36 users graded this
Viral URL Review
Date Added: 7/20/2009 Reviewer: windychris
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Date Added: 7/20/2009 Reviewer: windychris
Do you know about this service? Add a comment and earn 50 credits!
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Grade Viral URL ...
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Viral URL Description
ViralURL is a service offered by Frank Bauer that provides you with the ability to protect your affiliate commissions. It provides you with a link cloaker that protects your affiliate links from commission theft. In addition to this service, it has a built in system that allows you to track your clicks, earn ad credits and build a mailing list 7 levels deep.
Viral URL Detailed Overview
One common problem in the affiliate marketing industry is commission theft. When savvy consumers are presented with an affiliate link, many times, they will cut off the appending code (which is your affiliate tracking ID) and go through the link regularly.
Another problem is that the links are really long and look suspect to the average consumer. Some people will not click through because they are afraid of spyware, viruses or adware. In fact, tests have proven that shorter links also get more clicks than drawn out clicks. Viral URL is a service that solves all these problems.
Frank Bauer and Colin Klinkert created Viral URL to protect your affiliate links and build in a system to help your affiliate marketing campaigns become more profitable. Viral URL allows you to cloak your links, track your clicks and see where the clicks came from.
Now the spin on this is that when you use Viral URL on a page, there will be a bar at the bottom. When somebody clicks on this bar and signs up to Viral URL, they are then put on your downline, and you have potential to earn a commission from them.
The downline works as an email system. You are allowed to email people in your downline as well as people they have referred 7 levels deep. This is kind of like a safelist combined with the viral marketing power of multi level marketing. Safelists are basically lists in which members of the safelists are allowed to email each other with offers.
As I mentioned, there is a commission structure to Viral URL. You earn 50% commission from members that sign up for a gold membership. The gold membership costs $197 a year and allows you to email 3000 people every three days.
As soon as I signed up to Viral URL, I was greeted with about 8 emails from other members promoting various offers. Most of these offers were of course marketing related since the list is made of Internet marketers. If you want to use Viral URL to email other members, the best bet is to promote products geared towards this crowd.
I have two issues with Viral URL. The first is that the bar on the bottom may distract your visitors from clicking on your affiliate links. You’ll have to do some testing to see if the bar is hurting your affiliate commissions. It would be great if they provided something else like a small ad box on the bottom right instead of the wide bar. The second is that people who’ve been a Viral URL member develop ad blindness. Some people use dummy accounts and ignore the emails or simply don’t give the emails a second glance. I personally found myself ignoring them. This is not uncommon with safelists.
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Viral URL Reputation
In final, I think ViralURL is a great concept, but there are many flaws with the system. The emails I’ve sent out with the service resulted in a couple of sales for products I was promoting but not enough to make it worthwhile. So far, I haven’t had any people upgrade to a gold membership as I had hoped. The system also creates the cycle of Internet marketers marketing to other Internet marketers.
You really have to test to see if ViralURL is hurting your affiliate commissions like it did for me. If you find that Viral URL adds to your profits it can be very useful to your marketing strategy. Some users of the service gave the service positive feedback while others opted to use a regular link cloaker, as it wasn’t working out for them. The results can only come about with testing. I also advise you use a separate email account to sign up with Viral URL, as you don’t want these promotional emails to mix in with your personal emails.
| 16 of 16 users found this review helpful |
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Note: If you're on IM Report Card because you're looking for a way to make money online, then you should check out our top recommendation. It's the best method we've found that anyone can use to earn income online. Click here to learn more!
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24 User Comments
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Have experience with "Viral URL"? -Add a comment or review to share your personal experiences, which will help others who are interested in this service. -Earn up to 150 credits and an entry into our $1,000 Sweepstakes for every approved comment you submit. The posting of advertisements, profanity or personal attacks is prohibited. Click here to review our site terms of use.  |
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I've had success  I like to take the OTO upsells whenver I choose to utilize List Builder marketing. Once you get the free membership in a list builder like Viral URL you will normally be directed to an OTO upsell which allows you to pay a one time fee for the right to send out solo ads to the entire list every 3 days for a year. I took the OTO upsell for Viral URL and I was able to submit my ad for my Easy Money Method system. I submitted my ad every three days for free and I can say I consistently received 5 to 10 leads each time I submitted. Good program!
