daily clicks and cashback

McSaver

I signed up to these cashback sites and started using the daily clicks a few months ago, now with rates being reduced or removed it seems like the boat is missed now.

save-a-lot

geordie_joe wrote: »

1. The retailer pays the affiliate network £x for every visitor it send them
2. The affiliate network keeps a part of that money and pays the rest to one of it's affiliates for every visitor they send to the retailer.
3. The affiliate (cashback site) keeps part of the money it got from the affiliate network and pays the daily clicker to click through to the retailers site.

Start again

1. The retailer gets 1000 visitors, all sent by the cashback site.
2. The retailer doesn't want to pay for all these visitor as not one actually bought anything.
3. The retailer says to the affiliate network "your system sent me 1,000 visitors? Sorry mate, my system only tracked 500 so I'm only paying you for 500 visitors".
4. The affiliate network gets paid for 500 visitors.
5. The affiliate network does not want to pay the affiliate for 500 visitors, so he says "You sent 1,000 visitors? Sorry mate, our system only tracked 250 visitor, so that's all we are paying you for"
6. The affiliate (cashback site) does not want to pay it's users for all the clicks, so says "You did 1,000 clicks Sorry mate, only 125 clicks tracked so that's all we are paying you for"

In other words, daily clicks consist of a retailer paying a large amount of money for visitors, and those visitors getting paid peanuts because of the people in between robbing them.

Sorry, it's called "not tracking", and I know the money is only "a bonus if you get it", but the retailer pays whether it tracks back to you or not and one of the middle men gets the money.

Utter nonsense. Affiliate networks survive in a competitive market whereby their technologies are their one major selling point. So, their technology should have the ability to track a sale through to completion in the majority of cases. Those who publish affiliate links (including cashback sites) then rely on the reporting tools at the affiliate network to display commissions earned, and, in the case of cashback sites a unique user i.d. The affiliate marketing business is full of big players and it is not in their interest to 'swindle' daily clicks by stating "not tracked". Also, the merchants are big players so they are not there to dispute clicks.

Likely causes of not tracking is down to cookies being set and then not cleared between visits - simple as.

geordie_joe

save-a-lot wrote: »

Utter nonsense.

But all you have to back that up is the hope it is utter rubbish.

save-a-lot wrote: »

Affiliate networks survive in a competitive market whereby their technologies are their one major selling point.

I'm not disputing their technology, just the use of it.

save-a-lot wrote: »

So, their technology should have the ability to track a sale through to completion in the majority of cases.

It should have the ability to track EVERY sale, but from being on the other side of the fence I know it also has the facility to not track sales.

Both automatically, based on set rules and manually.

save-a-lot wrote: »

Those who publish affiliate links (including cashback sites) then rely on the reporting tools at the affiliate network to display commissions earned, and, in the case of cashback sites a unique user i.d.

And they have no way of knowing if the affiliate report is true and accurate. They rely on the affiliate network telling them how much they have earned, and paying them. And in turn the affiliate network relies on the retailer in the same way.

Being an affiliate is the only business I know where you have no independent means of verifying your earns, you rely solely on the person who pays you to give you that information.

save-a-lot wrote: »

The affiliate marketing business is full of big players and it is not in their interest to 'swindle' daily clicks by stating "not tracked".

Of course it is, the more they don't pass up the chain the more they keep for them selves. They are already swindling their customers, the retailers, by sending them visitors who have no intention of buying anything.

They take the money from the retailers, promising to send them visitors who are genuinely interested in buying something. Then they pay people to visit the retailers sites. The visitors have no intention of buying anything, they just want to get to the site and get out again and collect their 4p. What is that if not a swindle?

You hope the big players, who are swindling their customers (the retailers) are not swindling the people they pay to help them in the swindle. Dream on!

save-a-lot wrote: »

The Also, the merchants are big players so they are not there to dispute clicks.

Of course they are, they employ people just for that reason! The less they pay to affiliates the more profit they keep for them selves. The more they can reduce the amount they pay to affiliates, the more profit for them.

save-a-lot wrote: »

Likely causes of not tracking is down to cookies being set and then not cleared between visits - simple as.

That old chestnut! So why is this forum, and many others, full of seasoned daily clickers who know to clear cookies, not having things tracked?

kate1967

Without getting into any disputes, I just thought I would mention that I've been performimg 'Daily Clicks' now for nearly 2 years.
I have actually registered 'Self Employed' as I have had alot of money and because I also work P/time I knew that I would be liable for Tax..

