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Search Engine Review

So you want to become a top PPC Search Engine Affiliate and earn hundreds of $$$ like the pros? Well you got to know the best and you got to get the best advice, so log on today for some serious secrets tips and advice to becoming a pro!

Thursday, December 23, 2004

VejaSeek Investigation Update

Many of you remember the VejaSeek scandal which broke out a few weeks ago. We were there with all the news and if you aren't aware of our previous coverage of the issue, Click Here to see the post that started our investigation. After being left with many leads, but no sound evidence on who the owner really is, the Search Engine Review team set about investigating every lead.

We emailed two of the advertising sites found on this page from the search engine that the owner of VejaSeek planned to launch in the near future. If you remember correctly, after announcing the end of VejaSeek, it was established that the owner intended on opening another search engine, Lazer-Search. This engine had the exact same design as VejaSeek and even had links to the former VejaSeek website.

We emailed both advertisers, namely Link Buddies and AllFeeds with the following email:

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN

As you may or may not know, one of your members with the username"vejaseek" owes me and many others tens of thousands of dollars. He recently announced that his website, formerly Vejaseek.com, would not be able to pay its members whom rightfully earned thousands of dollars. Upon further investigation into the matter, it has been established that the owner of the website did infact plan the senario before hand and he planned on scamming more people through another website of the same nature.

On behalf of the hundreds of people that have been cheated by this greedy webmaster, I ask if you could provide any information on the registrant of the account at All Feeds, in particular the payment information would be of great use in tracking this person down. Your help would be much appreciated.

Many thanks,
Search Engine Review.


I was then invited to an MSN interview with highly ranked official of AllFeeds who revealed some startling information. Since it is against their terms of service to release any information, he wished to remain anonymous. During his time using AllFeeds as a feed and advertisment provider, the owner of VejaSeek, now confirmed to be Amin Hassanpour, received hundreds of dollars in payments. The payments were sent out via cheque to his Canadian address.

The home phone number and address of Mr Hassanpour has been confirmed but we can not publish this information. The details we found was last updated in October 2004, so it is most likely the case that it has not changed. Now with his name, address and telephone number confirmed, we sought out legal advice in the matter. We were informed that by not paying members the money they had righfully earned, Amin Hassanpour was in breech of the contract set out by VejaSeek. We continued our investigation and what we discovered was exremely startling.

The Search Engine Review then went about trying to contact CoolWebSearch, the feed that Amin Hassanpour claimed to have cheated him. For many weeks we did not get a reply from CoolWebSearch. I went back and looked over all the information once again and somewhere amongst all the clutter of documents I had accumulated I found several email addresses, one of which used Hotmail. I decided to add this person to my MSN messenger contact list, hoping that we could have a talk.

Several days later to my suprise, the person I had added to my contact list was online. I quickly pondered what would be the best way to go about getting information off this person I hadn't even spoken to before hand. What I found out next was the break I had been looking for. The most startling information of the investigation. Here is some of the conversation between myself and the unidentified person:

Search Engine Review:
Hi there. Are you Amin's friend?
Unidentified Individual:
Yeh, I am friends with Amin. Are you one of his friends too?
Search Engine Review:
Yes I met him before he started VejaSeek, we're pretty close friends now. How do you know him?
Unidentified Individual:
I was the "silent" partner in VejaSeek. Me and him are school friends.

At this stage I became very exicited and felt that if I played my cards correctly I could get a lot of information. The conversation continued for some time as I tried to make myself out to be very good friends with Mr. Hassanpour. I noticed that by the language used in the conversation and the incorrect grammar, this person could very well be a juvenile. I also remembered the name of the person that was unaccounted for in our previous investigations, Nima Mohammadi and wondered whether it was he who I was talking to. Among other things I discovered that:

  • Amin Hassanpour and this unidentified individual were school age students probably no older than 19 years of age.
  • They both went to school together.
  • They both owned VejaSeek and Hassanpour was in charge of public relations while this unidentified individual delt with the technological side.
  • The unidentified person was indeed the person behind Lazer-Search with Amin Hassanpour

