ClickBank Review - Accepting Credit Cards Through ClickBank - The No Merchant Account Required Solution

If you're planning to sell intangible products or services of some sort on the internet and have been wondering if there's any alternative to a merchant account, ClickBank is one such solution. A payment solution provider for more than a decade, ClickBank has processed billions of dollars in transactions over the years. You can get started for just $49.95 and in just a day. ClickBank isn't a 'bank'. It doesn't give you a merchant account either. ClickBank accepts credit cards on your behalf and then every two weeks sends you the payment by check (cheque) to your doorstep.

Merchants signing up have to provide their name, address, phone number and URL of the website. You have to choose the sort of product you wish to sell. Most intangible products or services are acceptable. This includes software and ebooks. You can add products to your account when you decide to put them on sale on your website. Each product has to have n associated 'Thank you' page where you thank the customer for buying the product. You can determine the amount you want to charge for the sale of the product, enter the information in your ClickBank account and generate the 'Buy URL'. This is the link the customer must visit for buying the product. When you make a sale to a customer, you'll receive a sale notification; a copy of this will also go to the customer confirming that they have made a purchase. You can add as many products as you want, within reason.

Click here to visit the ClickBank official website

VMC Infotech, the parent company of this website (Parinda.com) has used ClickBank since 1999 on their websites and have received hundreds of thousands of dollars through ClickBank. We have received every cent due to us and have had no complaints whatsoever. ClickBank has always been fair in their practices and we would recommend them without hesitation if you want to accept credit cards without using a merchant account.

ClickBank charges $1 plus 7.5% as their fee for each transaction. This means if you sell an ebook for $40, you'll get $36 in hand. This however saves you from having to maintain a merchant account. Signing up for a merchant account usually involves a set up fee and certain minimum charges every month. You'll be spending $30-$50 every month even if you don't make a single sale. With ClickBank if you don't make sales you don't pay anything.

ClickBank has some restrictions about the sort of products they will let you sell. You cannot sell products that are tangible - such as hard copy books, furniture, stamps, electronics or anything that requires to be shipped. You cannot indulge in spamming or sending unsolicited email. That's junk mail to people who didn't ask for it. You also cannot sell products that are illegal in nature. You cannot sell products that promote piracy or violate the terms of  service of social networking websites such as FaceBook or other sites like Craigslist. Here's a list of products and services that you cannot sell through ClickBank:

1. Unlicensed proprietary content;
2. Any product that, in ClickBank's sole judgment, encourages the unlawful transfer of copyrighted media, such as music, movies, videos, and games;
3. Spyware;
4. Existing debts or promissory notes;
5. Digital cash;
6. Spending accounts;
7. Money transfer;
8. Gift certificates;
9. Coupons, rebates, or vouchers;
10. Securities or stocks or bonds;
11. Deeds or titles;
12. Lottery tickets or sweepstakes;
13. Wagers or wagering pools, gambling or betting of any kind;
14. Pornography or pornographic entertainment of any kind;
15. Warez;
16. Pirated software or pirating tools;
17. Hacking tools;
18. http/tcp proxies, irc/ircd, Bnc, Eggdrop, Socks4/5;
19. Remote bots;
20. Shell accounts;
21. Dial-ups or dial-ins;
22. Phone services, phone minutes, cell messaging, or cell sms;
23. Spamming tools;
24. Fake ID tools;
25. Credit reports or credit repair;
26. Professional services, including accounting, legal, medical, and pharmaceutical services;
27. Social security number ("SSN") searches, SSN lookups, or SSN verifications;
28. Term papers or other academic works;
29. Anonymous proxies or proxy lists;
30. Password lists or email address lists or postal address lists;
31. Hotel/travel reservations;
32. Seminar, concert, or other event tickets or vouchers;
33. Event reservations;
34. Franchises or franchise opportunities;
35. Multilevel membership (including MLM, matrix, wheel, cylinder, downline, upline, chain, or pyramid) or any Product that has no appreciable value to the customer other than the potential for resale;
36. Products about marketing through Craigslist or social networking sites that are contrary to the social networking site's terms of use;
37. Any materials containing, endorsing or encouraging discrimination, violence, hatred, revenge, racism, victimization, criminal activity; and
38. Any other category ClickBank decides to prohibit.
    

We strongly recommend that you read the terms of service at the ClickBank website. Information mentioned here is an extract from their website.

