Silly dormant account policy - policy takes money out of affiliates accounts

I have been promoting some smaller CB products last year, but did not reach my set payment. Today, I wanted to check my account and get back into promoting CB and noticed my balance was at zero, but I have never received any payout. Obviously, CB deducts a monthly fee between 1$ and 50$ for accounts that are dormant. A great way to discourage people from sending traffic! I don't think I will ever promote them again. Don't care about the money, but this policy is nothing but theft imho.

Accounts with a positive balance but no earnings for an extended period of time are considered dormant. 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.

Click to expand...

the whole point is to keep you promoting and not have a bunch of promoters who promote once and quit. They want you to keep making money so that they can make money. If you're giving up, mind sharing your method?

Well, that's silly. I promote thousands of products as an affiliate. Usually, CB products are of very low quality, so I am having a hard time in finding any products that live up to their advertising. I was not even informed that the product I promoted no longer exists. So this policy did deprave me of my earnings. Not worth complaining for the money, but this policy does the exact opposite of what you say. It makes me stop working with them.

I had a dry spell and lost 10$, then worked harder and made a few sales. I taught it sucked, but at the same time it's motivating.

I've always found that policy to be stupid. On the one hand, it makes sense to cut under-performing or lapsed affiliates. On the other hand, it sucks to come back from a few-month break to find you've lost nearly a hundred dollars.

It's penny wise and pound foolish, IMO.

All I remember is that it deterred asshole buyers from buying through their own link, since they'd never get paid anyway, because they're not the marketers doing the work.

If you want paid, keep sending.

Having said all that, the offers on there are not NEARLY as hot as they used to be. I've actually stopped promoting Clickbank almost completely, because the offers suck ass lately. I used to do six figures a year with them, but they've bitten the hands that feed them too many times, so I'm sticking mostly to private networks, CPA, and only on rare occasion their alternatives (Clicksure, JVZoo, etc.).

Oh tell me about it. Especially with their new "security rating" feature.

Like Autumn (BHW user here) said that they did this to encourage aggressive marketing to keep a balance. If not, your security rating will fall to "risky" due to refund rates and they will start charging you for chargeback and refunds. Next thing you know, dormant charges.

I'm lucky to have "Good" rating for the time being. I'm still aggressively promoting and earning on a consistent basis.


P.S: Great to see another Singaporean here!

BlackSeng said:

Oh tell me about it. Especially with their new "security rating" feature.

Like Autumn (BHW user here) said that they did this to encourage aggressive marketing to keep a balance. If not, your security rating will fall to "risky" due to refund rates and they will start charging you for chargeback and refunds. Next thing you know, dormant charges.

I'm lucky to have "Good" rating for the time being. I'm still aggressively promoting and earning on a consistent basis.


P.S: Great to see another Singaporean here!

Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm not going to lie; I flipped out when I saw that they are now even trying to charge fees to affiliate accounts for refund rate.

And the risk status is a joke. If Clickbank wants to find the REAL reason why refunds are so high, they should look at how freely they, THEMSELVES, give refunds out.

I actually decided to test that one time. I had purchased a product from a friend of mine, and out of curiosity, I sent an email to Clickbank's support asking how easy it would be to get a refund. I got a reply saying that I had received my requested refund. I didn't even actually ask for a refund! I asked for information about their refund policy!

This kind of stuff is going to be the reason why Clickbank will be down to a couple dozen affiliates, eventually. Sure, those affiliates will have stellar ratings, but they're cutting off their noses to spite their face.

On the one hand, it is sneaky of them to take the money out of a dormant account when they themselves have dictated the terms of what "dormant" means, but on the other I don't think they've actually done anything illegal. You could try complaining to them, but I guess it's in the terms and conditions that they can do this and it's at their discretion as to whether they would even answer you. I suppose until you reach the cash-out point, it's not actually cash.