Posted this on their forums to address some of the concerns people are having with the tiered opportunities and fees. Obviously feel free to contact them on your own.
"Hi guys!
Wanted to get some more information from you about the reasoning for "Tiered Opportunities/Offers" and to offer some constructive criticism on this and the cash out and inactive fees.
"Tiered Offers
We are about to add a huge list of new opportunities, but they will be tiered! Some opportunities will require a number of referrals to unlock for you. Once you get 5 referrals, you will always get access to opportunities requiring 5 referrals."
Can you explain the reasoning behind this? Some of my friends and I were commenting that this doesn't seem like you'd really be utilizing your fan base to benefit sponsors as much this way? Getting referrals can be difficult, even if you have 600+ people on your Facebook like I do, so getting referrals is not really a clear representation of what the member could bring to the sponsor. Perhaps if your sponsor is specifically looking for more of a "social butterfly" type, you could instead base it on how many "friends" your member's have on their Facebook rather than the number of referrals?
Of course I'd love to hear more about why you chose the referral system to be tiered instead, maybe I will understand better what you're trying to do.
I'd also like to inquire why the cash out fee? Before I continue, let me say I understand there are fees associated with both PayPal and having someone issue as well as mail cheques. However all of the survey/money-maker sites I belong to do not charge a fee to send out your reward. These companies consider these costs in what they offer and any costs incurred in the mailing of cheques/making PayPal payments is the responsibility of the company.
With being a new site, and maybe not having a lot of clear contracts right now for opportunities I can see that maybe you're operating with a start-up budget and there's only so much you can afford, but it doesn't seem right to have to pay to be "rewarded" for your time and effort. Would it not make sense to change how much you're offering right now? Maybe instead of offering up to $1.00 on the bonus button and the bonus email you offer up to $0.50 or $0.75? And say for an opportunity you offer $0.75 instead of $1.00, at least until you're in a position where you can offer more rewards without having to charge a fee?
Also, if you're going to have an Inactive Fee, will you have provisions for those of us who go on vacation/extended time away from internet and won't be able to log in once a week? Will we be able to email you and let you know we need a "Hold" put on the account and give you an approximate time we'll be away? I understand you want users who are going to be active and available for opportunities, but I hope you will make some provisions for those of us who may be going away for the summer who won't have internet access.
I really hope you don't take this as negative criticism towards your company. I know you're new and trying to figure out the best way for you as a company to keep overhead costs down, but still offer your members great value and I applaud you for that. I really, really like the concept of this company and want you to succeed. I just think perhaps you can do things a little bit differently?"