X Bang Cash - changes from pps to revenue share

[kalle7]

Hi all,
Got a real bad morning today as I got this e-mail from X Bang Cash:

"Effective at 5PM PST today, XBangcash will no longer a PPS program and will strictly be a 60% revenue share program. All $2.95 trials will be discontinued with the new revenue share program. "

They change the sign ups from $ 2,95 and up to $ 29,95. If they cant make money with pps how do they expect webmasters to make money with revenue share!

I am dropping all their links today - there are enough sponsors that dont suddenly turn their backs to their hard working webmasters.

IMHO, revenue share is a good thing when the sites have something special to offer, but X Bang cash is just another reality site provider - nothing special.

[Certifiedbitch]

oh that's really a bad news..they should have retained the PPS but only added the revenue share as part of the program.

[Ramster]

Originally Posted by kalle7

Hi all,
Got a real bad morning today as I got this e-mail from X Bang Cash:

They change the sign ups from $ 2,95 and up to $ 29,95. If they cant make money with pps how do they expect webmasters to make money with revenue share!

Not defending them by no means as I agree with you 100% on why offer PPS if you cannot afford to. Noone can pay $35 without crosssells, exit popups to other programs or some huge upsells inside.

Anyway my point in quoting you is them dropping the trial is the way webmasters will make money. If the surfer wants to join then they have to pay $30 and you make $18 per sale plus rebills.

Of course it seems not many people will rebill if they are dropping PPS

However I can tell you this. When a sponsor offers trial signups most programs only convert 25-30% trial to monthly and it is common to be at 20% or less (from what I'm told)

I never did anything with them personally.

[Cleo]

IMO revshare is the future. It is the most fair to everyone. Keeps the webmaster honest when selling the site. Keeps the site honest since they need to retain member's in order to keep their affiliates happy.

I'm sure that others will disagree with me but I think pay per join is going the way of the pay per click.

On a side note I just signed up with XBangCash this morning and noticed that revshare was the only choice.

[neticule]

Originally Posted by Cleo

I'm sure that others will disagree with me but I think pay per join is going the way of the pay per click.

Amen Cleo.
I totally agree with you, and one of the great side effects of getting rid of PPS is that members areas will get drastically better, in order to retain members.

[kalle7]

I guess they have been ahead of themselves when they started and offered pps from start instead of just going revshare. My problem is that when I am promoting revshare, I do it differently then when I am pushing pps. Right now I have some movie galleries up at some TGPs and they really burn bandwith and when the sponsor is changing to rev share it really messes things up for me. I have had good rates with X Bang Cash, but already I notice that it is taking a dive.

I promoted them heavy from start cause I thought that this program was worth it from reading their optimistic statements, but when they turn around and changes the terms like they now have done it messes up things up very badly for me. Right now I will have to try to get all the TGP galleries removed cause I dont want to end up loosing money for promoting them as I am sure I would if I would keep the galleries up. And when I think about all the extra work and wasted time that this will cause for me and other webmasters that have promoted them then I really get furious. A large percentage of my income the last couple of months have been from X Bang Cash and now when I have to remove it without beeing able to replace them, I will have to work a lot of extra hours to replace that loss of income. And all of that cause they did not know what they were doing. I guess that continuing to promote them will be a chance to take cause you never know what they might do next time.

I also agree that revshare is the future and it seems like many new sponsors already are going for that from start. But trying to push revshare on programs that have a lot of competition from other sponsors offering similar content is not easy. Especially TGP traffic that are spoiled with all sorts of cheap trails.

[HappySmut]

ah most defiantly revshare all the way especially for those certain affliate sites that can retain members all year long

[neticule]

Originally Posted by kalle7

I promoted them heavy from start cause I thought that this program was worth it from reading their optimistic statements, but when they turn around and changes the terms like they now have done it messes up things up very badly for me. Right now I will have to try to get all the TGP galleries removed cause I dont want to end up loosing money for promoting them as I am sure I would if I would keep the galleries up. And when I think about all the extra work and wasted time that this will cause for me and other webmasters that have promoted them then I really get furious. A large percentage of my income the last couple of months have been from X Bang Cash and now when I have to remove it without beeing able to replace them, I will have to work a lot of extra hours to replace that loss of income. And all of that cause they did not know what they were doing. I guess that continuing to promote them will be a chance to take cause you never know what they might do next time.