After some conversation on unrelated topics, I decided to ask some questions about VejaSeek, acting as though I was opening an engine myself. Here's where it got interesting:

Search Engine Review:
I was having troubles picking feeds, did you have any experience with CoolWebSearch at VejaSeek.
Unidentified Individual:
Yeh, we used them as our "main" feed. They're an awesome feed. You should use them, we got paid many times.
Search Engine Review:
How much did they pay you?
Unidentified Individual:
Since we started veja, they paid us around 20 grand
Search Engine Review:
But I'm worried about their cheques. They might bounce and then I would be in debt to members.
Unidentified Individual:
The cheques never bounced for us, we got some serious cash from them. Just try them out, I can give you my ref link LOL
Search Engine Review:
I thought the cheque bounced for VejaSeek and you couldn't pay members?
Unidentified Individual:
LOL I thought that you were like good friends with Amin? The cheque didn't bounce man! ****!

At this stage my heart thumped loudly against my chest, the cheque that supposedly bounced never did? Was Amin Hassanpour spending the money that he claimed not to have received? This urged me to continue looking for more evidence. Trying not to let this unidentified person become suspicious of my motivation I ceased the conversation with this startling news.

So the whole VejaSeek scandal was planned and of course Amin Hassanpour was most likely spending the money that we rightfully earned. I planned on getting more information from the unidentified person in the near future, but since I last spoke to him he has not come online or even replied to my emails. I believe that he may have spoken to Amin who may have warned him about our investigation after I made a posting in the Get Paid Forums. He may have also asked Amin if he knew me and got a negative response. Either way I had enough evidence to consider legal action.

AllFeeds was happy to give any information necessary to force Amin by any means to pay back his debts. AllFeeds has his bank details on record and will happily release it if warranted. I thanks AllFeeds for their support throughout the investigation.

This is where you can play a part in punishing scammers like Amin Hassanpour. The Search Engine Review has now gathered much details about the incident and we will continue to do so. But we need your help.

If you are owed money by VejaSeek, know any information about the owner or would like to help in the investigation, your help is greatly needed. Please use the "comments" feature on this website to state your name/alias and the details of your position and how you stand on the matter. If you would like to be contacted, then send me an email by clickling the link in my signature.

This appeal will only work if you tell everyone you know who has any involvement in the Search Engine Industry to come here, read the article and make a comment. I will post some more detailed legal information later this month, so stay tuned.
--------------------------
Send me an email
Past Search Engine Review


Tuesday, December 21, 2004

Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

As the year draws to a close, I would like to reflect on what has past and look towards the future. Thanks to the support of our readers since our launch, the Search Engine Review has become increasingly popular as the leading commentary on all things to do with search engines. We have had our fair share of controversy, namely with Whompy Search threatening legal action. We have been on the forefront of the VejaSeek saga bringing you up to date, exclusive information. Most importantly through our reviews of some great search engines, we have achieved our number one aim, to help anyone and everyone earn money.

The future looks promising for the Search Engine Review as well. We are increasing our network of guides and information services and soon we will move to a top level domain. We have some great articles planned for next year, and we are working on making the Search Engine Review more colourful and easy to use.

We have decided to make a list of reviews alone that you can find by clicking on the link at the end of this email. Reviews will now be posted on both the main Search Engine Review website and on the review only page.

If you are a member of Search Drifter, look out for the next admin email. The Search Engine Review will be mentioned. For the last time in 2004 I say farewell and I wish you a very merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year. I'd better be of to do some shopping.
-------------------
See all of our past reviews here
Send me an email



Sunday, December 19, 2004

Nighon.com - Super speedy payments.

Well here's an engine I have been hearing many good things about. The payments are very quick, usually 24 hours or less. This engine has a good webmaster who has many other engines that are known to pay.

