CloseBys FAQ for Network Owners

Why it is Free? How long it will be Free?.
Since we are starting up, it might take up to 6 months to generate the momentum that it requires to generate any revenue. To show that this is not another “get rich quick” scheme and is a genuine business opportunity for the right people we are giving this for free. People who create a network after the initial momentum is already in place need to Pay to own a network.

What is the business Model?
Network owners get paid for any promotions that are published, consumed or shared from their network. For more details see the bottom of this document.

Is the program like affiliate Marketing?
It is similar to affiliate marketing. But conversions are tracked from smart phone as well as computers.

Why should I join CloseBys?
Blogging has lost it’s edge for affiliate marketers from the time micro blogging and IPhone came into existence. Bloggers have no easy way of getting into smart phone marketing as the market here is app driven. CloseBys is the first network that enables bloggers and affiliate marketers to get in to the mobile marketing Space.

I created a Blog. Now What Should I do?
Write some thing that will be of interest to your local community. This could be an event that is being organized in the park,library. Any local sports, music or dance program that local people participate. Review a brick and mortar businesses in your area. Invite local people to read, Join and comment. If you are a blogger or affiliate marketer you already know how to promote your blog.

I know how to Blog and Started Blogging. Now what?
Well here is the moment of truth. Once you generate significant involvement from local community, advertisers should be willing to come in and advertise. Since this is the first Pay for Results Marketing tool, that provides a way to carry promotions on the smart phone, let us expect advertisers to come by themselves.

I have good traffic to my Network. But still Advertisers are not coming. What do I do?
This is when things get tough, You might need to make a few phone calls or meet with small business owners to explain why Closebys.com promotions are the best thing, that is out there for Marketing. We will do every thing we can, by launching nation wide ad campaigns.

I am not good at cold calling. What should I do?.
You can even hire ad sales people to do the job for you. If you are doing this for the initial few months, Closebys.com will provide our fixed cost earnings(see towards the bottom of the page) to the network owners for the first few months.

What are the other ways to promote your network?
Let us keep updating this section.
1. Let your all social profiles reflect the name of your network.
2. Create a Local meetup group for closebys.
3. Participate in other local meet up groups for small businesses.

Why cannot I do all this by myself? Why I should Join Closebys.com?
This is where the power of the network comes in. Every one promoting one single brand is better than every one promoting their individual brands. Not only that. Creating a mobile app and marketing that mobile app to consumers is not some thing you needto do. We take care of that for you.

How is it different from any other blog?
1. It is location based. You can only create it for a location close to you (20 miles).
2. Only local people can Join your blog.

How coupons make money for network owners?
When advertisers come to publishing tool from your blog, the coupon is marked to be referred by you. When the coupon gets used from closebys app on the cell phone you get paid. Here you get paid for getting the advertisers.

When coupons published or not referred by you, you get paid for the clips and uses from your network. That is irrespective of how the coupon is published, when the coupon is clipped from your blog you get paid. Here you get paid for getting the public to use the coupon.

You get the maximum money out if you publish a coupon by yourself on behalf of a customer. Now you get the money for coupons clipped on the blog as well as coupons used from the mobile applications.

Why pay for clip is there?
Pay for clip is temporary. Currently not all the retailers and services can scan coupons. If they don’t then there is no way for us to track the use. So we introduced the the pay for clip fee. Merchants who purchased the Scanning app from us or have options for notifying us when the coupon is scanned from their scanner need not pay any pay per clip fees. They only pay for use or conversion.

How do I get Paid for Menus?
If a menu or price list is published to CloseBys and it is referred from network, you get paid for it. Menus on iphone can be seen by the customers while they are waiting outside of the restaurant for example. Each menu referred by your network could pay you up to 75% in referral fees.

How do I get paid for Events?
You can get paid for events when an event is shared from your network to another social network. The money advertisers pay for sharing will be less than the money you normally get for a pay per use system.

What if the merchant is not scanning the coupon?
This usually will not happen, as the cashiers at the point of sale need to report the sales and discounts provided at the store. So they need to either scan or manually enter the coupon id on their system.

Can you provide more details of how much I can earn with CloseBys?
Every time a marketer publishes a promotion he pays a fixed and variable price for running the promotion through closebys. Fixed cost comes to us. Variable cost goes to you. Say the advertiser pays $200 to publish a coupon, we get $50 as a fixed cost. The remaining $150 is available for the network owners. This $150 is distributed to you using the following mechanism.

Pay Per Clip:
Network owners paid for every promotion that is clipped to the mobile wallet on a intention to use basis. This is applicable only for retailers that don’t have the scanner integration with their POS. The cost will be around of $1 per Coupon clipped.

Pay Per Use:
Network owners get Paid for every promotion that is actually used. The cost will be upwards of $1 per use.

Pay For Sharing:
Events published on Close Bys can be shared to other social networks. Facebook will be the first network available for Sharing.When consumers share events to social networks you get paid. Pay per Share fees will be around 20 cents per share.

Pay for referrals
All the promotions that do not fall under any of the above categories will be considered under the pay for referral Category, Here you get 75% of the revenue that is generated from this promotion.

In essence in every single model $150 is available to you for every promotion that is published through the system. If you get 10 Promotions a month in your area, you have an available budget of $1500. All this is yours if you are able to bring in customers to your network. The good news is you are not doing this alone.

How do I see my earnings?
Login to the network admin Panel and click “My Earnings” link.

What are the terms and conditions?
The business model is subject to change at any time without any consent from the network owners. While we will always listen to you and work for every ones benefit, waiting for every ones consent will not work for a business that needs to evolve quickly.

If there is no activity in a network for a period of 60 days, the network will be reclaimed from you and assigned to some body else who is interested in the same area. You can do two things to avoid this.
1. If you do not want to own the network any more, you can sell it and have some one else manage this actively.
2. If you want to own, but could not manage it for a temporary period, you can hire some one temporarily to keep the network alive.

Other forms of advertisement on the site like google adwords are allowed as long as it is promoting local businesses. This could be removed if the business model calls for it.

Related Press Releases:
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