Calling All Blackhat Geniuses...Can You Figure This Out??

[j21primetime]

Ok, so here it is....I'm convinced someone has hacked my computer or hacked clickbank and figured out a way to identify my clickbank affiliate id and is redirecting sales from my id to there account!! I know for sure that something is happening as I have basically copied top running ads and run them myself for a while with absolutely zero results. There is no way that that many top ads & advertisers are running losing ads. So, the evidence points to something very fishy going on with my accounts!!! Any Blackhatters have any ideas of how my accounts could be compromised??? thanks, j21primetime

 

[JinxY]

there are 1000 ways to compromise a machine, maybe you installed some warez binded with a trojan or a keylogger, there's no way to tell you how they did it.

 

[artswerdstone]

Ok, so here it is....I'm convinced someone has hacked my computer or hacked clickbank and figured out a way to identify my clickbank affiliate id and is redirecting sales from my id to there account!! I know for sure that something is happening as I have basically copied top running ads and run them myself for a while with absolutely zero results. There is no way that that many top ads & advertisers are running losing ads. So, the evidence points to something very fishy going on with my accounts!!! Any Blackhatters have any ideas of how my accounts could be compromised??? thanks, j21primetime

Very strange. Are you promoting via your local computer or via a web page hosted somewhere else?

If you aren't using your PC as your web server, then try to look into your hosting accounts to find anything odd.

Anyway, check your scripts and pages that appear on the Internet.

 

[portillo]

Yep that is correct, there are actually quite a few ways to do this. But reading your post again, what you are saying is not making sense. Just by running the same ads does not mean you will automatically make money. By reading in to your post a little it looks like you never made any money, and you have assumed you will have results. That is a little silly. And I think this is where you are asking how to compromise accounts and you wont get that from any of us....

 

[portillo]

Artswerd, read his post again it looks fishy to me the way he worded it. He never had results just "expected" them because no one would be running losing ads..LOL this is silly

 

[j21primetime]

ok, portillo....first you don't know what you're talking about....I have alot of experience in PPC and I was making good money in PPC until just recently....I had 2 products that were killing and I was number 1 for the paid results.....What happened is that suddenly and without warning after 6 months of succesful daily sales...all of my sales just stopped cold, and I mean cold. I changed clickbank id's. I've searched my computer for viruses.( I keep getting one called Qoologic by the way and yes it's a keylogger) Finally I Copied Succesful ads EEEXXXACTly...I Copied Ads that were in the 1 spot and had been running there for months, virtually guaranteeing that those ads were making the affiliate money. All you have to do to get 1 spot is copy someones ad exactly and use exact same display url and then out bid them...If you bid 1 cent more than them for that display url then their ad will not show and they are effectively eliminated from the bidding equation...meaning you only have to pay one more cent than whatever the #2 guy is bidding....not 1 more cent than the guy you just copied is bidding.... Good enough Portillo??? If you want to offer advice or an opinion that's great...but don't assume you know anything about who I am or what my motives are...... Thanks, J21primetime

 

[Jagged55]

Pick up the phone and call your account manager. If the ID is being redirected then they should be able to try a test buy through your link and see where the commission gets registered.

 

[trophaeum]

u got a keylogger and your willing to trust that your system is clean after mearly removing it? thats funny

 

[artswerdstone]

Artswerd, read his post again it looks fishy to me the way he worded it. He never had results just "expected" them because no one would be running losing ads..LOL this is silly

Well, the post just doesn't contain enough information to figure out what happened.
What I can repeatedly recommend is just to follow the process and watch what happents.

Where is the source of the ads?
Does the ad contain the affiliate link as it should be?
If you click on the ad or link, then what happens? Does it get redirected?
Can you see the source of the scripts through the file manager of the hosting server?
Is there any suspicious redirecting script?
Was the .htaccess fiel hacked to redirect anything where it is not supposed to be redirected?

