KONTERA: Deleted me, screwed me out of a payment

1. 69

   Evan Hutchinsonposted 13 years ago

   Always figured there was something fishy about how you can't see your all-time earnings. Now that my hubtraffic has skyrocketed (averaging now 5000 hits per day) I finally started making some decent change off Kontera, and I figured I was finally over the 50 dollar threshold. So I send in an email to support, and they said that my account was still showing 100 dollars as the minimum but that they could see my minimum as 50. And they said that my current balance was 87.50.
   
   So then what happens? A day or two later, tried to log in to check my account, and "invalid email and password" Used the "forgot password" link and put my email address in, and "No account is associated with your email address". Nice. Screwed out of a pretty decent check. THANKS A LOT KONTERA.

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   1. 0

      Stevennix2001posted 13 years agoin reply to this

      wow, boy am i glad i stopped using kontenera, as it sounds like they're scamming people from what some people said in this forum. im sorry to hear that happened to you though, and hope they'll be able to pay you the money they owe you.  have you tried e-mailing the site administrators to see what the deal is?

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   2. 61

      cohenj88posted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Hi Evan,
      
      This is Jonathan from Kontera. It sounds like there's just been a misunderstanding. I've located your Kontera account , but I'll have to get some more information from you before I can figure out exactly what was causing the confusion. If you e-mail me at jonathanc@kontera.com I'll be happy to sort it out.
      
      Speaking in more general terms, we don't delete publishers accounts and if publishers lose their login information the worst case scenario is we just manually change your password and e-mail it to you.
      
      Thanks,
      
      - Jonathan Cohen
      Kontera Community Manager

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   3. 69

      Evan Hutchinsonposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Okay, turns out the email got switched on my account. either I got drunk and did it or it reverted back to a previous email. Problem solved there. Either way, still waiting for my damn overdue payment.

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2. 65

   darksideposted 13 years ago

   Did you send another email to support to ask what the problem is?

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   1. 69

      Evan Hutchinsonposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Yep I did. Still waiting on the reply.

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   2. 0

      kimberlyslyricsposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Dark we must bring them to the darkside
      
      pay they will.

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3. 59

   paradigmsearchposted 13 years ago

   I did a search. There does indeed seem to be a lot of complaints about Kontera…
   
   edit: I agree with darkside that you shouldn’t give up yet.

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4. 67

   Michael Willisposted 13 years ago

   I did away with Kontera long ago and then started making money from Adsense.
   There are some on Hubpages though that do very well with Kontera.

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5. 88

   WryLiltposted 13 years ago

   Strange. I only use Kontera on one or two hubs, only have it for experimentation purposes.
   
   And Relache is the one who makes decent money from Kontera on HP, or so I've heard.

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   1. 70

      sunforgedposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I believe she mentioned a prolific referral.
      
      Kontera really is a terrible form of advertising and should be blacklisted by anyone who respects their readers.
      
      I wont read a page that has intext contextual link advertising, its equally as annoying as pop ups and interstitials - G should penalize pages with that crap

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      1. 88

         WryLiltposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Ah I didn't know that...

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      2. 90

         Pcunixposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         100% in agreement.
         
         I think HP cheapens the site by having it as an option.

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      3. 0

         ryankettposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         I am convinced that I earn between 25% - 40% more in AdSense revenue with Kontera disabled. I have trialed Kontera twice, once for an entire calender month. My CTR fell on both occassions from around <snipped> to <snipped>.
         
         That is serious damage.
         
         *I realise that my CTR is very low anyway, but that is as a result of one particularly successful hub which just does not win clicks.

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         1. 88

            WryLiltposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            You know it's against Adsense ToS to reveal CTR, right?

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            1. 0

               ryankettposted 13 years agoin reply to this

               Not in a broad sense like that it isn't. It would be against Google TOS to reveal the CTR for a particular hubpage.
               
               I used to believe the same popular misconception. There is absolutely no danger caused to the AdSense affiliate program by me giving a very rough estimate of my CTR across over 1000 pages of online content.
               
