I have had over a dozen emails in the last week about VineFire. I would like to start out by saying it took me about 15 seconds to go to this site and figure out that VineFire is a scam. Before you get sucked into this scam I would like to go over in details why this site is dishonest, and can not work. Anyone with a good understanding of finances and math would agree with me in an instant.
Resources
VineFire Forum
VineFire Talk
VineFire Overview
The Program launched only about a month ago. On the outside it looks like a Reddit clone, but under it’s outer skin, is the making of a major scam. Like Reddit and Digg, you can post links and rate other links. The site is extremely simplified and doesn’t really have many features at all. If it wasn’t for their earning promises, there would really be no point in using the site since it’s just a collection of spammy links, that people click on thinking they will be paid.
VineFire Payout Promises:
Unlike Digg, and Reddit, Vinefire makes staggering claims about how much money they will pay per action. Here is a run down of all the ways they claim you will earn from using their service:
- Just Sign up and Get $50 Cash
- Add a Link Every 30 Seconds, and earn 12 Cents Each
- Click on a Link and earn 45 Cents Each
- Click a Featured link and earn 50 Cents each
- Refer friends to Vinefire and earn 50% of their Earnings
The Maximum amount of money one can earn from Vinefire in any given day is $50.00. You can increase your daily limit to $100 per day if you pay a one time fee of only $5.
Why VineFire is a Scam
- The Math Doesn’t add up:
Yesterday VineFire was ranked in Alexa #3100. According to our estimations, by looking at sites we own and comparing traffic data, that equates to at the very least 30,000 unique visits per day. Now if none of them upgraded, and they all only earn half of the limit whish is $25 per day from clicking and submitting links, referring friends and signing up, that means Vinefire will owe its members on a daily basis $25 X 30,000 = $750,000. Hmm, interesting huh? They must make a ton of money with all that traffic, so can easily pay off that small sum of $750,000 a day, right? Wrong! Not even close. Their only means of revenue is from selling “starred” listings at a one time fee of $10. They also sell upgraded memberships for $5. Now what if all 30,000 members both upgraded their account and purchased the right to add stars next to their Vinefire links? That’s $15 X 30,000 or a one time fee totaling $450,000.
-Will not Pay out till January 2010:
So they claim, they won’t be paying out anything until Jan 2010. That is exactly 235 days away. Since they have an estimated outstanding expense of $750,000 per day, according to the math above, that means by January 1st they will owe over $176,250,000. This is all with revenues of only $450,000 at very best. Clearly, not even close to being a profitable business, unless of course they never pay anyone a dime.
How Will VineFire Owners benefit from the scam?
As we figured out above, They may take in approximately $450,000 from Upgraded members and purchased “star” upgrades. This is all profit besides their cheap server costs if they do decide to run off come January, which I am 100% certain they will. In addition they are likely making a small amount of money via the affiliate links they use for “featured links”.
![[Furl]](http://www.furl.net/images/logo-favicon.ico){kind=logo}
![[Newsvine]](http://www.newsvine.com/_vine/images/identity/button_seednewsvine.gif){kind=small}
April 9th, 2009 8:40 pm
I completely understand your concern and disbelief. However, your rudimentary understanding of finances does not take into account the realities of the internet and marketing. If current revenue projections were the only factor in the valuation of a company, most internet ventures would never get off the ground. Twitter, for example has been rumored to be in sale talks currently in the 250 million dollar range. But according to it’s founder, “Twitter has not yet made any money and I don’t know if it ever will”. So how could it be worth that much?
The value of Twitter and Vinefire will be based on the same thing – the subscriber base and the potential for marketing to and through them.
The idea that 30,000 unique visitors would all be doing the actions that earn is also naive. I assume that on one day, you were one of the 30,000 for that day, yet you most likely took no action. For most things, there is an 80/20 rule that applies…80% of the work/action will be done by 20% of the people…and the other 80% will do nothing. That being said, even if 6,000 of the daily visitors made the effort to max out their earnings(still highly optomistic) would require about 300,000 a day in resources to pay out. They have recently revised the projected first payout to sometime in June, drastically reducing their liabilities. For an anticipated buyout, The recipient company will be receiving an enthusastic Subscriber base to develop into a large marketing force.
