Archive for the ‘General’ Category

Posted by: Kristen M., Marketing Communications Manager

We know that ClickBank can be confusing to newcomers and we’re working to address gaps that exist in our support materials. One step we’ve taken in that direction is the creation of a welcome email.

Starting later this month, when clients sign up for a new ClickBank account they will immediately receive a welcome email with information to help them get started. The email highlights the basic concept of how ClickBank works and provides information about how to get paid and sign up for the ClickBank Newsletter, as well as where to go for customer service assistance. In addition, the email links to two helpful new documents we’ve put together: Top 5 Beginner Affiliate Questions (PDF) and Top 5 Beginner Publisher Questions (PDF). (*Links added 4/17)

Moving forward, we’d like to continue to develop materials to help publishers and affiliates become more successful. If you have ideas on specific materials we can provide, please leave a comment below and let us know.

Posted by: Bob King, CEO

A few weeks ago, I was reading what I’m sure was one of several exit interviews given by Meg Whitman. Whitman recently left her job as CEO of eBay after 10 years. By the way, I think she did a fantastic job in leading eBay and creating value for a lot of people. The founders of eBay made a brilliant decision in bringing her on board at that stage in their growth.

The interviewer asked Meg what the best decision was that she made while eBay CEO. She replied that she could narrow it down to two — one was buying PayPal (can’t argue with that) and the other was to expand internationally.

The interviewer then asked the obvious: what her worst decision was? She answered that it was not entering the Japanese market.

It’s kind of telling, isn’t it, that both her best and worst decisions, in her mind, related to global expansion and international markets? Her words also confirmed for me a strategy we’ve been working on for some time here at ClickBank. We recently released Spanish language capabilities and a currency converter, and plan to release a couple of other languages and full multi-currency capability over the course of this year.

ClickBank has made it this far offering only English language and US Dollar capabilities, but if you really want to unleash the power of the Internet, you can’t stay isolated. It is easy to stand pat. But you have to get out of your comfort zone. It’s not just the translation of products and customer facing pages and currency conversions. It’s also multilingual customer service, and recruiting new publishers and affiliates in those new markets. This may prove to be difficult, but I believe it is going to pay off for all of us in the ClickBank community. For both product publishers and affiliates, this can open up new markets.

Wish us luck as we get out of our comfort zone.

Posted by: Monty Sooter, CTO

As a kid my Dad was always shocked when he would go into the garage and see the latest motor I had taken apart. He was even more shocked when I got it back together and it worked. He is a great father, but a terrible mechanic. So I got to do all the things around the house from a very young age. Sure, I ruined some stuff, but I was always learning.

To this day my friends and family think I am strange because I actually like being involved in developing and running systems. But think about it — you get to analyze how each thing operates, divide it into the smallest parts, and then put all the parts back together. What could be more fun than that?

At ClickBank we must consistently add new features to help our clients in their businesses and to stay competitive in what will be a multi-billion dollar market. Some of these features, for example recurring billing, require changes in almost all parts of our application. Like all technology-centric companies, the challenge for us is to add these new parts to the system, while minimizing disruptions to our businesses.

Our recent launch of Platform Globalization was based on feedback from our clients. We heard from our clients that global capability should be one of our top priorities and so far have received encouraging comments on its implementation. Many are pushing for a complete multi-lingual, multi-currency offering, specifically accepting foreign currencies, but it’s critical that we release this in steps to lessen any potential glitches. You can’t entirely take apart a working engine while it’s running after all. The capability for French and German language products, as well as the acceptance of currencies besides USD is all coming soon. We will be the global platform for digital goods.

I can’t imagine anything more fun than continuing to provide the capabilities clients have said are necessary to allow their businesses to grow. I know if the clients grow, we grow. Our next planned enhancements include an approach to facilitate client to client communications, a new publisher referral program, and an extension of electronic payments to our clients. So, keep giving us feedback. We do listen and the ClickBank Blog will help us to continue to have improved communications. Remember, your feedback will be a key factor in determining what we develop next.

I have seen many business transformations in my career and I am looking forward to the next couple of years at ClickBank. People always ask me when I start a new endeavor how I think it will turn out and I always say, “Ask me in a couple of years and I will let you know.” Pretty good and fun so far.

Posted by: Kristen M., Marketing Communications Manager

As part of our ongoing efforts to expand our communication with our clients, I am proud to announce the launch of the ClickBank Blog.

It is our hope that the ClickBank Blog will provide clients with meaningful information both about ClickBank specifically and about the larger marketplace. To that end, we will be featuring posts from numerous contributors within ClickBank about various topics.

To ensure the success of our blog, it is best to outline a few important points:

• It is our intention to blog at least twice a week.
• We want your feedback, but we also want this to be for everyone, so comments will be reviewed prior to posting. If you’re off the topic or being obscene, your comment probably won’t make the cut. We welcome disagreement, but we insist that comments be respectful to everyone participating.
• Requests for customer service assistance will not be addressed on this blog. Please visit: http://www.clickbank.com/customer_service.html
• We do not allow URLs in comments in order to avoid having the blog serve as a means of advertising for any one participant. So please don’t include them. If you do, your comment either won’t be posted or the URL will be edited out. (*Added 04-03-08)

We look forward to an open exchange of viewpoints and welcome your feedback. Be sure to check back early next week for a blog from ClickBank’s own CTO, Monty Sooter. In the meantime, leave a comment and let us know what you’d like to see covered in future blog postings.