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| 0 of 0 users found this comment helpful |
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by krunk on September 5, 2012 at 8:07 PM CST |
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Either Viral up or down! Respectively, I must say that ViralURL can make you or break you. Most Internet Marketers will say they wasted time and most will say that it was very good investment. For my experience, VU does work if you have a GAME PLAN! However, like all plans that does not go accordingly, it's up to the player to improvise and make the best of what you got and capitalize on the outcome. Time and time again people make excuses why they can't make any money when the real reason is that they never went in with a game plan in the first place. Make the best of this program, especially when it's FREE! lol |
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| 0 of 0 users found this comment helpful |
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by greenpower78 on August 24, 2011 at 8:16 PM CST |
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Dont waste your time and recources  Well, I have been a Viral Url Gold member for 1 year and have not got good results with it. Why these kind of list builders are not good is because you are marketing your products to other marketers. They will just promote their products to you. What you need as a marketer is customers, Viral Url members are not your customers. They are just marketers like you. Sure I have got some signups but these leads don't convert to customers or clients. The time you put into this website is not really worth it.
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| 0 of 0 users found this comment helpful |
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by cubicus on June 8, 2011 at 10:47 AM CST |
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Easy to use and responsive for the price  Another website with great customer service. Plus they have very low pricing for email blasts. I get a solid click through rate on their mailings and I have been told the key to safelists is to be consistent in your sending. I would recommend you start with their free account and work up from there.
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| 0 of 0 users found this comment helpful |
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by beebo8 on June 1, 2011 at 8:54 PM CST |
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Viral Url --Unsure  I did not understand Viral URL. I found the above reviews helpful. I did not pay upfront for the one time offer. I really have no use for it as the massive e-mail is not available to me as a free user. However, I am accumulating points for when I can purchase an upgrade.
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| 0 of 1 users found this comment helpful |
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by ncdf001 on July 28, 2010 at 11:49 AM CST |
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Newbie Friendly I joined Viral URL as a free member, not to make money on it, but for link cloaking and to use the advertising service. I am more than satisfied with both - after all I'm using it for free. As far as getting too many emails, as others have commented, that's easily filtered with an alias email address (even if you're already using a separate list email). In any case, I think it's a great place for newbies to start. Viral URL provides easy-to-follow step-by-step instructions which cover give meaning to a lot of IM industry terms. |
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| 0 of 0 users found this comment helpful |
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by me1junk on May 9, 2010 at 10:32 AM CST ~ Ana G :) PLEASE Click daily for charities - It's FREE... |
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I really like the solo ads they give me as a gold member I joined this and am a gold member. I get to mail a email to 3,000 members with my gold membership every 3 days and have made many sales to their members in programs I promote this way. I am able to also promote any business to the list that is in the money making online industry and the list tends to be very responsive. Out of the 3,000 emails I usually get about 100 clicks from members. I will get about 1-2 sales on programs I promote to their list with a $50-$100 commission. There are of course times when I do not get a sale from a mailing, but since I do not have a list of 3,000 people this is very helpful for me.
