First The Overview
Banners Broker is a program that launched the middle of November 2010. At the time of its launch, it was billed as the first straight line cycler doubler, a new way to double your money. As with many of these programs, Banners Broker launched on the major Ponzi financial forums, many HYIP Monitor websites, blogs and the minor Ponzi financial forums.
It was posted by Banners Broker to confirm this was the “first” straight line cycler doubler as follows:
First, let’s clarify the claim:
“There are MANY Straightline Programs out there;
There are MANY Cyclers out there; and
There are MANY Doublers out there.However there is NO OTHER PROGRAM that combines these three concepts together to deliver a powerful, sustaining, MEGA PROGRAM! In addition, the manner in which we seamlessly have these three popular trends working in unison is a work of art. In fact, if you can show us another program that is a Straightline Cycler Doubler will roll-up Panels, we will transfer $10,000 into your AlertPay Account! (We are expecting copy-cats, so any program you find must be operational prior to November 2010)
All Banners Broker marketers can feel proud repeating our claim; we are TRULY THE WORLD’S FIRST STRAIGHTLINE CYCLER DOUBLER! And Second to NONE.”
1. The office address for the headquarters of Banners Broker was initially:
Banners Broker Canada
100 King St W, Suite 5700
Toronto, ON – M5X 1B8
Phone: (702) 605-7410
This is a business executive suite with a central receptionist for multiple companies renting an executive office space.
2. Then it was changed to
1019 Nelson St., Unit 8
Oshawa, ON L1H 8A7
…which was an office above an auto repair/body shop.
3. Registration:
Banners Broker International was registered in Belize initially, and then was changed to the Isle of Man in August of 2012.
May 2011 – Banners Broker tries to recover from their failed marketing efforts
In May of 2011, to help gin up support for Banners Broker, they made a major pitch on all their forums, blogs and other advertising outlets to obtain more members. It was obvious their previous marketing efforts had fallen way short of expectations.
This was their new marketing campaign (and I did not change anything from their announcement):
“We have Launched the Banners Broker Doubler more than 6 months! Many have already doubled their money. Promote any program you wish, and we blast out your affiliate link.
What is Banners Broker all about? Did you guess that it has something to do with Banners? Well you are right! Banners Broker is a marketplace to BUY and SELL Banner Ad Impressions.
When you BUY a Banner Ad Panel Package, you get to paste your Banner Link to ANY program you are promoting! Are you in a Travel Program? Health and Wellness? Discount Savings? Has the company provided you with Banners to promote with but you are not sure what to do with them? Well think no more… all you need to do is paste your Banner Link into our backoffice and we will virally blast your link over the Internet.
You can promote up to 10 different Banners. If you don’t have Banner Links, then just simply add the text link with a caption. You are buying impressions, so whether you are promoting 1 program or 10, it doesn’t matter. They all go towards your impression count. (“Impressions” means the number of times your banner is displayed on unique viewers’ computers. When Joe sees your banner, that is 1 impression, when Sally sees your banner, that is a second impression, and so on).
The Compensation Plan!
Simply put that you can and will double any amount you paid for your Banner Ad Panel Package, there is a small requirement to double your money which is to generate two sales which is equivalent to 2 referrals but if you want you can Test the Waters; and they will allow you to double your money Twice without having to get any referrals or sales. You can double your money Twice without having to Refer anyone or make any else.
There are 6 different entry packages as shown below:
*Time Frame for Cycle Doubling:
Yellow Panel 7-10 days.
Purple panel 14-18 days
Blue panel 30-35 days
Green panel 60-70 days
Black panel takes about six months for 1 double.
* These are Approximation to the time it would take to complete a cycle. It can take less or longer.”
Banners Broker Fails Again
The growth rate for Banners Broker was very dismal for 2011. Towards the end of 2011, there were payment processing issues, system issues that caused a lot of consternation with its affiliates as to its sustainability and viability as a real business. They continued to limp through the first few months of 2012, and then they decided they needed to revise what Banners Broker really was all about as a business model.
