DesertSkyMarketing Interview

February 15, 2007

Program URL: http://www.DesertSkyMarketing.net

Name: Dustin Fennell

Interview Date: February 15, 2007

Program Type: Autosurf

1. First I would like to thank you for the time you are giving for this interview. Please introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Dustin Fennell and I’m an IT professional. I’ve been using the “Internet” since I got my first 1200 baud modem. Back then, everything was in text and we had to dial into bulletin boards. My first computer had a whopping 64k of RAM! You can read more about my professional history and educational background in the ‘about us’ section of my computer business web site (www.computersplus.biz).

Like I told TheZensDen, I got started in the autosurf industry via 12DailyPro. I was excited to discover that someone could make money online so easily. Then I was introduced to how quickly all that profit could be lost. I joined many other surf sites and was just an ordinary “surfer” like most of your readers. I won some, and lost in many. I finally got fed up with scam sites, poor customer service, lousy scripts, and even worse excuses. I knew I could do a better job.

2. We would like to congratulate you on refunding all the members of the first round of DesertSkyMarketing. Please shed some light on the first round and explain how the refund process went.

I always keep a close eye on my site statistics in an effort to establish normal trends and recognize changes. I do the same with my investments. Even though I tested my outside investments for month with my own personal money, as luck would have it, they started to falter one after another once we launched DSM-1. We were also making an effort to bring real corporate sponsors to this industry. While we had several real corporate sponsors that agreed to give us a try, they did not see the conversions they needed in order to justify the expense.

Add these two factors together and our entire business plan was now pretty much worthless. So, rather than just let things go and try to run it until all the money was gone, I made the decision to close while we could still pay our members. We developed a plan that I thought was fair to all the members; rewarding the oldest members the most, while immediately refunding the newest members.

We had funds in outside programs that would have been enough to complete our payment plan. However, even some of these programs faltered. We still paid as funds came in. Eventually, we were able to pay every single member that was in DSM-1 in full. All members, except the ones who signed up right before we close, were paid profit. I believe this was a first in this industry!

3. Why did you decide to base the second round of DesertSkyMarketing on the profit sharing model? What are the main features of DesertSkyMarketing?

We learned from our mistake of basing our business model on volatile short-term and long-term programs. We wanted to create a program where the success was in the member’s hands, not in the hands of some online program that you “thought” would be good for awhile. We studied the CEPcoast business model, but saw some weaknesses in it. While we were discussing our version of the profit share model, other programs quickly opened up and failed. This only confirmed our thinking and we knew we had developed a good plan. We saw how Coastin88 and ManicAds were doing with limiting the max daily % and this confirmed, again, our plan would be great. Sometimes it really does pay to take your time and develop a solid plan.

Our current plan offers a max daily rebate of 10%. VIP Advertisers may Cashout daily with zero Cashout fees. Ad Packs expire at 120%. Referral Bonuses are 2% for Advertisers and 4% for VIP Advertisers. We pay cashouts within one business day. We also provide excellent customer service.

4. How is DesertSkyMarketing different from other programs based on the profit sharing model that did not last long?

DSM is quite a bit different than most surf programs. First, our ad rotation consists of a manual- surf and an auto-surf. The manual-surf portion shows our premium ads to every member, every day, for one week. Premium ads are purchased separately from ad packs. The auto-surf portion shows our members sites. We offer Raffles where members can win cash and have their member ID set as the default referral for the site for one week. We share 100% of site advertisement purchases (premium ad spots, PTC ads, banner ads, VIP membership fees, etc.). We also share 100% of our outside income with our members.

Something that will continue to make us even stronger is we cap the daily max rebate % at 10% per day. This allows us to stay financially strong. We also now have 6 deals on the table that will bring a substantial amount of real outside income into our program. Of course, this will be shared with the members.

5. In your updates, you mention your legal counsel. Could you please explain how a program offering returns of 120% with a daily payout option can be legal?

We are legal because members are purchasing a product, advertising. Every member gets paid to surf ($0.05 per day). Members who purchase advertising packs are eligible for “ad pack rebates” of up to 10% per day with a maximum of 120%. We clearly state members are not investing. Members do not earn commissions, they earn referral bonuses and rebates.

6. How much did the reputation you established from the first round of DesertSkyMarketing contribute to the success of the second round?

I think this helped tremendously. I’ve always been open, honest, and approachable to my members. I communicate with them and simply tell the truth.

7. There are currently many problems in the industry like egold blocking some admin accounts and DDoS attacks. How well are you prepared to face such obstacles?

We already have DDoS protection in place. Egold blocking is nothing new in this industry. DSM has registered all of our Egold accounts with real information (names, addresses, phone numbers). We move egold funds from our upgrade account to a holding account on a regular basis. We feel we are extremely prepared to face such obstacles

8. DesertSkyMarketing is one of the fastest growing programs at the moment. How do you manage to deal with the strict restrictions egold usually places on accounts receiving huge amounts of money daily?

We have not experienced any such restrictions. Since all of our information is real, we haven’t experienced any problems or restrictions. I believe one would start to experience these issues if they were “cashing out” their egold to their pockets. Going from egold to egodl has not been a problem.

9. Beside DesertSkyMarketing, you own several other sites. Could you please explain more about these sites?

We also own CashBackMall.net. We are further developing this program and will soon be promoting it heavily. Basically, cashbackmall.net is a virtual shopping mall where members can click through our links to shop at hundreds of stores. All the stores are affiliate links and they pay us to send them customers. We, in turn, share that payment with our members in the form of “cash back”.

DesertSky Network also owns 7 pixel sites that are still in development. These are not your normal pixel sites. Hopefully our business plan with them will work out. They have the potential to bring in around $875,000 profit per year into DesertSky Network.

While computersplus.biz is not owned by DesertSky Network, it is my computer business that I started 1999. We specialize in providing enterprise level support to small businesses. We now have three locations: Arizona, Georgia, and Ohio.

10. We know you are a registered company. Can members visit your office? What other types of support are available?

We don’t spend very much time in the office because we an online business and Debs does her work from home. I do most of mine from our home office as well. However, we are happy to meet any of our members. I’ve talked to many members on the phone, about 25 or so have my personal cell phone number. Any member who would like to meet us face to face is more than welcome and we would be excited to meet them. We are real people and feel we are offering a real service/product. We have nothing to hide. J

11. You were one of the first admins who decided to close their program at a time they sensed coming problems and before the problems affected their program. Many admins are following you nowadays. How do you evaluate this?

I feel good for the members who are in those programs. From the beginning, I’ve tried to do things the right way, and with excellence. For example, we were the first to post all the due diligence information about our site and company right on our “About Us” us page. We’ve posted our corporate papers, tax id number, phone number, address, server info, whois info, forum nickname, etc. A real company doesn’t hide these type of things. So, I’m honored that other admins are stepping up to the plate and trying to do things the right way.

12. Being a program admin yourself, what do you think of the excuses admins usually provide for closing their programs? (Excuses like my mom is at the hospital, or I am very sick… )

Wow, what a question. I could go on for hours and not even type a word that has more than four letters in it! J These excuses are lame. I’ll be nice and just leave it at that.

13. What do you think of eTalk Network in general, and eTalkMoney in specific?

I think eTalk has a really good thing going and gives great information to their readers and good profit to their members.

14. Is there anything else you would like to add?

I’d like to add that we are in the process of solidifying real outside income to keep our program financially strong. We will also be adding a “Gold Advertiser” level where these members will earn first and second level referral bonuses!

Thank you for your time and thank you to all the readers who read through all this text.

Posted in Autosurf