Review
Bid Value: Average
Speed: Good
Payment Methods: PayPal/MoneyBookers (5% fee)
Payment Time: 24 hours or less
Min. Payout: $5
Refferal Percentage: 5% of refferal earnings
Risk Factor: 3.5 out of 10 (High chance of getting paid)
Payments from engine: Several
Search Engine Review Rating: 7 out of 10 (Good engine)
Comments: The bids are average but better than most. With quick payment times I think this one is a must join and promote engine for getting paid. Particulary good for beginners, not to say that expert promoters won't enjoy this engine.

URL: Click Here To Visit Nighon

Thursday, December 16, 2004

FactUp.com - It's a fact that they pay!

From the makers of SearchBotz and GoFeed and DiggySearch comes the latest and greatest search engine from Suzanne Vieira, FactUp. The webmaster has been paying ever since all these engines started and I just know she will keep up the good work. We reviewed one of her engines earlier this year, DiggySearch and it has been paying members to this day. We took the opportunity to review FactUp and give you an early warning on their upcomming bonuses for the new year.

Also in reagard to average bids of reviewed engines, we will no longer post them as per search engine terms. We will now have a Bid Value review that will tell you if they are bad, under average, average, good or very good.

Review
Bid Value: Good
Speed: Good
Payment: MoneyBookers/INT Gold/Cheque (USA residents only with balances over $20)
Payment Time: Withinin 15 days of the end of the month
Min. Payout: $5
Refferal Percentage: 10% of refferal earnings
BONUSES: $7 per 1000 clicks in January!
Risk Factor: 2.5 out of 10 (You will get paid!)
Payments: None yet
Search Engine Review Rating: 8 out 0f 10 (Great Engine)
Comments: Great webmaster who is very reliable. Put your money into this one in January with $7 per 1000 clicks you're sure to get your money back. Great design, smartsearch script always helps. Good work Suzanne!

www.factup.com

Web Hosting and Domain Names - Is it worth it?

Many novice search promoters ask me. Is it really necessary to have your own website to promote search engines? There is no simple answer to this question and it depends on the seriousness of your promoting efforts. If you are a member of only one or two engines and you promote on occasions, then the best option would be to stick with the hosted portal usually offered by the engine you are a member of.

However more and more search engines are making it a rule that you have your own "non-incentive" website. I personaly think that all affiliates should have their own website as the cost of setting one up is quite low. In this post I will go through a few helpful tips when selecting the right web hosting company and the right domian registrar.

Now web hosting is important because the last thing you want is to run out of bandwidth when promoting your search engines. So when you choose a web host be sure that you get a plan that will cater for your bandwidth need. Good web hosting with sufficient resources should set you back no more than $15 a month. It all depends on the individual. Some may get a great web hosting deal that is sufficient for themsleves for under $3 a month, while others may take a web hosting package that will cater for larger deal of traffic.

When choosing a domain name, think of something unqiue. Many .com domain names are already taken and so you might have to settle for a .net name. If you do choose a .com or .net domain, do not pay more than $9 to register it. There are other options when choosing a domain name. If you want a less expensive extension, why not get a .info domain name. These are offered to clients for no cost. This is a great option for smaller promoters.

Remember that you will have to make enough money to cover these costs when promoting your engines. Look to purchase plans for 2 years or more as the prices become cheaper in this range. As with anything you buy, always shop around for the right deal. Talk to friends who have websites and get suggestions of web hosting and domain registrars with good customer support and service.

One company which I highly recommend is Hosting2nv which is owned by one of the most respected webmasters in the search engine industry. You can register both domains and purchase web hosting from the same account. The customer service is second to none and the webmaster is always available to answer your questions in a quick and friendly manner. The webmaster has years of experience in the industry and runs one of the longest running and most succesful search engines, SearchDrifter.
www.hosting2nv.com

Well that's the essentials you need to know. If you have questions, as always post a comment or email me. Look out for engine reviews of two new engines with some great benefits and ones that will actually pay! No updates on the VejaSeek saga yet.

Tuesday, December 14, 2004

CountrySwitch - More earnings / Less Valids

Greetings once again. It seems that the past few posts have been predominantly about scams. Here for a change I wanted to write about an interesting tool that you may or may not already use. Country Switch, as it name suggests checks the IP of your incomming traffic and if they are on a list of prechosen countries, redirects them to the webpage you have set. This can be very useful when promoting an engine wich had limited allowed countries.