Individuals who are using the site gain in several ways as well. First, if the payouts occur as anticipated, with a large monetary gain. Second, they can gain leads through their ads posted on the site. Third, they have the ability to test their links and text ads quickly and for free. And fourth, they can gain leads from their referrals which they send to the site.
Many of today’s giants on the internet started in much the same fashion as Vinefire. Nobody ever expected that holding auctions online or being an information directory would ever amount to much, but look where they are now. (Really, something named Google where you give the information away for free? Yeah, that’s gonna make money. lol)
April 10th, 2009 3:58 am
omg i just signed up today and was wondering too about the payout and if there are other people who actually received a payout. but found nothing!! they sweet talk!!! thats the most irritating part of it. they claimed that i already earned $100! i want to encash it already but didnt found any paypal link or what.
April 10th, 2009 1:40 pm
What do you mean by “it’s just a collection of spammy links?” I advertise on that site and by no means are my links “spammy.”
I think you need to adjust your opinion just a bit. You might have an opinion about Vinefire but watch what you say overall about it’s participants…you know nothing about any of us to judge like that. I wouldn’t take your advise about anything just because of the attitude you exhibit.
April 19th, 2009 1:31 pm
I can’t attest to anything you’ve written above, but I can say that I have gotten 4 referrals using VineFire and only been with them a month and not logging in everyday. So there is a benefit for the members using vinefire.
April 19th, 2009 1:33 pm
The promise of big money brings people to the site to click on links, there’s no disputing that. Hello? The links are getting clicked! My sign ups for various things has increased dramatically with far less effort than traffic exchanges and for far less money than paid advertising. I upgraded for the $5 but can’t afford icon packs. I’ve already made my $5 back.
So let’s see…I have tremendous response to my ads, my income has increased accordingly, I’ve spent far less than I’ve earned already, I’ve spent far less time than on other advertising means. Exactly how is it I’m being scammed?
Do I expect to be paid by Vinefire? NO, I don’t. Will I be angry if they don’t pay? NO, I won’t.
Will I be upset if they disappear? YES, I will! Because I won’t get these killer results for dang near free anymore.
So one more time, exactly how is it I’m being scammed?
April 19th, 2009 1:43 pm
Thank you for doing the math…I sat here for 3 hrs..to accumulate 100.00,before I started to question the math. When I saw that they wern’t paying out until 2010, I thought ya right. Then a page poped up that stated Good News…That they have a buyer & payouts COULD be as soon as June 2009. Guess I’ve been burned by spulation one to many times. Is’nt there anyone who can hold them to there commitment?
April 20th, 2009 12:39 pm
I just went on Vinefire from a link on Blogcatalog and within two seconds recognized this as a total quackjob. 2010? WTF? “Due to the experimental nature of Vinefire, account balances are subject to change, up or down, based on your actions as well as the overall performance and membership growth of the website. Strong membership growth will lead to higher payouts, whereas poor growth could lead to complete termination of the website including all attached services and accounts.” Subject to change=Offshore bank account bull. All of their supposed user referrers work for them as executives. Social Networker beware.
April 21st, 2009 6:01 pm
I believe thats what is going on with alot of these site just exactly as you stated. be an affiliate is not worth it the only person making money is the person who owns or created the sites.. people need to be careful!
April 22nd, 2009 11:14 am
Thanks for the write up. I totally agree. I also believe that they will never payout because I’m sure in a few months when its time to come out of beta they will have “issues” preventing them from going live and they will remain in beta mode which will prevent them from paying anyone. I’m sure these “issues” will continue to arise until everyone catches on and stops using the site or major complaints are filed. Either way the owners of vinefire will make away with a sizable profit.
April 22nd, 2009 6:56 pm
I agree with you. They will never make a payment to members. However, I didn’t join them for making money from them.
Over the last 24 hours I have received 17 signups from my link posted in vinefire. I personally know a person that received 55 signups to her advertised program on vinefire.
