DRIEBERGEN, Netherlands - The head of FreeOnes.com has confirmed that the declining value of the U.S. dollar prompted the company to ask some webmasters to increase their revenue-share rate, but said the request wasn't mass-mailed to all business partners.
"We started sending out the first emails already a while ago and contacting more companies we do business with since then," FreeOnes CEO Maurice said. "Also, we are not asking every sponsor to raise the payout to 70 percent. What we are asking for is to raise our payout a certain percentage from what it was."
In the original email sent to webmasters, FreeOnes representatives wrote that if "this is not a feasible request for you, we regret to inform you that we will not be able to promote your program at the same level as we have before. Instead, we will be focusing on the programs that are able to meet our needs."
Maurice said the decline of the U.S. dollar since 2001 has hurt FreeOnes "a lot."
"Many people aren't aware of all the cost we have to run the site," he said. "In total, there are about 16 people working on it right now. Besides this, we invest [a] huge amount of money in advertising. ... Most of our expenses are in euros, which doesn't make things better for us. These are only a few examples of our costs. In order to stay healthy as a company, we also need to earn money in order to be able to develop new things, et cetera."
Maurice noted that FreeOnes is not forcing any companies to increase their payouts, but he said if an affiliate doesn't increase its revenue-share rate, FreeOnes will consider doing more business with those who do.
"This is how the economic laws are working," he said. "I read some board posts that because of this policy, we would promote in the end only bad companies whom pay more. This is certainly not the case.
"First of all, we never promote bad companies, since we don't like it if our visitors get ripped off. At FreeOnes, we are not there to make a quick buck. It's not without a reason that we just had our 10-year anniversary. Secondly, for all other sites which qualify to get promoted through FreeOnes, we always will promote the sites which convert the best for us. And these are actually the sites which our visitors like the most."
Maurice noted that FreeOnes could consider reverting to lower revenue-share rates if the U.S. dollar increases against the euro, but not before the U.S. dollar and euro are at an even exchange rate.
"Unfortunately, this is still a very long way to go," he said.
For more information, visit FreeOnes.com.
