Justin R.

Sometimes something starts out very promising, but with time soon turns into disappointment. This is relevant to ity.im, which is an ad network for publishers, advertised at the time I signed up as a CPM ad network; and a url shortener for those who want to make cash by making whichever links they post online first go through ity.im in order to show an interstitial ad first before going to the link. Well I say for those who want to make cash, but it's rather like microcents you probably won't get any time soon most likely, as the payout minimum is $15 so you'll have to send millions of people through your links first.

I not only used ity.im as a url shortener, but there was also a time I used their ad network to place CPM advertisements on my website. It was really very nice that they were so quick and easy to sign up and use; that you can sign up and start using their ad code immediately without all the days and weeks of waiting for "application approval" that many other ad networks try to put you off with.

Ity.im has ad codes that will place advertisements on your websites in the sizes 468 X 60,300 X 250,728 X 90,120 X 600 and INTERSTITIAL AD. You can also choose to have pop-ups enabled, which will make an ad pop up in a window whenever users visit your site. Yes, website surfers hate them, but usually the website owner can earn most with the pop-up type of ad.

Getting the ads on your website is quick and easy, as it is an html code you can copy and paste on any page in your webpage's html code. If only ity.im was legit and paying, they might have become very popular.

But slowly but surely my enthusiasm for ity.im was killed, as I soon realized they basically only advertise services rendered by majon.com, the owners of ity.im, in the adverts on your website. There didn't seem to be any other advertisers but themselves and their various services. There was a quick stint during which they seemed to have embedded advertisements from other ad networks too, but pretty soon they were back to advertising only themselves and their own services.

But, as long as these CPM advertisements paid, I believed I may still have found a good way to monetize my websites. For a while it seemed I was earning a little bit of income from the advertisements. A very small income of course, as these things go, but I suppose every small little bit helps to carry your hosting cost or something.

However, then came a time I realised that these ity.im advertisements do NOT pay anymore. Opening a support ticket about why this is so, the response came back that they're showing more CPC ads now. These CPC ads of course are still the exact same ones advertising majon. Com's own services, but instead of now paying website owners a microcent per exposure as they used to, they now require that these ads be clicked. Oh no, things seemed to be going downhill from here.

The most important thing that used to make me very happy about ity.im, is that once I request a cashout, I get a cashout within 3 days to a week.

However, those times have now disappeared and soon ity.im started ignoring cashout requests.

This is most unfortunate, because obviously the first thing that defines a website as a scam or a con, is whether they speedily pay their members what they owe them, or not. And it seemed like ity.im was going from ok to scam in a handbasket.

The first time I had trouble with a payout request, I had been waiting almost 6 weeks for the request to be processed. I opened a support ticket and received back a very friendly email agreeing that it was most unreasonable that they take this long to pay out, and that he will look into it a. S.a. P.

It didn't take much more than four days after that before I finally received the payout. Maybe they just had a problem on their side? I wasn't going to make a fuss about it any further.

Thinking that they are probably okay now that they have paid out, I continued using their services both as an advertiser and as a publisher.

But, the next time I put in a payout request, the same thing happened again, and seems to be their modus operandi now – cashout requests go ignored.

When a month had gone by, me still waiting for the last payment, I again opened up a support ticket, by now getting quite tired of always having to keep following up cashout requests with support tickets, and received back an email that my cashout request has been received (duh!), and it will be processed "upon approval".

The months then rolled by again, and to date, no such "approval" has taken place. Once again I'm the fool for having trusted a site that I should have dropped like a hot coal at the first sign of scammery.

So, in spite of ity.im's good early days, now they seem to be nothing short of a scam, not paying what they owe their members, and being a pain in the $#*!.

It goes without saying that I don't quite feel comfortable referring people to ity.im now. Ity.im will most likely just frustrate them and make them feel taken advantage of. Not to mention it's a given as far as can be judged reasonably, that they will not receive the money ity. Im owes them.

Redgage.com is a scam. Confirmed. Let there be no doubt that Redgage is a scam.

Ignore the three Redgage members who claim they have been paid over $1000, and therefore Redgage is "legit". For those three, there are insanely more people who are deeply unhappy being screwed by Redgage, their content used by Redgage, monetized with ads that make Redgage money, but not being paid for their creations by Redgage.

Following is my personal experience of Redgage, confirming simply that Redgage is unreasonable, unethcial, hypocritical and, for all practical purposes, a scam.

