greenmusic
Regular Member
- Dec 15, 2012
- 415
- 175
Did you guys receive this email on Oct 15th?
Subject: We messed up
A letter from ClickBank's CEO
We owe you an explanation
Hi *******,
You Were Right!
Anger. Frustration. Confusion. Your feedback resonated with us loud and clear, and ClickBank has never been more humbled than by your honest and raw comments in response to our recent platform changes. For that, we owe you both an apology and an explanation.
Here's What We Should Have Told You
Over the years, we've prioritized you over our card brand partners. Truth is ClickBank has supported the wishes of our vendors and affiliates to decrease the presence of our branding in your sales flow.
The Card Brands Don't Like This
Our card brand partners have established guidelines around how to conduct business as an internet retailer. Frankly, we went too far in ignoring their rules. (To learn more about these rules and the differences between payment processing, internet retailers and services providers, please click here.)
And We Reacted Too Quickly
In an attempt to address the branding rules in accordance with the card brand guidelines, we implemented our initial version of the "Always on Shopping Portal." Without question, our communication and implementation around this change was not done in a manner that was acceptable to you, or to what we expect from ourselves in serving you, our clients.
We are truly sorry for failing to do this in a more thoughtful way. We've listened to your feedback and are working with top vendors and affiliates in order to move forward.
ClickBank's Merchant Account Remains Impenetrable & Our Future Rock Solid
We've heard the rumors and need to set the record straight. Although we reacted quickly (too quickly) to card brand requests, ClickBank is NOT in danger of losing our merchant account. Facts:
ClickBank & clients have enjoyed one of our best years ever
We have removed many of the bad actors in our marketplace, dramatically improving quality of our products and services
We maintain strong relationships with our card brand and payment partners
THIS is What Really Happened
Although the business was NEVER in jeopardy, ClickBank did have some very serious discussions with payment partners around paying attention to their guidelines. Our good standing as a premier internet retailer means adhering to a new set of directives that we must implement on the platform in some form.
We Need Your Input to Move Forward
We've heard you loud and clear and understand the recent changes are unacceptable to you and your business. So now we need your help. We have been actively receiving feedback and working closely with our largest vendors and affiliates on the best options for moving forward. We are changing our communication plan from tight-lipped to transparent.
TODAY WE CAN GUARANTEE THIS:
The Branded ClickBank iFrames are Gone and Won't Be Back
This means that your Pitch Page will NOT be redirected to a shop.clickbank.net domain. It will remain under your own URL no matter where the traffic originates.
However, We Must Retain ClickBank Branding on Some Pages
At the directive of our card brand partners, we must show customers the ClickBank logo on any page that has a pay link. We're now dedicated to doing this in a way that is acceptable to you. We hosted initial design discussions with several key vendors and affiliates this week and all indications are that we're on the right track. We expect beta versions to be ready around the 27th of October. We will be clearly communicating these changes with you prior to implementation.
The Marketplace Link is Also Gone
As a direct result of your feedback we will not create links where we can't support attribution for vendors and affiliates. We have no current plans to revisit this item.
And There's More We Need to Do
There are still more changes we must make, and we'll need your help and input along the way:
1. New End-Customer Focused Website: From our website customers must understand who ClickBank is and what type of products we sell. We've changed our website accordingly, now featuring products on our platform.
2. Content Delivery: We need to support content delivery to customers, when possible. This should have an added benefit of taking the technical support burden off of vendors for products, like e-books, where the consumer may not understand how to download the product or if resending download links is necessary.
3. Customer Account Support: Repeat customers will be able to create an account to store their purchase history and payment information. This comes with an added benefit of faster checkout for repeat customers and serves an ongoing request from vendors.
We Need Beta Participants That Can Help Us Nail It
Seriously, we need real deal vendors to test this stuff out and give us a piece of your mind. If you are open to working with us on the early iterations of our logo, customer account feature and/or content delivery functions, let us know here.
As a beta tester you'll be encouraged to post or blog about your experiences so that we're maintaining unbiased feedback and transparency. We anticipate a large and diverse group of beta testers to ensure that we are adequately representing all viewpoints and use cases.
Above All, Remember This
The last thing we want to do is jeopardize your business, reduce your conversions or piss off our clients. Why? For us, that's business suicide.
Our sole purpose as an internet retailer is to make performance marketers successful. BUT we must do so by upholding our commitments to our card brand partners whose primary concern the safety of end consumers.
We know now that we can't do this alone. And we're looking to you to help us maintain our commitments to you, our card brand partners and end consumers in a way that is acceptable, meaningful and profitable for all of us.
