than he expected, I had to explain this to my friend.
In theory, if you sell a $37 product and the vendor promised to give you 50% you will expect to make $18.5 per sale, but in your account, you will see less money, here is the reason.
Clickbank will deduct $1 for each transaction for credit/debit card charges, from the rest of the money they will take 7.5% merchant fees, and the rest of the money will divide between the affiliate and the product owner.
so your affiliate commission will be C=(P-1)*0.925*CR where C is your commission, P is the product price, and CR is the commission rate.
So if you are promoting a $37 product you will make about $16.65 per sale assuming you get 50% as commission in this case CR=0.5, this might slightly change depending on other factors.
They take $2.5 per check
Every time ClickBank sends out a check or a direct deposit to you, it will deduct a $2.50 fee.Â
This is for handling your check or deposit, and it is the same amount per check whether it is a minimum of $10 or higher.
You may decide it’s better to wait until you’ve built up a decent amount, instead of losing one-quarter of your commission, on every single check, if your rate is set to that minimum of $10. Â
Set your rate at $100 – or $50, if you really can’t wait. After all, a 2.5% flat fee deducted from your earnings is much better than a 25% fee.
They charge you for a dormant account
If you do not make any commission for more than 3 months, Clickbank will consider it dormant and they will start to deduct money from it ( if you have commissions but you do not meet minimum distributions requirements or minimum payment threshold).
Dormant accounts are subject to a charge of $1 per pay period after 90 days of no earnings, $5 per pay period after 180 days of no earnings, and $50 per pay period after 365 days of no earnings.
The average affiliate makes 3 sales in their lifetime, imagine requiring someone to make 5, this is why most people will never see their money from Clickbank.
But you are not an average affiliate, I am sure you will not be dormant.
They can hold back a portion of your commission
This occurs when the product seller decides to “hold back” a portion of your commission, usually to ensure that they can issue refunds, should the buyers you sent ask for a refund.
It’s more common to see this done if your checks are enormous – but smart marketers don’t mess with their money-producing affiliates.
The good news? Eventually, however, they do have to pay you the rate agreed on.
And the even better news?
If your commission checks are so big that your vendor has to hold back a portion, you know you’re really doing something right.
That is it, those are hidden Clickbank drawbacks, and most of them are easy to overcome some are not, if you think that you can not find a workaround, please consider promoting products from alternatives to Clickbank that I list here.
