Over the last few days a few webmasters have been moaning about search links being clicked but no searches done...which is fair enough to a certain degree..
but, They always go blaming the members for not clicking, have they ever thought that the pages load so slow and sometimes never appear! too late then...the member already has the cash in their accounts.
With the amount of PTR's sending searches in a day as well as email's I'm not gonna sit round twiddling my thumbs waiting for a page to load..I've got cash to earn!...(I have a 600k broadband connection btw) The search pages dont always come up for me.
Now there are more people using search engines these days they are getting crowded....All I ask is that the webmasters have this in mind before shooting their mouths off at members.

agreed

Took the words right outta my mouth.

Yep and another thing, some of these newer search engines are dreadful, you put a common word in like "Insurance" and get no results!

I'm sorry, but I don't have all day sitting there trying to guess what search words reap a result.

Can't remember which engines they are but Luv2Search is one, whatever you put in never gives you a result!!!

Oh, I forgot to say, yes I TOTALLY agree, some of these SE's take years to load and considering some of the programs offer pityful amount like 0.000000000001 of a cent, can they really expect us to sit around waiting?

I clicked on a preinserted keyword tonight that said checkbooks
one of the results was find checkbooks at something 89.com
I don't remember exactly the name of it but HOLY COW.It was a porn
site and trust me u won't find any checkbooks there.Not for sale anyway

By the Way Happy Birthday kittysdoc

ROFL!!!!

Well, you guys are correct... the low link pay is to accomodate all those non-searchers, however... It's a nasty vicious cycle. I reward my searchers ineptly, low link pay, but then when I get paid I send out a nice five cent search link.

I LOATHE searches. I do them for PJ and CashPO and THAT'S IT!

Yeah but Brenda, what if a load of them get fed-up with these low search links, quit the program and never see these 5 cent links!

I reckon the only solution is, to make scripts that track whether the user has clicked through a search, don't know if its possible, but surely thats a better solution to rewarding users with low rewards to compensate the cheats!

I don't own a site, but if there are so many non-searchers that click through, why do you send searches? It seems pointless and only gives the program a bad name!

the problem with that Brian is as I stated in the wrong thread...I also loathe searches but I do them. However they also come with pop ups which freeze my computer then after a reboot I try to finish the search and it says error you have already visited and been paid.....I am basically honest....too honest sometimes I should really think before I post but nevertheless if these links were tracked I would be deemed a cheat when this is absolutely NOT the case

Brian I am still a non-owner, but I think most send out a few searches because they don't always have ads to send out and members like getting regular emails. I mean you won't be in a program that only send out a 1cent ad weekly would you? So they send out a few searches that week and instead of 1 1center you get 1 1center plus 6 .1centers. lol.

tmk1075, I suppose you're right

But the ones that get on my nerves are the sites that send us a barrage of 0.10 cent (if we're lucky) searches...grrrrrrrr

What puzzles me is, how come programs like CosmicWealth, Emaillionaires, etc ALWAYS reward us with 1 cent per click, but other sites try and con us into clicking for minute fractions of a cent?

I'm sure the before-mentioned sites get as many cheats not going through with the searches?

Yep Shelly, I know what you mean regarding the pop-ups, I myself find it impossible to go through with some searches due to computer freezes caused by pop-ups.

All they (the web masters) need to do to stop this, is just penalise "Constant" offenders!

That way, honest users like yourself (and me too) won't get punished, after all, if the webmaster is hitting us with pop-ups, they've already had some income off the hit and if the pop-up causes a freeze, then its their own problem for being greedy, not ours!

