A
BIG Dog is Just A LITTLE Dog Who
Wouldn't Stop Barking!"
BEFORE...
You Start Promoting Your ClickBank HopLink, Follow These Pointers to Make
SURE You Get
PAID!
The very first step in the Big Dogs
program is, of course, the purchase by a prospect of the “Secrets of the
Big Dogs” ebook. The prospect
makes his purchase of the ebook at our main sales site, at which he arrived
by way of your ClickBank hoplink. Once
the purchase is made, the ebook then “takes over” the sales process and
promotes the fifteen C.H.I.P. programs FOR you.
Obviously,
then, the most vital and important part of the Big Dogs program – where it
all starts – is your ClickBank hoplink.
ALL ClickBank hoplinks are in a standard
format. That is, they ALL look
like this…..
http://hop.clickbank.net/hop.cgi?XXXXXX/bigdogs
The ONLY way YOUR hoplink will
differ from any other Big Dogs affiliate is the “XXXXXX,”
which is YOUR individual ClickBank “nickname.”
For example, if, when you applied for a nickname at ClickBank, you
chose “hotdog,” then your hoplink would look like this…..
http://hop.clickbank.net/hop.cgi?hotdog/bigdogs
Likewise, we might have a Big Dogs
affiliate in Russia (for example), who may have chosen the nickname of “redstar.”
HIS hoplink would look like this…..
http://hop.clickbank.net/hop.cgi?redstar/bigdogs
Notice that his hoplink and your
hoplink are identical...with the exception of the nickname toward the end.
To repeat.....
ALL
ClickBank hoplinks for the Big Dogs program are the same, with the exception
of the nickname.
Are we all up to speed on the basic
format of the ClickBank hoplink? Good.
Now, given the crucial importance of your hoplink, there are several
points to keep in mind – IF you want credit for your ebook sales!
Point
Number 1:
"Have you, in fact, formally
registered your desired nickname with ClickBank?"
Most of you are probably thinking
that this is a real no-brainer, but every so often we have a new affiliate
who simply ASSUMES that they can pick a nickname, just insert it into the
standard format of the ClickBank hoplink, and begin to promote the Big Dogs
program. Not so!
You must FORMALLY register your desired nickname at the ClickBank
site.
For example, we recently
had a new Big Dogs affiliate from Ohio who decided to use his first name
(Ralph) as his nickname. He
“plugged” it into the standard hoplink format, and began promoting the
program, BEFORE HE FORMALLY REGISTERED THE NICKNAME AT THE CLICKBANK SITE!
Unfortunately, his first few ebook sales were credited to a person
in Australia who HAD formally registered the nickname of “Ralph” years
ago. In fact, this
Australian marketer was not even a Big Dogs affiliate!
Don’t let this happen to you!
BEFORE you start to promote, make
sure you formally register your desired nickname at the
ClickBank site, as per our instructions in Chapter 8, Step 5 of the
“Secrets of the Big Dogs” ebook!
Point
Number 2:
"Have you verified that your
ClickBank hoplink is working properly?"
This is a very simple procedure, but
before you do any promotion, you MUST verify that your hoplink is taking
your prospects to the proper sales page – YOUR sales page.
For example, if you have chosen – AND REGISTERED – the nickname
of “wildman,” your hoplink would look like this…..
http://hop.clickbank.net/hop.cgi?wildman/bigdogs
Copy and paste your hoplink into
your browser and hit enter. You
will be taken to the main sales page for the “Secrets of the Big Dogs”
ebook, which has the headline of, “You Are About to Become a Thoroughbred
of Internet Marketing.” Near
the bottom of the main sales page is the hotlink, “Click HERE to Purchase
YOUR Copy of Secrets of the Big Dogs NOW!”
When you click on this hotlink, you (or your prospect!) will be taken
to the standard ClickBank purchase page.
When you scroll down to the very bottom of the ClickBank purchase
page, you will see a large gray-blue box.
In the lower left corner of this box is the nickname of the affiliate
who will get the credit for the sale. Again,
assuming you nickname is “wildman,” what you will see in this lower left
corner would be…..
wildman / bigdogs
So…if you see YOUR nickname,
followed by a “slash,” followed by “bigdogs,” then your hoplink is
functioning as it should, and you WILL get credit for your ebook sales.
But wait!
What if, even after you’ve carefully copied and pasted your hoplink
into your browser, the nickname you see is NOT yours!?
