Page 1 of 11 1234 ... LastLast
Results 1 to 25 of 251
  1. #1
    Join Date
    Dec 2001
    Location
    MO
    Posts
    629

    * www.targetedvisitors.info = scam

    Unless someone can prove me wrong, www.targetedvisitors.info is a scam.

    I tried out their $2 plan for 1000 untargeted hits today and this is what I saw. Everytime I went into the 'stats' page on their site and upped my daily cap limit, I would automatically get about 25-30 hits within the next 30 seconds... sounded like a script to me.

    So, I looked at some of the IP addresses that was sent to my site (via my forum), and out of 10 of those ip's, 8 of them came back as open proxies when scanned. The others timed out...

    Things got fishy when my forum went from showing a max amount of 24 users online at once to "Most users ever online was 286 on Mar 11 2004, 09:39 PM" and not ONE guest IP went past the index.

    I COULD be wrong... but I am seriously doubting that my forum went from 20 users to over 275 in 1 1/2 hours and over 80% of them just HAPPENED to be using proxies...

    If the owners of targetedvisitors.info read this I would ask that you show me one... just one site that has my 'pop-up advertisment' on it... please.

    I have attached a screen shot of my forums list of guests showing IP's... feel free to test them out yourself and see just how many are proxies, or old proxies that are dead now.

    Mods, I would ask that you leave this post in the lounge, because there is a thread in the lounge that sent me to targetedvisitors.info in the first place...
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails targetedhits.gif  

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2004
    Location
    Australia (Crikey)
    Posts
    2,271
    sounds like a scam to me

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    Newport News, Va
    Posts
    30
    It's not a scam. They advertise using pop-under adds. Some people will simply close the add while others will look at the site. You can't force people to like your site or investigate to see what else you have to offer. We have used them for some campains in the past and they were excellent. We have gotten a few signups onto our forum in the past from it, but Hey, you won't get everyone out there to read everything you have or signup either.
    Last edited by worldchanger; 03-12-2004 at 02:42 AM.
    HTTPTalk - Help when you need it the most.
    http://www.httptalk.com

  4. #4
    I've seen several people signup for this program on sitepointforums and haven't yet seen anyone report it as a scam. I'll reserve my judgment until we have more reports.

  5. #5
    Were your referrers from g-stats.com which I've been trying as an alternate traffic source or campaignstats.net which is the primary advertising network? If there are complaints on either I will investigate my partners fully and rectify this situation. This is the first complaint I've had about proxies or anything similar.

    A campaign username would suffice to allow me to determine who is serving your ad and what is going on.
    Dan Grossman - dan @ awio.com
    My Blog | Affiliate Program for Web Hosts

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Dec 2001
    Location
    MO
    Posts
    629
    Originally posted by worldchanger
    It's not a scam. They advertise using pop-under adds. Some people will simply close the add while others will look at the site. You can't force people to like your site or investigate to see what else you have to offer. We have used them for some campains in the past and they were excellent. We have gotten a few signups onto our forum in the past from it, but Hey, you won't get everyone out there to read everything you have or signup either.
    That's fine... but what about all the proxies?

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Dec 2001
    Location
    MO
    Posts
    629
    Dan: They all came from campaignstats.net

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Aug 2001
    Posts
    4,028
    Interesting... as for how legit the traffic is, I really have to say that I don't think it is fake. We've been using them for a couple of websites and constantly see people leave the index page, click our advertisers banners, etc, etc.

    I can tell you this though. Untargeted traffic is absolute BS. Think about it... Imagine browsing WHT and an ad for grass care opens up... you're going to close it.

    I don't know, interested to see how this turns out, but still think you've chosen a cheap way to advertise and it didn't work out, so you got all paranoid.

  9. #9
    I don't know what the proxy issue is. I'm not even sure how proxies work. This is a large network of publisher sites delivering popunders and I have dozens of customers with measureable results (some have posted on WHT, you've seen them).

    I've mailed my contact at the network that serves my popunders with a link to this thread and my own questions about your campaign and will update you as soon as possible.
    Dan Grossman - dan @ awio.com
    My Blog | Affiliate Program for Web Hosts

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Dec 2001
    Location
    MO
    Posts
    629
    Mekhu: I didn't signup to get results, I signed up to test the service because I have seen this advertised for a long time now, yet never seen a real review. Do you really think I expected to get users for $2? Nah...

    Dan: The proxy issue is this... if I wanted to, I could download a script that would allow me to input 1000's of proxies and point them to a site. Each proxy has a different IP so to the site I visit it would look like 1000's of 'real' visitors when really it would just be me, 1000 proxies and a script.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Aug 2001
    Posts
    4,028
    Originally posted by subigo
    Mekhu: I didn't signup to get results, I signed up to test the service because I have seen this advertised for a long time now, yet never seen a real review. Do you really think I expected to get users for $2? Nah...