In May of 2012, Banners Broker re-defined their Straight Line Cycler Doubler and how Banners Broker worked as follows:
“Banners Broker (hereafter referred to as BB) buys ad space from ad networks with the understanding that they’re going to package that ad space up and resell it to their network of affiliates. These packages contain panels, each panel has a certain value and each has a specific time period it will take for that panel to mature, some as little as 2-3 weeks and some take 5-6 months or more. Each panel also requires a specific amount of traffic to mature. Each panel also has 2 values, what BB paid for it and what it’s charging the affiliate for it.
As BB sells the panels through their packages, they require traffic for these panels to generate revenue, which BB purchases in order to service the traffic needs of the panels. In return for purchasing the panels, BB pays a dividend to the affiliate once the panel matures, however, that panel is generating live revenue as the panel is running from the ad network. So BB is generating revenue from the sale of packages to affiliates, as well as from the ad network for serving ads. The ads appear on the ad space BB has purchased from the Broker in the blind network, as well as on publisher sites BB has attracted. Whether BB has 1 site, 100 sites or 100,000 sites in their network , they’ve already purchased ad space through their affiliation with the ad network, and that ad space rests on sites within the ad blind etwork. So no matter what, there’s advertising that will satisfy the panel needs. Since BB is paid every 2 weeks from the ad networks they do business with, and the panels mature at staggered intervals, BB is constantly serving ads and generating income. Now, it’s understood no business will pay on its products what it gets paid to sell them, so BB reduces the amount it’s paid by the ad networks for that advertising so it can afford to pay its affiliates and generate a profit.
Now since it takes traffic to generate ad revenue, BB purchases bulk traffic from the ad networks as well, which generate upwards of 3 Billion impressions per day. Again, since no company will sell a product for what it pays, it marks up the cost of the traffic to resell to the affiliate, the difference of course is profit for BB, and as BB owns the space and ads keep running, this revenue flows to BB. As it takes impressions to activate panels, and impressions for panels to mature, those impressions or traffic must be purchased up front. Now, an affiliate isn’t required to use all their traffic up front, but they must purchase it up front, like a variety store can’t buy individual cans of soda, it must buy cases. Since the purchased traffic represents a specific amount, and since each panel requires a different amount to activate, traffic purchases are constantly being made, and since BB only pays for what it uses, there’s always going to be a surplus, which represents profit for BB.
BB generates revenue from the banners placed in the space it purchases, and through the amount of time it takes for the panels (which is a virtual representation of an ad space BB purchased in the blind ad network) to mature, it generates revenue from the sale of traffic that it takes to activate those panels, and since it only pays for the traffic it actually uses, that’s where the revenue BB generates comes from. Since it pays less to the affiliate than what it earns from the ads, and (to use an analogy) it pays on the cans of soda used not the cases bought, there’s a surplus of revenue that represents profit that it can now turn around and pay its affiliates with while maintaining profitable growth.
Any advertising generated either through the site or through affiliates is passed through to the ad networks, BB takes a commission on that sale, and passes 10% to the affiliate for bringing in the business. When it comes to publishers (people looking to monetize their websites with ad revenue), those sites are added to the BB internal or “choice” network, and leveraged with the ad blind network to get better pricing deals. The affiliate is paid 10% of the revenue generated by the ads revenue to the publisher with BB and the publisher splitting the balance.”
Please note the major changes from when this first launched back in November of 2010 to what Banners Broker now is claiming they were all about in May of 2012.
I mentioned that Banners Broker had limped along from its inception in November of 2010 until the middle part of 2012. We know this as it was announced on the blogspot that Banners Broker only had 50,000 affiliates at the end of May 2012.
In the middle of July 2012, came this bombshell announcement from Banners Broker:
“IMPORTANT INFORMATION
Dear BB Affiliates,
There comes a time in business where difficult decisions have to be made for the betterment and longevity of the organization. Kuldip Josun, our VP of Corporate Sales has been relieved of his duties and is no longer affiliated with Banners Broker or any Banners Broker partner companies. It has become apparent that the direction Mr. Josun wanted to proceed with is not the same vision of Banners Broker. Banners Broker is an online advertising company and will grow in the direction of providing online sales and marketing tools.
