Updated Clickbank Policy

Well, like they say...nothing stays the same forever. Clickbank, which is probably the largest affiliate marketplace, has just made changes to their policy. Just so you aren't running your business in the dark, I'm going to fill you in on some of the highlights. Hopefully, you'll just read the whole thing when you log into your account for the first time after the change.

I guess I should start with that much. Yes, when you log in next, you will be forced to read the new policy. They say that this is required any time there are major changes made. Now, it would have been nice if they could have just filled me in on the high points right from the start, but that would have been way too easy. After you log in, you WILL see a little notice that says what the changes are. Anyway, here goes.

The first change is that Clickbank is now referring to all "publishers" as vendors. I'm not really sure what the difference really is, but they say it has something to do with the terminology being standardized throughout the industry. I guess publishing really only refers to written products and let's face it, Clickbank sells software too. So I guess this makes sense.

Another change, and for the better, is that tracking IDs can now be up to 24 characters long. So when you're promoting a product, you now can be a lot more specific with your TIDs. Personally, I don't use them as I have my own way of tracking Clickbank sales. But if you use TIDs, this should come as a pleasant change to you.

My favorite is account closures. You can now do these yourself without having to actually call up Clickbank and have them do it. Simply log into your account, go to account settings, click on edit for your account information and at the bottom of the box you'll see a link that says "close account". It will then walk you through some "are you sure you want to do this" stuff before you actually can close your account. Make sure this is something you want to do.

Finally, installment products are no longer offered for sale. I never made use of this feature so don't even ask me what it was for. But if you sold installment products, you're out of luck. They are being discontinued.

And there you have it. Those are the latest changes from the Clickbank marketplace.

Derek Gehl Announces Retirement

Just got an interesting email today. Derek Gehl has announced his retirement as CEO of IMC. Okay, you're probably thinking..."That's nice, but what does this have to do with me?" Well, it has more to do with you and the future of your business than you realize. Keep reading and you'll understand what I'm talking about.

In spite of the fact that Derek Gehl is retiring, IMC is still going on. I'm sure his replacements are already in place. The company will most likely go on without missing a beat. Truth is, after the unfortunate passing of Cory Rudl, Derek stepped up to the plate and kept things going himself. So IMC will go on with or without Derek Gehl. But again, you're probably thinking, "What does this have to do with me?"

Nobody knows about life and death. Today I went to the funeral of a good friend of mine. She actually was partly responsible for saving my life several years ago. But what if she hadn't? What would have happened to my business? Where would it be today? What about YOUR business? Where would it be if something were to happen to you? Would it go on? Would it even matter?

It's not something that we like to think about, but having a backup plan for running our business in the event of our passing is something that we really DO need to think about. There is so much to cover. Forget about the running of the business itself. What about tax time? What about having somebody being accountable for your debts? What about all the secret passwords and web sites? Does your family know where they all are? Do they even have a phone number to call in order to get info from?

Business News Update

Every frequent traveler on business needs to know the latest business travel news. If a new company is in town with great flight rates, and travel packages, this is valuable information.

Unless you know about the good deals, you will pay more than you need to. Or you can have a disaster that is avoidable. Suppose you book a flight, and you didn't know that the day you leave is also the start of that airline strike. Too bad you didn't know ahead of time, you could have booked with a different carrier.

If you have some travel news, you can be in the know about your destination. What is the weather where you are going? If you are coming from somewhere warm and don't know to check the weather, if you head somewhere cold you'll be miserable.

Imagine if you didn't check and you assumed it is summer everywhere because you are experiencing summer at home. But in some places, your summer will be their winter! If you pack only thin clothing you'll be very uncomfortable.

Are you traveling to a country where English is spoken? If not, this can be a barrier to your getting around if you don't speak the native language. Try to arrange a guide or interpreter.

What if you are in a bad area? You can put yourself in danger without knowing. You don't want to wear dressy clothing and carry a great bag if where you are traveling to is full of pickpockets and criminals. In China, you want to be careful with your credit cards as misuse of this information is common. Know the laws of an area and also the typical problems.

