Closed

It’s funny how things in business happen and how you can’t rely on almost anything to work seamlessly anymore. The term passive income isn’t exactly passive, well not for me in this instance anyway!

Please read this post to the end to grab your FREE download of my Bloggers Roadmap eBook, and also find out why I’m giving it away..

As I sit here in my rented holiday villa for a few summer weeks in Spain, I have come to realize relying on anything in your business which is controlled by someone else must still be monitored. Here are a few examples:

1. Hosting (Blue Host failed not so long ago)
2. Auto responder services (Get Response Failed not so long ago)
3. Payment processors (Clickbank failed me last month)

Please realize these are examples, Get Response and Blue Host were repaired, but not without severe detrimental effects on peoples online businesses. Also remember I’m merely trying to paint a mental picture of how your online business can crash without return leaving a 5 figure income stream dead in the water! Yes I’m a little pissed at Clickbank!

Shut Down Without Warning

I’m going to cut a long series of emails short and pull out the bones for you on this one as I was exchanging emails for a few days trying to find a resolution to why Clickbank (CB) shut my Bloggers Roadmap account down without warning.

I will say this is partly my fault! I know I’m not perfect when it comes to online business, but a little support or notification would have helped from CB rather than a “This product is no longer for sale notification” and a “sorry there is nothing we can do” response from support.

At the present time and without going onto my account (because I can’t) I had passed a high 5 figure sum through my Bloggers Roadmap account, but still CB would not help me out or replace my account. It’s a case of once it has been removed you have to reapply for a new account and this would have consisted of:

  • New application
  • New flow approval
  • New site approval
  • Adjustment of API keys etc for my members area for automated upgrades and access
  • And some other stuff..

The point is, once I setup the account initially I don’t want to be doing it again, just because CB can’t support me. Plus there is the rigmarole of getting approval which if you have a product on CB you know it can be a big pain in the ass!

My Fault or Not?

You can make your own mind up on this one, but I guess I can take a some blame. if you have a similar setup, change it now!

Some time ago, CB created something called ‘JV Contracts’. JV contracts are a great way to share payments across vendors e.g. I can give a percentage of my earnings to you for every sale. It works well, I have numerous accounts setup for JV contracts which work seamlessly as long as there is enough in the main account to support refunds.

So What Happened?

CB created JV Contracts before they created their master account. so to make things easier (I know I’m not the only one here) I setup JV contracts to myself giving 99% affiliate revenue from my Bloggers Roadmap account to my 1st CB affiliate account. This way I could see a total daily revenue for every account in one place using my iPhone ‘CB App’. Sounds good, sounds simple and easy! It was for 2 years….Until..

Refunds!

Since my account has always been quite healthy over the last two years, sales always outweighed the refunds but recently like they do when a product gets older sales had dropped off, due to lack of affiliate support, ads and self promo (my fault), and since 99% of all revenue was going to my main CB account, a spurt of refunds placed me in negative equity! This lead to my account being closed due to it being in negative equity for a set period.

“A simply mistake you have to agree, but not punishable by shutdown!”

No matter how I tried I could not get my account back. So, whats the plan I hear you saying? Well for now, I have decided to give it away for FREE from this link:

http://www.bloggersroadmap.com

This is the eBook, not the video series or any of the members area tools or Facebook group. This wouldn’t be fair. However the eBook is a great resource and one I would definitely recommend reading if you would like to get into blogging or make your own better.

The Future of Bloggers Roadmap

At present I’m still a little pissed at CB so they won’t be getting any future business for Bloggers Roadmap. JVZoo.com will be the future payment platform of choice when I update to 2.0 and re-launch it. But for now I’m letting it go for free:

http://www.bloggersroadmap.com

Lesson Learned

Many online businesses are effected by change and if you don’t control the 3rd party, it’s always worth staying ahead of the game. Create a contingency plan to allow for changes in hosting, auto responders, payment processors even the laws behind online selling.

I hope this article helped.

If you have any questions or comments please feel free to post below 🙂

Bloggers Roadmap Bootcamp Day 1

Are You Ready For Your Very Own Blogging Bootcamp?

Grab Your FREE 5 Day Blogging Course Delivered to Your Inbox

To get onboard simply enter your email address below and we can get started immediately

Your Reports Are on The Way Check Your Inbox