I came across an incredible statistic this week when a thought struck me about new affiliate marketers and their Clickbank accounts.

I was thinking about the fact that Clickbank doesn’t release the first payment by cheque (check) until sales have been made using 5 different credit cards and thought that many new Clickbank users wouldn’t be aware of that particular requirement. It is in Clickbank’s terms and conditions of course but to be honest when I started out I wasn’t aware of it.

I soon was, however, when after making a couple of sales I started to check why I hadn’t been paid! 

Now as my mind tends to develop thoughts (it can be extremely irratating at times!) I found myself wondering how much money is sitting with Clickbank that hasn’t yet been released to the people who have earnt it by their marketing of Clickbank products.

I then wondered, of all of that money, how much will NEVER get paid out. I have no idea but thinking it through it could be a great extra “income” for Clickbank. Money that it will never have to pay out because the Clickbank affiliates who have generated the commission don’t know:-

1) That they’ve made any sales (Clickbank doesn’t let you know)
2) That there is a minimum amount set before a payment is made ($100 but this can be reduced)
3) That sales have to be made using 5 DIFFERENT credit cards

Even fror those affiliate marketers who do know, many will give up before they reach the Clickbank payment threshold leaving their initial commissions in Clickbank’s coffers never to be paid out.

Now please don’t get me wrong – I’m not knocking Clickbank in any way. That’s their rules and anyone signing up to get a Clickbank ID should be aware of them. Unfortunately, my initial research has shown that most people don’t know and they give up before ever getting paid. Now that’s a big shame and I hope you’re not one of the casualties.

So back to the statictic. It seems something like 90% of all Clickbank affiliates are inactive. That’s people who have signed up for a Clickbank nickname and have let their accounts become dormant (assuming they ever made even one sale in the first place). At that point a charge is made on a regular basis until they become active again. For many, the regular charge will erode their commission to nothing!

Now unfortunately I’ve been unable to substantiate this figure but reports suggest that they are around 1.25 million Clickbank accounts.

It’s not clear if this includes members selling their own products (that will be a much lower percentage anyway) so let’s assume their are say 1 million affiliates promoting Clickbank products. 90% of those are seemingly inactive – that’s 900,000 people.

How many of those have signed up and made no sales at all? I don’t know and cannot find any reliable information but let’s again assume it to be 90%. In other words only 10% of the 900,000 affiliates who are now inactive have made a sale. Let’s also assume that of those 90,000 people the average sale (commission unpaid at this point) is say $50 (some single sales, some multiple sales but less than 5 different cards)

That’s some $4.5 million that is sitting with Clickbank that hasn’t been paid out and unless those affiliates do something about promoting their hoplinks and generating some more sales it never will!

I’m a great believer in getting paid for what you do so it grieves me that there are clearly thousands of individuals who have made a sale or two but are likely never to get paid. It’s just not right.

I’d really like to get some accurate statistics on this and hope that you will let me know your personal position with Clickbank by answering the relevant question in my survey below AND asking as many people as you know to do the same.

As a thank you I’ve provided a link to a great free Clickbank report – it explains how to easily get hold of any money you are due from Clickbank together with some great sales ideas that can really help if you are promoting any products using those products.

I’d love to hear from you – you can complete the survey annonymously or you can add your contact details if you’d like me to get in touch.

Either way, you are very welcome to download my free e-book that explains these rules in more details and shows a simple way for anyone new to using Clickbank to get hold of their commission payments as fast as possible.

Here’s the survey and the download link is below. There’s no opt-in – just click the link for more details and the download link.

[polldaddy poll=3430399]

Just click the Clickbank for Newbies image to get access to the report (no opt-in). You’ll learn how to get paid by Clickbank fast. How to meet the minimum sales critera and how to make money from Clickbank even if you have no idea what Clickbank is really all about. All you need is your own Clickbank affiliate ID – your Clickbank nickname and you’re away.

I don’t wish to scare you but really, you may never make anything from Clickbank.

Let me explain…

Let’s assume you’re brand new to affiliate marketing.

You read somewhere that selling Clickbank products is the best way to get started.

You get your Clickbank nickname and create your first hoplink.

You start promoting the link and after a while you get your first sale.

Fantastic, this system really works.

You login to your Clickbank account and see the money sitting there.

Now how do you get that cash into your hands?

First big problem…

Getting the sale does not mean you get paid.

The first reason for this is that Clickbank sets a payment threshold of $100 before they payout anything.

You can get round this by requesting this is lowered but you don’t want to reduce it too far as Clickbank deducts $2.50 from each cheque they send out.

Initially Clickbank will only make payment by cheque but after you’ve received two separate payments you can opt for a direct deposit to your bank account. At that stage you can also arrange for payment to be made every week rather than bi-weekly.

Second BIG problem…

In an effort to reduce possible fraud Clickbank insists you meet its Customer Distribution Requirement. Full details can be found on the Clickbank website but this is a quick summary of the really important bits:

To comply with US law, ClickBank will withhold payment of any account balance until the following criteria
is met:

1. There has to have been sales made with 5 or more different credit card numbers
2. Sales have to be paid for with at least two different payment methods (either Visa, MasterCard, or PayPal)

Furthermore PayPal purchases do not count toward the minimum of 5 different credit card numbers!

So what does that really mean?

It means that before you get your first pay cheque you need to have made at least 5 sales through your links.

So you can’t just buy something through your own links to get past the criteria (maybe that would work if you had 5 different cards but that really isn’t going to earn you any money!)

And then there’s the “dormant” account rules to contend with.

You have a credit balance but you’ve not yet met the criteria above.

Maybe you never will…

Accounts with a positive balance but no earnings for a certain period of time are considered dormant.

Dormant accounts are then subject to a charge of $1 per pay period after there has been 90 days of inactivity.

After 180 days of inactivity the charge increases to $5 per pay period and

$15 per pay period after 365 days of inactivity.
So let’s say you were ultra successful and got a sale on your first day as a Clickbank affiliate and you earnt the maximum possible commission of
$100.

You’d have to wait until you’d secured at least 4 more sales before you can get hold of your earnings.

In the meantime if you’d had no further sales after 3 months the regular deductions will start chipping away at the positive balance in your account.

Statistics show that in excess of 90% (YES NINETY PERCENT) of people who have signed up as Clickbank affiliates are deemed inactive.

Just think how much money that could be sitting with Clickbank that may never be paid out!

Fortunately there is a very, very simple way to get round these issues.

You can download a Free Clickbank for Newbies ebook here that explains not only how you can easily get round this problem BUT also shows how to avoid commission theft and provides a way for you to generate some fantastic additional sales.

So although it is true, some people (indeed according to statistics probably most!) may never make anything from Clickbank, using the information in this guide you will definitely not be one of them.

There’s no catch, no email address opt-in – you just follow the link and download the free ebook to learn how to be a successful Clickbank affiliate.

Click the image to the left and learn more  plus get instant access to the report – no opt-in required and I guarantee you’ll find out how to get round the Clickbank pay out rules.