test joins .. test joins ... test joins ...

He posted as a matter of fact what happened and what he sees. He seems to have proof. You just don't like the idea that he didn't ask JT for permission to post first.

Good businesses do not need people to manipulate Yelp. They have real customers who share positive experiences and these overshadow the bad ones. It's the same way with sponsors. If RUC is honest then it will come out as such. If they have something to hide then yes they might fear such scrutiny. To resort to scumbag tactics to silence it would only prove that they are a bad business.

$/click means little if you never actually get paid that money. It's also something you can't rely as much on when using a rev share model because a lot of your revenue is tied up in the future rebills. $/click as a metric has more value for PPS and short term campaigns. But not everyone uses that model. You ought to be able to understand this...

Test joins can pick up on faults too, so pretty useful, I've done test joins before which have failed, then I've been able to quickly resolve the issue.

He seems to have proof or he has proof? Many people might 'seem to have proof you are a rapist', that doesn't count for spit.
They have proof or they do not have proof.

Honestly, you sound like you are new to the internet. Next you are going to tell me pornstars write their own online diaries and A-list celebrities write their own tweets. I'm sorry but that really isn't the way the internet works. It's why it becomes important to seek actual proof when you read something online, or to keep it to yourself until you have actual proof. It's also why trust matters so much, and why people shouldn't go around distorting trust arbitrarily without actual proof.

I do a lot of test joins. I am strongly in favor of test joins. I'm against libel.

Didn't JT from Ruseful close his account here on GFY just before Teencat's test joins? Hmmm.....

JT seemed upset that people were questioning him when he was being SO helpful gloating (i mean, sharing) his tube experiences - experiences that no other Program has been able to replicate.

Hmmm....

JT insists he has "no special relationship" with the Tubes yet he came from the Tubes....hmmmm.....and JT never addressed (or even acknowledged) or explained how RUC videos "magically" appear 15-20 times a day on the major tubes homepages when other Programs are lucky to get a vid a day.....hmmmm.....

Yup, seems legit to me.

He just exposed that sales are not being counted for affiliate and you ask "how does that help community?" ?

This should explain it to you....
http://gfy.com/showthread.php?t=1138060

And the bold part is my point. Why would anyone who claims to be in business, and certainly a professional, not conduct their own quality control testing and auditing? Why should the health of your revenues be the responsibility of another webmaster? I agree that what Lucas is doing is generous and, to a point, valuable for others. But I certainly do not see any upside for him personally.

And therein is my entire reasoning. Lucas takes this upon himself, for the betterment of his peers, and risks entirely alienating himself from some programs. There is little gain to be had for him personally in doing so. What he is doing is something that every serious businessman should be doing themselves -- conducting their own audits. But very often it seems like several people on GFY expect others to do the leg work and then jump on a bandwagon with no first hand knowledge themselves.

I just think that revenues are your own responsibility and, thus, you should absolutely have an internal auditing system in place for your business, including your affiliate links. I know for myself, we audit our links regularly to stay on top of any abnormalities.

Long ago this was why most affiliates came here-- because of what people like Lucas are doing. There was a sort of social contract or expectation of reciprocity. The idea is that we all share information to help one another. He might share something helpful today and hopefully in a week or two maybe I'll share something which helps him.

It's great to test all your sponsors but that isn't realistic for everyone and it's often a gray area. If you have 300 sponsors and you do low volume with each it may not be realistic or make financial sense to test them all. Often sponsors make it risky to do real unannounced test joins as well. Even then there are a multitude of variables involved in order to do it right.

Create a script that divides the amount of each sponsor's payments by the number of clicks you sent them. It takes seconds to look at that report each day, and minutes a month to sift the numbers by preset benchmarks.

wrong, clickshaving is one thing, salesshaving another..

I meant by sending test joins. To do 300 test joins properly with 300 different sponsors would take a considerable amount of time. In addition if you will not always be credited back it would take significant amounts of money (additional costs). Further a one time test join proves very little. To be sure you would have to randomly do test joins on a continuing basis and under various controlled conditions.

$/click makes sense to monitor at all times. I agree entirely and there is no reason not to with programs like stats remote and nifty stats. Or you can even used a spreadsheet and check manually. But as I mentioned before this isn't the only thing you might be looking at if you are using a more long term model. $/click today doesn't mean I will have the same $/click six months from now or that they will still be paying me. It's one of many metrics and variables used to make decisions. We each run our businesses in different ways.

Then I would argue one probably has too many sponsors. One problem I see with affiliates in this day and age is that they have to join every program that comes online. They'd be better off identifying their demographic and then targeting very specific affiliate programs that match their optimum demographic. These days, however, it's a shotgun approach which likely contributes to low volumes per program.

Oh, I am by no means advocating defrauding a sponsor. You do not even have to spend any money for the initial audit. For example, at the very least people should check their links and ensure the join forms are present, re-evaluate their traffic links, any tour leaks, make sure their cookie or affiliate id is being carried through the tour, any external pages, etc, to determine where tracking begins and ends.

A test join is not something that is done, or needed, every time. And when you do it, you *always* inform the program so that it can be removed from your account.

As Relentless said, you could easily have a script that runs via cron to auto check your links. We don't automate it ourselves. Rather, manually check all of our links, campaigns, etc. randomly, including checking tours, external pages and submit form tracking.

Frankly, I think it's just important for people to audit their own revenue sources for abnormalities. Relying on others to do it for me is just not something I will do.

Explain to me how either matters.

A) They shave 10,000 clicks.

B) They shave 8 sales.

C) They can't how much money the check they sent me is worth.

D) They can't shave how many clicks I know I sent them.

A + B = irrelevant

C /D = matters a lot

While I agree someone shouldn't run to GFY and start bitching and complaining without contacting the offending party in question first - something I mistakenly did when I was a newb - this is not the case with Lucas/Teencat. He contacted RUC, he DID what you are exoriating him for NOT doing: he contacted the Sponser.

Upon hearing crickets he decided to do this test join project and post results. (BTW: whatever his results they are but another piece of data, not the end all/be all of information.)

What I am hearing from you (and others, and especially in threads about the actual porn valley porn biz) is an argument for "BROhood". Keep it all in-house, under-wraps, person-to-person and screw the masses. If they ain't BROS then fuck 'em. Maybe that's not your position but that's how it comes across to me.

I think Teencat's test join project has brought in some really useful information for affiliates.