We wish Mr. Josun the best of luck in his future endeavours.
To address some important points, first and foremost, it is business as usual for all Affiliates, Leaders, Resellers and Independent Contractors. Chris Smith is the sole owner of Banners Broker International since inception and is the sole signing officer for the Banners Broker International bank accounts. As we continue to grow, Rajiv Dixit will be handling corporate sales for the interim, and we will be hiring a new on-the-road sales and presentation specialist for long term. Due to a breach of contract, Mr. John Rock is no longer assisting Banners Broker Canada with compliance and is no longer affiliated with Banners Broker or any Banners Broker partner. All decisions that have been made are final.
We are extremely excited about the 2nd convention on Sunday, July 15th and we are expecting a huge crowd. This convention will be bigger and better than the first. Looking forward to seeing all of you there!
Sincerely,
Chris Smith, CEO Banners Broker International”
Now what made this news even more newsworthy was Mr. Josun was listed initially as one of the owners of Banners Broker.
Banners Broker Secures A MasterCard. Affiliates Get Scolded.
In mid-July, Banners Broker announced they had secured a MasterCard that was issued through Vector Services. The purpose of the card was to offer another method of payment to pay their affiliates which would be faster than using the payment processors. With this news, many of the affiliates began touting the fact that if Banners Broker had a MasterCard that meant that Banners Broker was being endorsed by MasterCard proving its legitimacy. This was to counter the growing voices claiming that Banners Broker was a Ponzi. It seems MasterCard did not appreciate this claim and this lead Banners Broker to release this announcement:
“TO: All Valued Banners Broker Affiliates
October 1, 2012
RE: Non Compliant Website & Marketing Verbiage
URGENT NOTICE
Hello all,
We need your help and attention to this matter immediately. Recently we have been informed by Vector Card Services, the providers of our Prepaid MasterCard, that there are numerous websites that have been promoting the Banners Broker program and its unique Prepaid MasterCard with verbiage and images that have not been approved by either MasterCard, Choice Bank Limited or Vector Card Services.
We have been officially warned by MasterCard International and sanctions against our program may be imposed if our affiliates do not remove all unauthorised verbiage of the Prepaid MasterCard card.
We take the promotion and marketing of our program very seriously and require every affiliate to adhere to our polices and guidelines. Communication and promotion of our products, services, and program needs to be reviewed by the Banners Broker corporate office before posting live.
Our web compliance team actively scours websites for compliance adherence and we will immediately suspend your membership and all payments; until these impacted websites are removed or approved.
Please help us by removing all mention of the Prepaid MasterCard program from your website until you have submitted it for approval. It’s a simple process, please send to Banners Broker’s corporate office (or your regional leader) the layout of any websites, marketing campaigns and/or brochures that you wish to utilise for the promotion of the program. We will endeavour to have these documents approved by MasterCard as quickly as possible. You can then officially post these documents back to your website.
If you are not sure whether your website is compliant, please follow the same procedures to get it approved officially by MasterCard and Choice Bank Limited. Vector Card Services has committed to the quickest turn around for these approvals to reduce the impact to your business.
Your attention to this matter is urgent and vital to the success of our program.
Regards,
BannersBroker”
July 31, 2012. BannersBroker Limited Shuts Down
On July 31, Banners Broker announced that Bannersbroker Limited had shut down operations as a Reseller for Banners Broker International. They also announced:
“Stellar Point Inc has been contracted to handle the support for Canada and Internationally. We welcome them aboard as our new Canadian Partner. All support services will remain unchanged.”
Banners Broker using its new definition of what kind of business Banners Broker was and how it worked soon ran into more payment issues. In mid-September they also announced that any affiliate saying anything negative about Banners Broker would have their accounts closed and they would not get their money back.
