ALERT! zbuckz Questionable Business Practices!

ALERT! zbuckz Questionable Business Practices!

Hi guys,


I have been sending zbuckz sales and traffic for many years but forgot to check my stats this year. I then logged into my account the other day and realized I had 0 sales, rebills and CLICKS! for over a year!
I use to make 100$+ every 3 month as seen below,

2011-02-01 Paid 2011-02-08 Mark Received $147.32 Paypal Details
2011-04-16 Paid 2011-04-22 Mark Received $100.43 Paypal Details
2011-06-16 Paid 2011-06-22 Mark Received$126.68 Paypal Details
2011-09-01 Paid 2011-09-08 Mark Received $155.25 Paypal Details
2012-01-16 Paid 2012-01-23 Mark Received $123.74 Paypal Details
2012-04-16 Paid 2012-04-23 Mark Received $102.29 Paypal Details
2012-07-16 Paid 2012-07-23 Mark Received $102.29 Paypal Details
2012-10-16 Paid 2012-10-22 Mark Received $118.01 Paypal Details

Then I found out that THEY HAD TAKEN DOWN THE SITE (www.gayasianamateurs.com) I WAS SENDING TRAFFIC TO WITHOUT NOTICING THE AFFILIATES!!!

Be aware of these guys.

regards,

ZBuckz always pays me what I'm due.

It looks like they're redirecting GayAsianAms to another site. You should get sales on that other site. At least that's how it works with other NATS based sponsors.

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Originally Posted by rawTOP

ZBuckz always pays me what I'm due.

It looks like they're redirecting GayAsianAms to another site. You should get sales on that other site. At least that's how it works with other NATS based sponsors.

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0 sales, rebills and clicks! for over a year and they took down the site I was sending traffic too.
Doesn't sound right...Though I had 97 join hits!

This has already been addressed on another forum, the affiliates I have spoken to are bored of your publicity stunt and angry you have illegally used their email addresses. We are already speaking to our Lawyer as well regarding your actions, you should be getting your C&D letter soon.

In regards to your C&D just read the title "ALERT! zbuckz Questionable Business Practices!" perfectly alright.

It's not "alright" in my book ... I don't appreciate getting drama emails via my affiliate email address.

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Originally Posted by Bec

It's not "alright" in my book ... I don't appreciate getting drama emails via my affiliate email address.

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I concur. I got an email from this sponsor and I've never been an affiliate or had any association with them in the past. So I have no clue how they got my email address.

I came over from the 'other' board to get away from this drama boygloryhole. Can we please put this issue to rest and you deal with the sponsor you're having issues with in private? Thank you.

I only promote member sites that use an aggregate biller (e.g. CCBill), because I don't want lots of pots of money floating around the Internet, none of which make varying minimum payout levels.

I only look for sponsors with aggregate billers.

I'm sorry for your loss boygloryhole that sucks. :(

According to the previous sales data you posted you've lost about $400 in potential revenue over the last year. That's a fun night out with friends! Is it really worth it? The time you took to prepare the email you sent out to everyone & posting on all the boards?

I can't help but think there's something more to the story, other then forgetting to check your links for a year and losing that potential income.

Either way, it still sucks, the moment when you've realized the loss of potential income because you couldn't keep pace with your workload. I've been there myself, a lot of us have. Bite the bullet, learn from it, move forward, and thrive.

~~ sending positive vibes your way ~~ :)

Where did the email addresses come from and how has the matter been resolved?

It is too bad that we need to check links a LOT! It is too bad that programs change ANYTHING, ever!

I hate it when programs change things, that force Affiliates to have to change links. What could go wrong with that?? Well, everything!

Just as Affiliates look for RSS feeds so they don't have to do so much busy work maintenance work, having to check e-mail for change scenarios, and testing links for changes, is a huge maintenance burden most web masters of the scale that web masters on these Forums are, didn't sign-up for!

Those are things that Sponsors programs, with big staffs, do because they can, and because it is something that suits their back-end business structure. There's way too many posts on this and other Forums, where web masters DON'T get the e-mail, DON'T check or test links, DON'T check their postal mailbox or bank account for payments.