               People talk about their broad CTR constantly on the Google AdSense help forums, owned by Google, and do not encounter problems - Google employees are even happy to answer their questions. It is because of this openess (in a broad sense) that I am very aware of my very low CTR (across my portfolio)
               
               Now, if I said that xxx hub had xxx CTR, and had earnt me xxx dollars, from xxx impressions, then I would be asking for trouble

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               1. 88

                  WryLiltposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                  Ok, thanks for the clarification, good to know.

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               2. 0

                  EmpressFelicityposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                  I dunno, I once had one of my forum posts here snipped because I quoted my general CTR, and I've seen several other people here have their posts snipped for the same reason.  Maybe HP staff are being extra cautious.

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               3. 72

                  relacheposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                  I think you're mistaken, as HubPages admin snipped your previous statements to delete the CTR...

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                  1. 71

                     thisisoliposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                     That is Hubpages though.  Google have no problem with broad references ie. around 4%.

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                     1. 0

                        kimberlyslyricsposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                        cool post, thanks TIO.  I always forget they are not one in the same, suppose because the act as one in a hub, in my mind, which cannot understand broad anything   Thanks though.

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                  2. 0

                     ryankettposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                     Nah, defo not mistaken. Head over to the AdSense help forums if in doubt, start a thread even if you wish.... and ask them directly...

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      4. 0

         kimberlyslyricsposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Dude, I'll give you 2 bucks a hub, need 20, or will they be autom dup cont?
         
         damn, maybe
         
         com'on that was a good offer and nothing got forged!
         
         Sorry ADD = what were we arguing about, cause I just don't get politics, we Canadians are very lucky-we never have to vote, everything's perfect, we love all people, hate rude ones, and have more babies per capita than anyone in the entire wold ,edit. anywhere.  hey i contributed.  cool, eh?
         
         btw this is habee   hi all
         
         interesting her parents surname is kontera, never mind just jump over me, i'm very use to this, my nickname really is hurdle
         
         

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         1. 88

            WryLiltposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            You = Habee????

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      5. 60

         johnshadeposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         kontera can be good if it's used properly e.g not putting too many on articles and using double line, its click by choose rather than pop up that are involuntary,
         Its annoying to me only if there is too many on a page, vibrant txt ads is much better than kontera, hubpages should change that

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      6. 72

         relacheposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         My referral earnings on Kontera this summer seem to indicate I'm getting less from my referral Hubs and more from my own.
         
         Interestingly I get a much higher CTR with Kontera on my personal website than on my Hubs.

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         1. 70

            sunforgedposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            I was recalling this:
            
              4 months ago.
            
            So congrats on overshadowing your Referral - I still dislike the ad format immensely.
            
            
            Have you experimented with removing it for a month or two?
            
            Many high profile testers of Kontera outside of Hp and apparently many on HP have reported increases in other affiliate earnings when that annoying ad format was removed.

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      7. 63

         Lisa HWposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         I wasn't thrilled with some of the ads they had on my stuff.  They really didn't seem aimed at anyone who was likely to be interested in the Hubs I had.  They kind of seemed more aimed at "anyone/period".

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6. 63

   Kidgasposted 13 years ago

   Fortunately, I don't get enough traffic to have considered Kontera yet but I doubt that I will ever use them seeing as I have heard little positive.  The negative reports are definitely the majority.

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7. 80

   skyfireposted 13 years ago

   Kontera Punchlines.
   
   
   Make money online by annoying surfers- Kontera.
   
   
   Our reporting system sucks more than any other advertising network - Kontera.

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8. 59

   brettbposted 13 years ago

   I took Kontera off. I have valuable pages but all I got was popups for "search for windows" and rubbish, even on pages with very high AdSense CPM or in niches like IT where there are endless good advertisers.
   
   I really want to diversify away from AdSense but Kontera isn't the way I will do it.

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9. 71

   Singular Investorposted 13 years ago

   There are lots of complains about Kontera just do a search on Gooogle - I hope you get your money though - they used to have their famous Clause 42 - do they still have it ? Clause 42 basically said if you don't make $5 in a month then Kontera keeps what you earn and you have to start again. Is it still the same ?

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   1. 65

      darksideposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      They have dropped it from their ToS.

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   2. 61

      cohenj88posted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Hi SI,
      
      This is Jonathan from Kontera. Darkside is correct, currently every cent you earn through Kontera rolls over into the next month until you reach the $50 minimum payout.
      
      - Jonathan

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10. 60

    Jane@CMposted 13 years ago

    I disabled Kontera months ago.  I never had one page impression from them.  Some do some don't.

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    1. 61

       cohenj88posted 13 years agoin reply to this

       Hi Jane,
       
       I just took a look at your Kontera account and you were receiving both page impressions and ad clicks. Please contact me at jonathanc@kontera.com if you'd like for me to go over it with you.
       
       Thanks,
       
       - Jonathan Cohen
       Kontera Community Manager

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11. 57

    TerryGlposted 13 years ago

    Hey Jonathan, you guys must seriously be worried over there at K headquarters. Half of hubpages thinks its all a scam, one or two are making a few dollars and the rest are sitting on the fence.
    
    Are you guys considering at your team meetings each morning about addressing the issues that not only hubpage users have but half of the internet and major user forums about slamming Kontera in the serps.
    
    You guys have a bad name, article spinners are above Kontera in the serps so really, when will you guys do the right thing. I have seen your prices as an advertiser and what a publisher gets. There is a huge difference.
    
    There will be one thing that brings down Hubpages and the decision announced by Paul Deeds to include Kontera in the affiliate role here.
    
    It is Kontera. Many have already stated when they load on a page, they see Kontera, they leave.
    
    You guys need to fix your image, your cpc's and your trust. Because at the moment you have pretty close to zero. Crikey, half of the posters here cannot even spell your name!

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    1. 61

       cohenj88posted 13 years agoin reply to this

       Hi Terry,
       
       The overall opinion of Kontera is actually quite high, we wouldn't be able to maintain our standing as the leading In-Text network with over 15,000 publishers and 140 million unique page views per month, if we weren't able to satisfy the needs of our advertising partners, our publishers, and end users. In fact comScore, the leading internet marketing research firm recently released a study about Kontera that found users view Kontera In-Text ads are one of the least intrusive ad types. You can read more about the comScore results here: http://www.kontera.com/advertisers/research-results
       
       In terms of Kontera's CPC,  which ads are displayed depend on a variety of different factors including what the content of the web page is, traffic sources, current campaigns running, advertising preferences, and more. Also these ads are geo-targeted, so the ads you seeing in one country are possibly different than the ads you're seeing on the same site in another country.
       
       Kontera offers a huge inventory of exclusive ads from such brands as Microsoft, L'Oreal, Toyota, Nintendo, Ford, Oreo, Domino's Pizza, Home Depot, Blackberry, and more. These premium, often Rich-Media ads are the most attractive to site visitors and offer the best possible CPC. It's possible that for whatever combinations of reasons, you weren't seeing these ads, but whatever ads are being displayed on your site, you receive the same high percentage of the revenue share. We very much value our publishers and take great pride in making sure they're compensated accordingly.
       
       Thanks,
       
       - Jonathan Cohen
       Kontera Community Manager

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12. 65

    darksideposted 13 years ago

    Having an All Time in the Custom Date Period would be handy.
    
    And for me it doesn't show any stats prior to 18th of March, and I've been signed up to Kontera for longer than that.
    
    (While I don't have Kontera running on my hubs, I do have referrals running it so I am seeing some impressions and clicks on their hubs.)

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13. 82

    Whitney05posted 13 years ago

    I quit Kontera because they did something like this with me. They didn't close my account but they wouldn't pay me and were taking from my account. Then they got pissed that I didn't give them proper notice before I had removed all my Kontera adds.
    
    It is a waste of time. Looks cheesy, as does any contextual links that pop up like Kontera. It's almost never relevant to the page topic that the ads are on. And isn't worth the time.
    
