Posts Tagged ‘guidelines’

In an ongoing effort to improve the buying experience for ClickBank customers, we are expanding and clarifying our Vendor Promotional Guidelines, effective immediately. These updates are in addition to the existing Vendor Promotional Messaging Guidelines implemented on August 1, 2011. New product submissions that do not meet these guidelines will not be approved, and existing Pitch Pages and sales materials must be brought into compliance as quickly as possible, or may face corrective action as detailed below. The ClickBank network compliance guidelines are designed to ensure that all clients:

1. Understand the promotional guidelines of the FTC and other regulatory agencies and
2. Create and promote quality products in a manner consistent with those guidelines

To ensure customers know what to expect when purchasing a product, particularly in the e-business/e-marketing (also known as Internet marketing) category, ClickBank vendors must include clear, detailed information about the nature of their product on their Pitch Pages. Pitch Pages that promise big results for customers without being clear about the nature of the training provided or what the included software actually does (also known as “blind offers”) will not be accepted for sale on the ClickBank network.

For example, if the product is an Internet marketing training program, the Pitch Page should describe what the product will teach, what (if any) prior knowledge or experience is required to use the techniques covered in the training, if customers will need to spend additional money to achieve the indicated results, and so on. Examples might include: the customer needing a working knowledge of SEO techniques, needing to have an email list and autoresponder service, or being able and willing to spend money on paid traffic in order to make money with the product.

Software-based products must include details about how the product functions, such as “This software will identify high-volume, low-competition keywords you can try to rank for in search results” or “This WordPress plug-in will automatically generate squeeze pages you can use to build a list and market to customers via email.” We also recommend including screenshots or videos of the product itself in action so customers can better understand what they will be buying.

Vague statements such as “Just enter a keyword, hit Go, and our product will do the rest!” are not acceptable, since even experienced customers have no way of knowing whether the product could reasonably accomplish the claims the vendor is making. We have found that there is a strong correlation between customer requested refunds and the use of these types of promotional methods.

We will be taking corrective action on vendors not in compliance with these guidelines, up to and including Marketplace removal or account deactivation. In addition to these guidelines, we will also be closely monitoring product quality metrics such as refund and chargeback rates, and removing products from our Marketplace that do not meet these requirements.

Thank you for your help in continuing to make the ClickBank Marketplace a trusted source for high-quality digital information products. By working together, we can increase customer trust and satisfaction, resulting in greater profits for everyone.

Recently we’ve received a few client questions about issues affecting our industry, such as the FTC’s recent case against Ivy Capital and other “work from home” business opportunities. Specifically, some of you wanted to know how these issues might affect ClickBank vendors, and what we’re doing to address them.

First, please know that ClickBank appreciates the hard work and skill that our vendors put into developing quality products and effective sales messaging that appeals to customers. We want to do everything we can to support your efforts and ensure your products convert as well as possible, while also protecting you from the possibility of getting on the wrong side of the FTC.

We wanted to share some of the most important guidelines to keep in mind when creating your Pitch Page, upsells and other sales material. To ensure that ClickBank vendors stay in good standing with the FTC, we will apply these guidelines when approving new products and working with existing vendors.