Not to worry! Why?
Because the problem (actually it’s not a problem – just a little
quirk of the way “cookies” work) is only in YOUR computer and no one
else’s! In other words, if
anybody ELSE, on a different computer, uses your hoplink, they WILL be taken
to the correct page – YOUR page. Here’s
how to fix it so that YOU can see the proper page on YOUR computer:
Close your browser’s window. Then
delete all the “temp” files from your browser, delete the “history”
files, and reboot your computer. NOW
when you go back to the ClickBank purchase page using your hoplink, it will
be YOUR nickname you see.
Point
Number 3:
"Are you using the “UN-resolved”
hoplink, and not the RESOLVED hoplink?"
Whoa!
Wazzat mean!?
Well, in Point Number 2, above, we
told you to verify that your hoplink is working properly by inserting it
into your browser window and using it to go to the ebook sales site.
Let’s assume that your hoplink is…..
http://hop.clickbank.net/hop.cgi?ezmoney/bigdogs
This is an example of what is called
an “unresolved” hoplink. Let's
further assume that you have carefully copied and pasted it into your
browser window. Now
when you hit enter to go to the ebook sales site, if you look in your
browser window you will find that your “unresolved”
hoplink of…..
http://hop.clickbank.net/hop.cgi?ezmoney/bigdogs
…..has been “resolved”
into the following form…..
http://bigdogsecrets.com/?hop=ezmoney.bigdogs
When verifying their hoplinks, most
affiliates don’t even notice this change, but SOME do.
They then assume that it is the SECOND form (the resolved form) that
they should use in promoting the Big Dogs program.
THIS IS NOT CORRECT AND IF YOU USE THE “RESOLVED” FORM OF YOUR
HOPLINK YOU WILL NOT RECEIVE CREDIT FOR YOUR SALES!
Now you don’t have to understand
the technical aspects of all this. You
don’t even have to know what a “cookie” is.
Suffice it to say that if you use the PROPER form of your hoplink,
then you WILL receive proper credit for your ebook sales.
If you use the “resolved” form of the hoplink, then it will not
"set" the ClickBank cookie, and that ebook sale will be credited
to the PREVIOUS affiliate whose hoplink was used to access the ebook sales
site! So make SURE that the
ClickBank hoplink you are promoting looks like this…..
http://hop.clickbank.net/hop.cgi?XXXXXX/bigdogs
and NOT…..
http://bigdogsecrets.com/?hop=XXXXXX.bigdogs
Point
Number 4:
"Are
you using a 'tracking URL' in your ads and NOT your actual hoplink?"
In the “Secrets of the Big Dogs”
ebook, we stressed very strongly the necessity for tracking your ads.
This is the reason that AdMinder is one of the C.H.I.P. programs.
However, when using ClickBank
hoplinks, it is even MORE important to use tracking URL’s in your ads and
NOT your actual ClickBank hoplink. Unless,
of course, you WANT to lose a third OR MORE of your commissions to the
“commission hijackers!”
To understand what we’re talking
about, we need to go back once again to Point Number 2, and look again at
the standard format of the ALL ClickBank hoplinks.
Here we are assuming that the nickname you registered is “joker.” Then when promoting the Big Dogs program, your hoplink would
look like…..
http://hop.clickbank.net/hop.cgi?joker/bigdogs
In the above hoplink, “joker” of
course is your nickname (the nickname of the individual AFFILIATE). “Bigdogs” – at the very end of the hoplink - is the
nickname of the MERCHANT (the Big Dogs Home Office).
Now ClickBank has been around a long time and they process credit
cards for THOUSANDS of different merchants (i.e. companies) and HUNDREDS of thousands of
individual affiliates. Once you
have your nickname registered you can use it for ANY ClickBank merchant.
Let’s take a few hypothetical
examples…..
Assume there is a company that is a
registered ClickBank merchant that sells an ebook on paper-training your
puppy. This company’s
merchant nickname is “puppy.”
Once you become an affiliate for that company, your hoplink would
look like…..
http://hop.clickbank.net/hop.cgi?joker/puppy
You see that it is EXACTLY the same
as your hoplink for Big Dogs. The
only difference is that the merchant nickname at the end is “puppy” and
NOT “bigdogs.”