    Dan: The proxy issue is this... if I wanted to, I could download a script that would allow me to input 1000's of proxies and point them to a site. Each proxy has a different IP so to the site I visit it would look like 1000's of 'real' visitors when really it would just be me, 1000 proxies and a script.
    Retract my smart @ss statement, but still am confused about this proxy thing. Care to explain.

  12. #12
    Originally posted by subigo
    Dan: The proxy issue is this... if I wanted to, I could download a script that would allow me to input 1000's of proxies and point them to a site. Each proxy has a different IP so to the site I visit it would look like 1000's of 'real' visitors when really it would just be me, 1000 proxies and a script.
    Using a "proxy script" wouldn't yield the results people are seeing. Nothing but real people browse sites, fill out forms, click ads, or buy products. If none of that was happening I wouldn't have 1/3rd of my daily sales come from repeat customers.
    Dan Grossman - dan @ awio.com
    My Blog | Affiliate Program for Web Hosts

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Aug 2001
    Posts
    4,028
    I do have to side with Dan when it comes to the fact that I have personally seen results first hand.

    As for this case, I'm not one that should be commenting so I don't think I will

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Dec 2002
    Location
    Jackson, MI
    Posts
    1,525
    I have never had a problem with my traffic provider. It seems both me and Dan use the same. Infact, the last time I signed up somebody, they were very pleased.

    Dan, I hope you get this figured out, and could you please let me know what "your contact" said.

    Thanks,
    Craig

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Dec 2001
    Location
    MO
    Posts
    629
    Proxies are basically bounce servers that can be installed on any machine. It let's you surf the internet while hiding your real IP. You connect to the proxy server and surf everything through it.

    You can find lists of proxies all over the place, here is one example: http://www.multiproxy.org/anon_proxy.htm

    Now, there are scripts out there that allow you to send 'fake traffic' to sites via proxies... all you do is take a list of proxies (like the one above), enter it into your script and tell the script what site to send the proxies to.

    You can control how many of them you send at one time, and for how long....

    So, when I upped my cap limit and suddenly got 30 hits in less than a minute, something seemed strange... and then when I tested the users IP's that came to me via this service 80% of them were open proxies... make sense?

  16. #16
    Join Date
    May 2003
    Location
    Toronto Canada
    Posts
    350
    I've used targetedvisitors.info and was very pleased with the results, I was running kayako live support on my site and it allowed me to track all the visitors. 50% of the traffic browsed through my site and my sales increased by more than 10%. I guess you should choose a Targeted category. I choose "webmasters" category for my campaign, and ensured that the page visitors were sent to was a "custom" page made for that, which would catch people, rather than just the index page of my site..
    BannersMall.com - Banner Design
    Custom Twitter Backgrounds and Facebook Fan Pages - CraftSocialMedia.com

  17. #17
    Join Date
    Aug 2001
    Posts
    4,028
    Originally posted by subigo
    make sense?
    Yeah, thanks.

  18. #18
    Join Date
    Dec 2001
    Location
    MO
    Posts
    629
    I'm not saying any of you got scammed. It is perfectly possible that you got hits from them and they were real. I am saying that *I* got a bunch of hits from proxies and I posted the proof.

  19. #19
    Join Date
    Aug 2001
    Posts
    4,028
    Definately understand what you mean. If I saw this, I'd be in the exact same position. I guess we should just all wait for Dan to reply when his contact gets back to him.

  20. #20
    I thought targetedvisitors.info only had a daily cap option for targeted campaigns, not untargeted ones? At least that's how it is for me (and what Dan told me).

    I too am trying the $2 plan, got a bit over 800 visitors delivered so far but not much of a response. I haven't looked carefully but I do think a couple went past the initial page. Mine are coming from g-stats.com.
    Adventures in Parenting.org - Are you a parent? Listen to the free podcast and sign up for the newsletter!

  21. #21
    Only the campaignstats.net network offers daily caps right now, although g-stats might in the future. I had been filling orders for untargeted campaigns on g-stats until just this week. Customers on campaignstats were getting better results and I figured it'd be worth the extra cost to deliver the cheaper campaigns there also because more customers would become return customers... with the exception of subigo that's been the case.
    Dan Grossman - dan @ awio.com
    My Blog | Affiliate Program for Web Hosts

  22. #22
    then is there any way that you could switch me over to the network with better results?
    Adventures in Parenting.org - Are you a parent? Listen to the free podcast and sign up for the newsletter!

  23. #23
    It was just a theory. I don't have any information on whether untargeted campaigns perform better at either -- all the campaignstats customers were targeting a category or US+category. E-mail me if you want to discuss it more
    Dan Grossman - dan @ awio.com
    My Blog | Affiliate Program for Web Hosts

  24. #24
    E-mail me if you want to discuss it more

    I would actually hope that more discussion takes place here rather than email.

    Public ressolve would be better for your business.

  25. #25
    Join Date
    Dec 2001
    Location
    MO
    Posts
    629
    Is there any way to show us a site that has one of our sites being shown as a popup?

Page 1 of 11 1234 ... LastLast

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •