Once I created my digital product, the next step was to choose a payment processor with a built-in affiliate program. I had planned on using ClickBank - which is one of the oldest and most popular solutions available.
I decided to check into the newer JVZoo network before making a final decision, though. I've used it as an affiliate of course, so I did some research to compare ClickBank and JVZoo from the perspective of a merchant.
I started by doing some basic research on Google and comparing the rates and features of ClickBank and JVZoo. Next I asked for feedback on Facebook. I was interested to hear opinions from both merchants and affiliates...
If you read the comments at the Facebook post above you'll see that Scott Lovingood said, "I like JVZoo as a customer because ALL my purchases are in one place. With clickbank it can be tough to find things at times." This is true - and a nice benefit from the buyer's perspective. Customer Service was another hot point - JVZoo is "awesome to work with" and gets a big thumbs up for personal support & service.
Benefits of JVZoo over ClickBank:
- You have the option to run a closed affiliate program on JVZoo.
- The affiliate program at JVZoo has a 2-Tier option.
- JVZoo allows you to set up JV contracts with different commission rates and/or terms than general affiliates.
- JVZoo offers Instant Payment for both merchants AND affiliates.
- As an affiliate, if you offer bonuses, JVZoo will deliver them automatically for you when someone purchases through your affiliate link.
- JVZoo will notify affiliates by email (that requested it) of high converting offers.
- You can manage refunds personally through JVZoo.
- The JVZoo system doesn't allow people to purchase through their own link, bypassing the affiliate that referred them.
- ClickBank charges 7.5% + $1 per sale. JVZoo only charges 5% per sale (note: you'll pay PayPal fee's on each sale as well).
- It's FREE to set up your product on JVZoo. ClickBank charges a $49.95 setup fee.
- Products under $50 are automatically approved at JVZoo.
- JVZoo has a members forum where you can get help, network with other vendors, ask questions, and even recruit affiliates!
Drawbacks of JVZoo:
- You have to file 1099's manually, where ClickBank handles that for merchants. That said, JVZoo does collect the tax forms and give you a list of affiliates that qualify for a 1099 - so it's easy enough.
- ClickBank has a larger database of affiliates searching for products to promote. But JVZoo is growing fast, and any affiliate program requires active recruiting.
- JVZoo currently only accepts PayPal as a payment method, BUT they are in the process of implementing more payment methods which should go live anytime now.
There's another drawback to using any major affiliate network such as JVZoo or ClickBank: there's no way to create a mailing list that includes ALL of your affiliates so that you can communicate with them regularly.
While you can set up an Affiliate Page and have affiliates opt-in to receive affiliate links and updates, affiliates can easily find and promote your product(s) through the network directly - bypassing your list and resources altogether (unknowingly, even).
One cool benefit of JVZoo is that you can message affiliates individually through the network. So if you have an affiliate consistently performing well, you can contact them directly and offer them incentives or rewards - or communicate with them to see how you support their promotions (with exclusive interviews or other perks).
With a self-hosted affiliate program you lose the benefits of a network, but gain total control over affiliate communication. So that's definitely something to consider. I've worked with 2Checkout (aff) and iDevAffiliate (aff) if you're looking for options.
After researching and comparing the two networks, I decided to go with JVZoo and set up my product and affiliate program there - which literally only took a matter of minutes.
BUT, I also registered the .net version of my domain and duplicated all of the pages - to set my product up on ClickBank as well. I don't plan to actively promote this domain, but it's a great backup, and it also puts my digital product in the popular ClickBank Marketplace. 😉
I hope this comparison proves useful if you're looking for a payment processor and affiliate program for your digital products. I was really impressed with JVZoo after researching all the features they offer, and I think it's good to finally have a working alternative/addition to ClickBank.
I would love to hear YOUR thoughts and experiences too.
Leave a comment below!
Best,
* Disclosure: This post contains my referral links to JVZoo and ClickBank. I may earn commission referring merchants. This post also contains some pretty darn good information and saves you the trouble of researching all of this yourself. 😉 If you found it helpful, I appreciate you using my referral links in return. Thank you!
About Lynn Terry
Great Comparison Review, Lynn!
I've always used Clickbank as a vendor and affiliate, and JVZoo only as an affiliate. But since JVZoo is free of cost (I didn't know that) I will definitely try it .
Nevertheless, Clickbank remains (for now) the biggest of all.
Another feature JVzoo has for vendors that Clickbank doesn't, is that you have the option of being able to approve affiliates before they get an affiliate link. This is useful for being able to weed out affiliates that are known undesirables.
Hi Lynn,
I don't use either yet because I haven't launched my product yet. I am going to launch a beginner photography course in October 13 and will probably go with Clickbank. I've heard that your Paypal account can be at risk with JVZoo if you get a lot of refund requests. Maybe you could clarify this from your research.
When I was researching the difference between the two, it seemed that jvzoo is only preferable if your product is in the IM niche, because the customer automatically gets signed up to the "jvzoo pick of the day" list (or whatever it's called), and if the product isn't IM related, they would not appreciate all those emails. Wondering what you think about that, is that correct?
Lynn, you said you set up an identical site on a .net URL and put that through ClickBank - is that because you cannot put the same offer/site on both processors?
Hmm. A very interesting review. I'm biased because I haven't heard until now about JVZoo, and well, ClickBank's been around to be counted as a reliable place for merchants and affiliates' alike.
But of course, if we want changes and improvement, we should always be open to new stuff, and that maybe, given the benefit of the doubt, they'll be able to surpass the one that has been sturdy all these times.
The comparison is very good, learned a lot about what JVZoo can bring to the table. And I guess, it will all boils down to what will work for you as a merchant, or as an affiliate.
