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[Warren Veach Company: State Continuing Education Contribution Level: 4]

I know I'm leaving myself wide-open with a topic like this, but I really can use some 3rd party insight.

Please allow me to explain how I came to be in this position.

Earlier this year, an acquaintance asked me to take a look at her new website and give her some feedback. She had really done a nice job with it. She had incorporated a blog into it, had a couple of banner ads running, had her pic featured on the front page, had opt-in lead capture features built into each page and had a couple of text ads running. She also had placed ads for her top businesses with menu links to them; she had sign-up links built in for a number of traffic exchanges and even had set up a digital products mall. All-in-all, it was very impressive. She obviously had spent a lot of time and energy in building it.

Oddly enough, the very next day, another acquaintance on a totally different social site sent me a link to his new website.

As I was looking it over, it suddenly hit me that it was the same site I had seen the day before, but different. It was all his stuff, not hers, but it was the same site none-the-less. It just had different headers, ads, links, banners, blog, colors and formatting.

I looked at the copyright line at the bottom, went back to her site and saw the same copyright info. Looking at the 2 sites side by side, I noticed a “Get your own site” link which took me to an Affiliate sign-up page. “Join for Free” it said, so I did.

After joining, it took me to a page showing me all the tools available to me a free member, and I’ll be honest, I hadn’t seen a back-office laid out like this before. It had written and video tutorials on customizing the site, how to use the features and quite frankly left nothing to be desired.

The only question I had was, I’m not exactly a newbie, why hadn’t I ever seen this before?

But I was presented with an opportunity to upgrade to a paid position. All the features were still available, plus a number of additional customizing options and pages to use. The paid option gave me URL Rotators, Banner Rotators, Ad trackers and more Auto-responders and follow up messages than I could use.

The paid option was less than $15 and offered a 50% commission on referrals, and no minimums on when you can cash-out. They used both PayPal and AlertPay.

Honestly, I had not seen a program that offered so much, for so little. I upgraded and set up my pages, rotators, trackers, responders, headers, my company logo, site background and messages. When I finished, my site looked entirely different than the 2 sites I had previously seen and quite frankly, I thought it looked like I had spent a ton of money on having a custom site built.

I sent an email to some friends and asked them to take a look. 2 joined as free members and 1 as an upgraded member.

Now, here’s my dilemma:

After a couple of months, I requested a cash-out through PayPal knowing that I would have more commissions due in a couple of days and I wanted to see whether PayPal or AlertPay would be quicker. So when the new commissions posted, I requested a cash-out through AlertPay.

After the recommended time-frame had passed, and no commissions had shown up in either account, I submitted a Support Ticket to the sites Help Desk. No response. In all, I sent 4 Support Tickets, none got an answer.

I started Googling the company, the owner and anything I could find connected. Surprisingly, I could not find one single blog, forum discussion or complaint about this issue. I contacted some of the other site owners through the company forum, and found that they had not been paid their commissions in months! But surprisingly, there was not one single posting in the forum about the fact that no-one was getting paid their commissions.

The consensus was that they saw the value in the site to be greater than the unpaid commissions and therefore weren’t going to raise a stink about it, lest their sites be taken down. According to the back office stats, the top referrer had referred over 500 members and in our communications, he let it be known that he hadn’t been paid since the first of the year. There are now more than 5,000 members.

I called PayPal and AlertPay to see if they were aware of an issue with the site owner’s accounts and found that I was the very first person to bring this to their attention. Both PayPal and AlertPay promised to follow-up, and I was even copied on their communications to the owner. To this date, neither PayPal nor AlertPay has gotten a response.

What do I do now? As I see it, I have a few options:

1. Like the others, I can continue to use the site and not worry about the commissions owed, but be pro-active in letting new members know about the commission issues.
2. Drop the site altogether, but I know I can’t replace the features and tools available to me for anywhere near the price I am paying now.
3. Contract with a site developer and have a site built that would offer everything to its members as this one does. (A good friend who is in the biz says it can’t be done for less than $125,000-$150,000)

What would you advise or do in my place?

I’m seriously looking forward to your comments and suggestions.

[Tom Leighton Contribution Level: 2]

Hey Warren,

You are right, quite a dilemma! There are many experts here to answer your questions so I am not going to comment. However, I would like to say that, even though I have not gone through all of your site, it is a very easy site to go through. Well done!

