Morning Folks!!
I first made a name for myself in the adult
business. I became a whistle blower of sorts. Through my testing I identified companies that were largely
in business to screw webmasters out of their earnings. In other cases I mediated many times between webmaster
and sponsor to work things out before they went public. Once they went public,
all bets were off. Once something goes public you can’t put it back in the box.
I can’t tell you how many companies went out of
business overnight or disappeared once they got caught. Once they got caught,
they would collapse within days. Any webmaster sending traffic would pull it
and the word would spread like wildfire. They would try and pop up under a new name and they got tracked down like hunted prey.
In adult, once you are found out to be a crook, it
comes crashing down no matter how big you are. Watched it too many times. I am
sure someone will post some of the folks that fell. So long ago, it is hard to
remember.
Point of this post is this is about to become a
problem again. As companies struggle to survive, it is YOU and ME that will keep them
in business. The easiest one to target is the webmaster or domainer that sends traffic. The easiest one to shave or not pay at all. Shave? You don’t know what “Shaving”
is? Let me cut to the chase, if your earnings were not being “Shaved” over the
years, you would have enough to pay off everything you owe and still have more
money left over than cash you have on hand. In other words, you can’t talk
about “Shaving” but it surely exists.
But I have gotten off the main subject. The point
is that the crooks outnumber the legit guys by a very wide margin. Some may
disagree. I know better. I test. I retest. I know things they don’t even know
because I understand numbers and they don’t. They leave footprints and other clues when they
bastardize the numbers by cheating you. Even some of the affiliate managers may not know what the site owner is doing.
So as you look for new solutions, also look for
crooks. Problem is when most find a crook they don’t say anything. When I found
a crook, I exposed them. Let them deal with the mess. Not my problem. That’s
the crap you just have to live with when you are a crook.
So as you venture into CPA, Commsssion based programs, Lead Generation and
other ways to monetize your traffic, MANY WILL SCREW YOU! That’s a fact folks!
Only the naïve don’t believe it, don’t see it or don’t want to see it. Sometimes it is more overt. They
just make an excuse not to pay you. Not to pay you AFTER you did your part and
sent them traffic. So in the early days folks knew if they were getting screwed
to come to me and I would investigate things. Most of the time I was able to
get resolution behind the scenes. But when that failed, it went public and
since the crooks always lost, I gained some friends and a reputation for
getting webmasters the money that was owed them. The boards are very
unforgiving when somebody gets screwed. Usually the public outburst lead to
others coming forward with similar stories. Then they either pay or fold.
Not much in between. However some still survive to this day. They just prey on
folks that don’t know better.
But it was
this treatment and problems that lead to the rise and popularity of PPC. It
largely took that crap off the table. There was finally some consistency.
Payouts would fluctuate but did not have the swings you had to deal with when
you employed other solutions. They have provided a platform to park, host and
monetize those domains. What that does is free up your time to develop or do
whatever you want to do.
The reason
for this post is with PPC payouts as low as they are we begin to look for
alternate methods to monetize. My suggestion, get paid first! Have a relationship BEFORE you send your traffic. You will hear
every excuse in the world or accusation. Be prepared. Be prepared not to get
what you think you earned. Be prepared for some to just disappear. Be prepared to
suffer losses you did not worry about with PPC.
And when
you get hammered by somebody, make sure you share your story so others don’t
have to get screwed and you don’t keep making these crooks more and more money. Making it public becomes your last and only option. But making it public forces them to make things right or it is over for them. Plain and simple. Done! Also share the stories of the good merchants that have done you right. This helps to squeeze out all those that would cheat and deceive you, me and everyone.
Have a story? Did you not get paid for traffic sent? Please post your story so others understand the power of what I am saying. So others understand the mine field we are about to go through. So others understand that this has been a very big problem in the past and a much bigger one to come in the future.
Have a
GREAT Day!
Rick
Schwartz
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