I hate it when my VOD and DVD partners change the format of the Excel spreadsheets, and add a new column in the MIDDLE of a row of columns! That breaks all of my PHP scripts, because suddenly $VariableC is now $VariableD, and $VariableC is now something new.

And since I analyze stats going back to 2005, I can't just change the script to the new column format, I have to put in a(nother) IF statement: if on date of the month-end statistic is less than the date of the change of column format, do this with $VariableC, and if the date is after the date of the change of column format, do that with $VariableC, and do something else with $variableD.


Several months ago, I sent a VOD partner a box of 90 DVDs, US Postal Priority Mail box, with Tracking. I went to USPS.com and signed up for e-mail notification of the Tracking. I got several e-mail notifications, with step-by-step progress of the shipment, right down to the day and time it was delivered.

Now, instead of contacting the VOD partner that same day, and acknowledging "DID YOU GET IT," I wait all summer long and don't see any new titles. I figure they're not doing much in the heat of the summer. I'm busy writing new PHP scripts for a project.

Dumb me, I wait until almost the 1st of October, and ask.

They replied, as they did once 3 years ago when I sent a shipment in a box rather than in an envelope: "We don't see the package on our incoming log". "Send it again".

NO, I'm not. You loose. AEBN didn't loose their shipment, but YOU did. I make 20%, you make 80%, You Loose. You lost my package inside of your house, because you get hundreds of packages a week, YOU LOOSE.

I didn't check. (And, I didn't send it Signature Required.) But, I didn't check. And we one-man webmaster shops and studios have to check EVERYTHING, because the big staff operations will do things that will need checking.

For what it's worth folks, if you're buying into boygloryhole's story, please don't. zbuckz is on the up and up completely and as we all can see, this was boygloryhole's wrongdoing by not checking stats for over a year. Anything can happen in that time.

I received and acknowledged the email that zbuckz sent out regarding Gay Asian Amateurs shutting down and telling affiliates to change their links. If the email went into a spam folder then that would be on the affiliate, not the program owner. It's up to us as affiliates to make sure that doesn't happen.

zbuckz did nothing wrong here. Trust me on that. Thanks.

Bland PR hype from total strangers doesn't impress. I tend to agree with Nick -- sponsors should make sure links keep on working. It's basis good practice when it comes to site management.

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Originally Posted by dirtyratstudios

Bland PR hype from total strangers doesn't impress. I tend to agree with Nick -- sponsors should make sure links keep on working. It's basis good practice when it comes to site management.

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Based on what was told over on GD… The links were working and sales were being recorded and paid out properly. What didn't happen was double reporting in NATS - the clicks only got reflected on one of the sites, not both. The whole thing is much ado about nothing.

Thanks for giving an insight.

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Originally Posted by kinky_jack

I received and acknowledged the email that zbuckz sent out regarding Gay Asian Amateurs shutting down and telling affiliates to change their links.

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No. I never got that email. Regardless links should never change.

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Originally Posted by dirtyratstudios

Where did the email addresses come from and how has the matter been resolved?

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They closed my account.

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Originally Posted by Squirt

I'm sorry for your loss boygloryhole that sucks. :(

According to the previous sales data you posted you've lost about $400 in potential revenue over the last year. That's a fun night out with friends! Is it really worth it? The time you took to prepare the email you sent out to everyone & posting on all the boards?

I can't help but think there's something more to the story, other then forgetting to check your links for a year and losing that potential income.

Either way, it still sucks, the moment when you've realized the loss of potential income because you couldn't keep pace with your workload. I've been there myself, a lot of us have. Bite the bullet, learn from it, move forward, and thrive.

~~ sending positive vibes your way ~~ :)

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I trusted these guys and 400$ is not much. Let me emphasize no matter what sponsors should never change affiliate links. "The old site didn't convert?" as you claim then make a new site, copy things over and add it to your program. Don't change the existing links.
Thank you.

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Originally Posted by dirtyratstudios

Bland PR hype from total strangers doesn't impress. I tend to agree with Nick -- sponsors should make sure links keep on working. It's basis good practice when it comes to site management.