So let's start at the beginning:

Having found Redgage, the "social site that pays", I was over the moon! I could post my articles, photos, blogs, and even links to Redgage. And they claim they'll pay! Some miniscule amount though; about 1 cent for every 17 visits. But it's better than NOT being paid for those things.

I opened three accounts; one for my photos and links, another for articles, and another to promote my business.

Oh how lovely to see in the box on the right of every page, how the "earnings" are accumulating. Too bad I would later learn that all of those cents and dollars would mean squat.

I've always liked to do a little light photography, and here on Redgage I was promised I could earn a little something for showing off my best photos.

Since I love to write, my writing could finally be read by people, and Redgage showed me the promised earnings growing all the time.

And "friends" for my online business kept growing. I really thought Redgage was the best thing since sliced ham.

The months went by, if not a year or two, and all the time "earnings" came dripping in. Finally came time for a pay-out from Redgage ($25 minimum which takes forever to reach), on the account I used for my photographs.

It is here where the dream started crumbling beyond repair. And other sites should learn a lesson here: If you are going to gain people's trust, it would be if your payment system is easy, reliable, and payments are on time. Redgage's way of paying is far from any such things.

Firstly, Redgage's excuse for a "payment system" is beyond shady. Where any intelligent and legit online business uses Paypal, Payza or a combination of both, Redgage at the time of my first payout used "Redgage Visa Gift Cards".

Basically what that means in practise is that Redgage first deducts $5 from the money they owe you, just like that. This is insane! It's beyond unethical. It is the same as saying to somebody you owe money to, "Hey, for my effort of having to reach in my pocket to get my wallet out and to open it and take the money out and hand it over to you, I'm first paying myself $5 of your money." I mean what the hell kind of unreasonable scum does that?

Then of course, this card that they put in the mail, takes months and months and months to reach you. It can easily take 6 months before you actually receive it. That is ON TOP OF the up to almost 2 months you have to wait for any earnings to clear, since Redgage waits 45 DAYS AFTER THE END OF THE MONTH IN WHICH EARNINGS ARE EARNED, to "clear" them. Seriously, their time scale they do things on are not only shady and impractical, it's totally bonkers. It really doesn't excite anyone.

So, having finally received this card, you will find that it causes lots of problems. Redgage claims it can be used like a debit card, but so many people have complained all over the internet that it simply does not work. And, those who say it does work, complain about INSANE TRANSACTION FEES FOR EACH AND EVERY TRANSACTION. At best, after all the insane deductions, you're lucky if you get out $8 of your original $25 which took a lifetime to earn. Many people lost interest very quickly in Redgage after their first payout.

Still, after receiving one such card, I told myself that at least it's something. But now I wish I had told myself to shut up and not trust Redgage, because that little bit of pre-plundered "earnings" was all I would ever see, and no more:

The months rolled by and, surprized I would see it again in my lifetime, the time came again to withdraw earnings, on my Redgage account I used to promote my business.

Liz/Elizabeth/Eahauser sent me an email on my Redgage account that the virtual card is on its way. By now, Redgage is using "virtual cards", whatever the hell that is - since mine never came, I never got to know.

Who is Liz/Elizabeth/Eahauser you say? Some blonde bimbo who claims to be an employee of Redgage; however it seems she's the only one who works there, and for all we know she actually is the one woman show behind Redgage. She's the only one who responds to queries SOMETIMES, when she has the time I suppose.

Months went by, without my receiving this "virtual card", so I sent a message back that I have not received it. Liz then told me to contact "*******@redgage.com".

Now, what every Redgage user who has ever had an enquiry knows about "*******@redgage.com", is that any messages or enquiries sent to them, is a complete waste of time. "*******@redgage.com" NEVER responds. I have seen one unhappy reviewer claim online that there is NOBODY behind this "*******@redgage.com" in the first place. I'm afraid I can't argue with that, as my many support enquiries have also been unanswered.

So, I just never received my earnings on this account.

Then one day, happy as a clappy was I, because I got a message from Redgage I had won a $25 raffle card, and must withdraw it immediately or it will go to someone else. This was on my blog (writing) redgage account.

I did as I was ordered by Redgage. Hooray, I'm getting some money for all my writing efforts and time I put in! Or so was the assumption.

Then followed months of silence. No such raffle card and/or earnings ever arrived. This on top of the previous card I'm also waiting for, by now seemingly in vain. What is going on here? Is Redgage on the level?

I did remember though that the withdrawal form said I would receive an email when the card is sent. I received no such email. Don't tell me they STILL didn't send the card!

I enquired about it from Liz. She ignored me.

