Is NATS worthwhile?

[armpitsdotcom]

I'be been thinking about switching over to a NATS based affiliate program and wondered what the overall thought is to me doing so?

Also, I've heard it's kinda hard to setup, is that true?

Thanks for your input...

Dave

[signupdamnit]

Most people here will tell you it is. But a lot of affiliates tend to prefer ccbill for a reason these days. If you do use NATS I suggest keeping ccbill for payouts (you can do that) and make sure the old codes still work. I usually just drop programs that switch link codes and invalidate the old ones. Especially with little or no notice given.

[armpitsdotcom]

Most people here will tell you it is. But a lot of affiliates tend to prefer ccbill for a reason these days. If you do use NATS I suggest keeping ccbill for payouts (you can do that) and make sure the old codes still work. I usually just drop programs that switch link codes and invalidate the old ones. Especially with little or no notice given.

Thanks for the info!!

[Kevin Cunningham]

CCBill to NaTS is one of the first steps from baby to big boy.

[NickB.]

Most people here will tell you it is. But a lot of affiliates tend to prefer ccbill for a reason these days. If you do use NATS I suggest keeping ccbill for payouts (you can do that) and make sure the old codes still work. I usually just drop programs that switch link codes and invalidate the old ones. Especially with little or no notice given.

A lot of affiliates prefer ccbill?
All our programs run NATS

I Tend to believe affiliates prefer nats

[vittle]

Nats3 is good!

[Lushbucks]

I'm considering NATS 4.1 when it's released.

[AmeliaG]

A lot of affiliates prefer ccbill?
All our programs run NATS

I Tend to believe affiliates prefer nats

Running a program, I'd prefer to have some of the benefits of NATS, but, as an affiliate, I do prefer CCBill programs.

I've been wondering, since RealityCash merged all their programs into one awesome one, is there any special reason why you don't have your massive empire under one roof for affiliates to promote everything with merged payouts?

[MrDeiz]

CCBill to NaTS is one of the first steps from baby to big boy.

with huge percentage of failure. at the end webmasters don't get paid

[MrDeiz]

ask your current affiliates first before migrating to nats. many of them will tell you it sucks

http://www.gofuckyourself.com/showthread.php?t=926650

pimproll did and it appeared webmasters actually don't like nats

[KillerK]

nats sucks, maybe you should look up porngraph before you use it..

[CPA37710T]

i preferred nats previous version, i hate the current version clock

[Nikitos]

Lots of the programs i working with use NATS. Seems pretty good.

[NetwErk GUrl]

If I may offer another alternative, I'd love to show you a demo of our affiliate tracking software, MPA3. The new MPA3 Standard is very powerful and inexpensive.

Check out our info, and be sure to check the impressive feature list here:
www.mpa3.com

Hit me up!

Ananda

[TMM_Vlad]

I'be been thinking about switching over to a NATS based affiliate program and wondered what the overall thought is to me doing so?

Also, I've heard it's kinda hard to setup, is that true?

Thanks for your input...

Dave

Dave,

Thanks for your interest in NATS!

To answer your question regarding set-up, here are some of the things we do to make it as easy for you as possible for you; Our tech's will install NATS on your server, import your affiliate and member data from CCbill or any other affiliate software along with redirecting your old link codes to work with the new NATS link codes. Also, we will give you a 2-part training session over the phone about 2 hours each with our tech's explaining every single admin inside NATS and the general usage/set-up. After this is all done you will have full access to our in-house tech support team for any questions on set-up, tech issues, etc.
We pretty much do everything we can to make you comfortable with our software!

I would def. recommend to do some more research on what you think fits best for your affiliate program as this the best way to make sure you made the right decision for your company. Please don't base it on some of the replies from the non-reputable members on here and actually ask some of the affiliate program owners running NATS. They will tell you why they think NATS is the best affiliate tracking software out there.

I have sent you an email by the way, please don't hesitate to contact me at anytime for further questions.

Thanks!

[hashbury]

NATS is great, and the setup was easy. It wasnt the right choice for us due to reasons unrelated. It tracks every aspect you could imagine, and is easy to add new sites, billers, etc.
If you only have one site, it might not be the best idea unless you are planning on expanding.

[signupdamnit]

Please don't base it on some of the replies from the non-reputable members on here and actually ask some of the affiliate program owners running NATS.

And also ask your affiliates and potential affiliates since after all it is an affiliate program and without affiliates what's the point? I think some people forget that.

