Payments for January will be made before the QuizAds launch at end of month.
QUOTE
In this update:
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1. Poor Response Rates
2. Multiple Mailings
3. Clean Up of Inactive Members
4. Results of Our Actions
5. How to Use Your Credits
6. Emergency Holds Are Ready!
7. QuizAds™ Are Coming
8. Comments, Please!
===============================
1. Poor Response Rates
Some of you have experienced poor initial response rates for your email ads. We take this very seriously and will address this issue in this update. The following two sections will describe what we've done and what we've yet to do to eliminate this problem.
2. Multiple Mailings
From the results of our very first mailing we became aware that we had a significant amount of inactive Members. The total is somewhere near 20%.
To reduce the effect that this has on your response rate we began sending out more emails than were actually ordered by the Advertisers. For example, someone that ordered 2,500 emails would have up to 3,250 sent out on their behalf. If the response rate was still poor after a week, we'd send out smaller mailings of the same ad until we were satisfied with the results. There were times that we didn't meet our guarantee and there were other times when we actually exceeded our guarantee, even if it was 100%!
While it may be great to get more than you paid for or credit for what you didn't receive, we are still determined to provide a more consistent and reliable response to your ads. This can be achieved by removing our inactive Members.
3. Clean Up of Inactive Members
Beginning February 15 we will begin closing accounts of inactive Members.
An inactive Member is someone that has not logged in to his or her account or responded to an ad in the previous calendar month. At the end of January we sent notices to all such Members. As standard procedure, inactive Members will receive a warning notice on the 1st, 5th, and 10th of every month warning them that their account is in danger of termination. If they fail to login or respond to an ad by the 15th, their account will be closed. We have already sent out all notices for
January's inactivity and we will begin closing accounts on the 15th.
4. Results of Our Actions
We expect that our actions will result in a more consistent response rate, especially from initial mailings. Of course, if we come up short, we will send your ad multiple times until it expires. If we still haven't met our guarantee, your account will be credited for the responses you did not get.
5. How to Use Your Credits
If your account has Normal Ad credits you can use them now by logging in to your Advertiser account. You will see a row at the very top of our rate table that shows how many credits you have. If you have more than 500 you can place a free order just as though it were a regular order.
All credits accrued must be used in their entirety as one order. Your total credits cannot exceed our total Membership base, currently at just over 10,000.
6. Emergency Holds Are Ready!
Our Emergency Hold feature is finally ready. An Emergency Hold is one of our 5 waste-fighting features that can only be found on RTW! If these Holds are new to you, you can read all about them on our Advertiser's Tour or within the Advertiser's Area. Login to your account and click on Emergency Hold.
7. QuizAds™ Are Coming
Many of you have written to ask when we will begin accepting orders for QuizAds™. We believe we should have this ready to go by the end of the month. One major problem we are facing is that we are just days away from sending our first payments to Members. As our payment system is still "untested" we are focusing a great deal of our resources to ensuring that all will go well. We are giving payments priority over QuizAds™.
Thank you for your understanding and continued patience!
===============================
1. Poor Response Rates
2. Multiple Mailings
3. Clean Up of Inactive Members
4. Results of Our Actions
5. How to Use Your Credits
6. Emergency Holds Are Ready!
7. QuizAds™ Are Coming
8. Comments, Please!
===============================
1. Poor Response Rates
Some of you have experienced poor initial response rates for your email ads. We take this very seriously and will address this issue in this update. The following two sections will describe what we've done and what we've yet to do to eliminate this problem.
2. Multiple Mailings
From the results of our very first mailing we became aware that we had a significant amount of inactive Members. The total is somewhere near 20%.
To reduce the effect that this has on your response rate we began sending out more emails than were actually ordered by the Advertisers. For example, someone that ordered 2,500 emails would have up to 3,250 sent out on their behalf. If the response rate was still poor after a week, we'd send out smaller mailings of the same ad until we were satisfied with the results. There were times that we didn't meet our guarantee and there were other times when we actually exceeded our guarantee, even if it was 100%!
While it may be great to get more than you paid for or credit for what you didn't receive, we are still determined to provide a more consistent and reliable response to your ads. This can be achieved by removing our inactive Members.
3. Clean Up of Inactive Members
Beginning February 15 we will begin closing accounts of inactive Members.
An inactive Member is someone that has not logged in to his or her account or responded to an ad in the previous calendar month. At the end of January we sent notices to all such Members. As standard procedure, inactive Members will receive a warning notice on the 1st, 5th, and 10th of every month warning them that their account is in danger of termination. If they fail to login or respond to an ad by the 15th, their account will be closed. We have already sent out all notices for
January's inactivity and we will begin closing accounts on the 15th.
4. Results of Our Actions
We expect that our actions will result in a more consistent response rate, especially from initial mailings. Of course, if we come up short, we will send your ad multiple times until it expires. If we still haven't met our guarantee, your account will be credited for the responses you did not get.
5. How to Use Your Credits
If your account has Normal Ad credits you can use them now by logging in to your Advertiser account. You will see a row at the very top of our rate table that shows how many credits you have. If you have more than 500 you can place a free order just as though it were a regular order.
All credits accrued must be used in their entirety as one order. Your total credits cannot exceed our total Membership base, currently at just over 10,000.
6. Emergency Holds Are Ready!
Our Emergency Hold feature is finally ready. An Emergency Hold is one of our 5 waste-fighting features that can only be found on RTW! If these Holds are new to you, you can read all about them on our Advertiser's Tour or within the Advertiser's Area. Login to your account and click on Emergency Hold.
7. QuizAds™ Are Coming
Many of you have written to ask when we will begin accepting orders for QuizAds™. We believe we should have this ready to go by the end of the month. One major problem we are facing is that we are just days away from sending our first payments to Members. As our payment system is still "untested" we are focusing a great deal of our resources to ensuring that all will go well. We are giving payments priority over QuizAds™.
Thank you for your understanding and continued patience!