Rant about NATs' Sponsors

[Andre]

Shameless plus... I allow unencoded links in my proggy... and I cascade ccbill->paycom->200charge->dialer... but I don't have free hostes sites yet

[Hellpuppy]

In the default templates, the ability to switch between encoded and unencoded links is there.

I'm curious why anyone would turn it off? Why not let the user's choose? We default it to on, but let a user unencode 'em if they like.

[Useless]

Originally Posted by Hellpuppy

In the default templates, the ability to switch between encoded and unencoded links is there.

I'm curious why anyone would turn it off? Why not let the user's choose?

Well, that is the question. What would motivate a sponsor to turn that option off? What is the benefit? I can't go any further without making accusations, so, um, yeah.

[Chop Smith]

I got a nice email from Frank of Adult Cam Dollars. This guy knows how to play. He has fixed his script to allow me to include his hfs'. Without being asked, he placed a link back to hfslinks. He has volunteered to send an advance list of his new hosted free sites. Thanks to Frank

[Chop Smith]

Now let me see. I give you my affiliate code. You build a real nice free site and submit it to the 10 top link list. From thier listing the free site which you build and hosted sing my affiliate code gets 1 convert from each of the 10. You get $0 and I get $150/300. Sounds like a great deal. Can I interest anyone in using my affiliate codes?

[Linkster]

Chop - did I miss something? We're talking about a sponsor that makes hosted free sites for us to list on our own LLs They send us out new sites everyday

[Chop Smith]

Originally Posted by Linkster

Chop - did I miss something? We're talking about a sponsor that makes hosted free sites for us to list on our own LLs They send us out new sites everyday

The original question was/is - What is the purpose of sponsors using encoded affiliate code? Of course, the real reason that I rant is because I cannot listed the hfs that those sponsor have made on hfslinks.com

As far as my reply to

...but is'nt harder to steal someone's link code this way

Perhaps I misunderstood stwof. But I think affiliate codes are as much of a secret as most folks' nicks.

[Useless]

Originally Posted by Chop Smith

As far as my reply to Perhaps I misunderstood stwof. But I think affiliate codes are as much of a secret as most folks' nicks.

I've been waiting for someone to steal mine for years. If they have, they suck at making sales.

Back to the orginal question...is the ability to switch from encoded to unencoded now default in NATS, or do sponsors using NATS have to contact the seller in order to have that option added? And if it is openly available to all NATS users, why are there sponsors who don't offer that option to we affiliates?

EDIT: I just decoded my sig link. Ha!

[Thumbler]

Originally Posted by Useless Warrior

I've been waiting for someone to steal mine for years. If they have, they suck at making sales.

Yeah, sorry about that but I'm crap

[GonZo]

Originally Posted by Useless Warrior

I've been waiting for someone to steal mine for years. If they have, they suck at making sales.

Back to the orginal question...is the ability to switch from encoded to unencoded now default in NATS, or do sponsors using NATS have to contact the seller in order to have that option added? And if it is openly available to all NATS users, why are there sponsors who don't offer that option to we affiliates?

EDIT: I just decoded my sig link. Ha!

The versions Ive seen and the one we run was set by default to allow the user to encode or unencode the links.

The NATS we run is a cascade system which includes ccbill as one processor.

The hard scrub bounces back between processors thru the year. NATS allows you to change your primary processor on the fly.

I wont spam the program here but I can tell you Ive been involved with 3 installs of NATS and one install of MPA3.

The cascade is worth the pain in the ass.

[Toby]

It's been my experience that most sponsors are willing to make accommodations when they are made aware of issues like this.

[Chop Smith]

Jason, I am not sure but I do not believe we are talking about the same thing. We are speaking of NAtS handling of affilate code
Encoded ?nats=MjM4OTozOjE1
Unencoded ?nats=username

We are not speaking of URL Encoding - those "%20" and such in URLs

[Jason]

whoops

nothing to see here people, keep it movin

my bad

[SmithsMedia]

Originally Posted by Chop Smith

Like a dog chases a bitch in heat, I chase host free sites. So I find a sponsor that say that they have hfs', so I run over and sign up. I then go look at what they have and to grab the link codes to discover that I can not use them because they have NATs encoded id's.

1. Why would a NATS' user not include NATS' encodes/unencoded option?
2. Why would a sponsor start a thread bitching about his dislike of his codes being encoded and months after NATS gives the option for unencoded he does have the option on his site.