Good luck and best wishes,

Tom Leighton Lewes, Delaware
302 542 3087

[Warren Veach Company: State Continuing Education Contribution Level: 4]

Tom,

I do want to point out that the site listed on my profile page is NOT the site in question. That is my business website and in no way affiliated with the site I am referring to in the article.

Hey Warren,

You are right, quite a dilemma! There are many experts here to answer your questions so I am not going to comment. However, I would like to say that, even though I have not gone through all of your site, it is a very easy site to go through. Well done!

Good luck and best wishes,

Tom Leighton Lewes, Delaware
302 542 3087

[Lawyer Marketer Contribution Level: 2]

Warren,
What is the name of the company / site that is refusing to pay you commissions?
It seems like you are conveniently leaving this out.
This info would help the community, and enable us to look into your issue, as well as stay away from this company.

Do tell.

Sean

[Danielle Long Contribution Level: 2]

Yes, I am looking for a good site which makes it easy to make a great squeeze page, has autoresponders, etc. and might be willing to sign up even if there are no commissions involved...though that certainly is a bit alarming that they promised commissions and then didn't deliver.

[Warren Veach Company: State Continuing Education Contribution Level: 4]

Warren,
What is the name of the company / site that is refusing to pay you commissions?
It seems like you are conveniently leaving this out.
This info would help the community, and enable us to look into your issue, as well as stay away from this company.

Do tell.

Sean

Sean,

Yes, I did leave that little tidbit of info (the company name) out on purpose. I have struggled with whether or not to divulge the name and I'm still not sure that would be in the best interest of the members who are paying the monthly fee to use the site.

I still don't understand this, but as I mentioned, I have been in contact with several of the paying members, and although they are not receiving commissions, they feel the value of the site outweighs the lack of commissions.

Quite frankly, I have never seen anything close to the support the owner is getting from his members. I was even asked to back off on the trash talk on the company forum and cut the guy some slack. LOL

I have never seen an affiliate site that would allow you to remove 98% of their content, and replace it with your venture's info (up to 12 different ones at one time), give you a splash page maker so you can make pages for your programs (and host the splash pages for you) and give you multiple auto-responders to tie to the splash pages.

Therein lies my dilemma.

It's like I was given a new Cadillac to drive, with the stipulation that I had to buy the gas, but for every customer I sent the dealer they would split the profit with me.

Do I give the Cadillac back simply because the dealer hasn't paid me?

After all, I'm still driving the Cadillac.

[Warren Veach Company: State Continuing Education Contribution Level: 4]

Danielle,

I sent you a request for connection. I'd be honored to have you accept it.

If you'll forgive me, I want to be very careful about broadcasting the site info, but if you'll send me an email here on BetterNetworker I'll give you the link.

By the way, even as a Free (non-paying) member, you get an auto-responder and access to the Splash Page maker.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Yes, I am looking for a good site which makes it easy to make a great squeeze page, has autoresponders, etc. and might be willing to sign up even if there are no commissions involved...though that certainly is a bit alarming that they promised commissions and then didn't deliver.

[Jeff Mitchell Contribution Level: 4]

What good are all the tools and cool affiliate programs if they are not going to pay you...Drop the site...There are thousands of ways to make money out here. No need Peesing with a bad program.

jeff mitchell

[Bob Gatchel Contribution Level: 2]

I kind of agree with Jeff here.

To me it is a matter of principle. Yes, you may have a great product but ... like it or not ... the owner of the site is NOT living up to the agreement they made to you and everyone else. I have made it a point in my business that if someone (after trying to resolve things in a professional and businesslike fashion), doesn't live up to their end of the deal - I walk and I tell everyone else about it.

It's all about accountability ... something sorely lacking in the world today.

Yeah ... I may sound a bit preachy, but we all need to take the high road and make sure that people who don't ... don't get off the hook!

Just my two cents!

PS and I'm SURE you can find the components / systems out there to create a similar website for yourself and probably spend less money overall anyway!

[M OSullivan Contribution Level: 2]

Interesting,

For what it is worth, no matter what the value of product is, they have violated their agreement by not paying you your commissions. It is the principal more than the money, so I would report them to BBB and post your story to the Rip Off Report, and if they still don't respond, then they are obviously not a reputable company no matter what they provide you. Not to say you shouldn't use them if you are happy, just don't promote anyone to them, simple.

If you have time, please let me know who the company is as I keep a log of all companies which do not pay commissions as agreed, people have to be warned as the time you wasted promoting a non paying company is time and money wasted.

Success to all, Mike