Clickbank questions

[rlpublishing]

Hi - I am looking for a plugin which meets my needs and in s2, I think I may have found something which comes close at a price that won't break the bank. The most likely platform for the projects I have in mind will be ClickBank, so I have been trying to confirm how well the S2 plugin integrates with it. Although I have spent quite some time trawling the myriad resources available here and in the sales pages, I haven't found all the answers yet. Forgive me if this is just down to poor research on my part, but I will ask the remaining questions that I have here ...

1. One project will be for a one time permanent access sale - that clearly is no problem. But I may also want to allow payment for big purchases in a number of chunks i.e. using the Duration parameter in the CB installment set-up. In these cases, when the customer stops paying, it's because he's paid the full price and so should retain access. In other words, it's not EOT, they should not revert to "free" status. Will s2 handle this ?

2. Other products have a kind of "drip feed" feature for installment payments i.e. pay month 1, get access to part 1 of material, pay month 2, get access to part 2, etc. I can't see anything like this ... did I miss it ? If not, is it planned ?

3. I have read through http://www.primothemes.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2900 and it seems as if this has prompted some changes. Are people now actually using s2 successfully with CB ?

With thanks in anticipation ...

Roger.

[rlpublishing]

Oh yeah, one more thing, so that makes it point 4 ...

I saw some questions about whether affiliates got credit by using links directly from CB. The answers seemed to be along the lines that their "hoplinks" would send prospects to a sales page from which they would then make the purchase, which means that they would pick up the extra parameters needed for S2.

But think that some affiliates effectively write their own sales page and just create a payment link that takes prospects straight to the CB checkout, thus omitting the s2 parameters (see this: http://www.clickbank.com/help/vendor-help/vendor-basics/get-started-as-a-vendor/#3). I'm not quite sure how they get their affiliate cookie to be recognised, but I have heard tell that there are various ways of doing this too ... that's not really the point.

Anyway, I can't see this being prevented ... does the s2 end of things have the ability to detect that something is missing in these circumstances ?

Thanks again,

R.

[Cristián Lávaque]

Hi Roger.

1) I'll leave this one to Jason.

2) You can read about s2Member's content dripping here WP Admin -> s2Member -> API / Scripting -> s2Member Content Dripping.

3) Yes, that particular user had a tough time configuring it, but s2Member does work with ClickBank and there are many using it successfully.

4) This is a related thread viewtopic.php?f=4&t=14330

I hope that helps.

[rlpublishing]

Hi Cristián - thanks for your response. Prior to Jason's input on question 1, here are more thoughts on my "extra" question.

I had seen the thread that you mention but it doesn't quite reach the point I am making. An example may be best ...

If I were a CB affiliate, when I promote a product I could do one of two things.

1. I can use a hoplink generated on the CB Marketplace which would lead to the customer using the s2 "buy now" link. Picking one product at random from the CB Marketplace, this might look like this: http://zzzzz.etvcorp.hop.clickbank.net/. Clicking the Buy Now button on this page takes me to https://ssl.clickbank.net/order/orderform.html?querystring and the purchase is made. If this were to be done through s2 instead, presumably it generates the link and puts the correct values in the query string to specify membership level, etc and all would be well.

2. If, as an affiliate, I thought that I could write a better sales page, or if I wanted to offer some bonuses of my own, I could choose to write my own sales page and generate a Buy Now link that uses the format described here which is http://ITEM.VENDOR.pay.clickbank.net. This takes the buyer straight to CB checkout.

In my example, my link would look like this: http://x.etvcorp.pay.clickbank.net, where x is the item number on the vendor's ClickBank account, which you can often get from the vendor's own "buy now" link. In this case, 1. The problem with this approach is that (presumably) you don't get the s2 parameters passed along. Result ? Customer service grief ! As a vendor, I'd want to guard against this situation because of the Customer Support implications, something I'd want to minimise.

I know that this is unlikely, but if I understand the mechanisms correctly, this could be a problem. What is, perhaps, more likely is that I have misunderstood how the CB system hangs together, in which case, I'm sorry ... and could somebody please straighten me out ? !

Hope that clarifies my question.

Actually, as I write this, I realise that they can only use the second approach if the buyer has previously been "cookied" by the affiliate - otherwise, they won't get their commission. I suppose that may be the answer, although I gather that there are "blackhat" ways of planting the cookie. (Do you plant cookies ) But at the risk of ridicule, I'll post the question anyway ...

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Finally, one last thing. Your main competitor offers a 30 day trial, but it seems that you don't. I appreciate that you have the free option, which IS great as far as it goes. (Indeed, I recommended it to a friend only yesterday.)

But those of use interested in the Pro features are in a bind when we have to do this kind of inquisition to find out if s2 does indeed meet all requirements. Any prospect of introducing a trial period on the Pro product ?

[Cristián Lávaque]

Thanks for the questions, Roger.

