Tell us about our crediting

Live forum: http://forum.freeipodguide.com/viewtopic.php?t=57251

Getstuff4free Kyle

19-03-2007 21:22:48

Offer crediting is something I take very seriously. I know how frustrating things can get from the user end waiting for a manual credit request to come in when you know you did the offer correctly. Unfortunately, it's no better from a site owner's end when you're waiting for even more credits to come in from the affiliates. But it's recently come to my attention that some people think of me as a site with crediting problems. [i4c060e05fa]I[/i4c060e05fa] know that's not the case, because I'm using the same affiliate networks as everyone else (except the big boys like Trainn who can deal with the offer companies directly) and I am getting far more offer completions daily than I am credit requests. But in this business perception is important and on top of that - I do want to improve it as much as possible. So please post about your experiences, both the good and bad. Here's some of the things I'm looking for/not looking for or just general comments.

1. Not so much the links to expired offers. I know I'm behind on that and it is being worked on, but it's a separate issue.

2. Did you just sign up for one site and have a good/bad experience? Have you signed up for multiple sites and had a good/bad pattern of crediting? If you've had one bad experience, there's not much I can do to avoid it, missing credits happen. But a pattern is something I definitely want to look into.

3. Once the credit requests are submitted, there isn't anything I can really do to speed up the process, so if you've had a credit request sitting there - I'm as frustrated as you.

4. I can't really switch affiliates because I'm already using the best ones. I wouldn't touch InstantDollarz with a 10-foot (virtual) pole.

5. There is no number 5. Please move along.

6. If my crediting has been a deciding factor (for or against) using my site [b4c060e05fa]please[/b4c060e05fa] let me know.

7. If you had problems what offers did you do? That's the most important question.

8. Would you prefer I kept a ton of offers or weeded out some of the ones that don't credit as well? I've weeded out a handful that I've had big problems with, but if I elminated all the $1 trials, I could do even better. The problem is that those offers are popular and they do credit more often than they don't. They just have the highest percentage of credit requests. And even eliminating them wouldn't be perfect.

9. What about the no-cc offers? How much of a draw are they? I'm leaning towards keeping those unless there's an overwhelming demand to have them removed. I think they're a great help since a lot of the offers don't pay enough to be full credit, but pay more than half. The small credit no-cc offers can help with offers that would be 1/2 elsewhere and you'd have to do another credit card offer.

So please let me know how I'm doing. you can either pm me or post here. If you're saying good things, I'd obviously prefer a post over a pm. ;) I'm hoping that I don't have that reputation and it's just one or two disgruntled users who had some bad luck, but if it's not, I'd like to improve as much as I can.

V-Bux Dave

23-03-2007 14:01:41

Hey, Kyle,

I've had this discussion (or tried to have it) with another owner on another network that I now won't touch with your virtual ten-foot pole, but all he does when you press the illogic of his position is to keep repeating the same non-answer. You seem to be rational, and maybe you can help me understand what the issue is.

You say [quote36f2c3ed83]3. Once the credit requests are submitted, there isn't anything I can really do to speed up the process, so if you've had a credit request sitting there - I'm as frustrated as you. [/quote36f2c3ed83]

Now, I don't understand that. In order to be presenting these offers, you MUST have some sort of a contractual arrangement with them that specifies under what circumstances they must credit, and for what reasons they can deny credit. How is it possible to submit a manual credit request and have it go for literally months with (apparently) no response at all without your supplier violating their contract terms with you. And (if that happens on your network), why is that acceptable to you?

When the advertisers use you to make an offer of credit, they are using that credit to induce us, the end-user/customer to partake of their product, or whatever they are offering. When they do that and then don't come across with the promised credit, they have obtained something of value (our participation) without giving the promised compensation (the credit), and thus they are committing fraud. How come you guys, the site owners, are allowing them to get away with it?

