Has anyone else not received their March payment from Vibrant Media? This is the second month in a row that I've had to contact them to find out why my payment hasn't been sent. Last month, they blamed it on PayPal. This month, they're not even responding to my emails.
Last Wednesday (March 19), my Vibrant Media rep sent me an email letting me know that I should receive my money by the end of the next day. It's now the end of Monday, March 24 and I have not received it. He also said they were having a meeting with the revenue dept to discuss how to streamline their payment process. I don't know how long Vibrant Media has been around, but they act like they just opened for business yesterday and have no clue what they're doing. I can't say they're a scam since they did pay me last month, even though my payment was 10 days late. They just don't seem to have the first clue what they're doing. Tomorrow (Tuesday) will be 10 days late with my payment once again for the second month in a row, and I have no reason to believe I'll even receive the money tomorrow. I don't know why I thought Vibrant Media was a respectable company. I guess it's because they deal exclusively with technology-based websites and they only deal with sites that receive at least 500,000 page views per month. I even had to fax them a bunch of forms and a signed contract, and then they turn around and break their own contract by not paying me by the date specified in the contract. I also use Adsense and Chitika on my site, both of which pay a lot more and pay on time each month. What can I say, Vibrant Media sucks.
Well, I received an email from my Vibrant Media rep saying my March payment was deposited to my PayPal account this morning, yet the money is not there. I've had it with this company.
Honestly, I would just give it time. It's not your account rep's fault by the way, I think the accounting department just has some issues. I have been dealing with Vibrant media for over a year now, and they've been amazing. They do pay their publishers (unless you're doing something against their TOS, they might be looking over your accuont before they pay you). Twice my payments didn't go through, I actually got it about 3 weeks late the last time, which really pissed me off. They eventually did get everything fixed and haven't had a late payment since.
I'm not doing anything against their TOS. All I do is place their ad code on the pages and let them worry about everything, just like I do with Adsense and Chitika, both of which pay me on time every month. Vibrant Media sends me my revenue statements every month. They just don't seem to know how to send my actual payment. I think their payment problems are related to payments made through PayPal because everyone I've spoken to who has had problems receiving payments from Vibrant Media is paid through PayPal. I'm not saying it's PayPal's fault, I'm saying the accounting dept. at Vibrant Media doesn't seem to understand how to use PayPal's system. Last month they blamed the whole thing on PayPal as if it was PayPal's fault. This month, they're saying they've paid me but I have not received the money. It's been over 24 hours now since they said they paid and their accounting dept. is standing by their statement that I've been paid. So where's my money?? Somehow I just know I won't be receiving this month's payment any time soon. I'm assuming anyone who has not had a problem with this company is receiving payments through some other form of payment and not through PayPal. For the record, Chitika also pays me each month through PayPal and I have never had a problem with them.
Well, I just received my March payment from Vibrant Media. This time it was 11 days late. Last month it was 10 days late. I guess, if I follow the trend, I should wait 12 days next month before wondering where my payment is.
Be Patient, I'm sure they'll get it figured out eventually. They pay WAY more than Kontera or any other company doing this sort of thing, so in my opinion it is worth it to just let it go when they screw up sometimes. I've worked with most of the advertising companies for publishers, and all of them have screw-ups sometimes...
Vibrant is a really good company, but in 2008 it has a really bad start. MSN stopped their ads in 2008 and the revenue dropped 3/4 Now it seems that they have liquidity problems -> NO payment. Is this the end of Vibrant Media ? Still no payment for you ?
I signed up with Vibrant Media in December (2007). For the first few days, I was earning good money from them, and then just before Christmas, my earnings dropped by 50-75% and have never recovered. Of the three ad companies I use on my site (Adsense, Chitika and Vibrant Media), Vibrant Media pays the least. Adsense pays the most by far. Chitika pays about 25% of what I earn with Adsense, and then Vibrant Media comes in with only about 10% of what I earn with Adsense. Not only does Vibrant Media pay the least, they're the only company that can't seem to pay on time. I've only been using them on my site since December so I've only had two payment periods with them so far, but both were like pulling teeth. My first payment was 10 days late and my second payment (this month) was 11 days late. I was eventually paid this month, but not before threatening to remove their ads from my site. I've never experienced any payment problems with either Adsense or Chitika. Funny thing is, I signed up with Vibrant Media because I noticed a website similar to mine using them, and since this other website is extremely popular and receives tens of thousands of visitors per day, I thought "Well, if they're good enough for them, they're good enough for me". When my first payment from Vibrant Media was nowhere to be found, I contacted the owner of this other site to ask if he had experienced any problems with the company, only to be told that he was ready to remove their ads from his site because he signed up with them in Sept. 2007 and still had not received a penny from them, five months after signing up! He said all he got from them was a bunch of excuses like "We can't find your payment information" or "We thought you were paid, we'll look into it". He has since received one payment from them and is still waiting for the rest of his money. Vibrant Media's ads are no longer on his site. I guess that will teach me to make decisions based on what I see other people doing.
I work with Vibrant Media since 2005. Payment terms was never a strong point for them, but I got the money each month. It seems that they have a lot of problems now and no real answers. They have a lot of sites (big sites) and no money from advertisers ? Yes, last year was really good becouse of MSN ads. In december they pulled all the ads; now Vibrant hopes that MSN will put back the ads, but there are no guarantees
Just wanted to say that I have also been a Vibrant Media publisher for a few years now ... Never had a major payment issue, yeah a couple of late ones when the person dealing with payments was away or they never received my invoice, but month to month, it's usually on time. I get paid by EFT rather than paypal.