Good point. Sometimes after you get to the search page, you can't search because the serach engine server is not working. Or they got so many blasted banners it takes forever just to have the search paid load not counting pop ups from ###### that do a good job trying to freeze your cp.
Be great if WM would make a link to click on to report adverisers that have gone from a reasonable ad, to unreasonable. Your paid for so many seconds, not minutes.

and i also forgot which search engine, but they only allow like 30 per IP addy. sometimes, i haven't even searched the whole day and i still get that message. and i noticed that the IP addy is something to something... like it becomes 30 valid searches for 3 IP addys. so even if i wanted to search, i still can't get a valid one.

i just think that every search should be properly labeled so those who hate searches as myself could easily skip that cuz thats what i always do. soemtimes, though, its too late cuz i'm already credited... thats the only reason for me to do a search! that and for charity.

It's not just your individual IP addy that counts as part of the 30 search limit; often it's every IP that dials in to a particular access number (if you have a dial-up modem connection).

I run into this problem every day and it's frustrating as all get-out.

When webmasters post search links but don't identify the particular search engine, I am taking a chance when I click the link, as I may not be able to give them credit for a legitimate search (that darned security error message comes up).
...and of course, by then I've received credit for clicking the link but the webmaster didn't get their legit search........

Thank you shelly

I usually only get the security error notice when I use AOL
If I use another browser it works fine

Half the time its the popups that are slowing the search results page loading and causing crashes...sometimes there can be round 5 popups plus ya results page trying to load.
Your right brenda It's a nasty vicious cycle...but what can webmasters do to change this..the search engine programs wont alter much because they're raking it in..so I dont think they will be bothered too much about this...but something has to alter or this vicious cycle will just continue, but for how long. Surely in todays technology it wouldn't be too hard to write a cheat proof script for searches and/or paid email...and I for one welcome that day...we as members of the PTR world will then hopefully get paid the true amount we deserve and not the amount we get paid at the moment because of cheaters lowering credits...
Its not our fault as members of a PTR that the program has cheaters in all aspects of its system...but its us as members that pay for it....So we need "100%" Anti cheat scripts of some type to combat the problem...and a different way of getting what we deserve for the search results we click so as to avoid be labeled a cheat through no fault of our own.

Thats what I have always said tmk1075. I send search links out because I havent had alot of advertisers lately....BUT I dont agree with webmasters moaning and giving threats about searching. Mine always says its a paid search and if you dont intend to search please dont click the link. For the most part I believe members are honest. The ones that hate searchs simply dont do it. I pay my members .50 per searech and when I try a new company and do get paid after that I give 3 random members a bonus who do a search every time I send one out to that company.

I try to make sure I send at least 1 email a day to my members and believe me 75% our my own links and coming out of my own pocket so to speak..so it helps to send paid searchs out because hopefully that company will pay and I will get something back from it to pay the members.

Its hard members complain if you dont send emails out....yet they complain if you send searchs too...go figure. I rarely send out entire search emails and if I do I make sure to state that in the subject line so people who arent interested can just delete it. I place one search link in each email and its of course it's optional if anyone wants to search.

I've evolved my own policy on search links over the past few weeks:

If you send me a link that is labeled search, then if I click on it I'll think up a search, and click on at least one of the results.

If you send me a search link that isn't labelled as such (i.e. just included in with other PTR links), I may or may not actually do the search. I won't feel obligated.

If you send me a search link that's already got a search term in it and doesn't give me the chance to put in my own search, I will definitely not click on any of the results. If I'm going to do a search, I want to do my own.

Since I'm given to understand that there's a limit on how many searches you can do with a particular search engine each day and have everyone get credit for them -- I want to pick which programs I do searches for.

Bullet

I can think of a solution to the whole vicious cycle: Each search link is worth a Searchpoint (or more than 1 if that engine is high-paying), and at the end of the week or month, the total revenue from the search links that's getting paid out is split among the points. Sure, the people who search get the same amount as those who don't search, but hopefully if people see that the amount they get per click is DIRECTLY related to more people searching, they'll go out of their way to spend 10-15 seconds.

jon

the way i see this is:if u dont like to do searches or think the pages take forever to load or whatever,simply skip that section of the email or even better,if u feel like a program sends way too many search links,unsubscribe...

and to all who just click and dont make searches...u really are cheating yourselves coz at least 90% of the webmasters i know re-invest the money from engines into their ptrs...payouts and hosting fees etc.

everyone else,use pop-up killers,i've found that it helps alot to have one of those things

nice idea jon

thats true nze but if you are using IE but I have 2 pop up killers and neither one works on AOL 8.0 or MSN 8.0 which are my two main browsers

Shelly which popup killers are you using? I'm just curious.
I may have a solution for you if you are not using the one i am currently running.