For example, a search engine allows traffic only from USA, Canada and UK. If you sent out an advertisment, chances are you will get people who are not from these countries searching and thus adding to your proxy percentage. This is where Country Switch comes in. It will check if the country of the person is on the allowed list and if it is, it will redirect them to your portal. If they are not on the list of countries allowed to search they will redirect the traffic to another site. This way you will get traffic to your portal from only the allowed sites and thus decrease your proxy/invalids.

TIP: You may create multiple lists. When I tried this website, I set up three different lists. One included US, UK and Canada. Another had all major European countries and another had all remaining countries. I redirected each list to a portal which allowed that traffic and made more money overall in three different search engines. If you need help just contact me.

Now there are many pros and cons which I must discuss about CountrySwitch. Let's discuss the pros. Firstly you will get less proxy searches meaning happy search engine webmasters. If you use CountySwitch to get traffic from only US, UK and Canada, chances are you will make more money as advertisers pay more to get traffic from these countries. Another obvious pro is that it is free.

There are many cons however. One of the main problems is the loss of traffic you will have to put up with. Only a small percentage of PTR traffic is from US, UK and Canada so if you do not use the above tip, you will be losing hoards of traffic. When using Country Switch, the time it takes to redirect viewers can be quite long. In PTR advertising you only have a certain time limit to get searchers to your portal with enough time to search and this cause some problems with Country Switch.

TIP: If you noticed, I am only using US, UK and Canada for my discussion as this is where it can be most useful. Remember that when you join an engine, they give you a list of allowed countries to search and this is the list that you must use. This list varies so check with the engine you are promoting. When setting up your account at CountrySwitch account, set the redirect URL of non-allowed countries to your Share Ad Space promotion link. This way you make money from the allowed countries searching at your portal and from SAS at the same time.

Let me now run you through the procedure of setting up an account.
  • Go to www.countryswitch.com and read the FAQ
  • Click on "Create Account" and fill in your information. Remember that it is free.
  • Once you have signed up login to your account.
  • Click on "Country Groups" followed by "Add Group".
  • A list of countries will come up. Choose the countries you want by clicking on them. Remeber to hold down the "control" key when selecting more than one country.
  • Type in the URL of your portal and click "Done".
  • Repeat the procdure if you need to redirect other countries to another portal.

Once you are done you should get a link like this:
http://www.countryswitch.com/switch.php?klient_id=Y7EXXCqUJMwTw76S
This is the link you will promote in PTRs.

Finally, the use of Country Switch is a personal thing. You have to look at the engines you are a member of and wheigh the benefits of Country Switch against the cons and then make a decision on using it. I think it is a great tool for all affiliates. If you need any help with it, please post a comment as always or email me. I am happy to help anyone who needs it. What's comming up next on Search Engine review site? Updates on VejaSeek owner investigation and a review of a new search engine very soon.

Take Care!


UPDATE: Whompy Search

Just to quickly update the Whompy Search legal action saga. I received this letter from Whomy admin this morning:

Hello,

I have been alerted that you once again posted something about WhompySearch on your site. We are in the process of registering WhompySearch as a business and still, we ask that you take these posts off your site. We apologize for the lawsuit threat before. Lawsuit is the last resort we want, so once again, we ask that you take these posts off. We are an honest paying engine, and we wish no conflict with anyone.

If you want to talk via Instant Messenger, please let me know.


I am not taking the posts off the site, everyone needs to know as much as they can about the engines they are in or are planning to join. This website is to help people and I believe that by taking these posts down, many people will lose out on valuable information. I have replied to the admin and I will leave this issue at this and not pursue it any further. I am sure they will reply to me tomorrow again, but rest assured I will not back down on my stance and keep these posts on the site.

Monday, December 13, 2004

Whompy Search - I'd better get my lawyers!

