Posted by: Michael Poston, Product Manager

Many of you have been asking for ClickBank to offer direct deposit (ACH & XACH) into both domestic and international bank accounts. Well, we listened to your feedback, and direct deposit is launching in the next few weeks for eligible clients. Soon, if you meet the requirements outlined below, you will have the option of selecting ACH/XACH as a payment preference within your account.

This means that you no longer need to receive your ClickBank payments via check. Now you can simply specify ACH as your payment method, at no extra charge, and receive payments quickly (1-5 business days), reliably, and in your local currency, reducing unnecessary bank fees.

To be eligible, an account must have first received three paper paychecks within any 90-day period. Additionally, only accounts in the following countries are eligible at this time: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Mexico, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States.

We would like to offer direct deposit payment to all of our international clients, but we are currently limited to countries where our bank has existing partnerships. We will continue to search for ways to expand this program, and expect this list to grow in the future.

Watch your Account Home and the blog for more details about direct deposit and how to enroll.

Remember, your input shapes our roadmap. It is our goal to deliver products and features that are in demand and help our clients run their businesses more effectively. So, please comment below and let me know what features you think are important.

Happy selling, friends!

Posted by: Jeff Leget, Director of Operations

This past weekend, my family and I had a neighborhood garage sale. We made about $85 in 3 hours. For my family it was a moderate success. It’s not that we don’t have enough stuff to sell;  the problem is that times and technology have changed. My only real goal on the morning of our half-hearted garage sale was to drag stuff out of the basement and into the morning sunshine so I could take pictures and post items on Craigslist or eBay. If a consumer happened by and wanted to purchase something, all the better. They saved me the upload and posting time.

Compared to online portals, garage sales are so limited. You store your stuff and wait patiently all year for the single marketing opportunity when the whole neighborhood comes out to sell their dusty relics. The garage sale definitely favors the buyer. The buyers are usually looking for something specific. They usually know the real value. And experienced garage sale speculators know how to negotiate to a bargain. Sellers like me simply want to make some extra cash and not have to drag all of that stuff back into the house.

However, the Internet and its classified and auction portals have changed all of that. These days, I can sell my used snowboard right at the start of ski season, and not in the middle of June. I can research the going rate for my used cell phone and accept only fair offers. I can also see what other people are selling, and how what I have compares. The buyer also gets an improved experience. At a single glance, the buyer can view all of the items that match his or her requirements and make informed offers. Best of all, they don’t need to drive around random neighborhoods on Saturday mornings.

ClickBank is trying to do for your knowledge capital what classified and auction sites have done for your garage. Did you finish your basement recently? Did you successfully flip some real estate? Did you have to plan a family reunion or wedding? Are you into photography or video editing? Do you have experiences to share on home schooling? Gardening? Genealogy? Saving energy? Starting a business?

The fact is that most people have life experiences or knowledge capital that can benefit others.  With over 300 million people in the U.S., the chances are high that someone else is facing a similar problem that you have already solved. With a little time and talent, you can clean out your mental basement or attic, let your ideas face the light of day, and profit from your experience.

Service provides more convenience when paying for online subscriptions

BROOMFIELD, Colo. - June 24, 2008 - ClickBank, a privately held online retailer for buyers and sellers of digitally delivered products and services, today announced it is offering PayPal for recurring billing - yet another strategic option for product publishers seeking to increase business and meet customer needs.

ClickBank is using PayPal’s recurring billing solution to give product publishers an easy way to sell subscription-based content and services, such as online newsletters or annual software licenses. It has proven to be very popular with customers, growing rapidly each month since its introduction.

“Currently, nearly 20 percent of ClickBank’s total business transactions are conducted using PayPal,” said Bob King, ClickBank CEO. “Allowing customers to use PayPal for recurring billing will further fuel demand for our popular subscription-based products and services and, by providing a new payment option, enhance the ClickBank experience for publishers, affiliates and customers.”

“We are excited to have ClickBank on board using PayPal,” said Jim Hunt, director of merchant relations at PayPal. “Using our recurring billing functionality gives customers security and convenience when shopping online.”

ClickBank is a world leader in online commerce systems with more than 100,000 active affiliates, 35,000 unique digitally downloadable products, such as e-books and software, and over 12,000 product publishers from around the globe that register more than 25,000 daily transactions.

Posted by: Dush Ramachandran, VP of Sales and Business Development

At parties and social gatherings people often ask me what I do, and I tell them I work for ClickBank. This answer is usually greeted with a puzzled look and a quizzical “Who?” But when I tell the ClickBank story, the puzzlement is often replaced by wonderment and admiration, and the inevitable follow-up question is “What’s the secret of ClickBank’s success?”

Even though the person asking the question is always different and is perhaps expecting a different answer every time, I answer the question in exactly the same way every time: “Our affiliate network.” If it weren’t for our incredible army of motivated and innovative affiliates, all of the hard work we’ve put into ClickBank over the years would not amount to very much.

