I hope this doesn't come off as TOO much of a frustration post - It might, but it is NOT my intention to complain...It just comes so naturally :)
Holy SHIT I've never been so frustrated with an Affiliate Program - Well, not never, but it's been a LONG time since I've been so fuming -
Free Site Signup is KILLING ME!
Last month they sent me 18 notice of earned commissions - Those at $50/each, along with my bonus, had my READY TO BE PAID commissions at $1030 -
Couple days later I go in and it shows only $250 earned - And my signup bonus of $100 GONE -
I have went around and around with these guys - After I paid the 1 year hosting, they somehow cancelled it for a few days. I had to call support to get them to look it up and get it back on -
I spent 2 weeks asking them to fix 1 of the links at the bottom of my page. They kept insisting it was correct, and all i needed to do was "clear your cookies and hit refresh" (As if I'm some f'ing moron, right?) - I finally told them I checked the link on 3 different computers, work, home and my buddies work computer - ALL of them had the same WRONG LINK - Just like I had explained. Suddenly they went in and fixed it -
Over my first month I was getting 1-2 signups (paid signups) everyday, spending about $8 advertising each day. This was a hefty profit margin, since Free Site Signup pays $50/referral. So for my advertising money, I was earning possibly $50 - $150 each day - On Limited advertising dollars
I was intentionally keeping it limited, because of all my experience with Affiliate Junktion. I was NOT going to drop $5k in advertising again and get totally screwed (sorry this isn't a very family friendly email, but i'm pissed still)
After I started to see 2-3 signups daily in pending commissions, I raised my advertising. I was like "FINALLY< some money to be made here!" I mean for me, this is what i KNOW how to do - Pay per click advertising - Yeah, it costs, but it drives visitors in - I am able to get 100+ visitors every day for about $10/day spending. If only 1% convert to a sale, that's $50 earned for each $10 in advertising....
Then the wheels all fell off - Several people from my personal email contacted me, saying their links weren't working right. I took a look and noticed no signups over 7 days, despite increasing my traffic over 2x - I contacted support who insisted everything was fine - But I was positive something had to be wrong - I mean, how do I go from 1-3 signups daily with light advertising, to zero signups over a full week, with 2x as much advertising?!?! Yeah, doesn't make sense at all -
I shut off all my advertising - I didn't email my list - I updated my site and moved it way down the ranks - But still, I somehow had faith in them. I guess it wasn't faith so much as it was almost desperation perhaps.
Because the truth is that if Free Site Signup could keep accurate records, I could easily earn $300+ every day with the program. I know exactly how to get MASSIVE traffic to a website - It's just a matter of if that traffic is WORTH me paying for
Free Site Signup is still telling me that everything they show is accurate and correct - but here is where I'm at as of this blog post (or should i call it Pissed Off Rambling :)
Yahoo charged me for over 5k clicks sent to my Free Site Signup page
I had 12 people from my PERSONAL email list contact me, telling me they joined, and 3 of them sent me their receipt (I had offered my list a special deal where I gave them my own PPC tips and tricks to get massive traffic for cheap - and yeah, several of them took it)
My pending commissions as of yesterday were $250 - Meaning only 5 people joined and upgraded?
The stats shown in my Free Site Signup back office shows over 1,756 clicks - Aside from the fact that this is RIDICULOUSLY low, lets say that's an accurate hit counter - Out of 1,756 clicks they are saying only 5 people paid $8.95 to join and get their $100 signup bonus???
For what it's worth, I have read that 'about' 1% of clicks or visits to your sites will "convert" into a sale for your website - Pretty low percentage, but lets look at that.
if only 1% converted, I would have earned 'about' 18 sales (again, I am 99% positive that their counters are VERY low) - So what Free Site Signup is now telling me is that they have The Worst Converting Pages in the INDUSTRY???