This is why I post there.
John Blume
April 24th, 2009 9:01 am
I agree with about 1/2 of what has been said here. I fully read the terms before I joined and knew that, if (and that’s a big if) we actually got paid from Vinefire, it would not be until 2010, so comments about not being cashed out now are moot.
The value I see is in being able to post your links to genuine sites for virtually nothing. The upgrade was $5, so, erring on the side of caution if money was ever to be paid out, I did it. I have already made about 10 times that back in the traffic to my other sites and signups to my various downlines.
In summary… Buyer beware? You betcha. Like in anything, be sceptical, read everything and assess the financial risk.
May 3rd, 2009 3:18 pm
I’m also thingking of how vinefire is going to pay all the commissions. We are all entitled for whatever we think about vinefire. I had already verified my account and everytime I click a link I earn. Since i’m not sure if I’m going to be paid I just think of the other benefit that I can get from vinefire. I manage to click on a link about paid survey and I already have a balance of $28.00 in my account.I still have other links soon to advertise at vinefire.
Because of that I’m not thinking about the $5.00 that I paid to verify my account. I’m just thingking now of the other benefit that I can get business from the other advertisers for ONLY $5.00. I joined other income opportunites and I advertise with fees which is MORE expensive than what I paid for vinefire but so far not even a single cent that I got back from the money I spent and it is even worst because I have to PAY monthly for nothing.
Now, I just enjoy seeing the figures everytime I click a link with vinefire. And besides if in case i can’t get anything from vinefire i have the clickbank where they are associated with. I have already $2.75 at my clickbank account from my referral which means I already got back half of my $5.00 that I paid for vinefire for verification. I’m not expecting to be paid but I’m just hoping that I will really get paid. I’m just thingking now of the benefit by posting my advertisement which only cost me $5.00. And besides, who knows in case vinefire cannot afford to pay all the earnings of members and maybe they might only afford to pay “the smallest fraction” of the total earnings, in my opinion it is still worth the $5.00 that we paid. Since i managed to find a good income business opportunity at vinefire, they deserve to be given the benefit of the doubt.
May 4th, 2009 8:59 pm
I can’t say for sure that VineFire is a scam. all I know is that since I’ve been a member, I’ve gotten around 20 referrals. As far as the payout is concerned, we’ll see in about 8 months. In the mean time, I continue adverting my links for free.
May 5th, 2009 4:34 pm
I really don’t give a rats a$$ if it’s a scam. I am getting referrals and traffic and I have even made some clickbank sales. How can that be detrimental to me? So what if I don’t get paid, I have been paid in other ways. I have written about 30 articles in the past 2 months and haven’t received half the traffic or sales I got from Vinefire.
May 11th, 2009 9:26 am
After reading the comments in regards to your very informative blog, you can understand why these scam sites thrive. Most people just do not want to accept that they have been fooled. They will defend these scam sites until they are blue in the face, until the scammer runs off with their money. Then begin the cries for his/her head!
Thanks for trying. If you reach at least one person, you have done well. The rest of the knuckleheads will have to learn on their own.
May 13th, 2009 2:44 am
OMG i was planning now to pay the 5$ to get my earnnings thanks for the info
May 19th, 2009 1:22 am
this is a very good break down, and for that I thank you. I received a comment from someone saying that I should sign up, but I was unsure of how the system worked, and if it was actually profitable. Now I won’t even have to bother. thanks
Izzy
May 19th, 2009 4:18 pm
Hi, Its interesting that Vine Fire explicitly say that the whole thing is an experiment. I would be very dubious about the claims that people will make money from the site itself. I wouldn’t personally part with a penny- but that goes for 99% of the pograms offered on the internet.
Are there ANY Benefits to Vine Fire then?
Well- as a free member, I have has 2 sign ups through advertising my links on the exchange boards-( 10 advertised linnks only) and if you have a paid to promote site, then using vinefire as a tool is very useful. Hopefully, since the can’t give any reassurance of any pay outs or dates, we will see it for what it is- free advertising to a kind od semi targeted market. Everyone on there wants to earn money.
