Thursday, October 9th, 2008 at
8:58 pm
It’s common knowledge that Paypal has regarded the PTC site business as somewhat shady as a result of so many complaints of scam sites that have taken users money. But it’s also been a gauge of how legit a site is. In order for a PTC site to actually be able to offer Paypal as a payout option, it has to be in really good standing and that’s very hard for most PTCs. As you have probably noticed there are very few Bux type PTCs that actually accept Paypal.
Slow Decline
We have seen a gradual decline in PTC sites that offered Paypal since the beginning of the year. Mostly notably was the demise of bux.to. Still very popular, but having lost much of its appeal after Paypal cut its ties from them. The site was forced to use other means of payout, and as a result, bux.to went into a tail spin having delayed payments up to 6 months. One by one sites were being dropped by Paypal and the future with PTC sites was looking gloom indeed.
Darlings of Paypal
After some time the dust settled and there were still some sites left. These sites were deemed to be trustworthy and thus became favorites of many. Crewbux, Thinkbux, and Neobux amongst the leaders. Then without notice it started again. The once “darlings” of Paypal began to have its problems with the payment processor. First Crewbux, then Thinkbux. How could these two sites who have a fantastic history of paying its members within 24 to 48 hours be cut off from Paypal. This was very troubling indeed.
The Final Blow
There were still a few left, most prominent being Neobux. Now we all know Neobux pays instantly and they have great support and involvement by their admin, so there is good reason why they have strong ties with Paypal and no need for worry. But amazingly, just last night the admin had announced the bad news. Not only had Paypal cutoff Neobux, but had frozen all its funds for a time of 180 days. According to the site, that is 72% of its current funds. A pretty disturbing number if you are a member and my guess is just about everyone involved with PTCs is.
Conclusion
This looks like the end of the relationship between Paypal and Bux PTC sites. Now we turn to Alertpay. A bit of a rough start by this payment processor, but it is slowly becoming more dependable. We can only hope that Alertpay does not do the same thing Paypal has done or the PTC community may have its days numbered.
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Tuesday, October 7th, 2008 at
7:17 pm
What once was one of the premier PTC sites around, is now struggling to keep its reputation clean. For almost two weeks now CrewBux has suspended payouts to upgrade the script version on its site, and its members are growing very impatient as the live date keeps getting pushed back. Talks of scam are littered across the forums as members can only wait to see if the payouts will once again start to flow. The admin is doing his best to assure its members with promises of a slick new look and features that mimic the next generation ptc sites like NeoBux. Instant payouts and rented referrals are slated for the upgrade. What should be an exciting time for CrewBux is overshadowed by the delays of version V4 and suspended payouts til it goes live.
To add to an already tense situation, two of the leading moderators at Crewbux forums are also leaving at this crucial time to go launch their own ptc site. This only adds further speculation of the health of CrewBux. Like pouring gasoline on an already out of control fire the situation only gets worse as, a few days ago Crewbux announced that its programmer who was in charge of this whole new upgrade to version V4 went MIA.
They say bad things happen in threes… Are we looking at the potential downfall of CrewBux or a site that will be better then ever with its new script and promising features. I have always been a big fan of CrewBux, but even I am concerned at this point. The new interface can already been seen at the site and some features are working, but the most important one, instant payouts still is not. My hope is that CrewBux will make the transition from “old school” to “new school” ptc with added features that it promises like instant payouts and rented referrals. If CrewBux keeps its promises, the wait for this new version will well be worth it.
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Saturday, October 4th, 2008 at
1:58 pm
Arguably the best ptc site that exists today has announced the launch of its new upgrade packages. Initially they are offering a discounted pricing during its beta launch set to start on October 13 at 18:00 server time. If you upgrade during beta you will still get all the benefits of the package, which includes pre-launch pricing to be cheaper then the official launch. Also the one year timer on your package does not start until the official launch, in essence you are getting bonus time during the beta phase.
Pricing
These new upgrades are by no means cheap in any sense of the word. The starting upgrades are priced at a whopping $260 and range all the way up to $810. At first glance these prices seem astronomical compared to premium packages you may be used to at other sites that charge between $20 to $80. However this is not your ordinary upgrade to premium. This is an upgrade from premium membership or what NeoBux calls theirs Golden Membership.