I understand what you mean in the situation where an affiliate may skip your sales funnel and use his own because he can have control over optimization of conversion rates, etc. I think one of two things will happen in that situation:

- Since he seems to know what he's doing, he'll also copy the link from your order button and use it in his salespage, which if done right (adding the code for the dynamic values instead of leaving the static ones he copied) would work with s2Member.

- He will sell them the product without the right link to order, which will not work with s2Member and you'll have a customer submitting a support ticket, in which case you can generate a registration link for him and then check from your CB log who the affiliate was and contact him to fix his button.

Does that help?

I'll let Jason answer the trial one.

[rlpublishing]

Hi Cristián, thanks again. I know that the scenario that I have described is not that likely, but it seems to me that it is possible. I guess that if it does happen, you'd just have to deal with the customer support issues (which is what I would want to minimise) ... and perhaps speak to the affiliate to make sure he changed his ways !

Now waiting to hear from Jason on the other issues of no "EOT" when a defined number of "subs" has been paid and the question of trial periods for s2.

Thanks again,

Roger

[Jason Caldwell]

Thanks for the great questions.

But think that some affiliates effectively write their own sales page and just create a payment link that takes prospects straight to the CB checkout, thus omitting the s2 parameters (see this: http://www.clickbank.com/help/vendor-help/vendor-basics/get-started-as-a-vendor/#3). I'm not quite sure how they get their affiliate cookie to be recognised, but I have heard tell that there are various ways of doing this too ... that's not really the point.

Anyway, I can't see this being prevented ... does the s2 end of things have the ability to detect that something is missing in these circumstances ?

Hoplinks are fine, s2Member has no trouble with Hoplinks, because Hoplinks direct a potential customer to your site, and the customer sees your sales page, clicks a Button, and the transaction goes through as expected. This is the way 99.9% of all ClickBank affiliates operate ( i.e. with Hoplinks ).

The issue being discussed prior, had to do with an affiliate making an attempt to link directly to your ClickBank checkout form, which is NOT promoted by ClickBank, I suspect, for a number of reasons. As one example, if an affiliate were to create their own sales page and make an attempt to link directly to your checkout form for ClickBank, the checkout form would be missing required parameters passed through by your own shopping cart system ( i.e. s2Member in this case ). As a result, s2Member's post-processing of the transaction would fail, and the Customer would be unhappy. My advice, if you want to work a deal with an affiliate, whereby the affiliate is going to operate their own sales page ... give them a copy of the Resulting Button Code, generated for you by s2Member in your Dashboard. This way they'll have all of the information that is required by s2Member after post-processing. Again, this is ONLY required in special circumstances where an affiliate is going to operate their own sales page, and you are going to allow them to link directly to your Checkout form at ClickBank.

[Jason Caldwell]

1. One project will be for a one time permanent access sale - that clearly is no problem. But I may also want to allow payment for big purchases in a number of chunks i.e. using the Duration parameter in the CB installment set-up. In these cases, when the customer stops paying, it's because he's paid the full price and so should retain access. In other words, it's not EOT, they should not revert to "free" status. Will s2 handle this ?

By default, s2Member will NOT set an EOT time in this case, and instead it will rely upon ClickBank to notify s2Member behind-the-scene via ClickBank's IPN service. Once all of the payments are completed, s2Member will receive a IPN from ClickBank, and at that time s2Member will set an EOT Time, based on a number of factors, making sure the Customer's account is demoted or deleted ( based on your configuration ), at the correct point in time. In other words, s2Member ( by default ) assumes that access will stop whenever payments are completed, or the subscription is terminated and/or cancelled in some other way ( perhaps by ClickBank support, as one example ).

Now, in your case... this is NOT what you want to happen. So, if you'd like, you can disable s2Member's Auto-EOT Time in your Dashboard. See: ClickBank Options -> EOT Behavior -> Enable Auto-EOT System?. Set that to (no). With that configuration, access for each Member remains ongoing, even when the payment cycle is completed. s2Member may still set the Auto-EOT Time internally, but it will NOT act upon the EOT Time, because you will have disabled s2Member's Auto-EOT System.

[Jason Caldwell]

3. I have read through viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2900 and it seems as if this has prompted some changes. Are people now actually using s2 successfully with CB ?

Yes, this was updated in s2Member Pro v110710+ in order to meet policy requirements set forth by ClickBank, with regards to your Thank-You Page for ClickBank, produced by s2Member. In addition, starting with s2Member Pro v110710+, it is now possible to customize s2Member's Thank-You Page, and/or use one of your own, if you prefer.

[Jason Caldwell]

Thanks for the excellent question.

But those of use interested in the Pro features are in a bind when we have to do this kind of inquisition to find out if s2 does indeed meet all requirements. Any prospect of introducing a trial period on the Pro product ?

While I can appreciate a desire to test Pro functionality, we do NOT have any plans to release a trial version of s2Member Pro. Instead, we're working toward making some live demonstrations available for back-end functionality. Coming soon