Heavy Reliance on Votes Responsible for Monitor Ineffectiveness

EDIT:  Please do not assume that the following article is directed towards any website in particular, especially ASA.  Most monitors exist to achieve a common goal:  Find stable companies and introduce them to others.  This article was not intended to be harsh, but rather straight and to the point.

 Most of you have visited at least some of the websites that monitor which companies in our industry are currently running an active rebate program.  Along with a “Paying” or “Not Paying” graphic and a star rating, you’ll find that most monitors encourage users to input positive or negative votes for various programs based on their individual experiences.  In and of itself, providing a product that allows users to gather information and share opinions with one another is wonderful.  However, advertising companies who have listings on the monitors are ranked from highest to lowest based on the total number of positive votes while most other attributes remain unconsidered.  As you can imagine, this creates several problems.

Premium Surfing is one of the larger paid-to-surf companies out there based on sales volume.  Unfortunately, monitors don’t factor in sales volume.  It may not be as easy to track (and track accurately) as votes are, but a validation system could be built to generate more accurate listings.  It would be nice to see more advanced solutions integrated into their products.  Currently, a company owner’s ability to extract votes from their customers is the deciding factor that determines a ranking.  As long as they don’t run into cash flow issues, appearing to be the #1 company industry-wide only requires several thousand clicks of the voting button.

Depending on what country you live in and how you interpret the rules, promotion of testimonials that include earnings figures may even be illegal.  However, a significant percentage of votes include the dollar amount the customer has received.  Though it is ultimately the advertising companies themselves who need to police this, it would be great to see the monitors develop an action plan since encouraging stability through legal activity is the ultimate reason for a monitor to exist.

You’ve probably noticed by now that I’ve referred to what monitors provide as a “product.”  Monitoring sites, along with YouTube, BlogThot.com and other online applications are all products.  Along with great service (as noted in previous articles on this blog), product development is key to creating happy customers in every industry – even paid-to-surf advertising.

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Author’s note:

Though change needs to take place, the reality is that we are still using the old system.  Please take the time to vote on the following monitors:

http://asamonitor.com/?a=details&lid=327#vote
http://globalearningsmonitor.com/?a=details&lid=52#vote
http://netsurfmonitor.com/?a=details&lid=44

You can include any of a number of different comments with your vote.  Mention that you believe in the program or enjoy the blog, just don’t forget to select “Very Good” as your rating. 

Negativity Doesn’t have to be Negative

Many people in the surfing community believe in a “no-negativity” policy.  They believe guarding against it can avoid the stereotypical mass exodus that pushes a program into a liquidity crunch.  Two years ago I worked for a company whose members believed in no negativity and sales went to zero anyway.  This company didn’t just threaten to take away their unhappy customers’ account balances like some now-defunct advertising sites have done in the past – it actually sued them!  Ultimately, the only growth experienced was in the size of the legal bills.

I have a better solution.  Every time someone has an issue with your program, most of the negativity can be overcome with solid customer support.  The problem with most of the companies in our industry is that they simply don’t step up and do what their customers require of them.  If you own an advertising company and you can’t answer all of the support requests, hire someone.  If you can’t afford to, perhaps you can enlist a friend to help you.  Team up with other program owners and share a support system.  If all else fails, call your mother – even if she lives in a different state.  Just get it done.

I personally respond to every single question that comes in.  Many of my members have my personal cell phone number.  I don’t have a business line because if I did, I may only feel inclined to answer it during business hours.  I work as hard as I can to make sure every single one of my customers is happy and informed and if I fail, negativity is the only way I’ll know.

When you deal with negativity correctly, positive things happen – positive things that wouldn’t have happened otherwise.