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| 1 of 1 users found this comment helpful |
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by bryce1972 on January 21, 2010 at 2:43 PM CST |
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Not too bad for cloaking I joined here about 4 months ago from a recommendation from a friend. At first glance I was quite impressed and it looked really useful, but what I think spoiled my experience here was the fact that there was just far to much spam email in my inbox everyday and there was no way I could seem to filter this so that was annoying. In all honesty I have to say I have probably made about $20 in the whole four months I have been here and make a lot more money elsewhere marketing my affiliate programs. I guess the only real thing I can say that was good about the site was the email cloaking, but I have now learned that you can get this at so many other places. I have since stopped using this as I couldn't put up with the emails anymore and guess the only way I would start using this site again is if I set up another separate email account purely for this place, but then I still wouldn't make much money anyway. |
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| 1 of 1 users found this comment helpful |
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by gav79 on November 13, 2009 at 6:54 AM CST Please join my forum for ways to make money online and advice on gaming |
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Viral URL is just ok I have been a member of this site for almost a year and while it is not a bad site, it's not a good one either in my opinion. I originally joined because I like the whole idea of the link cloaking as it looked pretty good. I was able to get some of my affiliate programs under this and I was impressed. However, I never did profit from this service in any way. I was not making money with it all. I will say it was real easy to get every set up and going. The site itself is real easy to use and I never had any problems with it. I did have to contact customer support a couple of times and they were real helpful. They were quick and tried to help the best they could. I give them a lot of credit for that. I will say though, that this site is just not worth my time, not to mention it's not worth all of the emails I get everyday. I understand everyone is trying to market something, but if I'm not looking at their emails, they changes are good that they are not looking at mine either. This is one option I had that I liked until I started thinking about it. I would tell people that this is a good program but be prepared for the overwhelming amount of emails you get. I think it all depends on what you have to offer with your programs. Mine obviously didn't work. |
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| 2 of 2 users found this comment helpful |
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by kyleskorner on October 20, 2009 at 7:46 PM CST |
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Full Time Free with All The Benefits Surprised to read so many negative reviews for Viral Url. I have been a member for a couple of years now. I find the product simple to promote, especially with the comprehensive collection of marketing tools provided. Although I don't have tons of referrals, I do have some. The whole point for my choosing to use Viral Url is for the cloaking service. Affiliate Url Theft is for real and I intend to retain all of my sign ups that I work hard and long to get! As for the members mail that seemingly floods our inbox, should we remain free members, I don't find a problem with it either.. I barely even notice it. I use a not so important email account for Viral Url. I admit, I don't use all the features available to me by Viral Url so can not comment on everything but I do Highly Recommend using Viral Url to cloak all affiliate URL's in effort to protect your hard work. It amazes me when I see people with their affiliate URL's out in plain sight, available for hi-jack by the next shady character to happen upon it! Makes my job promoting Viral Url easier to say the least. Especially when someone has emailed me their link ;) If I were to upgrade, I am sure I would enjoy Viral Url that much more. |
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| 3 of 3 users found this comment helpful |
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by 5003 on September 10, 2009 at 3:19 PM CST Almost 20 Years of Daily Payouts Worldwide! Others Do Not Even Come CLose! Can $5 Earn UNLIMITED Income for LIFE? Don't Kick Yourself later .. |
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Only worth if you get a lot of referrals I have been using Viral Url for a few weeks now and have been promoting it like crazy. I haven't made any sales yet, but I am sure this system could work if you get a lot of referrals. You have to build up your referrals properly to get any real exposure out of this. The cloaking service is good, but nowadays there are loads of free sites offering this service, also with tracking. I would suggest you only try out the free account of viral url and see if it works for you. If you are not very dedicated to promoting this, I don't know if you would get a lot of quality traffic or sales from it.
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| 3 of 3 users found this comment helpful |
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by bertuseng on August 21, 2009 at 8:56 AM CST LIMITED OFFER: Grab your 17 FREE Internet Marketing Courses (Valued at $520) ==> Download FREE Internet Marketing Training |
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A Good Product Until I Find Something Better I joined this service to cloak my affiliate URLs. I do not look on this as a money making site for me, but if I do make a few dollars that's OK. I use it at the gold level so I do not get the emails from members, but if you use it as a free member to start I would recommend starting a junk email at someplace like Yahoo mail, Hotmail, or mail.com. Eventually I will be moving to a more capable program, but for someone on a tight budget this is a very nice selection.