Greetings readers,
Firstly I'd like to inform you about what we are doing to get the inside scoop on the owners of VejaSeek. I asked a friend in Canada, where the domain was registered to look up the address of registration. He is currently writing a report on his investigations and that will be posted sometime this week if all goes well.

Another interesting issue is also unfolding. With increased popularity of the site. The owners of Whompy Search have either heard of or come to the site and seen the previous posting that I made about them. All previous posts can be found by scrolling down on this page. The posting described how Whompy Search stole VejaSeek's feed and after being accused of doing so, admitted to it and sent an apology to all members. A part of this websites aim is to help affiliates make money and it was in our opinion that this was a search engine not worthy of promoting buy any honest person. Before continuing with this new post, I strongly advise you read the post by clicking here.

Nearly two months after the posting. I get this email from the owners of Whompy Search:
{QUOTE}
Hello,
I have seen and visited your search engine review site and saw a post regarding WhompySearch. We were new with the PPC system then and didn't know what we did was exactly stealing. Plus, we used VejaSeek as a feed as we were told we'd get high avg bid and be paid really quick. As you now know, Vejaseek turns out to be a scam, while we, on the other hand, had to go and find other good feeds on our own. Now, as it turns out, that was a blessing in disguise because if we had continued using VejaSeek as our main feed, we'd have no money to pay affiliates now as well.

Your post on your site would cause bad business to WhompySearch, therefore, we are asking that you either remove it, or make a post clearing our name. We have not cheated anyone and have paid all honest members, and intend to continually pay in the months and years to come. Check the praises and applause forum on GPF for verification.

If you refuse to do so, then we might have no choice but to recourse to legal action.

Regards,
WhompySearch Admin
{END QUOTE}

Sure, you were a new engine but that doesn't change the fact that you did steal something from another site. Quite frankly, if you didn't know how to run a search engine in the first place why would you even start one. The reason that so many search engines fail is because the people starting them have little or no knowledge and experience in running them. While I have no doubt that you do pay members, I still belive that your mistake is still enough for me and the readers of this site to stay away from your search engine.

I will not retract what I have posted as it does not use any false information and is based on the truth, as with all posts on this website. I am entitled to my opinion, it is my right. No legal action can be taken against me, and with all due respect I don't think that you would have the resources to take me on. As my lawyer has confirmed, I have nothing to worry about as far as the law is concerned.

The webmaster is free to contact me anytime he or she wishes. If you have any comments on this issue, as always, click on the "comments" link below and post anoymously if you wish. Feel free to contact me by sending an email to prashyboy8792@yahoo.com.au. Some people have asked me to add them to MSN messenger and I am quite happy to talk with you about any issue you may have regarding to search engines. Keep a look out for updates on the VejaSeek investigation and a review of CountrySwitch.com which can be a helpful tool for many.


Thursday, December 09, 2004

Scam Alert - VejaSeek at it again?

Done some digging around for you guys and found a site that seems to be a scam by the same owner as VejaSeek. Let me go through the evidence with you. The site in question is Lazer-Search.

Firstly the owner of VejaSeek as shown by PayPal is Amin Hassanpour. You can check this up by looking over any payments that may have been paid by VejaSeek prior to its shutdown. You can also find that the primary email address for the account that made payments for VejaSeek is also the registrant of the domain as stated on the WhoIs site:
http://whois.sc/lazer-search.com

Registrant:
Nima Mohammadi +1.4166687458
Prime Search
15 tangreen court
Ontario,l4h 2g6,CANADA m2m 3z2

On top of this information, it is quite easy to check up on the site. The homepage is down at the moment, most likely as the owner is trying to change the design for launch. Why would he change the design? Quite simply because it is exactly the same design as VejaSeek. Have a look at this:
http://lazer-search.com/cgi-bin/accounts.cgi

Surely these two pieces of information are sound enough to show that it is in fact the owner of VejaSeek. There is more. Members of VejaSeek were denied acces to their accounts so they could not get screen shots of their account, but you can login to your VejaSeek account using the above mentioned link. If you are a member and you are owed more than $50, I would advise logging in through the above link and taking a screenshot of your earnings. Hopefully by the time you read this, he would not have taken the site down.