One limitation with ClickBank is that you need a separate account for every website that you run. If you run 5 different websites selling five different products all under the same company name, you'll need 5 different ClickBank accounts. This is not usually a problem as many ClickBank merchants have multiple accounts.

ClickBank also has a liberal refund policy, to keep disputes to a minimum. Their terms of service state that:

ClickBank will, at its discretion, allow for the return or replacement of any Product within 60 days from the date of purchase.

So if one of your customers is not satisfied with your product and writes to ClickBank asking for a refund, the request will immediately be accepted and a refund issued. Refunds are not issued after 60 days have elapsed since the sale. This usually doesn't happen unless the merchant has not been able to deliver on the promise made. ClickBank has its own ways of checking if a credit card is fraudulent so orders coming from stolen credit cards are rare.

Another advantage with ClickBank is that they have several affiliates who market your products and services for a referral fee. They have over 100,000 affiliates, some of whom run high traffic websites or are veterans in internet marketing. If you come up with a product that has a huge market, they'll be able to get you a lot of revenue. You can decide the percentage of sale you want to pay them for sending you customers. For ebooks and other information products, it is not uncommon for ClickBank merchants to pay as much as 50% per sale. Some even pay 75% on every sale. This means that if the above $40 sale was referred by an affiliate, you would be paying $4 to ClickBank and $18 to the affiliate assuming that you offered 50% on every sale as affiliate commission. Setting the affiliate commission is up to you. It can be as low as 1%. Unless the affiliate commission percentage is high and you have a quality product, ClickBank affiliates won't usually be interested. Affiliate commission is calculated on the net sales figure after ClickBank’s own fee has been deducted.

Until recently ClickBank was accepting merchants from fewer countries. Now 30 more countries have been added. You can now sign up if you reside in any of these countries:

UNITED STATES
CANADA
BRITAIN
AUSTRALIA
APO/FPO
Aland Is
Albania
Andorra
Anguilla
ANTARCTICA
Antigua & Barbuda
Argentina
Armenia
Aruba
Australia
Austria
Bahamas
Bahrain
Barbados
Belgium
Belize
Bermuda
Bhutan
Bolivia
Botswana
Bouvet Is
Brazil
Brunei
Bulgaria
Cambodia
Canada
Cape Verde
Cayman Is
Chile
China
Christmas Is
Cocos Is
Colombia
Comoros
Cook Is
Costa Rica
Croatia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Diego Garcia
Dominica
Egypt
El Salvador
Estonia
Falkland Is
Faroe Is
Fiji
Finland
France
French Guiana
French Polynesia
French Southern Terr
Gambia
Georgian Republic
Germany
Ghana
Gibraltar
Greece
Greenland
Grenada
Guadeloupe
Guam
Guatemala
Guernsey Is
Haiti
Heard & McDonald Is
Honduras
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Ireland
Isle Of Man
Israel
Italy
Jamaica
Japan
Jersey Is
Jordan
Kiribati
Korea, South
Kuwait
Kyrgyzstan
Latvia
Lebanon
Lesotho
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macao
Macedonia
Malaysia
Maldives
Mali
Malta
Marshall Is
Martinique
Mauritius
Mayotte
Mexico
Micronesia
Monaco
Montenegro
Montserrat
Morocco
Namibia
Nauru
Netherlands
Netherlands Antilles
New Caledonia
New Zealand
Nicaragua
Niue
Norfolk Is
Northern Mariana Is
Norway
Oman
Pakistan
Palau
Panama
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines
Pitcairn Is
Poland
Portugal
Puerto Rico
Qatar
Reunion Is
Romania
Russian Federation
Samoa, East
Samoa, West
San Marino
Sandwich Is
Sao Tome & Principe
Saudi Arabia
Seychelles
Singapore
Slovak Republic
Slovenia
Solomon Is
South Africa
Spain
Sri Lanka
St Helena
St Kitts & Nevis
St Lucia
St Pierre & Miquelon
St Vincent & Grenadines
Suriname
Svalbard & Jan Mayen Is
Swaziland
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Thailand
Tokelau
Tonga
Trinidad & Tobago
Tunisia
Turkey
Turks & Caicos Is
Tuvalu
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom
United States
Uruguay
USA Minor Outlying IS
Uzbekistan
Vanuatu
Vatican
Venezuela
Vietnam
Virgin Is, UK
Virgin Is, US
Wallis & Futuna Is
Western Sahara
Yemen
UNITED STATES
CANADA
BRITAIN
AUSTRALIA
APO/FPO

Click here to read step-by-step how to sell through ClickBank.