Turning customers into slaves?

[MatrixWatch]

The matrix sites are losing customers, and as a result they are now figuring out ways raise more money in order to help cycle their customers off the long lists. This practice has been around for awhile (autocycling) but it has become much more of a central issue lately.

What are the solutions? It seems that the matrix owners and supporters are gravitating toward those spam-mail incentive programs such as generating hits, reading emails, and referring friends to other sites.

So, let me get this straight.. A customer signs up on a matrix site so they can get a cheap laptop, game system, or plasma tv. Then, he or she finds out that they will need to sign up for a bunch of get-rich-quick schemes in order to get a check sent to the owner of the matrix site. Then, the matrix owner will put that money into a fund that helps cycle a person off the top of a long list.

Sounds like the customers are being turned into slaves to me, and I don't think the customers will put up with it much longer. The customers of matrix site are pretty smart people, and I'm sure they will see what is really going on sooner than later.

They deserve better than this. They bought the e-books and signed up for the matrix because they wanted to get discounted electronics. What they found is a site owner who cannot answer their questions, and a load of extra work to do in order to get the lists moving.

Customers should be appreciated and lifted to the status of the kings, not demoted and made to be the slaves of cyberspace, all for the profit of a site owner.

[ycchen]

Moreover, who knows if the extra income will be put back into autocycle fund or morgage of the owner(s)? Beside, the extra income should be least 2-3 times more than the signup money in order to cycle extra more people out of the lists.

Therefore, even if the members are willing to be a 'slave', it still won't work at all because the income generated is unproportionally tiny (compare to payout).

I think the whole purpose is not about raising more money to serve the customers, but a 'public relations' gimmick to show how honest and sincere the owners are.

Unless you are in cycling position or top 2% of the list, there is absolutely NO point of wasting time on all these slavery jobs, as WD put it.

[mikv]

I haven't seen any site yet actually use the funds from the "side" money making "opportunities" (they like to call them that to keep customers interested) to autocycle customers. In fact, that money doesn't even seem to be used for advertising either, although if you ask the owner, they'll give you a list of things that they claim they use the money for and autocycling usually isn't one of them.

One thing I'm noticing is matrix owners are starting to promote these "side ventures" more than the actual matrix site itself. Whatever is bringing the owner the most profit is what is being promoted these days and the lists are taking a back seat to the owners greed more than ever. Then if you take a look at how much is actually put into the autocycle fund, it's ridiculous! Only a small fraction of the side money generated actually makes it into the autocycle programs. For every $20 taken in by the side venture, only $1 or $2 goes to the autocycle (varies by site, some a dollar or two more but I haven't seen anyone give more than $25). At that rate it will take forever to get the autocycle fund up to even cycle one person.

[Got Matrix]

I can personally say that all my funds from 3rd party autocycling funds go directly into the pot. This balance is kept on my forums and updated anytime that the funds are received.

Autocycling is a necessity to matrix sites and it takes very little effort to make a small difference. Autocycling has cleared several of our list in the past and will do so in the future. This prevents stagnant list.

We also allow people to drop out of a list for gift certificates which allows them to reenter a shorter/faster list if they'd like. With these two methods we will be ahead of the rest in the future.

[ycchen]

Originally posted by Got Matrix
I can personally say that all my funds from 3rd party autocycling funds go directly into the pot. This balance is kept on my forums and updated anytime that the funds are received.


How do your members know the % that you put into the pot? They know the absolute number, but out of what % from the total fund that your receive? Is it 100% like what Damion did (or claim to)?


Autocycling is a necessity to matrix sites and it takes very little effort to make a small difference. Autocycling has cleared several of our list in the past and will do so in the future. This prevents stagnant list.

Cleared several lists? How? I only see longer list with at least 80-90% of helpers still stuck in your $25 list. What do you mean by "cleared"?

prevents stangnant ? Really? Consider your $25 list. The last helper at 3899 position will need 7798 extra signups to be cycled. Let me assume a speedy and constant signup rate for you: 30/month (including autocycle fund). This #3899 helper's waiting period is 21.66 years! So, is this the accomplishment that you are proud of? If so, you need to do better than this! ..:(


We also allow people to drop out of a list for gift certificates which allows them to reenter a shorter/faster list if they'd like. With these two methods we will be ahead of the rest in the future.

I am not 100% sure about how this works, so I will leave it to other who knows better.