Another rant for you…

WidgetBucks launched in the fall of 2007 and it looked pretty sweet; I’ll admit to checking it out and liking the widgets. It got some praise, some hate, and a lot of people who kept asking “did you get paid yet?” after the ads had been running about three days…

Despite all the ensuing hatred, I tried it out in a limited run on some gadget sites and the payouts were pretty good. Then, once people reported they had been paid, I ramped it up and was certainly pleased - roughly 40-60 cents per click! (Compared to 10-20 cents per click with Adsense.)

Even when they switched to super-low CPM rates for international publishers, I was happy with my RPC payouts.

But then one tragic day my RPC dropped to like four cents per click!

Yes, one of my gadget sites was showing those cheesy smiley face ads instead of the widgets! And this was a USA traffic site!

I switched to better networks like Chitika and Adsense and even ShoppingAds, all of which worked better than the WidgetBucks CPM ads.

I was going to let this slide by, until I got a recent email from WidgetBucks with this statement:

CPC rates have have dropped significantly since this past weekend (March 29-30). We are working through those issues with partners right now and anticipate these rates will rise again within the next seven days. Incidentally, this drop we are seeing is not unique to the WidgetBucks network when it comes to shopping CPC rates right now; nonetheless, we’re working to get those CPC rates back to their week-ago levels.

See, my problems began long before March 29th. I was already getting just a few cents per click… If my payouts had dropped any lower, I would have owed WidgetBucks money!

[Stay tuned for more rants…]

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The local favorite Joel Comm has hit yet another home run today. As if the confusing Adsense placements weren’t doing enough for him, today he emailed me about about a new service that works out great when used alongside Adsense. He says it’s “something new which pays off INSTANTLY!”

Well, are you excited??!

Me too. Now get ready for the shocker…

It’s “called WidgetBucks, and it is probably the most sophisticated and ingenious contextual product unit I have ever seen!”

Holy crap, look at that. WidgetBucks. Really, I’ve never heard of that one before. I can’t wait to go and be the first to post about it at the Digitalpoint forums!! I will be so cool, totally pwning those n00bs that only use Adsense.

There’s also a $25 bonus, which is great for Christmas. But I wonder if it’s the same $25 bonus I got back in October? The same one that you only get when you earn enough for the minimum payment that is certainly higher than $25…

Nah… couldn’t be.

I’m sure that this is a brand new service that no one has heard about yet, let alone written about before. Why else would someone call it “something new which pays off INSTANTLY!”

If you want $25 for nothing, keep dreaming. But if you want to join WidgetBucks, put lots of work in, and then get a $25 bonus when you get paid a month or two later, take a look at WidgetBucks.

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WidgetBucks has been in the headlines since the day of its launch. There was A LOT of positive press, especially in the beginning, from the cool looking widgets to the great payouts.

For example, Zac Johnson blogged about it and Sean of WidgetBucks even stopped by to comment. And as with any opportunity to make more money, John Chow promoted it.

A little bit of positive press too:

• WidgetBucks Top Performer (WidgetBucks generating some buzz about huge revenues)
• Earnings Update (Earnings screenshots… hmm I thought this was not allowed based on their terms…)

But the buzz couldn’t last forever…

Especially with a Google penalty!

So here’s the negativity:

• Screw you and your terms (WidgetBucks is way too greedy. They’ll probably claim rights to your first born child.)
• A 0.04% CTR is click fraud? (WidgetBucks is not your friend.)
• The truth comes out (straight from the horse’s mouth)
• WidgetBucks Is Run By Monkeys
• Widget Sucks (catchy domain name lol)

Did I mention the forums are going crazy about the suspensions? (i.e. WidgetBucks is scamming publishers out of lots of money)

• WidgetBucks takes back $1400
• No US traffic? You’re screwed.
• Which network sucks less?
• Their generic email about fraudulent activity.
• There’s no money in WidgetBucks
• You call this an explanation?
• Jumping through hoops
• They think my site is pr0n
• In the red

If you’re still hungry for more, try the WidgetBucks review blog. Or the official WidgetBucks blog, which is full of negative comments from publishers!

In light of all this, I think the best thing to do would be to click my affiliate link, join WidgetBucks, and hope that they screw you out of money so you can be part of all this fun! (which will only get more exciting when checks are supposed to go out…)

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