Long time no speak chop merry xmas mate -

Thats nothing I pushed a site which was on CCBill then moved via some other system to Nats. - sorry my Nats rant

Since the move they have added sms as a payment option because they said Nats supported it, now I make like 3 US cents per sale instead of $14.99!

For one month now I have asked when it will be fixed and nothing has been done, to top all this off they also LOST my sales - on the friday night they were there, me and the sponsor saw them the next morning they were gone, about 400 USD.

To this day no one has explained what happened, I got paid the missing money not before the sponor offered to pay half as a good gesture.

I have two other Nats one I had started to build up though after getting the above issues I am not doing anything till I get paid and told what happened to the figures.

[gobgook2]

I've said this before - The person/company the comes out with something that combines the flexibility, cascading, and tracking power of NATS with the timely and combined payouts of CCBill will make a killing. That's my biggest gripe (sorry, nothing about encoded urls, etc). Internal payouts almost required a shift to higher payout levels, which smaller fish (like me) may take ages to reach, especially when testing new sponsors... I guess I'm just spoiled by CCBill's combining sales and timely payouts. Imagine if NATS were partnered with a company to do all payouts; instead of having to make $100 PER SPONSOR to get a payout, all sales from all sponsors counted together a la CCBill, and you KNEW you'd be getting a check every week instead of wondering whether or not a sponsor who pays out internally has their shit together, struggling with some sponsors to hit a high payout level, etc. Pipe dream perhaps, but somebody should get on that and make some bank!

[Chop Smith]

Hello, Mr Smith

Originally Posted by gobgook2

...Pipe dream perhaps, but somebody should get on that and make some bank!

Maybe not. I snoop around from time to time trying to uncover secrets. I think there is a script out there that meets most of the things on your wish list. Hoping it is released to the masses soon.

Let me pull a DD here. The above is nothing more than a Chop speculation.

[raymor]

If NATS annoys you, take heart, NATS may not be used by very many people
much longer. There's a new system about to be unvieled that's objectively
proven to be better than NATS in many ways and costs a LOT less.
The NATS folks stole code from the wrong people and rather than hiring
lawyers to go after NATS legally they hired programmers to go after NATS
business - very good programmers. NATS' days are numbered.

[Useless]

Originally Posted by raymor

...rather than hiring
lawyers to go after NATS legally they hired programmers to go after NATS
business...

I would have gone after their wives.

[Toby]

Moral of the story: Don't fuck with programmers.

[Chop Smith]

Will it use encoded affiliate ID's?

[raymor]

Originally Posted by Chop Smith

Will it use encoded affiliate ID's?

It'll be an option for the webmaster if that feature exists at all.
No encoding of your ID needed that I can see, though, just let you
use either any of the below URLs, whichever you choose.
This is easy enough:
http://domain.com/hosted/index.html?nads=chopsshit
http://domain.com/hosted/?nads=chopsshit
http://domain.com/hosted/index.html/nads=chopsshit
http://domain.com/hosted/nads=chopsshit
http://domain.com/hosted/index.html/nadsEQchopsshit
http://domain.com/hosted/nadsEQchopsshit

Chop would probably want to use this version:
http://domain.com/hosted/index.html/nadsEQchopsshit

[Chop Smith]

As far as on hosted promos, all that foreign characters like "EQ" needs to be left out.

[raymor]

Originally Posted by Chop Smith

As far as on hosted promos, all that foreign characters like "EQ" needs to be left out.

E and Q are foreign characters? So what, no letters allowed?

[Chop Smith]

If my affiliate id is 'chopsshit', yes the 'EQ' is foreign to my affiliate ID.
Now if the "EQ' is static, it is not a problem to do gnats=EQ%affcode%.

I fully understand the "QMYDPHPRDX" in StrongBox, but that kind of bullshit has no purpose in passing affiliate ids on promo stuff. If affiliate ids are top secret, then I might be the second most trusted person in this biz.

[raymor]

Originally Posted by Chop Smith

If my affiliate id is 'chopsshit', yes the 'EQ' is foreign to my affiliate ID.
Now if the "EQ' is static, it is not a problem to do gnats=EQ%affcode%.

Ah, yeah, the EQ is static. These are equalivent:
http://domain.com/hosted/nads=chopsshit
http://domain.com/hosted/nadsEQchopsshit

EQ means =