All this poses the question of whether this was a planned scam. The owner, who is known to be a juvenile, registered the domain name in November, a month before he came out about the site going under. Surely a cheque to the value of $15, 000 is substancial enough to propose legal action against the feed (CoolWebSearch) that did not pay him. Many believe that he pocketed the money for himself.

Will get back to you with more information as soon as it becomes available to me.

If you have any more information on the site, please post a comment by clicking on the "comments" link at the bottom of this post.



Wednesday, December 08, 2004

Webdayz - The days of not getting paid are over.

Heres the first engine reviewed under our new procedures for reviewing engines. This is an engine I joined a while back that has recently changed names. It has paid me several times and with all the failing engines around, this is one that is here to stay. It has a reliable webmaster which I hear only good things about. Here goes.

Review
Average bid: 2-3 cents
Speed: Good
Payment: Paypal / Moneybookers (10% fee)
Payment time: End of month
Min. Payout: $5
Refferal Percentage: 5% of refferal earnings
Bonuses: NONE
Risk factor: 4 out of 10 (Very Good chance of getting paid)
Payments: More than 5 times.
Search Engine Review Rating: 7 out of 10 (Good Engine)
Comments: Bids are suprisingly good for a smallish engine. Not very popular, but it does pay and they are very helpful. If you want to get paid go for this engine. Knowledgable webmaster knows what he is doing. Good Luck!

www.webdayz.com

New Review Procedures

Well with the collapse of so many search engines, I have decided to add a few extra features to the review of every engine that I do from now on. Each review will have many added features including the following:

RISK FACTOR: This will tell you on a scale of 1-10 the risk factor of getting paid. A rating 8 for example means that there is a high risk of not getting paid. We will review the site, check that adequate protection is in place from cheaters, check that all feeds being used will pay and also check that if the engine were to go down if members would have the contact information of th owner.

BONUSES: Any bonuses offered by the site. Such as $5 for every 1000 clicks.

PAYMENTS: The amount of payments I have received. N/A means that I am yet to be paid by this engine.

Also the SE review rating maximum points has been raised to ten to give better insight into our views on the engine.

Hope these will help in choosing the right engine for you. I am also working on upgrading as much of the site as I can. Content is being added whenever possible and with the new year steadily approaching we hope to be the leading commentator on all things search engine related. We are working on many articles for you in PTR email promotion etc. Help us provide better information by telling people about our site, word of mouth is the best form of advertising.

Many thanks,
Engine Review Team.

Vejaseek and Pam-Seek - Too good to be true

With the festive season approaching it seems that I have neglected to add new information onto the site, and I apologise for this. In the recent weeks many major headlines have hit affiliates of search engines, namely the closing down of Vejaseek and Pam-Seek with thousands upon thousands of dollars owed to members. If you were caught up in this, my sympathies go out to you.

Vejaseek was our "engine of the month" for October, mainly because of the great promises they made and the fact that I got paid from them. Soon after, I became a little cautious and stopped promoting this engine myself, unfortunately at the time I did not think of making a post on this site. But the signs were there that this engine was destined to fail. The mere fact that they garunteed average bids and gave "interest" on your earnings till you got paid said a lot. I am owed quite a bit from Vejaseek and while I lost a lot of my money, I did gain one thing. Now I know that I will only join and review sites that are good and sustainable. I have learned too, that if an engine sounds too good to be true, then it most likely isn't.

Before I start afresh with new reviews of engines, I'd like to clear up the status of all engines reviewed prior to this posting. The status has changed for the following posts (Scroll down to see original posts):

* While I hear that the webmaster of Blazerunner is making payouts, I still believe that there is a certain risk with this engine. It still owes me a few hundred dollars.

*VejaSeek as mentioned has been closed down.

*Eye-Search still remains strong while bids have dropped only slightly overall.

*Diggy-search still is a very good engine and one I recomend if you definately want to get paid.

*My search engine is launched, active and there a still a few spaces left for anyone interested.

*Finderport paid me this month. Still consistently pays with bonuses. Well done.