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Just because you and I know don't know one another doesn't make me a total stranger. And I was hardly engaging in PR. I don't even promote zbuckz sites due to not having the surfing audience for them.

Sponsors change links every once in a while. It's been going on since I came onto the scene in 2004. It's something we have all had to deal with at one time or another. So I, personally, deal with it by using jump scripts. I change 1 link. Pretty painless.

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Originally Posted by boygloryhole

No. I never got that email. Regardless links should never change.

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It probably went into your spam folder. That would be YOUR fault, not zbuckz'.

Sponsors change links sometimes, deal with it. Use a freaking jump script. Then you only have to change 1 link per site or campaign. NO big deal. There are much larger problems in this industry...like making sales to begin with. Put your energy into that. The rest of us do.

Guys,
All sales have been tracked. We have confirmed it with NATS. There was an issue with hit tracking when setting up redirect which doesn't affect sales tracking. We also have NATS tech corrected the hits issue.

We redirect the traffic to our Asian mega site to maximize affiliates' income. As you can see from the stats, he made 2 sales to GayAsianAmateurs.com in almost half a year but 6 for GayAsianNetwork.com in a couple of months after the redirect.


Below is the reply I posted on another forum.

First of all, before going in full detail, here is a quick summary of the situation.

NATS tracked all his sales without raw/unique hits because of NATS4 redirect track option wasn't checked. We already tried to resolve the issue with him. We explained to him that all his sales have been tracked properly but without raw/unique hits. We also credited his account with $60 as a gesture of good will but he tried to blackmail us asking for more money, which we refused.

Here are a full details

- This guy was promoting GayAsianAmateurs.com

- In June 2012, we decided to no longer maintain GayAsianAmateurs.com. We redirected all affiliates' traffic to GayAsianNetwork.com using NATS4 redirect option. GayAsianNetwork.com has all GayAsianAmateurs content but convert and retain much better.

- 'Tracked' option wasn't checked because NATS will track hits for both sites which will result in bad ratio. I already made sure that the sales were recorded properly as I'm an affiliate myself. Unfortunately using this option, NATS doesn't seem to track hits for original site as well BUT the sales are still tracked properly.

- The proof that the sales were tracked properly is this guy made GayAsianNetwork.com sales starting from June 2012, even more than GayAsianAmateurs he was promoting before. Please see screen capture.

Attachment 4893

- The last sale he made was September 2012. He wasn't happy he didn't make any sale since and tried to blackmail us for more money. And when the unique hits were tracked properly, he sent 75 unique hits in half year. I don't think it's unusual to make no sales with this number of hits especially the traffic from the paysite that hasn't been updated for a long time.

Even if NATS didn't track raw/unique hits, it still tracked join hits, submits and sales (please see image). Please note that we added join form on trailer page so join hits will be very high as the form loads every time a surfer watch a trailer.

Attachment 4892

My apology to all affiliates who are affected by this raw/unique hits. I can ensure you that your sales have never been lost.

Once again NATS have been tracking ALL SALES.

Regards,
Fishy

Ali AKA Boygloryhole,

I'm going to address this matter one more time, and I really hope it will be for the LAST TIME.

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Regardless links should never change.

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I agree 100%, that's why our LINKS HAVE NEVER CHANGED.

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They closed my account.

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See our Terms and Conditions here:
http://www.zbuckz.com/external.php?page=terms

? ZbuckZ reserves the right to terminate any affiliate at any time for false, misleading, slanderous or libelous comments regarding our company, or if it is determined that their continuing to promote us is not in the best interests of the company. You will be banned from the program and not paid, as well as subject to prosecution and/or litigation regarding such statements.

Would any sponsor keep an affiliate that sends a slanderous email with false, misleading information to their entire affiliate database (many affiliates who have told me the emails were obtained illegally because they have never sign up for your programs)?? This is the worst abuse of an Affiliate email list I have EVER seen in my 15 years of doing business. I've already had several Webmasters tell me they were OUTRAGED and pulled all links to your programs and will NEVER do business with you again after your actions. That includes a few very large traffic sites that will never send you a single hit again. You have already proved to most people that have read these boards and received your email that you are someone NOT TO BE TRUSTED.

