Saturday, September 30, 2006

NSFG : September Returns

It's been announced that NSFG brought in 5% this month, that means after the performance fees, it's 3.75% for me. While not exactly stellar, it seems we're finally seeing some much needed consistancy since moving over to the new brokers.

I'm very comfortable here and now entertaining thoughts of reviving my initial plans of setting up a managed account, despite the fees I have to pay my lawyers to get it done. It's definitely giving better returns than my non-performing units trusts and surely better than keeping my money in the bank.

Friday, September 29, 2006

Short Update

Update : Looks like the site is back. My views on it still haven't changed since.

Just a short update on a local exchanger. JR Exchange seems to be unaccessible at this point of typing this entry. I'm abit leery of it since I have some doubts over it.

Anyway, Singaporeans still have alot of other choices purchasing e-gold from the other local exchangers.

Thursday, September 28, 2006

Desert Sky Marketing Signups Enabled

In the event anyone wants to know, signups have been enabled for Desert Sky Marketing.

Good morning!

Our script testing is complete and everything is working with the exception of purchasing a Raffle Ticket via a payment processor (this should be resolved by tomorrow). You may, however, purchase a Raffle Ticket with your cash balance (this actually saves you the processor fee!).

Cashout requests made by Friday, September 22nd have been completed. Please remember you must request a cashout by Fridays in order to be paid on Wednesdays.

Members who do not activate their account by midnight of the day they sign up will automatically be deleted by the script. Free members who have never upgraded are automatically deleted by the script after 14 days.

Don't forget to use our support system for account issues: http://desertskynetwork.helpserve.com

Don't forget to register in our forum: http://www.desertskyforum.net

DesertSky Marketing is now open for new members! Please note new member sign-ups may be disabled in the future in order to control growth.

Thank you for your continued support!

Dustin Fennell
DesertSky Marketing


Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Desert Sky Marketing Updates

Got this email from Dustin, the administrator here.

For those of you who are too lazy to read everything, here's the main highlights.

1. Signups are temporarily disabled.

2. Upgrades can only occur on weekdays. Upgrade button will be disabled for the weekend.

Every other thing here is gravy.

Each and every one of you have helped DesertSkyMarketing become a huge
success over our first few days! The response has been much more than
I could have asked for. At this time we have almost 350 members and we
are barely 72 hours old.

I am, at this time, going to disable new sign-ups. The reason I'm
doing this is very simple; I want to make sure everything is working
correctly. So far, there have only been a couple minor issues reported and
we are almost completed with the fixes. However, I would rather error
on the side of caution. As you can understand, if we discover an issue
it will be much easier to fix 350 accounts as apposed to fixing several
thousand accounts. Even though I've tested, and tested, and tested the
script; a test scenario is never truly like the real thing. Once I'm
100% confident every part of our script is running perfectly I will
enable new sign-ups.

I will disable new sign-ups from time to time in order to control our
growth. It is important that we don't grow too fast. Since I'm
actually entering into business ventures with the money that is coming in, I
must be able to manage it properly. If we grow too fast, that could
become very difficult. Please remember I'm not disabling sign-ups as some
marketing ploy. I'm simply doing it to ensure we remain successful for
a long period of time.

I'm also going to make one other change. Members will only be able to
upgrade Monday - Friday. I will disable upgrades on Friday afternoons
and re-enable them on Monday mornings. This too, is to protect our
program. This is mainly because we are accepting AlertPay as one of our
payment processors. I am unable to move any money from or to AlertPay
on the weekends. Also, several of my offsite business ventures only
take funds Monday - Friday. If I allow upgrades on the weekends it means
I am unable to put that money to work, but members will already be
earning daily %'s on that same money. I hope you can see this is a
fiscally responsible decision.

I understand the above two decisions are not your norm when it come to
surf programs. However, DesertSky Marketing id not your norm when it
comes to surf program either. If I were a ponzi would I ever disable
sign-ups and upgrades?

For those members who keep track of program growth using the Alexa
chart, I have added this to the "Monitoring" page on our web site for your
convenience. Also, for those members who keep track of program growth
via member IDs, you need to know the following information:

- Only pre-launch members have single and double-digit referral IDs.
(There are a couple triple-digit referral IDs because they requested
them.) There were 60 pre-launch members in all.

- I set the script so new members would start at 1001. This makes it
very easy for me to distinguish a pre-launch member from a post-launch
member.

- If you see the last member ID is 1800, that really means DesertSky
Marketing has 860 members. I don't want you to be off in your numbers.
:-)

Thank you, again, for making the first 72 hours of DesertSky Marketing
a huge success!

