Clickbank is About More than Just the Stuff

Most of us think of Clickbank as a service dedicated entirely to digital products. A digital product by definition is a something you sell. It might be an e-book about anything from children's stories to an analysis of clinical depression to a guidebook to how to play a great game of golf. It might be a software package that makes life easier or a really cool game you invented. But by definition, it is "something". Which means that in that context, Clickbank is all about the stuff.

One of ClickBank's rules of living for merchants lines up with the product only approach to the marketplace because you are expected to deliver the product within 24 hours of payment and preferably immediately by download. The method of delivery might vary. It can be by download, by email or by directing the customer to a membership site to download the product. Clickbank doesn’t get into the details as long as the customer gets his product inside of the time window.

While the variety of predicts that can be sold through the Clickbank marketplace is unlimited, Clickbank does not have any provision for selling services using their terrific marketplace tools. That 24 hour rule which is entirely reasonable for a digital product is really problematic if the nature of your internet business is a service you provide, even if the outcome is a product. A service is delivered based on a lot of variables that the merchant cannot necessarily dictate. Some services are continuous with periodic payments either based on milestones or on deliverables. In either case, a specified delivery date is questionable and to limit that time frame to 24 hours virtually out of the question.

So many merchants have found ways to take advantage of the excellent marketplace infrastructure and the merchant account services of Clickbank to do business with clients that work within the 24 hour product delivery restriction. A good example is ghostwriting. A customer can contact a merchant using ClickBank's communication resources to make arrangements for the creation of a series of articles. But the actual "product" would not be created within the Clickbank merchandising system until the product is complete and ready for delivery. Then the customer and buy the product which is an outcome of the service and use Clickbank's systems to work with the ghostwriter.

Whether you organize your service to be moved through Clickbank in advance or after you complete the service, the key is for the price to be well understood before logging the project into Clickbank. This is healthy for the business relationship between seller and buyer and keeps your nose clean with Clickbank as well. It might take some work to convert your hourly billed service into a fixed price product. But simply focus on the outcome. So if you work by the hour to produce a requirements document for a project, you can set the fixed price when the project is near the end and you set up the payment vehicle as a Clickbank digital service.

Also keep in mind that Clickbank expects to see delivery. Your service may have consisted of a series of 15 phone calls where you offer expert guidance and advance in your field of expertise. So to create a deliverable, keep your notes per session and prepare a summary at the end that captures the results of your sessions as well as your conclusions and you can "sell" that to your client for the price of the total consulting charges for the 15 sessions.

It really just takes some creativity and ability to not just think outside the box to work within the Clickbank box to offer your services as a digital product. But as an internet entrepreneur, being innovative is second nature to you.

Clickbank Refunds and What You Can Do About It

The internet is not the only place that refunds is an issue to a retailer. From the perspective of the internet merchant, customer satisfaction is of the highest priority. Because competition for customer loyalty is fierce, you know that keeping repeat customers coming back is the fastest and best way to long term financial success in sales. So offering an iron clan refund guarantee if the customer is not satisfied sends a message to the consumer that their happiness is top priority to you and that they can shop with you in confidence.

As customers, we like to know that there is a return or refund policy in place. We come to expect that when we get home with a product that it will be to our satisfaction of the store will stand behind the product and give us a refund no questions asked. Sadly even outside the internet, refund fraud happens all the time. People bring back stolen merchandise for refund to exchange what they took for money. There are so many scams like this that one solution the non-internet retail world has turned to is store credits so the money never leaves the store.

Within the world of Clickbank marketing, we are faced with a similar dilemma. Except because our products are digital, the problem is compounded significantly. Clickbank offers an iron clad refund guarantee. But unlike more wary merchants, there is no "store credit" to protect store funds. And because both Clickbank merchants and affiliates must abide by the policies of the marketplace, if Clickbank gives a refund, so do you.

The problem is there really is no such thing as a "return" when it comes to a digital product. Because you download the product to the customer, once they have a digital copy, they have it and there is no way to make sure they are not keeping it. And that little quirk of digital sales means that the Clickbank policy is pretty much open season for internet thieves and shoplifters if they chose to buy and download products, cash in on the policy and just keep getting their money back.

While Clickbank is working to solve this problem, we need to know what we can do until it is solved to cut down on Clickbank refunds taking profits out of our accounts which we very much deserve to keep. The first line of defense, of course, is legitimate refunds because of customer dissatisfaction. Put extra work and effort into putting onto Clickbank only products of the highest quality so there is little room for complaint. That is part of it. But the other part is making sure customer perception of the product is accurate.

On the internet, overselling a product is almost a way of life. We all seem to turn into infomercial merchants and we sometimes give the impression our product might be something it isn't. So go back to your web site and specifically your sales language. It's ok to use good marketing language on those pages. But be sure you are telling the customer the truth so there is no reason for them to have a case to say that you sold them something that was not up to what was claimed. Have others read your marketing copy and get to know the product so they can confirm that what is being sold is what the customer gets.

By building strong customer relationships and building a community of repeat customers, you are more secure not to have to give refunds constantly. It's an old adage of business but the best defense against lost business is satisfying the customer. Other than that we can only trust that Clickbank will eventually solve the problem and just keep on selling and doing the best we can.