I feel like dropping them too but quite honestly can't be bothered, too busy! I do like AA, just hope they sort it out QUICK.
Well, they are not 100% sure they have fixed the tracking issues, although they believe they have. Im sure they dont want to announce its been fixed and find out they missed something. Second, people forget. Shoemoney didnt take a cut from the commissions, and mediawhiz has only had it for a short while. The whole program is only about 6 months old. I kept saying, this grew faster then Jeremy could keep up, and then, once aquired, I urged people to give them a little time to get their arms around it, which they seem to be doing. As for my stats, June was great, July was a good size decrease, august was bad as well, but is now back up to $xxx a day numbers again.
MediaWhiz was part owner from the beginning. So the acquisition is not much of an excuse for them needing this much time to get their arms around the problems. Tracking issues definitely do not look fixed. Where I still have it running it is still reporting clicks at a rate 1/6 of what I was seeing before it tanked in mid-July.
I used them for a month. I took them down because that space is better off used for CJ. Made more money in one day on CJ than I did the entire month of AA.
Awesome earnings in month 1 50% of month 1 earnings in months 2 7% of month 1 earnings in month 3 That's been my not so gradual decline.
Correct, we are all getting the same result.... so there's go to be something WRONG. I don't understand how they can continue like this... without any REAL information provided to publishers. There's no ETA, there's not indication whether we will be paid out correctly, nothing!
That's exactly my point, it's been a while now since their announcement. MediaWhiz holdings (per Shoe's blog) was brought in as a partner from the start to handle support. From early on, I wasn't getting responses to support emails, and the relevancy issues have been happening for more than 2 months. You know these facts. I'm unsure what your point was about not taking a cut of commissions. It's a marketing strategy for a program like this. Show healthy (even super) returns early as a catalyst for growth.
That's right. It's called pump-and-dump. Pump up the membership rapidly through the use of unsustainable terms (taking no cut) and then dump it at a premium price, leaving the new owner to sort out the problems (or not).
My point was that Shoemoney took no money (before he sold it) but people are talking like he should have run out and spent a million in developer salaries. I just think some people are being unecessarily personal and harsh. Jeremy wasnt out to screw anyone, and the thing grew faster then he could keep up. This is why he sold it. Mediawhiz was a minority stakeholder and had little to do with the development. Consequently, when they took over they had to learn everything. And instead of communicating, some people are just plain bitching.
And instead of communicating some are just keeping completely silent (like mediawhiz ) IMHO, it's their silence that has fueled much of the speculation which has in turn fed much of the complaints and bitching. Then again, take a program that used to give $XXX a month to a publisher, and then follow that with a month with no return at all accompanied with a lot of others reporting similar problems and maybe many of these folks have the right to bitch. I mean, there has been a reporting problem for over a month yet it was only last week they acknowledged it. I also often wonder if your tone would be different if your numbers went to crap and you didn't have your insider connection *shrug* Some of these folks have heard NOTHING over the last two months of issues other then a handful of vague blog entries and a closed Q&A thread here on Digital point... Personally I would have figured the people bitching would be a lot greater at this point... but then, I'm one of those vocal people
A lot of us are int he same boat... June was great - low to mid $xxx for me with one site I have... then July was about $150 and clicks were done way more than 60% now in August its even worse! I have even allocated more impressions to AuctionAds!! So far in August I am at about $60... like WHAT THE? It makes no sense. I am a very fair person and all I want is what is rightfully mine, nothing more and nothing less. I have been helpful and patient with AA and have emailed their support etc... but yes nothing has changed.
I'm not saying that, but it's part of business planning to have an eye towards growth. I mean, when you are an affiliate, you can promote without concern for product/service scaling, but if you are the end supplier, stuff like communication, service, uptime what have you are key. You run a super successful vB forum. If all you did was send newsletters and advertise, but didn't focus on server management, member relations, upgrades and design/content considerations, how long would you expect to last? We tried communicating in the Official MediaWhiz thread. the MW rep disappeared after one day, and like a lot of AA threads, it was locked down. I've sent 3 emails without a reply. That's not a complaint or indictment, it's just plain fact. I agree, the complaining isn't solving things. Only MediaWhiz can solve things, and I'm willing to bet that when they do, the complaining will die down to a whisper. The longer that things like reporting (our income) remain in limbo, and there is no communication to the contrary, the more people are going to be frustrated. Something any MW/AA reps need to recognize is that the problems have been going on so long, a lot of us are wondering if we're owed money retroactively, and if so, will we ever see it?
So you really think they paid us MORE starting out than we deserved and now we're really making what we should? There seems to be two major drop-off points. Up until 7/10, had stellar click-thru (between 2% and 1.5%) and was making great money. After 7/10 click-thru abruptly dropped to around .6% and hovered around that mark for a while. Then on 08/09 click-thru constantly dropped down again to about .2% to .3% From what I've noticed from other people's experiences, this is about the same.
Are you guys actually getting relevant items in your ads? I can't seem to get mine to display items that are relevant to the keywords I use.
@bearded, it's a known and ongoing issue related to caching. The cache doesn't last very long, so lower traffic sites tend to have unfocused ads more often. Of course, AA also goes through periods where I have tried to setup ad code for very popular auctions, 2000+ available and it would be untargeted on the AA site.
Now THAT is more like it. And it's reassuring to see Patrick Gavin attach his name to the improvements.