Marc. I think what some of the restless warriors are worried about the change in the point system and what the points buy later is going to more devaluatiion then they can handle with no real notice since the store has been shut down as of today and many may not realize this.

So the points are valued at .10 now what were they valued at before?

Not that it matters, I think they just want to talk about this area in more detail with you.

crazy!!!

BVF - its all set already. Rewards points will have a value of $0.10 in the new store.

Old points will convert to new 1=1.5 :) This is all above board, nothing shady or questionable.

But i need to send a sign up to the new program? Is this correct? Sorry but i dont feel like sending a sign up just to redeem my points.

"real" changes include kicking DrG in the nuts ;-).... then throwing him into one of the snowpiles lining his street to let him sleep it off :thumbsup

I can feel the love.

i know already that i dont like that


do you have AN IDEA about how many linking codes / pages we are talking about here?

if my programmer would not have thought about such stuff........

Hey Marc. Sounds like a great new direction for you and your company. Congrats :thumbsup

Nobody has mentioned this and I hate to be the one to bring it up, but does this have anything to do with Chargebacks, Fines and the AskCs / GIM sites being over the New Visa Limits? We've heard of the New Visa limits but no word on anybody getting hit hard by them. If you did, it may be a serve as a good example for others in the industry to shape up and take a new approach to treating members.

:1orglaugh I can almost imagine all the webmasters singing in a chore in front of ARS offices:

What's love?
It should be about us
It should be about trust babe
I don't know what it is
We just party & bullshit


:Graucho

A major change... I don't really promote ARS anymore, but they were the first sponsor I ever pushed hard. My first sale (off a free hosted page) was for Oral Lovers... it was that sale that inspired me to be an adult webmaster.

I made 1000's off ARS when i started out couple of years ago but suddenly it just stopped working for me and now i dont promote them anymore.

We made a pile of money with ARS and I'm sure they'll stay on top of the game for a while.

Good luck Marc!

I'm sure things will be fine and Marc once again will lead the way in changes that have to be made for his business to continue to grow and profit along with the webmasters that are sending to him. The old models of paying $40 per $1 join are gone and people will have to change.

Surfers are smarter. We looked up an account today and found that in the last two years we had a guy take our trial over 20 different times. They know how to cheat the system. Now imagine if he is using a link code each time. The affiliate program makes about $1 for each time he signed up and payed out $40 each time.... WOW.... killer loss

shap - chargebacks did NOTHING to influence this decision. Losing money with this model did! There are many reasons that the change we're making will be made by many. Chargebacks may be an influence to others to wake up and see that this model is grossly unprofitable (that model being cookie cutter, ultra niched sites with sub standard content, high priced, multiple cross sells).

I'm in the business of making money while paying out good commissions to get more business. Obviously our 'current' situation doesn't allow that!

Announcement coming very shortly in a new thread...

I agree 100% Marc. We've always found it odd that you've got a number of really kick ass paysites on the web and they are always independant companies. Most companies have either focused on the Quality of the Paysite or Making the Webmaster more money.

ie Quality Paysites
Karups
Atk
Twistys :thumbsup
1 By Day
Danni
Scoreland


And then you've got those geared towards $$$ for webmasters
CE Cash
ARS
CEN
Maxcash
etc etc


You never see a company like ARS or CEN with a really kick ass site like ATk as part of their program. They almost always have substandard cookie cutter backends. It would be interesting to see one that combines both.

MarcDe - I'd like to talk with you or a manage about the changes to come. It would have been nice to know about this before as well as I was about to start my initial marketing campaign for ARS paysites. Please contact me on ICQ and then we can exchange phone numbers. Thanks. ICQ 129060301

Cheers,
Matt

Now...
"All points in the ARSRewards.com system will be valued at $0.10 each. All current points in the current system will be multiplied by 1.5 and then revalued at the $0.10 each. In order to get your points transferred, you must send a signup to a site in the ARS 4 Real portfolio within 30 days of 2/23/04. If you do not, you will lose your current points."

I seem to remember one point used to be multiplied with .165
Correct?
That come down to 16.5 cents per point?
I am bad at math. Real bad.
So now one point is worth 15 cents in other words.(?)
Not to mention the discount Executive webmasters got. 10%?
That still going to be in effect?

Someone please correct me if my math is off.

Did you look at homegrownmovies(ce cas)? Damn like 3-4 updates a day!

Andre

Yeah it sounds like you need to make a sale in the new proggy to get your old rewards points...

blah.

You a post bot or something?

Well, thats simple pathetic and a easy way for them to get a lot of points back as a lot of people will either dont know this, wont be able to make a sale or cant be assed to make a sale.

I for one dont log in to my stats anymore. If i wouldnt read gfy i simply would lose my points for not knowing i need to make 1 sale in a given period. Lame.

yes, i'm a highly advanced post bot capable of having conversations.

and as a post bot, i've managed to pull off over 10K posts without getting banned.

asshat.

Battuss - we'll be emailing EVERYBODY with the info...

You're highly sophosticated, not doubt about that :winkwink:

Exactly... it's not really about making a sale within a month, or losing some points, but it's about how things are being handled.

It's like your bank sending you a notice that they have made some policy changes, and that unless you make a deposit within 30 days you will lose the money in your account.

Not to mention that the value of the points dropped all of a sudden from 16.5 cents to 15 cents per point as well.

Congrats Marc, only you could manage to come up with what appears to be a way to change the system for the better, do it without anyone telling you that you have to, and get bitched out for it on a message board ;)

Thanks Andre!!

homegrownvideo.com does get 3-4 updates per day.

we are the ATK of real amateur!

Your math seems right to me. A point was $0.165, and with the 10% discount was effectively $0.183, and it seems to be being reduced to $0.15, not sure on the 10% discount. So you could be looking at up to an 18% reduction in the value of your rewards points. On the other hand, a week or two ago ARS added a 15% ordering fee for items not listed in their limited "store," which made that $0.165 point effectively worth $0.143 points for most things you'd want. The new rewards system sounds like they'll add items on request, so that 15% penalty could be removed, leaving you ahead overall.

I think it is time to cover this "dinosaur" with dirt. It is dead, and it is really starting to smell BAD.:glugglug

I am soooooooo confuuuuuuuuuuused!!

So now we only have 2 ARS sites to promote until the new BYOT program is revealed?

10

Good luck Marc. Change is always refreshing in marketing.

Guys, if you're good surfers everything will be great in the year ahead.

Just don't plan anything past a few months out. When ARS makes a major move like this you can be darn sure others will be right behing them changing also.

:)

ARS has gone to shit, fuck 'em

I have like $50 still hanging in the "old" program, will that be transferred to?

reality sites are the future

9 mainstream wannabe reality sites and one full ads

what a joke ....

Yeah.. It would've been much better if the reality sites atleast were something different and original :(

The sky is falling!