Is Infolinks A Fraud? - Decide It For Yourself

Well, This post is a bit off the topic, but I really wanted to share my experience with so called intext advertising company called infolinks. Infolinks claims to be one of the best intext advertising companies and also promises to share the highest revenue possible then it's competitors, The following impressed me and I quickly signed up for a publisher account back 1.5 years back.
During first few months I enjoyed good amount of revenue and CPM with infolinks, but after few months the CPM showed a significant amount of drop, I wrote an email to infolinks related to this issue, Here is what they replied:

Hi Rafay,

Thanks for writing in!

What you are experiencing now is a common fluctuation which is typical for a website's organic traffic. It is quite natural for eCPMs to fluctuate; it will go down but just as quickly it will go back up, as you are starting to see already.

Unlike other methods of advertising, the in-text advertising market is relatively new and as such, is still subject to instability. The In-text advertising market is built on supply and demand and advertisers (which are the 'customers' buying the words on your website) are setting their budgets after various considerations.

Moving forward, I always recommend that Infolinks publishers choose double-underlined links. Double-underlined links are less intrusive (since your readers won’t confuse them with regular hyperlinks.) We find that Publishers who choose double-underlined links earn more money because it helps ensure that your website receives the best quality ads that we have to offer.

To switch from dotted to double underlined links, please login to your Infolinks Account and go to the “Integration Guide” and change your status to “Double Underline”. Don’t forget to save your newly changed settings. I highly recommend making this switch today!

I hope that you have found this information to be helpful! Please let me know if you require additional assistance or have any other questions.

Have a lovely day.

Jamie M.
Senior Account Executive

E support@infolinks.com
W www.infolinks.com

After two to three days the revenue of infolinks shooted up once again and after a month or so it dropped again. I wrote an email once again got a same reply.


Important Points From the above Email

• What you are experiencing now is a common fluctuation which is typical for a website's organic traffic - However my organic traffic kept increasing while the CPM was Dropping.

• I always recommend that Infolinks publishers choose double-underlined links. Double-underlined links are less intrusive (since your readers won’t confuse them with regular hyperlinks). -  Decide it for yourself, will a double underline will increase your CTR or single line. Total Misguidance.

Account Suspension

As the CPM fluctuations were going off and on, One day infolinks emailed me the following:

Dear Rafay,

At this time we have temporarily blocked your Infolinks account. We found that you have added the Infolinks code to pages that violate our TOS. We ask that you please remove the Infolinks code from the following pages. Once you have done so, please let us know and we will reactivate your account.

http://rafayhackingarticles.blogspot.com/2009/07/how-to-hack-facebook-account.html

http://rafayhackingarticles.blogspot.com/2010/01/4-ways-on-how-to-hack-facebook-password.html

http://rafayhackingarticles.blogspot.com/2010/07/free-microsoft-office-2010-product-key.html

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http://rafayhackingarticles.blogspot.com/2009/03/hack-hotmail.html
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http://rafayhackingarticles.blogspot.com/2010/04/facebook-password-hacker-and-cracker.html

http://rafayhackingarticles.blogspot.com/2009/08/how-to-hack-gmail.html

Thank you for your cooperation and have a lovely day.

Jamie M.
Account Executive

E support@infolinks.com
www.infolinks.com

So I searched on Google for the keyword "Infolinks TOS" and found none, But anyways I used infolinks OFF tag to stop infolinks from displaying on these particular pages. After a week or so infolinks blocked again and asked me to remove some URLS, As I didn't wanted to loose the revenue I generated from Infolinks, I removed the URLS they asked.

It was september 20rd when it had been more than 2 months, Since they didn't made the payment, So I wrote an email and never got a reply, On 23rd December I received an email from infolinks:

Dear Rafay,


Thank you for writing back.


As noted previously, our analysts have deemed your account activity to be illegitimate and therefore instructed us to close it according to our terms of service.


We ask that you please remove the Infolinks codes from your site(s) if you have not done so already.


We wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors.


Sincerely,


 Jamie M.
 Account Executive\


support@infolinks.com
www.infolinks.com

I replied with the following:

Thanks for the email, Kindly tell me what kind of Illegitimate activities, I have not done any kind of fraud with you, I need explanations, Plus you havent made my payment


Warm Regards,
Rafay Baloch

They replied again after a 4 days or so:

Dear Rafay,


Thank you again for your reply.As previously stated, your account cannot be reopened for reasons previously explained.We wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors.


Sincerely,
Jamie M.Account Executive

I was using infolinks for several other websites like http://techlotips.com, if they had problems with RHA, then why did they suspend all other websites too, The answer is very simple they didn't wanted to pay me, After writing several emails to them and not getting a proper reply, I decided to put the kibosh on it and move to kontera. Here are the keypoints to note from the above emails:

• The moment I asked for the payment which was well above then 3000$, they suspended my account.
• They never told me about the fraud I did with them.

Why you should Avoid Infolinks?

• Infolinks Will decrease your adsense revenue
• Your Bounce Rate will be inreased
• Blog Load time increases, which is really fruitful for SEO.

Don't believe me, see what a Six Figure blogger has to say about infolinks:

http://techadvices.com/infolinks-kontera-statistics/

http://techadvices.com/infolinks-premium-publishers-cpm-down/


Another Infolinks Scam:
http://jimshep.wordpress.com/2011/09/28/the-infolinks-african-safari-scam/

If you are in a similar situation and have been screwed by infolinks, Kindly share with us. We will be happy to publish your story. I believe my story might have changed your mind, Kindly share this post with every one you know, So it might now happen to any one else.

Is infolinks a Fraud?, Decide it for yourself now.