"As far as we're aware, this is the first program of its kind," TopBucks Marketing Director Lea Busick said. "It's similar to email contact referral programs, and a great way for webmasters and traffic brokers to generate additional income that compliments their existing advertising and promotions."
Under the new program, TopBucks pays up to 20 cents per confirmed mobile number received, with the payment rate varying according to the type of mobile device being used by the consumer. The type of device is detected automatically by the TopBucks SMS subscription system when the consumer confirms their subscription to the list.
"Webkit phone owners are of greater potential value to us, due to the greater flexibility and functionality of the phones, which in turn makes the sites and products we advertise more valuable to the consumer," Busick explained.
TopBucks SMS offers a variety of SMS number collection form designs, any of which is as easy to add to a website as is a standard advertising banner, according to Busick.
"Implementation is quick and effortless. Just login to your account and grab the code," Busick said. "It's a very simple, very straightforward code, and our support staff is always there to help if you do have trouble adding it to your site."
Busick noted that the backend of the TopBucks SMS program is united with the backend of TopBucks.com and TopBucksMobile.com, so that existing TopBucks webmasters can login and make use of the new program without establishing a new account.
TopBucks began collecting mobile contact information via its own sites several months ago, Busick offered, and has done extensive testing of its subscription and messaging systems.
"We've seen outstanding returns and extremely good submission-to-confirmation ratios where referrals are concerned," Busick said. "There's no cost to the consumer, and we've kept the message volume very light. Our objective is not to overwhelm subscribers with SMS messages; rather we're focused on offering great value and solid entertainment, and judging by the performance of our campaign so far, consumers strongly approve of our approach."