The Ugly Side Of Running A Network

Ruck

New member
Mar 13, 2007
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O-Town Florida
convert2media.com
I've never been one to hide away from a situation and I've tried to be open as possible about business online, offline, shows etc but I had a situation today that just completely pissed me off. As long as we started C2M we had one goal in mind that was to NEVER run the offers publishers with us were running.

I would first like to say that this post is being put up because I've seen a fair share of shit posted all over the web and talked about at shows regarding CPA Networks so as the drama ensues, I've always been one to embrace it headon.

Today I had a situation arrive with one of my managers inquiring about traffic sources from a publisher. Why in the world they did this, I have no idea.

I have gotten in to some media buying but need to expand and really find the one or two that is not going to eat my money up and waste
my time (ie...pulse, adsonar) I am looking in to adblade and tribal
for running a diet campaign. What do you think?
I've had my fair share of legalities thru business so I wont post any names. However I immediately saw this and saw what the publisher saw. I saw one of my manager's from what it looks like, attempting to start running campaigns on their own. I have strict rules that explicitly state that this is not allowed. I called this publisher and informed them that I would be investigating and we did.

Our manager claims that this was taken out of context and that he was trying to help the publisher. It's hard as a manager to give out traffic sources without being ridiculed. You give a pub some help, they love you. If it strangles another pub's business, they hate you.

There is no easy way around it. I'm the type that doesnt take chances and after the review and investigation, I had to let this manager go. A real drama ensued day so far, I just thought I would do a pre-emptive strike to get it here first. Since we've let this manager go, I am not going to comment on anything else because I have no idea where it would lead regarding legal. Who knows, a lot of crap happens in business.

The shittiest part of this is that almost ALL networks run internally yet when we dont run offers from our network, we still have a problem like this arise.

We do work in the surveys market and I always have since I been online, this was just frustrating.
 


Donald Trump likes to say "Hire the best, but don't trust them." Just because you let a guy go in a drama filled business doesn't mean it's cause for a lot of frustration. Posts like this coming from you is the reason a lot of us trust you and continue to want to work with you!
 
What? Why wouldn't you want your managers running their own campaigns? Is it just because they would be competing with your own publishers? So what! If I was running my own network, then I would want my managers to run their own campaigns so they know what the current trends are in the industry. In fact, I would probably never hire a manager who wasn't running their own campaigns. I know Smax feels this way about A4D. What do the other networks generally do regarding their managers doing their own campaigns in their own time.

I see the problem with asking your publisher about a traffic source, and I see the problem with him or her doing this while they are on the clock or your dime (assuming that was the case), but I don't see why you would have a policy against them ever running their own campaigns which seems to be the main reason you let this manager go.
 
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I have an explicit by-law about competing within the network. People who work with us, know this. So for even a situation like this to arise, it goes against our policies.

As for not allowing our managers to run campaigns, that's just the way we do things. Each network is different, so you are going off topic.
 
I'm gonna be the one to out the manager, I don't give a fuck.

It's Billy. His photo is still on their "meet the team", but I know for a FACT that he's not working ANYWHERE at the moment..
 
I've been running EWA for a bit now. I started it off to create a community of my personal friends so we can all band together to get the best payouts on offers possible - we still maintain that.

There is nothing. I repeat, nothing, glamorous about running a network. I'm busier now than I have ever been. I'm working 20 hours a day, managing a team, chasing advertisers that don't pay, floating my life on EWA, helping out affiliates, and adding new offers.

It's not as easy as it looks. We just got our first account manager and it's a personal friend of mine and I've had nothing but good times with him. I'm starting to distribute work and affiliates in his direction to help the process move quicker and assist everyone.

It's hard - but I'm going to keep chugging forward.
 
I've been running EWA for a bit now. I started it off to create a community of my personal friends so we can all band together to get the best payouts on offers possible - we still maintain that.

There is nothing. I repeat, nothing, glamorous about running a network. I'm busier now than I have ever been. I'm working 20 hours a day, managing a team, chasing advertisers that don't pay, floating my life on EWA, helping out affiliates, and adding new offers.

It's not as easy as it looks. We just got our first account manager and it's a personal friend of mine and I've had nothing but good times with him. I'm starting to distribute work and affiliates in his direction to help the process move quicker and assist everyone.

It's hard - but I'm going to keep chugging forward.
get your self promoting out of this thread you faggot
 
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I've always felt my AMs had no idea what they were talking about with regard to the actual marketing side of things. Buying traffic, writing copy, designing LPs, etc.

Just a thought.
 

Regardless of whether or not it is the best way to run your network, if that is your policy the employee would have to know that he was forcing your hand. How are you supposed to maintain integrity with publishers if it seems that you don't enforce policy that you designed to support them?

If I were the ex-employee I couldn't even hold it against you for letting me go. If I were the publisher I probably don't expect perfection, but I do expect problems to be handled properly which seems like just what you did.

*shrug*