To comment on the searches, a few webmasters I know have resorted to one of two ways to deal with this issue.
1. have a search button added to the member's interests section so that only those actually interested in searching receive those emails.
2. Send an email to your membership base requesting that a set # of people email you their interest in searching and make this a special interest group or search group. You don't need to send out more emails to these individuals just label the searches as specal interest group. Or alternately set up a search page for these searchers to access such as another ptre that I am a member of has done. PM me if you want clarification about this page.
I am just passing on the info as food for thought.
i am not a webmaster and do not even pretend to know how much more work this might entail so if webmasters feel these suggestions are more of a headache to implement than just dealing with the non-searches I will understand.

Thank you for your time,

serenemom

I don't like searches and only do them when I accidentally click a link. I do not like it at all webmasters don't tell me it is a search email, and when I click the link, voila a search engine instead of a real ad. I hate that.

There outa be a law......

I am using panicware at the moment...I was using stopzilla but the free trial ran out

I know there is one called whack a pop that claims to work on these browsers but it isn't free

Sorry Shelly I can't help with the popup problem caus the one I use isn't free either and won't work for your AOL but i'll keep you in mind if I run across any that are compatable.

serenemom

I use POW! by Analog X. It's the best pop up killer I have found and it's free!

http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/n...network/pow.htm

Was just gonna recommend POW

thanks I'll try it

Yes I agree about ptr sending out searches worth .1 cent. At least a half cent. If the owner is not getting enough revenue back from search engines then I would suggest they get a new affiliate search engine to use. I think I average about 80% on clicking the results on the search pages. Sometimes I close accidently other times it doesn't load properly or takes entirely too long (1min +). So I am not perfect with it. I think some programs could change this and as far as the programs that pay 1 cent per search I am willing to wait longer to click on the results because those programs are usually good ones and I want to support those as mch as possible.

This a a pat on the back for Mary, but pbe, key-email, and emailionairesemail are all in my top 10 favorite and recommended programs list. They have the 3/4 to 1 cent search links in the mails and 1/2 to 1 cent search links on the ptc page.

type zdnet.com in your searchbar. They have free proggies there.

I tried those free programs if you are referring to the pop-up killers! They Byte!

You must of seen the advertisers cost, not all of them have it but some do. I seen as high as .61 to as low as .0125
Just a wild guess but I wonder if they can only upgrade to better ones if they have
a high enough site visitor count? Like some of the banner companies that pay WM.

Yes I have seen the advertisers cost and if you check around you will notice that the higher paying search engines usally only pay 25% or so with a max for those at 50%. This is because they offer matching deposits to advertisers. So if you deposit $10 with the search engine they give you $20 in credit. So they are losing if they pay 50% of advertised click rates. Also if you look on ebay you will see you that you can get very large accounts ($1000+) with search engines for just a couple dollars. These engines can't even pay close to 50%. Plus you have to account that I would estimate 1/4 of members in the ptre click but don't search so this is even more of a drain on the available money. Personally I don't mind doing a search for a penny. If I want to make more then I will sign up at the search engine myself. (yes I have). If I don't need the extra money in my account or don't have the time I don't click the search links.

See this ad on ebay (mods no it is not mine this is just for reference)
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...item=1789216139

I don't mind doing searches if they are paying at least 1/2 cent but the one that drives me crazy is the one the pays 1/4 cent and tells you to click on at least 2 or 3 results. lol

Oh yes................

oh, oh worse yet....


.005c, it's on a 30 sec timer and you don't know until you click......EEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKK