HotMovies also came in on the 11th. I'm good when they arrive by the 15th.
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HotMovies also came in on the 11th. I'm good when they arrive by the 15th.
Today is Sept 27, and all of my Amazon ACHs came in yesterday and today!!
I'm happy when they land by the 28th. Since the 28th is on a Sunday this month, I was a bit worried that they would come in on Monday.
Nope, the Amazon AP dept did an admirable job of serving its hungry sellers BEFORE, not after.
The CCBill check should have been in my mailbox on Wednesday, but didn't because my regular mail lady had a substitute on! I told her about it the next day, as she handed me my CCBill check, and we both agreed that the sub is a LAZY bum!
And WHEN exactly is CCBill going ACH? :)
Barnes & Noble will limp in Monday, or Tuesday or Wednesday.
A formerly big, but still important vendor did pay in September, but missed August, so they're technically still one-month in arrears (behind). It would be nice to see them successful again, so that I get paid EVERY month, and then if they could shorten the gap from net 90-days, to net 30, like the big boys.
For all of you CCBill Clients and Affiliates:
Monday, OCTOBER 13 is a US Bank Holiday. And you know what that means: checks and Wires will be a day or 2 later than other weeks.
AEBN just got back on its feet for ACH direct deposits on the 10th-11th of the month, and now October 10 is on a FRIDAY!
If their Bank doesn't do its job on Thursday, and then goes fishin' early on Fridays, after Saturday becomes a problem, as Monday the 13th is a Bank Holiday, and then Tuesday the 14th is the next work day.
Sometimes the day after a weekend, or a Monday Holiday, can be 50/50.
XTube Payoneer came in overnight, 6am PDT, Oct 7.
Wasn't counting on it coming in on a Monday.
No AEBN ACH on the 10th. Sign of the modern times.
No ACH today, the 11th either! That was not probable being a Saturday, but was sure hoping! This might be due to my Bank and it's reporting cutoff times. I do have another Bank were it is common to have incoming ACH on a Saturday.
Now, Monday (the 13th) is a US Bank Holiday, which means the earliest will be the 14th!
I remember 2005-2013 being much more targeted to the 10th. You could almost set your watch to it!
When I read on other Forums that a dozen Webmasters are fighting with a sponsor program over amounts owed to them via NATS, for 4 months. I only have one thing to say:
WHY are you promoting NATS programs, when the difference between NATS and CCBill, is that CCBill separates your Affiliate earnings immediately, and you get a check one week or $25 threshold later!
WHY would you be upset with Sponsor Programs that pay Affiliate earnings on their own, but then don't? It's a calculated rick you accepted at signup, when you gave them your payout information.
You know the first pot of cash any Sponsor has that they could rob to cover other costs of doing business, or partying, especially in the run up to the September Party show season in London, Amsterdam and Prague, is Affiliate earnings.
Now, as a content creator, I have one merchant who owes me big time, back to now June. I'm not happy about that. As a one-man shop, and having just turned 64 last week, I could use that $1,000.
But it does put my tangible, product in customer's hands, with my website URLs.
I want my cake, and eat it, too!
Today's the 15th. One of my two AEBN ACHs posted today.
After 8+ years of being right on time on the 10th (allowing for one-day delay when the 10th was on a bank holiday), this month I got the first of the two on the 15th!!!!
That means the worst case scenario described above, just got even worse!
Why do I get two AEBNs? One for studio sales of my videos online with AEBN and its white labels. One for the 30% webmaster affiliate earnings. $100 threshold for each!
They are paid separate, and sometimes they do come a day apart. Which will make the 11th now become the 16th for the webmaster ACH.
Ah, longing for the good ol' days!
It's not that the $150 that didn't come on the 11th was needed for rent or utilities. Or for a new production.
But it is another sign that the industry doesn't care about small studios or even webmasters. The best way to thank a business partner is to pay, and to pay on time. The 15th and the 16th, after 8 1/2 years on the 10th, sometimes the 11th, is not a good sign.
No AEBN Affiliate ACH came in today. So I called.
I've always, only, had a Studio/Content Rep. I learn a couple of things:
* There is an Affiliate contact person. They have never introduced themselves to me, as an Affiliate. So I didn't know that. Then again, they've never missed an Affiliate ACH before, and I've never had to call. In 2010, my Studio/Content Rep built for me a powerful iframe to put on my own web pages.
