This question has been pondering over the internet since Ad Dynamo, the South African pay per click program, started out in 2009. I can say to you I have had a fairly controversial experience with them and have heard and seen the stories of other advertiser’s experience with Ad Dynamo. It is important to know when monetizing a website whatever method of monetisation you use, make sure it is a secure consistent way of making money. You want to be the one in control. However, for Ad Dynamo, it seems they have too much control over publishers. Are they a scam? In some ways yes. Ad Dynamo scams publishers. This is my story with them.
When I first started using Ad Dynamo, back in November 2010, I created a review for them which was generally positive. The only negative I had said was the fact they are fairly new to the PPC market and have fierce competitors such as Adsense. You can see the article here:
- ” Do NOT go to Ad dynamo i have over a Million impressions and i made $1,700 and they removed $900 from my account and said that it was Invalid Clicks for reason, they make the money from you clicking and don’t pay out. “
- ” Now they took another $400 off my account and suspended me! like i said do not Deal with Ad dynamo and if you look around on reviews i am not the only person having this same problem! “
- “Hello its me again! here is a link please go to it and look at the post with screen shot of -$375 i believe it is, and you will see that they kept taking money from me! i wanted to show proof because you can upload photo http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=2233713 “
- ” I do use Ad Dynamo on other blogs and it is pretty appalling but I do see there being more and more advertisers every week. “
- “I would use them if they had more advertisers, I say in a year’s time maybe, but at the moment, becoming a publisher on ad Dynamo is pointless”
I want to point out specifically these are the comments of others and not me. So, with one of the comments having a link to a forum on if Ad Dynamo is a scam, let’s take a look at the advertiser’s proof:
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| Ad Dynamo’s Invalid Clicks |
The account is actually in minus from the amount of clicks Ad Dynamo claims to be invalid! How is that possible to actually owe a pay per click program money for invalid clicks?
- Yes, they are a scam. Ad Dynamo have too much control over publishers. They have the power to just grant anyone’s account invalid clicks which would make Ad Dynamo more money. The money advertisers are paying for clicks are going to Ad Dynamo directly and not their publishers.
- No, they are not a scam. Ad Dynamo is barely 2 years old. Therefore, they may be still trying to use ways to identify invalid clicks and at the moment, they are getting the formula for invalid clicks wrong. As well as that, they are an actual business with many high branded advertisers using them such as Microsoft, Tottenham Hotspurs Football Club and more.
As well as the above, I have my suspicions that Ad Dynamo know about Ask Will Online from the other comments on my blog where people (or Ad Dynamo employees and PR consultants for Ad Dynamo) have commented on my articles to do with Ad Dynamo where I have given them a bad reputation:
- ” Ad Dynamo! Rock this month November i made 194USD in 26 days……….. That are enough for me on starting point……… “
- ” I use Ad dynamo on my 80s website and the first days I received a lot of impressions but no clicks. I thought, oh no, here we go again but now, 2 months later, the CTR is going to the roof. 25 bucks per day. More then I made with adsense in 2 yrs. ”
However, that is just my opinion. Here are all my articles on Ad Dynamo:
- Ad Dynamo Paid Me My First Earnings – Ad Dynamo DOES Pay Out
- How much does Ad:Dynamo pay per click – pay per click program
- I use Ad Dynamo Ads to monetize my website
- Ad Dynamo Payment Methods
- Ad Dynamo Releases Debit Card to Publisher Bloggers
Hope this has proved useful who are thinking about using Ad Dynamo on their website! I would also like for anyone who has used Ad Dynamo to give their opinion too by commenting below. The more comments, the more it will help others.
The small selected of comments chosen for this post generally reflect the views of disgruntled publishers who have attempted to earn their income fraudulently. Just as with AdSense, we monitor for click fraud & reverse this as we detect it.
Sean Riley, CEO, Ad Dynamo
Hi Sean,
I completely understand where your coming from. However, truthfully, do you think a website with and I quote, 'over a Million impressions', would seriously think about clicking on their own adverts?
If it was a website with low traffic I can understand that. The blogger has low CTR, low traffic therefore wants to give his blog a boost.
It's a controversial topic in my eyes because you as the advertising program have the power to claim any clicks are invalid.
You do reverse invalid clicks like Adsense. But, have you ever seen an Adsense account in the minus? It's impossible!
Will
Will I understand your frustrations but even if you go to ad-sense forum you will find thousands of publishers complaining about their accounts being disabled , I know it hurts to see Ad dynamo reversing clicks but even Ad sense always do this , finalized earnings are always lower than issued payments which they say is a results of click fraud but one can always argue that is another way for Google to take out few cents or few dollars away from all their publishers so that they can boost their revenue
I have been using Ad dynamo on my sites since 2009 and I have had my fair share of frustrations with them just like you.