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| 3 of 3 users found this comment helpful |
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by simtech52 on August 20, 2009 at 2:35 PM CST Wealthy Affiliate-Learn to market from the best Affiliate Jump-Promote over 300 prducts from one site
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Great link cloaker I joined ViralURL about 3 yrs ago, I did not join it to make money with it. Just for the tracking. And it works great. I get hits from VU for my main Opps. Just like any advertising site, it's all in your punch line. I know where I'm getting hits and where I'm not getting hits. That way you do not waste your time advertising in useless sites. As far as to make money with it, not much... As far as receiving emails, I use a email address just for ViraURL. Not a problem.
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| 3 of 3 users found this comment helpful |
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by giftgiving on August 15, 2009 at 10:35 PM CST Cevin Gauthier |
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Just got the last straw fro this company I have been a user of ViralURL since about 2005. They were a pretty okay service back then before they started doing solo ads. I could cloak and track 10 links. I even considered upgrading so that I could cloak and track more of their links. I was a little aggravated when they started sending solo ads a couple of years ago. But I tolerated it because it gave me an opportunity to view others websites and look at their advertising styles. Just last month, I cancelled my subscription. On top of getting many e-mails daily from other members, they decided to stop using the uniform company e-mail to send them, and send them in the e-mail of the member that send the solo ad. This made it impossible for me to have these e-mails sent to a particular folder because without the steady e-mail, I couldn't set a rule. Furthermore, I couldn't recognize the ViralURL e-mails at first glance because they were all sent from unrecognized e-mails. It was then that I gave up on ViralURL and cancelled my membership for good. I was no longer using the cloaker or tracker after finding a better free source, and now that they were cluttering up my Outlook, they had outlived their usefulness. |
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| 6 of 6 users found this comment helpful |
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by drknlvly6781 on August 13, 2009 at 10:22 PM CST |
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Viral URL concept. The concept of viralurl is good. Actually, it is a good platform for internet marketers. Unfortunately, viralurl has failed to reach real marketers. When I joined viralurl, I noticed that most of the links are related to some scam sites. It is filled with scam PTC sites. A good way to get some visitors to the site.
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| 5 of 5 users found this comment helpful |
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by manhan2009 on August 3, 2009 at 2:39 PM CST http://www.ebloggs.blogspot.com
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Eh, not sure it's worth it I joined viral url as another way to promote and hopefully get others to join me and get my site seen. I get a lot of offers from other members in viral url, but it seems not much is coming back to me. I only recently joined on 7/7/09 and have not seen much value since joining. Before I add any site to my Link Scout suite, I like to thoroughly evaluate it. I am not sure that this one is going to make it onto my site.
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| 7 of 7 users found this comment helpful |
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by randimoore on July 31, 2009 at 8:50 PM CST Randi Moore |
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Not Impressed I used Viral URL for over a year until a month ago. I had the gold membership and did my advertising, all different types. Sending ads within the system every 3-4 days as you are able to. I never in that year received any sales or opt ins that were worth much in it. The good side of it is I did make some commissions off of it, the bad side is that those commissions were downline members in my business. It was recommended to me by a internet marketing friend who is very advanced in list building, and when I started with Viral URL, I was just starting to understand list building. Believe it or not, now that I understand list building a little bit more I don't feel I would use the program again. I did not renew my gold membership and just went to a free membership when it came due 2 months ago. |
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| 9 of 9 users found this comment helpful |
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by karenpore on July 30, 2009 at 5:36 PM CST Karen Pore teaches online marketing through her FREE 7 Day Online Success Boot Camp. You can learn more about Karen and take her online boot camp here: |
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Cloaking is effective and useful I've been a free member of Viral URL for about 5 months and have been impressed with the effectiveness and ease of the cloaking service. I originally joined for the cloaking service and decided to go with Viral URL over the others because of the income opportunities. I was never under the impression that I would make a lot of money. so I wasn't disappointed, but having the option to do so made it more attractive than just cloaking my links. I've had a few sign-ups, so I've made a few bucks which is what I expected, and it's more than I would have made using just a cloaking service. The main thing for me is that the system works exactly as advertised; it's easy to use and I've received excellent support from their Admin. I like being able to track the clicks, and the bar is a non-issue for me. If you're looking for an easy-to-use cloaker and a few extra bucks, I highly recommend this. If you're looking to make a lot of money, you should probably focus on a business geared for that purpose.
