Since the program has recently changed their whole model and the Refban thread has become too big now,
it would be better to read through the latest updates and discuss on them on a new thread. So I'll lock the
old RefBan thread and the discussion on the program should continue here from now on.

Just letting you know that after thinking again and again on their new updates I decided to let them know
what I think about them through a support ticket. They replied quickly and I'd like to share with you that
reply in order to express your thoughts about it here. So, firstly I quote here my own email :


Quote:

Hello, I would like to comment on the last Refban update that we received through email. The part I'm referring to is the following : "Following feedback gathered over the last few months, it became clear that our system was too complicated. We've now removed the ten level downline and the old earnings algorithm to make things much easier to understand." The reason I open this ticket is to share my team's opinion regarding this change with you. I am administrator of the X-PTCBox Forum and along with a couple of members of my site we evaluate new online money making programs together as a team. Therefore Refban has been a very interesting program for us, as it came with a 10 level downline so we could all work together on promoting it and share the benefits as long as the expenses. So far we have got to a point of having introduced 315 new members to the program through our team, 46 of which are currently active. They are spread through 7 tiers and we've all been making plans on how to keep working long term on your site. But unfortunately this new update absolutely ruins any possible team co-operation strategy now. The 10 level downline was probably the strongest point of the program and greatly motivated promoting it plus generating sales as they were combined with the upgrading process. Also Rogue Media Ltd. has been a very respectable group that has been keeping its word for so many years. But this move really creates huge doubts about the group now. People in my team are already becoming disappointed by this change and really think about giving up working on it. Even worse they feel that they have been tricked into purchasing upgrades and to be honest I'm also beginning to feel guilty that I've used the 10 level downline as the strongest point in my advertising campaigns for many months. To conclude this ticket, I'm afraid I'm not in the position to request you to change the way you manage your site but as a member/advertiser/promoter/partner I would kindly recommend you to carefully analyze your plans and every other alternative available option before proceeding with such a major change that will most likely be a determining factor of the future success or failure of the whole program. Sincerely, SolidSnake PTCBox.Me Administration

And here is their reply :


Quote:

A customer support staff member has replied to your support request, #458978 with the following response: Hi SolidSnake, Thank you for your message. We appreciate your feedback. We did make the changes after careful consideration. Firstly, we learned that in PayPal's terms they do not allow use of their platform in conjunction with any form of MLM. For this reason it was important to quickly find a new business model that would still benefit members before our account became at risk. We did the same with WordLinx. Now instead of paying once per active referral, we pay 365 times per year. This rewards users much better for genuinely active referrals. The new model also encourages members to show banners, which wasn't happening before - the entire point of a banner network. Secondly, by simplifying the system we've opened it up to people who don't understand or wouldn't normally take part in network marketing / MLM. By saying "earn on ten levels" it wasn't clear to most people what that meant and took a lot of time to explain via this ticket system. Most affiliate systems only pay for direct commissions, so by saying "earn from displaying banners and also when your friends display banners" it's much clearer and we've saved a huge amount of time teaching people how it works. Thirdly, the commissions you earned have not changed. You'll still get 15% or 30% for direct referral purchases, so everyone that bought before the update will still earn commissions in the same way. We've also kept the same cashout requirements. Thanks again for your opinions. Hopefully you'll understand that yes, this was a major change (we don't even have proper stats in place yet), but one that was necessary for the life and growth of the network. If you have any other comments, please feel free to discuss.

Feel free to share your opinions.

Definitely there is some bug in there. (or they have something hidden in the script.)

I should be getting 5 cents daily, but I can see only 2 cents increase daily. (Either it should be from my active referrals, or it should be my own earnings. Whatever, it's not good.)

Come on. Are you trying to tell me they didn't know that
Paypal did not accept MLM sites? Everyone in the freakin'
industry knows paypal does not accept MLM! They just
figured that out now? I can't buy that. There must be more
to that.

If they are that ignorant about the industry that they have
been working in for how many years (?), can we trust that they
know what they are doing at all?

Grrr... My earnings has gone down by 20 cents rather than going up, despite getting regular visitors to my blog.

May be they're updating the new version. (My dashboard says 'O/L = Offline'.) Let's see how it goes..

venkat wrote on 15^th Nov, 2013 at 9:48am:

Grrr... My earnings has gone down by 20 cents rather than going up, despite getting regular visitors to my blog. May be they're updating the new version. (My dashboard says 'O/L = Offline'.) Let's see how it goes..

Didn't you say you can't get paid anyway? Unless you're still hoping to get paid somewhere down the road?

dansbanners wrote on 15^th Nov, 2013 at 1:52pm:

Didn't you say you can't get paid anyway? Unless you're still hoping to get paid somewhere down the road?

As far as I know they are not allowed to have an account balance in PayPal..
So if they get paid by a program it all gets in transfer directly to their bank
and everything that goes with that (delays etc).

I think the problem with PayPal is that they can't make direct purchases using it..
We've discussed about it before.. I'll search for the thread..

Yeah, SS is correct. I can receive funds via paypal, but I cannot spend. And I cannot hold it there either. Whatever balance I have in paypal, it gets transferred to my bank automatically on daily balance. This is the case for Indians.

Thanks to previous 10 level system, I'm almost near $50, and I've referred 2 advertisers too. The only thing that's pending is, I have to buy impressions. (Unfortunately, they don't allow to buy via our earnings. I mean, they don't give us 'Advertiser' status, if we buy via our earnings.)

And much bad thing is, all my VISA cards don't process through.  [smiley=12-party.gif]

venkat wrote on 15^th Nov, 2013 at 3:42pm:

Yeah, SS is correct. I can receive funds via paypal, but I cannot spend. And I cannot hold it there either.

No problem. Glad to hear that you could at least still get paid through paypal.

venkat wrote on 15^th Nov, 2013 at 3:42pm:

Yeah, SS is correct. I can receive funds via paypal, but I cannot spend. And I cannot hold it there either. Whatever balance I have in paypal, it gets transferred to my bank automatically on daily balance. This is the case for Indians. Thanks to previous 10 level system, I'm almost near $50, and I've referred 2 advertisers too. The only thing that's pending is, I have to buy impressions. (Unfortunately, they don't allow to buy via our earnings. I mean, they don't give us 'Advertiser' status, if we buy via our earnings.) And much bad thing is, all my VISA cards don't process through.  [smiley=12-party.gif]

Wow! India is going to be a huge online business (and every other business for that matter) mecca in the future. Paypal would be wise to make it very easy for Indians to do business. That would endear them to Indian customers, build brand loyalty and give them a huge lead on any other payment processor (like bitcoin soon) that might try to get a foothold in the country

moneymarketing wrote on 15^th Nov, 2013 at 8:29pm:

Wow! India is going to be a huge online business (and every other business for that matter) mecca in the future. Paypal would be wise to make it very easy for Indians to do business. That would endear them to Indian customers, build brand loyalty and give them a huge lead on any other payment processor (like bitcoin soon) that might try to get a foothold in the country

In a weird way it's not a PayPal's cause this time.. :)
It's the Indian banks that do not allow good use of it..