I did have a conversation with a gal a year and a half ago, who had been there 10 years unknown to me. This is a new person, now.
* Expect ACHs now around the 15th-16th. For 8 1/2 years, it was the 10th.
* New Bank has one person entering ACHs by hand! (Whatever that means). I'm envisioning a scene with a real wood desk, and a manual typewriter?
:thumbup1: Well a very Happy Belated Birthday to you~!! These days 64 is still considered older and mature (and experienced), but not OLD if you get my meaning~!Quote:
and having just turned 64 last week
Nothing old about these bones!
I sure like making movies, and finding models that can keep up with me.
I remember when this software used to send out Happy Bday e-mails! Got one from GFY!!
Yesterday, it sent me a mail that someone replied to one of my threads 1-2 weeks ago!
I'm still thinking my 500 videos and books will be my "pension"!!
Maybe?
Yeah, sorry about the notification hic cup -- I was getting multiple notifications of PMs like a month or more after they had been written. I let Jay know about it, so hopefully they have someone fixing it.
It would be nice if notifications worked properly.
I think a major reason why this Forum (like others) has gone down in participation, is that - unlike Facebook - notifications are not keeping pace with replies to threads and to private messages.
Two weeks ago, I sent PMs to a couple of hot guys here, and they haven't been on since!
Of course, there are also several social media software packages out there that do more to facilitate networking amongst members than 100 year old forum scripts.
Reasons why (any) webmaster Forum is declining these days:
* Fewer remaining people in the biz.
* Forums (software) don't compare favorably to Facebook.
* Forums (software) promote trashing and bashing of other members, rather than the Trade Show -like experience we go to shows for, to find out what's available to buy, sell or trade.
* Forums (software) promote aristocratical layering and jockeying for control.
i wish we could have a better way to promote our niche in the biz (marketplace), if we're buyers or sellers of goods and services.
I worry that few here actually know that I could buy things from them, or sell things to them - in addition to promoting their programs.
My AEBN Affiliate payout arrived this morning. I contacted them last Thursday, when the expected Affiliate payout did not arrive alongside the (always separate) Studio payout. I guess one side benefit perhaps of the smaller Bank with one person doing the ACH's, is that response to a missing payout may yet occur the same month, not be held over until the next month's batch is run.
My XTube Payoneer payouts (I have 2 studio plus Amateur accounts) arrived today. The expected dates are the 5th and 20th, but my experience across the board with all partners and all Banks, is to never expect an ACH/Direct Deposit on a Monday. If it happens, great, if not, it's normal.
Last week, I found two new sales partners for my VOD videos.
I wasn't expecting that, at this point in time, after all of the downward spiral at most other sales channels, beginning in 2012.
But maybe the downward spiral at the older sales channels is due to bad management and bad practices. and the new good news is due to new ideas and fresh blood in the biz.
One of them wasn't exactly "new". I found some of my videos on their site(s), and when I messaged their 2257 link, I matched them to some recent content sales through a broker. They are very nice, and above board.
That's great :) I'm sure some new blood will give the sales process a fresh boost of energy.
Also, check your PM ... the system isn't sending emails so you guys just need to look at the top of the forum to see if you have any notifications when on the forum.
It's Halloween.
For the US gay community, the biggest cultural Holiday of the year. For a 2-3 night bar event, at times bigger than Pride, bigger than Valentine's Day, bigger than Turkey Day. Oh, and bigger than Xmas.
Maybe not bigger than NY Eve, but again NY Eve is one night. Halloween starts days prior.
means customers are going to be out and about, not in front of their screens.
Tuesday, November 11, was a Bank and Postal Holiday in the US, and we survived it quite well!
HotMovies ACH, AEBN ACH, and CCBill check, all arrived by the 12th!
Well done!
It took me from February until September to get a cheque reissued by AEBN. This included them apparently sending it to my old address despite it having been changed on the AEBN account back in January and the Royal Mail then apparently not forwarding it from the old address. Odd... The account manager left without warning around March and I had start explaining it all again to someone new.