That is VERY hard to believe -
And beyond this, my signup bonus of $100 is gone from my pending commissions. Not exactly sure how that happened, and despite me sending in 4 different support requests, they continue to NOT answer that question specifically - They keep saying "We are aware of your case" -
When I was promoting affiliate junktion, they did a "pay per lead" deal - everyone that visited your site, then clicked through and left their email, earned you $2 each time. I was REGULARLY getting $250+ days there. I was sending 500+ clicks regularly, and would get 75-150 "leads" everyday -
And this is after NUMEROUS support requests sent in by me - They cancelled my account AFTER i paid the hosting fee - They had the wrong links in my page and insisted it was ME who didn't have a clue -
I stuck around so long here because of the earning potential - Fact is I could make a fortune with this - If it would keep stats accurately -
But instead, it looks like I wasted another couple months, about $500 - $600 in advertising, and countless hours of effort and promotion...
And you want to know what is worse than ANY of that? My reputation with my list - My clickthrough % from my personal email list is DISMAL these days. I used to regularly get 15% clickthrough (meaning 15% of the people on my list opened my emails) - Of that, I would also get a healthy "clicked links" % as well -
Nowadays, my opened and click %'s are TERRIBLE - Like often below 5% -
That is far worse than losing the Free Site Signup money. I really do my best to promote GOOD opportunities to my list - And the Free Site Signup fiasco made me look like a fucking idiot - Yeah, obviously I use my email list to earn money and build referrals - But I ALWAYS did it with the best intentions, and I always did it AFTER I tried the program out myself...In this case I did try it out - Everything did seem fine to me - Support was prompt - signups were showing up - Money was rolling in -
I don't really feel like any of it was "my fault", but I know for a fact that my reputation with my list will never be the same now -
and that just fucking sucks - As if it's not hard enough to build a list of subscribers, I gotta have a shitty affiliate company make ME look like the jerk -
Thanks a lot Free Site Signup - Go to hell -
And I do apologize for the Non Family Friendly blog post - But in this case, I still don't think it's enough
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
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3 comments:
Hey Paul: Really sorry to hear about your experience/"fiasco" with FSS. I can tell you I had a similar experience with them in the last quarter of 2008. Thankfully, I was "OUT" before I committed more $$$. Their customer service was horrific...I paid to upgrade yet even though they had taken my money...every time I would sign on they would tell me I had to "upgrade" to access the "upgraded member's area". So the whole cycle would start again, me writing, me calling, me waiting, them giving incredibly incoherent type jibberous answers. I kept all the correspondence...just so I could get a good laugh every once and a while.
As far as your reputation, yeah it's super hard to build a following, but you know what - there are millions and millions of people out there waiting to hear about what you have to offer. And you know where your heart is. I believe it is in a good place and that always ultimately reaps reward.
So, yes, I saw your promoting of FSS and I did think - wow - good for him - he's actually able to do something with them. But, as a novice IM there was no way I was going to tell you about my own bad experience with them...I always attribute my "bad" experiences with my "inexperience"...in the future, maybe I should "share". People can then decide if it's hitting on a concern they were having or not.
Keep on pluggin' and please keep those cards and letters coming. Your info is valuable and helpful to many of us on your list. I for one am not going anywhere.
For all you do, Thanks!
Donna D
James & Donna
ddnetbiz@gmail.com
Hi Paul, thank for the warning to us. So sorry to hear about your bad experiences.
WOW!! That truly sucks!! This really hits home for me because I signed up with this affiliate program in June '09. I'm a newbie and a complete novice to this whole thing. It is for that reason that my sales are extremely low, but I expected that. I got into this knowing that I needed to learn about online marketing and how to drive traffic to my website. I have learned quite a bit and intended to go the long haul with this program in hopes of seeing improvement over time.
As I stated earlier, your post really hits home for me because just this past weekend I found that my FSSU page with affiliate leads looked VERY different from what I had previously. I didn't recognize a single name on the page. Then I found that my affiliate page that I had personalized had someone else's information. I cleared cookies (I'm not a complete novice to the internet) but the problem returned a day later.
I submitted a ticket and wrote, "This can only lead me to believe that I cannot trust that I will receive all commissions that are possibly due to me if my affiliate link can 'vanish'." I have yet to receive a response.
Like you, I was hopeful about this program. Because I am a newbie, it may seem to some that I would be ready to give up on affiliate marketing all together, but I am not. I know that with the right program(s) and vendor(s) there is good money to be made. Since the record keeping of FSSU is shady, at best; is there anything you would recommend?
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