On the other hand, I'm now thinking that this measurement prevents money loss caused by a PayPal limitation..  ;D
Since no money is left in PayPal balance.. at least there's no way of losing what you earn online..


venkat wrote on 15^th Nov, 2013 at 3:42pm:

Thanks to previous 10 level system, I'm almost near $50, and I've referred 2 advertisers too. The only thing that's pending is, I have to buy impressions. (Unfortunately, they don't allow to buy via our earnings. I mean, they don't give us 'Advertiser' status, if we buy via our earnings.) And much bad thing is, all my VISA cards don't process through.  [smiley=12-party.gif]

Maybe if you contacted their support and let them know of the situation they made an exception
for your case (maybe grand you the advertiser status by using your balance to purchase advertising)..
but still that would mean there will be no or much less funds to withdraw afterwards..  [smiley=sad.gif]

By the way I'm not sure if I'm the only one but today I noticed a drop in my balance..
Yesterday I had $31.39 and today I saw $31.15.. I've contacted their support and will update you when they reply.

Yeah... I too noticed it.

I thought it was due to their updating the new version and that it would come back. But it seems it's gone. (I lost around 20 cents.)

venkat wrote on 16^th Nov, 2013 at 4:58am:

Yeah... I too noticed it. I thought it was due to their updating the new version and that it would come back. But it seems it's gone. (I lost around 20 cents.)

I think it might be the removal of some bonuses received by the lower-than-1st-tier downlines we used to have.
I'm waiting for their reply to my ticket.. if this is the case I think I'll kindly throw it to their face in my next reply..

I'll let you know if I have any updates..

Some update..

Me, 11/15/2013 10:30 pm   

Quote:

Hello, I'm noticing a few issues in my account during the last few days. Firstly, regarding my direct referrals. Since before the latest changes I had 9 active referrals in my 1st level of downline but now I only see 1 in the dashboard. Have the criteria for being active changed with the new system? Also today I noticed that my account balance decreased. I track it daily and here is my recent history of it : 30.50 30.67 30.79 30.91 31.13 31.15 - got an active referral (+$0.02 in the same day) 31.17 - got an active referral (+$0.02 in the same day) 31.39 31.15 <- Today Please keep me informed in case you have any updates. Thanks in advance!

RefBan Support, 11/20/2013 7:52 pm   Richard S

Quote:

Hi SolidSnake, Very sorry for the delay. We've had a lot of database problems over the last few days, but your stats should now be displaying correctly. If you have any other questions, just let us know.

Me, 11/21/2013 1:11 am   

Quote:

Well, sorry to say but they seem to be even worse now.. 87,092 banners shown 1 active referrals $0.02 earned daily Not only my account is left with only 1 active referral (out of 9 in my 1st tier before the upgrade) Plus now it says that my daily rate appears to be $0.02 (so the $0.10 that I normally get as an advertiser is missing..) I really hope the system will finally stabilize..

Refban seems to be so messed up lately..
Are your stats appearing "normal" (if anything there could be considered normal now)?

Well, from my 8 active referrals, I'm down to 4 today. My daily 10 cents are still there, though.

Seems like the missing $0.10 are back.. Just for the record they still have the old stats view-able..

http://img849.imageshack.us/img849/2313/z0js.png

What's the URL of their old stats? http://www.refban.com/m/referrals.php ?

It never opens for me.

venkat wrote on 21^st Nov, 2013 at 2:11pm:

What's the URL of their old stats? http://www.refban.com/m/referrals.php ? It never opens for me.

No, it is http://refban.com/m/oldstats.php and you can reach it by going through :

Dashboard -> View Detailed Stats -> View Old Stats

That too is not loading. http://www.greengaintool.org/img/main/loading.gif

venkat wrote on 22^nd Nov, 2013 at 5:20am:

That too is not loading. http://www.greengaintool.org/img/main/loading.gif

It' loads for me.. (taking its time but it does load)

Saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaallllleeeeee!

Phew! Only 1 to go before I'm elibigle for cashout. ;D

ruicarlov wrote on 27^th Nov, 2013 at 1:58pm:

Saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaallllleeeeee! Phew! Only 1 to go before I'm elibigle for cashout. ;D

Wow! Now that sounded nice!

I accidentally logged in to my account and figured out that my balance says now : Cash: $45.86
So I'm only $4.14 away from a cashout.. only I still haven't done those sales... lol

I'm curious to find out how I got up to that amount though, since 2 or 3 days ago I was at $33.76..
Don't know how but it looks like I got a bonus somehow.. Anyone else noticed anything like that?

Probably someone purchased advertising and you got commission.

But when I visit the old stats page I still see that I need 2 sales before cashout..
With such a messed up site design it makes no sense what is working and what is not anymore..

Oh.. I see..

I too noticed the increase (previous day it was $45+ but suddenly it went up to $55+.) I thought it was sales commission. Since the Old stats is not opening for me (504 Bad Gateway all the time  :phew ), I couldn't confirm it.

The irony is I reached the payout threshold, I made 2 sales too, but I myself couldn't purchase ads.  >:(

[edit]I just noticed another jump. Now my balance is $61.11. LOL. I can only watch. :P  [/edit]

Today their facebook page says:


Quote:

Cash and impression totals taken offline for bug fixes. Should be back soon. > http://refban.com/

Probably, the increases may roll back.  :beatup

Have anyone noticed this?


Quote:

Shorten a link... Early next year we'll be adding a brand new way to publish banners, even if you don't have a website or blog! Simply shorten any link then use it on Facebook, Twitter or anywhere else!

And..... earnings have been rolled back.  >:(

venkat wrote on 13^th Dec, 2013 at 10:22am:

Have anyone noticed this? And..... earnings have been rolled back.  >:(

Yes.. and yes.. they have rolled back... anyways.. I've lost my faith in refban..
If I ever make anything out of it I'll be really happy for it but I don't think I'll
promote i any more if their site doesn't stabilize.. There are many other places
to invest..

