NetMarketingForum.com v4.0

There has been an ever growing trend during the past few weeks that I wanted to bring out. SOme folks are using paid sign ups to win these referral contests that are paying out cash.

Is this acceptable to you as a program owner? Do you think it's fair as a surfer?

Innovative. I guess if there isn't any rule about it, then it would be ok. It would be more like a marketing expense and a motivational tool.

People pay for leads all the time, one good example is a referral contest

I mean that's the purpose of the referral contest with a cash incentive any way, you are basically paying someone for signups.

I just mailed my members that I don't want paid to sign ups at all, I tried in the very beginning (as you know) and I understand exactly why the person that wrote this letter to his members said he doesn't tolerate it doesn't want them.

In the beginning I didn't know they were that bad ever since I know I don't want them at Hit2Hit, nor won't I purchase to win a contest.

Is it wrong for the members?

imho it is wrong for the persons that try to win the contest, it's not a fair play, you can't win from a person that purchases paid to sign ups.

A few years ago Cognigen got an avalance of deadbeats from some of these "get paid to signup" outfits - mostly from China. These folks have no intention to participate in what they join. They are only in it for the $2 - $5 they get for completing the specified task. Once they do, if they are on your mailing list (which they would be if they joined your service/program), the first time you send out a mailing you'll get hundreds (if not thousands) of spam complaints from them. Cognigen's servers ended up in SPEWS and SpamCop over that issue, and when they couldn't get delisted they paid me a tidy sum to gather the evidence needed and present it to all of the Spam sites so we could quickly get off THEIR lists (which then filtered down to SPEWS - you can't get delisted there any other way). I managed to get us delisted in less than a week, instead of the usual 3-4 weeks.

Every exchange owner should ban these paid-to-join outfits (unless you WANT your emails blocked by your customers' ISPs one day soon). If that happens, don't come crying to me. Been there, done that. Don't want to go through that again. You're on your own.

Acceptable? No
Fair? No

It's against my terms and if anybody else tries this at traffic-splash they will be deleted as soon as I have evidence (which is very easy to obtain)

Normally I like to fire off one warning before suspending/deleting anybody but this is so obviously wrong.

no cosy chats to sort it quietly and prevent reoccurence, no warnings.

first offence means they're toast. zero tolerance.

This fence ain't gonna collapse under my weight!

Well it's just another thing that an owner will have to decide.. Put up measures to prevent it from happing, or keep it easy for members to use the service..

I'm not sure there is much you can do to prevent it, other than requiring them to surf X sites. But even then some people will surf 1000 sites to get $2. Do you really want to require that of every new member?

Case in point: I'm joining exchanges all the time to put on Traffic Exchange List. I won't surf a zillion sites right away, maybe 10? But over time I'll buy traffic and surf some. When I'm joining I don't have the time to surf 50+ sites for each exchange.

Agreed, and it's simple enough to counter during a contest without inflicting any inconvenience on other members if you can get any time with a programmer.

"He aint heavy, he's my brother"

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Yes, it is wrong in contests with big cash prizes.

And saves a lot of time from deleting and banning members if you don't allow it in the first place.

(Oh I wish someone would use something to get members into JustVips

Joke. That was a joke. )

Oh yes I am! I sit and surf all day - not good for weight control!

I did try surfing while on an exercise bike but I kept dropping the mouse. Seems I'm destined to become a lard ass!

I'm thinking of trying with a tracker ball. That might work.


Anyway, just wanted to say that I have no problem with Paid To Click or Paid to Read. Incentivising page views is not an issue for me - after all, I'm doing that every day of the week - I own a TE - I reward members for clicking all day long!

Incentivising signups with cash to win contests, without encouraging activity, is very very different. Especially when you know that those signups will cause the program owner huge difficulties.

There is a reason for my terms. They're not just rules made at random cos I felt like it.

Hmm... I think I need to write this from the Dragon point of view

I have no problem with people using PTR or PTC sites to promote Dragon
Surf but I do not allow Paid Sign Ups (it's in my terms).

* It's usually bogus accounts with no activity
* It's usually chinese and russians coming in as paid sign ups
* And that means that those that become activive are likely to promote sites that break my terms.

And by that I don't mean that all Chinese or Russian members are
cheaters, simply that around 95% of the Chinese and Russian members
that have joined Dragon Surf via PTS have turned out to be cheaters.

I was pissed yesterday because I had to spend 4 hours hunting down and
deleting Chinese accounts and iframe site. And all these accounts had one
thing in common, they were all referred by the same person using paid
sign ups at JillsClickWhatever (and possibly other places).

I have deleted all these accounts and the offending member because:

* I want to keep my exchange clean
* I have better things to do than hunt chinese cheaters
* I don't want to have my honest members wasting their time and money.

But here is a hypothetical question for you...

Why would someone that owns two exchanges and multiple other internet
businesses waste his money bringing in bogus members to my exhange?
If he needs to win a few bucks in a ref competition that badly, he probably
just needs to abandon ship and get out of this business.

Maybe he thought nobody would notice since he's a "fellow exchange owner"?

I unfortunately seem to get folks thinking things like that at my exchange all the time. No names.

A BIG fat "No" to that question, Jon. Simply because they are not interested in the traffic exchange, surf to earn credits and then promote their businesses. They were paid to do such action and nothing more. Period.

One of these days you'll all see the light and ban China and Russia.

I had a brain fart the other day and decided, "eh, maybe I'll let China sign up again." I lifted the I.P. ban on China and what did I get? the first site submitted for approval was a zero frame site, running background searches and ending up breaking frame to that cursed "Heavy" site.

Whatever reservation I had about banning an entire country is now gone. You'll not see me spending 4 minutes searching for records much less 4 hours.

Tim please PM me with his username. I thing he is on my list too.
I also do not allow paid sign-ups. It is in my terms too.