The majority of them I have to say have tracked, but I always clear cookies inbetween visits.
I have to say that often when searching for items I have actually ended up buying as I have came across a good deal lol.
Lots of Daily Clicks have either decreased or disapperared and now the way I look at it is that it just takes longer to reach the min pay thresolds with the sites.

I think of Daily Clicks purely as a bonus/addicted hobby.....if i make 15p a day on one site then I times by 30 to calculate an average monthly figure.

I look at the bonus long term and at the moment I am saving for our spending money when we go to holiday in Sept and also for Xmas 2008 ( Amazon Vouchers)
I had accumulated £500 Amazon vouchers for Xmas 2007 !

My advice to anyone new is just to join a few sites, reach pay-out and then join a few more IF you have time, don't join every single cashback site available as you will get bored and never reach pay-out.

If anyone would like any help then please just ask, I have done 'Daily Click Routines' for lots and lots of people and I know a lady EagerLearner on here is also a great source of help.
I am happy to post a routine to your home address if you do not have a printer

There is also a 'Referrers Board' on MSE where you will find lots of referral links to join the various sites and also post your own link.

Sue-UU

kate1967 wrote:

Have lots more ‘Pending’
But total money I’ve received from Cashback Sites by performing 'Daily Clicks' is ;
MAY 06 - DEC 06 £2,110

Good Heavens above Kate! If that isn't enough to spur me on then nothing will be! Thanks so much for taking the trouble to help us all to know the way to go and not to become despondent too soon.

So many thanks, Sue

kate1967

I've just updated my signature so that you can see a more realistic figure.
Obviously 2008 onwards will be less as clicks do not reward as much now and I do not click on as many sites as I use to.
Hope this helps
Kate
x

save-a-lot

geordie_joe wrote: »

Originally Posted by save-a-lot
Utter nonsense.

But all you have to back that up is the hope it is utter rubbish.

Quote:Originally Posted by save-a-lot
Affiliate networks survive in a competitive market whereby their technologies are their one major selling point.

I'm not disputing their technology, just the use of it.

Quote:Originally Posted by save-a-lot
So, their technology should have the ability to track a sale through to completion in the majority of cases.

It should have the ability to track EVERY sale, but from being on the other side of the fence I know it also has the facility to not track sales.

Both automatically, based on set rules and manually.

Quote:Originally Posted by save-a-lot
Those who publish affiliate links (including cashback sites) then rely on the reporting tools at the affiliate network to display commissions earned, and, in the case of cashback sites a unique user i.d.

And they have no way of knowing if the affiliate report is true and accurate. They rely on the affiliate network telling them how much they have earned, and paying them. And in turn the affiliate network relies on the retailer in the same way.

Being an affiliate is the only business I know where you have no independent means of verifying your earns, you rely solely on the person who pays you to give you that information.

Quote:Originally Posted by save-a-lot
The affiliate marketing business is full of big players and it is not in their interest to 'swindle' daily clicks by stating "not tracked".

Of course it is, the more they don't pass up the chain the more they keep for them selves. They are already swindling their customers, the retailers, by sending them visitors who have no intention of buying anything.

They take the money from the retailers, promising to send them visitors who are genuinely interested in buying something. Then they pay people to visit the retailers sites. The visitors have no intention of buying anything, they just want to get to the site and get out again and collect their 4p. What is that if not a swindle?

You hope the big players, who are swindling their customers (the retailers) are not swindling the people they pay to help them in the swindle. Dream on!

Quote:Originally Posted by save-a-lot
The Also, the merchants are big players so they are not there to dispute clicks.

Of course they are, they employ people just for that reason! The less they pay to affiliates the more profit they keep for them selves. The more they can reduce the amount they pay to affiliates, the more profit for them.

Quote:Originally Posted by save-a-lot
Likely causes of not tracking is down to cookies being set and then not cleared between visits - simple as.

That old chestnut! So why is this forum, and many others, full of seasoned daily clickers who know to clear cookies, not having things tracked?

It is hardly fair to say, "But all you have to back that up is the hope it is utter rubbish.", even though you have a strong opinion on this subject and some experience, you are talking wildly about things you have no REAL facts on either. Both you and I can only best guess the true situation.

Anyway, I know the affiliate systems very well. I have been both a merchant and an affiliate over the years. I also have a cashback site (although not operational yet). So, I am well qualified to disagree with your arguments. I am sure we will have to agree to disagree overall. I truely believe that there is not the level of corruption in the whole cycle of network, merchant and customer as you suggest.

