09-11-2015, 08:54 AM
Got this from CB. Winter is coming.
Quote:Thank you for being a valued ClickBank client. Whether you've been around for a while or are just starting out, we are excited you've chosen ClickBank to help you be successful.
ClickBank is one of the world's top Internet retailers powered by the leading performance marketing platform for digital products. In order to provide you with the best long-term solution, we are making a few changes. Before we dive into the specifics, we want to share what is happening in the industry because it is relevant to the changes that are coming.
The performance marketing industry is at risk, facing increased cyber threats and intense scrutiny.
– Major credit card brands are fighting against poor product quality, fraudulent activity and cybercrime, putting direct response ecommerce platforms and digital marketers at risk.
– Those same card brands are preparing to do a massive overhaul of the affiliate marketing space in the coming months. This can be attributed to increasing threats to their cardholders thanks to deceptive and fraudulent ecommerce activities. Additionally, following the introduction of EMV/chip cards with new cardholder authentication methods in the physical point of sale retail environment in the U.S, there is an expectation of a shift in organized crime from the physical point of sale to the ecommerce world.
– In the near future it will become very difficult for existing marketing platforms, individual vendors and product suppliers to continue doing business as they have in the past.
Significant change is coming in the performance marketing space, requiring all to adapt and evolve. As platforms implement these changes, vendors who are unwilling to participate will be forced to get their own merchant account (an increasingly difficult challenge because of significant industry and governmental compliance requirements). Plus, unadapting vendors will be required to manage their own affiliate program with worldwide fraud issues growing exponentially...fraud issues entrepreneurs are not equipped to handle on their own.
How does this affect you?
In order to thrive in the face of these threats and changes to the industry plus with ClickBank being the merchant of record, we must work together and be proactive.
With our long-standing partnership with the payments industry, we have been working directly with the major card brands to create a plan to ensure both ClickBank and our product vendors have the firm foundation necessary for long-term sustainability.
This plan will require ClickBank product vendors to include a small the JavaScript code that simply returns a piece of HTML content that will inject a thin ClickBank branded header on the top of the page. It will include the following menu options:
– A Customer Support link that opens up a customer support dropdown box in order to keep the customer on the page instead of navigating away.
– A Marketplace link that opens a new browser tab and links to ClickBank's consumer-facing website of featured products at clickbank.com. (OPTIONAL)
– A Customer Account link that opens up a dropdown account login box to make purchasing easier for repeat customers. (Available end of October)
This plan also includes a redirect to a ClickBank-branded domain at http://info.clickbank.net/vendornickname where your sales page will be loaded into an iframe below the ClickBank-branded header.
We understand you may have concerns about these changes. We are keenly aware of conversion rate and leaky funnel concerns, which is why we are actively testing several variations to minimize or remove any impact on conversions.
On September 23, 2015, the small snippet of JavaScript code will be available for you to add to your sales pages. Plus, on the same day, we will automatically add the ClickBank-branded header to all sales pages loaded by HopLink driven traffic.
Examples of the new ClickBank branded header, the benefits the header brings, and instructions on how to add the header to your marketing funnel can be found here.
The goal of this plan is to not impact conversions but improve the customer experience.
We are excited about your long-term success and look forward to doing whatever we can to help you reach your financial goals through ClickBank.
Sincerely,
The ClickBank Team