Yep, for about the last week, I’ve decided that I’ve not only been pretty sheltered being a part of the Work at Home Network/Community but I also intend to stay there!
From my other posts, most of you are aware that I’ve been involved with the BETA of Pay Per Play. Well, in doing so, I joined the Pay-Per-Play Forums. Made sense to me - I would learn more about PPP, share ideas with other members and well, maybe I would open up my network of friends a bit. Hmm … after my experience there, I don’t believe I will be making that opening too big to say the least.Â
I have NEVER seen a bunch of adults acting the way they were there. NEVER! Nor was I ever treated as poorly as I was from other members on the PPP Forums.
Long story short, there were some issues right before the planned official launch of Net Audio Ads on February 1st. To be honest with you … strictly my own opinion but I honestly believe someone got cold feet at the last moment - and for good reason. They have … I don’t even know exactly how many affiliates … but it’s in the thousands. Well, at the last minute someone decided - whoa - do you think it’s a good idea to start this launch wiht these thousands of affiliates all starting to play ads at once? they were afraid of it crashing the system launching like that. So, they decided to do a ’soft launch’ … playing the ads on only so many sites to start. That way if there was a bug, since they ARE in BETA … it could be caught much more quickly.
Makes total sense to me … I mean even WE did a soft launch for MyWahmSpace.com. We’re not even comparing apples to oranges there.  No where near in size - and not really money involved - except the money we paid for the program. Oh and to top it off … they still had a couple of bugs after they started the soft launch. (Heck, we’re still dealing with bugs at MyWahmSpace.com.) So yeah, they had to take good care of their advertisers money. Loose the advertisers and you have nothing. Again, yeah, makes perfect sense to me. Others apparently just didn’t see it that way.
So anyway, this last minute decision apparently ticked off a lot of people. Right away people started screaming scam, saying how they were mislead in telling them that the launch day was to be 2/1 yadda, yadda, yadda …
Well first of all .. and the most important thoughts here … They are in BETA. Everyone knew when they joined that PPP was in BETA. And what does BETA mean? BETA means … we’re testing. So of course things like this are going to happen, right? Ha, yeah right. These people thought this program should have taken off immediately - smooth sailing from there on out. Good dream people! Wish I could exist in your perfect world.
Secondly … the launch DID start. They just started it more slowly. They were being cautious for pete’s sake!
So what do people start doing? You’re gonna love this. Some people that had ads playing started posting links to their pages so people could hear the ads! Oh my gosh!?! What could possibly be going through some people’s heads? I’ll never know.
That’s like starting a PPC campaign w/ adsense and giving everyone links to their ads telling them to click the ads. Hello people! I bet the advertisers would LOVE that!! Dare I say it? Moron!!
Then there were issues with the stats. (Yeah, I could go on and on about these people!) Net Audio ads was telling us, no you cannot see your ads yet on your stats page but don’t worry … the system is still gathering the information. You will see this as soon as the stats pages are back up. Of course all these people didn’t believe this and yep, you guessed it … screaming scam again.
Turns out … and I can prove this with my own stats … Once the stats came back up, they WERE gathering information the entire time they were down. I know this because at the time, I was strictly monitoring my own traffic/sign ups etc. At the time, nothing was “live” on my site (where you could visit the pages from within my site). I was only telling a few people about the affiliate program and was only giving the page to a couple of people. I knew exactly who went and who signed up. Yep, my stats showed this.
Okay and now here’s why I will be much more careful if I ever participate in BETA program again (and I’m sure I will.)
So there’s all these complaints, negativity, people NOT reading the updates … just plain old ball-babying. I actually refer it to a two year old going through terrible twos throwing a temper tantrum. I am serious … this is really how these people were behaving (yes, I say behaving just like we would to a child).
There’s a group of us who are willing to do exactly what we signed up for … taking the BETA ride. Knowing that there will be issues w/ anything in BETA. We started replying with things like: “Hey guys, don’t forget we’re in BETA.” “Be patient, things will come.” “This is BETA and things like this are bound to happen.” “Whats all the complaining about? They did launch.” “Just think what it’s going to be like when this really takes off and we’re a part of the beginning.” “Wouldn’t you have loved to have been a founding member of adsense?” Yadda, yadda, yadda…
Wow! Was that the wrong way to go! Being positive was definitely NOT welcome there! Anyone who replied with a positive comment on a negative post got flamed big time. They even resorted to name calling. I know because another gentleman and I personally was called an (Excuse me here…) an a$$ kisser  :shock:Â
the kissA## posters that is not in the incrowd or even in the know how that is bucking 4 board admin or some damage control persone makes me sick and right now i would rather hear those complainers than some kissA## that don’t know what they are saying .
Yep, that’s just an example of the maturity we were dealing with. Heck, I didn’t even know there was an “in crowd” there. Now I’m bummed because apparently I’m not in the “in crowd”  :cry: Â
Then people started complaining and saying that they were going to leave the program. After being bashed and flamed … my thoughts were (and excuse me again …)  … buddy, don’t let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya. Sorry but year, that was beginning to be my mentality at that point.Â
I mean really … who was FORCING them to stay? If you’re not happy then simply leave and let us who know the bugs will be fixed be fine w/out you.
This post is beginning to get long … sorry … I was worried about that, lol!
Myself and a few others decided to just completely ignore the negative posts … don’t reply. If they don’t have anyone to complain to then eventually they’re be quiet. We even started making positive posts. Although, we still had to be careful. Seriously, the subject line of one of my posts was … Goals with PPP? (Please no BAD Comments!)
So then finally more and more people start getting ads to play. Posts are even beginning to start on the forums w/ people listing the revenue they’re earning. I’m thinking good … Finally .. we’re getting through the bumpy part and those negative people who decided to stick around aren’t going to have anything to complain about anymore. We get this awesome blog post alert saying Revenue is Rolling … wanna see the first reply? I kid you not … the very first reply:
yeah I have made a whole $.86. What a joke this is. Feel free to delete this comment but I am sorry to say this is nothing more than a waste of time.
 Ugh! I give up!! ROFL! I just cannot waste my time or feed into anymore of the negativity. I’ve taught myself to completely overlook the negative posts/replies and move forward.
This guy is talking about the very first day ad were playing on his site. Does anyone remember when they first placed adsense on their site? Did you make $.86 in a week? Not alone one day!?!? And this is coming from a company that is not even close to being up to full take off!! Sorry … went off there for a moment.
Oh and as I was chatting around w/ some of the non-negative members … I’m finding that this is COMMON during BETA’s?? ICK! I’m sure this is not going to be the last BETA program I ever participate in. I think I’ll just stick w/ the facts straight from the company and totally forget about networking w/ other members until things are running smoothly. Well, either that or be VERY careful of the posts I read and the people I talk with, lol!
I really have had a lot of faith in the Net Audio Ads/PPP program but of course I too was being on the cautious side. Just being careful until I started seeing things fall in to place. Now that I am … I’m gaining more and more faith … making it easier for me to promote. I even signed up this morning to begin selling advertising. I truely believe that Pay Per Play audio advertising is going to be as well-known and well-used as Google Adsense … and I’m thrilled to be a core member! (Ha, now I’ve spoken my peace too! LOL!)
Later!