June 3, 2008
4Bux,
another failure
Article by
Phil
Yet again
the industry has encountered a failed PTC site with an administrator who
cannot take the responsibility. When this site went down “surprise,
surprise” We received a lot of angry emails from people who say the site
scammed them and had their account earnings reset before the site went
down.
If you
check what remains of the 4Bux website you will see that it reads the
following.
It's been a short, fun, and hectic 2.9 months. However
my recent plan to turn the site into a premium member only site has
failed. My intentions for doing so were to keep the site from going
bankrupt and to always be able to pay the members, however this was met
with a lot of criticism. Many people around the internet are calling
4bux.info a scam which has ruined its reputation and I do not see it
ever returning to its original state. If I tried to return it to the old
4bux, it wouldn't be the same, it would only last another month at most
and fall apart. I was to nice, $0.02 clicks and $500 payouts were not
working for the site structure. Part of the problems occurring from a
faulty database transfer, resetting balances to zero, and a bad time to
do a site change. A premium member based PTC could produce a pretty
powerful PTC site, but at the same time it's a PTC site. Because of that
I'm going to have to agree with the former owners of
Paid.vg, PTC sites
simply are a terrible business model, they don't work. They can never
balance because getting advertisers is nearly impossible, no one wants
to buy 1,000 visitors for $19.99. If you look around the web you can
find 1,000 quality visitors for $6.95.
That said, I'm sure you can figure out what is happening to 4bux.info.
The site is closing, effective immediately. Anyone who bought a
membership, referrals, or advertising on the "new" 4bux.info will be
refunded. Both standard and premium members will be receiving payments
anyone who does not receive a payment is to abide by
ToS bullet number 8.
"8) There is a possibility that 4bux.info can NOT pay its members."
While this isn't the choice I'd like to use, all members registered
under these terms of conditions. Payments will be sent out over the next
few hours. Also, to anyone even slightly interested in running a PTC
site. Do NOT, it's a terrible idea. The sites don't balance enough and
are risky. To members looking to purchase something off a new PTC site.
Look around if they advertise on other sites, they may be trustworthy
because they are spending money. Don't buy anything off a new and
unprofessional/cookie cutter looking web site. I will probably never run
a site like this again.
This
message clearly explains that the site failed as the owner did not have
the ability to steer the site in a profitable direction. If this had of
been a scam their rating would have been down graded a long time ago but
this is different. To put it bluntly I find the owners last message here
quite irritating.
I have
good reason to feel this way and here’s why. Like the owner of paid.vg
the owner of this site failed because of his own lack of experience and
effort at work. These two then blame the business model for their own
failings. This is quite arrogant and shows a total lack of
responsibility for the business they were running.
Having a
team more experienced than the pair of these I happen to know the PTC
business model is actually very good and something you should consider
starting if you are interested in earning money online. However PTC
sites are NOT automated systems you can just let run by itself
which seems have been what happened at paid.vg and 4bux.
Both these
sites refund those who have made purchases which means using their own
money. They do not pay those who have money still left on their account
which is the biggest insult in their failure to provide a sustainable
PTC site. However there are many that are demanding payment who haven’t
even reached the minimum payout which is a dead end request given that
they wouldn’t be getting their money at that stage even with the site
active.
At the end
of the day those who lose out the most are those who had a lot of money
on their accounts with pending payments from their hard work clicking
and referring. However this population must learn to understand that
they were not scammed, failed by the PTC business model but that they
were failed by the owner and nothing else. No wonder he is trying to
pass the blame to the business model!
It is
important for our readers to understand that our service has no legal
rights to look at the payment processor accounts of the sites we review
which means you cannot prepare ratings for a sites failure unless we
know the owner has a lazy reputation. It is easier to spot a site that
is likely to become a scam but signs of a site failing can only be seen
by the PTC site owner themselves.
The only
thing that could lead us to believe this failure could have been a scam
is the owner’s explanation of the site resetting account earnings to 0.
As this site has been unprofitable for a long time it seems a little too
coincidental that this was happening towards the end. What ever the case
the owner is responsible for this sites failing and should be the port
of call for those who feel they wish to take the matter with their
earnings further.
The
message on the site ends with “I will probably never run a site like
this again”. I say that’s a good thing as this owner clearly couldn’t
take the responsibility. If the business model was to blame the PTC
industry wouldn’t be here today. The sites that have failed with this
habit of passing the blame are new comers who had no prior experience.
The owner of paid.vg even went as far as to take a pot shot at bux.to
saying “it’s a ticking bomb”. Sure a site that has been around for 1
year compared to his which lasted 3/4 months (excuse my sarcasm).
Do not be
fooled by site owners trying to pass the blame to the business model
Rating
removed