Now assume that you are an affiliate
for a company that sells videos on the Civil War, and that their merchant
nickname is “videoman.” Your
hoplink for this company would be…..
http://hop.clickbank.net/hop.cgi?joker/videoman
And on, and on…
So you see, once you have registered your nickname with ClickBank,
you can be an affiliate for ANY of the thousands of merchants that ClickBank
processes credit cards for. This
is great for you as an individual marketer because, if you promote several
different affiliate programs, all your commission would come to just one
account, simplifying your bookkeeping enormously.
But this presents a major flaw in
the system as well!
Let’s take a look once more at
your hoplink for promoting Big Dogs…..
http://hop.clickbank.net/hop.cgi?joker/bigdogs
Now let’s say that a person reads
your ad, has heard about the Big Dogs program, and knows he wants to
purchase the book. Ordinarily
he would click on your link (your ClickBank hoplink), arrive at the Big Dogs
sales page, click on the purchase button, and YOU would get the commission.
Ah, but let’s say that that
prospect ALREADY has a registered ClickBank nickname!
He can insert HIS nickname into YOUR hoplink, and NOW, when he
makes his purchase, it will be HE, and not YOU, who receives the commission!
For example, your ClickBank hoplink
is…..
http://hop.clickbank.net/hop.cgi?joker/bigdogs
…..where your nickname is
“joker.” The nickname of this other marketer is, let’s say, “pirate.”
He can replace YOUR nickname in the standard hoplink format with HIS
nickname…..
http://hop.clickbank.net/hop.cgi?pirate/bigdogs
…..before he goes to the
sales site. NOW…when he buys
the “Secrets of the Big Dogs” ebook, he will get the commission and NOT
you! In other words, he will receive a commission on his own
purchase – a commission that is essentially a “discount” on his
purchase.
This process is called “commission
hijacking.” Is it unethical? Is it immoral? Is
it STEALING? Well, CERTAINLY
– to all three! It was YOU
who placed that ad that attracted “pirate” to purchase the ebook.
It was YOU who perhaps paid good money for an ezine ad. It was YOU who, as a member of the C.H.I.P. programs,
certainly has a FINANCIAL stake in the matter.
It was YOU who spent the time and energy to get your ad out in front
of the prospect. So you
CERTAINLY deserve to be compensated for your troubles.
“Commission hijacking” IS unethical, immoral, and
stealing!
Now I’m sure I don’t have to
tell you that there are a lot of unscrupulous people on the Internet who
delight in PURPOSELY screwing other people out of their hard-earned money.
I have no sympathy for these bottom-feeders, and I don’t think
anyone would shed a tear if they were hung from the nearest tree.
But, believe it or not, there are
also a lot of people that are guilty of commission hijacking who are honest,
sincere, god-fearing people. They
are folks
who quite simply don’t understand what they’re doing is wrong.
For example, good ‘ol Joe may see your ad, and think to himself,
“Well, I already have a ClickBank nickname, so if I plug it into that
hoplink, I’ll get a “rebate” on my purchase.”
Joe doesn’t analyze the situation enough to realize that he‘s
actually taking money out of YOUR pocket.
He just sees it as getting a “rebate!”
Joe is not out to intentionally rob you, but that is EXACTLY what
he’s doing!
Last week I received an email from a
new Big Dog (we’ll call him Larry) who wanted his sponsor’s signup
module. But Larry had a problem.
He wrote.....
“Dear Stan.
I would like to have my sponsor’s signup module so I can signup for
the C.H.I.P. programs, but I don’t know who my sponsor is since I
PURCHASED YOUR EBOOK DIRECTLY FROM CLICKBANK.”
See what I mean!?
Larry was certainly not out to rob anyone of their money.
He simply saw what he did as “purchasing the ebook directly from
ClickBank!” He obviously felt
that since he thought he was purchasing the ebook from the “source” that
he DESERVED a discount.
But whatever the motivation of these
commission hijackers – whether they are actually disreputable scumbags who
KNOW they are robbing you, or whether they are just misguided folks who
think they are getting a “rebate” or a “discount” – the effect is
the same. YOU LOSE MONEY!
You lose your initial commission on the purchase of the ebook and you
lose RESIDUAL income should that purchaser decide to upgrade to Alpha Dog
and join the C.H.I.P. programs!
What can you do about it?
How can you protect your hard-earned commission dollars from the
unscrupulous as well as the misguided?
The answer is to “cloak” your
ClickBank hoplink, and that can be accomplished very, very simply.
