Birthday Bonus Club
20th Nov 2009 16,317 Members - Birthdays today 41Today's Visitors 2,776 Pageviews 6,191
BBC Stage 2
Firstly, may I apologise for the recent downtime. There was a problem with our database server and - on investigation - it was found to be self-inflicted. I have slapped myself on the wrist, fixed the problem and, hopefully, it will not happen again 
Next, thank you to everyone who placed bids for shares. Unfortunately, the total amount bid - less than $7,000 - was less than I need to justify going that route.
May I also thank everyone who posted comments - many of which were well thought out and which were very helpful to me in making a decision - or decisions.
I have had to give the situation some more thought and this is what I have come up with :
- The website is being re-developed as a social network using ELGG. This package has a wealth of features and plugins and, hopefully, the social nature of the site will help to improve its ratings and the interaction between Members.
- I looked at the idea of charging an annual “membership fee” but I’m not sure that’s the way to go. We have many members who never build a network and who do not benefit from BBC as they should. So - I have come up with an alternative. In future, all Birthday Donations will be paid directly to BBC rather than the birthday boy/girl. We will deduct 10% from donations and the balance may be “withdrawn” or left in your account to fund your own donations or advertisiing. I will go into this more below.
- I will continue with paid advertising but with a much simpler interface. For those of you who really don’t like the ads, you will have the opportunity to “turn them off” for a payment of $5.00 per year.
- I will introduce Gift Vouchers in $10.00 increments. Gift vouchers may be donated to friends or family or you may use them yourself. When a gift voucher is in place, your donations will be made for you automatically. Gift vouchers will carry a handling charge of 10%.
- I will be contacting a number of potential advertisers who have some association with Birthdays in general. These will include astrology and numerology sites, birthday planners, birthday suppliers, etc.
- I will look at the possibility of setting up a “store” - probably using Cafepress - to sell coffee and beer mugs, tees, hoodies, etc with a BBC branding.
The biggest change here will be the method for making birthday donations. By making them directly to BBC - rather than the eventual recipient directly - we create the situation that you only pay towards the operation of the website when you have received donations. If no-one ever pays you - then you will never pay anything!
The biggest benefit of going this route is that confirmations - of all kinds - become a thing of the past since payments via Alertpay or Moneybookers will be confirmed immediately. It also allows me to look at additional payment processors and to (possibly) introduce a Payoneer service in which your Birthday Bonus can be paid directly into a pre-paid debit card for use just about anywhere.
Once again, I would appreciate your comments on these plans. Thanks.
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August 18th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
That sounds fine to me. I hated to see the club close. It is such a great concept. If you need any help or advice let us know
Great plan.
August 20th, 2009 at 9:13 am
This update is a most welcome for me
Have stopped almost all my promotion about this wonderful club as I don’t know what will happen next. Hopefully this changes will happen sooner than later as we surely want to move forward than backward(for the past few months).
Update that sent to all members personal email will also be welcome as maybe some members not visiting or login to thier BBC anymore. Btw, hopefully all problems that we have now resolved by admin first like: rating that still pending.
August 20th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
Hey Admin —– my husband and I left BBC for two simple reasons that I did not get confirmation for two payments and when I contacted you on numerous times I never got satisfaction and nothing credited was ever posted.
SO ONE SIMPLE QUESTION IF YOU FAILED TO RESPOND TO REQUESTS FOR CONFIRMATION THEN HO CAN WE TRUST YOU TO PAY OUT BIRTHDAY BONUS IN A TIMELY MANNER OF IF AT ALL
August 20th, 2009 at 4:10 pm
“The biggest change here will be the method for making birthday donations. By making them directly to BBC - rather than the eventual recipient directly - we create the situation that you only pay towards the operation of the website when you have received donations. If no-one ever pays you - then you will never pay anything!”
That’s a good concept but the problem is people aren’t paying the birthday gifts so there still wouldn’t be any money coming in to the site if they don’t pay.
