FREE means FREE TO YOU, but FREE is Not FREE
Huh? While as the owner of Giant Profit Ads and Mad Cow Ads, the following observations were shared with the members of those safelists. In communications with other system administrators, these observations are also being made on many of the other safelists and traffic exchanges. We all agree that FREE means FREE TO YOU applies to any site that offers free benefits with no forced upgrade to paid memberships.
For most of you, the advertising resources on safelists are available to you even as FREE members. But these services are not free. The owner of the site is actually footing the cost of these services that benefit the members.
Understand that a safelist or traffic exchange is a business, certain normal business expenses are expected. Some of the ongoing costs the site owners have are:
- Software rental or service agreements
- Software upgrades and maintenance
- Software options to enhance the member experience
- Graphic ad updates
- Hosting fees
- Domain name renewals
- Ad Co-ops and advertising to generate traffic
- Paypal fees
- SuperNetwork partnerships
- Commissions payouts
Here are some symptoms and factors that may endanger the owner’s ability to continue the offer free services.
- The number of FREE members is growing,
- The members are not doing any noticeable browsing of any type of ad based on the click counts and the lack of rewards being issued
- There have not been many upgrades to a paid memberships
- There have been few, if any purchases of advertising, and
- There is no offset to the owner’s costs to keep these facilities running.
Some Other Factors
I will use Giant Profit Ads and Mad Cow Ads as examples of the issues:
- Free members generally do not get paid for referrals. PRO members (on my safelists) receive 5000 points for each new signup
- Pro members do not receive rewards when their referrals log in
- Pro members do not get a monthly allocation of points. All points must be through referrals or earned by viewing ads
Changes We Have Already Made
- There are no more Lifetime memberships. Any current lifetime JV memberships will be honored until termination or upgrade.
- Lifetime JV members who upgrade to SuperJV will become month-to-month or annual subscription members
- Paid memberships are enrolled in either an affordable monthly subscription, or a discounted annual subscription.
- There can be no refunds of annual subscriptions since these rates are discounted.
- Pro members will receive daily broadcasts encouraging them to upgrade to paid memberships.
Changes That Must Be Made
Some changes must be implemented to generate some revenue. That means that some services that were previously free or that could be “purchased” by exchanging points, will now be pay-per-use services.
All members, whether free or paid, will be required to use Paypal
- Paypal is used for payment of membership fees and ads.
- Paypal is also used for distribution of commissions.
- If you do NOT have a Paypal ID defined in your profile, you will receive an email notifying you that you will be given 14 days to update that profile to include a valid Paypal account. At the end of that courtesy period, your account will be terminated.
- Why? If you do not have a payment method defined, that sends a clear signal that you are not willing to purchase the products and services offered. This is a business. That would be like having the counter person at the ice cream store make a double dip ice cream cone for you with full knowledge that you have no money in your wallet.
Fewer Allocations of Free Ads for Pro (Free) Memberships
- The initial allocations of free ads, and “starter” promo codes will be reduced for PRO members
- The generous allocations of free ads from “starter” promo codes for paid members will continue
- No double dipping. If you use a promo code from an external site, the points allocated will be rescinded if you use the “starter” code.
Some services will be restricted from “trading points”
- SOLO Ads, Login Ads (600×300), Full Page Login Ads, Featured Ads, and PTC Ads will no longer allow trading of “points”.
- Daily Login Bonus rewards will be for “passive advertising” services only
- Effective immediately, these are pay-per-use services
Activities will be monitored
- Any free account that has no activity in 30 days will be terminated.
- Activity includes login, daily super bonus, daily login bonus, surfing of ads, and other activities that require logging into to these safelists.
- Pro Point Harvesters who do not login will be terminated.
The purpose of FREE means FREE TO YOU is to raise awareness and understanding that the extreme competition for safelists, with hundreds of new sites every day “devalues” the features and functions provided for all members.
Rich Moyer