And.. at last we have an update from refban.. and thankfully there are good news..:

From : Referral Banners To Me

Quote:

Our detailed stats page is now live! We've also changed the layout of the member area so it's easier to understand. All referral stats can now be found in the 'Referrals' section. Track referrals, sign-ups, publishers, advertisers, Pro members, earnings, cashouts and more! Plus view individual sales records for impression and upgrade purchases. Member and rented referral listings should be ready by the end of the month, together with a referral replacement system. This will allow you to exchange inactive rented referrals for more active ones. Win a free Pro upgrade! As a Pro member you can earn double from displaying banners, earn double from your referrals and withdraw your earnings easier. That's $0.02 daily for each active referral and up to $57 per sale! Plus, if your referrals upgrade to Pro you can make over $25 each for every year they stay upgraded. That's right! Recurring yearly commissions - income for life! Pro membership is usually $89, but if you retweet our messages on Twitter you can enter to win a year for free! Visit http://refban.com/win.php for details! Cashout terms relaxed! To ensure stability during launch, previously free members had to refer 5 buyers before each cashout and Pro members had to refer 2 buyers before each cashout. We've now changed this to just 5 sales for free members and just 2 sales for Pro members. A sale is any advertising or upgrade purchase made by your referrals. This means you can now meet our cashout criteria every time with just one buyer! Have you advertised yet? Due to our unique system, Referral Banners is able to offer incredibly low cost advertising with some of the highest click-through rates in the industry. If you haven't done so already, we strongly recommend that you buy impressions or convert your earnings into impressions to see for yourself. Tell a friend and earn up to $57 per sale! We pay commissions on every purchase, so one referral can provide unlimited earnings!

If I make it to reach the payout which with 2 simple (not individual anymore) sales could happen in a month from now, I could cashout and get 2 more shares for YGP.. I have an idea on how to get there with my ads page. The major issue is that my time has been very limited lately but I'll get there..

The downside is that now refban stopped working on Chrome when I try to login. Fortunately it worked fine with Firefox.

[smiley=07-whaat.gif]

I login normally through chrome..
Do you have any weird extensions on your chrome?

Nope, not really. I get the error ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS. I've searched a bit and it seems this kind of error is usually on the site's side. I saw one webmaster complaining that it happened when people used Chrome to visit his site.

ruicarlov wrote on 16^th Jan, 2014 at 11:27am:

Nope, not really. I get the error ERR_TOO_MANY_REDIRECTS. I've searched a bit and it seems this kind of error is usually on the site's side. I saw one webmaster complaining that it happened when people used Chrome to visit his site.

Weird.. I still log in normally.. basically I use this link and it points me to my dashboard automatically loggin me in :

http://refban.com/m/dash.php

That way I rarely have to log in..

That link gets me the same error.

ruicarlov wrote on 16^th Jan, 2014 at 3:46pm:

That link gets me the same error.

I guess you've already tried deleting all your RefBan related cookies on chrome right?

Considering this happened on all computers and different OS in another partition.... seems like it's not me.

ruicarlov wrote on 16^th Jan, 2014 at 5:52pm:

Considering this happened on all computers and different OS in another partition.... seems like it's not me.

Well, I just logged out and back in normally again.. :)
Maybe it's just me..  :)

BTW, have you tried restarting your router to get a new IP?
Maybe it got banned or sth..

I've used it in completely different places, with different IPs.

ruicarlov wrote on 17^th Jan, 2014 at 12:42pm:

I've used it in completely different places, with different IPs.

Can you contact their support?
If not I could do that for you.

Remember? Previously the 'Referral Stats' was not loading for me with any browser, any IP. (I tried with my PC, my brother's PC from another location and through my tab. It never loaded.)

The server should behave weird with some accounts - that's what I conclude. There is no other reason I could think of. May be the same kind of problem rui is facing.

SolidSnake wrote on 17^th Jan, 2014 at 5:45pm:

Can you contact their support? If not I could do that for you.

Bah, not worth the effort. It likes Firefox? I'll use Firefox....

Wohoo!
[smiley=crazy.gif] [smiley=10-band.gif] [smiley=11-freebeer.gif] [smiley=12-party.gif] [smiley=13-latin.gif]  [smiley=z06-guitar.gif]

2nd sale! It's cashout time, baby  [smiley=selfconf.gif]  8-) :money

By they way Venkat, since you've cashed out already, what happens after that. Do we need two more sales before the next cashout?

ruicarlov wrote on 20^th Feb, 2014 at 12:02pm:

Wohoo! [smiley=crazy.gif] [smiley=10-band.gif] [smiley=11-freebeer.gif] [smiley=12-party.gif] [smiley=13-latin.gif]  [smiley=z06-guitar.gif] 2nd sale! It's cashout time, baby  [smiley=selfconf.gif]  8-) :money By they way Venkat, since you've cashed out already, what happens after that. Do we need two more sales before the next cashout?

That is an interesting question after the latest update :


Quote:

We've just introduced a great new monthly upgrade plan! You can now subscribe for $9 a month, or try it for 30 days for just $5! Doubling your earnings has never been easier! As a Pro member you'll earn twice as much from displaying banners and twice as much from your referrals. We also include 10,000 impressions for promoting your own banners! Best of all, you'll earn 30% commissions for every referral that upgrades to our new monthly plan! That's nearly $3 for every member - every month! Monthly earnings example (30 days)... You display banners daily - you earn $3.00 USD 50 referrals display banners daily - you earn $30.00 USD 20 referrals upgrade to Pro - you earn $54.00 USD 5 referrals purchase advertising - you earn $75.00 USD Total monthly earnings: $162.00 USD * We don't restrict the amount of referrals you can have, so imagine what you can make with 100 referrals, 200 or more! Unlimited earnings with one easy monthly payment! Exciting new features! This upgrade plan is just one of things we've been working on. Others include... - Splash adverts! Refer members from traffic exchanges with promotional pages! - Shortened links! Make money from Facebook, Twitter and more - no website required! - Express cashouts! Allows Pro members to withdraw earnings much faster! - New payment processors! Integration with Payza, Skrill and even Bitcoin! - Quick start guide! Shows new members how to earn their first daily payment! - Discount vouchers! Give your referrals special codes for extra savings! ----------------------------------------------------------- Join WordLinx for free and get paid to view adverts! Earn more by sharing them with friends! Established paying site, online over 10 years! Sign up today at http://wordlinx.com ----------------------------------------------------------- * Example based on estimates. Earnings are not guaranteed. Thanks for reading. If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to contact us. http://refban.com

Looks like it's easier this time..
I may run some competition through my ads page to get them..

I haven't cashed out.

I made 4 sales and crossed $65 in earnings. But I am a free member, so I have to reach $100.