TMM does have their shit together though and as far as software and support goes, from what I see, NATS seems solid. But still see first reply for my opinion which I won't repeat.

[Tempest]

A lot of affiliates prefer ccbill?

When it comes to minimizing risk of the company not paying you, yes.. Or if you don't send enough to a program to reach the minimum very often cause they have it set so high, yes...

[dillonaire]

We went through a similar cross road last year when we wanted to redo Private.com. After reviewing our options of - NATS, building a system ourselves or looking at other systems the obvious choice was to go with NATS. Quickest to market, industry standard tools, most affiliates are familiar with the system and their scripts don’t need to be adjusted for a custom build program, etc…

Hit me up if you have any questions and I will be more than happy to give you my feedback.

Good Luck.

[drx]

nats works fine does its job

[blackmonsters]

CCBill to NaTS is one of the first steps from baby to big boy.

But only the "big boys" are closing shop and hauling ass with people's money.

[MrDeiz]

But only the "big boys" are closing shop and hauling ass with people's money.

quoted for truth

[james_clickmemedia]

But only the "big boys" are closing shop and hauling ass with people's money.

right, DMR, IBill etc. many 3 party processors also went under owing money to affiliates / program owners...

[Jdoughs]

If anything ever happens to CCBill all you fan boys will loose EVERYTHING you have because you are so convinced it's the only safe way.

I don't let what backend (ccbill or nats) determine who I promote, but I will tell you the NATS programs are higher in the list, much easier to deal with, and I know the system fairly well. And all the eggs are in different baskets.

[xxxpimpin]

i like NATS version 3. works great for affiliates and site owners. setting it up is difficult, using it for the first time is also difficult, but it makes managing affiliates and sites easier once you are familiar with it. just my

[woj]

Hit me up, icq 33375924 or woj [at] wojfun.com, you can get some great affiliate tools that will take your affiliate program to the next level for fraction of the cost of getting nats...

[femdomdestiny]

ask

It is best to ask your affiliates. As I am concerned, I am running away from all those NATS, mpa3 or similar programs because if someone fucked me for money, they were them so many times.

[TheDoc]

Literally 10,000's of Affiliates push nats programs... its without question that affiliates like and use nats. Oh sure, you can find some that hate it, just like you can find affiliates that hate every backend. But if it converts, it makes no difference what backend it is on.

As for payments, the only safety that ccbill provides over nats is your last check. Outside of that, plenty of ccbill sites/programs have gone out of business and anyone could screw us over at anytime.

[Rankings]

I prefer it giving we are so use to the majority using it

[firequartz]

As an affiliate who's been managing sites since 2004, I can tell you that every time a sponsor switched from ccBill to NATS, I lost money. I'm serious ... every time conversions were less. Always made the old hippie conspiracist in me think there are some "backend features" in NATS that they don't want affiliates to know about. I call it "The Gillette Protocol"

[MrDeiz]

As an affiliate who's been managing sites since 2004, I can tell you that every time a sponsor switched from ccBill to NATS, I lost money. I'm serious ... every time conversions were less. Always made the old hippie conspiracist in me think there are some "backend features" in NATS that they don't want affiliates to know about. I call it "The Gillette Protocol"

it's kinda general known stuff

[TheDoc]

As an affiliate who's been managing sites since 2004, I can tell you that every time a sponsor switched from ccBill to NATS, I lost money. I'm serious ... every time conversions were less. Always made the old hippie conspiracist in me think there are some "backend features" in NATS that they don't want affiliates to know about. I call it "The Gillette Protocol"

I've actually seen what you're talking about first hand... in the admin stats. I can also assure you, I've seen it go the other direction as well.

Not to knock anyone doing this, this Industry is all about learning so taking the step deserves some respect. But normally what happens is, they aren't able to manage the full scale of nats, at least not at first.

The learning curve is huge, and if you don't have the team to help it will be that much more complex to setup correctly. But once a program has learned it, has it setup correctly, a nats program IS an extremely powerful and beneficial tool for the affiliates and the owner.

A great number of programs have made the switch and never went back. Statistically speaking, 100's of owners aren't going to doom themselves if it was all downhill after nats.

[OY]

If anything ever happens to CCBill all you fan boys will loose EVERYTHING you have because you are so convinced it's the only safe way.

I don't let what backend (ccbill or nats) determine who I promote, but I will tell you the NATS programs are higher in the list, much easier to deal with, and I know the system fairly well. And all the eggs are in different baskets.

That is what we said 5 years ago and thankfully many have listened!



PS: Remember this one?