A member even posted in the forum that because you are not updating the status of payment sent they won’t send anymore birthday gifts. I tried to explain to him that by doing that he’s not punishing you, he’s only punishing the other members in his network.
dbestbets has been honest and sending his birthday gifts and had 120 requests sent out but not on gift sent to him and he’s mad and I don’t blame him. I know it’s not your fault because you have no control over who pays and who doesn’t, but you’ve got to get those gifts confirmed and get the members back in action here. If you need help confirming the gifts add me to the team I’ve got time and I’ll do it.
You’ve lost trust of the members and even if you redo the site it won’t work because the members are what makes a site work and if they don’t trust you they won’t participate. Tom you’ve got to get back on track if you want this to succeed as much as some of us members want it to succeed. I’m willing to help in any way I can just let me know.
August 20th, 2009 at 10:37 pm
Sorry you didn’t get enough bids. Does this mean that the requests paid and confirmations sent are going to be ignored now? Credit for paying in the past will no longer matter?
Don’t see the advantages to the new plan. Need more details.
Have gotten 6 messages today from members. Most from other members promoting something. 2 from members that might think I am admin and telling me they are leaving BBC. 1 message was from someone claiming to be in my upline and asking me to confirm which I couln’t do as didn’t recognize username.
Answered all messages. Are these messages typical of what to expect if this goes to a social networking site?
August 21st, 2009 at 3:48 am
Glad to hear from you, Tom. Sounds like you’re moving in the right direction. I’ll be anxiously looking forward to the future of BBC. It’s such a great concept!
Thanks for all your hard work and planning. Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help you out.
August 21st, 2009 at 3:18 pm
I also received pms from people who thought i was admin. I also keep receiving emails from people trying to promote stuff. I thought that was not allowed.
I hope everything works out. I think the club can succeed if people will pay when they are supposed to, and if the updates occur in a timely manner
August 21st, 2009 at 7:16 pm
Personally I do not need yet another social site. Seems everybody is going that route nowdays, and its just too much.
I am brand new here, so I don’t have much to say as to the way this is run. It doesn’t help my trust to see members not getting their bids though.
If this goes to social network, I probably won’t bother.
August 26th, 2009 at 11:13 pm
I think everyone should read this. I have asked one very critical question in respect to the new direction that admin is thinking of taking BBC and has not been answered.
There are people including myself who never received credit for payments made. My question if we did not receive credit for payments made to members then how can we expect to receive payments from admin when payments on birthday are paid directly to BBC. He has shown no follow through. Also the admin has not explained how much the birthday person would receive after the payments where run though BBC
Secondly and this is an after thought if I pay BBC say through Alert Pay there is a % taken by Alert Pay (norm) then when BBC pays the birthday boy/girl there is another % taken. So really we end up paying the payment processor twice. Paying the Birthday boy / girl directly there would only be one time that you pay the fee.
August 29th, 2009 at 8:33 pm
My birthday is on Jan 3 and I joined about last jan 5 so I hated to see this close. I have paid about $50 and have 217 members in my downline with 134 referrals. So Ididn’t get a chance to “collect” on my birthday yet! I think this is a much better plan and I like that fact that all payments go directly to BBC rather than the birthday boy/girl. This is a really great concept with fantastic potential. Don’t let this die!
August 29th, 2009 at 9:16 pm
so do we continue to pay to alertpay our b-day request or should we just pause for now until you are up and running?
August 30th, 2009 at 6:52 am
Good points Sue. Yet here there sits no response.. I’m ready to give up on this one!
September 3rd, 2009 at 2:57 am
i have also been “ignored”. i have paid out and not got credited and i just had a B-Day and did not get paid myself. i sent in a few e-mails earlier this year and all i got back was “we r too busy”. i even asked if help was needed with no response. not sure whether to go or stay?
October 28th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
Dear Sue & Michelle
If you went back and read everything that was written on the other blogs and pieces you would undoubtably see that the site has been down for a considerable period of time, and that it only recently got back online, if your payments were made through moneybookers and alertpay forward the whole confirmation email to bdconfirm@birthdaybonusclub.com (only the confirmation no comments) then you will see that it gets updated with in a week.
Its just that no one ever really sends the right document or email through and a copy or cut paste does not work you have to send the whole email because bdconfirm is a script program there is no actual person sitting there reading what you are saying.
Please just try.