I couldn't go PRO or buy advertising because of Paypal & bank nuisance. I've been trying since the launch. :censored  >:(

I'm seeing rapid increase in earnings. Do anyone else see it? Hope they don't roll back again. (Recently, refban introduced shortening links feature. This increase shall not be a bug due to that feature.  :handsdown)

Secondly, I feel that if they could provide 'email your downline' feature, at least we could call our referrals back.

venkat wrote on 12^th Mar, 2014 at 6:10am:

I'm seeing rapid increase in earnings. Do anyone else see it? Hope they don't roll back again. (Recently, refban introduced shortening links feature. This increase shall not be a bug due to that feature.  :handsdown) Secondly, I feel that if they could provide 'email your downline' feature, at least we could call our referrals back.

Well my increase is still normal. But sure their new additions may have proved to be improving your downline's activity.

As for the email feature I think it would be a massive spamming port.. and I don't think they will ever allow that.
They even hide your referrals' names in your downline list so...

All of a sudden I've got more publishers. Must be that shorten link function.
But I still don't get how that works or how much it pays.
Is is also $0.05/$0.10 per day as long as it gets some impressions?

ruicarlov wrote on 12^th Mar, 2014 at 1:10pm:

Is is also $0.05/$0.10 per day as long as it gets some impressions?

Yes.

My blog gets just around 5 to 10 visitors daily and I still get 5 cents a day.

Their PHP code looks like a rotator, so if a visitor stays for a while 3 or 4 banner impressions rotate within that time.

I'm finally there... :

http://i.imgur.com/iv1B3xj.png

Now.. all I need is to offer a good deal in order to achieve the sales.. :-/
Let's see...

Congrats SS !!  :money  :cool1

Recent update:


Quote:

It's just over a year since we officially launched and the past 12 months have been a very bumpy ride. Over that time we've come to know 3 important things... 1. Changing the world is expensive. For a project like this you need a huge amount of funding, a dedicated team, great hardware and a complete understanding of the banner advertising industry. It soon became clear we had none of these things and even though the site was making money our unique advertising model wasn't producing anything like the results we expected. Soon we had dozens of support tickets from people who didn't understand why RefBan didn't work like other banner networks. We explained that we're different and that the majority of income wasn't generated by user banners, but by referral banners (as the name suggests). Still people didn't understand and they slowly stopped promoting us, reducing sales and daily impressions to the current level. It became clear that without serious investment we'd never be able to teach everyone the benefits of our new model. Sales and impressions would continue to fall and we'd have to close the site. That's why over the next few weeks we'll be switching to a standard CPM model, just like every other network. It's a shame we have to abandon our original goals but when faced with financial reality, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. 2. Nobody has their own website anymore. A few years ago a new banner network would have no problem attracting thousands of users and generating revenue. The web is a very different place these days. We discovered to our cost that most web users now spend the majority of their time on Facebook, Twitter and other social sites. Rarely setting up their own blogs, websites or other places that could host our banners. To combat this we created a way to generate revenue by sharing links, just like a URL shortener. Although as it worked with our 'complicated' model, we saw a massive increase in sales and impressions for a few weeks, then users once again abandoned it due to lack of understanding. For this reason we'll also be paying users a standard CPM rate for displaying banners on shared links. 3. We won't give up. Over the last few months we have gone through no less than four programming agencies from all over the world. We've spent thousands of dollars, moved hosts multiple times and have dealt with dozens of people. Now we finally have the correct hardware and skills to push things forward, you can rest assured that we won't stop until we're successful. Many people in our situation would simply take the site offline. We've seen it time and time again, even with major companies. However, we believe that we have the start of something very special and with hard work RefBan can become much more than we ever hoped. All we need is a little time and patience.

... continued...


Quote:

Moving forward our action plan is as follows: 1. Week 1 - Starting 12th May. We've had several requests from users that they want to upgrade their accounts with their earned balance. For this reason we'll be cancelling all currently outstanding cashouts to enable those users to make a choice. We'll be offering upgrades at a cut price of $50 per year instead of $89, so it's a great way to save money while making it. Of course, this will also give us more funds to work with, so please don't just cashout again straight away and give upgrading proper consideration. This price is available for a limited time only and you may not see this offer again. 2. Week 2 - Starting 19th May. Next week we'll start rolling out the new CPM model. Earnings from referrals will remain unchanged. You'll still earn a flat rate for every day of activity and up to 30% per sale as you do now. 3. Week 3 onwards - Starting 26th May. Paying a standard CPM rate should increase coverage and everyone's impressions will be used faster. This means advertisers will buy more frequently, referrals will be more active and therefore users' earnings will increase too. We'll be building a brand new dashboard interface for monitoring statistics, then shortly after we'll be redesigning the entire site to provide support for banners of all sizes.

Interesting.. :)
Hopefully they will modify that sales rule or make it a bit easier to happen.. I have ~$60 there to cashout.. lol

A CPM model would shake things quite a bit, as the current daily earning for showing banners will go away. Since I'm relying on Snake and don't get that many impressions daily (much less clicks), this might hurt a lot (not to mention income from referrals). I estimate earning from that site will become very dependent on sales. If someone and their downline are mostly publishers, it can get tricky.

SolidSnake wrote on 13^th May, 2014 at 9:39pm:

Interesting.. :) Hopefully they will modify that sales rule or make it a bit easier to happen.. I have ~$60 there to cashout.. lol

I'm expecting the same thing.

ruicarlov wrote on 14^th May, 2014 at 1:54pm:

A CPM model would shake things quite a bit, as the current daily earning for showing banners will go away. Since I'm relying on Snake and don't get that many impressions daily (much less clicks), this might hurt a lot (not to mention income from referrals). I estimate earning from that site will become very dependent on sales. If someone and their downline are mostly publishers, it can get tricky.

Btw, I still haven't found a clearly stated rule on how many impressions our banners must receive daily in order for us to be considered active as publishers.. Rui do you get your daily rate with my blog's impressions? It only receives ~200 visitors per week so it would be a good way to know if there is a requirement above that amount..

So far I've been receiving my $.10 almost every day. There have been only a couple of days where I haven't earned it. I usually get something from $.04 to $.12 from my downline everyday.

ruicarlov wrote on 14^th May, 2014 at 6:18pm:

So far I've been receiving my $.10 almost every day. There have been only a couple of days where I haven't earned it. I usually get something from $.04 to $.12 from my downline everyday.

Good to know. So the requirement must be really low if there is any...
Anyways let's wait for their new updates.

I think there is no minimum requirement of impressions.