Out of desperation, I finally wrote a blog about it on my Redgage account, where fellow members can see how Redgage is treating me. Only then suddenly Liz came out of her shell and wrote comments on the blog, grabbing at nonsensical straws to find a reason for not having sent my payments.

And, in typical b/s fashion, she kept jumping from one thing to another, always changing reasons.

It started out as "multiple accounts". Redgage had no rules whatsoever that you may not have more than one account. So how can that possibly be a reason for not paying out?

"Gaming the contest", is what Liz then falsely accused me of. If like me, you don't know what the hell she's talking about, she explained only after I licked her to explain, something in the line of that if I have more than one account it I might win the "raffle card" nonsense more than other members who have one account.

When I explained very clearly that such thinking is rubbish and that I keep seperate accounts for subjects and entities that have nothing to do with each other, then she changed the reason to "traffic".

Traffic you say? Yes, she didn't say what was wrong with my "traffic", but I assume too many people were reading my blogs.

This was more insane fishing on her side. Besides, Redgage sends the traffic to my blogs, through the other Redgage members that read my blogs. I assume search engines send more traffic too. How is receiving traffic a problem for Redgage? It doesn't make any logical sense. Unless Liz is trying to make it seem like I send bots to my uploaded content in order to inflate views. I sure as heck aren't.

Well, in spite of Liz telling me "... you could probably invest your energy in explaining your traffic and already have your payments", once the traffic was explained, she of course did NOT send the payments. It was just a blatant lie.

Instead, the fishing for a reason that she could somehow make stick, continued. She probably was hoping that I'd be gone by now, because she kept telling me also, "If you would like your account removed and you are unhappy with RedGage- just confirm and I can remove your account".

In other words, "if you don't like us not paying you, you can bugger off and let me delete your account with all your earnings stats so that there's no evidence that we owe you money".

She simply would not send the payment. It sickened me to think that THEY contact ME to tell me I have won a raffle card, and now they are giving me grief and don't seem to have any intention of sending it. What was the point then? They might have just kept it to themselves then.

It's obvious she was trying to make me wait as long as possible for her to sort it out, which she eventually plans not to. But finally she found her reason for not sending the payment: "Stolen content".

Even though nobody in their right mind would agree with her, she claims I uploaded stolen content. In one of my blogs I embedded a picture from a website of a place I wrote about that I had visited so the readers know what I'm talking about, and about another two blogs had generic royalty free pictures on them for illustration.

So what's wrong with that you ask? Nothing to anybody reasonable.

But Liz happily asserts that Redgage rules state that they will only pay for content the user created themselves.

What angers me about this is that:

1.) It was NOT her original reason. She fished for reasons because she had no intention of paying.

2.) Redgage had no problem whatsoever keeping up my blogs for themselves, monetized with their own ads, making themselves money with my content. There was nothing wrong with the content while the traffic was streaming in on it for months and months. NEVER ONCE did they notify me that something is objectionable and that I must fix it, remove it, or that they are taking it down themselves.

So, don't even begin to say that Redgage was concerned about copyright - they don't care while they are making money off of it; they only care when they need a reason not to pay you. They are completely unethical, hypocratical and ambiguous in this regard.

Of course if these few images are really the issue, this can be easily fixed, and indeed I did remove these pictures that nobody else would see as a problem since I'm not "making money" from them - it's MY blog that I wrote that people come to read.

Notifying Liz that I removed them, she ignored that.

I then deleted the blogs themselves so Redgage can at least not keep making money off of my content that I created and Redgage is making money on but refuse to pay me.

Still, Liz has shown no interest in sending my payment cards. In fact, she has threatened that my account was "flagged for removal".

As for my other Redgage accounts, even though all the content was completely legit on those, the payments simply did not come, even after I received a message from Liz that they have been sent.

Well, the end of my Redgage experience was finding one day that, lo and behold, Redgage have deleted my accounts. No payments received to date. Scam. Plain and simple.

In conclusion, nobody can work like this. And frankly, from the messages left by other people on Liz's profile, it seems the biggest problem people have with Redgage is that they don't receive their payments and support ignores them.

Personally, I would strongly, STRONGLY advise against joining Redgage. I have lost all appetite for Redgage. When it comes time for them to pay you your share for your content, they treat their members like crap, and their excuse for a payment system falls far short of any reasonable service - and that's when they still paid; something which in my experience and judging from all the complaints from members, they now seem to have clearly stopped doing.

Redgage is one of those sites who think they have all the power since if you complain and they don't like it, they can simply delete you and not pay you.

Horrible site, horrible experience.

My conclusion: Redgage = Scam.