It is our simple, low-risk approach to becoming a ClickBank affiliate that causes an average of 2,000 people to sign up for a ClickBank account every day. And a fair number of those people go on to become successful and earn a decent income from ClickBank. Some of our affiliates have even completely replaced their traditional income with their ClickBank earnings. With over 110,000 active affiliates generating revenues, ClickBank’s affiliate network is truly at the root of our success.

We think affiliates are so important to our success that we’re going to be at the Affiliate Summit in Boston on Aug 10 to 12, and our CEO Bob King is going to be on a panel discussion about trends in affiliate marketing. If you’re planning to attend the Affiliate Summit this year, come see us at Table 23 at the Meet Market on Sunday Aug 10, between 12:00 noon and 6:00. We’d love to meet you, and say thanks for being the secret of our success!

Posted by: Jen Johannsen, VP of Operations

I also had the privilege of meeting a group of ClickBank clients “live and in person” in London earlier this month. Several people at the meetings mentioned that it would be interesting to learn more about who we are as a company and as individuals, so I thought I’d take this opportunity to share a few of those things with everyone.

It is true… in the beginning (back in 1998), ClickBank was operated by a handful of innovators working out of a garage-like office. Over the last ten years, though, we have grown to a staff of over 75 people operating out of two locations. One location is based in Boise, Idaho, and the other is based in Broomfield, Colorado (near Denver). Both offices have dedicated and experienced teams working to  deliver consistent, client-focused business operations, and friendly, responsive customer service.

We are also committed to helping in our communities, and feel fortunate to employ a group of people that enjoy making our volunteer opportunities successful. In the last year, we have participated in many charity events, including events for the Children’s Hospital and the Cancer Center of the Rockies, The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, The Muscular Dystrophy Association, the Epilepsy Foundation, Habitat for Humanity, the Salvation Army, the Red Cross, and our local food banks.

While we all enjoy working hard every day, and donating time outside of work to give back to our communities and local charities, we also have a great time getting together outside of work. ClickBank employees have been active this year playing for the company softball team and soccer team, as well as enjoying an occasional trip to the bowling alley.

While we’ve gotten to know thousands of terrific customers over the years, we look forward to meeting and helping out many more of you in the future!

Posted by: Bob Dunlap, Director of Marketing

Working online is great. You can work from anywhere at anytime ­ - at home, your favorite café, even the beach. All you really need is a computer, Internet access, and maybe a cell phone. This ability to connect in near real-time around the globe from anywhere you choose is a major attraction of an Internet-based business.

On the other hand, there is still no substitute for meeting face to face. Whether meeting a colleague, client, or business partner, technology still can’t replicate a handshake or take the place of a live discussion. I was reminded of this recently when I had the privilege of meeting a group of ClickBank clients “live and in person.”

On Friday, June 6^th, ClickBank management met with a small group of clients in London for our second European Advisory Board. We invited a diverse group of product publishers and affiliates to spend the day with us and provide their thoughts and opinions on a wide variety of subjects important to the entire ClickBank community. During the meeting we had in-depth discussions on our product roadmap - what new and improved capabilities we plan to build in the coming months and years, how to better serve our current clients, and how to attract and recruit more product publishers and affiliates to the ClickBank community. The discussions were open and honest, and provided our management team with excellent insights into what is really important to our client base. I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who attended this year’s meeting. We genuinely appreciate your active participation and the generous use of your time.

This Advisory Board meeting is one important channel for feedback, but by no means the only one. In fact, another major vehicle for client input is just around the corner. In the coming weeks we are initiating our second annual client survey. The survey is sent to a random sample of ClickBank clients, so if you receive an invitation to participate, please do. The survey is a great opportunity for you to tell us what you think.

And if you get the chance to meet with your business partners or customers live, I highly recommend it. It certainly takes more time and effort, but it’s almost always time well spent.

Posted by Greg Lems, Director of Application Development

Remember the good old days, when you could put a personal check in an envelope and leave it in your mailbox with the little red flag up? Nowadays the media is full of reports about identity theft rings, some of which collect bank account information by harvesting checks from mailboxes. Although incidents of this nature have increased in recent years, the overall chances of it happening are actually still quite low. Nevertheless, I won’t leave an outgoing check in my mailbox, because it can’t hurt to be extra safe.

In a somewhat similar manner, it is important for ClickBank publishers and affiliates to protect their Hoplink information. Hoplinks are the key to the ClickBank Marketplace.  Affiliates create them to promote publisher products, and publishers rely on them to drive traffic their way.

ClickBank has put a tremendous amount of effort into the reliability and security of its Hoplink system. It is closely monitored and designed to provide every protection possible, so that affiliates get proper credit for their sales. At its heart, however, the Hoplink system relies on URLs to work and as a result information can be exposed about the affiliate for the sale. Luckily there is a way to avoid such exposure.