You are banned from our program because it is not in the best interest of our honest, hard working Webmasters who have made us who we are to have our reputation slandered by someone with a competing program in the same niche, in an effort to try and damage our business for their own personal gain. Our employees and affiliates have worked far too hard the past 10+ years at making zbuckz what it is for us to let you get away with this. It is not me personally you are attacking; it is my employees, it is every affiliate that is promoting our 30+ sites spread over 3 Affiliate Programs, it is all of our multiple studio and content partners we have the pleasure of working with and promoting.

So let's make a list, just to set the record straight:

1. You blackmailed a program owner for money you didn't earn. Because you didn't get paid this money, you illegally spread slanderous information to your email lists and posted it on the all the web boards.

2. You hide your real name and company information behind Whois Privacy. This is illegal according to Visa rules and I'm surprised Epoch and CCBill haven't cut you off yet. If I were you I'd get that corrected right away.

3. You collected emails from Webmasters that never signed up to your programs, only to spam them with your ridiculous, libelous email with poor English about our program.

4. You have been reported on in numerous forums for closing down people's affiliate accounts and/or threatening them for not sending you enough traffic, and in one case you even banned someone simply because they called you a silly name on the board.

In my 15 years of business, I've never resorted to these sort of underhanded, bullying techniques of trying to get traffic or money out of people when you haven't earned it. People who know me, know my personality. I've always tried to work with my competitors, not against them. I have always been fair with people, from my affiliates to my employees to my many business partners. I'm sorry things have come to this, but I did everything to try to work with you and be nice, however I have to say you are the most rude and greedy person I've EVER come across in this business...and that says a lot!!

My sincere advice to you Mr. Ali Modami is to leave my company, employees and affiliates alone, stop wasting everybody's time, and go back to work and making money. And for the rest of you Webmasters that have read this far -- let's leave this drama alone and all go back to work and enjoy our days and evenings, there are better things we can be doing with our time!

Here Here.

Dear xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

1. My stats speak for themselves.
2. Sponsor should never change links.
3. I haven't a sale and rebill for 14 months(no clicks either).
4. I've never closed anyone's account.
5. I am not going to close your account. Not only because its against my principle but also
because its impossible to seize affiliate's rebills in ccbill. You'll keep getting your rebills.

Lets all go back to work...and you go on making your disgusting pissing sites.

LOL@poor English

Thank you,

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Originally Posted by boygloryhole

Dear xxxxxxxxxxxxx,
4. I've never closed anyone's account.

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No, instead you just set them to 1% revshare: http://gfy.com/showthread.php?t=927625 and http://www.tranny-masters.com/bbs/ar...hp/t-9373.html

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Do business with Goldbarsxxx at your peril ...

A personal disagreement on another board, led him to send me an email and state he was canceling our rebills. I'm checking in with CCBill to see if he can do that but the intention is still there to steal money from affiliates that simply, disagree with him on some of the ridiculous posts he makes.

I just checked our account and have seen that he lowered our percentage from 50% to 1%.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. SPREAD THE WORD.

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IN MY OPINION, ANYONE THAT TAKES SUCH A LOW HANDED TACTIC CANNOT THEMSELVES BE TRUSTED - FROM NOW ON, I WILL ALWAYS RECOMMEND AGAINST DOING ANY BUSINESS WITH GOLDBARSXXX

You cannot touch existing rebills in ccbill. You can set future rebills to 1% but as soon as you that the affiliate will get notified or will find out after the first rebill. Once he does he will tell everyone and put the program in a bad light. So its a not a good business practice. Any sponsor can see that.

I did that 5 years ago once with one affiliate setting his future rebill percentage to 1% as I had just started in this business and didn't have much experience. Ever since I've had 700+ affiliates and the same affiliate I mentioned above has since been working with me.

I can prove that.

There's an old saying - "You make your bed, you lay in it."

I have removed Fishy's real name from any posts that showed it at ZbuckZ's request. I am also closing this thread as any further commentary is not going to prove beneficial or productive for either party.