Iwantu.com .... something strange....
 

Like any webmaster whos been in the business, before I send traffic I look into the sponsor as much as I can. (basically since InsiteAdult screwed me out of thousands by claiming bankruptcy).

So I did the iwantu.com 2.50/email promotion. Looking at a new sponsor of corse the main issue is how long theyve been around.

iwantu's webmaster program says "Total Payout since 1996: $15,043,250.58"

Ive been in this industry since 1996, and thought it was strange that I hadnt heard of them until several months ago. But then I thought, maybe I just didnt notice them, since ive only been doing the dating sites thing for a year or so and ive been happy with my usual sponsors.

But then out of curiosity, I did a whois on thier domains...

CashRing.com
Record created on 04-May-1999

Iwantu.com
Record created on 24-Mar-1997

So my only question is, if the site didnt exist yet, how were they paying webmasters in 1996?

Or are they backed or owned by another company/affiliate program that i'm not aware of?

Just curious and overly paranoid, not accusing anyone of anything, but if you guys have had some of the bad experiences with sponsors like InsiteAdult, you'd be asking the same thing. Tried to ICQ them and no response.

You know too much...they are coming for you now :evil-laug

haha :1orglaugh

:1orglaugh

Good eye. An archive of their site from 1998 says that they're a "cupidnet.com" affiliate. That domain was created on 07-Feb-1995.

:1orglaugh

Different company under different name perhaps?

Keith showed me the original way way back I Want U first version site.

I laughed with him for over 5 minutes. :1orglaugh

Hey Xplicit,

I don't see any ICQs from you...

I wasn't with the company way back in 1996, but I do know that the domain cashring.com only started getting used later (I guess in 1999). Originally CashRing was built to offer many types of products, from hosting to dating...kind of like a commission junction. Only in the past few years has it focused on IwantU now.

In 1996/1997 IwantU did have some affiliates, basically from word of mouth. So, we did payout money in those years, just probably not much :)

If you go checkout the site in Alexa' Wayback machine, you're gonna laugh at some of the earliest versions ...they converted somehow though! It doesn't seem to have the very first version of ours or some other sites in their 'wayback machine' though.

just for the record, I've been an affiliate for over 2 years now and been paid on time everytime.. and quite well I might add :)

Good eye.

we have been paying affiliates since we started, but the cashring.com domain was created only in 1999, to add other products :)

We have been in that indsutry for a while and we also have been 'screwed' many times, especially by processors. We take our precautions now, and you should do the same.

http://web.archive.org/web/199801220...ww.iwantu.com/

:)