In my opinion, seems like pubs are sick of dealing with the middle man (affiliate network)...especially in Hydra and Clickbooth's case. For any network that decides they will not pay an affiliate, they better be providing hard cold FACTS proving why the traffic didn't back out.
How Hydra Affiliate Network Screwed Me Out Of $25,000
- Thread starter BTP32
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Errr...correct me if I'm wrong...but the Quality Health offers ADVERTISE free samples and coupons.
Quote from their landing page: "Samples, coupons, and rebates from your favorite brands."
If he advertised general health tips, would that also be grounds to not pay? What a joke.
Quote from their landing page: "Samples, coupons, and rebates from your favorite brands."
If he advertised general health tips, would that also be grounds to not pay? What a joke.
I like Hydra very much, however I am very unhappy with the lack of response here and I'm seriously considering switching to the same offers on other networks. The longer this goes on without resolution, the more likely I think others will do the same.
Well, turns out I'm pretty bad at this whole "internet" thing.
But Hydra's response was pretty vague, I'd like to know what the "compromise solution" was, unless that's also been posted in this thread and I missed it.
I don't think it was a great response, but I don't think they'd be better off.
People speculating is worse than anything else.
I am sure Quality Health made some money on the 25K ad spend. Maybe they didn't make the margins they wanted or maybe they didn't even breakeven. I am sure out of the 25K in traffic they got at least some conversions. For them to tell hydra that they just don't want to pay for the traffic really sucks. Quality Health is still an active advertiser too, which really doesn't make sense. I'm pretty sure if I told google, yahoo, or msn that I didn't want to pay for 25K in traffic because I wasn't happy with my conversions but I still wanted to continue advertsing with them, I'm sure that wouldn't fly.
hydra
I know this to be a fact. Hydra knows about their fraudulent affiliates and allows them to switch accounts. Their shit traffic blends with good traffic and advertisers are on the hook for so-so leads. Hydra also scrubs the hell out of their fraudulent affiliates, with the affiliates knowing this. They will take anything, as they are booted or not allowed in most networks, so 10-20% of crap leads, is better than nothing.These are the chinese affiliates and the Fremont/Hayward affiliates using URL's like "ratedetectived.com", nwkads.com, bestdebtconsolidationhelp.com. With Hydra's full knowledge and cooperation, they stay under the radar by masking their near 100% conversion rate with outside clicks from other "partner" URLs. So Hydra gets paid the full amount from the advertiser, scrubs the fraudulent affiliates and makes a very tidy profit. This has been their model from the start and I personally know this, as I was around near the start and know the CEO well.
The relevance to this thread is that by using this strategy, they also run the risk of not getting paid at all by their advertisers that figure this out. The end result is that legitimate affiliates are bound to their terms that if they don't get paid, nor do their affiliates. I STRONGLY suggest a mass exodus from Hydra as they are the worst, most shady, greediest affiliate network out there and it all comes from the top, Mr. Zac Brandenberg. He will make his living by screwing people. Some people say he has a brilliant business mind, I say he is a smart criminal with absolutely no regard for anyone or anything but his bank account. Every penny he has earned has been at the expense of others and he will never change. Stay away.
I know this to be a fact. Hydra knows about their fraudulent affiliates and allows them to switch accounts. Their shit traffic blends with good traffic and advertisers are on the hook for so-so leads. Hydra also scrubs the hell out of their fraudulent affiliates, with the affiliates knowing this. They will take anything, as they are booted or not allowed in most networks, so 10-20% of crap leads, is better than nothing.These are the chinese affiliates and the Fremont/Hayward affiliates using URL's like "ratedetectived.com", nwkads.com, bestdebtconsolidationhelp.com. With Hydra's full knowledge and cooperation, they stay under the radar by masking their near 100% conversion rate with outside clicks from other "partner" URLs. So Hydra gets paid the full amount from the advertiser, scrubs the fraudulent affiliates and makes a very tidy profit. This has been their model from the start and I personally know this, as I was around near the start and know the CEO well.
The relevance to this thread is that by using this strategy, they also run the risk of not getting paid at all by their advertisers that figure this out. The end result is that legitimate affiliates are bound to their terms that if they don't get paid, nor do their affiliates. I STRONGLY suggest a mass exodus from Hydra as they are the worst, most shady, greediest affiliate network out there and it all comes from the top, Mr. Zac Brandenberg. He will make his living by screwing people. Some people say he has a brilliant business mind, I say he is a smart criminal with absolutely no regard for anyone or anything but his bank account. Every penny he has earned has been at the expense of others and he will never change. Stay away.
I have run alot with hydra and I have never had an issue with them ever. But one day I could run 50k worth of traffic in a week to there offer and they might not pay me for whatever reason. Makes me very nervous. There has been a few networks active on this forum that quickly response and pay out there affs and explain themselves very well Im not going to name any names but you know who you are Im sticking with those
I agree, it takes brass balls to step directly into the line of fire.
Fuck me, does the rabbit hole never end?
Damn put on blast looks like ex-hydra employee went on the warpath. WOW this thread just made a crazy turn
while not taking sides here- as I have no firsthand info and really don't care- I just have a quick tip for the hydra exodus surely now creating the next new 'uber' network - reckless comments like this thrown about in a public forum complete with outing landing pages (I certainly hope those are all blatant fraud) doesn't exactly lead me to want to to business with you.
Especially in a time plagued by govt agencies looking into sketchy marketing practices/advertisers it wouldn't be prudent for me to do business with those who might fire off a comment that certainly could be incorrect. Given networks never have the full story about affiliates (oh- say about a rebill product perhaps?), a claim that a site of mine is de-frauding consumers with big brother reading/watching could be very costly. As they say- loose lips sink ships.
Thanks- I now have another upcomming super dupenetwork to stay away from along with ROI Share.
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