Recurring Billing At ClickBank

Posted By KokPang on June 23, 2007

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ClickBank, one of the most popular affiliate networks for digital products, have just gotten better. For a very long time now, internet marketers have lamented over ClickBank’s lack of ability to bill their customers recurringly. This has changed since 19 Jun 2007.

ClickBank have rolled out an all new recurring billing function on 19 Jun 2007. So, you won’t have to look for another company to handle payment processing when it comes to subscription or membership type products now. This is definitely good news to all internet marketers selling through ClickBank. And to affiliate marketers like me, of course we are happy to know that we can now keep on earning commissions for the life of a subscription.

The situation with ClickBank is certainly an improvement from before. Still, there are some limitations of the recurring billing facility you have to take note of at this stage:

The recurring billing facility currently only accept payments through credit and debit cards. So if your customers only have PayPal accounts, then tough luck.
Your initial billing can be a different amount from the subsequent rebills. But it must be equal or higher than the rebill. So if you want to tempt potential customers with a low trial fee before billing them with a higher regular subscription, you’ll have to look elsewhere.
Right now, you can only bill your customers monthly. ClickBank do have the intention to allow for other periods like quarterly down the road though.
A customer can only be billed up to 99 times, including the initial billing. Based on a monthly cycle, this works out to be 8 years plus. Well, I would imagine this is sufficient under most circumstances. But hey, certainly nothing beats billing to infinity till cancellation do us part, right?
If you think that an installment option is no different from a 3-month rebilling arrangement, then you better think again. ClickBank distinctively differentiate between installment payments and rebill payments. And they don’t do installment. So be warned: Think twice before you start offering an installment option through ClickBank.