PerformancingAds is a blog advertising network. I was a publisher of their service and I had no complaints against them until this month. During November, they abused my advertising space and displayed ads for extended period without paying me a cent. Now, I am convinced that PerformancingAds is a cheater. Here I am going to tell you what happened with me and what I think about their game.
It all started with two ad bookings on November 3, 2008. I am not going to mention the names of the advertisers here, because it will be a free publicity for them! The two ads were booked for one week. It was clearly stated in the region booked mail that they sends to it’s publishers when an ad was booked. I have original copies of the two emails and I can produce them anytime.
As each of the ads were not related to any explicit materials, I accepted them. The ads went live on specified time and I forgot about them until I saw them on my blog after ten days. First I thought, I am getting extra money for the usage. But, when I checked my account, I saw that they will pay me only for one week. And in detailed information about each ads, it is stated that they will expire on November 30. But my account reports clearly states that they were booked for one week only. Then how come they will expire after 4 weeks? And how an ad became self-booked ad? Take a look at the screenshot below.
Sensing something fishy, I contacted them via the contact form, on November 17. Now reply for three days. Then, on November 20, I told them via email that I will remove the ad region, unless the ads are removed from my blog. Their reply arrived quickly with a finger towards their developers! And you know what? Their reply to my first mail arrived on November 24. What a fast customer service.
They said that it was server glitch that prevented ads from refreshing, but they resolved the issue and the expired ads should disappear from my blog. I thought that at last I got some kind of a customer service! But, soon my happiness changed into anger. The same two ads again appeared on my blog.
It is enough. I made a decision to quit. These cheap people have really cheap minds. They must understand that every blogger have full rights on their blogs. And partnering with a third party for revenue doesn’t reflect that the blogger is poor and desperate for money. I have money, I have dignity and I respect my blog. So, I quit.
Finally I wrote to them that if within 24hrs they are not going to remove those ads, I will quit and will openly discuss the matter on my blog. I was sure that there will be no replies and I was right. I am not going to claim any unpaid money or money for the referrals. Let them eat my money.
You may ask, why I am writing this blog post, when I am not interested in PerformancingAds? This for you my dear friends. When it can happen with me, I am sure that it will happen with you also. Already many bloggers have expressed their anger on this service. I am sure that you have probably heard about many of them. So, this is the time. Think once again, if you are using them right now. And if you are new to this field of make money online, avoid them. Otherwise you will regret one day!
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“Avoid PerformancingAds. They will eat your advertising space and you will get nothing”.
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I’m sorry to hear that. It does make you think that some users will complain and others will just let it slide.
I’m glad that you stood your ground and gave them a choice, some people just don’t care.
Sorry you had problems with the service. I see you removed the code. There was a glitch that was causing ad regions to not update but that should have been resolved. If you would like to give it another try do let me know, otherwise sorry for the trouble you have had.
I have Fw to performancing a lot of referrals but I saw 0$ for they …. a success company this non-performancing ads.
That is the problem. Nobody cares to stand up and shout. I was running PerformancingAds in several of my blogs for almost three months and at first was very happy because of all the bookings I had. Suddenly, they would just disappear and later show up again. No money. I had some referrals too and no money. Wrote to them asking a lot of questions, nope, no reply from them either. I really think they are a SCAM. I have read a lot of other people really pist-off at this guys. And yet, there seems to be a lot of people who still use it.. Go figure..
BTW, you have a post relating to making money with PR0 that links to this people.. you might want to change it or get rid of that link… Not good after this post:)
@ George Serradinho,
I hope that people will learn something from this. Thank for your comment.
@ Chris of Performancing,
I admit that there may be some technical problems. That’s why I was waiting for a reply. But sometimes prolonged technical glitches may harm both sides. I am sure that you people understand this fact better than me.
If you are really serious about your business, then you must look towards this. Because, today only a handful of bloggers are complaining. It is not a serious matter for you. But, if your service continues like this, tomorrow a large number of bloggers will complain or quit. Then, what you gonna do?
Well, I am not an authorized person to tell you what to do and what not to do. It is your service. Do what you want to do with it, but never play with resources, sentiments and hard work of other people. Regarding reconsideration? I have already taken the decision to quit and I will try to stick to it. Sorry.
Anyway thanks for responding here and all the best.
