Other restrictions require 2 different payment methods (Visa, Mastercard, PayPal) for purchases, and there have to be at least 5 different credit-card numbers.

To read the original article, go here.

Beginners just finding their feet with affiliate marketing can find it frustratingly difficult to make enough sales to comply with these rules, give up, possibly with the intention of coming back to it later when they have more experience. What they don’t realise is that when they leave their account dormant (i.e. there is no activity on it), and it contains a positive balance, they get stung for account charges. The longer it remains dormant, the higher the charges get. If it remains dormant long enough, all the commissions accrued so far will just disappear.

It’s the initial 5-credit card rule that causes so many people to give up and let their accounts go dormant, so this is what needs to be overcome. So, here are some solutions.

Affiliate Exchange
One reader who read the original article had experienced these problems first hand. He decided to do something about it and set up a kind of exchange for ClickBank affiliates in which you buy ClickBank products from other members, and they buy from you in return. The idea being that you quickly build up your 5 different credit cards, and 2 different payment methods.

This is not a bad idea as long as it is managed fairly. Somebody who signs up and makes his purchases from other members doesn’t want to be left waiting for months until enough people have bought from him because there hasn’t been a proper queuing system.

The initial outlay could be costly – 5 items bought – but of course, commissions would be earned on the reciprocal sales made.

ClickBank for Newbies
There is an easier way to achieve the same result using a system set up by ClickBank king, Harvey Segal. He set up a simple, low-cost, viral way of overcoming the problem with his product ClickBank for Newbies.

This is a free-to-download report that explains every detail of the problem, and presents in itself a means of overcoming it. Not only is it free to download, but you don’t even have to sign up to get it. It’s just there for the taking.

If you want to read more details, read my review of ClickBank for Newbies at my CBIntuition blog site, or go straight to the Download Page.

If you follow the incredibly easy instructions in this guide, you should get past that first 5-credit-card hurdle with no problems.

Viral Marketing Method
Viral marketing Method is a new system for promoting any product virally using a selection of powerful tools, including Twitter, the QKR link shortener, the PDF Power Brand branding tool and an ingenious cloaked RSS feed system. The system is so easy to use. It takes about 1 hour or less to set up a campaign, and once you have pressed the button to start the viral system, it just keeps on going.

Unlike those systems being sold to you by the marketing “gurus”, Viral Marketing Method won’t cost you a penny. It’s totally free and you can use it to promote as many products as you want. In fact, it works so well that the owners of Viral Marketing Method use it to promote itself! You can get more details of the system and how to obtain it from Viral marketing method.

There’s really no charge to use this system. It’s not a 30-day trial where you get stung a monthly fee after the initial free period. However, that might change in future, so sign up now while it’s still free.

But if you’re a beginner and not yet very good at marketing, you could lose the money that you have earned so far.

One of my colleagues had earned about $23 in his ClickBank account, but as he wasn’t really promoting his links very well, he just didn’t get any more sales for quuite some time. When finally he went to check his balance, he saw that it had fallen to $16, and there were a number of small ($1 and $5) transactions on the account. He couldn’t understand what they were, so I investigated for him.

It turned out that those $1 charges were for a “Dormant account”. In ClickBank’s world, this means an account that has a positive balance, but no transactions for an extended period of time.
I investigated further and found that the following scale of charges are applied:
$1 if the account is dormant for 90 days
$5 if the account is dormant for 180 days
$15 if the account is dormant for 365 days

So if you get sales of ClickBank products very rarely, your money might be eaten up in charges, and you may never receive a payment cheque (check).

Of course, if you get sales that rarely, then you probably shouldn’t be bothering with ClickBank, or you seriously need to go on an affiliate marketing course!

It’s a bit of a cheek though. I doubt whether it costs anything to manage a dormant account, and all the time ClickBank have your money, they’re earning interest on it.