It all started when my UK bank decided without notice that it would no longer handle Dollar cheques for less than $250. Though apparently it's something to do with charges imposed on them by the US Treasury. So I was left with AEBN cheques that I couldn't bank.
Over the same period, since I complained about payment, sales have really gone through the floor. From $92.84 in Dec 2013 to $8.85 last month. I only earned $5.62 in the whole of June. I've been an affiliate since 2002 and have 1,464 members. But the earnings never seemed to increase as you would expect so I suspect most new members never bought anything and there were a handful of loyal members who have now gone for some reason. I still seem to be sending the same traffic.
Until this year it was a commendable company that always paid on time. Very sad to have all this trouble with cheques, the departure of the account manager who was always nice and the drop in sales. I've even considered making a test purchase myself to check their system is working. When you've promoted a company for 12 years you do feel a connection.
Sales dropped at the end of 2008 and then again in 2011 and there's a been a gradual decline but are now suddenly so low that it isn't worth continuing. At this rate it will take me 3-5 years just to reach the $250 threshold assuming they are still in business that far into the future :(
Apparently, AEBN does pay via Paxum. Paxum works. Costs $5 to withdraw to bank account or credit/debit card.
For its first year or so, I really despised Paxum. Many things about their website did not work smoothly. The sign-up was lousy, and the withdrawal process didn't do its arithmetic correctly, requiring me to not only pay the $5 fee, but also to leave something under $10 as a balance in the account, when the minimum to withdraw then was $10!
I brought each to the attention of Ruth, and they all got fixed.
To a US bank account, withdrawals from Paxum are happening in 2 days! That's faster than HSBC takes from one US bank to another!
I don't have a Paxum card. The initial and recurring annual cost is outrageous, compared to Payoneer and to the use I ever needed for the Paxum account itself. At $5/month, I would pay more in a year than the card fee, but since HotMovies got re-established with ACH, I have no regular (monthly) vendors doing Paxum, so I am spending $5 once in a while.
Hooray for Ruth, though!
I have a "customer" account at AEBN. I am a "studio" and a "webmaster" affiliate. My "customer" account bought $10 in minutes, and I watched my own "studio" movies until my $10 ran out.
My 30% "webmaster" share was properly credited to my "webmaster" account within a short amount of time. I didn't write it down, but I want to say it was within 15-60 minutes.
The minutes seemed to apply to the proper movie(s) in my "studio".
My bigger concern is that my "customer" account started getting "Get 10 free minutes on us" e-mail campaigns. My "customer" account hasn't taken them up on that offer, yet, but I fear my "webmaster" account would lose my "customer" as a member if I did.
Like you, I wonder why I have so many "members," since 2005, but my monthly revenue rides the rollercoaster.
I make more money each, from several other sales channels, including my recent venture onto Chaturbate.
My even bigger concern is someone there doesn't like my softcore, and my tame hardcore anymore. I submitted a dozen movies in 2013, most got lost.
Since 2005, I've had more "studio" account reps there than I have had new shoes. Chris had been there since the earth's crust cooled, and he finally got a helper around the beginning of 2013. That guy called me, introduced himself, worked with me on boxcover graphics. Called a couple of times, to talk about mutual career paths in radio and interests in music. Lots of e-mails. Then one day we had a phone chat about what I do to make movies. He knew of my 300 titles on-line with them, and I explained the work to cast, shoot, perform in, edit, and get to them the finished DVD.
Then I made the "mistake" of saying I did all of that at age 62. He said "How old are you??" I said 62. he hung up on me, and never called back again. E-mails became very India-esq call center type. From that point, most of my movies submitted got lost "downstairs," except one that broke the 10,000 minute mark, which got me a celebratory e-mail, or so I thought. A couple of movies after that got held up, and didn't go live within the "new release" window, and pretty much were a bust.
But, a 10,000-minute movie is $800-$1,000, is $160-$200 in my pocket as a studio. $200?!?!? I should make a new movie for $200?? I'm still making money across the board with my existing 300-title catalog, so I'm sitting out making new for a while.
I never "unfriended" that Studio Rep on Facebook, then or when he left a few months ago, and I recently read that his estranged Father died. So I assume that I as a 62 year-old studio made him think of his estranged Father.
What??!!