May 26th, 2009 5:38 am
Vinefire is a scam.They will pay by 2010? Are you kidding me? They are just collecting $5 from upgrades and by 2010 will be gone boooomm…
Anyway $5 is not that much but imagine how teribble it feels when you get scammed by “Vampire”.I will sign-up by 2010 if I see some proof of payment then.
May 31st, 2009 9:19 pm
Those of you saying vinefire is a scam are obviously the people who signed up for the payout lol i use vinefire for rapidresponse traffic so some other things. So while some of you wait for payout and cry scam those who see opportunity will be reaping it.
Some see calamity in every opportunity while others see opportunity in every calamity…to your tent oh Isreal.
I rest my case
Munga Rebel
June 2nd, 2009 2:22 pm
i not sure what vinefire is but so far i made over $6,000 so far i use to get for each link i click on was 54cents now its 23 cents i also advertise free i get a few sent there my daily limites $100 which i have not made the last two weeks i email one time last we about the change they have yet to get back to me last last email i get from them was 19 of last month not heard from them since does any body have eny more information
June 5th, 2009 6:09 am
Not a member of Vinefire – and never will be!
Trouble with sites like this is they suck in “newbies” to join using outrageous promises – though anyone who reads TOS/FAQ may just get a gentle hint of a warning!
Worst of all is promoting Vinefire and building a downline there. They won’t thank you when the whole lot goes phut, especially if they put money in and get zilch back moneywise!
But if you want to damage your online marketing presence for good, this is a BRILLIANT way to do it!
June 7th, 2009 9:50 am
Vinefire is a scam.They will pay by 2010? Are you kidding me? They are just collecting $5 from upgrades and by 2010 will be gone boooomm…
Anyway $5 is not that much but imagine how teribble it feels when you get scammed by “Vampire”.I will sign-up by 2010 if I see some proof of payment then.
how about aw survey this site is scam?
my more time is waste to this site !!!!OK IM PRAY AWSURVEY IN NOT SCAM SITE
June 7th, 2009 9:31 pm
I use it to promote my Blog i just put in crap text about making money. i ad my link then I log out think they gave me $180 so far sometime when i am bored i use it to look at all the crap and laugh i think most people know about it now Sqip is another example
June 16th, 2009 4:09 pm
I agree with Joy, who posted a response about ’spammy links’. I am a reputable website developer with a plethora of resources that can make the spirit, mind and body work more cohesively. If it wasn’t for places like VINEFIRE, traffic would not even be coming to my site cause no-one knew we were here. You might have an honest opinion about Vinefire and what it does not do for you, but it is doing wonders for me and the 120 people I brought the info too . . .
October 12th, 2009 10:54 pm
If you read the Terms of Service it clearly states that they are not promising payment at any specific time. If you’re not okay with that and don’t want to benefit by posting your referral links for free and ultimately gaining sign-ups to your other programs (that are currently paying you) than don’t sign-up. Keep looking for other ways to promote your blogs, affiliate links, etc. I think Vinefire does a superb job of what it is intended to do, promote exposure to our links for FREE! That’s payment enough at the moment.
January 19th, 2010 3:58 pm
We are now in 2010… any news about payment received from VineFire? Thanks.
Teo M
January 21st, 2010 2:20 pm
It’s about traffic. A vinefire user might click on your link but are you doing any real business from these hits?
Figure out how much your time is worth.
Attempting to advertise your business on a website where people are only clicking on your links to attempt to earn money for themselves does not seem to be . . well targeted for starters I would say . . however, I expect a payout soon as I am getting close to around $10,000 dollars so far.
This payout will truly find me laughing all the way to the bank.
Someone told me that thoughts can become things . .
January 24th, 2010 1:12 pm
Just tried to go to the Vinefire site and it’s down. Has it gone out of business just before the payout date?
January 24th, 2010 2:14 pm
yeh i tried yesterday and still nothing today
not sure whats happening and no email from vinefire either to
explain
January 24th, 2010 11:55 pm
I just joined Vinefire on the 22nd of Dec and it looks like they went down on the 23rd of Dec. Oh well, another one of the Great Internet deals has got us again.
