Is this stealing traffic?
 

Hi all. I wonder what you think about this.

First of all, "stealing" might be a big word for what it is, but I don't find any better.

Yesterday I used a sponsor for the 1st time on a gallery to Pichunter. When I tested the sponsor code from my PC, there was no problem.
But, after a couple of houres, I tested the code again from the gallery on Pichunter itself. And to my surprise I was redirected to a different site (in the same niche and in my mothertongue). Apparently the sponsor in question is geotargetting the traffic I send him.
The new site also disabled the back button on the browser.

I didn't like this. My point of view is that, as long as the surfer is not on the site I promess he will go to, the traffic is still mine.
I immediately deleted the gallery on Pichunter.

I don't want to bash on the sponsor. It's his business model. I only would have preferred if he would have mentioned the geotargetting thing somewhere.
Perhaps and probably the sponsor would pay me for possible su's. I don't know. I sent him an email but didn't got any answer yet.

I would like to ask what you think about this. Is my point of view old fashioned or too idealistic or even completely wrong? Should I adapt it?

Don't promote sponsors where you can't send the surfers to the site you want them to be send to...

I know that some of the sponsors out there offer both options.. geo-targetting or not. Maybe you should check again if the geo-targetting option can be turned of with your sponsor...

Thanks for the advice Fonz.

I had contact with the sponsor. Since yesterday they do this with all the traffic from 3th world countries and non english surfers.
Sad to see this. Before at least the surfer was sent to the site we promote before he was presented a dialer. Now they even redirect him to a dialer on a different site. Where will this end?

Poor us non english|santa|

See now Fonz, you can't really paint that picture with such a broad stroke. Many sponsors will redirect based on weather a surfers credit card from a certain country will be accepted. To me, this is smart business and it is as good for the webmaster as it is for the sponsor.

I have no idea if that is the case here. I am just saying, you need to look at all views.

As a webmaster I prefer sponsors that offer geo targeting, more money for me.

I agree that this could be smart business Jim.
Only I never saw any argument that realy convinced me.
An argument that is often used is the cb ratio. But I never have seen objective numbers about cb ratios.
Another one is that the cc of a surfer will not be accepted. Why he has a cc then?
Language? Many countries that are sent to a dialer has English as second language.
Myself I am from Belgium. My mothertongue is Dutch. But I think I can find my way on an English site. And I use my cc on the internet already for 5 years. Never had problems with it.

Hi Cleo. But what do you think as a linklist owner?
The situation here is: a webmaster promotes a site A but the surfer is sent to site B.
Isn't that a kind of a blind link?

I like it too Cleo in most cases. Abe, you have to remember, if you are not making money, neither is the sponsor. To me, I always found it best to allow a sponsor to manage traffic I send. They seem to do a much better job of it than I could. Besides, they have access to the stats that tell them which site converts best with a certain countries traffic.

As a link list owner the only thing that I care about is the free site that you submit. Where your ads, or mine for that matter, send the surfer is non of my business.

As long you dont use a redirecting thingie on the site itself your oke. I get more sales from french and spanish it cool you can take advantage of your foreing traffic thru the sponsor

Does this sponsor pay you for sales on the site they redirect you to or not? If you get paid, then fine. A lot of programs don't pay you for foreign traffic.

Yes, in fact, I think we need a thread dedicated to listing what sponsors dont pay for foreign traffic.