• Most importantly, please do not significantly alter your Pitch Page after approval. We recognize that some changes are necessary for testing, but if you need to make significant changes to your page (such as earnings claims or images, sales messaging or video content), please notify our Product Approval team so we can ensure the new page is also in compliance.
• For Internet Marketing products: Per the new FTC information, sales material shouldn’t create the impression that customers can easily earn money without putting in much work, and should give specific ideas of how they’ll earn the money (e.g., content marketing, video marketing, social media, etc). Sales pages should also not overstate how much can realistically be made, or imply that earnings are guaranteed.
• The FTC also strongly discourages false urgency/scarcity messaging (for example, “Only 3 copies left!”) when there is no actual scarcity. Closing the doors to new customers after a specified amount of time and reopening later is fine.
• Any Pitch Page references to ClickBank sales stats need to be verifiable by ClickBank, and need to have been earned by the methods being promoted. For example, selling an affiliate training product using sales snapshots from a vendor-only account is not allowed.
• For vendors using video Pitch Pages, if a Buy Now button appears during the course of the video, the price must appear as well. We also request that vendors provide transcripts of video sales letters when submitting a product for approval.
• For upsells, the initial product purchased must be valuable and usable on its own, without requiring the purchase of the upsell offers. Customers must also be able to immediately access their original purchase upon completion of their order, before being presented with upsell offers. An access link may be placed on the first upsell offer page, but the link must be very clear and conspicuous (i.e., not hidden or in a small font). We highly recommend that vendors use ClickBank’s official upsell flows to present upsell offers to customers.
• Please submit product approval requests at least several days before your launch, so that ClickBank has time to thoroughly review the offer and request changes if necessary. This is especially the case for products with video sales letters, since making changes to these can take time. We may not be able to accommodate last-minute requests.
• To prevent customer complaints, vendors should not close refund request tickets or switch tickets from Refund to Tech Support more than once, and the latter should only be used when actually trying to help the customer and save the sale.

We hope this list helps make our guidelines clear. If you have questions about any of these items, please feel free to contact us and we’ll be happy to discuss them with you.

We also want to reinforce that our mission is to make you successful, while at the same time ensuring our industry is on a strong foundation that will last long into the future. Thank you for your valuable work, and we look forward to continuing our partnership with you!

Jan. 27, 2010 - In the wake of several merchant account closures due to what major credit card companies consider ambiguous continuity program terms, ClickBank, a global online retailer, is offering several guidelines regarding best business practices for continuity program merchants.

Dush Ramachandran, ClickBank vice president of sales and business development, says clarity is key.

“If you are engaged in a practice in which goods or services are provided automatically, and the customer must either pay for the service or specifically decline it in advance of billing, you must be very clear and upfront about it,” he said. “This type of practice is not unethical unless buyers do not fully understand the terms or sellers do not accept the consumer’s decision to discontinue the service or return the product.”

Ramachandran said the need for transparency and a willingness to accept cancellations also hold true for offers with confusing terms or delayed charges. “Credit card companies are no longer going to support merchants engaging in ‘free’ offers that are not actually free.”

Finally, he said, customers must receive goods or services in exchange for a credit card payment and, for any offer, must provide an affirmative consent such as a mandatory “I agree” statement checkbox where the customer acknowledges the terms and conditions of the offer and consents to be entered into a continuity program.

“At ClickBank, we’ve found that the best way to avoid compliance issues and keep our client’s continuity programs up and running without interruption is to be completely transparent with consumers regarding the terms of continuity programs.”

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission continues to make internet commerce a top priority. The FTC recent issued new regulations that govern the use of “endorsements” to promote products. Those regulations can be found at 16 C.F.R. § 255 or here. Note, the new regulations are effective December 1, 2009.

The new regulations cover all sorts of third party testimonials and endorsements—by consumers, experts and celebrities. If your promotions use customer or consumer endorsements, the FTC requires that the results described must be typical or, if not, you should “clearly and conspicuously” disclose that the results presented are not typical. Also, such customers should be “bona fide” buyers of your product, and not, for example, a fictitious person or your cousin who is doing you a favor. For expert endorsements, the person involved should have special knowledge that qualifies him or her to make the endorsement, e.g., if you use a doctor to sell a diet plan, that doctor shouldn’t be an eye doctor, but have special knowledge in the area of nutrition.

Also, the FTC requires all endorsements to disclose any “material connection” between the vendor and the advertiser. For example, if an affiliate runs a website offering an “independent review” of two products and gives a favorable review of one, they should disclose the fact that they are receiving a commission from the sale of that product. These rules also apply to third parties, such as bloggers, who receive a free product and are asked to do a review. Under the new FTC rules, not only should the blogger disclose he got the product for free but the vendor who gave him the product should make some effort to make sure that the blogger makes that disclosure.

Please review these new rules yourself and if you have questions, please ask your own legal counsel. ClickBank cannot and does not give legal advice to our vendors or affiliates, and our approval of your product does not constitute an approval of any specific marketing, promotion or endorsement used to sell the product.