I actually came here to start a thread similar to yours. I might be wrong, but I have a feeling that Clickbank became a prely scam platform. Scam not because of the quality of the product, but because the vendors somehow can process the sales without paying to their affiliates.
I MIGHT be wrong though. I've been promoting CB products since 2014. Not on a huge scale, mainly using organic traffic (SEO and Youtube).
And if even a year or two ago I was making a few sales but regularly, over the last year I get the same amount of traffic and some of the products bring me literally 0 sales.
For example, here are the stats for 3 different products in 3 different niches that I've been promoting for a few years (from 2 to 6 years depending on the product). And each one of them was selling well 1-2 years ago so I know for sure that these products are converting. The stats are for the period of the last 4 months from October 2020 until today:
1) Product one: hop count 811, Order form impressions 11, sales 0.
It's just since October cuz I can't check past that date (the system allows you to check only last 4 months). At the beginning of last year I was getting even more hops. And guess how many sales I made over the last 12 months of this product? 0 (ZERO).
2) Product two: Hop count 374, order form impressions 45, sales 0.
Again, I used to be making a few sales per month of this product a couple of years ago. Now it's been 0 since more than a year ago.
3) Product three: Hop count 711, order form impressions 15, sales 4.
This product is the only one that sells at the moment.
Just to be objective, I can assume that it might be the impact of the global situation. But I still make sales here and there on other platforms. Less than before, but I still make sales. And on CB 2 of the products I haven't sold a SINGLE TIME for more than a year.
The only trick that I'm aware of is that if a vendor collects emails of the leads that you bring to their landing page, then they can sell their products via email using their own link and you wouln't get a commission. I checked on of these products (that is not selling), subbed to their email using my own affiliate link. And if I click the link in their email, I see the hop in the stats. So if they really are tricking the system, it must be a more hidden way.
And one last point. The gravity of these products stay the same as it used to be when they were selling. Which means that these products ARE selling by different affiliates. The only thing though, if a vendor can trick the system, then it could be so that they let an affiliate make a few sales to keep the gravity up and to let the affiliate know that the product is selling so they keep promote it. And then switch the scam mode on and take all the money to themselves.
I was testing some stuff and ran paid ads + CB products for one of the top products at a time last year. And I made 4 sales within a few days with that campaign and was profitable right away. Then I kep running that same campaign and I haven't got any more sales even though I drove 5 times more of the same traffic.
Maybe I'm just being too suspicious. But I'm wondering what others have to say about it.