My blog gets very few visitors lately, yet I get the 5 cents daily. Hardly I get 2 or 3 visitors and around 5 to 10 banner impressions a day.

venkat wrote on 15^th May, 2014 at 4:50am:

I think there is no minimum requirement of impressions. My blog gets very few visitors lately, yet I get the 5 cents daily. Hardly I get 2 or 3 visitors and around 5 to 10 banner impressions a day.

btw venkat you still haven't been able to make the purchase right? But you have already done the 2+ sales..
What if we could make a deal with them and send them the upgrade money for you.. would you be able to cashout afterwards?

Oh, btw this one is new isn't it? (in their FAQ page..)


Quote:

I'm displaying banners, why am I not earning? To earn the guaranteed daily amount, you need real people to view your published banners every day. Real visitors are people that have reached your pages or links naturally. Examples... > Telling people / advertising your website address > Linking via Facebook, Twitter, Google+ etc > People finding your pages via search engines We do not count visitors that have been purchased and/or sent direct. Examples include... > Paid To Click (PTC) and 'bux' sites > Manual / automatic traffic exchanges > Bulk sources, like pop-ups / pop-unders

SolidSnake wrote on 15^th May, 2014 at 7:05am:

btw venkat you still haven't been able to make the purchase right? But you have already done the 2+ sales.. What if we could make a deal with them and send them the upgrade money for you.. would you be able to cashout afterwards? Oh, btw this one is new isn't it? (in their FAQ page..)

and they wonder why no one wants to promote them. Not everyone has organic traffic out there. To say that PTC traffic doesn't get clicks is to lie to yourself. Maybe the traffic isn't of as high of value but there is still value there. Maybe they could put that traffic on a lower earning tier. Then they would be inviting an industry of millions in. Or maybe they figure they can just ignore a million member industry that is pretty closely aligned to themselves in regards to potential customers  ::)

I think that's a fair policy.

I wouldn't want my banners via an ad-network shown to PTC users. If I want, I can either buy directly from the PTC site or redeem my earnings.

If they allow PTC and TE, there would be lots and lots of members to just include the code and promote in TEs. Ultimately advertisers may leave the site.

The thing that's still weird is their condition to make sales. Can't they keep the advertisers and publishers separate as every other network people do?  :dontknow

I've been unable to contact support. Rented refs expire today, and I have no idea how to renew them.

venkat wrote on 15^th May, 2014 at 1:24pm:

I think that's a fair policy. I wouldn't want my banners via an ad-network shown to PTC users. If I want, I can either buy directly from the PTC site or redeem my earnings. If they allow PTC and TE, there would be lots and lots of members to just include the code and promote in TEs. Ultimately advertisers may leave the site. The thing that's still weird is their condition to make sales. Can't they keep the advertisers and publishers separate as every other network people do?  :dontknow

That's also true.. I don't believe in TE traffic anymore.. I believe it's just a bunch of freebies that are only interested in promoting their own site and unwilling to do more than just clicking the right image to go to the next site...

PTC users are also close to that sometimes but the good thing is that they are actually interested in joining more PTCs..
So it's basically good to advertise PTCs on PTCs.. :)

When you want to promote something more expensive or a product that is unrelated to this industry though.. it would be better to do it on a site like that where the traffic is better targeted and absolutely non incentive.. like an ad network that is not PTC oriented..

@Venkat - I just checked that the upgrade price for one month is just $9.. so it's definitely doable. Would you mind asking them if that is possible (because of your country's limitations) to have a friend pay for you? I would do it myself but it might be risky as they could suspect us for using multiple accounts or sth. I think it would be better if we did so before the new changes where they might change their cashout policy to sth else.. Let me know if you have any updates. :)


ruicarlov wrote on 15^th May, 2014 at 2:48pm:

I've been unable to contact support. Rented refs expire today, and I have no idea how to renew them.

I can't help much there as I've never rented any... but isn't there any link when you browse them? And also are they worthy of extending, how did they go so far?

I asked them long back about that. They came up with some other alternate, but it didn't work.  (They told me to try my friend's cards, but it was little weird to ask my friends their cards for making purchase online. My friends, would give their card to me personally for a purchase in the stores, but when they hear the word "online", they're scared.)

I asked about upgrade using my earnings, but they denied it.

I just thought that I could wait until I accumulate $100 and then making an offer with someone to buy advertising. It may take another 3 or 4 months. I decided to wait until that time.  :beatup

Meanwhile, if I get my card processed that would be fine. :)

venkat wrote on 16^th May, 2014 at 7:53am:

I asked about upgrade using my earnings, but they denied it.

Looks like you can do it now but I don't think it's a good idea.. lol


Quote:

1. Week 1 - Starting 12th May. We've had several requests from users that they want to upgrade their accounts with their earned balance. For this reason we'll be cancelling all currently outstanding cashouts to enable those users to make a choice. We'll be offering upgrades at a cut price of $50 per year instead of $89, so it's a great way to save money while making it. Of course, this will also give us more funds to work with, so please don't just cashout again straight away and give upgrading proper consideration. This price is available for a limited time only and you may not see this offer again.

My question is .. why would someone pay $50 or $89 to upgrade when an advertising pack costs only $9 and is supposed to upgrade one's account to advertiser..? Is that bonus removed or sth? Well, I'll contact them and try to make them talk..  ::) hmm.. nicely.  ;D

The advertising pack no longer gives upgrade. It's been a while since this has been in effect.

As for the rented referrals, most of them weren't good, but there were some that were publishers, or had purchased advertising before. One referral has earned me +$3, another $1 and several cents from some others. I wanted to renew those. Fortunately, it seems they didn't disappear yet, even though the rental period expired yesterday.

But it looks like the contact form is working again today, so I'll try now.

ruicarlov wrote on 16^th May, 2014 at 2:58pm:

The advertising pack no longer gives upgrade. It's been a while since this has been in effect. As for the rented referrals, most of them weren't good, but there were some that were publishers, or had purchased advertising before. One referral has earned me +$3, another $1 and several cents from some others. I wanted to renew those. Fortunately, it seems they didn't disappear yet, even though the rental period expired yesterday. But it looks like the contact form is working again today, so I'll try now.

Oh, now that you mention it.. I remember it being the reason I re-purchased a pack to extend my membership..
so I guess it's no use. Anyway let's just wait for their new model..

:handsdown Wow.. !! Someone purchased Monthly Pro-upgrade in my team.

Now, I don't have to make any further sale, but to reach the $100 mark. Already $72+, so I think I will just wait (may be another year :P ) to reach it.

venkat wrote on 17^th May, 2014 at 6:42am:

:handsdown Wow.. !! Someone purchased Monthly Pro-upgrade in my team. Now, I don't have to make any further sale, but to reach the $100 mark. Already $72+, so I think I will just wait (may be another year :P ) to reach it.

Good things happen to those who wait.. that's what they say, isn't it? :)

My impression count is not going up and I'm not earning the 5 cents daily, though I got 7 more visitors in the past 2 days.