This is nice to keep for future references, Lynn.
Found this post, as usual, on Kingged.com, and shared this comment there as well.
http://www.kingged.com/clickbank-vs-jvzoo-choosing-your-payment-processor-affiliate-program-for-info-products/
Good one Lynn. I always like the posts when you recommend us something new. I'm looking for new merchants as well as new affiliate products. Not going to bang all my efforts in Clickbank. Better have a second alternatives!
Definitely going to use your affiliate link. Pls provide more good resources!
Hi Lynn, I just remembered something else that makes JVZoo different from Clickbank. They allow you to upload and host your products directly on their platform. They also give you the ability to create instant sales pages, thereby eliminating the necessity to create sales and download pages on your own website.
Hi Lynn, Thanks for this comparison. I have been hearing a lot more about JVZoo lately, so I wanted to check it out as an affiliate. I also have a few products lined up for launch soon so this saves me a little time on comparing the pros/cons of the two sites.
Hi Lynn,
Evaluating drawbacks is always important for many marketers. Thanks for having that points in this post. I've seen many used Jvzoo but I personally engage with clickbank for long. I think I need to look further about jvzoo.
Thanks
I use JVZoo to run my affiliate program for my Kindle HTML Description tool. It integrates well with the membership site software and I like all the various types of reporting. As for refunds, if there is a refund request, you simply process it through their control panel.
So far, I've been very happy with the JVZoo platform!
Hi Lynn, So far JvZoo hasn't gone well! I couldn't find how to upload a product. I looked at their video and it was no help as it didn't show you where to go to do this. I contacted support and they said to go to my sellers dashboard and I will see a big orange button saying "Upload product". However there is no orange button there when I visit this page.
I contacted them again and they now want me to screen capture it to show them. It's taking ages to sort this out. It seems really strange that there is no obvious way for me to upload a product. I was wondering whether I needed to upgrade my account in some way for this button to appear?
Hi Jon,
I'm sure this is all sorted by now, but I thought I'd share my 2c worth.
I've had a similar experience in the past on a totally different website.
It turned out I wasn't using the latest version of my browser software, and there were tons of things I wasn't "seeing" on the page - yikes! It's all about the technology 🙂
I suggest trying a different brand or two of browser software first (Chrome, Safari, IE etc) -- see if you can see the buttons. If you can, upgrade your other browser to the latest version and see if that helps.
cheers
Teena
Hi Lynn, thanks for sharing the Benefits of JVZoo over ClickBank. I have prefered clickbank but these days they are getting difficult to convert. I think i should try jvzoo.
Thanks for sharing your research Lynn. Food for thought there.
I was going to go with Clickbank, as my experience as a buyer with JVZoo didn't impress - perhaps due to the ridiculous "Upsell Maze" and the irritation of the automatic subscription to the JVZoo pick of the day email.
However, I can't imagine you would choose a platform which does that, so maybe there's a way to streamline the process and make it simple and non spammy for the buyer. I'll have to check it out.
Did you know that if you pay affiliates by third party payment methods such as paypal, or credit card that you no longer have to send them 1099? That started with 2012 taxes. I'm not aware of any chances for 2012 or 2013 that's different.
I'm not sure if this lets me put a link but I'd like to share with you a blog post I wrote and the comments on the post from Tax Mama. Just thought I'd let you know that. http://www.virtualassistantmoms.com/new-1099-rules-that-you-need-to-know/ Paypal or the third party payment system will send a 1099 K to people instead.
No one seems to be mentioning the area of autoresponders and this is where JVzoo is a drawback because it will not integrate with Infusionsoft. I want to stick with infusionsoft so I have to use Clickbank. The only other option is to use Infusionsoft's merchant system which has no marketplace thus making it harder to attract affiliates. To bad JVZoo won't work with Infusionsoft as I would prefer to use them.
I just set p a product on JVzoo this week and it was sooooooo much easier than the one I did on Clickbank. I like the ability to have different settings on a per affiliate basis and the new coupon feature. Those are big perks in comparison to CB.
I need to look into doing a duplicate version of my previous CB product so I can list it in JVzoo as well.
I think my only complaint so far is that their entire support and knowledge area is video. There's no text, just "Watch this video".
Thanks for sharing this with us Lynn. As a Clickbank affiliate myself it's been an interesting experience to say the least for the exact reason you mention above. They should not allow the use of your own affiliate link when purchasing. As far as I'm concerned, this is an unfair business practice which Clickbank should address and the major reason I am leading away from them.
Thanks a lot, Lynn.
I'm in the process of building my own product and I had half a mind of putting it on JVZoo as well. After reading this, I've got about three quarters of a mind to do it.
Do you have an info source on how to go about setting up JVZoo products?
I still have so many questions!
1. What sort of materials do you need besides the product itself? A landing page, obviously. But what else?
2. Does JVZoo have protection from people buying your stuff with their own affiliate link?
3. Does JVZoo offer features for setting up VAT on your sales?
4. Let's say my product is subscription based software... can my software contact JVZoo to ask if a user is still running an active subscription?
Great comparison Lynn. Thanks for the info, it’s easy to understand. BTW, if anyone needs to fill out a “IRS 1099 Form ”,I found a blank form here: http://goo.gl/4cde83
Seems pretty straight forward. I've also heard that the upsell path on JVzoo is better than Clickbank as well as the offers they will allow are more flexible.
You should take a look at Resellerize.com when you have a chance. It's definitely the best affiliate network for digital products. Affiliates are automatically approved to promote all products, earn 100% commission on every sale and get paid out instantly to their PayPal accounts.