Dustin Fennell
DesertSky Marketing
Real People, Real Advertising, Real Profits!

Saturday, September 23, 2006

Desert Sky Marketing

Firstly this one's run by a well known figure in the so-called industry. I'm sure that's probably set everyone backpeddling...not another one. But before you do, I would suggest taking a look at it before you write it off.

The percentages are nothing to crow about. It pays a paltry 2.5% daily for 60 days, which is about 50% in 2 months. And the referral commissions are once again nothing to crow about too, offering a staggered rate of between 1-3.5%. It allows members to request payouts once a week, with a small staggered fee, depending on the amount you request. My suggestion here to save on fees is to request sparingly, but of course not everyone feels the same here.

However what makes this stand out is the amount of effort put forth to make it legitimate. The admin here is open to scrutiny, and in fact welcomes it. On the site itself are the scanned copies of company registration and other bits and pieces of information. You can also contact the admin by phone or skype.

The surfing here is unique as well. You need to view 50 sites to get your commission. The first 20 are manually registered while the remaining 30 are autosurf. It's the first hybrid surf that I know of so far in everything I've encountered.

On the whole, I take everything in at face value with a pinch of salt. It's a good attempt to bring back the longer term surfs. And from everything I've read, the most important thing is the leap of faith in the people running the show here.

Here are the statics at a glance

2.5% daily
$10 per advertising package
$1-$10 upgrade fee
Upgrades last 60 days
50 sites to earn 9%
1-3.5% referral commission (only for upgraded members)
$1-$10 withdrawal fee
Maximum upgrade $10000
Payouts weekly upon request (must request by Friday 2359 server time for payout on Wednesdays)

If you're interested please use the links below.

No referral link
My link

Thursday, September 21, 2006

Midas Goes From Bad to Worse

Talk bout digging a larger hole to bury oneself in. I got this update from the admin of Midas-Surf.

I did several payouts and will resume more later as I am exhausted and
must retreat to bed. I wanted to announce that any fast track payout
that is late will be receiving their fee back. Please email
support@midas-surf.com your userid, and FT payout date. This will help
us expedite the process as we can have a list to check off as we catch
up. I apologize for falling behind. I want to make it right to all
members. The best way I know to this is to give away free money. Here is
the deal: Every 100 dollars gets you a free $40 upgrade and every $1000
gets you a free $100 upgrade. If you max out at $5000 then we will add
enough to your total to cover the fee removed (2% for e-gold and 4% for
AlertPay) to get you the full 5000 amount to surf with. The remainder
of bonus money will be sent to you in your processor account you
upgraded with. With that said I bid for goodnight at 6:18 AM EST -5GMT.

Right, payouts have been made......to random members. There doesn't seem to be a system to the payments. The first in line are not paid and the cries are growing louder. Already numerous forums have downgraded the program as non-paying.

What makes things worst here is the admin is promising additional money for upgrades. Let me see if we can make some sense out of this.....for every $100 upgrade, you get a $40 free upgrade. And for every $1000 upgrade, you get $100 free. Logically this doesn't make any sense at all. Ok, so why would I want to upgrade $1000 to get $100 free if I can upgrade $900 and get $360 free? Moreover where is that money going to come from?

The admin must be getting really desperate here. I think it's obvious the program has run into cashflow problems. He must think we're idiots to fall for it.

Conclusion, move along folks, there's nothing left to see here. The program's as good as dead. In the unlikely event there isn't a cashflow problem, the bad press would be enough to send this one spiraling downwards.

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Midas Loses It's Golden Touch

Nope, it's not down and out yet, but the signs are not looking good. Payouts have been delayed and late due to numerous excuses. The latest I've heard is that payouts have been made sporadically to random members.

I suppose this is a classic case of an admin who is clueless on how to run a surf program. Despite all the good stuff going around in blogs and the forums, he still managed to screw it up. Don't get me wrong, the program is by no means dead yet, but it's surely going to struggle given the bad press all around. Even if it catches up on payment, I'm sure many supporters would be quietly pulling their money out.

I'm not going to continue with my tirade here, instead let's dwell on the mistakes here.

1. Pushing the ToS 7 business day limits. The program pays out on exactly the 7th business day, giving itself no lead time in case anything goes wrong. Personally I found this to be a very bad business model. The 7 business day payout deadline is meant to give the admin lead time in case membership grows and not to hold on to cash on hand.

2. This in turn reduces the ROI drastically. Any fool with more than 2 brain cells can see this. Once the norm of paying on the 7th day was established, people started looking elsewhere. I've not seen many big 4 digit spends after the first couple of cycles.