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| 9 of 9 users found this comment helpful |
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by spartan on July 24, 2009 at 3:28 PM CST |
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It has some good points! I have been a free member for about a year. I have made some money from referring others, but not much. I agree with most of the other comments above. You do get a lot of the same Emails over and over! What I have found to be the best feature is the link cloaking and tracking. Overall, if someone asked me if they should join Viral URL, I would and do tell them yes for the link cloaking. You can also now choose not to receive all the emails.
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| 5 of 5 users found this comment helpful |
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by scottshv on July 24, 2009 at 3:25 PM CST |
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Too many emails from others I signed up as a free member; I thought this would be a good way to protect my affiliate links. For a while it worked, but I kept getting more and more emails from other members, all selling me their products. It seemed like a merry-go-round after a while. In order to stop other members from emailing me, I would have had to delete my account or upgrade and pay a monthly fee. So I chose the former. Didn't get anyone in my downline for the several months I was in it. Now Clickbank is starting to cloak the affiliate URL, so this program seems pointless.
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| 5 of 5 users found this comment helpful |
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by smarternow on July 23, 2009 at 7:38 PM CST BETA-TESTERS NEEDED
110,000 PEOPLE LIKED THIS |
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I wasn't impressed. I wasn't really impressed with this program. I suppose if I had dedicated an email address to it, it might have worked out better, but it's a bit spammy. I never could find an accurate way to filter the messages. Either some of them wouldn't get filtered, or too many other messages would get caught in the filter. I could do without this program.
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| 6 of 6 users found this comment helpful |
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by Mikeoyama on July 23, 2009 at 7:31 PM CST |
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Not very good I joined this with a free account. Tried it out for a few months. I never made even a penny. It takes a lot of hard work and a lot of referrals to make anything. Other members crowd your email with ways to make money, all of which was not helpful at all. It may be a good site to work with if you are willing to devote all day figuring out how it works.
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| 5 of 5 users found this comment helpful |
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by Starrywonder on July 22, 2009 at 1:50 AM CST |
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It's alright I was referred to this program by a friend. I have been a member here for almost 6 months, and since joining I have not made any profit. Basically it's hard to earn on this site, unless you can get a whole lot of referrals. People who are willing to upgrade their accounts and actually devote time to this program. I also hated the fact that my inbox was full of emails coming from other members. Every day I would get emails from the same people talking about the same money making ideas. I was confused about how to use the site. Soon I just ended up closing my account. I didn't see a reason to even try to upgrade. It's great to get your site out to others but I didn't have any luck in getting anyone to sign up for any of my programs. The site owners or administrators were very fast in responding to any of my concerns. The site doesn't seem to be a scam site, I just got tired of all the same exact emails every single day.
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| 7 of 7 users found this comment helpful |
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by shontia08 on July 21, 2009 at 8:05 PM CST http://www.paid2youtube.com/?r=shontia08 http://cricketcash.com/members/register.php?ref=shontia |
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Works as advertised I've been using ViralURL for over a year and love it. I got the gold upgrade but probably won't renew it and will just go with the free account in the future.It is a case of marketers marketing to other marketers as far as the email part of it goes, but the link cloaking is great and the viral bar isn't an issue for me. I like seeing the clicks on various links change everyday. You do get some very valuable bonuses with the gold upgrade. |
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| 7 of 7 users found this comment helpful |
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by blujimbo on July 21, 2009 at 8:04 PM CST Make money on the web. That's what it's for. |
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24 User Comments
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Have experience with "Viral URL"? -Add a comment or review to share your personal experiences, which will help others who are interested in this service. -Earn up to 150 credits and an entry into our $1,000 Sweepstakes for every approved comment you submit. The posting of advertisements, profanity or personal attacks is prohibited. Click here to review our site terms of use. |
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