Have you been solicited lately by ExpoActive?

September 26, 2005 @ 2:33 pm · Filed under Reviews

I've been seeing numerous reports online about people receiving email solicitations from one of the newer players to jump in the PPC pool, ExpoActive. The text of the email goes a little like this:

My company is interested in purchasing ad space on your website. Right now we wanted to find out about placing a text based ad on the page [url].

However we would also be willing to have our ad shown on all pages of your site at your discretion. Currently we would be willing to pay you $ .25 for every click that this ad receives.

If you decide to accept this proposal please create your ExpoActive account using the following dynamic link [link]

After creating your ExpoActive account you will be able to view the actual ad that we would like to place on your website. If you agree to display this Ad on your website you will be provided with a short HTML segment that you simply paste on to your site's pages wherever you believe the Ad would be most effective. In the event that you feel the ad you have been offered would be more relevant on a different website that you operate, it is fine to place it there providing the visitor demographics are similar.

You will then immediately begin earning $ .25 every time a visitor of your website clicks this ad. At any time you will be able to log into your account and view your balance. The money you earn will be sent to you via check or certified money order on a monthly basis.

We hope you choose to accept our proposal, as we look forward to advertising with you ASAP!

Sincerely,

Pete Caxivo
Senior Account Recruitment
ExpoActive
advertising@expoactive.com

ExpoActive 3571 Far West Blvd. #94
Austin, TX 78731

When I received one of these last week, I finally decided to have a look at the ExpoActive website. Almost immediately I was put off by the site's mediocre appearance and awkwardly written content. Brand impression = two thumbs down.

I did a quick Google search and came up with some forum threads about ExpoActive, as well this review from ppc-forums.com. Hmm, not very impressive.

At this time, I will pass on ExpoActive and advise others to do so as well. Stick with the established players, where the ad inventory is large and diverse, account management tools are advanced, and a credible payout history has been proven. There are more entertaining ways that you can waste some of that surplus of "free time" you have! ;)

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13 Comments »

  1. shane says:

    Yep, I got one of these the other day as well. They were offering me .60 a click though! The funny thing is they were referring to a URL that I had only advertised on a pay per click search engine, and that wouldn't have been available from any other place. Hmm…

    October 14th, 2005 at 1:52 am
  2. SCW says:

    I think they just edited the google ads. If so, this is illegal in my opinion. (their example: https://www.expoactive.com/examples.html)

    October 15th, 2005 at 4:08 am
  3. Martin says:

    I got one mail too. The interesting thing was that they wanted to advertise on my "thank you page" (after a user purchases a product through my site). This is probably the less visited page of my whole site…. smells like SCAM!

    October 24th, 2005 at 10:43 am
  4. the english guy says:

    Yeah I got an offer from them too, for .60

    October 24th, 2005 at 12:35 pm
  5. skydream says:

    I just got one mail from them. It really stinks like a scam, and I nearly fell for it. I got curious about it and went to their site and saw this on their FAQ…

    "Advertisers only pay when their ad is clicked. Minimum bid prices start at only five cents."

    Min bid starting at 5 cents and they promised to pay you 25cents per click… who does business like that?

    October 27th, 2005 at 9:00 am
  6. Bizbyweb says:

    Yeppers! I just got one of those invitations also. I was born at night but not last night. Uh oh I smell something fishy and I've already had dinner.

    Fish anyone?

    November 9th, 2005 at 7:19 pm
  7. Dan Rocco says:

    Wow, .25 cents per click, and it only costs advertisers .05,
    where does the the other 20 cents come from? Sounds like
    Ken Lay(Enron) found a new past time in prison…

    December 4th, 2005 at 7:04 am
  8. Corey says:

    yes smells like scam
    all the domains have privacy protection aswell so you cant see the real contact details

    March 19th, 2006 at 7:29 pm
  9. Vi says:

    They got me. I put their ads on my website. And it's true, they credited my account 45 cents for the first click. However my balance got stuck at 45 cents forever after.

    April 2nd, 2006 at 11:53 am
  10. d. says:

    Hi,

    Well I've been with them for 3,4 months, and guess what. No payment, and no answering the mails. I was thinking of contacing verisign and see what they can do about it. I guess not much. If I would be able to get address from them, that can be also beneficial (go there, break some legs, etc… ) :) .

    Anyhow, to cut the story short, I got $400 accumulated, since I had some direct advertisers on my site, and I cant make payment at all. Also, I can't get an answer from them, since nobody seems to answer the emails.

    Wish we can make something our of it. Breaking legs seems like the only option at the moment, provided we find out adress.

    Cheers all, and good luck.

    D.

    April 24th, 2006 at 5:10 am
  11. Eugene says:

    Expoactive. They f*cked me over, big time. I got about $200 accumulated. I can't even withdraw any of it. I sent them a total of 20 emails, and just recently contacted verisign. I'm going to speak with a lawyer soon, if this doesn't straighten out, we can make a big case against them. EXPOACTIVE=SCAM

    September 6th, 2006 at 9:16 pm
  12. Kymber Dreams says:

    I started advertising with them back in Dec. 04. I have accepted two Direct Ad Program offers…. my total is now just over $570.00us and I can't withdraw it… keeps telling me the balance has to be over $100.00. I have written MANY, MANY emails to EVERY email address I can find on the site and even a few made up ones and have NEVER gotten a response. It's looking like a total scam… sad thing is… there are people out there PAYING THEM… but they AREN'T paying or responding to US! When you contact a lawyer… let me know also… I'd like to see where this goes!
    Kymber

    October 26th, 2006 at 11:34 pm
  13. Cristina says:

    I was just contacted in the past few days about a specific company ad that they want to place on my site. After reading these comments and problems I just tried to contact the company directly to ask them if they are working with expo and their contact us page (which is only email) will not work. There is no way of contacting them at all. I also emailed expo and asked them to send me more info on their offer and I have not heard back from them either. Thank goodness I did not sign up with them!! So sorry for everyone's losses and I would for sure get a lawyer involved also because there are probably so many others experiencing the same thing.

    January 16th, 2007 at 2:51 pm

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