Either their new model is causing it or they have added some other :censored rule.  :dontknow

What happened to the daily guaranteed earning system? Now we earn 1 / 2 cents per 1000 views. Wonderful.  :censored


Quote:

Pro Free Earned per thousand views (rCPM) $0.02 $0.01 Earned daily per active referral $0.02 $0.01 Referral sign-up bonus (each) $0.10 $0.05 Referral activity bonus (each) $1.00 $0.50 Affiliate sales commission 30% 15% Maximum earnings per sale $57.00 $28.50

$0.02 / $0.01 per thousand views is very low compared to other network ads but the worst point of that is that they do not accept PTC traffic as well.. Quoting from their FAQ :


Quote:

I'm displaying banners, why am I not earning? To earn with our rCPM model you need real people to view your published banners. These are visitors that have reached your pages or links naturally. Examples... > Telling people / advertising your website address > Linking via Facebook, Twitter, Google+ etc > People finding your pages via search engines We do not count visitors that have been purchased and/or sent direct. Examples include... > Paid To Click (PTC) and 'bux' sites > Manual / automatic traffic exchanges > Bulk sources, like pop-ups / pop-unders However, these visitors may join as your referral, so you can still earn from them.

I will test it on my ads page to see if their "filters" are properly placed and let you know.

Either way if someone is not receiving a couple of thousands of visitors daily that do not come from PTCs (which is highly unlikely unless we are google, yahoo, facebook or twitter affiliated or sth) RefBan will not make much sense as a money making program anymore..

Also another good question is, if they only pay $0.02 / 1000 views (=$0.30 / 15000 views) then why do they charge $15 / 15000 views? Isn't that a bit greedy..?

What joy, today I earned $0.00128  :money

Loving this new model.

>:(

Besides, aren't we supposed to earn $0.02 per cpm from referrals. Because either I all my referrals stopped publishing today, or I got zero downline earnings.

venkat wrote on 26^th May, 2014 at 10:10am:

What happened to the daily guaranteed earning system? Now we earn 1 / 2 cents per 1000 views. Wonderful.  :censored

This is a formula for failure IMO. I have seen this countless times and it was a real site killer in the TEs. You can't be paying people 2 cents per thousand and then charge them a minimum 19 cents to advertise. People are not stupid. They can do math. When they are providing the traffic on their dime there is no way they are going to hand the site ten times what they get paid.

They are going about this all the wrong way and their constant changing shows they are in crash and burn mode

ruicarlov wrote on 26^th May, 2014 at 6:00pm:

What joy, today I earned $0.00128  :money Loving this new model. >:( Besides, aren't we supposed to earn $0.02 per cpm from referrals. Because either I all my referrals stopped publishing today, or I got zero downline earnings.

It has changed. You earn 1 cent or 2 cents per 1000 impressions produced. Similarly you earn 1 cent / 2 cents when your downlines produce 1000 impressions.

Earlier I thought that I would just upgrade with $5 or $9 for a month and withdraw my earnings. Now, I simply won't do it. I am getting doubtful whether I'd be paid at all.

I am confused again. I got my usual earnings. (It shows "1 real banner view; $1.0E -50 earned today")

My today's earnings was 9 cents. That was my usual earnings previously, including my daily 5 cents.

I really cannot follow them.

What I think is, if they can remove the condition of making sales, more people will be ready to publish at least and our referral activity may increase.

Just in case, I requested a cashout. Let's see if I still get it.

Well, I've noticed that their filters are working fine.. out of 4000+ impressions only 24 did count including mine...
I think I'll make deals for 2 sales and let go after cashing out..

Let us know if you get paid Rui..

SolidSnake wrote on 27^th May, 2014 at 4:46pm:

Well, I've noticed that their filters are working fine.. out of 4000+ impressions only 24 did count including mine...

:o :-?

OK, that's just wrong. I think what they need to do is adopt something that worked very well at a banner site I once belonged to. Get the site average of clicks to impressions ratio and then reward people where they stand according to that ratio. If the average is 1 in 50 then anybody above that gets a higher share of the revenue. Anybody below gets lower. This both gives incentives for people to improve their banner rankings and slowly raises the banner average, but it also does not punish some publishers because of the perceived quality of their hits(the bottom line is click throughs of course).

Do they think those 4000 impressions of yours were got free?

Well, it looks like it started counting more after I made that post...

Today it looks like this.. :

9,461 banners shown (This is cumulative)
174 real views (This must also be cumulative)
$0.00348 earned today (This includes today only)

All in all I think it barely crosses 1 cent / day.. nothing compared to the 10 cents/day that I received before..
Anyways, never mind.. once I receive my payout (if I do) I will leave it at its own luck..

I never had much faith on this site, maybe i failed to understood its concept, it just never seemed to me it could be really profitable to both members and the site itself.

I didnt read all of the thread, but did any of you guys made good money out of it?

The rough part of that program is cashing out.. that thing once again takes out the potential of cashing out for the average Joe.

It requires members to achieve 2 sales if upgraded, or 5 sales if standard.

The sales must be from individuals which makes it even harder to achieve.

At least the cheaper sale is $15 and includes 50.000 banner impressions..

Overpriced for sure, but if we combine it with a good deal it would be achievable.
So advertising site owners have much better chances there than a single member/referrer...

SolidSnake wrote on 6^th Jun, 2014 at 3:34pm:

The rough part of that program is cashing out.. that thing once again takes out the potential of cashing out for the average Joe. It requires members to achieve 2 sales if upgraded, or 5 sales if standard. The sales must be from individuals which makes it even harder to achieve. At least the cheaper sale is $15 and includes 50.000 banner impressions.. Overpriced for sure, but if we combine it with a good deal it would be achievable. So advertising site owners have much better chances there than a single member/referrer...

And if you dont do sales, what happens to your funds?

You can buy advertising with them, I guess.

ruicarlov wrote on 6^th Jun, 2014 at 6:41pm:

You can buy advertising with them, I guess.

Yes.. and that makes it a pay-in to pay-out only program and it's definitely not suitable for freebies..

I see... not that attractive.
Good luck on your venture  8-)

Specter wrote on 8^th Jun, 2014 at 1:08am:

I see... not that attractive. Good luck on your venture  8-)

Yes, it's not attractive at all.. especially with their recent changes that kind of killed it..
My only interest there is cashing out ~$60 that I have accumulated in my balance.. and that's a big "if" as well...  ;D

Previously, when I visit my own blog, the impressions count stayed unaffected. Now, I can see that the impression count is increasing even during my own visits.

That may lead to people start cheating the system. And again, they may need to make some changes.