Trafficsynergy almost took 6 months without paying me out while I have reached the required threshold and eventually they pay me out after sending them more than 10 emails which they claim was a technical error on my account ,
Offerforge used to pa me late every month and this is after I have to call them to ask why I haven't been paid, but this has since been solved
only a handful of publishers seems to be certified with all advertising networks, especially Adsense and Addynamo , is it because they are really bad or those publishers are doing something wrong ?
I guess we as publishers do little to understand these network's terms and policies and since I have made enough effort to do this , I'm quite happy with Addynamo , Offerforge and Adsense
I guess your right, you will find the same problems with every advertising network. You will always get the happy, the sad and the frustrated. However, from my comments and the article abive's picture showing a publisher's account in the minus, how is that still possible?
I think any publisher will be more than angry at seeing their balance minus.
You are right about the minus thing , it has never happened in my account and i think the best person to explain this would be Sean , reversed clicks cannot be turned into minus as it don't make any sense . this is the first time I'm seeing something like this.. so does this mean the publisher has to earn another 350.24 dollar to put their account into a positive number which will be 0? Sean please explain
It is the only thing that baffles me. All the other problems are common with most PPC programs. This problem of the account in minus I have only seen in Ad Dynamo.
Will and Peter, I totally agree with your valid points. As a relatively new blogger, not only would this case, rare or not, make me switch to another PPC program but it would possibly make me question whether to advertise using this method at all. Other forms of advertising such as Infolinks might be a better option if Ad Dynamo can enable this kind of thing to happen.
It would be interesting to hear what Sean has to say about this.
To be honest Joe, invalid clicks happen on all types of advertisement when a click has a value.
Yet, I see where you are coming from. Ad Dynamo should not be able to let this kind of thing happen. Sean, why is it minus?
Oh also I have few emails from a Person from Ad Dynamo from the start! Now Ad Dynamo Claims I have Invalid Clicks correct? Well ok then if this was they case why would I have got this email from ad Dynamo then? Oh I was only with Ad Dynamo for 2 months
Almost 70% of your traffic is coming from the UK, so I will get our team there to target advertisers to your campaigns. Remember its more important where your traffic is coming from, not where you are looking from. Is your tag still active? I couldn't find it, have you removed it by any chance?
Thanks,
Mario Pinto
Client Services | Ad Dynamo
Now correct me if I am wrong but if I was to have invalid Clicks like you claim from the start then why would you admit in emails that I had huge traffic and that you made me a Premium account for free! was this to suck me in for money? Of Course! oh I also have a email saying that the money never did belong to me Because it was never there in the first place and also asked me what money did I have before coming to Ad Dynamo! so apparently the money belongs to them Because they Have Big heads and think they can do what they want! By the way Sean I am the guy with the Minus account in case you have not noticed, and I am willing to answer anything here as long as you can tell the Truth here on this site! please I welcome you Sean to explain your self and more copy's of emails to come.
Sean its funny I have contacted you about my account being in the Minus with emails etc and you have ignored me , and When I phone your company on the phone its all cells phones and they hang up on you when you call the offices, Also may I add its funny that I posted a screen shot of the Minus in the hole and you now have gone into my suspended account and Raised it out of the Minus because you seen this post , Guess what Sean I plan to take action on this and fight it by law! You have scammed me for money on my account and you have chose to ignore this, your Common Answer Sean on this Blog has been seen before and yet you never explain anything else , it seems to me everyone on Ad Dynamo gets Invalid Clicks!
Sean what about the 4 emails I have sent you?
Sean why when I phone your offices in the U.S that it rings and hangs up on you! When i had asked for proof of the Invalid Clicks Sean i was told in Email that you can not release this information and that I am to shut my mouth and accept abuse and scam from Ad Dynamo! I am upset yes when I have made a good amount of money and all you have done is Pocket the Money Sean, Prove to me you returned this back to the advertisers? lets see this I am calling Ad Dynamo to Prove they are Correct 100% not just say its invalid and leave it at that! funny now I am with a new ad company and I am making the same money and I have even asked them are any invalid clicks and they said NO! So how can this be different between 2 company's? easy 1 is a scammer and the other is not.
I think some questions need to be answered Sean.
Looks to me Sean is ignoring this just like he does with phone calls and emails, oh even though I am suspended I can still log in now it says -$435 how do I keeping going more Minus in the hole when I am no longer with them, Also I am with google adsense and making good money now and if I had Invalid clicks Google Would be the first to suspend me, Ad Dynamo is a JOKE.
Ok so I was reading my thread on the forum I posted on about me being scammed from Ad Dynamo! and Someone else posted a problem about Ad Dynamo same problem as mine, have a look here to see I am not the only person with this problem.
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=2233713&s=eb504e87d85779cbc2cb2c8669981eb9#post17223276
addynamo is totally fraud they do not pay publishers
I'm guessing this is from your past experiences?
hw can i join google adsense pls rly me on my gmail@ komeovie@gmail.com
Still no clicks on my http://www.frabidel.blogspot.com I'm fed up
so the conclusion fraud or not?