Save-A-Sale controversy

[pixels]

I just came across a couple of threads about save-a-sale stealing commissions on warrior forum and clickbanksuccess.

http://www.clickbanksuccessforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7252
http://www.warriorforum.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=207010

Has anyone heard anything more about this?

[mojojuju]

I tried out the instructions in the WF thread and I had no problems. Clicking on the link in the chat window resulted in the clickbank order page showing the correct affiliate id. There's no stealing of commissions from what I see happening. I do promote a product that uses this script and I must say it converts pretty good for a hundred dollar product (1:46)

Maybe I don't understand something.

Here's what I did


Clicked on http://myfireball.niche2.hop.clickbank.net/
Attempted to navigate away from the page
Chat box comes up
I click the link in the chat box and I'm directed to the order form
On the order form, the correct affiliate id is shown (myfireball)


So what's the problem?

[WayneB]

I've tried the example link from the warrior forum, and I get the
correct affiliate id on the order page each time. Some people
had said they were getting the saveasale id at first, and then
later in the day or the next day, they started to see the correct
id on the order form. So I don't know if the vendor has option on
what to show, and if they changed it just for that site or if the
chat software has been changed. Although if vendors are using
this and it does change the affiliate id, I would think it would go
against Clickbank's rule which do not allow for a vendor to tamper
with their tracking. Vendors, just like Zango and other products of that
type, are not allowed to overwrite affiliate ids on affiliate traffic.

P.S. After reading the posts on the Clickbank Success Forum, it
looks like the vendor has the option to 'Replace Affiliate ID'. I
think if Clickbank knew how this works, this option would be
against their rules. I see no problem if the vendor does not use
this option.

[dactum]

ClickBank commission hijacking

Check this out
http://www.cbproads.com/Cbguide4.asp

ClickBank commission hijacking

[WayneB]

After reading on other forums, it looks like the merchant using this saveasale
software has a choice to either pay saveasale $10 for each sale that is
saved, or to replace the affiliate id with saveasales id. I think this would
be very unethical for vendors to use the 'replace affiliate id' option with
affiliate traffic. If they are not using this option and paying saveasale the
$10 for each sale saved, then it would not be a problem for affiliates. But
if many vendors start using this, it could get to be a problem with having
to check each vendor to see which option he is using. Also, it is against
clickbanks rules for a vendor to overwrite the cookies on affiliate traffic,
so I would think it would be against their rules for a vendor to use the
'replace affiliate id' option.

[macoracle]

I went and bought this through my link and got no credit so what does that tell you?







I tried out the instructions in the WF thread and I had no problems. Clicking on the link in the chat window resulted in the clickbank order page showing the correct affiliate id. There's no stealing of commissions from what I see happening. I do promote a product that uses this script and I must say it converts pretty good for a hundred dollar product (1:46)

Maybe I don't understand something.

Here's what I did


Clicked on http://myfireball.niche2.hop.clickbank.net/
Attempted to navigate away from the page
Chat box comes up
I click the link in the chat box and I'm directed to the order form
On the order form, the correct affiliate id is shown (myfireball)


So what's the problem?

[mojojuju]

I went and bought this through my link and got no credit so what does that tell you?


It doesn't tell me anything other than that you bought the product through your link and got no credit. :lol: There's many reasons why you may not have received commissions, and as you're an experienced marketer, I'll assume you know about them. But from what I see, my affiliate link shows at the bottom of the order page in both IE6 and Firefox 2. With two conflicting real life case scenarios, I don't see how any final conclusions regarding the ethics of the vendor can be made.

BTW, is this site from the day job killer guy?


Today I was thinking about this save a sale script and how they charge like $10 or affiliate commission for each sale they "save". I wonder why on earth a vendor would continually pay that and not instead hire a programmer from one of the numerous freelancer sites or craigslist to get a script like this implemented for a one time fee.

I'm no javascript or AJAX expert, but looking at the saveasale script (http://www.saveasale.net/launch/chat.php?cid=181&theme=greatescape2008) that's executed on page load and the general requirements of the whole package, I don't think it would be difficult to have a working clone of this done for a couple or few hundred bucks.

Think about it vendors, this isn't a sophisticated artificial intelligence bot that would require the skills of an MIT professor - it's the same canned reply each and every time. I think there's programmers out there who could get something like the save a sale script cloned for a very low one time fee. :)

[CBTopSites.com]

I used to make a lot of sales from one product.
After they switched to save a sale, my sales dropped suddenly though the traffic increased ( it is highly targeted traffic).
So, I think save a sale is doing some conspiracy against affiliates.

[WayneB]

I used to make a lot of sales from one product.
After they switched to save a sale, my sales dropped suddenly though the traffic increased ( it is highly targeted traffic).
So, I think save a sale is doing some conspiracy against affiliates.

That vendor may think twice about using save a save when their affiliates
stop promoting their product. Instead of saving sales, he will be losing
sales.

[Owen Lee]

That's a great point!




Today I was thinking about this save a sale script and how they charge like $10 or affiliate commission for each sale they "save". I wonder why on earth a vendor would continually pay that and not instead hire a programmer from one of the numerous freelancer sites or craigslist to get a script like this implemented for a one time fee.

[cheshire]

I for one hate save-a-sale. Controversy aside I think users hate the exit popup. If you use a review style site it destroys an affiliates conversion rate. When users are comparing and shopping the constant "are you sure" when they hit the back button only slows down their comparison shopping. Even if the vendor pays the affiliate instead of save-a-sale its a reduced commission. Users arent stupid the word will get out that all you have to do is hit "back" and they can get it for half price.

Down with save-a-sale!

[1quran]

Do you believe you are not getting the correct commissions credited to your account?