@ditesco,
Thanks for your comment. So, you are also a victim? Don’t mind, there are lots of other things in this world! Well, still I am not tagging PerformancingAds a scam, because they do pay some bloggers. But what they are doing with some people is cheating in true sense. If this happens to all, then off course we can call them a scam.
BTW, thanks for pointing towards the PR0 post. Earlier today, I changed the link. But I think, I should remove the name also.
some people said erfomancing ads is scam, but others people said if performancing ads pay us.
Thanks for this information, I’m unsubscribing from their newsletter and deleting my account.
i already removed my performancing ads last months, not making money..
eating my ad space hehe
Glad it’s a scam hahha
The same thing happened to me. I thought I was rebooked, but logged into my account to see that wasn’t the case. I immediately removed the widget. It wasn’t worth my time and they took too much out. The widget was really crappy and had some really weird attributes to it too. My coder had a major problem trying to get it to appear the way I needed it to on my blog. In the end we had to use an HTML hack to get it to work.
Sorry to hear about that. As for me I got paid for 2 consecutive months by PerformancingAds for my referrals. But I don’t know how long will I continue to earn from them since my post promoting about this service is still getting traffic from the search engines and “I guess” some referrals.
I said, I guess, since P-ads affiliate reporting is not transparent. I mean you can’t really track from where your referrals are coming, or if they keep the ad widget for one full month, etc. Unless of course if you install your own ad tracking software but to many small bloggers, that is a little bit expensive.
I’ll be posting payment updates about them on my blog within this month. I’m worried if those I referred are making money too, lol.
Regards and happy blogging.
I never liked these guys in the first place. That is why I never joined despite all the buzz. And I am glad that I did not join. The Affiliate ads I put converting $100 a lead. And They convert on a daily basis.
@ San,
Thanks for your comment. What’s your own view about them?
@TeasasTips,
If you are not getting any benefits, then quitting is the best option. Thanks.
@lankapo,
I think you will never regret for that decision!
@An American in France,
So, you are using it? What about the results?
@Bizphere,
Thanks for your comment. I am glad that you are not facing any problems. I hope that they are not going to disappoint you. All the best.
@Eranda,
It was a right decision from your side. Thanks for leaving your opinion here.
read lots of complaints about them already… thanks for the info!
Hi there, thank you so much for being my November top Entrecard dropper! I appreciate it very much
P/S: Since this is not related to your post content, you may delete this comment afterward. Thanks again!
That’s the problem with allowing 3rd parties to control ads.
For Performance Ads it’s going to be hard to keep this business model of theirs if they continue to screw people like this. I have them on my site but I’m going to remove them soon if they don’t start bringing people my way.
Thank you for sharing your experience.
I thought about using performance ads and I am glad I ran into your post. Nice article you put forth, who do you use now for your ads?
I decided to give them a fair go in spite of the negative press I’ve been hearing, but am also not that happy with them due to a certain “phantom” ad that’s been showing up consistently for the last several weeks, with every pageview. I was never asked to approve it, and have not been paid a cent, but it somehow has taken over one of my spots – even reports it as booked! But PA support still somehow thinks it’s an Exchange Ad!
They definitely do appear to have some technical issues which certain unscrupulous advertisers have been exploiting. The thing that worries me the most is that PA support have referred several times to their “developer” (singular)! It’s no wonder the system is a mess if one single guy is responsible for getting it to work properly!
Well it’s good to know that you had a bad experience with them. More people should be writing negative reviews when they have bad experiences with different companies so everyone can find out before its too late.
aaahh, i have tried them for 2 weeks on one of my blogs, there are ads but no money, removing it now, thanks for the heads up, glad you address it early before jumping in totally and loose my ad space.
[...] I wouldn’t recommend it to any of my friends.” Earn Blogger goes further with a post “PerformancingAds is a Cheater” in December 2008. Splashpress responded in October 2008, claiming that the program [...]
Hmm interesting. It may or may not be the developers’ fault, so I can’t say who’s to blame here.
I had them last time on my blog too for a couple of days. I disliked them straight after seeing how my empty spaces have been cluttered with their own Chitika affiliate banners, etc. No way I’m going to waste my empty spaces for their benefits !
At least I don’t need to reconsider them again now after reading your post
Sorry to hear about that.I have not used Performancing ads,so can’t comment about them.But,I agree that even if its a glitch in the system,they should have at least send an apology letter,but they didn’t even reply to your email.That is enough to stop using them.