[MasterM]

Bump for mansion ! their support rocks !

ps hope to see new mas version soon...

[TMM_Vlad]

If I may offer another alternative, I'd love to show you a demo of our affiliate tracking software, MPA3. The new MPA3 Standard is very powerful and inexpensive.

Check out our info, and be sure to check the impressive feature list here:
www.mpa3.com

Hit me up!

Ananda

I wish I could jump in all of your MPA3 threads and post "alternatives", problem is there is never any threads about you guys.

[SCORE Ralph]

ask your current affiliates first before migrating to nats. many of them will tell you it sucks

http://www.gofuckyourself.com/showthread.php?t=926650

pimproll did and it appeared webmasters actually don't like nats

True, perhaps the current affiliates may like your current setup. That's not to say you won't gain many new affiliates by switching to NATS.

[firequartz]

TheDoc ... I'm sure the owners don't go downhill at all. I'm sure their conversions are just fine. I'm saying that as an affiliate .. maybe .. just maybe .. not all sales are being properly credited .. at least that's what it appears to me on my end. Like I said .. in over six years .. every ccBill-to-NATS conversion I've been a partner to ... has resulted in lower income for me. Truthfully, every one.

Again .. maybe it's the the old hippie conspiracist in me. But at the very least, it sure is an amazing coincidence.

[TMM_John]

As an affiliate who's been managing sites since 2004, I can tell you that every time a sponsor switched from ccBill to NATS, I lost money. I'm serious ... every time conversions were less. Always made the old hippie conspiracist in me think there are some "backend features" in NATS that they don't want affiliates to know about. I call it "The Gillette Protocol"

So what you're saying is we have a secret feature in NATS designed to steal sales from affiliates?

[signupdamnit]

So what you're saying is we have a secret feature in NATS designed to steal sales from affiliates?

There are probably certain settings which would effect how sales were tracked though, right? Cookie life, how type-ins are handled, etc. Maybe that's part of the problem. Affiliates just don't know all the possible settings sponsors have (and is there a page which discloses some of these settings sort of like ccbill's program details?) so they are naturally a little worried given some past happenings in the industry (PIBcash).

http://wiki.toomuchmedia.com/index.p...S4_Walkthrough seems like a nice source of documentation. Anything else you'd recommend?

Personally I think the CCBill Paid feature is pretty cool and I wish more programs would use it. It seems like the best of both worlds to have NATS features and stats combined with CCBILL payouts.

[GrouchyAdmin]

NATS makes it easy to setup and automate most affiliate and biller related issues. Add your choice of login system, and throw a few sites in. Boom, done.

[blackmonsters]

So what you're saying is we have a secret feature in NATS designed to steal sales from affiliates?

Nahh, he's not saying that.

To me it sounded as though he was saying that after your system was hacked
that he temporarily lost his mind and went back into his hippie mode and incorrectly
thought his sales were down every time a CCbill site switched to NATS.

I mean, how could he know sales were down when there were no sales coming
in to count? It could have been a database update issue or something.
Maybe a "post back" thingy that went haywire.

I think this thread probably played tricks on his mind :

http://gfy.com/showthread.php?t=7942...ht=NATS+hacked


Anyway, CHEERS Bro!!
.

[TMM_John]

There are probably certain settings which would effect how sales were tracked though, right? Cookie life, how type-ins are handled, etc. Maybe that's part of the problem. Affiliates just don't know all the possible settings sponsors have (and is there a page which discloses some of these settings sort of like ccbill's program details?) so they are naturally a little worried given some past happenings in the industry (PIBcash).

http://wiki.toomuchmedia.com/index.p...S4_Walkthrough seems like a nice source of documentation. Anything else you'd recommend?

Personally I think the CCBill Paid feature is pretty cool and I wish more programs would use it. It seems like the best of both worlds to have NATS features and stats combined with CCBILL payouts.

There is a major difference between "cookie life, how type-ins are handled, and etc." and "'backend features' in NATS that they don't want affiliates to know about. I call it 'The Gillette Protocol'". Comparing the two isn't even close to a reasonable argument.

Are you agreeing with his statement that there is some hidden shaving feature in NATS?

You can easily check cookie life, how type-ins are handled, etc. These are extremely transparent things. A shave feature is something intended to secretly remove sales and not credit them to affiliates. That is quite a bold accusation to make.

PIBcash had nothing to do with NATS. I'd get into the story behind PIBcash, but a certain individual who already tried to hijack this thread with his offering would go into a fit.