Laws are very important, if you run afoul of them you can end up in a lot of trouble. Even if you don't do something criminal, you can find that some laws will make your travel inconvenient. Take China. If you have a drivers' license in America or Europe, you still are not permitted to drive in China. If you are planning on renting a car to get around you are out of luck.

Cable Business News Will Drive Your Investments Into the Ground

Where I used to work, we rotated MSNBC, CNBC and CNN Business in the background non-stop. Every market movement relevant to the energy market was followed, analyzed, and regurgitated on those channels. For the oil trading desk I worked next to, every threat of Iranian oil embargo, every possible hijacking off the Somalian coast, every Nigerian riot, would send the trading guys off in a flurry of activities.
Back in 2007, oil was trending up into infinity and beyond, and everyone was in a great mood. I don't know about now. But my point here is, these kinds of reporting are great and useful.
For a trader.
But you are not a trader, are you? You don't trade Forex or options for a living, do you? Because if you are an investor - and I define an investor as someone that holds investing instruments for the medium to long-term, then SHUT OFF the TV. They are worse than useless. They are downright detrimental to your investment portfolio.
The business reporting business, much like the regular media outlet, is like a stage. There is a cast of characters. They play their roles to the T, and they do not improvise. The networks themselves are self-serving media machines that get turned on for one reason and one reason only: to make a profit. Next time you see Maria Bartiromo, Erin Bennett or Becky Quick, you need to realize who's paying their bills. It's the advertisers, usually financial service companies that fill up these 10-20 second slots right after they tell you they'll be "right back". And who do they return with after the commercial breaks? Oh don't you know it, it's the in-house economist/strategist/analyst from those very firms.
Do you see what I see here? I see irreconcilable conflict of interest. I see many of those guests coming on the show with a very clear agenda in promoting a certain investment style, a sector which they are experts (and happen to do business) in. The intentions are not always malicious, but it does place a bit of a gag order on the interviews themselves. After all, should a disagreement arise, how far can an anchor go on challenging their guests' positions, knowing fully well their counterpart is partially footing her salary.
And then there are those anchors that leave you scratching your head. These are the personalities that would be better off working in the pits of the Chicago Options Exchange. Because they seem to confuse their responsibility in covering useful business and economic analysis, with pulling hourly trading tricks out of the hat.
Lastly, there's the experts themselves. Now given these are rational, intelligent analysts and economics that have swum against the tide and now at long last proven right. They come on the show with little to sell. What happens? Firstly, there's very good research indicating that (much) more often that not, one year of correct outlook is usually not followed by another. So statistically speaking, the much celebrated genius you are watching on screen is probably going to be wrong in whatever it is that he is championing right now.
Secondly, there is the issue of ego. Imagine if you are an academic that has been writing papers on some obscure anomalies in the market or impending doom for years, floundering in relative obscurity. To be proven right all of a sudden, exalted to rock-star status, touted on cable news as the sage, paraded trough conferences like a peacock, what would that do to an average man's ego? They may be genius, but they are still ego-centric just like everyone else, right?
It's easy then to see how they could be affected by newly-found fame, attention, influx of respect and adoration. Not wanting to disappoint, or merely driven by stubbornness to continue being right, it's no surprise that success in market predictions are rarely replicated, year after year.
So with all these: Conflicts of interest, confused role-playing, ignited by gigantic egos. Are you not better off by turning off the cable news? Pick up the FT or the WSJ, brush up on investment classics. There's more than enough sense out there to keep your money safe.

The Investoralist is a blog that explores the fundamental principles of investing in today's media-obsessed, amnesic, sound-bite driven world. Instead of focusing on technical aspects of securities analysis, we try to uncover the confluence of factors that have frustrated and confused many investors, and provide meaningful discussion based on a holistic look at the macro-investing environment.
The Investoralist came about when its founder got tired of the inaccurate, irrelevant, and often contradictory information that perpetrates the business media networks. As a passive investor herself, she felt under-served by one-sided and microscopic analysis that led many investors astray.