I feel for you man, I think one of the major points that needs to be brought up, is if a sponsor is going to do a major change like this, they need to give warning a few weeks ahead of time, if not 1-2 months.

[Rocco]

this is a new trend: thought it's common now that revshare progs are switching to pps - but these guys just make it the other way: starting with pps and then turning to revshare

[kalle7]

Originally Posted by neticule

I feel for you man, I think one of the major points that needs to be brought up, is if a sponsor is going to do a major change like this, they need to give warning a few weeks ahead of time, if not 1-2 months.

Thanks Neticule! When I check my e-mail I see that they sendt out a first time notice about this in an e-mail yesterday. One day warning reminds me more of a panic desition instead of a planned change.

[Verbal]

I think a lot of sponsors offer PPS to attract webmastes, and only later realize they can't bankroll it and have to go back to soley revshare. I'm actually surprised PPS is stilll around at all.

[LeeNoga]

Hi Everyone, I am here to discuss the happenings with you, bare with me my head still hurts and I am exhausted from all the reaction the last 24 hours...

The events over the last day came unexpected. Having been among this community for a decade I knew the impact it would have on many of you, and it literally broke my heart.

There is no eloquent way to say, we could not make the PPS model work and it was financial suicide.

We were given hours notice the trials would be discontinued, and somehow I never heard the part about no PPS. When I got the news late yesterday, it was chaos due to the transition.

I do not own the company, and I am not the one advising them. I do as I am told.

Do I agree with the decision to drop PPS? Yes, I do.

Do I agree with how fast things changed? No, I do not.

But, I am not privy to whats going on, and for them to take this drastic action, I do not believe they had much choice either.

But I commend them for taking corrective action, and it angers me that they were left in a situation that compromised them.

However, I have so much admiration for their drive and determination to rebuild and they will grow and prosper in time.

I hear your voices and you have pulled your links. Is it really necessary to say hurtful things as well?

Yes, 99.5% of our webmasters were PPS, and of course, we expect them to leave.

The #1 question is if we are going to be successful running a revshare program, how can we rise above. "Common".

Let me address this:

We used to have 11 stand alone sites, that had exclusive content shot for that site. The amount of content was not enough to retain member.

As of today...

Each of our 11 sites, now offer the exclusive content from 6 XBC additional sites, for the same price of $29.95.

This has alot of appeal because we tested XBang.com, and offered 5 sites content for 1 price, no trials and charged more. The results were astounding.

SO, we are not "common" folks, we are a content company that has alot more options then some.

If the surfer wants 3 new movies a day, 90 new movies a month, we will give it to them.

I just wanted to come out and say, I love each and every one of you that supported us from Day 1 as a PPS program.

Today is a new beginning and our new reality and I will embrace it and will emerge and rebuild from the wreckage.

I hope over time I earn you business back and there is enough buzz about XBC you give revshare a shot.

I apologize from the bottom of my heart for all the impact our changes had on your lives, wallet and time. But I want to believe XBC had no choice or chance to plan a smoother transition.

God Bless, and I love you.

[Jim]

Lee, there are a lot of ways to make PPS work. But the bottom line is you have to be prepared to lose a ton of money the first few months.

[neticule]

Thank you for posting Lee, it really does sound like you yourself have had a very rough time with the transition - I know it has pissed off alot of people, but hopefully your very thoughtful post will help them forgive and forget, and continue to promote you folks.

But my question is, wasnt there any warning signs, say 1-2 months ago that at some point soon money would be lost due to PPS? It seems as though, the way I see it, Xbang had no idea that PPS would go bad for them until just 2 days ago or so, which really does not make sense.

Either way, thanks for your post, im sure people will atleast find it relieving that someone working at Xbang is going through just as much stress as they are.

[Lunatic]

Originally Posted by Jim

Lee, there are a lot of ways to make PPS work. But the bottom line is you have to be prepared to lose a ton of money the first few months.

Like not offer revshare at all and pay a high PPS commision to attract and retain webmasters. Then the sponsor keeps all the recurring for themselves. There's at least one major sponsor that's done this exact thing, and they used to have revshare as an option.

[kalle7]

Hi LeeNoga,

Thank you for your post and the effort to try to explain the situation with XBC. I do understand that you are not in charge and that you have not made the decisions that have taken place during the last two days. I accept your apology, but first of all it seems like it is not your appologiy that would be in place and for the second apologies don’t pay my bills.

