Why Do Companies Keep Raising Payouts?
 

from topbucks:

Starting on the September 8th payout, some of our payment options will have their minimum withholding amount raised from $50. Checks and Direct Deposit will now have a minimum of $100 and ePassporte will have a minimum of $200.

are the bad economy and tubes/torrents/boards hitting the bottom line so hard they're down to cutting processing costs?

must be - been a few who have done so in the last couple months.

I will probably get some shit for saying this ..... and I am not saying this about Topbucks specifically ..... but i suspect some are having problems keeping $$$$ in the account so the checks don't bounce.

what you said as well as companies hoping that little guys that dont send traffic anymore wont ever get paid out for the occasional join or two...

yes, some companies are doing well in this economy, but overall most are hurting..

the biggest processors are down 15-20% this year and it woukld be worse if not for geo billing...

though i guess topbucks charges you for processing i think so who knows - anyways they're not alone.

i guess it keeps them more liquid.

It helps stop fraud, something large programs have a huge problem with.

you gotta point there doc ...

:2 cents:

Well, I will be helping their short term liquidity by pulling my links and galleries.

Another example of the small guys eat shit. :(

Fraud would be a big reason. With high PPS it means only a few sales can hit Minimum payout amount.
Very hard to track fraud if 1 or 2 sales gets you over the Minimum payment limit:2 cents:

I call BULLSHIT!

I have been promoting them since 2003 and never had a problem. If they want to put a restriction on new affiliates, then fine. But lets take some affiliate hstory into account if this is the case.

By no means are we trying to "screw" the small guys. A $100 minimum is only three sales... and although I realize that many affiliates spread their traffic out amongst many programs, three sales is a very attainable goal... especially with our large site portfolio.

If you are promoting Top Bucks and feel that the $100 minimum is going to be difficult to meet, please contact me before pulling any links and let's talk about what we can do to help you more easily meet that minimum.

My ICQ is 147479144.

That's just my :2 cents:

Only way to find out for sure would be ask them.

200 bucks min u get paid and the webmaster dont till 200

If you've been pushing them since 2003 and can't make these minimums in a pay period (which for them is two weeks or half a month) then perhaps it's time to go back to doing the fries at Mickey D's.

I never thought minimums were a big deal even when I was a newb. I remember getting checks from Pink4Free for like $5....they were a pain in the ass.

I will not say the program (It's NOT Topbucks) but I have had 3 checks bounce in 4 months from one fairly large program. And they were not huge checks at all. They took care of it very quickly so no problems, but makes you wonder what is going on.

A solution might be if a program has a very high minimum, like $200, you can still get paid if you want to cash out, but you have to pay a fee. So if you stopped promoting a program and you're a newb, you can still get your money and the program makes a few bucks.

topbucks is one of the most fair companies ive worked with. one of the only companies that give you $ for downtime without you even asking for it. i dont see why they would deny a request for a lower payout if needed.

How does it help prevent fraud?

If you make a sale on the first day of the sales period you will not get paid out until like the 10th of the following month.
That leaves the sponsor about 40 days at best to track fraud and at worst 25 days. How much more time do they really need?

The fraud angle is just smoke screen to hide something else.

So if anyone cares to answer the question:
How does it help prevent fraud?
I am all ears.

they're cutting costs, every smart business owner should do that.

I am a small affiliate and look at it this way too. If I can't make $100 worth of sales for a program, it's a failure on my part.

I'm not saying whether it's for fraud protection or not, but I do have to point out your error here. If I send a sale to topbucks on the first day of a sales period, the cheque for that sale is in the mail in 3 weeks. If I send a sale on the LAST day of the period, that sale is on the same cheque. That's less than a week later. In some cases that cheque has gone out 3 days after the period ends.

It's just another attempt to get more traffic when times are hard.

What if you run a few TGPs with 10,000 galleries from 100 sponsors. (for variety)
Do you actually want us to believe that the average webmaster can make 200 bucks every 2 weeks from 100 sponsors?

That would be 480k a year. Not likely!

Personally I don't care. I hope these big PPS sponsors keep jacking shit up. Smaller affiliates will have 2 choices, send more traffic to big sponsor or spread out traffic to ccbill sponsors all merged under 1 account.

Guess which one is better?

topbucks dont care about the little guy unless you can send shitload of sales now...
if you dont send enough sales u need to talk to a noob ass rep whos been in the industry for 2 and half days and dont even know whats picture content is.... too bad they were good a while ago...now they went to shit for me.

I got fired from Mickey D's and they don't want my ass back.

After reviewing my ratio with Top Bucks it just reaffirmed my decision to remove their galleries and links. 1:18,000 for the year is a drop by more than half from last year. Their conversions were my worst last year and getting worse.

BTW Snake Doctor: I will see you tomorrow and I expect my fucking fries to be fresh asshole. Don't spit in my burger either.

I agree they're doing a smart thing in what concernes bounced cheques and cutting costs but I think they should do that with the newbies. On the other hand, raising a payout from 50 to 200 is too drastic I'd say....

You were doing 1:9000 with them last year and chose not to drop them or change your marketing technique? I don't think Topbucks raising their minimum payout is the problem here.

You may be right.:winkwink:

Here is a quote from the Topbucks FAQ:
Payments are submitted on the 8th and the 23rd of every month

Topbucks has one to three weeks to check for fraud.
That's 7 to 21 days.
And that on new sales only.
A recurring sale that has cleared months ago should not be delayed at all.
Many programs have longer delays which are quite acceptable.

The Key point here is:
The delay to payout and the minimum payout are two separate issues.

The delay to payout might reduce fraud.
The increased minimum payout just hurts small affiliates

I don't see the big deal. Is cashing a 50 dollar check really worth the gas you'll waste getting to the bank. I mean if they were raising the payout to 500 then that might be a problem for 95% of their affiliates.

50 to a 100 is not that big of a deal.

If $50 or $100 increase is going to make or break you as an affiliate, perhaps you find another line of work.

And I don't mean that in a mean way, I'm just laying the truth out on the table.