Quote:

Thanks to recent system updates, we're very happy to announce that Referral Banners is set for a full recovery! We've cleared many outstanding cashouts and now have only 3 remaining. These will be paid over the next few days, giving us a fresh start. Our most active publishers are earning much more (over 10 times!) with our new rCPM model and we've been working on another major improvement: more active rented referrals! New criteria makes sure that at least half have displayed banners this week and are likely to upgrade or renew. The other half can advertise and earn you up to $57 per sale! If you've been thinking about boosting your earnings, now is the perfect time! Even if your referrals become less active over time, you can still recycle them to get 3 months extra for free! Just log in and click 'Referrals > Rent / Replace' to get your own, but be quick! There are now less than 2,000 available which won't last long with so many members!

Only 3 outstanding cashouts?
Well, aren't I special :P

Who are the other lucky two...

Actually, they should have been more careful when dealing with you.. :P
They should have made sure you are not in that list or at least you should be alone there..  [smiley=lolx.gif]
Pff.. some admins have no respect for the PTCMan... that's why their end comes so suddenly and unexpectedly...


Quote:

Our most active publishers are earning much more (over 10 times!) with our new rCPM model..

I keep wondering how large the sample was on which the tests they ran provided them with these statistics...
I'm barely making 1 cent / day if I get lucky enough now that they turned down all PTC related traffic..

I'm making much more than that through adhitz clicks..

It seems they knew better than to mess with the PTCman.

http://i.imgur.com/uaBXeeR.png

ruicarlov wrote on 16^th Jun, 2014 at 12:06am:

It seems they knew better than to mess with the PTCman.

NOBODY messes with the PTCMan..  8-)
Keep rocking the PTC world mate!  [smiley=z06-guitar.gif]

ruicarlov wrote on 16^th Jun, 2014 at 12:06am:

It seems they knew better than to mess with the PTCman.

Wow... Congratulations !!!

Hope it grows further.

Congrats on your payment rui!

venkat wrote on 16^th Jun, 2014 at 5:29am:

Wow... Congratulations !!! Hope it grows further.

Nah, I'm bailing out on this one. The current earning rates are completely miserable for me. This money was what I made before the changes.

ruicarlov wrote on 16^th Jun, 2014 at 12:01pm:

Nah, I'm bailing out on this one. The current earning rates are completely miserable for me. This money was what I made before the changes.

I fully understand and glad you made it as well! :)
I've also noticed this email from them :


Quote:

Due to the overwhelming popularity of our unique high quality advertising, the network is now full to the brim with banner campaigns. To increase inventory and to bring our prices in line with our competitors, we're going to increase the cost of our impressions. Similarly, as we have changed the criteria on our rented referrals so they're more active, we will also be updating their prices. Current prices (14th June 2014) ------------------------------- 50,000 impressions - $15 - $0.30 CPM 100,000 impressions - $27 - $0.27 CPM - Save $3! 200,000 impressions - $50 - $0.25 CPM - Save $10! 500,000 impressions - $115 - $0.23 CPM - Save $35! 1,000,000 impressions - $190 - $0.19 CPM - Save $110! 20 refs. / 3 months / 20,000 imps. - $10 50 refs. / 3 months / 50,000 imps. - $20 - Save $5! 100 refs. / 3 months / 100,000 imps. - $35 - Save $15! New prices (effective 20th June 2014) ------------------------------------- 50,000 impressions - $25 - $0.50 CPM 100,000 impressions - $45 - $0.45 CPM - Save $5! 200,000 impressions - $58 - $0.29 CPM - Save $42! 500,000 impressions - $125 - $0.25 CPM - Save $125! 1,000,000 impressions - $190 - $0.19 CPM - Save $310! 20 refs. / 3 months / 20,000 imps. - $16 50 refs. / 3 months / 50,000 imps. - $32 - Save $8! 100 refs. / 3 months / 100,000 imps. - $62 - Save $18! Thanks for reading. If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to contact us. http://refban.com

In other words it will be even more difficult now to get the sales since the prices will get even higher.
Since the views do not come from incentive sources their product has a better quality now but I think it's kinda early to raise the prices.

Anyways to bail out as well I decided to run a refban related promo on my Ads page.
I've been planning this for a long time now but it looks like I ran out of time.

So yesterday night I stayed up until 5 am and coded a promo system that will also be usable in future promos of mine as well.
The deal is only available for 2 of my tier 1 refban referrals so unfortunately within the forum only Dan is able to benefit from it..

My Top 4 Spots cost $18 per month while the smallest advertising pack right now on RefBan costs $15.
So I offer 1 free Top Spot for a full month (up to 300.000 impressions) + 50.000 RefBan impressions at that price ($15).

The full details of the promo are here :
http://www.ptcbox.me/ads/rbpromo.php

Also they've now released a brand new feature.. a weekly table that shows detailed earnings for the past 7 days.

Well here's mine...

http://i.imgur.com/bMeXuaI.png

At least it looks that their "No PTC" filter works pretty well..
Out of 62.422 visitors on my ads page they only counted 540 "real" visitors.. (The rest may have been zombies or sth..  [smiley=lolx.gif])
So, I've switched from earning $0.12-$0.16 per day to earning $0.01080 per week on a pro account.. :)

And even better they will now increase their prices to $25 per 50.000 banner impressions..
That's $0,0005 per view.. we're still talking about impressions when one can get actual visitors at a much lower price..

Unlike AdHitz they also don't care about clicks so there's no benefit if a site receives better quality and active visitors as well..

I don't understand their way of thinking but they definitely own a very unique program... not that that makes it any interesting at all..

Well. My stats is confusing.

I am standard member and I'm supposed to earn $0.00001 per view. But my daily stats shows double, yet the total shows $0.00001 per view. :/

Date	Earned	Real Views
17th June 2014	$0.00048	24
16th June 2014	$0.00034	17
15th June 2014	$0.00018	9
14th June 2014	$0.00028	14
13th June 2014	$8.0E-5	4
12th June 2014	$0.0001	5
Total	$0.00073	73

Another thing is confusing me. I am seeing just one or two visitors every day, but the banner count shows 82 views / 10 real views. I don't know what's happening.

venkat wrote on 18^th Jun, 2014 at 5:57am:

Well. My stats is confusing. I am standard member and I'm supposed to earn $0.00001 per view. But my daily stats shows double, yet the total shows $0.00001 per view. :/ Date Earned Real Views 17th June 2014 $0.00048 24 16th June 2014 $0.00034 17 15th June 2014 $0.00018 9 14th June 2014 $0.00028 14 13th June 2014 $8.0E-5 4 12th June 2014 $0.0001 5 Total $0.00073 73 Another thing is confusing me. I am seeing just one or two visitors every day, but the banner count shows 82 views / 10 real views. I don't know what's happening.