I would appreciate if you would take this message and bring it on to the ones that are in charge of XBC cause the way they have messed up things for webmasters they should really have posted their apology and explanation in person.

It is very strange for me to see how XBC have been sending out signals in the last couple of months how well things were going and how the company would continue to succeed in the future, but suddenly XBC is on the edge of bankrupsy because the pps model did not work as planned. Giving one days notice for changing the pps program to revenue share model is hardly any time at all when webmasters have been hard at work for months to get the marketing tools up for sending you all the traffic they can. Some signals of this development surely must have appeared on an earlier stage so that more proper actions could have been taken.

I really don’t see that hurtful things has been posted, but harsh critic you have to expect when the company turns over from pps to revenue share with one days notice. Most webmasters are working hard to get a pay check they can live by at the end of each month cause we are "common folks" and changing the terms so drastically is not a very good way to say “thank you for the support” or “continue the good work”. Actually I would rather call it very unprofessional and I don’t see that change because the program goes from pps to revenue share.

Quote - “But I want to believe XBC had no choice or chance to plan a smoother transition”. I really hope that they had a choice to plan a smoother transaction cause if they did not, then it only witness about a company without any financial control. And it would also confirm my earlier suspicion that this decision is made in a hurry caused by panic.

I am a bit surprised to see that XBC has gone from 11 individual sites with pps to combining each site with the content from 6 additional XBC sites in the revenue share model. Would it not have been an idea to test that out for the pps model when XBC noticed that there were not enough content on each of the individual sites alone to retain the members? But instead of trying out other solutions for retaining members XBC decides that it would be better to change the terms for the webmasters that sends the traffic that any program is dependent on to survive. Again it shows me that XBC is not a company that will be interesting for me personally to promote in the future cause they take the easy way out of problems by changing other peoples terms, instead of using a bit of imagination to solve the problem internally within XBC where the real problem obvious still exists.

[Certifiedbitch]

thanks for clearing that up Lee.

so goodluck!

[ForestL]

Originally Posted by LeeNoga

Hi Everyone, I am here to discuss the happenings with you, bare with me my head still hurts and I am exhausted from all the reaction the last 24 hours...

The events over the last day came unexpected. Having been among this community for a decade I knew the impact it would have on many of you, and it literally broke my heart.

There is no eloquent way to say, we could not make the PPS model work and it was financial suicide.

We were given hours notice the trials would be discontinued, and somehow I never heard the part about no PPS. When I got the news late yesterday, it was chaos due to the transition.

I do not own the company, and I am not the one advising them. I do as I am told.

Do I agree with the decision to drop PPS? Yes, I do.

Do I agree with how fast things changed? No, I do not.

But, I am not privy to whats going on, and for them to take this drastic action, I do not believe they had much choice either.

But I commend them for taking corrective action, and it angers me that they were left in a situation that compromised them.

However, I have so much admiration for their drive and determination to rebuild and they will grow and prosper in time.

I hear your voices and you have pulled your links. Is it really necessary to say hurtful things as well?

Yes, 99.5% of our webmasters were PPS, and of course, we expect them to leave.

The #1 question is if we are going to be successful running a revshare program, how can we rise above. "Common".

Let me address this:

We used to have 11 stand alone sites, that had exclusive content shot for that site. The amount of content was not enough to retain member.

As of today...

Each of our 11 sites, now offer the exclusive content from 6 XBC additional sites, for the same price of $29.95.

This has alot of appeal because we tested XBang.com, and offered 5 sites content for 1 price, no trials and charged more. The results were astounding.

SO, we are not "common" folks, we are a content company that has alot more options then some.

If the surfer wants 3 new movies a day, 90 new movies a month, we will give it to them.

I just wanted to come out and say, I love each and every one of you that supported us from Day 1 as a PPS program.

Today is a new beginning and our new reality and I will embrace it and will emerge and rebuild from the wreckage.

I hope over time I earn you business back and there is enough buzz about XBC you give revshare a shot.

I apologize from the bottom of my heart for all the impact our changes had on your lives, wallet and time. But I want to believe XBC had no choice or chance to plan a smoother transition.

God Bless, and I love you.

Good post Lee!

[Rorschach]

Sounds like someone didn't do enough testing before they opened their program... tut tut tut.

[webgurl]

Any webmaster with half a brain would know what really is going on .