We now have a new "studio" rep. A woman. I contacted her twice about the timeliness of my ACHs, and she fixed both - even though the one regarding my affiliate payout wasn't her job! But, I have yet to be introduced to that "affiliate" rep guy. I do have some questions for him.
A couple of weeks ago when there was a thread on GD about slow and/or missing AEBN payouts, I forwarded to her the URL of the thread, and within a couple of days I read that that person either got his check or the communication he was looking for.
(I have a habit of doing that when I read threads about check problems with AEBN and CCBill on GD. I send the URL to my account rep at whichever, and then read that the problem got fixed. Surprised that others don't know how to send e-mail, before starting public threads.)
As much as I credit the new AEBN studio rep for being a super communicator between me and accounting, she did say that the new target date for payouts is the 15th, rather than the historic 10th, because of staffing. But I did get paid on the 12th this month, the day after a US Bank Holiday! So maybe the 15th is a worst-case scenario, and they are still working to achieve the 10th-11th!
It irritates me that "staff" in the financial accounting department at any company that I do business with, is so insensitive to the concept that my weekly or monthly check is my "paycheck". The US employment rate must be too good right now, that there are people whose job it is to issue checks, that have no regard for timeliness for us on the other end.
I've told CCBill for years, that they should tell everyone that payouts are on Tuesdays, not Mondays, since the US has many Monday Holidays, that used to set off panic threads here and on GD about "late checks"!. (The only potential for a Tuesday Bank Holiday is Nov 11 Veterans Day, and Christmas and New Years.)
And then still mail checks and do ACHs on Mondays, except for those Monday holidays. Then, everyone would be amazed that they got their Tuesday ACH a day early, and their check a day early, 45+ weeks out of the year! CCBill still does ACHs and checks on Mondays - except on Monday holidays when they do them on Tuesday! And some people (notably in Europe) still fret when their check is a "day" late, because they don't keep a calendar of US Bank Holidays as I do! http://www.redcort.com/us-federal-bank-holidays
Hi Bec - (darn, your name didn't turn blue like on Facebook) - I think Notifications are working!!
My inbox this morning has Dirtyrat's to this thread and Bregot's to Foreskin Fridays.!!
I actually tried to sign up for Paxum to solve the problem. However my passport had expired and Paxum wouldn't accept it as ID. Ludicrous! If I remember, I had already given them a scan of my birth certificate and a utility bill. I feel VERY uncomfortable about US companies having all these personal documents stored who knows where. There was that other payment service which went bust, I forget the name. If that happens where do all these scans end up?Quote:
Originally Posted by nickbaer
As it costs $113 to renew a passport and I don't need to at the moment I decided I wouldn't. I'm glad I didn't too as the passport department has been told it's been charging too much and apparently will reduce the cost soon.
And my 2014 US Passport renewal was closer to $150! Plus $100 for the TSA endorsement to be able to take the shorter line going out, and the $100 Customs and Border Patrol endorsement to take the shorter line coming back in!
Check with Paxum, or directly with Ruth @ Paxum.com, to see if anything has changed! I didn't like the sign-up procedure either. I don't remember if I used US Driver's License or US Passport.
I found out something new about CCBill payout procedures.
After having moved (within the city of Las Vegas, so I could be closer to the Hotel where InterNext and AVN shows are held), I updated my CCBill check address. I had put check payment on "hold" for a week, incase my next check would have arrived after I had turned in my keys to the former place.
I was told the changes (address update) would occur during the current pay period. And that my next check would be run Dec 15. When no check arrived two, three and four days later, I learned something new and awful:
Even if you have an amount due to you, that meets the break (threshold) you established for check or Wire, you are NOT going to see a payout IF you haven't made a sale when the weekly program is run that prints checks (in my case)!!!!!!!
You could have an amount due to you for weeks, but if you don't make a new sale, the program will skip over you each week thereafter!!!!
Apparently in some fine print somewhere, there is a statement that there must be "activity" the week prior, the pay period. I first learned that awful procedure policy on the fourth day of looking for my check in my mailbox. I called "Client Support," and was told that news, that I did not have "activity" for the payout program to notice me. Even though my balance met the break.
And "Client Support" told me that "activity" means a sale, a test transaction, even a hit to the payment page without proceeding with purchase.
