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How Clickbank works

ClickBank is an online distribution center for over 11,400 digital products and services that are delivered via the web (via web pages, files, or email). If they cannot be delivered via the web, ClickBank does not handle them. Every product sold by these vendors can be promoted through the ClickBank network of over 150,000 marketers (affiliates).

African-Books informs ClickBank of the commission rate they are willing to pay affiliates for selling products on their behalf. Affiliates promote the vendors' products by referring interested customers to the vendor's web site Via a special tracking link called a 'hoplink'. This means you don't really even need a website.

The vendor's web site describes the product, and passes the customer directly to ClickBank for the actual credit card transaction handling. ClickBank pays the vendor and the affiliate direct.

Affiliates may freely promote any product and be assured that they will be paid for sales they generate. Vendors can freely accept new affiliates without fear of fraud or misrepresentation.

When you are credited by ClickBank for an affiliate sale of a product it is added to your other commissions on account at ClickBank until it reaches the minimum you establish for a check to be
mailed to you.

ClickBank sends the checks out every 2 weeks, and you can set your clock by Clickbank?s prompt
payments.

What does this mean in plain English?

Once you send a customer to www.African-Books.com and they decide to make a purchase, ClickBank handles everything! ClickBank ensures that:

1. the customer receives the product they ordered;
2. African-Books receives it's payment;
3. and best of all, ClickBank ensures you ( the affiliate) receives the commission due to you.

Commissions
commissions are in the 40 to 50% RANGE!!

In short, ClickBank is a virtual goldmine for those that make the effort to promote the 11,400 products and services offered. There are ClickBank affiliates out there making well over $20,000 a MONTH, without owning a website or product of their own!

How a ClickBank transaction works

The steps and measures taken at ClickBank to be sure that the right person gets credit for any affiliate sale, and that cheating is minimized.

Normally, when a ClickBank affiliate sends you to his site by whatever means (email, website link, banner etc.), he has employed what is called a "hoplink". This is a "jumping step" that is embedded in a URL that was created by ClickBank to connect affiliates with a vendor's products when a sale is taking place.

A hoplink looks like this:
http://hop.clickbank.net/?AFFILIATE/VENDOR

It takes the shopper to African-Books product sales page, and ensures the affiliate gets credited for the commission, should a sale result from the shopper's visit.

The hoplink accomplishes 2 things;

1. It allows the ClickBank server to put a "cookie" in the prospective customers computer that has the affiliates nickname in it; and

2. It sends them to a "redirect page", or "landing page", which is simply the page that the vendor wants him/her to see first.

By setting the "cookie", ClickBank is making sure that the referring affliate whom sent that visitor to this particular store or product gets the sales commission for it.

The "cookie" is just a tiny text file in the visitor's computer that has this information stored on it. It is
unobtrusive when used in this fashion.

Need a ClickBank nickname? Get it here instantly!
http://secure.clickbank.net/signup.cgi

ClickBank F.A.Q (with their permission)

Q. With hoplinks does the first or last affiliate get the commission?

A. When a purchase is made at a vendor, the commission is awarded to the last affiliate who referred the customer to that particular vendor.

Q. For how long do you track each referral?

A. After you make a referral to a vendor, you will earn a commission if the customer makes a purchase at that vendor up to 60 days later.

Q. What percentage of ClickBank sales are made by referral?

A. Among our top selling products, over 75% of sales are generated by affiliates. Overall affiliates generate over 50% of all ClickBank sales.

Q. Can vendors cheat affiliates by "undoing" the commission on a sale, or by pretending that a sale was refunded?

A. No. Unlike other popular affiliate solutions, ClickBank handles both the sale and the awarding of commissions. The only way for a vendor to undo a commission is to actually undo (refund) the entire order.

Q. If I refer a customer to one vendor, and they proceed to make several purchases from that vendor, will I get a commission on each sale?

A. Yes.

Q. If I refer a customer to one vendor, but the customer ends up buying from a different vendor, will I get a commission on the sale?

A. No.

Q. Suppose a customer is surfing the web at their office. I refer the customer to a vendor, they make a purchase, and I get a commission. Later the same customer is surfing the web at home (on a different machine) and goes to the same vendor to make another purchase. Will I get a commission on that sale?

A. Yes! This feature has been added.

Q. Will I get the referral if I hide hoplinks by making them open into a frame, iframe, layer, applet, image, or other sub-window object?

A. No. These are illegal hoplinks. For security reasons, and to ensure proper tracking of your referrals, all hoplinks must be targeted to the top level of a new or existing window.

Q. What happens if I do make illegal hoplinks?

A. The short answer is that if you make illegal hoplinks you will lose money. Hoplinks targeted to frames or iframes are automatically retargeted to fill the top level of same window. Note that this retargeting may have the unintended effect of displacing your entire web site.

Hoplinks targeted to images or other invisible html objects give you no referral at all. In some cases they will also prevent you from receiving the referral for legal hoplinks on the same page.

Q. Will I get the referral if I hide hoplinks by using a "link cloaker", so that the customer clicks on a url that then redirects the customer through a ClickBank hoplink?

A. Yes. Cloaked hoplinks are legal. Redirecting to hoplinks is not a problem as long as the link is targeted to the top level of a new or existing window.

Q. How can I target a hoplink to the top level of the current window?

A. If your site doesn't use frames, then all links are automatically targeted to the top level. If you do use frames, then to be safe be sure to set the target attribute of each hoplink link to " top". Here's an example:

<a target= top
href=http://hop.clickbank.net/?AFFILIATE/VENDOR>Click
Here!</a>

Q. How would I target a hoplink to a new window instead?

A. To open a hoplink in a new window set the target attribute of the hoplink to " blank". Here's an example:

<a target= blank
href=http://hop.clickbank.net/?AFFILIATE/VENDOR>Click
Here!</a>

Q. I'm a vendor who doesn't want affiliates putting my site in pop-under windows. Can I prevent this?

A. Yes. You can almost always force your site to the top by putting a simple script on the page. Here's an example: <script>self.focus()</script>

Q. I'm a vendor who doesn't want affiliates putting my site in a frame. Can I prevent this?

A. Yes. In almost all cases we prevent this for you, automatically. For extra assurance you can break frames by putting a simple script on your page. Here's an example:

Q. Besides cookies, what other methods does your system use to track customers?

A. Sorry. For security reasons we cannot disclose any internal details about our tracking system.

Q. Can Google and other search engines properly index my site if other sites link to my site via hoplinks?

A. Yes. Search engine robots have no trouble traversing hoplinks.

Q. Does your tracking system use the "HTTP REFERER" variable to filter traffic?

A. No. We ignore it. We have used it in the past, but we have since determined that it is unreliable. We no longer use that parameter for anything.

Q. Am I guaranteed the referral no matter what the customer does to avoid being tracked?

A. No. The affiliate (if any) we associate with any ClickBank sale is determined by an automated tracking system. Any decision made by this system is final, and not subject to petition or debate. Though we believe our tracking system to be more fair and accurate than any alternative, we make no representation regarding the ability of the system to track any specific customer, for any specific length of time.