“Hoplink theft” is a term used to describe the act of changing Hoplinks so that they credit a different affiliate. A hardworking affiliate may place Hoplinks across many sites on the Internet, but a person with their own ClickBank account and bad intentions could, with some manual steps and scheming, create an identical Hoplink to the hardworking affiliate, but with their own nickname substituted in. This typically happens in one of two places: when a Hoplink is placed in an ad by an affiliate, or at payment time when a publisher attempts a quick hop to a different affiliate just before payment. It isn’t a common problem, and when we encounter it we swiftly discipline the dishonest parties. There are steps, however, that can be taken to prevent it from happening in the first place.

To avoid the first form of Hoplink theft, we recommend cloaking your Hoplinks. This involves the creation of redirects that will take users to the intended destination without showing them the exact URL they are being sent to. This can be done either with a bit of HTML that surrounds the Hoplink, or with some server-side scripts for redirects. More information is available on this topic here:

http://www.clickbank.com/affiliate_tools.html#Affiliate_Tools_2

Additionally, there are 3^rd party products available to cloak Hoplinks. Although ClickBank does not specifically endorse any of these products, we encourage anyone seeking cloaking functionality to investigate what’s out there and available, as there are a number of different ways to perform this simple redirect.

To avoid the second form of Hoplink theft, we recommend that you examine the order flow of the products you are promoting to ensure that additional Hoplinks have not been added to the ordering process. The most straightforward way to do this is to click your own Hoplink, view the publisher’s pitch page and then click through to the ClickBank order form. At the bottom of the order form you’ll see an indicator that starts with “affiliate=.”  If your Hoplink was constructed correctly, your affiliate nickname will appear there. It is a good practice to regularly check this flow to ensure you receive proper credit for sales.

Hoplink theft is not common. If you suspect it is happening, you can report it to abuse@clickbank.com and our security team will investigate. By cloaking your Hoplink URL and paying attention to the order flow of products you promote, you can ensure protection of your hard-earned ClickBank commission. Just like when mailing a check, the likelihood of something undesirable happening is low, but it doesn’t hurt to be safe.

Posted by: Kristen M., Marketing Communications Manager

Businessweek has an interesting story this week about the different Web uses - one on the “big” screens of laptops and desktops and the small screens of PDAs like BlackBerry and the iPhone - and the difference between weekday and weekend usages.

The stats show that people’s habits change away from Google and Yahoo! when they are searching for information on a portable device. The story reports that “The fastest-growing mobile-Web categories relate to weather, entertainment, games, and music.”

Clearly, for product publishers and affiliates, this presents a business opportunity - what is the next generation of products and offerings that will appeal to people on the smaller format?

Posted by: Beau Blackwell, Marketing Coordinator

As an online businessperson, one of the most important assets you have is your Web site. While many people spend a lot of time early on building their Web site and getting everything exactly how they want it, they often neglect an important next step to success, which is testing. By testing, I mean consistently trying out new text, images, offers, and site layout, to make sure that your site is achieving your goals as efficiently as possible.

In the past, performing testing and analyzing the results meant spending a lot of money on a Web stats package, or paying an outside consulting firm to analyze your data and make recommendations that weren’t guaranteed to pay off. Fortunately, these days there are free Web-based tools that make it easier than ever for small business owners to understand how their Web site is performing and make adjustments that have a positive impact on their business.

Google Analytics and Google Website Optimizer are two of the more useful free tools available. If you’re not using them, you’re missing out on vitally important business data. I won’t go into details here about how to install or use these tools, as Google has lots of good advice and FAQs to address those issues. Fortunately, these programs are designed with the average website owner in mind and don’t require a lot of technical knowledge to set up and use.

First off, if you’re not using Google Analytics or some other Web stats package, you should be. Google Analytics has revolutionized Web businesses by helping Web site owners understand where their traffic is coming from, and what visitors are doing once they’re on the site, for free.

Second, once you’ve got a good grasp on what is happening on your Web site and what your traffic is doing, you should consider trying Google’s Website Optimizer tool. It’s also free, and integrates easily with Google Analytics. The Website Optimizer allows you to quickly and easily change out text, images, and layout on your site and see what effect the changes have on your site’s ability to convert visitors into customers. Google automatically handles the tedious process of swapping out the HTML code and provides you with a series of reports that will show you the best combination of content for your site.

Rather than merely guessing at what your visitors want, it makes a lot of sense to actually put your Web site design to the test and let the data tell you whether it’s working as well as you’d like. No matter how successful your online business is already, chances are good that your site could convert even better with some simple tweaks. One thing to remember is that even if you make some improvements to your site through testing, keep at it! Every small change you make that improves your conversion rate also helps your bottom line and makes you more money in the end. Since the testing is totally free except for your time, it’s one of the smartest ways you can grow your business. Now get out there and start testing!