In October 2012, Banners Broker announced a new comp plan with their release of BB version 2.6. Here is their announcement:
BB version 2.6:
“1) Traffic pack qualified panels will give 1/2 sales credit to inviter upon completion rather than full credit.
This means that anyone you have introduced who qualifies their panels using traffic packs you as the inviter, will only get half the sales credit. This is to encourage people to work with their teams to help them build their business and even help them with referring people
Currently if someone qualifies for example a yellow panel using their traffic pack you as the inviter get 2500 in credits. After upgrade to BB version 2.6 you will get 1250 (half)
In the future BB are bringing out an additional way to qualify panels alongside TPs
2) Traffic pack subscriptions will be automated
75% of your highest months TP purchases will be your monthly commitment
3) Auto admin fee charging – they have noticed that this has not been working correctly and they will be bringing it up to date The admin fees will be taken on the same date that you activated your package.
For brand new people joining if they activate their pack for example on the 15th September, there subscription will be taken on the 15th of October
4) Security layer – transaction pins and locked pages etc will be put in place
5) Automatic rollup Details are for Version 2.6 only. This will change in BBv3 it will be a bit different but for now it is as follows
If you have 10 or more unqualified panels of same colour dated older than 8 days, the system
Will automatically find them and roll them up when you visit the view panels page.
The panels need to be at least 8 days old for the auto-roll up to happen.
Example: if you have 100 unqualified yellow panels and you go to the view panels page It will automatically roll-up three yellow panels to one purple (if older than 8 days)
This will then leave you 97 yellow panels, if you then go to another page and come back to the yellow view panels page It will roll-up another 3 yellow panels to 1 purple
To avoid roll-up, DO NOT visit the view panel page.
Automatic rollup, will not roll-up panels that have already been rolled up from a lower colour
So if you have rolled 9 yellows to create 3 rolled up purples, the system will not roll those three purples to blue
Why 10 panels? next version BBv3 will have countdown timer and things will be slightly different and roll up will happen when you have 6 unqualified panels. This current version will roll up 3 out of 10″
Banners Broker Helps Themselves, Not The Affiliates
So basically they cut the earnings in half, which only benefited Banners Broker, not the affiliates. It also did not help their payment issues. These continued up through the end of the year, but all was promised to be fixed with the release of their next new software come the first of the year. Not only did they have payment issues, but the rotation of the panels had slowed to a crawl. If the panels do not cycle, the affiliates were not making money. They also made a lot of promises they did not keep and set deadlines to “fix” the payment and panel cycling that were not met. All of this adding to the confusion as to what was going on with Banners Broker.
Payment Problems Continue
They kept promising that the payment issues were being worked on and would soon be caught up. They made a big announcement that all affiliates who had submitted a withdrawal request by December 5th, would be paid by December 20th.
They also announced that Friday December 21st 4PM EST would be the last day the offices would be open and that they would reopen January 2nd. Support ticketing system would be offline during this time.
They claimed that the site would be monitored every day and that IT would be on top of things – and that if there were an issue with the site, they would still be here and this will be resolved. They said that Banners Broker started 2012 with 1,000 members and had grown to 250,000+ members by the end of 2012.
Banners Broker Releases Another Bombshell In Their Last Update Of 2012
Another bombshell of a statement was also made in their last update of 2012, and it was this:
Banners Broker announced that Ian Driscoll’s UK’s independent contract had not been renewed, but the UK would have a new office in January located in Manchester. Now what was stunning about this announcement is that Ian Driscoll was touted as one of Banner Broker’s millionaires. While they claimed there was nothing to be concerned about with this announcement, it still sent shockwaves through the Banners Broker affiliates.
Banners Broker’s Goa, Indian Office Gets Raided By The Authorities At The End Of Decemeber, 2012
But that was not the end of Banners Broker unsettling news for 2012. At the end of December it was announced that their Goa, India office had been raided by the authorities and the person in charge had been arrested and had charges filed against her. These charges still have not been resolved, and no word on a court date.
This is the end of the “overview” of Banners Broker, and next will be an in-depth review of Banners Broker, their claims of their business model and why it does not stand up to critical analysis.