Hello, I have received the following email from monetize.com "Hello, A few of our advertisers recently mentioned sites like yours and we wanted to see if there was a possible business opportunity between our two companies. We currently offer a wide variety of monetization solutions and are very confident that we can outbid what you are currently generating or provide additional value add revenue from other channels. Our goal is to monetize traffic across email, search, display and other channels; this consists of the following product offerings under out monetize.com platform: Contextual.com : our contextual banner ad product. Intextual.com : our intext product offering Admobile.com : our mobile ad product offering Overlayad.com : our in-image product offering Thankyouoffer.com : our registration confirmation and post download product. Thankyouemail.com : our email monetization product offering Adretargeting.com / Remarketing.com: our retargeting engine 404Bucks.com : our 404/DNS error monetization product DittoDomains.com : Our domain monetization product FooterRoll.com : Our preroll footer product Prerollstream.com : Our preroll product Midrollstream.com : Our midroll product VideoSense.com : Our contextual video product VsliderAds.com : Our slider video product exitmonetization.com : Our exit monetization offering to monetize exit traffic coming from Google, Yahoo, and Bing search. directnavtraffic.com : Our zero click product for full page pop under on a keyword or URL level provided in both JS and xml format. XML Feeds - for search-based traffic and contextual traffic. Are you free to discuss the opportunity or direct me to the person who manages the display, video, search. mobile or email monetization on your website? Regards," My website is a small content based website which I have been running for 12 months or so. I currently generate a small amount of revenue using Google Adsense. I don't really know too much about the advertising side of things and was hoping someone could advised me what to do in relation to the email. Many thanks, Steven
I'm involved with advertising and have been for quite a few years. There is nothing to be concerned about. Advertisers do act/inquire in the way that the e-mail you received indicated. I advise you to respond along with an open mind. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. You really ought to feel flattered that they are considering you for a possible partnership.
Thank you for letting us know. I looked through their service, looks impressive. Maybe I should give them a try. If I were you I'd definitely sign up, at least, to see what they are offering.
OK, I just signed up with them and I already don't like it. Any company that wants me to fill out a W-9 with them goes down the toilet in my world. To me it's idiotic and suicidal for any business. Even AdSense doesn't require that, who the hell do they think they are? Anyway, they are off my list. P.S. Too bad I had to enter my phone #. Now their rep will be calling me for like a month trying to help me getting started...
I would sign up and contact them to see if they can give you a discount to test out the traffic! Most Good Sites with quality traffic will give you a discount for testing them out. Then Do a campaign if you get good results, See about negotiating a deal for bulk traffic purchases.
Any company that does not require a W-9 and is US based is avoiding taxes in one way or another. The law requires that if you pay anyone $600 or more in a calendar year they must require a W-9.
So... What you're saying is, I can't file taxes on my own? I can. Always have. I just don't understand the purpose of some dubious company asking me to do that. As a US citizen I will declare all my income when it's due. But I am not responsible to some company that didn't hire me to run my life as they please. The point is they didn't hire me. All they have to do is send me the 1090 form. Anything beyond that is crap. It's a subtle line, but it is very important to me. Don't ask anything of me. Send me the 1090 form and I will take it from there. Gosh.
The W-9 correlates to the 1099, they have to have a W-9 on file to send an 1099. In turn they are able to indicate that that amount was paid and it is deducted from their income so they are not taxed for that income. You are then taxed. Not sure who is doing your taxes for your company but this has been standard practice for many many years.
I get it. But you're missing the point. I am not their (monetize.com/admedia.com) independent contractor. They are not hiring me. They may act like they are, but the truth is they are not. Period. They can scream at the top of their lungs: We need your SS#! And I can tell them to f*ck off. All they do is they are just giving me some ads to show on my site that MAY or MAY NOT produce results. Why in the hell should I give them my SS#? I hope you are understanding me now. When I am hired by them (for real, as a independent contractor) I will submit whatever documents needed. Whoever does my taxes is none of your business and they do a tremendous job. But if you're willing to submit your SS# to every company you are with, well, it's your prerogative. I can't argue with that.
Ok I guess I am not being clear, if at any time a company or person pays you compensation even for an ad impression, and they pay you more that $600 in a calendar year, they are required by law to report it with a 1099. To complete a 1099, that company has an individual fill out a W-9 to verify that the information provided is correct and accurate. Its simple as that, when you fill out the W-9, you are required to provide a SSN# or EIN#. If the company does not complete the 1099, they have to pay taxes on that money as income for the business. This applies to the US only, other countries have various requirements. But I regress, this is getting off topic.