 

[portillo]

j21, back up for a second before you attempt to start a pissing match with me Im really not the one and Ive never had one here. So for starters your whole concept of equating ads to money is flawed. I dont care if you ran the exact ads and bid 1cents higher that does not virtually gurantee that the ads were converting for the affiliates, if you read around this very forum you will realize that "just" running ads puts you at a very serious disadvantage to veteran marketers. I can stuff cookies , I can have an opt-in list of 200,000, etc. There are way too many tools the pros use to actually base your expected conversion on the ad, in fact Im going to go on the record and state that an ad is irrelevant now a days, if you dont believe me look around the forum a bit more. Now you are correct I dont know anything about you, and maybe I misjudged your intentions but you gave very vague information, and with all the new noob activity around here, its hard to read between the lines......

 

[cabuki]

amen portillo

 

[lschmidt]

lol you guys must be retarded or something. there's no way that could happen unless there was an inside man at google or clickbank. or something far-fetched like that.

and j21primetime, you completely contradicted yourself. first you said you were suspicious because you "basically copied top running ads and run them myself for a while with absolutely zero results." (that's your quote)

then you say..."I had 2 products that were killing and I was number 1 for the paid results.....What happened is that suddenly and without warning after 6 months of succesful daily sales...all of my sales just stopped cold"

nobody has hacked your clickbank account (whatever the hell that even means), you're dumb for thinking you can copy an ad that's running and just expect it to be profitable.

 

[Jagged55]

lol you guys must be retarded or something....you're dumb for thinking.....

Not trying to turn this into a preaching thing but what is with the flaming? I know the spammers deserve to be lit up for sure and there are some basic/idiotic questions in the forum but when an entire list of people is called retraded, I do take a little offense to that!

I know nothing about you lschmidt and don't want to pass judgement but I can speak form experience and say that I have been burned for tens of thousands of dollars by affiliate programs over the years so I don't put anything past them. Others may not want to admit to it publically but I am sure that there are many others here that feel that they had been ripped off also. So your "inside man" theory, isn't crazy at all. It may be in this instance but think past your current post and think more towards the reputation that you are trying to build here for yourself.

In the immortal words of Tony Soprano: "Those who want respect, give respect"

 

[bizcredit]

Could have hijacked your host and cookie stuff all your users. Could have edited your promo page and cookie stuffed all your visitors.

 

[rubixcubeman]

Okay, I don't get it, you know what the problem was, someone highjacked yer stuff. You come ask for help, and then bash the guy tryin to get to the bottom of the problem. Put it this way, if someone was smart enough to hack into your computer and install a keylogger remotely, stealing your affilliate id or stealing your clickbank info would be simple for that person. Maybe its a competitor, if you really want help you need to give more details to the group so they can give a better opinion. Well, at least this is good reading.

 

[j21primetime]

Jagged, you clearly don't have the experience in PPc that others in this thread do....I would suggest you not comment on something you know nothing about!!! You stated that I contradicted my self....but then never gave a clear contradiction????? Jagged, just please stay out of it as you are clearly in over your head!! Thanks, J21primetime

 

[Essential Clix]

Let's not start a flame war here. Keep your responses as professional as possible.

 

[j21primetime]

Ok,, for Portillo & the group here's exactly what I tried doing!

First, let me just tell you what I did for about 6 months....I direct linked to a merchant's product page! I was converting 1 in 8 on one of the products for like 3 months....I made 1000 dollars a month for 2 direct linking campaigns....then it all just suddenly stopped....and I changed nothing in my campaigns!! I tried several different things to right the ship but nothing worked so I decided to try the method below.....

