Posted 12/3/08
I've been pushing Performancing Ads for months now thinking that all of the referrals I completed would turn into some solid cash and that the service would be well worth all of your time. So I was all wrong there and once again, an affiliate or ad network (whatever you want to call it) turned out to be garbage.
The Beginning of the End
The service was rumored to be having some major issues actually paying out publishers during its first few months, which is never a good sign. With these rumors flying, they brought in an industry heavyweight to try and straighten everything out. The turn-around was not quick enough and as you can imagine, the service has been quickly swirling down the drain.
The original deal was to pay publishers $10 for every referral made and a percentage of ad sales through the Performancing Ad widget. This was a great concept except for that annoying note about your referrals having to install the widget on their sites for an entire month before you actually made that $10!
The problem here is that everyone was just referring users who would then refer other users and no one would install the widget and then no one would buy advertising and then no one was making money. Basically, we were all waiting in limbo for money while Performancing Ads was receiving un-godly amounts of exposure.
Final Straw!
Then today I cruised over to the PA site to see if there was any "new" news and I definitely found some. As far as I can tell, the 22 referrals I have banked (or $220) will not be paid out because none of those people installed the widget long enough.
And now, going forward, PA has switched it's program to simply pay out 5% of the advertising dollars spent by your referrals. As their admin's so nicely put, "if they spend $100, you get $5!" Wow.
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That's 5% of referrals spend or sold, ongoing. So yes, the first month would be $5 from that referral, but also the second, third, fourth months forever.
So instead of $10 you get 5% for every month they stay with the system.
I have calculated that most affiliates who referred real and active members will do far better out of the new system than the old one. It's ongoing passive income, but yes it does mean you have to refer people who use the service rather than just sign up.
Let me know if I can help in any way.
I understand the logic behind it and in the long run "technically" you could make more money, but that's just theory. People just don't seem to be actually using the service for selling their ads. At least the sports world anyway.