Founded by Chris Sukornyk, TweetBucks is a way for its users to make money through affiliate fees and cost-per-clicks (CPCs) on ads. TweetBucks' users can choose from big names like Amazon, BestBuy, Barnes & Noble and others as they pursue affiliate earnings from sales generated as a result of clicks on TweetBucks' Bit.ly shortened links embedded in their tweets.
Initially there were three ways to earn with TweetBucks: 1) Refer anyone to TweetBucks, and they would deposit a commission equal to 10% of that person's earnings into your account each month for 6 months, 2) When shortening a link on TweetBucks, enable the ad-frame, and they would pay you every time someone clicks on it and 3) When a click on a merchant link resulted in a sale, you could earn "big" revenue (TweetBucks, 2009). The ad-frame option, however, did not last long:
August 2009 We’re sad to announce that we’ve had to temporarily disable the Tweetbucks’ Ad Frame option due to a series of malicious ‘bots’ attacking the Tweetbucks system. One of the affects of these attacks was an ‘unusual’ account balance increase that affected a few of our user’s account balances over the last couple of weeks. Since our policy does not allow us to charge advertisers (or award you) for malicious clicks, you may notice a decrease in your account balance as we correct the situation. (TweetBucks, 2009)
With a total of 6,092 clicks, my total estimated earnings are $10.5980, which is clearly shown in the earnings summary shown on the landing page presented after account login. Just as clearly shown are my cleared balance, which is on the Balance page. Cleared Balance? Yep, my TweetBucks are in the bank; all total $5.91. So much for the $25 minimum balance needed for payout.
TweetBuck's BlogBlogs (FWNB) (Last edited by TweetBucks on November 11, 2009 at 12:33PM). Title of Blog Post. Retrieved month day, year, from http://blog.tweetbucks.com/uncategorized/tweetbucks-ad-frame-disabled/.