I studied some ads that had been running at the 1 position for a couple of months on particular keywords...I also studied and eventually selected ads that were being run by big players in the direct linking game!!! It's not hard to recognize them as there are 2 affiliate Id's that are all over the #1 spots for multiple products and keywords in clickbank. Now unless these 2 affiliates just love throwing money away, I would guess the ads they are running in the 1 spot for months at a time are profitable???? They would have to monitor this closely as the 1 spot is very costly. Now all that being said I attempted to take over those ads for just like a couple hours a day as not to arouse suspicion. I copied the ad exactly and bid extremely high to cancel out the top ad..even though my ad was worded exactly the same. This worked beautifully...the copying part that is. Remember this is simply a direct linking campaign...with no cookie stuffing or lead generation going on...on the part of the affiliate!! These direct linking campaigns in the 1 spot generally convert around 1 in 20 to 1 in 30 on the right keywords from everything that I've read...and I've read alot...!! Ok, so I hope I've established that my reasoning is sound and that the ads I've copied should in all likely hood be profitable?? But to make sure I copied 25 different ads on different keywords..just to make sure I would run into some profitable #1 ads. I let them run for 200 clicks. Are you ready for the results?? 1 sale??? Now, let's see....I had 2 wildly successful campaigns running for 6 months that suddenly just stopped....I copied ads that had been running a minimum of 2 months by top notch affiliates......Is it really unreasonable to think that my clickbank account or my google account has been compromised in some way?? Everything I did had the exact same variables...the only different variable was my clickbank aff id was attached to the ads!!! You tell me?? Thanks, j21primetime

 

[Jagged55]

Jagged, you clearly don't have the experience in PPc that others in this thread do....I would suggest you not comment on something you know nothing about!!! You stated that I contradicted my self....but then never gave a clear contradiction????? Jagged, just please stay out of it as you are clearly in over your head!! Thanks, J21primetime

LOL...this is exactly my point with the flaming...you didn't read my post or you would have realized that I wasn't directing anything your way!

Anyway, rock on fella and get rid of that keylogger on your PC. If I had of seen that in your earlier post, I wouldn't have even jumped into this thread at all.

I better take your advice and get out of here now...I am drowning in all of this "high level" PPC talk

 

[boomboomer]

This worked beautifully...the copying part that is.

lol ... this is funny :rofl:

Remember this is simply a direct linking campaign...with no cookie stuffing or lead generation going on...on the part of the affiliate!!

It may not be. But how many times have you seen someone buy a product immediately after visiting the sales page for the 1st time. It is possible that visitors go looking for reviews and end up clicking someone else's affiliate link which could be one reason why you didn't get any commission.

These direct linking campaigns in the 1 spot generally convert around 1 in 20 to 1 in 30 on the right keywords from everything that I've read...and I've read alot...!!

Dude .. didn't you read anywhere that the conversion depends on the salespage quality and not the position of the ad! (I guess you'll have to sit with more reading stuff tonite)

Ok, so I hope I've established that my reasoning is sound and that the ads I've copied should in all likely hood be profitable??

Nope .. you have established nothing but the fact that you are living in fantasyland.

But to make sure I copied 25 different ads on different keywords..just to make sure I would run into some profitable #1 ads. I let them run for 200 clicks.

Were the keywords relevant to someone looking to buy that product? Did you take care to exclude words like 'free', 'pirated' and related stuff?

Are you ready for the results?? 1 sale??? Now, let's see....I had 2 wildly successful campaigns running for 6 months that suddenly just stopped....I copied ads that had been running a minimum of 2 months by top notch affiliates......Is it really unreasonable to think that my clickbank account or my google account has been compromised in some way?? Everything I did had the exact same variables...the only different variable was my clickbank aff id was attached to the ads!!! You tell me?? Thanks, j21primetime

Yeah .. it is pretty unreasonable to think that your account has been compromised. I'll give you some reasons:
1. You set your target link (which, from your description sounds like the affiliate link) in the Adwords Control Panel. I'm sure if you can still check your adwords account, you'll find that the link is the same. (If this is not the case, there is no need for this thread since you know that it is your google adwords account that has been hacked.)

2. Now this link takes visitors directly to the salespage of the vendor. Now unless the vendor is overriding the cookie that your link sets, there is no way that your cookie can be overridden (assuming that the customer buys there and then, which is highly improbable.).

and finally, it would certainly help you get better suggestions and a LOT of inputs/help from other members if your tone were a bit more polite.