Sincerely,
Subject: We messed up
A letter from ClickBank's CEO
We owe you an explanation
Hi *******,
You Were Right!
Anger. Frustration. Confusion. Your feedback resonated with us loud and clear, and ClickBank has never been more humbled than by your honest and raw comments in response to our recent platform changes. For that, we owe you both an apology and an explanation.
Here's What We Should Have Told You
Over the years, we've prioritized you over our card brand partners. Truth is ClickBank has supported the wishes of our vendors and affiliates to decrease the presence of our branding in your sales flow.
The Card Brands Don't Like This
Our card brand partners have established guidelines around how to conduct business as an internet retailer. Frankly, we went too far in ignoring their rules. (To learn more about these rules and the differences between payment processing, internet retailers and services providers, please click here.)
And We Reacted Too Quickly
In an attempt to address the branding rules in accordance with the card brand guidelines, we implemented our initial version of the "Always on Shopping Portal." Without question, our communication and implementation around this change was not done in a manner that was acceptable to you, or to what we expect from ourselves in serving you, our clients.
We are truly sorry for failing to do this in a more thoughtful way. We've listened to your feedback and are working with top vendors and affiliates in order to move forward.
ClickBank's Merchant Account Remains Impenetrable & Our Future Rock Solid
We've heard the rumors and need to set the record straight. Although we reacted quickly (too quickly) to card brand requests, ClickBank is NOT in danger of losing our merchant account. Facts:
ClickBank & clients have enjoyed one of our best years ever
We have removed many of the bad actors in our marketplace, dramatically improving quality of our products and services
We maintain strong relationships with our card brand and payment partners
THIS is What Really Happened
Although the business was NEVER in jeopardy, ClickBank did have some very serious discussions with payment partners around paying attention to their guidelines. Our good standing as a premier internet retailer means adhering to a new set of directives that we must implement on the platform in some form.
We Need Your Input to Move Forward
We've heard you loud and clear and understand the recent changes are unacceptable to you and your business. So now we need your help. We have been actively receiving feedback and working closely with our largest vendors and affiliates on the best options for moving forward. We are changing our communication plan from tight-lipped to transparent.
TODAY WE CAN GUARANTEE THIS:
The Branded ClickBank iFrames are Gone and Won't Be Back
This means that your Pitch Page will NOT be redirected to a shop.clickbank.net domain. It will remain under your own URL no matter where the traffic originates.
However, We Must Retain ClickBank Branding on Some Pages
At the directive of our card brand partners, we must show customers the ClickBank logo on any page that has a pay link. We're now dedicated to doing this in a way that is acceptable to you. We hosted initial design discussions with several key vendors and affiliates this week and all indications are that we're on the right track. We expect beta versions to be ready around the 27th of October. We will be clearly communicating these changes with you prior to implementation.
The Marketplace Link is Also Gone
As a direct result of your feedback we will not create links where we can't support attribution for vendors and affiliates. We have no current plans to revisit this item.
And There's More We Need to Do
There are still more changes we must make, and we'll need your help and input along the way:
1. New End-Customer Focused Website: From our website customers must understand who ClickBank is and what type of products we sell. We've changed our website accordingly, now featuring products on our platform.
2. Content Delivery: We need to support content delivery to customers, when possible. This should have an added benefit of taking the technical support burden off of vendors for products, like e-books, where the consumer may not understand how to download the product or if resending download links is necessary.
3. Customer Account Support: Repeat customers will be able to create an account to store their purchase history and payment information. This comes with an added benefit of faster checkout for repeat customers and serves an ongoing request from vendors.
We Need Beta Participants That Can Help Us Nail It
Seriously, we need real deal vendors to test this stuff out and give us a piece of your mind. If you are open to working with us on the early iterations of our logo, customer account feature and/or content delivery functions, let us know here.
As a beta tester you'll be encouraged to post or blog about your experiences so that we're maintaining unbiased feedback and transparency. We anticipate a large and diverse group of beta testers to ensure that we are adequately representing all viewpoints and use cases.
Above All, Remember This
The last thing we want to do is jeopardize your business, reduce your conversions or piss off our clients. Why? For us, that's business suicide.
Our sole purpose as an internet retailer is to make performance marketers successful. BUT we must do so by upholding our commitments to our card brand partners whose primary concern the safety of end consumers.
We know now that we can't do this alone. And we're looking to you to help us maintain our commitments to you, our card brand partners and end consumers in a way that is acceptable, meaningful and profitable for all of us.
Sincerely,