I know you're on the "CCBill is our savior" bandwagon, but it's an extremely short sighted way to run a business. Even my buddy up there with his full page ad can see that. Nothing is forever, companies go out of business. Losing a bit of your income here & there when someone goes out of business is inevitable if you want to be in business for yourself. Making your entire business dependent upon one company because you mistakenly believe they're bullet-proof is utterly foolish. If you need an example of where that mentality leads read up on iBill. I have no reason to doubt CCBill is a well run stable company. However, that is no reason to make your entire livelihood dependent upon them. You should not solely rely on CCBill, NATS, a particular sponsor program, etc. You need to spread your risk around.

That said the CCBill paid option in NATS severely limits functionality within NATS. It's an option that is there, but not the best way to go. If you want to run a CCBill program also you're best off running a CCBill based program next to your NATS program.

[TMM_John]

Nahh, he's not saying that.

To me it sounded as though he was saying that after your system was hacked
that he temporarily lost his mind and went back into his hippie mode and incorrectly
thought his sales were down every time a CCbill site switched to NATS.

I mean, how could he know sales were down when there were no sales coming
in to count? It could have been a database update issue or something.
Maybe a "post back" thingy that went haywire.

I think this thread probably played tricks on his mind :

http://gfy.com/showthread.php?t=7942...ht=NATS+hacked


Anyway, CHEERS Bro!!
.

Thank you for the anonymous, sarcastic, rambling reply.

[epitome]

I wish I could jump in all of your MPA3 threads and post "alternatives", problem is there is never any threads about you guys.

I've always preferred NATS based programs and always will.

[blackmonsters]

Thank you for the anonymous, sarcastic, rambling reply.

I'm not anonymous. Don't get personal with me about your personal fuck ups.

[TMM_John]

I'm not anonymous. Don't get personal with me about your personal fuck ups.

So I was right on the sarcastic and rambling part. 2/3 isn't bad!

[blackmonsters]

So I was right on the sarcastic and rambling part. 2/3 isn't bad!

Hey, you are always right; just ask yourself.

[fatman1]

as an affiliate i prefer using CCBILL and having everything in one place, then i have less checks to keep track of in the mail, and i just hate NATS

[signupdamnit]

There is a major difference between "cookie life, how type-ins are handled, and etc." and "'backend features' in NATS that they don't want affiliates to know about. I call it 'The Gillette Protocol'". Comparing the two isn't even close to a reasonable argument.

Are you agreeing with his statement that there is some hidden shaving feature in NATS?

You can easily check cookie life, how type-ins are handled, etc. These are extremely transparent things. A shave feature is something intended to secretly remove sales and not credit them to affiliates. That is quite a bold accusation to make.

PIBcash had nothing to do with NATS. I'd get into the story behind PIBcash, but a certain individual who already tried to hijack this thread with his offering would go into a fit.

I know you're on the "CCBill is our savior" bandwagon, but it's an extremely short sighted way to run a business. Even my buddy up there with his full page ad can see that. Nothing is forever, companies go out of business. Losing a bit of your income here & there when someone goes out of business is inevitable if you want to be in business for yourself. Making your entire business dependent upon one company because you mistakenly believe they're bullet-proof is utterly foolish. If you need an example of where that mentality leads read up on iBill. I have no reason to doubt CCBill is a well run stable company. However, that is no reason to make your entire livelihood dependent upon them. You should not solely rely on CCBill, NATS, a particular sponsor program, etc. You need to spread your risk around.

That said the CCBill paid option in NATS severely limits functionality within NATS. It's an option that is there, but not the best way to go. If you want to run a CCBill program also you're best off running a CCBill based program next to your NATS program.

Damn.... my reply was actually intended to be a lot more positive than you appeared to take it. I was in no way implying that you purposely have a shave feature built in. Merely that it is possible that certain settings might make a difference in determining how an affiliate gets credit. Such as cookie settings, how cookies are applied to type-ins, and that sort of thing.

I know PIBcash wasn't your software. I was only letting you know why affiliates might be paranoid about such things in general. It's a valid concern. That's completely different than you being guilty of such a thing but it only makes sense for affiliates to not be naive as to the the possibility. We'd be fools not to be.

Out of curiosity how does the CCBILL Paid function limit things? I've only recently became familiar with it but I thought you could run a regular NATS program (paid by sponsor) as well as a CCBill paid program all in one. It seemed to allow the options for different link codes so someone could use both at the same time if they wanted. Or am I mistaken?

[firequartz]

or maybe it's just the shrooooms ... far out ...