The Clickbank Slap…? Is More Looming?

Clickbanks change in terms and conditions and reserving the right to adjust them again at any given time could be the rumblings of something bigger. On the other hand it could just be knee jerk whimpering.

The current trend of not quite libellous advertising strategies of the scam and rip off reviewers whose web sites laud it at the very top of Google could be the reason. Now if you’re reading this and wondering "what the hell is clickbank?" allow me to elucidate.

Clickbank is essentially an online marketplace. Product and software publishers can use the marketplace to sell their products and utilise other useful resources like affiliate programs and payment processing. The advantages are that anyone can promote a product on a huge marketplace and allow others to sell the products for them without having to set up membership sites, affiliate programs, complex payment schemes and payment processors. It’s a very good and affordable way to promote a product to a huge number of people.

But the aforementioned advertising tactics have surely cast a shadow on the ethics, policies and reputation of clickbank. In most cases the advertisers name specific products and occasionally actual people. Bearing in mind that clickbank both checks and monitors all products before they enter the marketplace and supposedly after, it does in some way tar clickbank with the same scam/rip off brush.

Considering both the size and influence of clickbank this isn’t really the brightest of campaign strategies and has forced them (clickbank) to distance themselves in a way that accepts no responsibility for publisher and affiliate activities alike. The use of the clickbank name is totally prohibited without prior consent and no responsibility is accepted for any of the products on the marketplace. Hmmm...a kop out perhaps?

So the question now really is: How much influence and sway do clickbank have with Google and are they getting themselves out of the way if the Google monster is stirring? Or is it really just the self deprecating whimper of a beaten and now uninterested clickbank?

Probably the latter is the most likely scenario. If Google are already prepared to allow that type of advert to run then it seems unlikely they’ll change their minds. But that’s the thing with Google; you just never know.

What’s that coming over the hill...? Is it a monster...?

Of course it could just be that I am talking out of my own inadvisable orifice. Feel free to join in. We could start a web site: -

theunofficialramblingsfromtheofficeoftheinadvisableorifice.com