Qualifications
The upgrades cannot be bought by everyone, in fact there are some qualifications that must be met before you can purchase any packages. The first is that you must be an upgraded Golden Member. Now if you were lucky enough to get this package early in NeoBux’s debut you only paid $30. This price has seen increases several times including a bump to $60, then $100, before being dropped to its current price of $90. Even at those prices the upgrade was a steal considering the great features of the site. The second qualification that must be met is a minimum of 500 clicks. That is your own clicks and does not count referral clicks. This is will eliminate a lot of newer members who could afford the upgrade, but in no way can get enough clicks in time for the beta launch. Bad news is for many is that they will have to wait for after the official launch to get their upgrades which will probably mean a higher price. Good news for everyone is that this will probably cause a huge surge in activity to reach those 500 clicks for those who are close.
Packages and Features
Official Pre-order Details
· The pre-order will allow you to reserve your chosen pack before anyone else.
· This pre-order will end on October 13th at 18:00 (server time)
· You’ll receive your pack when the pre-order ends with the features already available in a beta test status.
· During the beta test, every feature you use from your chosen pack will reflect in your account.
· When the Packs are fully functional and ready for general sale, you’ll have your pack for a year counting from that date.
· To pre-order your pack, you’ll need to first fund your Pack Balance to the amount you need for the pack.
· As soon as the pre-order ends, you’ll be able to choose your pack depending on the amount you have in your Pack Balance.
· The Pack balance cannot be used for other purchases nor it will be available to cashout.
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Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008 at
8:57 pm
NeoBux has made several changes to its Terms of Service that have impacted its referral policy in four ways. The first is regarding the amount you earn from your referral clicks. The old policy stated that in order for you to receive credit for your referrals clicks, you must have clicked ads the previous day. The formula was that you would get credit for the number of ads you clicked on the previous day multiplied by two, i.e. if you clicked on two ads the previous day, you would get maximum credit of four ad clicks per referral. So if one referral happened to click five ads that day, you would only get credit for four. The new policy now states that you must still be active and click on ads the previous day, however you now must click at least four ads if you are a standard member and nine ads if you are a premium member to get full credit for all your referral ad clicks. If you click less then the required clicks you only get credit for the amount of ad clicks you made the previous day versus twice that amount in the old policy.
The second change is an increase in the price of recycling referrals from $0.05 to $0.10 effectively doubling the cost. This seems like an extreme measure, however NeoBux insists that it needs to be done because the recycling activity is so great that it consumes 50% of the referral pool.
The third change is an increase in the renting referral price based on how many referrals you have. The table below sums up the changes:
From 0 to 250 referrals: Current price
From 251 to 500 referrals: Current price + $0.01
From 501 to 750 referrals: Current price + $0.02
From 751 to 1000 referrals: Current price + $0.03
From 1001 to 1250 referrals: Current price + $0.04
From 1251 to 1500 referrals: Current price + $0.05
From 1501 to 1750 referrals: Current price + $0.06
After 1751 referrals (inclusive): Current price + $0.07
This change also affects the autopay price. The change was put into effect because of the high demand of rented referrals.
Lastly is the change related to giving users with little to no referrals with extra days to be able to get them. There will be three extra days on top of current times for members who have less then 501 referrals. The table below sums up the changes:
Day 1: Only users without rented referrals can try to rent on this day
Day 2: Only users with less than 201 referrals can try to rent on this day
Day 3: Only users with less than 501 referrals can try to rent on this day
The rest of the week: Everyone (including the mentioned above) can try to rent referrals
All these changes are meant to have a positive impact via more active members. It is yet to be seen whether this will help or hinder what already is a great site with active members. The success of NeoBux has already caused many sites to mimic its features. The question is now whether NeoBux will dictate the future of all paid to click or PTC sites with its policy changes.
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Monday, September 22nd, 2008 at
5:43 am
It has only been a few weeks since Buxout kicked off its official launch and already it has increased the price to become a premium member. The initial price was $59.00 and even then it seemed a little pricey compared to other sites who are very popular like CrewBux and ThinkBux. Both those sites have premium membership prices below $30.00. According to Buxout, the demand is so great that they decided it was time to increase the price to its premium membership to $85.00. Quite a hefty increase when you consider NeoBux charges $90.00 to upgrade from standard.
When you consider the payout options at Buxout with standard members receiving $0.01 per click and $0.005 per referral clicks compared to premium members $0.0125 per click and $0.0125 per referral clicks, you are practically forced to upgrade. That breaks down to a loss of $7.50 per 1000 referral clicks if you don’t upgrade.
To those that got on board early congratulations and to those that didn’t, it’s a bigger hill to climb before breaking even. Another thing to think about is that there is also a chance that they could raise the price again later.
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