I ran across a site called Revenue Magic the other day.
The main page for the site says it provides “cash back advertising”. The idea being that you can pay for advertising, and get some cash back from the exchange. The implication being that you can get back a whole lot more cash than you put into it, eventually. On a first read, this reminded me of Rick Katz’ Co-op Ad Club, which had a similar theme.
The Revenue Magic site is low on details, though, promising a full explanation in the member’s area. Since you can join for free, I figured I’d bite and see what was inside.
There is a lot more detail inside, but it still doesn’t do a good job of spelling out exactly how it all works. They do a good job of explaining the cash back aspect of it. You can refer others, and you can also be put into a rotator that promises to fill out your first level.
But it was the advertising side of things I wanted to know more about. There are plenty of plans that are little more than self-contained MLM schemes out there, the magic would have been combining that with a truly useful advertising co-op.
The advertising works with ad credits. You get 500 free ad credits just for joining, so you can try out their advertising options. You can get banner ads, text ads, full page view ads, email ads, and top sponsor ads. That sounds like a pretty full offering, but, ultimately, you’re only advertising on Revenue Magic itself. The banner and text ads are displayed on their web site, the full page view ads are just a traffic exchange, the email ads are solo ads mailed out to the Revenue Magic membership, and the top sponsor ads are displayed in any emails Revenue Magic sends out.
All of that isn’t particularly bad, but the prices are high. They have several packages, most of which include membership in the rotator at $49.95. You then pay approximately half a cent per ad credit. It takes 40,000 ad credits to send an email ad (the most effective of the advertising options), so you’re talking about $200 for a solo ad.
While the idea is attractive, the implementation isn’t. But it did get my mind going about what a truly useful cash back advertising co-op would look like. What Rick Katz was doing had elements of it, but fell short, and Revenue Magic’s approach has elements of it, too. When I’ve worked through the brainstorming and come up with my ideal program, I’ll post the details of it here.
In the meantime, click here to see Revenue Magic for yourself.
That’s an interesting idea, I have heard of it for physical goods and some services but never advertising.
Hi Jay, I found your review of Revenue Magic to be quite interesting. I have found it to be a little more lucrative however. I joined Revenue Magic in Nov. of 2007 when there were only 2,000 members in it total. Since that time it has grown to over 10,000 members and continues to grow each day just from word of mouth and a few more experienced marketers bringing in there teams.
I am doing real good with the program as it continues to cycle me and earn cash back rewards and more ad credits. The advertising works well also. I recently did a solo to the membership and had 73 signups in the program that I promoted so yes the solos are a little pricey but they work extremely well. Check the testimonials page on the site for more on that.
Thanks for letting me post my comments on your blog.
Tom
Revenue Magic is just another snake oil but rather then selling you a health potion they sell you on the power of a cycling 2×2 or some forced matrix scheme. If anyone had enough brains to figure out the math of a 2×2 you would find that the majority of the money is going into the owner pockets!
If you earned with them I would recommend getting your money ASAP before they run out!
I have follow them a bit and it seems every few months they open up a new program. First within Revenue Magic they opened up like 4 to 6 new matrix plans. Second they opened up Listquik then successquik then residualquik. What’s next? Just wait a month or two until they run out of money again and you will find out what is next.
If you made money consider yourself lucky. withdraw it and move on.
Bob