NOT! Got a nastygram a few days later from Accounting that "activity" means monetary "sale," or "holdback" return. When you make a sale, 5% is held back for 26 weeks. When that waiting period has expired, the amount is credited as a "holdback return".
AND, that she was personally going to make sure that "Client Support" was properly schooled in this anti-Client, anti-Affiliate payout policy procedure. Not only the Supervisor, but also the individual who told me the right, but incorrect rule, who also correctly helped me on other matters at other times.
So the next time you meet the break amount, and are wondering where your check (or Wire) is, and from what I read most of you say your checks are late, also check to see if you had a "sale" the week prior, or a holdback return posted to your account from 26 or 27 weeks prior - otherwise, the program is devised to skip over you!!!!
Since we all rely on our "paychecks" from CCBill, what you have to do, if you did not have a sale the week before the program is run, is request a "manual" payment. Of course, you may or may not have the time it takes to plod through the menus in the CCBill Admin Portal to see if you had had a check printed, or even if you met the break amount, let alone "activity". Most of us just stand by our mailbox awaiting a check. If one doesn't arrive on the day expected, we wait another day. And are told to wait another day. And another. And then it is a new payout day for the program to run to print the next week's checks.
What further infuriated me about that procedure workaround, is that the CCBill Accounting people were given a full week off for Holiday vacation. So for me, no check printed on the 15th (no "activity" the days before) mean't no manual check printed on the 22nd because the entire department staff in question were on Holiday.
The 29th will be my first opportunity for a check - and after all of that expensive manual intervention requesting a manual check, I made a sale yesterday! I also had a holdback from the 26 or 27 weeks prior. I would have made the automatic check printing on the 29th after all because one or both of those monetary credits is "activity"!!
Last week, I also sent a message to a NATS program that has owed me $29.95 for 3 years! I told them that it is good business to clear the books, by paying out all balances due by the end of December.
Of course, I have not received a reply to that annual message from me to them. Just like many others who try to communicate with NATS Program Sponsors about payouts.
But this fine print with CCBill is a huge caveat emptor: Let the (Client/Affiliate) Beware. There's no MBA/Politically Correct speech that can excuse that. You have one more hurdle in your path to getting paid, in this day and age of customers getting all the "free" porn they can handle from Tube sites and Cam sites, and Studio, Program and Affiliate sites being slighted by Google searches.
Of course, CCBill is also the last diehard regarding ACH! Only paper checks that get lost in the mails, and cost from what I've heard 20 GBP pr EUR to deposit Internationally, and Wires that cost $15 to send and $15 to receive in the US... $35 or more if the recipient is International.
If you are going for an entire week without a single sale and are relying on CCBill to pay your bills I'd like to know where you can find a place to live and food to eat on such little funds.
Yes, I know that was sarcastic but it's threads like this that make me nuts. It's fine that you wanted to share this discovery of CCBills policies with others but I don't think a rant several paragraphs long was necessary.
CCBill's policies are generally tolerable and I have always found their staff to be totally above board and helpful. Really, some of the best in the business.
Hopefully you will have a better day tomorrow!
I can think of things to call your post. Not sure if sarcastic fits the bill. Comments like that about others tend to suggest someone is looking in a mirror, and projecting.
I have wonderful days, chatting with fans on Chaturbate http://bit.ly/ZzDPoi, promoting my VOD/DVD content, giving VOD/DVD sites helpful approaches to better serving customers. I write PHP scripts that automate content promotion, that make eBooks, that manage my content inventory. It is all about rolling with the flow of events - over 10 years - of the ebb and flow of options customers have for porn, and the self-defeating methods that give away free porn.
Over the years, webmasters have posted dozens of messages on forums that their CCBill check is late. Some don't take into account Monday Bank Holidays, so I frequently remind. My post, adds another clue for webmasters, Clients and Affiliates to consider if their check is "late".
Since you are a 2-month Newbie here, you may have missed previous messages over the past 10 years, here, on GFY and on GD, by webmasters, Clients and Affiliates about late checks, missing checks, Foreign banking fees, in addition to all of the sites that have gone to NATS. You may have missed messages, here, on GFY and GD regarding lack of communication, and bad answers. I have even brought some of those messages by others to the attention of CCBill staff, that are separate from the support staff, to better resolve those payout dilemmas.
