If you’ve received an email saying something like “You’ve Been Added to a ClickBank Affiliate Whitelist” or you’ve looked to promote a ClickBank product & been told you need to get whitelisted, you might be wondering, just what is a ClickBank affiliate whitelist?
So we decided to put this blog post together to explain exactly what a ClickBank whitelist is, how they work & most importantly, whether or not you should apply.
On top of that, we’ll also be explaining one of the dangers surrounding ClickBank whitelists that could result in you potentially missing out on commissions.
So let’s dive in and get straight to it.
What Is a ClickBank Whitelist?
In short, a ClickBank whitelist is an approved list of affiliates that are allowed to promote a particular product from a vendor on the ClickBank network.
You see, whilst most products are set to automatically approve affiliates & essentially allow anybody to promote them, some are restricted by the vendors so that only people on their whitelist can promote them.
But, I know what you’re thinking… Why would they do this?
Well, for the most part, it’s simply to stop spammy or blackhat tactics. By having a whitelist, the vendors are able to vet the affiliates that are going to be promoting their products & it gives them the opportunity to ask some questions about their planned promotional methods.
After all, if you care about your product & your brand, you don’t want to run the risk of affiliates spamming your links everywhere & tarnishing your reputation.
And as a vendor, you also don’t want to run the risk of attracting affiliates who intend to just review your product & siphon commissions rather than actually drive new traffic & sales.
So to protect yourself, you can enable the ClickBank whitelist feature.
And if you do enable this feature, then all affiliates looking to promote your product will need to request to be whitelisted in order to start promoting.
Until their whitelist request is approved, their affiliate link will simply go to a dead page.
Should You Apply To Be Whitelisted on ClickBank?
To many people, this may seem like a silly question… After all, if you want to promote the product, you’re going t need to be whitelisted meaning you’re going to need to apply.
But there will likely also be many affiliates who are sceptical about applying & they may have a good reason.
You see, the vendors who created the products are in charge of the whitelisting application meaning that they can control what questions are asked.
As you’d expect, they can also see the answers.
So if you do apply to be whitelisted by a vendor on ClickBank there’s something you need to be very careful of & that’s giving too much away.
Because if you do give too much away about your promotional methods, there’s nothing stopping the vendor themselves from using this information to compete with you.
And whilst you may think it’s uncommon for this to happen, we can tell you that it’s not.
In fact, over the years we’ve seen many companies dig into the marketing techniques of their affiliates & attempt to replicate them for themselves to ultimately bypass the affiliate.
Some do it with success whilst others don’t quite manage to make it work but either way, to keep your methods “safe” it’s best not to give too much away.
For example, if you’re leveraging SEO then tell them that – but you shouldn’t need to go into detail about what keywords you’re targeting or what your ranking strategy is, etc.
Knowledge is power, and it’s generally best to keep the power in your own hands.
You’ve Been Added to a ClickBank Affiliate Whitelist
If you do apply to be added to a ClickBank affiliate whitelist then when you’re approved you’ll be notified via an email with the subject line “You’ve Been Added to a ClickBank Affiliate Whitelist“.
And it’s important that you keep an eye out for this email because, for many whitelisted products, this is the only place you’ll be able to grab your affiliate link.
Similarly, if you’re removed from an affiliate whitelist, you’ll get an email saying something along the lines of “This email is to inform you that your account xyz has been removed from the Affiliate Whitelist of the ClickBank vendor xyz“.
And this is one of the hidden dangers of ClickBank whitelists; you can be removed at any time, without warning.
So let’s say that you’re driving hundreds of sales to a whitelisted product from a vendor on ClickBank & the vendor decides to remove you from the whitelist. All of a sudden, all of your links will stop working.
This means that, depending on your promotional methods, you should always cloak these affiliate links so that you keep full control over them.
That way, if the vendor removes you from the whitelist at any point, you can redirect the link somewhere else & still qualify to keep earning commissions.
But that’s generally common practice anyway. As an affiliate, you should always want to make sure you keep control of your links.
The Bottom Line
In short, a ClickBank whitelist provides an easy way for vendors to vet their potential affiliates prior to allowing them to promote their product(s).
Some vendors also use ClickBank whitelists as an opportunity for you to earn more commissions as an affiliate.
For example, their product may have an affiliate program that’s open to everybody, but they may also offer higher commission rates if you approve to be whitelisted.
This, again, is done to prevent them from losing too much money to the types of affiliates who just review products & siphon commissions rather than bring new customers.
Anyway, hopefully, this article has been informative & if you happen to have any additional questions or comments don’t hesitate to leave them below.
