BuySellAds

Today, I almost signed up for BuySellAds. On the paper, it looks good: you get a flat rate that you choose yourself (or calculated by a program, I'm not sure, it wasn't clearly stated) on a monthly ad placement. Then publishers may decide to work with you or not. The bottom line is that it's not pay-per-click, like Google AdSense, and that alones makes it very unique and interesting.

But it comes with strings attached — one of them is more like a rope, the type used for hanging people; at least that's how I felt. The first isn't really surprising: BuySellAds take a 25% chunk of your earnings. That's a lot, especially if you just scrape by, but some may think it's worthwhile considering you get paid in full.

Now what I didn't like at all and decisively turned me off, is what you won't find in their pricing page but in the fine print of their terms of service, squeezed in a tiny four-row high window:

Funding Your Account:

You may fund your account in two ways: (1) you can deposit funds into your account via a credit card, wire transfer, or PayPal ("Deposited Funds"); and (2) you can earn funds by selling ads as a publisher ("Earned Funds"). Deposited Funds will appear in your Account balance and be available for you to purchase ads; however, Deposited Funds may not be cashed out. Earned Funds will generally appear in your Account balance approximately seventy-two (72) hours after one of your ads has been purchased, and Earned Funds may be cashed out upon your request per the instructions given elsewhere on the Site. Please note that if your Account is inactive for a six-month period (i.e. you have not signed into your Account, you have not added more Deposited Funds, you have not purchased any ads, or you have not received any Earned Funds during that time), then we may deem your Account inactive and at such time we will charge an inactive account fee to preserve your data in the amount of $100.00 per month against your Account balance and will continue to be charged each month until your balance reaches $0 or until your Account becomes active again. If your Account is inactive for a twelve-month period, your Account balance will be charged as an inactive fee. BSA may, but has no obligation to, give you prior notice of the imposition of any inactive fee.

Let me rephrase in plain words:

- if you don't log in to your account for 6 months, you will be charged $100 every month until it reaches 0.

- if you don't log in to your account for 12 months, all your funds are taken as an "inactive fee".

- and they won't tell you a think about it.

This is plain thievery. Imagine if banks did the same, or any place where you deposit money. "We haven't seen you in months, so we took all your money away. You didn't show up, that's your fault!" It reminds me of Ciao.fr, who had the same policy. I found out too late and they took all the money I had earned by writing articles for them, about 50 I think, away from me. After that I was locked out from my account and it was deleted so I could not even claim authorship! One of the biggest con jobs I've ever seen online and they're still free to operate. All their leadership should be in jail.

Anyway, back to BuySellAds. It might be profitable for people with large websites who generate large revenues fast but if you don't make much, be careful, you might lose it all. So think twice before signing up with BuySellAds! Google at least don't screw you up like that (at least not that I know).