3. Changing course midway. The sudden implementation of the 50/50 rule also probably scared alot of potential upgraders here. If it ain't broke, why fix it? Unless of course there were already cracks appearing despite the protestations of the admin.

4. The inability of the admin to mix personal time with business. This is probably the most crucial aspect of things being the way they are...or at least to me. I understand that personal time is important. I know, coz I value mine very much. But to mix personal time with business is a strict no-no. If it's a planned holiday you're taking, then make sure you pay up in advance before you go on your holiday. Breaking the ToS because of a planned vacation is stupidity at it's highest. You know your holiday is going to eat into a business day (ie paying day), then anticipate the members who need to be paid, and jolly well pay them in advance. Instead what has happened is that there is a whole bunch of members who have not been paid according to the ToS, and who can blame them for screaming 'Scam'?

In short this one's going down the drain fast. Of course for the sake of my minimal spends in here, I hope they recover, but right now it seems they are clinging on to the life support.

I've also removed them from this blog. Even if Midas recovers it's golden touch, the damage has been done.

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Staying Away For Now

Autosurfs
Looks like the entire so-called industry is going down the proverbial drain. In between my previous post and this one, a couple of heavily pimped sites have fallen. I'm not going to dwell on the lame excuses used. These sites were expected to last at least a few more cycles, or that's what some if not most of the more popular blogs pimping them were expecting.

I'm not surprised most of them have closed shop earlier than anticipated. I mean, how else are the scammers going to make money if everyone pulls out their money. They've got to be one step ahead of us. The only way for us to beat the system is to stay one step in front.

Unfortunately, some of us have big mouths and larger keyboards. When we spell out our strategies, we give them a clue what to expect and when to expect it. I'm guilty of that as well, which is why I do not recommend programs on my blog, unless I think the program can run for some significant time. No point introducing some program which I am doing a hit and run on.

So far I've not been badly hit by the recent demise of these popular programs. I've pulled out most, if not all, my funds from them. Unless there is a significant change in the way autosurfs are run (and I'm not talking bout variations of the 50/50 rule), I'm moving away from them. There is still money to be made here, but the risk/return ratio is no longer suitable for a conservative player like me.

Good luck to all those still involved here.

Forex Investments
I stated, probably a month or so back, that there were a couple of programs that looked good and a few readers have mailed me asking about them. I'm thankful that I took my time to monitor their performance. The returns have been dismal at best so far. Most of them looked like they are using our money to test out their strategies in the forex market. Unless there is a turn around in performance or more substantial DD, NSFG would still be the only one I'd have in my blog (and it's closed to new members unless you can fork out 25k).

New Local Exchanger
Yet another local exchanger makes an appearance online. Someone mailed me to bring it up, so here it is. I've included it in the related entry.

Thursday, September 07, 2006

New Local Exchanger

New Local Exchanger
There's a new local exchanger on the block. I've updated the related entry.

AutoSurfs
After 2 months of glowing returns, it finally hit me on the butt. Two programs went down before I had the chance to take profits. One went down before the end of the first cycle, while the other decided to run on the second. Good thing here is that I didn't lose much, but I hate losing all the same.

Autosurfs are now becoming a hit and miss thing, much like the way Hyips have become. In the not too distant past, an autosurf run on a dedicated server and heavily advertised would run at least a couple of cycles, but now things have changed. Too many players have adopted the 'hit and run' method of playing these games, while too many administrators/scammers have gone one up and started to play the 'run and run' game.

Personally, I prefer sites which do not spend too much on heavy advertising. Sites which spend wildly on advertising seem to have an agenda of raking in as much money as possible in the quickest possible time. I also tend to stay away from sites which are heavily recommended by the more popular blogs. Too much of something might not always be a good thing.

It's down to personal preferences, but I prefer a low profile site which pays. The more honest administrators tend to work with a shoestring budget, aimed at paying members instead of going with the flashy.

Ultimately, luck plays a huge part of how you win in this game. This September should be an interesting month for me. If all my wagers pay off, I should be well in the black despite the 2 that ran away. Let's hope luck smiles in my direction.

Midas-Surf
Midas has implemented the 50/50 rule. While I understand the rationale in placing this rule to curb the 'hit and runners' like myself, I'm not a fan of it. It gives the pseudo impression of increasing the lifespan of a program, when all it actually does is reduce the ROI in the program.

To me, what fundamentally increases the lifespan of the program is based on 2 factors, the amount of money coming in, and when the administrator decides to pull the plug. Thankfully here, the latter is pretty much reduced by the openness of the administrator and the way the ship is run.

I've pulled most of my working capital out of this program, but still have a upgrade which I would continue putting in just to keep an interest here. I am curious to see how far this one can go and how long before it eventually bellies up.