Affiliate Marketing

Bypassing ClickBank Merchant’s Butt Ugly Sales Page

Posted in: Affiliate Marketing by Kuzzuk on April 16, 2009

As an affiliate marketer, I am sure you have had the experience of wanting to promote a really good product from ClickBank but the merchant’s butt ugly sales page makes you cringe and think twice. Here’s a set of step-by-step instructions on how to bypass the ugly sales page and directly link it to the shopping cart without losing any commissions.

  1. Go to ClickBank Marketplace and find the product you want to promote. In this example, I’m choosing “Ewen Chia – AutopilotProfits.com!” (not implying his sales page is butt ugly). Click on the “create hoplink” link (highlighted in red) and it opens up a new window.

    Create hoplink in clickbank

    Create hoplink in ClickBank

  2. In the new window, I enter my ClickBank username “kuzzuk” followed by an optional tracker “kuzzukblog” so I’ll know the origin of the sales and press the “Create” button.

    Create ClickBank Hop Window

    Create ClickBank Hop Window

  3. This creates my ClickBank hoplink (highlighted in red). Essentially, hoplink in ClickBank language just means an affiliate link.

    ClickBank Hop Links

    ClickBank Hop Links

  4. The hoplink created http://kuzzuk.autopilotp.hop.clickbank.net/?tid=KUZZUKBLOG will lead to the merchant’s sales page but this is what we want to avoid. In order to bypass the merchant’s sale page, change http://kuzzuk.autopilotp.hop.clickbank.net/?tid=KUZZUKBLOG to http://1.kuzzuk_autopilotp.pay.clickbank.net/
  5. Breaking it down:
    • Add “1.” before your affiliate username.
    • Change the “.” to a “_” between the affiliate username and ClickBank product name.
    • Replace “hop” with “pay” and get rid of the tracking ID.
  6. Test the difference, the link http://kuzzuk.autopilotp.hop.clickbank.net/?tid=KUZZUKBLOG will lead to the merchant’s sales page (usually butt ugly) but http://1.kuzzuk_autopilotp.pay.clickbank.net/ will directly lead to the payment page so you can write your own sales copy or review of the product and then directly send your reader to the payment page.

Tip: Create a simple A/B testing and see whether your copy or the merchant’s sale page converts better. You may be surprised as there are many people out there who clearly favor butt ugly sales letters.

Comments

5 Comments
  1. George

    Now, June 8 2009, the hoplinks on clickbank look way different to the ones you describe do you have an update on how to do this

    Comment by George on June 8, 2009 at 3:28 am

  2. Kuzzuk

    George > The old style hoplinks still work and I guess it will continue to work so that ClickBank can maintain its backward compatibility. We’ll wait and see…

    Comment by Kuzzuk on July 11, 2009 at 7:52 am

  3. Opinions on writing pre-sell pages for affiliate offers, please!

    [...] Re: Opinions on writing pre-sell pages for affiliate offers, please! See if this helps you decide what to do: Bypassing ClickBank Merchant’s Butt Ugly Sales Page [...]

    Pingback by Opinions on writing pre-sell pages for affiliate offers, please! on July 30, 2009 at 9:26 pm

  4. David

    Hey Kuzzuk,
    Shouldn’t you check with the merchant before you do this to get their permission? I know some people who were almost banned from ClickBank for doing this without permission. The merchant should be happy to get the additional sales but some are just weird in an egotistical way about their butt ugly salesletters.

    Comment by David on October 7, 2009 at 10:12 pm

  5. Kuzzuk

    David > Thanks for the tip, I always had commissions even when I bypassed but I never checked with the merchants. I guess you are right that some merchants are egotistical about their butt ugly salesletters because they probably paid a celebrity copywriter lots of cash :)

    Comment by Kuzzuk on October 8, 2009 at 3:08 am