For several years, Clickbank, a U-S based payment processor has maintained a ban on transactions involving digital information products originating from Nigeria on its platform. While information marketers in other parts of the world rake in thousands of dollars daily either as affiliates selling other people’s digital products promoted by Clickbank or by floating their own products as merchants on the same platform, their counterparts in Nigeria are not allowed to enjoy any of the two privileges. But leading information marketers in Nigeria under the auspices of the Association of Information Marketers of Nigeria are set to challenge the ban by the US company. Dr. Sunny Obazu- Ojeagbase in this interview explains why the association is taking such a step. Excerpts:

Why is Click bank Not Accepting Nigerians?

Obazu-Ojeagbase

What a lot of Nigerians do not realize is that a few years back, Nigeria was part of the countries listed under Click bank but was nullified due to some reasons. One of the reasons is the issue of corruption and fraudulent acts. Fraudulent acts on the Internet are known as internet scams.

Nigerian scammers exist and it is the main reason many of these networks ban Nigerians from using their services. But the acts of a few people should not mean all Nigerians are scammers; “Does it mean that 150 million people or less than a quarter of that number that go online are scammers?

Are there no alternatives to Click bank?

The major reason most affiliate marketers prefer to patronise Click bank is because of their high rate of commission; their commission is as high as 50%. And because they deal with digital products, it is very easy to download, once payment has been made. Now, what most Nigerians do is to register with Click bank using the “back door strategy”.

They do this by having a virtual address. Meaning, they might use a foreign address of one of the countries Click bank accepts, the address of a trusted relative or friend or graphcard.”

What would you say are the consequences of continuous ban by Click bank?

It may surprise you to know that Click bank could be shutting Nigerians out due to ignorance? Some people don’t want to investigate anything whatsoever before they come out with their policies.

They could have blacklisted Nigeria without any cogent reason other than the fact that the whole world thinks ALL Nigerians are crooks.

We share a totally different view. Indeed, Click bank may be shooting itself on the leg by maintaining its ban on Nigeria. I have many reasons for saying this: They need to know that loads of Nigerians do business with Google through the adwords and ad sense programs and Google actually do send cheques to Nigeria.

They need to know that Nigerians are interested in affiliate marketing than Americans according to Google Insights (Go to http:/www.google.com/inshghts/search/ and search for affiliate marketing). They need to know that according alexa.com, the highest users of Getresponse.com is USA followed by Nigeria with Lagos being the highest users (per city) in the world followed by Los Angeles. They need to know that they are missing out on a lot of money by refusing to work with Nigerians.

Let us know a bit more about Clickbank?

Clickbank is simply a payment processor. It is a US based company involved in the reselling of information products and affiliate promotion of digital products from subscribers across countries of the world. Such digital products usually come in the form of e-books (usually in PDF format), software etc.

One major advantage of digital products is that once payment has been made and confirmed, it can be downloaded by the buyer almost instantly without further delay or additional expenses like shipping etc.

How does Clickbank Works?

A lot of internet marketers use Clickbank both to sell other people’s products and to promote their own. Those that promote others people’s products are called affiliate marketers. Affiliate Marketing is a marketing practice in which a business rewards its affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate’s own marketing efforts.

Clickbank actually pays you a commission for promoting and bringing a customer to buy other people’s product on Clickbank. As an affiliate marketer, you sign up for any of clickbank’s products you feel you can promote and sell.

You can join Click bank as an affiliate free of charge. They have a general marketplace where you can search for or browse products to sell. The process is very simple: for each product you want to sell, you create a “Hop-link” to the product’s sales page, which then attaches a cookie to the reader’s browser, so that when they visit the page, Click bank records that the visitor has come from you. If they subsequently buy, you are awarded your commission.

Selling your own products through Click bank is a little more complicated. They have a pretty detailed approval process which takes up to five days, but it does ensure that you’ve done everything correctly. There is also a one-time activation fee of $49.95 for your first product, and Click bank takes a commission of 7.5% plus a dollar from every sale you make.

What approach would your protest take?

We have decided to write a letter, signed by thousands of Nigerians which we will then courier to their office in the USA. Since our annual conference is coming up, we have decided to use that day to gather Nigerians to sign the petition.

At the conference, we will not just talk about the restrictions on by the Click bank; we are also going to be sharing with old members of the association as well as those that would be joining that day three hot cash generating strategies that people can use. We believe that Click bank will ultimately lift the ban on Nigeria and we are trying to prepare our members ahead of it. What we are actually doing is to place in people’s hands quality information guaranteed to make them money.

It is a 3-in-one conference.Let me share with you some of the things that would happen that day. One of our officials, Akin Alabi will be sharing with people how they can make money as Money as a Clickbank Affiliate Starting with Little or No Money. He has made good money from that strategy himself. Like I mentioned earlier, one of the fastest ways to start making money on the Internet is through Clickbank affiliate marketing.