    My adsense took a huge turn for the better as soon as I took off all Kontera on all hubs, and since then my Adsense has only gotten better.
    
    This advertiser is a joke.

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14. 71

    thisisoliposted 13 years ago

    I would actually quite like to point out right here that in recent months my Adsense ads have been abot as targeted as my Kontera ads, so many unrelated picture ads from Google which might have high epc, but have a significantly lower CTR.

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    1. 0

       ryankettposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       Is it even possible for any AdSense ad to have a lower CTR than Kontera? I have never seen lower...

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       1. 69

          Evan Hutchinsonposted 13 years agoin reply to this

          Yeah, I had a higher CTR via Kontera, but a FAR lower CPC. I would have kept Kontera around now that I know my email got switched but I'm still getting rid of them since they're so damn slow on my payment.

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15. 80

    earnestshubposted 13 years ago

    I dumped Kontera too, partly because of the minimum which applied then, and because I thought it would improve my adsense earnings. Which it did.

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16. 38

    Dale Nelsonposted 13 years ago

    Their CPC is just ludicrous. Why bother wasting traffic on $0.01.
    Nuked them after first month.

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17. 71

    thisisoliposted 13 years ago

    When I have Kontera (In an off stage of testing right now) I get a few days at 1cent clicks, but more days at $0.10 to $0.30 clicks.
    
    I do know that the opinion within the small publisher coomunity is low, however a lot of people who operate large websites speak fairly highly of the program, maybe because they can make more use fo Kontera's keyword targeting tools.

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18. 73

    KeithTaxposted 13 years ago

    I wrote a hub on how to block Kontera ads from displaying when you surf other websites. You need to stay one step ahead of the spammers. I consider Kontera spam as the ads pop up when I accidentially run my mouse over the text.
    
    Here is the hub with instructions on blocking Kontera ads from ever appearing on your desktop:
    
    <link snipped, no self-promoting URLs>

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19. 78

    sabrebIadeposted 13 years ago

    I was a huge Kontera cheerleader at one time, but now the payouts have dropped to the point of being ridiculous.
    Impressions are up, but money is down.
    So I'm starting to remove Kontera from Hubs, Blogs etc.

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20. 74

    kennynextposted 13 years ago

    So far I've never set up for Kontera adds. There is always some disagreement on everything, so do your own research before forming a bad opinion.

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21. 71

    Singular Investorposted 13 years ago

    Well I'm glad to see they've dumped Clause 42 which was a disgrace and should never have been there in the first place, but what I see from this thread is that the vast majority here do not like them
    
    Has anybody got a good word for Kontera here ? Apart from the Kontera guy ?

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    1. 71

       thisisoliposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       So far my testing on Kontera has revealed a very minor (prctically negligable) impact on Google Adsense earnings.  I am currently on stage four part 2 of an on off test which I have tried to use to compare different month segments, different season impacts and so forth.
       
       While Kontera Earnings are low they do beat NOT having Kontera ads in terms of any possible improvement on adsense clicks.
       
       The problem with Kontera is that some days you can get $0.30 cents a click, other  days you will get a single sent a click. My overall impression so far is that it earns you around an extra $0.20 to $0.50 per thousand views including the negative affect on Adsense.  I am recording these statistics, and plan on writing something up when I have completed all 12 stages, time permitting. 
       
       While these earnings are low, they are a simple and space free advertising solution which does increase overall profits (despite what people say about needing a hundred thousand daily views, a percentage increase earning such as this should not be lowered by the level of viewing figures, it just means you earn in propotion to your traffic)
       
       The only statement I will make here, ot remove any liability if anything, is that these tests were conducted on my sites, and results may differ for different authors with different techniques.  For instance someone who tries to gain their traffic by social bookmarking will probably see a much lower level of earnings, however they would also earn much less through Adsense and Amazon as well.
       
       Personally I think if you are willing to give up the low earnings for no extra work, be it because you don't like the pop up, or you think it detracts from your other ad sources, then you are not losing a lot of money, however it could be buying you an extra case of beer every month.

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