We began this discussion of Point
Number 4 by mentioning the importance of using tracking URL’s.
As a full-fledged Big Dog you should already know how important it is
to track your ad results so you know what ads are working and which ones are
duds. Now we know another
important reason to use tracking URL’s – to prevent commission
hijacking!
Let’s use an example…..
Assuming you are using AdMinder to
track your ads, a typical AdMinder tracking URL might look like…..
http://www.adminder.com/c.cgi?makemoney&ad01
…..where “makemoney” is your
AdMinder username and “ad01” is the code you are assigning to a specific
ad.
Of course you may have unlimited
AdMinder tracking URL’s. Let’s
say, for example, you are running ten ads through ten different sources.
Your tracking URL’s might look like…..
http://www.adminder.com/c.cgi?makemoney&ad01
http://www.adminder.com/c.cgi?makemoney&ad02
http://www.adminder.com/c.cgi?makemoney&ad03
http://www.adminder.com/c.cgi?makemoney&ad04
http://www.adminder.com/c.cgi?makemoney&ad05
http://www.adminder.com/c.cgi?makemoney&ad06
http://www.adminder.com/c.cgi?makemoney&ad07
http://www.adminder.com/c.cgi?makemoney&ad08
http://www.adminder.com/c.cgi?makemoney&ad09
http://www.adminder.com/c.cgi?makemoney&ad10
Notice that each tracking URL is
identical, except for your ad code at the very end.
Even though you have ten different tracking URL’s, they all
“cloak” or point to the ACTUAL URL, which is – you guessed it!
– your ClickBank hoplink! A
prospect now has no idea, when he looks at your tracking URL, WHERE he will
be redirected UNTIL HE ACTUALLY CLICKS ON IT!
Your commissions are safe!
To summarize, we thus see that using
a procedure that you should ALREADY be using (that of using tracking
URL’s) serves DOUBLE duty – that of assisting you in determining the
efficiency of your ad campaigns and that of protecting your hard-earned
dollars!
Point
Number 5:
"Are
you SURE your hoplink is in your ads?"
(Note:
As we now know from Point Number 4, above, it is not really your
hoplink that should be in your ads, but, rather a TRACKING URL that
redirects the prospect to your hoplink.
However, for simplicity’s sake, we will continue to use
“hoplink” to refer to the URL you place in your ads.)
Again, this sounds like a real
no-brainer, but our statistics show that the number one reason an
affiliate doesn’t get sales is because he has neglected to put his
ClickBank hoplink in his ads!
Yep!
As crazy as it sounds folks will spend HOURS designing the
“perfect” ad, and then neglect to put in their hoplink.
As a last step in proofreading your ads, make DOUBLY sure that you
actually give your prospects a place to go!
Point
Number 6:
"Do
you TYPE your hoplink into your ads, or do you COPY AND PASTE it?"
Nobody, but NOBODY who has any
sense, TYPES a URL into an ad
or into their browser window. You
must ALWAYS copy and paste your hoplink into your ad, after you have
verified it!
Oh, you can write an ad or an email
message and have a typo here and there – the world is not going to end,
and your recipient will know pretty much what you’re talking about.
But so MANY people seem to think that the same thing applies to the
URL in that ad.
NOT SO!
The URL that you wish to send prospects to must be, not just
“OK;” it must be PERFECT!
At least half a dozen times a week,
I get frantic emails from new Big Dogs who swear up and down that their
hoplinks are not working. These
are just a few of the variations I get…..
http://hop.clickbank.net/hop.cgi?/XXXXXX/bigdogs
http://hop.clickbank.net/hop,cgi?XXXXXX/bigdogs
http://hop.clickbank.net/hop.cgi?XXXXXX/bigdog
http//hop.clickbank.net/hop.cgi?XXXXXX/bigdogs
http://hop.clikcbank.net/hop.cgi?XXXXXX/bigdogs
http://hop.clickbank.net/hop.cgi?XXXXXX.bigdogs
(Just as a little exercise, you
should take a minute and see if YOU can pick up the errors in the above six
incorrect hoplinks. And...just to show you how E-A-S-Y it can be to
screw up a URL, check out Contest Number 1 in the next article.....)
Always test your hoplink before
use, and then always copy and paste it into your sales messages!
You work hard and invest a lot of
time and money into your Internet marketing business.
It just makes good sense to use the six pointers above to make sure
you are not WASTING that precious time and money!
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