When I submit a manual credit request accompanied by the confirmation email that shows that I did, in fact, fulfill the terms of the offer as specified, and I did so from your site, how are they allowed to NOT credit it? I mean, this state of affairs is an outrage. And for you, the site owners to simply say "there's nothing we can do about it" is unacceptable to me, and I don't understand how that can be. You are the ones who have the contractual relations with the advertisers, and thus the legal leverage. I mean, I suppose we could individually file complaints with FTC against each advertiser for false advertising, but that doesn't seem to me very effective, and we don't have the documentation of what inducements were offered to back it up.

I support you, believe me, and as I said in another post, my experience on your site has been great. But help me understand this, because it just seems contrary to all logic and reason to me.

Getstuff4free Kyle

23-03-2007 14:57:36

All fair questions and I'll try to answer them as much as I can.

The easiest question to answer is the "why do you put up with it?" question. Because I have no choice. The only other option is to deal with the advertisers directly and I can guarantee you that Blockbuster and True have better things to do than deal with me. I just go with the affiliate that has the best crediting that I can. There are sites like InstantDollarz that I hear nothing but horror stories about from other websites.

For a contractual agreement - it's really not much more than the contractual agreement you have with me. However, before posting this, I went back to re-read it to make sure. And I accidentally went to the agreement with the advertisers instead of the publishers and saw something interesting that I'm going to have to look into more, but I'm not going to say anything about that yet, because, quite frankly, it's not my contract, it's the advertisers and I don't want to talk about somebody else's agreement.

And the final question is the hardest to answer, because I don't know exactly what goes on after it leaves my hands - "When I submit a manual credit request accompanied by the confirmation email that shows that I did, in fact, fulfill the terms of the offer as specified, and I did so from your site, how are they allowed to NOT credit it?" The main problem that I know of is that the email doesn't necessarily prove that you did the offer from my site. I'm assuming they compare the confirmation with the offer click tracking and I don't know the details, but I do know that it's a bit more than "he has a confirmation email, he must have done the offer." I know some users have signed up for an offer and then tried to forward the confirmation email to multiple sites for credit. I'm sure some users have tried to forge confirmation emails (which is why the headers are so important - of course you can forge those too, but you have to actually know what you're doing to try that). And of course I'm not accusing you (or anyone in specific) of doing that. It's just one of the reasons why frauders make it more difficult for everyone else.

Hopefully this helped at least somewhat.

murdoc

05-07-2007 11:06:59

Kyle,
I recently signed up for the "At Home Rewards Trial Offer" on macbook.getstuff4free.org. I've completed a few other sites previously so I'd like to think that I'm pretty experienced as far as clearing cookies, using IE before signing in and completing an offer. I did not receive any errors when signing up for the trial, but it has been 4 days and I have yet to receive credit. I'd like to think that this is an isolated issue, but my girlfriend had similar issues when she did the same offer for macbook.getstuff4free.org. Just FYI we do not live at the same address, so that should not be an issue.

I actually competed the offer as I had planned to order some things from At Home Rewards, so I am keeping my membership, but I find it disappointing that I have not received credit. I did receive a sign up email so I can submit that if you care to see it. Please let me know what you think.
Thanks,
murdoc

Getstuff4free Kyle

05-07-2007 12:02:24

[quote16bd5ff03a="murdoc"]Kyle,
I recently signed up for the "At Home Rewards Trial Offer" on macbook.getstuff4free.org. I've completed a few other sites previously so I'd like to think that I'm pretty experienced as far as clearing cookies, using IE before signing in and completing an offer. I did not receive any errors when signing up for the trial, but it has been 4 days and I have yet to receive credit. I'd like to think that this is an isolated issue, but my girlfriend had similar issues when she did the same offer for macbook.getstuff4free.org. Just FYI we do not live at the same address, so that should not be an issue.

I actually competed the offer as I had planned to order some things from At Home Rewards, so I am keeping my membership, but I find it disappointing that I have not received credit. I did receive a sign up email so I can submit that if you care to see it. [b16bd5ff03a]Please let me know what you think.[/b16bd5ff03a]
Thanks,
murdoc[/quote16bd5ff03a]

I think the IP match with another user who's also completed At Home Rewards is probably the problem.