In my case, several factors contributed to my not getting a check on the expected date. None of that would have mattered if they were on ACH - as hinted to for 4 years, and now being promised within the next year. None of that has happened with my Payoneer, Paxum, ACH, ACH via WesternUnion, or PayPal vendors. I even have a vendor that pays me by "Wire," but because we have the same bank, the bank considers it a same-bank transfer. CCBill and I have the same bank, although theirs is in Arizona and mine is in Cali, but that bank still charges the $15 fee to receive.
Suffice it to say, that in a given month, CCBill accounts for a tiny percentage of my sales. And the most headaches since they have primitive payout methods: paper check and Wire. Despite going to every trade show, and having trade show booths within earshot of Ruth from Paxum.
You should know before typing self-deprecating sarcasm, that my sites are primarily traffic drivers to AEBN, TLA, HotMovies, XTube, Amazon.com, about a dozen in all. Not counting the sites that I don't even promote, that do their own promotion of my VOD/DVD content.
Earning revenue is a major motivating goal of webmasters, Clients and Affiliates. Getting paid, and the hassles of getting paid, contribute to a lot of webmaster messages on forums. We come to these forums to get answers. Sometimes, the smallest of clues become answers.
Amazon.com has faithfully paid on the 28th of the month for 10 years now.
This month, since the 28th is on a Sunday, they did their payouts so they would hit our bank(s) today! I received ACHs on Dec 24, Christmas Day(!) the 25th, Friday the 26th and Saturday the 27th. Seven in all.
For those who feel earning 5% on average is too little, consider Amazon's faithful record, compared to horror stories we read about here, from webmasters who promote hyped-up sites, then don't get paid at all. Or dreadfully late, after lots of threatening communications. And tears about why some site would stiff their affiliates!!
And, if you drive traffic to a $15 DVD on Amazon, then the customer goes and buys a TV to watch it on, you earn on the TV as well.
Here are my Amazon titles. (The Amazon search is "fuzzy," so some Hollywood titles appear with actors names "Nick" that obviously aren't mine.)
AEBN redesigned the studio (manufacturer) and webmaster/affiliate Stats pages!
It isn't the first change in the 9 1/2 years that I have been with them, but the biggest change in appearance.
They fixed the very annoying default view of the Activity By Title stat page. Before, it would default to showing you the number of minutes for each movie of yours, from day one, to the last day of last month! Then, you would need to work to select day one of current month to yesterday.
Now, it correctly defaults to the current month. There is now a drop-down box to select previous months (something missing before), but no option yet to select a date range (which it used to have).
The Affiliate stats has several new features. A Dashboard with graphs. And a couple more reports that I cannot remember if they existed prior. If they did, they are now much easier to view. The Transaction Log, also discloses the Transaction Fee, presumably the credit card processing fee.
Hello All -
Sorry I haven't posted for a while. I've been sick with non-specific Colitis since Feb 1, and just the past 2 weeks, have been getting back to PHP programming, blogging, more frequent Stats taking, etc.
Ran into a situation today that I wanted to share with loyal GWW'ers right away.
Got an e-mail in the inbox that is associated with my Payoneer account, that looked and read like a Nigerian phishing scam.
So I signed-in to my Payo account, and sure enough, my card was one of a group that was affected by a change of banks by Payo.
Existing card had been "blocked," and it forced me to order a new card. Doesn't even show me my balance or transaction history!!
If you haven't checked your Payo account since Monday May 4, you should!
I got a confirmation e-mail minutes later, telling me my new card should arrive May 20-24!!!!
I have a payday tomorrow on one affiliate partner, and again on May 21, and potentially several others, probably closer to the end of the month. So I would prefer that my new card arrive before the 21st!
Something was nagging at me all day long, and I finally found it - about 24 hours ago, Payo "blocked" my card, and was awaiting my re-order click!
Hope you're recovering Nick.
Hi Geoff -
I am improving, but it's slow - like watching wet paint dry in a rain storm.
I mysteriously became sick Feb 1, a week after the InterNext / AVN shows. There were 1,500+ at InterNext, and tons more at AVN a few days later.
