Yesterday XBIZ reported that FreeOnes emailed certain webmasters, asking them to take a smaller revshare percentage or else FreeOnes would direct less traffic to their sites.
FreeOnes founder Maurice told XBIZ that FreeOnes didn't send a single mass email to all of its partners. Instead, FreeOnes emailed certain partners and asked them to lower their revshare percentage on a case-by-case basis.
"We [won't] force any company to raise our payout," Maurice said.
FreeOnes blamed a weakening dollar for the policy change. Maurice elaborated on that point, noting that the dollar has been declining sharply against the euro since 2001.
"Many people aren’t aware of all the cost we have to run the site," he said. "In total there are about 16 people working on it right now. Besides this, we invest huge amount of money in advertising. For example, [we advertise] at expos and [run] ads on other websites. Most of our expenses are in euros, which doesn’t make things better for us. These are only a few examples of our costs. In order to stay healthy as a company, we also need to earn money in order to be able to develop new things, et cetera. If our budget gets smaller to develop new things our competitors will pass us sooner or later."
Maurice also directly responded to a web developer who called the FreeOnes policy change a "tactic" that would remain in place even if the dollar gets stronger against the euro in the future.
"We will change our policy if the dollar gets strong again," Maurice said, adding "We maybe will, but not sooner than when it’s one-to-one with the euro. Unfortunately, this is still a very long way to go."
Maurice also cited FreeOnes established track record and vast, converting traffic.
"At FreeOnes, we are not there to make a quick buck," he said. "It’s not without a reason that we just had our 10-year anniversary," he said, adding, "We always will promote the sites that convert the best for us. And these are actually the sites that our visitors like the most."