January 25th, 2010 10:17 am
Yes site is down, was a good source of traffic though. Sorry for those who invested here.
What are the chances they will be caught?
January 25th, 2010 12:11 pm
I have been working on vinefire for over 9 months with almost 20 grand in my account by their records. I always hoped if vinefire was even remotely honerably that in 2010 they would at least pay me 10% of whats in my account and I could keep faith that I would not loose my house. Gut check is that I am out on the street in 30 days and vinefire will close its site vary soon. And people wonder why there is americans going postal!
January 27th, 2010 3:10 am
I believe you are so right on this one. today, Jan 27,2010, I went to post on vinefire and the url could not be found. However, I continued to use vinefire knowing that I might not get paid, but it was great resource for building my businesses, I got lots of signups to my other sites and I made money posting my other business if nothing else. Also, this subject was discuss many many times on pyrabang(https://www.pyrabang.com/go/internetgypsy)type “vinefire” in the search box. Then vinefire put out a warning against members who tried to slander their name. Then they faked phony payouts back around july 09 to prove to a potential buyer for the site that it was making money. The site did mention the whole time that they were in Beta testing and that you may or may not get paid depending out the programs success, so there was a disclaimer in place to cover their a–. Good topic, thanks
January 27th, 2010 3:42 am
If you get any information on why the site is down. Do let us know what’s the Case with this site.
Did any really think taey would get paid upto $100 a day when all the other pay to click sites are paying something like $ .001 to .005 per click. These sites are like politics and Religion, they never really have to deliver anything more than a the usual empty Hope. You have to give up couple of minuts of your time to any of those pay to click sites to make a couple of pennies and if you click 24 hours a day
you’ll make about $6 or $7 dollars a day.
So if you ask me they all are scams.
Hope you didn’t loose too much sleep clicking on any of those pay to
click sites even the so-called mathmatically sound.
January 27th, 2010 6:00 am
Yes Michael, it seems we were right – turned to dust within days of the expected payout date.
How is that $10,000 looking now Ron?
Don’t spend it all at once….lol
January 27th, 2010 6:53 pm
The scam site is gone. They probably made about $250000 from all the dummies who upgraded or purchased sponsored links.
February 12th, 2010 6:26 pm
First of all, vinefire has been around for a long time (as in, not just for a month), and they don’t claim to pay out at all…
In fact, they are working on different strategies in order to be able to pay out..
so get you facts strait before you post about anything you HAVEN’T REVIEWED at all…
February 15th, 2010 2:52 pm
sure they are probably a scam – but who care!!
I get sign ups daily for my sites. sometimes 2
or 3 in an hour!! I don’t know what I’ll do
without them!!
February 16th, 2010 6:28 am
i tryed to go to that site just now ts not on there now so something is wrong
February 21st, 2010 7:46 am
For all the people who run the scam sites they also will have to wait on their pay day.
February 23rd, 2010 3:36 am
I am so pissed off at this site, for those of you who just joined, dont get your hopes up, because there is no such thing as a payout. Yes unfortunately i was one of the dummies that did a upgrade and paid the 5bucks(what can i say i am a newbie to the internet world). To make long story short, i dedicated alot of my time and effort on Vinefire hoping to make money on the net. “NOTHING” I joined this scammed site since January of 2009, read about the site and waited til now Feb. 2010, i wasnt surprise to see the result, first no payout was ever made in Jan. 2010, i am now unable to access my account that i paid for, and now the site is nowhere to be found!!! TADA, why am i not surprise..Highly recommended DO NOT PAY THE 5BUCKS, because you will never, ever get to see it again…Vinefire is nothing but SCAVANGERS, HUNGRY FOR MONEY AND PEOPLE TRAFFIC.. BEWARE…SCAMMERS OUT THERE…I did however found a great paying site, and you better believe it i actually got paid, its a ptc site, you dont get rich, but good for extra income and its free to join..drop me an email at anasettle@yahoo.com and i’ll tell you all about it…thanks