4 trips to the Emergency Room (A&E in the UK), and 2 nights in hospital for tests, the multiple Docs could only say that I had Colitis, but no test could find any pathogens as the cause.
I'm thinking it was partly a change of life (age) and/or realization that the biz is constricting - growing smaller, controlled by networks run by corporate interests. That and maybe a bug picked up on errands on dirty buses.
The past 3-4 weeks have seen progress. Between Feb 4 and Mar 17, I had lost 30 lbs of weight (185 - 155). I assume I lost some more between Mar 17 - April 15, but I don't own a scale! According to my belt notches, the weight loss has slowed to a halt, if not if a few new lbs have been gained!
I am also slowly regaining my mental concentration to blog. So slow, that I am replying tonight, 4 days after your original post 4 days earlier!
I eat like a horse! I have been lactose intolerant (milk and all dairy) and gluten intolerant (all grains except rice) since 1973. Today, I am eating 6 times a day, including eggs, turkey, roast beef, meat loaf, mashed potatoes with melted American cheese (made from milk without all those other things that make real cheese), gluten free pasta, gluten free Chicken Noodle soup, Beef Barley soup... my grocery bill is outrageous compared to 4 months ago when I ate 1/10th of what I eat now!
I finish my meals with a big smile on my face!
Got an e-mail from one of my Payoneer partners this morning, that my payment (to me) had failed.
A quick phone call to Payo discovered that when my new card was activated, my partner accounts were not! The CSR handled it manually and quickly.
So if you have a Payoneer card and like me had your card re-issued, sign-in to your account and check "Funding Sources" to see if yours got properly transferred to your new card. Especially if you're looking for a payment from a Sponsor, and you haven't seen it yet.
When I was in United Kingdom 4 years ago, I noticed on my Stats page of one of my Program Sponsors which I am an Affiliate, that they had mailed me a commission check. They don't do any form of electronic payments.
I e-mailed them that I was out of the country, and would not return until after the check would expire (void after 90 days), so they raised the threshold so checks would not get sent out.
Fast forward to last week. I forgot about them! When I re-engaged, they sent me all the back commissions! Bec wouldn't have gotten a new (used) truck with the checks, but it was OK. Definitely worth the couple of e-mails sent to get it all working again.
It's not totally that I had forgotten about them, it's that I had become discouraged with the service from the previous Rep.
It's been a while since I've Google'd myself, looking for Pirating of my eBooks.
Did that the last couple of days. Good ol' Google likes to ignore my official eBook site www.NickBaerGallery.com, but is quick to list a dozen or two Pirate sites that offer free downloads of my eBooks. (Actually, there are no sites that harvest my eBooks and sell them, rather there are a few sites that offer access to files uploaded to USENET Newsgroups. They harvest files from USENET and sell monthly access to the files that they have indexed being on USENET Newsgroups.)
Did the minimal DMCA notices and have had good results.
Next, I'm working on notifying Google itself that it needs to remove results that go to dead links. A lot of those sites that promote free downloads of my eBooks are just Affiliates of ad programs. When they don't make enough money to afford the hosting charges, the Domain resolves to a parking page. So I want to get rid of those from Google.
I haven't done this for quite a while, and I am surprised that interest in being a Pirate on the eBook side of illegal filesharing is so small.
What I have found over time, especially with the decline of file lockers and other PTP sharing sites, is that people buy my eBooks from my site www.NickBaerGallery.com, or from Kindle, Nook or Kobo, then use them like currency to "trade" with others on USENET!
However, the numbers are extremely low. On the one hand, too low to really justify the effort to issue the DMCA take=down notices, but I do that because Google gives those blogs with my titles, PR1 and PR2 rankings!!
Now that those blogs have been suspended for TOS violations regarding spamming and being purely advertising, it still takes a while for Google to update crawls to discover that those sites are 404.
Got my AEBN ACH this morning. For the past several months, they had been back to the 10th, but this month slipped to the 14th.
In case yours hasn't yet come in, and you're wondering, I got mine and you should be next.
July and August were exceptional months, then BANG, the stock markets go haywire and numbers drop.
At least I didn't spend all of it!
I think I see lost orders somewhere in there:
Attachment 5676
And this is just the American Dow Jones!