Yes it seems you are getting $0.00002 per view.. weird.. :)
Btw, you could take a look at this page and see all the banners you are publishing..
Maybe you had added the code to more than 1 sites as well..

Yeah, I added the code in 4 or 5 of my blogs, but I have only one blog in my signature at EMS forum. And I have one shortened link in the same signature.

I am promoting my another blog at EasyHits4u via banner (not in the TE), but I guess now all those traffic has been counted as invalid. (Banner leads to my blog in a new tab and I thought it was genuine traffic, but RefBan don't think so.)  [smiley=lolx.gif]

Now it says 375 banner views & 281 real views.  :D

Whoa !! I never promoted this much anywhere. Seems some kind of bug.  :P

Well, they now have raised their prices so I guess there's no chance for generating sales anymore..
Great plan Rogue Team..

The dictionary gives it away:

rouge - 1. An unprincipled, deceitful, and unreliable person; a scoundrel or rascal.

ruicarlov wrote on 23^rd Jun, 2014 at 4:18pm:

The dictionary gives it away: rouge - 1. An unprincipled, deceitful, and unreliable person; a scoundrel or rascal.

Well, you mean "rogue".. as "rouge" is a whole different thing... Google it and laugh.. [smiley=lolx.gif]

Hmm.. now that I think of it again though.. women might use "rouge" at some cases for "rogue" purposes.. so the terms may be connected.. ::)

Ok, I sound like a sexist now.. sorry.. not my intention..  :P

Sorry, it was a typo.  :P

I meant to write rogue.

Hey guys, check this out.. :


Quote:

The creators of RefBan have just launched a brand new site! VIRU5 is a viral advertising network based on the number 5. You can earn money simply by telling your friends about it - they don't have to buy anything! Members get paid for friends on 5 levels, so there's huge income potential. Upgrade to Pro to earn even more! Pro members also benefit from detailed stats, advanced link tracking and advertising credits. Don't miss out on this great chance to earn some extra cash and to promote your links, products and services to a brand new audience! Sign up today via the link below - it's free! http://viru5.com/ A fresh start! 2 years ago we came up with a unique concept for a new kind of banner network. Since then over 400 million banners have been served by over 70 thousand members. Referral Banners has been generating revenue since launch and has huge potential for increased growth and profitability. However, our team is now overstretched and we need time for new projects like VIRU5. For this reason we're looking for someone that will, most importantly, look after our members and can also maintain development for continued success. Potential bidders can contact us directly via support[at]refban.com  IMPORTANT: If you have a general support query you should still contact http://ticksup.com This email is being sent to over 50,000 people, but if no bidders can be found by September we'll be creating a public auction on Flippa. Massive thanks to you all for supporting RefBan over the last couple of years. We hope the new owner will make the network even more profitable for everyone.

It came through email by the RefBan owners..
I think this is the best way they could say that RefBan is on sale and they have opened a new site to move on...  [smiley=lolx.gif]

PS... I forgot to mention that it's another "Orange" site...  ::)

SolidSnake wrote on 19^th Aug, 2014 at 8:56pm:

Hey guys, check this out.. : It came through email by the RefBan owners.. I think this is the best way they could say that RefBan is on sale and they have opened a new site to move on...  [smiley=lolx.gif] PS... I forgot to mention that it's another "Orange" site...  ::)

;D

I wonder how much they'll get for it. I hope the new owners tweak it to give people the incentive to contribute again

This Viru5 site doesn't look very remarkable. It seems very generic and clone like. And I sure wish I could trust them regarding the 5 levels, but they tend to change the rules in the middle of the game. If I were to make an effort to bring in hundreds of referrals on many levels, how do I know they won't capture them all by taking them away when it is time to pay out?

moneymarketing wrote on 19^th Aug, 2014 at 9:07pm:

;D I wonder how much they'll get for it. I hope the new owners tweak it to give people the incentive to contribute again This Viru5 site doesn't look very remarkable. It seems very generic and clone like. And I sure wish I could trust them regarding the 5 levels, but they tend to change the rules in the middle of the game. If I were to make an effort to bring in hundreds of referrals on many levels, how do I know they won't capture them all by taking them away when it is time to pay out?

Exactly..! Losing the trust is a real barrier from further success in this industry..
But still their plan was a bit too generous in my opinion in the beginning.. and turned against them in the end.

However there this old saying.. "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail!"
Having a sustainable enough plan is a must, but one should also keep in mind how the members motivation will stay up over time.

Their first change of plan destroyed that motivation.. their increase of prices ruined what was left.. so any chance of a recovery was lost..

Well, now that's an interesting update.. :)


Quote:

We're extremely disappointed to announce that despite contacting thousands of people, we have been unable to find a suitable buyer for Referral Banners. We assume results will be the same on Flippa, so there won't be a public auction either. This puts us in a very difficult position and we now have to do everything we can to keep the site open. This unfortunately means the following... 1. Members will no longer earn from displaying banners, but will continue to earn from affiliate sales and referral upgrades. 2. After September 3rd RefBan will effectively become a banner exchange. All impressions generated will be stored for advertising. 3. Outstanding cashouts will be processed within the next 90 days. Regular cashouts will return in October. These drastic changes should hopefully create enough revenue to keep RefBan online. However, if the site is still unable to pay for its own hosting by the end of September, we may have to consider closure. This is a sad end for a project with so much potential. Our sincere apologies to all members, but after investing so much time and money over the last two years, we've reached the limit of our resources.

Another banner exchange would be ok, I guess.. Ok! I pick #2! :D

I wonder if a viru5 got in and made them do this. :P

Honestly, I'm not surprised. Good thing I cashed out my $100 and never logged in ever since.

ruicarlov wrote on 3^rd Sep, 2014 at 5:55pm:

I wonder if a viru5 got in and made them do this. :P Honestly, I'm not surprised. Good thing I cashed out my $100 and never logged in ever since.

Yes, it's no surprise.. :)
Too bad they changed the system right when I reached the payout.. Now I've got $60.88 stuck in there..  :mon_eyes

Btw, the way you say it.. considering that you are not surprised at all... and that you made it to cashout.. and that you never logged in ever since... and that you are talking about viru5.... and.... OMG... it was you, wasn't it?!?  :o

Who knows. I'll leave that to your imagination.... *evil laugh*

ruicarlov wrote on 4^th Sep, 2014 at 12:23pm:

Who knows. I'll leave that to your imagination.... *evil laugh*

Well, I just hope I'll never get on your opposing side..  [smiley=beer.gif]