Clickbank has posted an update to promotions that vendors and affiliates must comply with by August 31, 2011
Updated Promotional Guidelines: As of August 1, 2011, all ClickBank clients are required to comply with our updated Promotional Messaging Guidelines (Product Promotion Guidelines). All new products are immediately subject to these guidelines, and existing promotional materials such as Pitch Pages and affiliate sites must be brought into compliance by August 31, 2011 or may be subject to penalties including account termination.
Some of these include being in compliance with the FTC such as: Statements that not all consumers will get the same results is not enough to qualify a claim. Testimonials and endorsements can’t be used to make a claim that the advertiser itself cannot substantiate. All specific advertising claims about a product’s performance or quality must be capable of substantiation—that is they must be real examples based on actual experiences.
Connections between an endorser and the vendor that are unclear or unexpected to a customer also must be disclosed, whether they have to do with a financial arrangement for a favorable endorsement, a position with the vendor, or stock ownership. Expert endorsements must be based on appropriate tests or evaluations performed by people that have mastered the subject matter. This means vendors cannot have actors (paid or unpaid) pretending to be someone they are not as part of a product endorsement. Also, affiliates cannot pose as neutral third parties evaluating two products so they make a commission on selling one of them. (???)
Clickbank also won’t allow false scarcity. If you say there will only be X number of unites sold they are going to make sure you only sell as many as you said you would.
On upsells and downsells Clickbank won’t allow more than 3 upsells (one time offers) and two exit offers for each sales flow. Any upsells or downsells must be enhancements to the initial product and must not be required to make the initial product work.
Read more at the Clickbank site.
I think some of these rules are good. It’s not right to take advantage of, for example, a visitor on your site that might be at their last $100 and in a bad personal situation, encouraging them to make a hasty and emotional, desperate and bad decision (not that people in general don’t use a form of some of these tactics in their personal lives anyway by coaxing or bullshitting people into compliance and not being “transparent”, which makes a bulk of the whiners just a bunch of bitchy hypocrites. People do this all the time. Everyone is a marketer, an actor, a salesman, a bullshitter to one degree or another and people do get hurt, just not necessarily in their wallet) but I think some of these “guidelines” are a little tyrannical because they often prohibit people from engaging in, at least what I think, legitimate forms of persuasion
You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink. Apparently the FTC thinks you can. It’s not that the average person is lazy or stupid or selfish – YOU’RE the problem cause you like to do what works when the children go cry to daddy.
Maybe the FTC should ban breast enhancements, wigs and false teeth.
Maybe you also shouldn’t be able to sport nice clothes, expensive watch and nice shoes unless you have the car and house to back it up, and the bank account to back that up lest God forbid you mislead some gold digger.
Maybe if the FTC wants transparency they should look at the Department of Motor Vehicles, public education, judges, lawyers, so on.
I didn’t get full disclosure or understanding yet I was allowed to sign up for Social Security – when I was 5 Years Old!
Lying two faced hypocritical FTC and government assholes.
It’ll be tougher on vendors listing their product on Clickbank who have relied on tactics that Clickbank won’t allow anymore. Affiliates are also bound to the rules but for these it’s easier to hide what they’re doing (for now, anyway)
It’s right to be prudent and honest in your dealings but I believe many of these rules encourage dependence, ignorance, stupidity and guardian/ward relationships and discourage personal responsibility and freedom.
That’s your society for you.
Still, whenever these things happens it always cuts out the lesser marketers and provides opportunities for the more clever who don’t quit until they can make things work within new rules.
So, look at the positive side and find opportunity that will elude the pseudo and self proclaimed internet marketers.
- sancho
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