ClickBank

[klawncare1239]

Ok, so, I'm using S2Member with good success at this point with a PayPal Pro account. All is well.

However, one of the products I'm selling through the new site is one that has been sold through another domain utilizing ClickBank as affiliate manager and payment method.

I want to eliminate the other site and start routing those sales through the new S2Member based website, but I'm not sure exactly how to do this.

First, if someone is referred to the site via a ClickBank link I want to make sure the only payment method available to them is ClickBank, so that the affiliate gets the commission.

Secondly, since I'm also running WP Affiliate Platform in conjunction with S2Member, if someone is referred to the site via a WP Affiliate Platform link, will the person be credited with the sale, if the person utilizes ClickBank to make payment? Would I be better off not having the ClickBank payment method available to NON-Clickbank-referred visitors, just to avoid confusion in the payment process?

Just not sure how to handle this or if it's even feasible. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

I did search the forum, and came up with alot of posts about ClickBank, but they didn't really seem to address my central questions.

[Cristián Lávaque]

I see your problem. Well, if I were you and wanted to just use ClickBank as the gateway, I'd do the same for the affiliates. I don't know how to match ClickBank with WP Affs. I'd email all my affiliates and ask them to register at ClickBank and use the hop link to promote your product.

Does that help?

[klawncare1239]

Not really because I don't really want to use ClickBank as my exclusive affiliate program. In fact, I wouldn't use them at all, if I didn't already have affiliates promoting my book through their service (with no way to know exactly who and no way to contact them to move them over to the new affiliate program).

So, what I'm trying to do is bring both together "under one roof" so to speak, so that all orders are moving through S2MEmber, but payments are processed exclusively by ClickBank if referred by Clickbank affiliate and exclusively NOT ClickBank if not referred by a Clickbank affiliate.

Is it possible?

[Cristián Lávaque]

I guess it could. WP Affiliate integrates with s2Member through s2Member's Notification API. The notification should happen with payments that happen through ClickBank too, so WP Affiliate would still work, if I'm not mistaken.

If you want to make sure, you could check with the WP Affiliate developer. He has an s2Member Pro we gave him to work on the integration, so it should be possible for him to look into the ClickBank thing you're asking.

I hope that helps.

[klawncare1239]

Cristian,

I don't think I'm really being very clear. I do appreciate your time to respond, but I think we're walking on two parallel lines of thought.

I'm not really all that terribly concerned about WP Affiliate Platform tracking or not tracking. If someone comes in through ClickBank, Clickbank will have already tracked the initial Click. So, as long as the PAYMENT goes through Clickbank, the affiliate will get the credit they deserve - and they won't get "double-credit" because WP Affiliate won't register an affiliate commission, because the referral wasn't made by any affiliate in the WP Affiliate Platform database and their standard affiliate query string wouldn't have been used - so, no affiliate referral tracked by WP Affiliate.

On the flip-side, if an individual is referred through a WP Affiliate link, with the WP Affiliate query string, that referral would never have gone through the ClickBank system, so no affiliate commission would be generated on that side for any sale. Only WP Affiliate could generate a commission if there was a sale.

All of this will happen by default. I don't have to worry about any of that. I'm not concerned about "double-counting" or "double-dip commissions" as it really can't happen.

What I'm concerned about is missed commissions. If someone is referred to the site through ClickBank, but there are other payment methods available to them besides Clickbank, if they use any of them, the referring affiliate is cut out of the loop - no commission. Now, on the flip-side of that, if someone is referred through the WP Affiliate Platform link with the referral query string, it seems possible that even if payment went through ClickBank, that affiliate would still receive their commission, since S2MEmber will still receive notification of the payment and should pass that notification on to WP Affiliate.

So, I think the only situation that seems like it could be an issue would be the one in which a ClickBank affiliate sends someone to the site, but then that individual uses another form of Payment. It seems that this scenario would cut the affiliate out and leave them with no commission - unless there is something I don't understand about how S2Member handles that situation.

However, if I'm right about this, I can't go this route unless there is a way to make sure ClickBank is the ONLY payment method available to an individual that is referred to the site via a ClickBank hoplink.

Does that make things more clear? Is it possible to do this?