I could imagine corruption in the affiliate publisher side of things for the more dubious cashback sites, but the networks are professional and need to attract new merchants and retain their merchants, so bad practices are out of their scope, they need to be squeaky clean.

Again, I would doubt that big cashback sites like quidco, etc entertain such corrupt systems, they have a reputation to uphold. I would guess daily clicks get stopped 'not tracked' because of abuse filters being activated by either/or affiliate network and merchant systems. Whereby people demonstrating a pattern of abuse may have their IP address banned for a short period of time.
Patterns of abuse to trip a filter would include IP address logging versus, time of visit, length of visit, entry page, exit page, etc and any pattern may stop the transaction through the site (that is only guesswork, but this whole debate is based on best guessing)

poorjim

kate1967 wrote: »

I have actually registered 'Self Employed' as I have had alot of money and because I also work P/time I knew that I would be liable for Tax..
quote]

I didn't there might be tax implications of these daily click sites. I know the money grabbing attitude to tax, but surely you can earn a couple of quid a day for searching websites without being taxed.

Norfolk_Jim

If you check out with the taxman you'll find that for just a few £100 the IR are not interested, its too much bother for them. I tried to pay tax on a few £100 earnings once and they were not interested. Now if you think you might be getting £500 up and into the £1000s annual (Not very likely!) it might be different. Many people doing this are unpaid so would never reach their tax free allowance, other transactions are in the class of a refund rather than earnings, so it all gets very messy. Unless you intend to try to make this your business then I'd forget it. I suppose there might be some value in registering self employed as you could count your internet as a business expence - but then youd have to think about NI as well. Frankly, I'd make more money by getting rid of broadband and doing a couple of hours overtime - so its nothing for most people to be worried about. I'm not sure what the exact figure the IR get interested at, someone else will surely tell us now.

geordie_joe

save-a-lot wrote: »

It is hardly fair to say, "But all you have to back that up is the hope it is utter rubbish.", even though you have a strong opinion on this subject and some experience, you are talking wildly about things you have no REAL facts on either. Both you and I can only best guess the true situation.

I agree we can only best guess at the truth, but my guess is made from a lot of pieces of evidence that add up.

save-a-lot wrote: »

Anyway, I know the affiliate systems very well. I have been both a merchant and an affiliate over the years. I also have a cashback site (although not operational yet). So, I am well qualified to disagree with your arguments.

Ah, now we get to the bottom of your argument. If you agree with me your cashback site is dead in the water before it's even been launch.

save-a-lot wrote: »

I am sure we will have to agree to disagree overall. I truely believe that there is not the level of corruption in the whole cycle of network, merchant and customer as you suggest.

But you have admitted to becoming part of that network!

save-a-lot wrote: »

I could imagine corruption in the affiliate publisher side of things for the more dubious cashback sites, but the networks are professional and need to attract new merchants and retain their merchants, so bad practices are out of their scope, they need to be squeaky clean.

And the only way we know they are squeaky clean is because they tell us they are. There is no independent evidence that they are squeaky clean.

There is no independent body that can examine retailers, affiliate networks and cashback sites to see they are being honest with their affiliates/members. All we have is them telling us they are.

save-a-lot wrote: »

Again, I would doubt that big cashback sites like quidco, etc entertain such corrupt systems, they have a reputation to uphold.

Yes, but as we can never really know what they do, we can never know if they are totally honest.

I'm not saying Quidco are dishonest, I'm saying that IF they were we would never know.

save-a-lot wrote: »

I would guess daily clicks get stopped 'not tracked' because of abuse filters being activated by either/or affiliate network and merchant systems. Whereby people demonstrating a pattern of abuse may have their IP address banned for a short period of time.
Patterns of abuse to trip a filter would include IP address logging versus, time of visit, length of visit, entry page, exit page, etc and any pattern may stop the transaction through the site (that is only guesswork, but this whole debate is based on best guessing)

What if a site, such as shopping com or kelkoo or one of the others had a rule that said "We only pay for 4 clicks per day" then set their abuse filters to only allow 3 clicks per day.

This would encourage users to do 4 clicks, but they would only get paid for 3. All done automatically without any human effort, and the site has reduced it's payment by 25%.

Don't forget, the links in the chain make money by collecting money from down the chain and passing part of it up the chain, keep part for them selves as their profit. If they can reduce the amount they pass up the chain they make more profit.

It is also the easiest way to increase their profits.

And the beauty of it is the people up the chain can never know, because all they will ever know is what the people below them in the chain tell them.